The Robot King (3 page)

The only joke Kip could think of was a lame one his dad told him. ‘What's brown and sticky?' he asked.

The kid robot said nothing, but he looked excited.

‘A stick,' said Kip.

‘Haven't heard that one!' said the robot. It made a grinding sound, like gears in reverse. It was cracking up laughing!

‘Lucky robots can't wet themselves,' whispered Kip to Finbar. ‘That guy would short-circuit.'

But Finbar didn't answer. His ears were pricking up. ‘My wolf senses tell me it's about to rain,' he said slowly.

‘If it rains here, there's definitely water!' Kip replied, excited. So far, Arboria didn't look like a great place for humans to live. But if there was water, there might still be hope.

I might have discovered Earth 2!
he thought.
I could win the Shield of Honour.

Then everyone would know that the youngest Space Scout was also the best.

CHAPTER 5

Kip was glad it was about to rain. But he didn't want to get soaking wet.

When he saw a fat raindrop heading right for him, he ducked out of the way.

The raindrop fell onto the moving walkway. But instead of making a splash, the raindrop sizzled when it fell.

‘Does it rain boiling water here?' Kip asked Pappy.

‘Why do you say that?' said Pappy, robotic eyes darting.

He's hiding something
, Kip thought.

Kip glanced back at the spot where the raindrop fell. There was smoke rising from it.

‘That was no ordinary raindrop,' Kip whispered to Finbar.

‘Enough talking about rain,' Pappy interrupted, hurrying along the moving walkway. ‘We've arrived at my house.' Pappy sounded very relieved.

Kip, Finbar and Pappy stepped off the walkway outside a pair of fancy gates.

Pappy's house was gigantic mansion.

Unlike the other houses, there was a lawn with leafy trees out the front.

When Kip got close, though, he saw they were all fake. Kip was pretty sure the word ‘Arboria' had something to do with trees, but there weren't
any
on this planet.

Weird,
he thought.

Pappy's front door swung open. Standing in the doorway was a robot with a distinguished old man's face on its screen. The robot had a tray balanced on its hand like a butler.

‘Drink, your majesty?' said the robot, bowing.

Pappy must be the king of this place!
Kip thought.
Odd that he's also an air-traffic
controller, then.

Pappy took a glass filled with thick black liquid. He pressed a button on his chest and a hatch slid open. ‘Nothing like a cup of oil to soothe the hinges, eh James?' said Pappy to his butler.

The robot butler offered the tray to Kip and Finbar.

I'd rather drink a brussel sprout smoothie!
Kip thought.

‘No, thanks,' he said out loud. ‘I'd love a glass of water, though,' he added.

This'll be a quick way of finding out what
the water on Arboria is like
, he thought.

‘Water?' James said. ‘I wouldn't really recommend –'

Pappy cut in. ‘There's none cold at the moment. Sorry.'

Pappy showed Kip and Finbar around his enormous house. Pappy explained that the house was a thank-you gift from the people of Arboria.

‘I'm the king because I invented Digitisation,' Pappy said. ‘It's a way to download a living creature's mind and install it into a robot body. So life never has to change!'

Why would you want to do that?
Kip wondered. He remembered the game show repeats. The way the kid robot laughed at his lame joke. Life as a robot in Arboria seemed pretty dull to Kip.

‘Arborians once looked like you, Kip,' Pappy added. ‘But now that we're robots, we'll stay the age we were the day we got Digitised. We never have to get older!'

So that robot I met will stay a kid forever
, Kip realised.
If that were me, I'd always be the
youngest Space Scout.And I'd never finish school.

‘Hope you like things the way they are then,' Finbar said.

‘Luckily, things on Arboria are fantastic,' Pappy agreed. Then he added, ‘Would
you
like to try eternal youth, Kip?'

As if I'd ever in a million years want that!
‘I've got to stay human,' Kip said quickly.

‘Kip's got his job as Space Scout to think about,' Finbar explained.

‘I'm asking you nicely,' Pappy smiled. For the first time, Kip noticed a cold, hard edge to his voice.

‘I really need to get on with my mission,' Kip said, shaking his head. ‘You said we could explore Arboria.'

‘You can't leave yet,' Pappy said sweetly. ‘I need a favour.' He turned to Finbar. ‘I'm building a museum of curious artifacts. I'd love a lock of your fur for my collection.'

Pappy sat Finbar down. He called James and they spent ages disinfecting a pair of robotic scissors.

Why is this taking so long?
Kip wondered.

He noticed Pappy and James whispering to each other. Kip wanted to tell them to hurry up.

But then he remembered his WorldCorp Manual of Space Scouting.

SPACE SCOUT RULE 7.01
Unless in danger, a Space Scout
must NEVER offend aliens.

So Kip waited politely. Pappy carefully tugged a lock of fur from Finbar's tail.When he finally snipped it off, James disappeared with the fur at once. Then Pappy spent ages putting Finbar's helmet back into place.

‘Thank you so much,' Pappy said finally, smiling gratefully at them.

All that over a meaningless bit of tail fluff,
Kip thought.

CHAPTER 6

‘I'll show you out,' said Pappy. He took Kip and Finbar to the walkway outside his house.

