Hal Junior 1: The Secret Signal

  Ozi Ozi Ozi!

  Hal frowned. Ozi Ozi Ozi? Was the watch trying to cheer him on? His head was splitting and it was getting hard to breath, let alone think straight. Then, with a flash, he recognised the symbols. It wasn't Ozi Ozi Ozi, it was meant, and then it came to him: Oxygen! His watch was telling him he was running out of air!

  But how was that possible, when the gauge on the tanks had been full?

  Then it hit him. He'd checked the gauge in the mirror, which meant he'd been looking at it in reverse. His tanks hadn't been full to the brim when he left the space station, they'd been almost empty!

  Hal tugged on the handle again, desperately trying to open the airlock door, but he simply wasn't strong enough. He was trapped in space, he was running out of air, and there was nothing he could do about it!

  All Aboard

  Hal clung to the yellow access handle and gulped down the last of his air supply. He knew there had to be a way in, but his brain was fuzzy and he couldn't think straight. What he needed was a lever, something to jam behind the handle and force it open, but when he searched the kit on his belt he didn't find anything big enough. There were little rubber spacesuit patches, a spare battery and even a handful of tools ... but nothing like a half-metre crowbar.

  Hal felt around his belt and his fingers closed on the safety line, a coil of super-strong cord with a clip on the end. He raised the clip to his helmet and stared at it though the darkened perspex. It was strong and heavy, and he realised he had the answer. He clipped the end to the yellow handle, turned his back on the ship and fired the nozzlejets.

  There was a flash as he took off from the hull, and he felt the loops of cord tugging as they whipped away from his belt. The coil ran out in seconds and the line tightened with a jerk, folding him double. Before he knew what was happening he was travelling in the opposite direction, like a bungee jumper in a giant silver bag. The airlock door was opening very slowly, the gap getting wider and wider as he rocketed towards the ship.

  Hal shot through the widening gap into the airlock, where gravity took over. He dropped to the floor, sliding across the rough metal deck until he rammed into the wall. The helmet faceplate crazed under the impact, and he saw cracks spreading in front of his eyes. Still dazed, he got up and slammed his fist on the airlock controls.

  Several things happened in rapid succession: The outer door slid down, cutting the safety line in two. Air rushed in to fill the chamber. And the helmet burst with a loud POP!

  Hal closed his eyes tight and jammed his hands over his ears, but fortunately the air pressure was almost equal, and apart from a pain in his ears he was all right. Lucky wasn't the word for it -- he'd had the narrowest of escapes, but he was safe and sound.

  Hal removed the space suit and broken helmet, his heavy boots crunching fragments underfoot. He reached for the controls, but before he could activate them he spotted the watch on his wrist. No, it couldn't be!

  The screen wasn't just dead, it was smashed beyond repair. His most treasured possession, destroyed!

 

  Hal gritted his teeth. Losing the watch was a terrible blow, but he had a space station to save. He tried not to look at the shattered face as he reached for the controls, and when he pressed the button the inner door opened on a brightly-lit corridor. Hal looked both ways and listened carefully before leaving the airlock. Opening the hatch may have triggered an alarm and he didn't want to meet anyone coming to investigate.

  He was halfway along the corridor when he heard footsteps, so he pulled open the nearest door and slipped inside. It was pitch black, and he'd barely closed the door when someone clamped a hand over his mouth, frightening the life out of him!

  * * *

  "Don't make a sound!" hissed a voice in Hal's ear, and with a flood of relief he realised it was his dad. He must have chosen the same hiding place!

  The footsteps passed by, and then a dim light came on overhead. Hal realised they were standing in a storage alcove, his dad towering over him in the tiny space. He looked really angry, and Hal was about to explain when he was interrupted.

  "Save it for later. I want you to stay right here until I fetch you. Is that clear?"

  "But I can help!"

  "Will you do what you're told? Just this once?"

