My dear mouse friends,
Have I ever told you how much I love science
fiction? I’ve always wanted to write incredible
adventures set in another dimension, but I’ve never
believed that parallel universes exist . . . until now!
That’s because my good friend Professor Paws
von Volt, the brilliant, secretive scientist, has
just made an incredible discovery. Thanks to some
mousetropic calculations, he determined that there
are many different dimensions in time and space,
where anything could be possible.
The professor’s work inspired me to write this
science fiction adventure in which my
family and I travel through space
in search of new worlds.
We’re a fabumouse crew:
the spacemice!
I hope you enjoy this
intergalactic adventure!
Geronimo Stilton
Professor
Paws von Volt
THe SPACeMiCe
Geronimo
Stiltonix
Trap
Stiltonix
Thea
Stiltonix
Benjamin
Stiltonix
and Bugsy
Wugsy
Robotix
Grandfather
William
Stiltonix
Copyright © 2016 by Edizioni Piemme S.p.A., Palazzo Mondadori, Via Mondadori 1, 20090 Segrate, Italy. International Rights © Atlantyca S.p.A. English translation © 2018 by Atlantyca S.p.A.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any
responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
GERONIMO STILTON names, characters, and related indicia are copyright, trademark, and exclusive license of Atlantyca S.p.A. All rights reserved. The moral right of the author has been asserted. Based on an original idea by Elisabetta Dami. www.geronimostilton.com
Published by Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
Stilton is the name of a famous English cheese. It is a registered trademark of the Stilton Cheese Makers’ Association. For more information, go to www.stiltoncheese.com.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, trans- mitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or here- after invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, please contact Atlantyca S.p.A., Via Leopardi 8, 20123 Milan, Italy; e-mail foreignrights@atlantyca.it, www.atlantyca.com.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
e-ISBN 978-1-338-21505-2
Text by Geronimo Stilton
Original title Il pianeta invisibile
Cover by Giuseppe Facciotto (pencils) and Flavio Ferron (color)
Illustrations by Giuseppe Facciotto (pencils), Carolina Livio (inks), and
Serena Gianoli and Paolo Vicenzi (color)
Graphics by Marta Lorini
Special thanks to Shannon Decker
Translated by Julia Heim
Interior design by Kevin Callahan / BNGO Books
First printing 2018
In the darkness of the farthest galaxy in
time and space is a spaceship inhabited
exclusively by mice.
This fabumouse vessel is called the
MouseStar 1, and I am its captain!
I am Geronimo Stiltonix, a somewhat
accident-prone mouse who (to tell you
the truth) would rather be writing novels
than steering a spaceship.
But for now, my adventurous
family and I are busy
traveling around the universe
on exciting intergalactic missions.
THIS IS THE
LATEST ADVENTURE
OF THE SPACEMICE!
The ShatterMousix
It was a calm cosmic afternoon: no solar
storms on the horizon, no planets in
danger, no urgent appointments in my
digital calendar. In fact, the universe was so
calm that Grandfather William had even
given me a few hours off to rest!
Holey space cheese, I could finally write
some more of my epic novel: The Amazing
Adventures of the Spacemice. Oh,
excuse me — I haven’t introduced myself!
My name is Stiltonix, Geronimo Stiltonix, and
I am captain of the MouseStar 1, the most mouserific spaceship in the universe. (It’s a fabumouse job, even though my secret dream is to be a writer. Shhh — don’t squeak!)
2
As I was saying, I had been trying to
finish my novel for eons, but it’s not easy
to write when you’re
the captain of a
spaceship. Some
sort of cosmic
chaos is always
popping up!
I was feeling
fabumousely focused on my
writing when someone knocked on the
The Amazing
the Spacemice
door of my cabin.
Galactic Gorgonzola,
who could it be?
I turned and saw my cousin Trap, my
nephew Benjamin, and his friend Bugsy
Wugsy all standing in the doorway.
“Hey, Cousin!” Trap said with a grin.
“Why are you sitting here, molding like old
3
Plutonian provolone? We need to scamper
over to Astral Park right away!”
