Crash Landing Read Free Page B

door on the side of the spaceship slid open.
    The shuttle landed with a light jolt. Gravity returned.
    Instantly, the rest of the passengers began babbling.
    “Yay, we’re here. I’m off first.”
    “Out of my way, Voolon. I want to get the best bed pod in the dormitory.”
    “Do you think Ska’s Café has Fettid Jax Fruit this year?”
    “That’s my bag, Esterlin.”
    Ms Vartexia got to her feet. “Please exit the shuttle in a calm and orderly manner and form a queue at Exit Port Beta, where an Examiner will register you,” she ordered, as the door slid open with a faint hiss.
    None of the aliens aboard seemed to be paying any attention. They pushed past her shouting and laughing, as they crammed through the door.
    She sighed and waited until the crush had passed before reaching up to take her wig and tweed suit from the locker. Catching sight of John, still in his seat, she said sharply, “Please join your fellow students in the queue at Exit Port Beta.” She nodded towards the door. “Examiners do not like to be kept waiting.”
    John took a deep breath. “Look,” he said slowly and clearly. “This is waaay amazing and everything but, really, I’m supposed to be on a coach to Wortham Court School—”
    “In Dar Bee Shur, wherever that is. Yes. So you said. And as I told you , Elvians are not known for their sense of humour. Please join your fellow students in the queue at Exit Port Beta.”
    “But—”
    “I have already made a note of your late arrival. Please leave the shuttle before I make another.”
    Seeing that the alien woman wasn’t going to listen, John unclipped his seat belt, grabbed his rucksack and climbed down the steps.
    He found himself in a vast, white space. The shuttle had landed at the end of a row of similar craft. They all looked like the gleaming silver coach he had boarded earlier.
    “Over there.”
    His eyes followed her pointing finger, to where a queue had formed. “Is there anyone else I can talk to?” he asked as he hiked the rucksack up onto his shoulder and started walking.
    “If you continue this behaviour, you will very soon find yourself talking to the headmaster.”
    “Can’t I speak to him now?”
    “Enough! Get in the queue.”
    Not knowing what might happen if he made the tall, blue alien angry, John joined the others. The other aliens glanced at him curiously. John peered around them. At the head of the queue was an egg-shaped robot with a round head that blinked a red light as it scanned the new arrivals. The Examiner , John thought. It was as white as the ship itself and floated above the floor as though weightless.
    Light flickered over the alien boy with the purple hair. “Lishtig ar Steero,” said an electronic, droning voice. “Pass.”
    The boy whooped and ran off down the hallway, shouting “First bed pod is mine !”
    “Kritta Askin-Tarsos,” said the Examiner. “Pass.”
    John hopped from one foot to the other nervously, as he waited his turn.
    Gradually the queue shrank, until only the black girl with yellow eyes and feelers stood in front of John.
    “Queelin Temerate of Bo Four. Pass.”
    John stepped forward nervously. The red light scanned his feet and started moving up his body.
    John blinked as it passed over his eyes.
    A harsh siren began wailing.
    “No identification match. Intruder at Exit Port Beta.”
    A small door hissed open further down the corridor. John saw another Examiner shoot down the corridor towards him. Lights flashed on its blank face and, at once, a shimmering green haze wrapped itself around John. He felt his feet leave the floor.
    Fighting panic, he tried to look towards the Elvian woman, but he couldn’t move his head.
    “Force field activated. Intruder neutralized,” the new Examiner said tonelessly. “Access the secondary DNA database.”
    Once more a red light swept over John.
    There was a short pause, then the first Examinar said, “Human. Male. Native to a sub-B primitive planet called Earth.”
    The