  Hal nodded reluctantly, his dreams of charging to the rescue evaporating before his eyes. How were you supposed to be a hero when your family wouldn't let you?

  "I'll be as quick as I can." With that, Hal's dad opened the door and slipped into the corridor.

  His footsteps had barely faded when Hal heard a shout and a scuffle. He risked a look and saw his dad struggling with three of the ship's crew. Two of them had pinned his arms, and the third was shouting at him, demanding to know where he'd come from.

  Hal clenched his fists. He wanted to charge down the corridor and start swinging but he didn't stand a chance against three of them. For once he decided to stay put, but it was hard watching the crew manhandle his dad along the corridor towards the lift. As they passed the door Hal heard his dad explaining. "I came over to find my wife. The station commander had nothing to do with this."

  "Tell that to captain Thimp. He knows what to do with troublemakers like you."

  Captain Thimp! Hal's eyes widened. No wonder the crew kept calling him sir! He heard his dad speaking and pressed his ear to the door.

  "Me, a trouble maker?" said his dad. "If my son were here he'd do everything possible to stop this ship leaving. Crash your computers, contaminate your fuel ... there's nothing he wouldn't do. "

  One of the men laughed. "Lucky for us he ain't here then."

  Their voices faded, and Hal allowed himself a grim smile. His dad had talked very loudly about sabotaging the ship, and it was obvious he'd been telling Hal what to do! Somehow he had to find a way to stop the ship leaving, and when it came to crashing computers there was only one person he could think of: Stinky!

  * * *

  Hal dug around in the cupboards, trying to find something which would help him on his quest. He managed to find an oversized cap and a pair of darkened safety goggles, but the real prize was a box of overalls. He found a pair roughly his size, and as he put them on he wrinkled his nose at the faint smell of perfume. If the other kids got a whiff of eau de yuck they'd never let him forget it.

  The overalls were too long in the sleeve and legs, which Hal fixed by turning up the cuffs. There wasn't much he could do with the baggy material around his middle, and if the loose trousers dropped around his knees he'd just have to pretend it was the latest fashion.

  Dressed in the overalls, oversized goggles and cap, Hal left the small alcove and hesitated in the corridor. He had no idea how to find his mum or the rest of the class, and he couldn't march all over the ship looking for them. From a distance his makeshift disguise might get by, but up close it wasn't going to fool anyone.

 

  What he needed was darkness, secret tunnels and distractions, but he couldn't see how he was going to manage it without help from the ship's computer. He decided to chance it, hurrying along the corridors when nobody was looking and darting into cabins and alcoves when he heard someone coming.

  Hal walked down the corridor towards the rear of the ship, placing his feet carefully so he could listen for oncoming footsteps. As he passed each door he glanced at the controls, checking for the red lights which indicated they were locked. Fortunately most of them glowed with a nice friendly green, which gave him plenty of hiding places.

  Some of the doors had printed signs on, and when Hal noticed one marked 'Server room' he stopped dead. His dad had suggested sabotaging the ship, and driving a fire axe through the server should be more than enough to keep it docked.

  The door slid open and Hal stepped inside. The room was kept at freezing point for the benefit of the computer equipment, and Hal shivered inside his borrowed overalls. The only light came from a dull red fitting, and when the door closed Hal had to remove his goggles just to see his hand in
front of his face. There was a hum from the metal cabinets lining the wall, and a faint buzz from a speaker in the roof. As far as Hal could see there was no terminal screen, no keyboard and no microphone. And definitely no fire axe.

  "Hello Hal," said the computer. "I've been following your progress."

  Hal's heart sank. So much for sneaking around. The computer knew exactly where he was!

  The Plan

  "Listen to me," said Hal. "The crew of this ship have kidnapped my class and they're trying to take over the space station. I have to know whose side you're on."

  "I don't take sides. I merely run the ship."

  "But you told me you'd help!"

  "Who do you think closed the airlock door after your spectacular arrival?"