I scratched my snout, confused.
“Why?”
“You mean you don’t know, Uncle?”
Benjamin squeaked excitedly. “Today a
rattastic new ride is opening!”
Hey, Cousin!
Who’s there?
Bugsy Wugsy piped in. “And we’re going
to try it out!”
“You’ll come with us, won’t you, Uncle G?”
they both cried at once.
I really wanted to keep writing, but I
couldn’t disappoint my favorite
mouselets!
I nodded and got to my paws. “Oh, all
right . . .”
As we scampered toward Astral Park,
Trap said, “I’m impressed, Cousin — for
once, you’re not acting like a cheesebrain! You’ll see, a little adventure will do you good.”
I didn’t understand a cosmic cheese rind
of what he was squeaking about. “Umm . . .
adventure?”
Trap grinned. “I knew you wouldn’t be
scared of a few steep declines, super
5
sharp-as-cheddar curves, and a dozen or so
acrobatic tailspins . . .”
What?!
Super steep declines?! Sharp-as-cheddar
curves?! Acrobatic tailspins?! Oh, for all the galaxies in the univer
se, my whiskers were trembling in fear!
Trap didn’t seem to notice. “We’re going to
have so much fun on the ShatterMousix!”
The ShatterMousix? Squeeeeak — the
name alone twisted my tail in knots!
A moment later, I stood in front of a supertall,
supersteep, superscary roller coaster.
Benjamin smiled. “It’s out of this world,
right? I can’t wait to ride it!”
RIDE IT?
I was frightened out of my
fur just looking at it!
6
W
E
L
C
O
M
E
Help!
Fabumouse!
Here’s the ShatterMousix!
We’d almost reached the front of the line
when Hologramix,
MouseStar 1’s onboard
computer, appeared in front of me.
“Code yellow! Code yellow!
Code yellow!
Captain, you need to return
to the control room at
once!”
I couldn’t help
breathing a sigh
of relief. I was
saved!
8
Move It, Geronimo!
Breathless, I raced to the control room, followed by Trap, Benjamin, and Bugsy Wugsy.
As soon as we entered the room,
Grandfather huffed, “Took you long
enough, Grandson! What were you so
busy doing instead of being the
captain of this ship?”
I stammered, “Hello,
Grandfather . . . I . . .
Actually . . . Remember
I had the afternoon
off . . . to write my
book? And then the
ShatterMousix —”
“What are you squeaking
Grandson?
Where were you,
9
about, afternoon off? What book? What ShatterMousix? You are the captain of this ship, Geronimo! Anytime there’s an
room at once. No, you need to be here
already! The whole crew is counting on
you. Have I made myself clear?”
“Yes,” I squeaked, hanging my snout.
“Good! Now get a move on!
We have a mystery
to solve!”
A mystery? Oh, for all the planets out of
orbit, what was my grandfather squeaking about now?
Just then my sister, Thea, called me over.
“Geronimo, there’s something strange going on. Come look at the radar.”
I approached and studied the screen
10
carefully, but it looked like the usual
interstellar space view to me!
“I don’t see anything strange!”
I admitted.
Grandfather William glared and yelled
in a booming voice, “You wouldn’t notice
a meteorite if it smacked you on the
snout!” He enlarged the star quadrant on
the screen. “Look again.”
I concentrated and saw a planet suddenly
appear on the radar. It was sparkling and
strangely shaped. It looked almost like . . .
a lock!
I pointed to the screen. “What’s this? That
planet just appeared out of nowhere! Wait a
whisker-loving minute — now it’s not there
anymore! It vanished!”
On the radar screen, the planet I’d been
pointing my paw at was gone!
11
I rubbed my eyes in disbelief. A moment
later, the lock-shaped planet reappeared.
For all the satellites in the solar system,
Grandfather was right —
this was a mousetastic mystery!
1
2
The mysterious planet
appeared on the screen.
The mysterious planet
disappeared from the screen.
12
Planet Lockix
At that moment, our onboard scientist,
Professor Greenfur, entered the control
room. He peered at the screen. “Cosmic
cheddar, that’s the planet Lockix! So
it does exist!”
