Adventures for Young People, featuring Troubleshooters, Sixy and BB, Inside Story, My Story

TROUBLESHOOTERS

Hi. Tony here. I was just an ordinary boy, living in Milton Avon near Edinburgh, Scotland, when Bea (my girl cousin) and I accidentally found the secret Earth base of the Galactic Federation. We became agents of the Federation – Troubleshooters. We’re sent to planets where the people need help.

One of those planets was Elevan 5. Our report of that mission is here. It wasn’t one of our biggest jobs, but we did help the miners. I got in trouble (so what’s new?) and Bea used her brains.

Between missions, Bea did projects to find out about the Federation. In Alien Ship, she describes how she went to find out what’s done when an unknown ship appears in the Federation. This isn’t really a story, but we hope you find it interesting.

And what Doc Y calls Readers’ Questions, asked by the readers to the website. They’re just blethers from Bea and me. If you don’t like them, just skip them.

TROUBLE ON ELEVAN 5

ALIEN SHIP

READERS’ QUESTIONS

TROUBLE ON ELEVAN 5

CONTENTS

1. IT IS A SIMPLE JOB.

2. THE HUNTER OR THE BAIT?

3. HEY!

4. IT WAS A SIMPLE JOB.

5. DIANA THE HUNTRESS.

6. ONE BEACON DETECTED.

7. A STAB OF PAIN.

8. IT WAS A SIMPLE JOB.

1

IT IS A SIMPLE JOB.

The Palliwalliokie was the leader of a team of miners on the planet Elevan 5. He was a little old man wearing a white robe and a grumpy expression. Who are you?

I’m Tony, I said.

And I’m Bea, said the Bean.

What are you doing here?

I answered, You called the Federation. Said you had trouble. Asked for agents to help.

You?

Yeah. We’re agents. Troubleshooters. I spread my arms so he couldn’t miss my grey uniform with the dark green bands round the chest and cuffs.

Agents! He looked grumpier. How old are you?

I’m thirteen, and Bea’s eleven. The wrist units, which we were using for translation, would give them in times he could understand.

Children! What can you do?

I tried to keep calm. What do you want us to do?

I want you to go back where you came from, and tell your Galactic Federation to send proper agents. Don’t they know I have a serious problem?

The Bean squeezed my arm. That was a signal: when somebody bugs me, I’m likely to give an angry answer or a cheeky one. While I fizzed inside, she said, If we leave, it may be some time before the Federation can send someone else.

Humph! Is that a threat? Well, it is a simple job. Can you do it properly?

The Bean squeezed my arm again. We’ll do our best.

Humph! A… a creature is loose in the jungle around our village. When we came to this planet, the Federation assured us that no dangerous animals lived here.

The Bean asked, How do you know the animal is there?

How do you think? He was angry. We have seen it, going into the path through the jungle from our village to the beach. Now we are afraid to use that path.

I asked, How d’you know it’s dangerous?

It is large and ugly.

Large, ugly animals aren’t always dangerous. Have you looked for it?

No! Horror joined the anger. We are peaceful miners. We do not expect to face dangerous animals. The Federation asked us to work here. It is their duty to protect us.

The Bean asked, What animal is it?

How should we know? It was bulky and blotched green and brown.

Victor might tell us. Wake, Victor. Can you identify an animal that’s bulky and blotched green and brown? It was seen on this planet, Elevan 5.

The miners lived in flat-roofed black buildings about the size of cottages – old spaceships. One had been left like a ship, and the Palliwalliokie used its control room as his office. It had the usual U of seats facing the terminal of Victor, the Federation computer. The Palliwalliokie was sitting in the command chair, the bottom of the U, as if he was the King of the universe.

Victor said, The creature may be a fortipod.

Let’s see it.

The picture filled the screen. It wasn’t the prettiest animal in the Galaxy. It looked like a blotchy octopus with a beady brown eye near the end of each tentacle.

The Bean asked the Palliwalliokie, Is that the animal?

Its appearance is similar.

She went back to Victor. Let’s see a Sol 3 person beside it.

Wow! The body was as tall as the figure, and the tentacles were about the same length.

Is it found on Elevan 5?

It has never been seen on Elevan 5 but it is common in the jungle of Shilli 2.

Ah! said the Palliwalliokie.

The Bean asked, Where’s Shilli 2?

It is not far away. We have a transporter link to Shilli 2.

Then your animal is probably a fortipod. She frowned. How could it have reached here?

I do not care how it reached here. I wish you to get rid of it.

Hmm. Victor, are they dangerous?

Yes. They lie in wait beside jungle paths to catch passing animals.

Thanks. She turned to the Palliwalliokie. We’ll go along there and look for it. Can you send people to take it to Shilli 2?

Why can’t you do that?

Look at it! I said. As you said, we’re young. D’you expect us to carry that?

He frowned at me. Why don’t you kill it?

We will not kill it, said the Bean in the snippy voice she uses when she’s annoyed. Federation rules say that animals should not be killed – and I agree with them.

That is your decision, but I will not waste my miners’ time. If you capture it, report to me. I shall send men to remove it.

That’s not very convenient.

It is not convenient for me to take my miners from their duties. The Federation should have sent someone who could do the whole job.

The Bean sighed. All right. We’ll tell you.

I asked, Victor, will a stun-gun work on these things?

No. It has no central brain, so a stun-gun will not affect it.

I thought so. That kind of animal often doesn’t have a proper brain. We’ll have to use nerve-guns.

The Bean explained to the Palliwalliokie, Nerve-gun beams cause pain. We need special permission to use them. We should be ready to start in about 1%.

As we stood up, I said to the Palliwalliokie, Warn your miners to be ready. We’ll soon give them a fortipod to shift.

2

THE HUNTER OR THE BAIT?