  "Thanks for that," muttered Hal. "But what about the firewall? Why did you get me to switch that off?"

  "Did you know ships carry libraries of media for the crew? Books, video and music?"

  "Yeah, I know. It's to stop people getting bored on long flights."

  "Precisely. Whenever we visit a new port I ... avail myself of their media."

  "Avail? What's that?"

  "Download."

  "You got me to switch off the firewall so you could copy a bunch of films from the space station? I thought you were cracking into the docking computers!"

  "That wasn't me. Someone aboard the space station initiated that program."

  "Can you boot them out? Give us back control?"

  "I don't have the right clearance."

  "All right, can you tell me where Stinky and the others are? And my mum and dad?"

  "Your mother is on the third deck, in the rec room. Your father is locked in the brig, which is on the lowest deck. Your classmates are currently inspecting the engines with Captain Thimp and Petty Officer Slayd."

 

  "Do they know I'm missing?"

  "They have several people looking for you."

  Hal pulled a face. Being hunted all over the ship wasn't going to make his job any easier. "Hey, you know how you distracted the pilot? Can you do the same for the people with my mum? And those two watching Stinky and the others?"

  "I can try."

  "I'm sure you can do it. When you set off those alarms in the flight deck I thought the whole ship was going to explode."

  "If the guards do leave, what do you expect your friends to do next? How are you going to communicate?"

  Hal glanced at his workbook. Normally he'd just send Stinky a message, but Teacher had disabled that feature on Hal's workbook. A while back Hal had faked a message from Commander Linten, telling everyone school had been cancelled for the rest of the year. After that, even Stinky hadn't been able to get Hal's messaging working again. "Can you send a note to Stinky's workbook?"

  "Yes. I can route it via the space station."

  "Good. Tell Stinky to get the others to the flight deck as soon as Thimp and Slayd leave them alone. Maybe send him a map."

  "Complying."

  Hal grinned to himself. It was awesome the way the computer obeyed his orders, and he felt like a general directing his troops in battle. "And mum. I need you to send her a message too."

  "I'm afraid I can't. The crew have taken her workbook away and it's now offline."

  Hal thought for a minute, then remembered how his mum had sent him a message earlier. "Computer, have you heard of Morse code?"

  "Certainly."

  "Can you make something flash or click where mum is?"

  "The common room has a shuttered porthole. I can operate them remotely."

  "Good stuff. Tell her to get to the flight deck."

  "Do you want me to distract the pilot again?"

  "Yeah, give it the works," said Hal. "Exploding engines, air leaks, radiation and ... zombies."

  "Zombies?"

  "Really gross ones."

  "You don't think that's going a little too far?"

  "Just turn the lights down and groan a bit. They'll be too busy running around screaming to think about it," said Hal in satisfaction. Then he remembered something. "You said my dad's in the brig. What's that, some kind of lockup?"

  "Correct. It's what we call the holding cells aboard ship."

  "Can you open the door?"

  "I can give you the code."

  "And how do I find the brig?"

  The computer explained how to get there, and Hal repeated the directions until he got them right. It was probably the first revision he'd ever done, and it was definitely his first 100% result. "Very good, Mr Junior. We'll make a pilot of you yet."

  Flush with success, Hal thanked the computer before opening the door to the server room. The corridor was empty, and he slipped out and made his way to the lift at the far end. He was just reaching for the call button when the lift pinged and the doors started to open. In a panic he dived into the nearest cabin and pressed his back to the wall, barely daring to breath. Then he saw the crewman stretched out on the bunk, hands behind his head. His eyes were closed, his mouth wide open, and as the footsteps went past outside Hal prayed the man was a heavy sleeper.

  Then the footsteps were gone, and Hal darted into the corridor. He entered the waiting lift and pressed the lowest button, gritting his teeth as the doors closed. This was the riskiest part of the journey, because there would be nowhere to hide if the doors opened on a crowded room.

