Space Pirates: Stranded E-Book

Jim Ladd

• Herausgeber: Nosy Crow Ltd
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Serie: Space Pirates
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 69

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Sam and the crew of the Jolly Apollo are still searching for Planet X, where they hope to find Sam's parents and a whole load of treasure! But the dastardly Black-Hole Beard is on their tail, which is why they are forced to hide in the scariest, most deadly nebula in the universe. And get stranded! A fast-paced, funny series with gags galore, this is a chase through space that will have you cackling from start to finish!

Leseprobe

There was a huge flash as something disappeared behind a gigantic asteroid. Sam watched the asteroid closely.

“Oh no, it can’t be,” he said. But it was. “It’s Gravity’s Revenge! Black-Hole Beard is coming!”

Chapter One

SHADOWED!

“Full speed ahead!” Sam yelled.

The large sails of the spaceship Jolly Apollo filled with solar winds and tacked gracefully across the empty space of the Auroran solar system. The Jolly Apollo was no ordinary spaceship – it was a pirate ship! It was also a patched-up wreck, crewed by an assorted bunch of aliens who were quite possibly the most useless space pirates the galaxy had ever seen. All apart from one: the new cabin boy, Samson Starbuck.

“That’s it! That’s Lumiere Max!” said Sam, pointing at a nearby sun.

“Batten your hatch there, shipmate. Some of us are trying to get a well-earned rest,” replied Captain Comet.

Comet was the captain of the Apollo. He was tall, thin and three-eyed (though eye patches covered two of his eyes), with a magnificent waxed moustache. Dressed in a long frock coat and tricorn hat, he looked every inch the perfect pirate. Unfortunately, Comet’s dress-sense was the most pirate-like thing about him. At that precise moment he was lounging in a chair with a pair of three-lensed sunglasses perched on his nose and a foaming glass of grum in his hand.

Grum was the drink of choice for pirates – a kind of foamy lemonade that encouraged singing and kept space-scurvy away.

“But Captain,” Sam insisted, “Lumiere Max is on my parents’ map!”

Sam’s parents had been spaceship-wrecked on the legendary Planet X, but had managed to use their ship’s homing beacon to send Sam a map, scribbled on a piece of spacesuit material.

The little planet where Sam and his parents lived was a barren rock in the middle of nowhere, with nothing on it apart from his parent’s lab and a port full of vicious space pirates. Luckily, the only thing space pirates love more than bowling is treasure, and every pirate had heard the rumours about Planet X – a lost planet made of solid gold. When Sam had shown Captain Comet the map, he’d been welcomed aboard as the newest member of the Jolly Apollo’s crew.

“Lumiere Max? Are you sure?” asked Comet, suddenly interested.

He fished around inside his coat and pulled out the scrap of silvery spacesuit material the map was drawn on. Pushing his sunglasses up on to his head he peered at it intently. He blinked, and then – making sure no one was looking – flicked up his eye-patches to reveal two perfectly good eyes. He stared again at the map.

“Well, blow down me main braces, that’s right!” Comet muttered to himself. He flipped his patches back down and cleared his throat. “Well done, Sam. I wondered when you’d spot it. I’d noticed it myself ages ago, of course.”

Across the deck, Barney the ship’s cook – a huge squid-like alien – grinned and rolled his eyes at Comet’s boastful ways. Barney was using a curved mirror to barbeque some disgusting-looking fishy lumps in the heat of the sun.

“Right-ho! Pegg, Legg – plot a course to the centre of that sun,” said Comet to his two-headed first mate.

“Aye, aye, sir!” replied Legg, the happy head.

“Are you quite sure about that, Cap’n?” Pegg, the grumpy one, asked warily.

“Yes, yes, quite sure,” said Comet.

“Of course he’s sure!” Legg told his other head.

“‘Of course he’s sure’,” Pegg replied in a singsong voice, mocking Legg.