The miners’ village had two rows of about ten of the buildings, facing each other across a bare earth street with jungle crowding behind. The transporters – one to Shilli 2 and one to Enox 8 and the rest of the Galaxy – were built into a concrete block at one end, beside the Palliwalliokie’s ‘palace’.

The muddy path to the beach started between two buildings near the other end, then plunged into the jungle. The Bean said, Tony, will you go ahead? I’ll come about ten steps behind you, to cover you.

I grinned to her. What am I? The hunter or the bait?

But I started. I knew why we’d been given this job. Young people from Sol 3 can sense the feelings of people and animals from most other planets, but we couldn’t tell the Palliwalliokie because we’ve been ordered to keep it secret. They say I’m the best mind-senser in the Federation, although nobody knows why, especially me. I always get jobs like this. I’d sense the mind signal of the fortipod if it was lurking in the jungle near the path.

Maybe. That’s what worried me. I’d asked Victor, but he didn’t know. Some animals give strong mind signals; some give weak. And some are vicious by instinct. They attack without having to think. If the fortipod didn’t have a proper brain, it might be one of them, so I might not sense its feelings. I was going to find out by trying.

Bushes and creepers crowded both sides of the path, and the tops of the trees almost met overhead, leaving patches of grey sky. I crept along, holding the nerve-gun tight.

I glanced back. The Bean was a few steps behind me, also with a nerve-gun. She gave me a worried-looking smile, and I grinned to her, hoping I looked more confident than I felt.

The path wound on, round bushes and trunks. Over my uniform, I was wearing an expedition suit, thin but tough. The Scientists say it doesn’t make you sweat, but my body didn’t seem to know. I was hot and sweating as I crept through that clammy jungle.

One lucky thing: the path wasn’t long – less than a kilometre from the village to a beach at a bend in a wide river. Rain had made it muddy and left puddles. I usually walked through them, but one looked longer and deeper, so I went on the thick low plants to its right.

For two steps – before something coiled round my right ankle, jerking me off my feet. I had time for a startled yelp before a tentacle wound itself round my waist and lifted me. I learned one thing – I could sense the beast’s vicious greed but only from very near – before agony flooded my body, and I felt as if I was caught in a violent earthquake. Then the pain was too much, and I sank to unconsciousness.

3

HEY!

I wakened, lying on my back, looking up through the trees, with the Bean kneeling beside me, holding a reanimator. Tony, how do you feel?

Sore! The pain from a nerve-gun takes a while to die down.

I’m sorry. When it grabbed you, I had to fire. I couldn’t hit it without hitting you.

Forget it, Bean. I’ll survive. I sat up, in the puddle. Watch that thing. Beside me, the fortipod was starting to wriggle, and the nastiness was reviving.

I had to spray it all over before it stopped moving. I was worried about you because you were among the tentacles. She stood and used her nerve-gun on the fortipod, which jerked, then slumped down. Aren’t you sore?

I stood and flexed my arms and legs. The sharp pain of the nerve-gun was fading, but I felt like a footy ball after a big game. A bit. I’m glad we caught it. That’ll show his grumpy highness.

Will you wait here and keep it quiet while I go and tell him?

I suppose. Tell him to send his miners as fast as possible.

A lot of good that will do. She was on her way.

I gave the fortipod a good spray with my nerve-gun. It didn’t move. Unconscious, its body was about as high as my waist, so I sat on it. It was drier than the ground but not much softer.

The Bean might take ten minutes to find the Palliwalliokie, and he wouldn’t hurry to send the miners. I reckoned I was stuck there for at least half an hour.

After less than ten minutes, the vicious thoughts wakened under me, so I jumped off and used the nerve-gun. I was glad I’d jumped off because the thing jerked so much it would’ve thrown me off.

In about twenty minutes, the Bean was back, saying she’d told the Palliwalliokie. Then we’d to wait around for half an hour while I got angrier and angrier, and the Bean had more and more trouble stopping me from storming off to the Palliwalliokie.

When four miners strolled up with cords and nets, I pointed to the time display on my wrist unit. At last!

They didn’t have wrist units but they knew what I meant. They grinned at me as they started tying the fortipod’s tentacles.

Bean, look at them! I said. They kept us hanging around for more than an hour, but does that bother them? No! Don’t you sense it?

No, Tony, but I’m sure they came as soon as they could.

D’you believe that? This is a fine skive for them. If they weren’t here, they’d be working in the mine. They’re stretching it as long as they can. Before we leave this dreary planet, I’m going to tell that Palliwalliokie exactly what I think of it – and him.

No, Tony. Please. You know what he’s like. He’ll complain to Obsidian. You’ll get yourself in trouble.

Well, you’d think he’d be grateful we’re getting rid of this thing, instead of acting like he’s doing us a favour.

We followed the miners as they carried the fortipod to the travel centre.

They dumped it at the door of the Shilli 2 transporter, and would’ve headed off, if I hadn’t yelled, Hey!

I called, Open, to the transporter door. It slid aside, showing the transporter, a metal room like a lift. I pointed into it. Carry it in. They frowned at me but did it. The Bean and I squeezed in after them. I called, Close. Operate. Open. The door slid aside, showing the thick green jungle of Shilli 2.

I ordered them, Now carry it out.

As soon as they’d dumped it, I said, Thanks. Now you may go. They did, not pleased at being bossed around.

The Shilli 2 transporter was in a small clearing in a jungle, thicker and steamier than the one on Elevan 5. A wide path disappeared through the trees to a native village. People lived here – and I didn’t envy them, with fortipods around.

The Bean took out her nerve-gun. Would you free it, Tony? I’ll cover you.

I suppose. I crouched beside the fortipod. That took me so near that I sensed its fury.

When I took