Chapter Twenty-Two

Harvey heads off heroically

Heroically, Harvey and the Hazard Hunting Hound headed off, with Nerdie close behind, to rescue Gordon, track down the rampaging Junk Skunks, and to save the Toxic Spew!

‘So what’s your plan, Captain?’ asked the Nerdbot 1000, whizzing down the corridor alongside Harvey, on its metal wheel.

‘I don’t actually have one!’ confessed Harvey, sprinting along, with Snuffles lolloping along at his heels. Fortunately Harvey can run and think at the same time. (Aha! That’ll be why he’s such a talented footballer.)

But what should he do first? Rescue Gordon or catch the Junk Skunks? Then, brilliantly, he realised that capturing the garbage pests would actually be saving Gordon at the same time! And that, astonishingly, there was one member of the Toxic Spew crew who was both fully trained and brilliant at their job.

So he stopped suddenly and turned to the huge hound. ‘Snuffles!’ he ordered. ‘Seek!’

Snuffles abruptly stopped too, sat on the deck and looked at Harvey, waggling his ears and eyebrows in utter confusion.

AROUU?!

Harvey realised he didn’t know the right command word. Obviously it wasn’t ‘Seek’. ‘Er … Track!’ he tried, then, ‘Hunt!’ and ‘Find!’ but Snuffles just sat there doing the ears and eyebrows wiggling thing. It was very cute – but not much use. Then finally, and desperately, Harvey tried, ‘Er … Fetch?’ Snuffles shot to his feet, took one almighty

SNIIIIIIFF!

and, scrabbling like a demented werewolf, promptly pelted off down a side passageway.

It wasn’t difficult to follow the Junk Skunks’ trail. There was the eye-wateringly awful stench, the dollops of green goo splattered on the walls and deck, the gag-makingly ghastly stink, the pockets of swirling yellow fog, and oh, did I mention the hideously horrendous pong?

Harvey and Nerdie raced after Snuffles. They tore around the toilets, past a cosy chill-out room full of beanbags (that Harvey didn’t even know existed) through the crews’ quarters, in and out of the lifts, down to the lower deck and back up again. They sped along countless filthy corridors, past the Vacuum Control Room, the Engine Room (twice – and from different directions), under and over both Rear Rocket Blasters and almost straight through the exit pod and into outer space!

On the way Harvey scooped up anything he saw lying about that might be useful in a scuffle with a bunch of badly behaved and vile-smelling Junk Skunks.

(Just so you know, he grabbed:

• a pair of Scrummage’s goggles,

• a dirty sock,

• an old woollen glove,

• and the lid from a battered metal dustbin.

Of course, he’d have been a lot better off with:

• a complete Anti Junk Skunks 9091-2.0 Kit with

• a full face Gas Mask 7000,

• full-length gum boots,

• a full protective suit,

and

• a full spray can of SKUNKFUNK 5000 (which kills off the stench)

But hey, you can’t have everything.)

As they rounded a corner, Harvey realised to his horror, the trail was leading towards the galley where the baby Gordonzola was all alone! He kicked himself.

(No, not literally. Ever tried running and kicking yourself at the same time? Ridiculously tricky, isn’t it?)

Yargal and Scrummage would never forgive him if the baby Gordonzola was hurt, and worse, he would never forgive himself.

‘Gordon!’ cried Harvey as they charged into the galley, but the baby alien was nowhere to be seen.

(Phew! Thank goodness for that!)

Junk Skunks on the other hand, could be seen everywhere – raiding the kitchen cupboards and squatting on the counters, ripping open packets, cramming food into their mouths and generally gobbling everything up quickly speedily, greedily, and very, very happily.

And they weren’t going to give up without a fight …