But the walkway was moving at triple the speed it did before.

‘It's in Emergency Mode,' said Pappy, sounding surprised.

Kip saw green-and-white checked police robots with flashing lights on top of their plasma-screen heads. They raced past, heading towards the Docking Station.

‘What a fuss,' said Pappy casually as he waved goodbye. ‘I hope this doesn't interfere with your mission.'

Kip and Finbar stepped onto the walkway, waving goodbye to Pappy. It whisked them away from the front gates at top speed.

‘Let's find out what's going on!' Kip yelled to Finbar over the roar of sirens and clanking robot feet.

They followed the crowd to the Docking Station. A crowd of armoured robots blocked the entrance. They were made of thick black plastic. Their screen heads were protected with metal cages.

‘Look at MoNa,' Kip said in a low voice. She was still where Kip and Finbar had left her. But her Scrambler Beam Generator was plastered with bright orange police tape. Kip tried to push past the armoured robots.

‘No-one goes in or out,' grunted the tallest armoured robot. ‘There's just been a death at the Docking Station!'

‘A death?' said Kip. ‘Can you kill a machine?'

‘It's very hard to destroy a robot,' said the armoured robot.

‘But it is possible?' said Kip.

The robot nodded grimly. ‘The death of the maintenance robot is shocking. It was just minding its own business, cleaning near the foreign starship.'

The foreign starship? Uh-oh
, thought Kip.
What if they think MoNa's got something to do
with it?

He decided that now was a good time to act confidently. ‘I'm the captain of the foreign starship,' said Kip boldly.

‘I'm his second-in-command,' said Finbar.

‘We need to see whoever's in charge of the investigation,' Kip said.

A plastic hand clamped down on Kip's shoulder. Another clamped on Finbar's.

Kip turned around and saw a police robot standing behind them.

‘I'm in charge,' said the robot. ‘And I'm arresting your companion for murder.'

‘Why?' said Kip, outraged.

‘The maintenance robot was found with a white furball in his circuitry,' said the police robot. ‘The circuitry caught fire, destroying the robot's memory.'

The police robot yanked Finbar's arm and dragged him towards the moving walkway.

‘I'm innocent,' said Finbar in a dignified voice.

‘Oh yeah?' said the police robot. ‘Who else around here's got thick, white fur?'

He grabbed Finbar's gloved paws and cuffed them to his feet with a pair of buzzing electric shackles.

‘I'm not shedding at the moment,' Finbar explained calmly. ‘It
can't
be
my
fur.'

‘Whatever you say,' snorted the police robot, dragging Finbar away.

‘Where are you taking him?' Kip yelled, his panic rising. But the police robots didn't answer. Within seconds, they were gone.

‘They'll throw him into the Acid Lake. That's what happens to murderers,' laughed the guard robot.

Acid Lake?
Kip shivered.
That does not
sound good.
He raced to the walkway and jumped on. His first thought was to go to Pappy for help.

But although Pappy had seemed friendly, there was also something creepy about him.

I'll follow those police robots instead and
find Finbar without Pappy's help,
Kip decided. He knew it was important to follow his instincts on a mission.

But he had no idea which way the robots had gone. Moving walkways branched off in all directions, each crammed with robots.

There was only one way Kip could find out. He had to call MoNa on his SpaceCuff. She could track Finbar using her DNA Tracker. The DNA Tracker scanned the air for traces of Kip and Finbar's DNA.

Of course, Kip would have to tell MoNa that Finbar was missing.

MoNa thought Kip was too young for the job of Space Scout. So he hated admitting to MoNa that the mission was going badly. But he hated the idea of losing Finbar even more.

‘Come in, MoNa,' said Kip into his SpaceCuff.

‘What now?' said MoNa wearily. ‘This mission has been horrible. First a robot sneaked into my landing bay. Then there was all that orange tape gumming up my Scrambler Beam. It'll take ages to clean it.'

‘Listen, MoNa,' Kip interrupted. He didn't have time for her complaints. ‘Finbar is missing. I need to you to find him.'

‘What?' MoNa screeched. ‘I'll track him immediately. There's no way I'm staying here longer than I have to. You're lucky I haven't left already.'

A moment later, MoNa came through. ‘I've got a trace of fur heading south-west.'

Using his SpaceCuff's compass feature, Kip checked which way south-west was. Then he jumped onto the walkway heading in that direction.

‘Make sure you find him, Kip,' said MoNa through the SpaceCuff.‘I don't trust these robots.'

CHAPTER 7

The moving walkway sped away from the docking station. Kip found himself leaving the concrete buildings of Arboria behind.There were no other robots on the walkways. Wherever Kip was heading, it seemed to be deserted.

Flat, grey ground stretched out in every direction. There were twisted grey trees without leaves. Black rain clouds hung low in the sky.
I hope those clouds aren't full of
burning rain
, Kip thought. Then suddenly, his brain made a connection.

The robot guard said that Finbar would be thrown in the Acid Lake! And the rain Kip had seen was burning hot.

It's acid rain!
Kip thought.
And that fills
the Acid Lake!
He checked his SpaceCuff for information on acid rain.