Free Lab Rats in Space by Bruno Bouchet

that?’
    â€˜It’s not boring, it’s sensible,’ argued Emm. ‘Libris will have the information we need. All we have to do is go and ask.’
    â€˜But I thought we would have some adventures,’ said Jay.
    â€˜We will but we still want to get home. There’ll be plenty of opportunity to get attacked I’m sure.’ Dee was becoming exasperated. ‘What do you think, Zed?’
    â€˜I’m not going to a library!’ Zed jumped up from his bed and folded his front arms. His hand sat definitelyin a fist on the small of his back. His face was set hard making his ears stick out and his jaw look square.
    â€˜We’ll head for the nearest planet and see what we find there. If they don’t help, we’ll make them,’ he announced.
    â€˜Yeah,’ said KT agreeing.
    â€˜And if they don’t like it, tough, we’ll move on to the next planet. We’ve beaten Xanax, we can beat anyone!’
    Dee sighed, it was hard reasoning with Zed when he was in action mode.
    â€˜That could take forever!’ Emm said. ‘We could just hop from planet to planet for the rest of our lives.’
    â€˜We have to try Libris… come on guys!’ pleaded Dee.
    They argued back and forth for an hour and got nowhere.
    â€˜Let’s put it to a vote,’ announced Zed confidently.
    â€˜That’s not fair, there’s more boys than girls,’ Dee complained.
    â€˜It’s democratic, you can’t get fairer than that,’ KT smirked.
    â€˜All those in favour of going to the planet Libris raise your hands,’ Zed called out.
    Dee and Emm raised their hands wearily knowing what the result would be.
    â€˜All those in favour of heading to the nearest planet and having adventures,’ asked Zed.
    All the boys raised their hands and cheered.
    â€˜Agreed then!’
    The girls trudged out of the room annoyed that they were outnumbered.
    â€˜Good grief, who would have thought asking for directions would be such a big issue?’ Dee grumbled.
    â€˜Boys,’ Emm tutted.

Chapter 13
In Training
    A s the spaceship travelled in no particular direction, it seemed like everyday there was something new to explore. They found a gym on the ship. The computer even created exercise programs, flashing up an instructor on the screen in the gym. The boys didn’t think much of the instructor. He just wanted them to jump up and down off boxes and kept saying things like ‘V-step’ and ‘round the world with your arms.’
    Dee and Emm thought he was very handsome so they did his program every day. Even though he was just a computer program, Emm still flushed when he said ‘Good work, Emm,’ at the end of their session. Dee tried her best but going ‘round the world’ with her arms usually meant her hammer arm smashed into her ownthigh. It hurt. It wasn’t easy doing sit-ups without hitting her own head either.
    The girls wanted to show XL just how gorgeous the instructor was but when they carried him down to the gym, the program didn’t work. The computer then asked for XL to be returned to the control deck. (XL had programmed XL2 to ask for his return whenever they were disconnected.)
    The boys were more impressed when they discovered a combat training program.
    â€˜We’ve got to learn how to fight Professor Xanax,’ Zed declared. The boys were soon throwing each other to the ground. Jay didn’t enjoy it much as he continually bashed his nose on the floor.
    Dee was scared of hurting the others with her hammer. Bruising her own thigh was one thing but when her arm flew out and smashed KT on the head, he burst into tears. He was knocked out and had to lie down for a while. Emm didn’t enjoy it at all. It wasn’t very elegant.
    After a couple of days only Zed and KT were fighting under the watchful eye of the computer combat trainer. He looked older than the gym instructor, had a big scar across his