“I think Pegg might have a point,” said Sam, looking over Comet’s shoulder at the map. “I mean, if you get too close to a star like Lumiere Max the heat would melt a ship like this, wouldn’t it? Yes, look, you’ve got the map upside down.”

“What are you talking about?” snapped Comet, spinning the map around and looking at it at different angles. “Oh well! I mean, there you go – clearly we shouldn’t be going into the sun! Pegg, Legg – set a course away from the sun and towards the Corkscrew Galaxy. Honestly! If only your mother could write properly, Samson!” Comet flicked his sunglasses back down and dropped huffily into his deck chair.

Sam shook his head and did his best to try and ignore the dreadful smell wafting from Barney’s barbeque. Perhaps missing lunch today would be a good idea.

Around him the alien crew of the Apollo swung into action as the ship changed course. Lines were hauled to adjust the sails high above Sam’s head.

“A little help here, shipmate,” called one of the crew and Sam dashed over to lend a hand, wrapping one of the great ropes around a bollard on the side of the deck rails. At the back of the hull, rocket boosters rumbled into life as the spaceship increased speed.

Suddenly Captain Comet sat bolt upright and clutched at his moustache, which was quivering like the tail of a Vaporian Tremble Hound. Sam had seen this once before, back on the planet Jungrum when a grumigator was about to attack. Comet’s twitching face fuzz meant only one thing – danger!

“Is everything OK, Captain?” asked Sam.

“I think so,” said Comet doubtfully. “It’s probably just Barney’s cooking. I mean there’s nothing to see out there.”

He waved airily at the emptiness of space around them.

“Right then, me hearties,” said Comet, getting up. “It’s going to be a while before we get to the Corkscrew Galaxy – what say we have a game of bowling while we wait?”

The crew cheered enthusiastically. Sam hadn’t met a space pirate yet who didn’t love to bowl. The crew started to head down to the below-deck bowling alley. Sam waited as they filed downstairs. From where he was he could hear the sound of pirates emptying their lockers and sea chests for their bowling shoes. Sam was just about to follow them when he noticed Pegg and Legg fighting over a telescope.

“I had it first!” shouted Legg.

“You couldn’t see a space haddock if it was slapping you in the face!” snapped Pegg. “Here, give it to me!”

“What in the name of Quark are you two arguing about now?” called Comet, sticking his head back up the stairway.

“I thought I saw something,” replied Legg.

“And I was going to check!” said Pegg, trying to wrestle the telescope away.

“Let me have a look,” said Sam, gently prising the telescope from the first mate.

Sam scanned the space around him, but there was nothing to be seen but stars, moons, asteroids and the hazy mists of a distant nebula. Sam swung the telescope past the bright glow of rocket boosters – and stopped. Hang on – rocket boosters? He looked again, but there was nothing there. Then there was a flash as something disappeared behind a gigantic asteroid. Sam increased the magnification and watched the asteroid closely.

There was another flash of rocket booster as a spaceship scuttled across to another hiding place behind another, closer asteroid.

“Oh no, it can’t be,” said Sam, a deep sense of dread shivering through him. But it was.

“It’s the Gravity’s Revenge! Black-Hole Beard is coming!”

Chapter Two

GRAVITY’S REVENGE

Black-Hole Beard was the meanest, fiercest, most ruthless pirate to sail the seven galaxies. He had always bullied, mocked and generally trampled all over Captain Comet and the Jolly Apollo, until Sam joined the crew. Black-Hole Beard had already tried to steal the map to Planet X, and would have got away with it if Sam hadn’t swapped the grum bottle containing the map for an empty one. Now Black-Hole Beard was out for revenge!

“By Neptune’s beard!” shouted Comet in a panic. “Are you sure? Quick – hide the grum! All hands on deck! Splice the main wheel! Polish the anchor! Twist the yard arm!”

“I think the captain’s having one of his panic attacks,” muttered one of the crew.

“Perhaps one of my Flugel Squid kebabs might help,” said Barney, lifting a slimy-looking mess in one of his tentacles.