Odd One Out Read online

  CHAPTER THREE

  Grace sat in her seat. The girls’ helmets, goggles and tanks were strapped into the holding bays. Addie was still trying to push her ballet clothes into the storage bay.

  ‘Welcome back, Star Girl and Comet XS,’ said Space Surfer over the shuttle’s cabin speakers. ‘Please make sure everything is stowed and ready for take off.’

  ‘Ready for take off,’ said Grace clearly, aware that everything that was said in the cabin was transmitted to the cockpit.

  Addie ran to her seat, dropping her tutu.

  The shuttle’s engines roared. The loading dock opened and the shuttle took off.

  After about twenty minutes of flying Grace switched on the screen. ‘I think it will be a few hours before we reach Plantagan’s galaxy. I think I’ll put on a movie.’

  ‘Wrong, SC Comet XS,’ said Space Surfer. ‘Today we’ll be taking a little wormhole I know about.’

  ‘Wormholes are like shortcuts in space, right?’ asked Addie.

  ‘Spot on, Star Girl,’ said Space Surfer. ‘If you look out your cabin window you’ll see the Spanamax Galaxy. We need to be on the other side of it. And it’s massive!’

  Space Surfer continued, ‘But the wormhole goes straight through it and drops us out right near Plantagan in just minutes.’

  The shuttle began to turn. It headed straight for the galaxy.

  ‘Hold on to your seats, space cadets,’ said Space Surfer. ‘Sometimes these wormholes can be a bit of a spin out!’

  Suddenly the scene out the window went black. Then the shuttle started to spin.

  It went round and round, over and under and up and down. Grace was laughing and enjoying the ride but Addie’s face was as white as the cabin walls.

  ‘It’s just like the dome-traveller, Addie,’ said Grace. ‘You aren’t going to be sick are you?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Addie quietly. She shut her eyes tight. ‘How much longer?’

  ‘Hang in there, Star Girl. We’re totally safe,’ said Space Surfer.

  Just when Addie really thought she was going to be sick the shuttle straightened up and it was over. She opened her eyes and looked out the cabin window. There was a very blue looking planet in the distance.

  ‘That must be it,’ she said.

  ‘Get organised, cadets,’ said Space Surfer. ‘We’ll be landing on Planet Plantagan soon.’

  Addie got the helmets and goggles from the holding bay and she and Grace helped each other to put them on.

  ‘Be sure to check your mission pack before you clip it around your waist,’ said Space Surfer. ‘Buckle up and prepare for landing.’

  The shuttle touched down on a patch of deep blue grass.

  ‘The air out there is filled with toxic gas,’ said Space Surfer. ‘Let’s get those oxygen tanks on and checked.’

  Addie went to pick up her oxygen tank when she noticed her purple tutu on the floor. That’s caused enough trouble for one day, Addie thought. I don’t want Space Surfer seeing it. She quickly stuffed it into her mission pack.

  Space Surfer came down into the cabin to do final checks on the girls’ equipment. ‘You two are good to go,’ he said as he finished the check. ‘Step into the exit chamber and I’ll let you out. Good luck and good cadetting.’

  The doors slid open and Addie and Grace stepped inside the chamber. The doors closed behind them and then after a few seconds the doors in front of them opened. The girls stepped out onto Planet Plantagan.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  ‘This place is just a mass of dark blue vines, roots, giant plants and jungle,’ said Grace. ‘But it’s not supposed to look like this.’

  ‘You’re right,’ said Addie. ‘The plant life forms should all be brighter and lighter. And the air is thick with a green kind of smoke.’

  The girls took out their goggle remotes and set them to smoke screen.

  ‘Now that I can see properly this place looks sick,’ said Addie. ‘And I think I know why. Look at that!’

  She pointed to big green clouds of smoke that were billowing up into the sky above the treetops. ‘We need to find out what that is.’

  ‘And to get there we have to go through that thick blue jungle,’ said Grace. She began walking and Addie followed.

  At first it wasn’t hard to walk through but the jungle soon became thicker and thicker.

  ‘Why did you say you don’t trust me?’ asked Addie.

