Free There's a Spaceship in My Tree! by Robert West Page A

model. Ditto for the wide-angle, high-res, glue-ya-tothe-tube video screen.
    While the ship was looking better, they hadn’t yet figured out what was going on with their blow-em-outta-the-sky adventures. It only happened once in awhile, and they could never predict when. Beamer thought they came more often after he’d had a bad day at school with Jared.
    â€œHe’s got to have a weak spot, you know,” said Beamer, out of the blue.
    â€œWho?” asked Ghoulie.
    â€œWho do you think? Jared, of course! He must have an Achilles’ heel! We’ve just got to find it.”
    â€œKill what?” asked a confused Scilla.
    â€œNot kill,” said Ghoulie, rolling his eyes. “A-kill-eez — the Greek hero.”
    â€œHe was invincible,” explained Beamer, “except for one weak spot — his heel. That’s how they got him — shot him in the heel.”
    Suddenly a rumble like a train approaching shook the tree, rattling the tree ship like a box of toys, throwing each of them to the floor.

13

The Return of the Star-Fighters
    When they opened their eyes, the ship was on fire! Or was it? Beamer looked out the view port. Filling the screen was the face of a planet — a planet on fire! A moon-sized, crater-pitted asteroid had just collided with the planet, shattering its hard outer shell — causing the fiery molten core to erupt into space like splattering catsup.
    Their ship, meanwhile, was whirling through space like a corkscrew roller coaster.
    â€œCaptain MacIntyre! Gravitational controls!” a voice commanded.
    The part of the Captain that was still Beamer turned to see Scilla looking very grown-up and very much in command.
    â€œWe’ve got gravity from the planet and the asteroid hitting us at the same time!” Ghoulie shouted from a smoking, sparking control panel. “Engines and shields are off-line, Admiral Bruzelski!”
    Admiral? How did she get to be “Admiral”? part of Beamer’s mind asked .
    Globs of red molten lava were being flung their way like massive paint balls. “We are about to be spattered by some very hot spaghetti!” yelled Beamer. “. . . with meatballs!” he then added, seeing monstrous, jagged fragments from both the planet and the asteroid tumbling toward them like a sidewise avalanche.
    â€œGet those engines fired up now, Captain!” cried the Admiral. “Commander Ives, direct reverse tractor beam at those lava flares!”
    Beamer rushed toward the trap door, dived through the floor, and started ripping out circuit boards.
    Suddenly the ship rocked violently, like they’d been smacked with a giant flyswatter. “Hull’s still intact!” Ghoulie assured them. “But we won’t be able to handle many more impacts like that.”
    Beamer jammed a new electronic panel into a slot and the ship suddenly surged into darkness. He fell backward into another panel which sparked and sizzled like he was sausage in a frying pan. “Yeow!” he yelped as he leaped back to the main deck.
    â€œTalk about the nick of time!” yelled Scilla. “Good job, MacIntyre. Ives, we’re jumping blind! Put us back into normal space before we jump into the middle of a sun!”
    The engines cut off and they were again in normal space. Then Beamer noticed that fire still filled one of the view screens. “Hey! Didn’t we go anywhere?”
    â€œWhat’s the matter with navigation?” asked the Admiral.
    â€œWe’ve moved,” said Ghoulie. “We did — about three hundred million kilometers!”
    â€œThen where are we, and why do I feel like I’m being barbequed?” demanded Scilla, wiping sweat from her face.
    Beamer decreased magnification on the view port. Something that looked like a humongous, thick, fiery rope stretched across the sky. At either end of the rope were two stars — one large and red, the other smaller and