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Transport Capsule in Trouble — Attack No. 1
While Shuckworth, Shanks and Showler were being chased out of the Space
Hotel by the Knids, Mr Wonka's Great Glass Elevator was orbiting the Earth at
tremendous speed. Mr Wonka had all his booster-rockets firing and the Elevator
was reaching speeds of thirty-four thousand miles an hour instead of the normal
seventeen thousand. They were trying, you see, to get away from that huge angry
Vermicious Knid with the purple behind. Mr Wonka wasn't afraid of it, but
Grandma Josephine was petrified. Every time she looked at it, she let out a
piercing scream and clapped her hands over her eyes. But of course thirty-four
thousand miles an hour is dawdling to a Knid. Healthy young Knids think
nothing of travelling a million miles between lunch and supper, and then another
million before breakfast the next day. How else could they travel between the
planet Vermes and other stars? Mr Wonka should have known this and saved his
rocket-power, but he kept right on going and the giant Knid kept right on
cruising effortlessly alongside, glaring into the Elevator with its wicked red eye.
'You people have bruised my backside,' the Knid seemed to be saying, 'and in the
end I'm going to
get
you for that.'
They had been streaking around the Earth like this for about forty-five minutes
when Charlie, who was floating comfortably beside Grandpa Joe near the
ceiling, said suddenly, 'There's something ahead! Can you see it, Grandpa?
Straight in front of us!'
'I can, Charlie, I can . . . Good heavens, it's the Space Hotel!'
'It can't be, Grandpa. We left it miles behind us long ago.'
'Ah-ha,' said Mr Wonka. 'We've been going so fast we've gone all the way around
the Earth and caught up with it again! A splendid effort!'
'And there's the Transport Capsule! Can you see it, Grandpa? It's just behind the
Space Hotel!'
'There's something else there, too, Charlie, if I'm not mistaken!'
'
I know what those are!
' screamed Grandma Josephine. 'They're Vermicious
Knids! Turn back at once!'
'Reverse!' yelled Grandma Georgina. 'Go the other way!'
'Dear lady,' said Mr Wonka. 'This isn't a car on the motorway. When you are in
orbit, you cannot stop and you cannot go backwards.'
'I don't care about that!' shouted Grandma Josephine. 'Put on the brakes! Stop!
Back-pedal! The Knids'll get us!'
'Now let's for heaven's sake
stop
this nonsense once and for all,' Mr Wonka said
sternly. 'You know very well my Elevator is completely Knidproof. You have
nothing to fear.'
They were closer now and they could see the Knids pouring out from the tail of
the Space Hotel and swarming like wasps around the Transport Capsule.
'They're attacking it!' cried Charlie. 'They're after the Transport Capsule!'
It was a fearsome sight. The huge green egg-shaped Knids were grouping
themselves into squadrons with about twenty Knids to a squadron. Then each
squadron formed itself into a line abreast, with one yard between Knids. Then,
one after another, the squadrons began attacking the Transport Capsule. They
attacked in reverse with their pointed rear-ends in front and they came in at a
fantastic speed.
WHAM!
One squadron attacked, bounced off and wheeled away.
CRASH!
Another squadron smashed against the side of the Transport Capsule.
'Get us out of here, you madman!' screamed Grandma Josephine. 'What are you
waiting for?'
'They'll be coming after
us
next!' yelled Grandma Georgina. 'For heaven's sake,
man, turn back!'
'I doubt very much if that capsule of theirs is Knidproof,' said Mr Wonka.
'Then we must help them!' cried Charlie. 'We've got to do something! There are a
hundred and fifty people inside that thing!'
Down on the Earth, in the White House study, the President and his advisers
were listening in horror to the voices of the astronauts over the radio.
'They're coming at us in droves!' Shuckworth was shouting. 'They're bashing us
to bits!'
'But
who
?' yelled the President. 'You haven't even told us who's attacking you!'
'These dirty great greenish-brown brutes with red eyes!' shouted Shanks, butting
in. 'They're shaped like enormous eggs and they're coming at us backwards!'
'Backwards?' cried the President. 'Why backwards?'
'Because their bottoms are even more pointy than their tops!' shouted
Shuckworth. 'Look out! Here comes another lot!'
BANG!
'We won't be able to
stand this much longer, Mr President! The waitresses are screaming and the
chambermaids are all hysterical and the bell-boys are being sick and the hall
porters are saying their prayers so what shall we do, Mr President, sir, what on
earth shall we do?'
'Fire your rockets, you idiot, and make a re-entry!' shouted the President. 'Come
back to Earth immediately!'
'That's impossible!' cried Showler. 'They've busted our rockets! They've smashed
them to smithereens!'
'We're cooked, Mr President!' shouted Shanks. 'We're done for! Because even if
they don't succeed in destroying the capsule, we'll have to stay up here in orbit
for the rest of our lives! We can't make a re-entry without rockets!'
The President was sweating and the sweat ran all the way down the back of his
neck and inside his collar.
'Any moment now, Mr President,' Shanks went on, 'we're going to lose contact
with you altogether! There's another lot coming at us from the left and they're
aiming straight for our radio aerial! Here they come! I don't think we'll be able to
. . .' The voice cut. The radio went dead.
'Shanks!' cried the President. 'Where are you, Shanks? . . . Shuckworth! Shanks!
Showler! . . . Showlworth! Shucks! Shankler! . . . Shankworth! Show! Shuckler!
Why don't you answer me?!'
Up in the Great Glass Elevator where they had no radio and could hear nothing
of these conversations, Charlie was saying, 'Surely their only hope is to make a
re-entry and dive back to Earth quickly!'
'Yes,' said Mr Wonka. 'But in order to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere they've got
to kick themselves out of orbit. They've got to change course and head
downwards and to do that they need rockets! But their rocket tubes are all dented
and bent! You can see that from here! They're crippled!'
'Why can't we tow them down?' Charlie asked.
Mr Wonka jumped. Even though he was floating, he somehow jumped. He was
so excited he shot upwards and hit his head on the ceiling. Then he spun round
three times in the air and cried, 'Charlie! You've got it! That's it! We'll tow them
out of orbit! To the buttons, quick!'
'What do we tow them with?' asked Grandpa Joe. 'Our neckties?'
'Don't you worry about a little thing like that!' cried Mr Wonka. 'My Great Glass
Elevator is ready for anything! In we go! Into the breach, dear friends, into the
breach!'
'Stop him!' screamed Grandma Josephine.
'You be quiet, Josie,' said Grandpa Joe. 'There's someone over there needs a
helping hand and it's our job to give it. If you're frightened, you'd better just
close your eyes tight and stick your fingers in your ears.'
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