  ‘Valentina said you left her on the ice when she fell on the mission with you at Polare,’ said Grace. ‘And she lost points because of what you did with your tracking chip. She’s not the top-scoring space cadet now because of you. I don’t want to get a bad score, that’s why I can’t afford to trust you.’

  ‘I did not leave her on the ice,’ said Addie, horrified. ‘Why would Valentina make up a story like that?’

  ‘It’s you who says it’s a story,’ said Grace.

  Addie was about to say something about the tracking chip but Grace stopped her. ‘Shhhh! Listen. What’s that noise?’

  ‘It’s the vines,’ Addie said.

  Thick blue vines were sliding down the tree trunks and along the ground like snakes.

  There were vines coming from everywhere. They quickly wrapped around Grace’s legs and pulled her to the ground.

  ‘I can’t move,’ Grace shouted. ‘Do something!’

  But Addie was caught too.

  Grace still had one hand free. She pulled on the vines around her legs and managed to break one. An eerie noise filled the jungle.

  ‘It’s calling for more vines,’ said Addie. ‘These alien tree things must think we’re here to hurt them. I downloaded an alien translator application on my SpaceBerry but I can’t reach it. My hands are too tied up.’

  ‘I’ve got it too,’ said Grace. ‘I think I can get my SpaceBerry out.’

  Grace tried to get her SpaceBerry with her free hand but the vines were wrapped so thick and tight around her waist that she couldn’t undo the zip on her mission pack.

  ‘It’s no good,’ she said. ‘I can’t get it.’

  ‘Try and get mine out,’ said Addie and she wriggled as close to Grace as she could.

  Grace slowly tugged the zip open and took out Addie’s SpaceBerry. She held the phone in the palm of her hand and activated the translator app with her thumb.

  ‘It worked!’ said Grace and she spoke into the phone. ‘We are space cadets from SEAS. We are here to help. Please let us go so we can find out what is poisoning your air.’

  The eerie noises turned into whispers and the SpaceBerry translated them.

  ‘We will let you pass,’ the vines said. ‘But you must go through the mountain. Whatever is poisoning us and our planet is coming from the other side.’ Then the vines slowly loosened their grip and slithered away to where they’d come from.

  The girls slowly stood.

  ‘All good?’ asked Grace.

  ‘Yep’ said Addie. ‘Come on, let’s hurry.’

  As the girls walked they could hear the plant-like aliens talking.

  They were passing on a message through the jungle. As Addie and Grace made their way to the foot of the mountain, plants parted and vines shrank out of their way.

  At the base of the mountain were two openings. One looked very low and small. The other was almost big enough to walk into.

  ‘I’ll check out the big one,’ Grace told Addie. ‘You wait here.’

  Inside, the tunnel was so dark that Grace couldn’t see. She took out the remote for her goggles and set them to high beam view. Instantly the tunnel filled with light.

  The walls were dripping with a sticky toxic-looking orange slime. Vine-like aliens fell limply over crevices and rocks. Their multiple eyes were all half closed.

  Grace’s heart was pumping. She could feel sweat trickling down the back of her neck. She hated being underground and she hated being in small places. Stay calm, she told herself. It’s just those alien vines.

  Grace went a little further and she could
see that the tunnel stopped just up ahead. She turned and ran back outside.

  ‘It’s no good,’ she said to Addie, panting.

  ‘It’s a dead end.’

  ‘Are you okay?’ Addie asked. ‘You look worse than I felt going through that wormhole.’

  ‘I’m fine,’ Grace snapped. ‘Go and try the small tunnel.’

  Addie had to get down on her hands and knees to fit inside. She started crawling.

  It was pitch dark and she could hear her helmet scraping on the roof of the cave. And through her tight spacesuit she could feel something dripping onto her back.

  What is that stuff? she thought. Addie switched on the high beam on her goggles. Then she saw the sticky orange stuff that Grace had seen. It was dripping from the plant-like aliens onto the ground, making it sticky to crawl on.

  Addie looked down the tunnel and could see it went a long way even though it was really low in places. She crawled out of the tunnel backwards to Grace.

  ‘I can see it goes for a long way and it looks pretty squashy in parts,’ Addie said. ‘We’ll have to crawl all the way. Let’s go.’

  ‘You go. I’ll wait here,’ said Grace. She looked close to tears.

