Free The Slime Volcano by H. Badger Page B

middle of the room.Touching the air above his head, Kip activated his holographic consol.
    A cylinder of blue light shot down, surrounding Kip and Finbar. MoNa’s controls were projected on the cylinder.
    Kip touched the ‘Download Mission Brief’ button in mid-air.
    SPACE SCOUT
KIP KIRBY
MISSION BRIEF

    Using its latest long-range intergalactic telescope, WorldCorp has discovered a new solar system. The largest planet has been named ‘Grimor’.
    Grimor has a single moon close by, just like Earth. This makes WorldCorp think Grimor could have Earth-like conditions.
    A wormhole to Grimor will soon open.
    Your mission:
    Land on Grimor and work out if this unknown planet could be the next Earth.
    Grimor , Kip echoed. Doesn’t exactly sound like paradise…
    Still, Grimor might be the answer to all of Earth’s problems.
    As well as my chance to win the Shield of Honour! thought Kip.

CHAPTER 3
    When Kip looked out the window, he saw they’d left the Hoverport behind. A bright cloud mass swirled in the inky sky ahead. The wormhole to Grimor!
    Wormholes were shortcuts between galaxies. Space Scouts used them to travel billions of light-years in seconds.
    Kip took over MoNa’s controls. He accelerated to warp speed and plunged the starship into the wormhole.
    Instantly, Kip’s guts felt like they were bursting through his skin. Travelling long distances that fast was tough.
    They quickly popped out the other end of the wormhole. They were in a new galaxy, never visited by humans. Ahead lay a large, brown planet with patches of blue.
    â€˜Looks filthy,’ Finbar murmured, smoothing down his whiskers.
    The Suckerbot nuzzled at him, and Kip saw Finbar sneak him a handful of space-dust. Kip rolled his eyes.
    â€˜There’s a lot of sulphur in the atmosphere,’ said MoNa, who’d taken the controls again. ‘It’s so dirty. I can’t see a clear spot to aim the Scrambler Beams.’
    Kip and Finbar travelled to the surface of each new planet via Scrambler Beam. The beams jumbled up Kip and Finbar’s particles, shot them through space and put them back together on a planet’s surface.
    â€˜I’ll have to guess,’ MoNa continued. ‘Hope you don’t land in anything yucky!’
    Kip’s training had prepared him for any situation. Gritting his teeth, he led the way back to the landing bay.
    Kip stepped into a pair of footprints painted on the floor. Finbar stood on a pair of pawprints beside him. The Suckerbot watched Finbar anxiously.
    Two Scramblers shot down, and a nanosecond later, Kip and Finbar’s particles were whizzing through space!

    Kip opened his eyes. Finbar was beside him. Their particles had reassembled on Grimor.
    Then Kip heard a little whirring sound. He glanced down. Finbar’s Suckerbot was there too! He must have sneaked into his scrambler beam at the last minute.
    â€˜Er, Finbar,’ Kip said, nudging him.
    Finbar shrugged apologetically, but he also looked pleased. ‘A cleaning robot will come in handy on this planet.’
    Kip looked around. The surface of Grimor was a dingy brown-grey colour, with soaring craggy mountains covered in vines. There were pools of a strange, electric-blue slime everywhere, and the sky was a dim green colour.
    The first thing Kip noticed was how heavy his body felt. Just lifting up his hand was harder than on Earth.
    The gravitational force here must be stronger than on Earth , he guessed. It feels like I weigh twice as much.
    The slime pools crawled with wriggling creatures as long as Kip’s fingers. They looked like ugly centipedes, with lots of legs and thick shells outside their bodies.
    The Suckerbot circled the pool, dying to suck up the slimy liquid. But just as it reached down with its nozzle-lips, one of the creatures snapped at it with dagger-sharp fangs.
    The Suckerbot jumped back, cowering. Finbar scooped it up hurriedly. He didn’t want his new robot getting