The Robot King (2 page)

‘How's it going, you big ball of fluff?' Kip called.

Although Kip and Finbar were very different, they got along well. Finbar was part-arctic wolf, part-human. He was two metres tall and covered with white fur. It was extra thick at the moment because Finbar wasn't shedding. Finbar's animal instincts really came in handy on missions.

‘No time for chit-chat,' snapped a voice overhead. ‘You're late!'

It was MoNa. She heard everything Kip and Finbar said.

Kip pulled a face. ‘Only by four minutes! But I'll head to the bridge and download the mission brief,' he added quickly.

‘You'd better,' said MoNa. ‘Or else I'll tell WorldCorp about your little RocketBoard stunt.'

Kip rolled his eyes. MoNa would be such a cool starship if she weren't so bossy!

CHAPTER 3

Kip and Finbar left the landing bay together.Walking through MoNa's glowing blue corridors, they passed the Sensory Cinema. Inside, you could not only
watch
films, but touch and taste the things in the films as well.

They soon reached the bridge, MoNa's control centre. It had sloping walls and wide windows for a windshield.

In the centre of the bridge were two padded chairs. Kip and Finbar sat down. Kip waved his hand in the air above him.

Instantly, their chairs were surrounded by a cylinder of blue light. The blue light had dials, screens and a keyboard projected onto it. It was Kip's holographic consol.

He downloaded the Mission Brief.

CLASSIFIED

SPACE SCOUT
KIP KIRBY
MISSION BRIEF

WorldCorp's super computers have detected a wormhole leading to a planet called Arboria.

Arboria is thought to have water and aliens that are similar to humans. The planet could be an ideal Earth 2.

Kip flipped to the writing pad projected on his consol. He scribbled a message to Finbar with his finger. That way MoNa wouldn't know what he was saying.

Will you be OK in the wormhole?

Finbar nodded.

Normally, Finbar was the wise, calm one. But he hated travelling through wormholes! Kip didn't want MoNa to know in case Finbar was embarrassed about it. MoNa already thought she was better than Kip and Finbar combined.

Kip programmed the wormhole's co-ordinates into his consol. As soon as he hit the Enter button, MoNa shot out of her dock at the Hoverport.

MoNa had a useful auto-pilot function. She often flew herself, but not when travelling through wormholes.

Wormholes were unpredictable, so it was dangerous for a computer to fly through them. Kip's training, intelligence and instincts were needed.

MoNa rocketed upwards, trailing flame and smoke behind her. She quickly left Earth's atmosphere behind. Soon, they were in the inky blackness of outer space.

Up ahead, Kip spotted a swirling mass of clouds streaked with red light. The wormhole was exactly where the co-ordinates said it would be.

‘Engaging mega-drive,' Kip said, his hands a blur across the holographic controls. He was about to pilot MoNa through the wormhole.

At once, MoNa jumped forward. The stars became streaks outside the window. MoNa shot into the wormhole with a sucking sound. Kip's skin prickled and his eyes throbbed. They were travelling billions of kilometres at the speed of light! It felt like riding six giant rollercoasters all at once.

A second later, MoNa popped out the other end of the wormhole.

‘Are we there yet?' Finbar whimpered.

Before Kip could reply, a voice echoed through the starship. ‘Welcome to Arboria's airspace, MoNa 4000,' it said warmly.

‘Er, thanks,' said Kip, tapping the Communicate button on the consol.

‘Please land your ship on our planet,' the male voice continued. ‘We love visitors.'

He must be the galaxy's friendliest air-traffic
controller
, Kip thought.
He even speaks our
language!

MoNa usually didn't land on foreign planets. Instead, Kip and Finbar were teleported down by Scrambler Beams. These scrambled every particle in the body and beamed them through space. Then the particles were rearranged back into normal form on the surface of the new planet.

Kip was torn. Most planets would never invite a strange starship to land. Kip was unsure what might be waiting for him on Arboria. But the voice sounded so friendly, and it
was
his mission to explore Arboria. Plus, travelling by Scrambler was pretty uncomfortable.

‘Commence landing,' Kip said finally.

‘Relax! I'll guide you in with our Leech Beam,' the voice said easily.

A Leech Beam?
Kip thought.
As in, the
creature that sucks your blood and won't let go?

Suddenly, a powerful force yanked MoNa downwards. She dropped closer and closer to Arboria.

Kip could see concrete buildings blanketed in an eerie haze. Everything was connected by walkways through the air. There were trees, but they had no leaves, and it looked like there was no grass anywhere.