  ‘Grace, you know we have to stay together. What’s wrong?’ Addie asked.

  Grace bit her lip and was trying hard not to cry. ‘I go super-weird in small spaces. I freak out! I couldn’t cope being in that bigger tunnel so I can’t go in that small one. There’s no way. I can’t! This mission is over for me. I’ve wrecked everything. I’ll never make space agent once the school finds out.’

  ‘Well, they won’t find out,’ said Addie. She looked around. There must be another way, she thought. But there wasn’t. They had to go through the small tunnel. Then Addie remembered something her mum had told her a long time ago.

  ‘Grace, turn off your goggles and close your eyes,’ she said. ‘With your eyes shut you can pretend you are anywhere. Keep your eyes closed all the way and don’t open them at all. I’ll take you through the tunnel.’ Addie took out the rope in her mission pack. ‘I’m going to tie one of my legs to one of your legs. And then I’ll tie one of my arms to one of your arms. It’ll be just like a three-legged race but we’ll be crawling.’

  ‘It won’t work. I can’t go,’ said Grace.

  ‘It will work,’ insisted Addie. ‘When my mum was sick they used to put her in these narrow tubes to do special medical tests on her. They were just like tunnels. She hated small spaces and she couldn’t go in the tubes. She said she learned that if she shut her eyes before she went in and kept them shut until she came out she could pretend she was somewhere else. Come on, Grace. At least try it.’

  Grace closed her eyes, stuck out her arm and nodded once.

  Addie tied her arm to Grace’s arm.

  Then she tied her leg to Grace’s leg.

  ‘Okay, down on our hands and knees, and when I move, you move, just like in a three-legged race.’

  The girls crawled slowly into the tunnel, Grace with her eyes firmly shut.

  ‘You’re doing great, Grace,’ said Addie. As they continued crawling along the small tunnel, Addie found herself telling Grace all about her mum. Grace was so absorbed in what Addie was saying that she began to forget about where she was.

  When Addie ran out of things to talk about she asked Grace to teach her the school song. When they reached the other side of the tunnel they were both singing it at the top of their voices.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  ‘Stand up and open your eyes, Grace. You did it!’ said Addie. ‘Go you!’

  ‘I can’t believe it!’ said Grace.

  Grace gave Addie a big hug. ‘Thanks heaps! I guess your mum was right after all.’

  ‘It’s a good trick,’ Addie agreed. ‘I was doing it going through that wormhole.’

  ‘That’s why you had your eyes closed!’ said Grace.

  ‘Yes, I was pretty scared and it helped,’ said Addie. She glanced back into the tunnel.

  ‘Grace, I was thinking about those aliens in the tunnel. They’re oozing that orange sticky stuff and are really sick. They look even worse than the aliens on the other side of the mountain. They don’t have much air in there, and what they do have is polluted.’

  ‘But what can we do?’ said Grace.

  ‘What about fresh air?’ Addie suggested.

  ‘Our tanks will be getting low soon if they aren’t already,’ Grace pointed out. ‘We can’t breathe this polluted air either.’

  ‘But maybe we don’t need two oxygen poppers,’ said Addie, grinning.

  ‘What are you thinking?’ Grace asked.

  ‘Well, if we popped one in the tunnel the oxygen bubble would block the hole off for a while,’ said Addie. ‘It would stop the bad air getting in and the plant-like aliens could breathe in the oxygen and get better.’

  ‘They are only meant for us to use in an emergency,’ said Grace.

  ‘What’s going on in that tunnel is an emergency,’ Addie said.

  ‘And we’d still have yours if we popped mine. We can share one bubble.’ Addie pulled out her popper and her purple tutu came out with it. Addie tried to stuff it back in but it was caught in the zipper of her mission pack. ‘Great!’ she said, and she left it hanging.

  ‘Put your popper away. We’ll use mine for the aliens,’ said Grace.

  ‘Are you sure?’ Addie asked.

  ‘Yep. I’m sure. I trust you,’ Grace said as she pointed her popper into the cave and pulled the cord.

  ‘The tunnel is sealed off,’ said Grace. ‘The gas is thick over here, we must be close to it.’