What in the universe was he squeaking
about? I turned to Thea for an explanation,
but she seemed just as surprised
as me!
“Planet Lockix?” she
repeated. “I’ve never heard
of it!”
“It disappeared from the
galaxy’s radar years ago,”
Professor Greenfur explained.
“But it has reappeared. That’s
Lockix exists!
13
From the Encyclopedia Galactica
PLANET LOCKIX
This planet is located in the
Alpha-Clavis constellation.
It is shaped like a
closed
lock.
The planet
mysteriously disappeared
from radars all over the
galaxy five astrocenturies
ago. Its inhabitants are called
the
Eh-Hems.
incredible! I had only read about Lockix in astro-geography books — and now here it is, on our own radar. My whiskers are
wobbling!”
Grandfather William scratched his
snout. “The history of this planet is awfully
mysterious.
I want to know more!”
We consulted the Encyclopedia Galactica,
but the information about Lockix and its
inhabitants was awfully vague.
14
Strange, very strange!
Benjamin asked, “Why did the planet
disappear?”
Bugsy Wugsy asked, “Why isn’t there a
photo of its inhabitants?”
And Trap added, “Why isn’t there any
information about the aliens’ favorite
food?”
Thea scolded him. “Trap, does this seem
like the time to worry about food?”
From the Encyclopedia Galactica
THE EH-HEMS
Planet of Origin: Lockix
Traits: These aliens are
extremely reserved.
They are very small and
are known for their lack
of physical strength, their
dubious nature, and their
resourcefulness.
Yum, yum!
room.
“It’s as good a time
as any!” my cousin
answered, munching on
a chunk of Martian
mozzarella cheese
that he’d found in a
drawer of the control
I held up a paw. “This situation
is complicated. We need to understand
what’s happening on Lockix, and the
Encyclopedia Galactica doesn’t have much
helpful information.”
Meanwhile, the mysterious planet kept
appearing and
disappearing
from our
radar screen.
Grandfather William looked at the radar,
then at Greenfur, and then at me . . .
Cosmic cheesy chews, I recognized that
16
look on his face — it meant out-of-
this-world trouble on the horizon!
Just as I suspected, Grandfather
announced, “Grandson, we’re facing a
mystery of enormouse proportions —
and you need to organi
ze an expedition to
solve it!”
LEAPING LIGHT-YEARS!
WHY DO THESE THINGS
ALWAYS HAPPEN TO ME?
17
The Catchix
In the control room, everyone was enthusiastic about taking an expedition to the disappearing planet — everyone except me! I couldn’t help it; I was flooded with fear . . .
What if we fell into a black hole?
Or ended up in the middle of a magnetic
storm? Or ran into
pirate spacecats
on
Lockix?
Thea looked up from the radar and
interrupted my thoughts. “Geronimo, we
have a problem! Lockix is disappearing and
reappearing on the radar screen so quickly
that I can’t get its
coordinates
to map out a route.”
For all the lunar cheese, had I understood
18
her right? It was impossible to map out a
route to Lockix? Stellar Swiss balls . . .
what fabumouse news!
I was about to breathe a sigh of relief
when Greenfur squeaked up. “Don’t worry,
I have a solution! I’ll go get my latest
invention.”
Rats! For a nanosecond there, I’d
thought that I would be able to go back to
writing in my cabin!
Greenfur scampered off to his
laboratory and returned
with a strange contraption.
“This is the catchix, a
frequency catcher.”
We must have looked
cosmically confused, because
he continued, “Thanks
to a strong
radar signal
The catchix!
19
calculations system, this device computes all the false data and multiplies it by the frequency of the signal. Adding the cosmic
constant will give a perfect result!”
Umm . . .
Stinky space
cheese . . . what?
But Thea seemed to
understand perfectly. “You’re
full of surprises, Professor! Can
you explain how we use it?”
Greenfur smiled proudly. “It’s
enormousely easy! Just stick the catchix’s suction cup to the radar screen. In a few astroseconds, it will capture the exact
position of the planet!”
Professor Greenfur activated the device,