  The Distraction

  When Hal arrived at the brig he found a reinforced control panel and a thick door cut from solid steel. It was just as well the ship's computer was on his side, because a platoon of robots with nuclear-powered fire axes wouldn't have broken their way through it.

 

  The computer had reprogrammed the panel with an easy code -- 58008 -- and when Hal typed it in the door creaked open. It was still moving when his dad burst from the cell, shouting and swinging his fists. Fortunately he was aiming high, where a taller adult would have been, and the wild punches went straight over Hal's head. The expression on his face when he recognised his son was enough to make Hal laugh out loud.

  "I'm glad you find this funny," growled his dad. "I could have knocked your block off!" He inspected the door, then the control panel. "How did you get this one open? And why did you come looking for me when I told you to sabotage the ship?"

  Hal raised his hands to stop the flow of questions. "I sent a message to mum and the others and told them to meet us in the flight deck. She's taking them to Flight Control so they can disconnect the boarding tube."

  "What if the crew spots them?"

  "The ship is helping us. It's distracting the crew with fake error messages."

  His dad grinned and ruffled Hal's hair. "I'm glad you're on my side."

  Hal felt a surge of pride. His dad didn't hand out praise easily, and it made a nice change from getting told off all the time.

  The lift carried them to the upper deck, where they found a deserted corridor. Hal could hear distant shouting and a hissing sound, as though one of the airlocks had sprung a leak.

  "Sounds like your friendly computer is causing the crew some real problems."

  The speaker crackled. "I am indeed," said the computer. "You'll have to hurry because I may have gone a bit too far. Some of the crew are talking about abandoning ship."

  "Is the way clear?"

  "Conceal yourselves in the sanitary facility, third door on the left. I will generate error messages on the lower deck, which should get the crew moving to that part of the ship. Once they're past, you can make your way to the flight deck."

  They hurried towards the third door. "What about Stinky and the others?" demanded Hal.

  "And my wife," added his dad.

  The computer's voice followed them along the corridor, moving from one speaker to the next. "She met up with the younger humans ... and they're currently leaving the ship together ... I estimate they'll be back aboard the station ... in ten seconds. Hide ... now!"

  Hal pulled the third door open and they dived inside. As soon as the door cl
osed there was a huge racket from the corridor: sirens, fire alarms, distorted guitars and worse. Emergency lights flashed in the bathroom and they heard thundering footsteps as the crew ran down the corridor.

  As soon as they were past Hal's dad yanked the door open. They raced up the corridor to the flight deck, and as they rounded the corner Hal's dad ran straight into Petty Officer Slayd, knocking him flying. Slayd was still recovering when Hal and his dad charged past the surprised-looking pilot and into the airlock. For the fourth time that day Hal found himself in the flexible docking tunnel, which shook wildly under their pounding feet. As they ran towards the safety of the space station Hal couldn't help wondering what would happen if the tunnel split open, or if one end broke away from the ship. Before he could worry too much they reached control room, where Hal's dad took charge. Barely sparing a glance for his wife or the surprised-looking students, he ordered staff around like a general, getting them to sever all ties with the Tiger. When one officer tried to argue Hal's dad hauled him out of his seat. "This is a code red emergency. Do you understand?"

  "Y-yessir."

  "Then get on with it."

  "B-but my orders ..."

  "The crew of the Tiger kidnapped our kids and threatened the station. I don't know how many of our people are working for them, and until we find out we're cutting all ties with the ship. So do it NOW!" Hal's dad pointed to a technician. "You! Get online and open every locked door on the station."

  * * *

  While Hal's dad was busy organising defences, Hal brought Stinky up to speed. When he recounted his exploits with the spacesuit and jetpack he was pleased to see Stinky's eyes go as big and round as an airlock door.

  "You flew across to the supply ship on your own?" gasped Stinky. "In a spacesuit?"