The Alien Brainwash Read Online Free Page B

lightning lit up the sky. Rain started pouring down.
    Finbar’s doggy side hated thunderstorms! Kip was sure that if he wasn’t brainwashed, he’d be terrified.
    Kip watched Finbar closely. Zara kept on pollinating seedlings. But Finbar had stopped what he was doing. The fur on the back of his neck stood on end. His glazed smile drooped.
    Outside, another lightning fork sizzled across the sky. Finbar’s ears flattened again his head. He let out a low, mournful growl.
    Kip’s Space Scout training had taught him that things weren’t always what they seem. When Zara was a safe distance away, he walked over to Finbar.
    â€˜You’ll be fine,’ Kip whispered. ‘It’s just a thunderstorm.’
    Finbar looked Kip in the eye. ‘Thanks,’ he whispered back.
    Finbar’s voice sounded completely normal. He hadn’t even mentioned serving the Beautiful Ones!
    Relief flooded though Kip. Finbar’s only faking being hypnotised! We had the same idea.
    Kip had been right about the wink. But what about the cat-like purrs?
    â€˜For a giant walking cottonball, you’re a pretty good actor,’ Kip muttered.
    Finbar grinned and scratched his leg.
    At that moment, Zara wondered over.
    â€˜Let’s gather more golden grains,’ Finbar told her, acting brainwashed again.
    Zara reached out to take Finbar’s paw. Just at that moment, a stinging space flea flew out from Finbar’s spacesuit and landed on Zara.
    Zara didn’t seem to notice, but suddenly Kip had an idea.
    It was pretty out-there. But then again, so was this entire mission.

CHAPTER 9
    Kip’s plan was weird, but simple.
    Botanicus-1 needs insects. Finbar’s got too many. Finbar’s stinging space fleas could be trained to pollinate the flowers!
    â€˜The Botanicus-1 flowers need us, so let’s go,’ Kip commanded.
    The brainwashed Zara followed obediently as Kip and Finbar raced out of the greenhouse, through the clearing and back into the flower field. As he ran, Kip flicked on his SpaceCuff and typed.
    Translate mode :
English to Flowerspeak

    Attention flowers
    He hoped the SpaceCuff had finished learning to translate by now. Kip watched the screen nervously. Then…
    A translation popped up! But instead of words, Kip had to sing a series of musical notes so that the flowers could understand him.
    A Space Scout’s got to be ready for anything, Kip thought, clearing his throat. Even a spot of opera!
    â€˜My 2iC is infested with fleas,’ Kip warbled at the flowers in his best high-pitched moan. ‘Hypnotise them instead of us. They’ll do the spiderbees’ job!’
    The flowers rustled. They understood!
    Kip held his breath as the field was silent. They seemed to be deciding whether Kip’s plan could work.
    At last, the nearest flowers bent down and sang their reply. ‘The flowers love the idea!’ Kip said, reading the translation from his Space-Cuff. ‘They never wanted to keep anyone prisoner. They just needed a way to pollinate their seedlings.’
    The flowers looked a bit like the ones on Earth. But Kip knew they were more complex than any flower back home. The flowers had a language, for a start, and they seemed to have emotions like humans and aliens, too.
    The flowers near Finbar set to work on the fleas at once. They swayed left to right in perfect time with each other.
    The flowers rubbed their leaf arms together above their heads as they swayed. Their voices joined together in song, so high-pitched that only the fleas could hear it properly.
    Fleas streamed out the neck of Finbar’s spacesuit. The faster the flowers sang and swayed, the more excited the fleas got. Soon the air was thick with space fleas, flying in formation.

    â€˜It’s working!’ Kip yelled. ‘The fleas are brainwashed.’
    â€˜Hang on,’ said Finbar suddenly. ‘My fleas are tiny and the spiderbees were massive. It’ll take the