Kip commanded MoNa to engage her landing gear. Her wheels touched down and she taxied to a stop at Arboria's Terrestrial Docking Station.

‘You'll love it here,' came the air-traffic controller's voice. ‘I promise, you'll never leave.'

Finbar pulled supplies from a cupboard in the bridge. ‘Did you see the pollution when we landed?' he said in a low voice. ‘I wonder how it got so bad.'

He grabbed extra OxyGlobes, the compact air supply Kip and Finbar used in case a planet's air wasn't safe to breathe.

With their spacesuits, helmets and OxyGlobes fitted, Kip and Finbar strode to the landing bay. Finbar hit the Exit button and MoNa's hatch slid open. Then he and Kip stepped down a folding staircase onto the planet of Arboria.

CHAPTER 4

The first thing Kip saw was a glowing, silver robot. Twice as tall as Kip, the robot had a plasma screen for a head. The screen showed a picture of a smiling man.

Looks like my grandpa trapped in a robot's
body
, Kip thought.

‘I'm Pappy,' the robot grinned, stepping forward on its two long legs. Kip recognised his voice. The air-traffic controller!

‘Kip Kirby from planet Earth.' He shook Pappy's plastic hand.

Earth's robots were small and energetic, like RoboCoach. Their job was to make life easier for Earth's people. But this robot didn't seem like a helper model – he was more like a person than a machine.

‘Finbar and I are scouting the galaxy for a new planet for our people,' said Kip.

‘You must be fit and healthy for that job,' said Pappy, looking Kip up and down. ‘That's great news.'

Kip shot Finbar a puzzled look.

‘Can we explore your planet?' asked Finbar.

‘Please do! And stay as long as you like!' Pappy said.

‘How would your people feel about humans moving in with you?' Kip asked.

‘That would be wonderful!' said Pappy, almost too brightly.‘We'd love to have you.'

Kip was getting a weird vibe from the robot, but he tried to keep on track. ‘Is it true there's water here?' he asked.

‘We can talk about boring stuff later,' said Pappy, waving his hand. ‘Come and see my house first.'

Behind Pappy, Kip noticed the floors in the docking station were spotlessly clean. The chairs looked brand new.

Normally, docking stations were really busy with intergalactic traffic. But this one seemed deserted.

Why doesn't anyone visit Arboria?
Kip wondered.
It seems OK so far.

‘This way!' said Pappy firmly, putting one plastic arm around Kip's shoulders.

Outside the docking station, the heat hit Kip like a slap. Two hot, red suns were huge in the hazy sky.

Kip flicked his SpaceCuff to Air-Analyser mode to check the pollution.

A-Analyser Mode:

45% Sulphur (Rotten Egg Gas)
45% Methane (Fart Gas)
5% Oxygen

DANGER!! DO NOT BREATHE

No wonder Kip couldn't see or hear birds tweeting. In fact, he couldn't see any animals at all. The entire population seemed to be robots.

‘Maybe Arboria is so polluted that only machines can live here,' whispered Finbar as they followed Pappy into the street.

Kip couldn't say just yet. But he knew it was his mission to find out.

As well as the clanking of robots' feet, Kip heard a humming noise. Instead of roads and footpaths, Arboria had moving walkways everywhere.

‘Robots find it easier to get around this way,' said Pappy.

Kip noticed Arboria was dusty and completely flat, almost as if any hills had been bulldozed flat. He guessed that bumps would only trip up the robots.

Kip and Finbar stepped onto the moving walkway outside the docking station.

The walkway sped through the streets of Arboria. Everywhere, Kip saw robots whizzing past on moving walkways. None of the robots had spotted Kip and Finbar yet. Their heads hung low, as though they were all in bad moods.

Box-shaped concrete houses lined the moving walkways. Out the front, each robot house had a pole with a purple bolt of electricity shooting out of it.

‘That's where the robots recharge,' said Pappy proudly.

Kip also noticed moving 3D posters that advertised the same films and TV shows over and over.

Don't miss this!
GAME SHOWS
REPEATED ALL DAY EVERY DAY
CHANNEL 1087

See Tonight!
POLICE SQUAD
SCREENING FOR
THE 501,347th TIME!

Boring!
Kip thought.
Why aren't there any
NEW movies or shows?

A robot on a moving walkway lifted its head to look at a nearby poster. The face on its screen looked about Kip's age. It had a sad, bored look on its face.

But then the robot kid saw Finbar and Kip. It swivelled its head in amazement.

‘Know any new jokes?' yelled the kid robot.

Kip was surprised.
It seems like no-one
ever visits this place,
he thought.
And the first
thing this kid robot wants to know is a joke?