  The girls moved through the blue aliens, listening to their noises and whispers. Then they came to a sudden stop and hid behind a pile of vine-like aliens. Not too far in front of them all the blue life forms had gone. In their place was what looked like a factory. Five huge robots guarded it.

  ‘I’ve seen those bots on a mission before,’ whispered Grace. ‘They’re industroborgs. Factory bots. This factory is making something that produces all that green gas. I wish I knew what they were making inside.’

  ‘We have X-ray view on our goggles,’ said Addie as she took the remote for her goggles from her mission pack. ‘You keep your goggles set to smoke screen so you can keep an eye on the borgs. I’ll switch to X-ray view.’

  She pressed the button for X-ray view. Suddenly it was as if the factory walls weren’t there. She could see everything inside. ‘They’re making industroborgs,’ she told Grace. ‘It looks like it’s all done by a computer.’

  ‘So, if we can get to that computer we can stop everything,’ said Grace.

  ‘Yes, but we have to get past the borgs first,’ said Addie. ‘Should we bring up Mrs Lamrock on our watch holographs?’

  ‘No. Let’s watch for a minute,’ said Grace.

  Addie switched her goggles back to smoke screen so she could see what was going on outside the building. The girls sat behind the pile of vine-like aliens and watched the five industroborgs. Two were spraying green gas at anything blue that came near the factory. Another two were guarding the factory’s side walls. The last borg was guarding the entrance.

  ‘I think the aliens could help us,’ said Grace. ‘We need to distract that borg guarding the door.’

  ‘My SpaceBerry is still on,’ said Addie. ‘They heard us.’

  ‘What are they saying?’ asked Grace.

  ‘To get ready,’ answered Addie.

  ‘For what?’ asked Grace.

  Suddenly there was a loud rustling in the jungle on the far side of the factory. Vines and roots were thrashing about.

  The industroborg guarding the doors heard the noise and looked over to where it was coming from. It marched off into the jungle to investigate.

  ‘Now’s our chance,’ said Grace.

  Both girls raced into the factory.

  It was filled with fully automated bot-making machinery, conveyor belts and contraptions the girls had never seen before. There were different l
evels and lots of metal stairs going to and from them.

  ‘I know where the computer is,’ yelled Addie over the noise. ‘Follow me.’

  She raced along a walkway that looked down on some conveyor belts and machines. Grace was right behind her.

  Then Addie heard Grace scream. She turned around and saw Grace falling from the walkway. Looking down, she saw that Grace had landed on a fast-moving conveyor belt on the level below.

  ‘Get off there!’ cried Addie, seeing that the belt was heading for a machine that inserted metal industroborg arms.

  ‘I can’t,’ Grace cried. ‘I’m stuck!’

  Addie could see that there were lots of metal borg arms on the conveyor belt. Looking around wildly, she saw a set of stairs. She ran down them and along to where Grace was struggling to get up.

  ‘Grab my hands,’ Addie yelled as she ran along beside her. ‘I’ll pull you off.’

  She bent further over the belt to get a better grip on Grace. Then she felt something pulling at her waist. ‘Oh no,’ Addie yelled. ‘My tutu is caught on the conveyor belt.’

  She was dragged along as the conveyor belt ate up more and more of the tutu’s netting. Then the conveyor belt stopped.

  Addie looked down. All of her purple tutu was wrapped around the motor of the conveyor belt. The machine was broken.

  Addie pulled Grace’s arms and Grace finally came free and climbed off the belt.

  ‘Hooray for purple tutus!’ Grace said. ‘Let’s grab the computer and get out of here.’

  Addie led Grace back up the stairs and over to where a clear box held the computer that operated the factory. Addie smashed the box with her space boot and pulled the computer out. ‘Let’s smash it too,’ she said and they both jumped on it with their heavy space boots until it was in pieces.

  Everything in the factory went still. They had stopped it.

  ‘I hope the computer operated the industroborgs as well,’ said Addie.

  The girls walked through the quiet factory to the door and peered out. The industroborgs were completely still.

  ‘We’ve de-activated them,’ said Grace. ‘We’ve done it! Time to call Space Surfer.’

  ‘And say goodbye to our beautiful blue friends,’ said Addie.