The Robot King Read Free Page A

he’s also an air-traffic controller, then.
    Pappy took a glass filled with thick black liquid. He pressed a button on his chest and a hatch slid open. ‘Nothing like a cup of oil to soothe the hinges, eh James?’ said Pappy to his butler.
    The robot butler offered the tray to Kip and Finbar.
    I’d rather drink a brussel sprout smoothie! Kip thought.
    â€˜No, thanks,’ he said out loud. ‘I’d love a glass of water, though,’ he added.
    This’ll be a quick way of finding out what the water on Arboria is like , he thought.
    â€˜Water?’ James said. ‘I wouldn’t really recommend –’
    Pappy cut in. ‘There’s none cold at the moment. Sorry.’
    Pappy showed Kip and Finbar around his enormous house. Pappy explained that the house was a thank-you gift from the people of Arboria.
    â€˜I’m the king because I invented Digitisation,’ Pappy said. ‘It’s a way to download a living creature’s mind and install it into a robot body. So life never has to change!’
    Why would you want to do that? Kip wondered. He remembered the game show repeats. The way the kid robot laughed at his lame joke. Life as a robot in Arboria seemed pretty dull to Kip.
    â€˜Arborians once looked like you, Kip,’ Pappy added. ‘But now that we’re robots, we’ll stay the age we were the day we got Digitised. We never have to get older!’
    So that robot I met will stay a kid forever , Kip realised. If that were me, I’d always be the youngest Space Scout.And I’d never finish school.
    â€˜Hope you like things the way they are then,’ Finbar said.
    â€˜Luckily, things on Arboria are fantastic,’ Pappy agreed. Then he added, ‘Would you like to try eternal youth, Kip?’
    As if I’d ever in a million years want that! ‘I’ve got to stay human,’ Kip said quickly.
    â€˜Kip’s got his job as Space Scout to think about,’ Finbar explained.
    â€˜I’m asking you nicely,’ Pappy smiled. For the first time, Kip noticed a cold, hard edge to his voice.
    â€˜I really need to get on with my mission,’ Kip said, shaking his head. ‘You said we could explore Arboria.’
    â€˜You can’t leave yet,’ Pappy said sweetly. ‘I need a favour.’ He turned to Finbar. ‘I’m building a museum of curious artifacts. I’d love a lock of your fur for my collection.’
    Pappy sat Finbar down. He called James and they spent ages disinfecting a pair of robotic scissors.
    Why is this taking so long? Kip wondered.

    He noticed Pappy and James whispering to each other. Kip wanted to tell them to hurry up.
    But then he remembered his WorldCorp Manual of Space Scouting.
    SPACE SCOUT RULE 7.01
Unless in danger, a Space Scout
must NEVER offend aliens.
    So Kip waited politely. Pappy carefully tugged a lock of fur from Finbar’s tail.When he finally snipped it off, James disappeared with the fur at once. Then Pappy spent ages putting Finbar’s helmet back into place.
    â€˜Thank you so much,’ Pappy said finally, smiling gratefully at them.
    All that over a meaningless bit of tail fluff, Kip thought.

CHAPTER 6
    â€˜I’ll show you out,’ said Pappy. He took Kip and Finbar to the walkway outside his house.
    But the walkway was moving at triple the speed it did before.
    â€˜It’s in Emergency Mode,’ said Pappy, sounding surprised.
    Kip saw green-and-white checked police robots with flashing lights on top of their plasma-screen heads. They raced past, heading towards the Docking Station.
    â€˜What a fuss,’ said Pappy casually as he waved goodbye. ‘I hope this doesn’t interfere with your mission.’
    Kip and Finbar stepped onto the walkway, waving goodbye to Pappy. It whisked them away from the front gates at top speed.
    â€˜Let’s find out what’s going on!’ Kip yelled to Finbar over the roar of sirens and