.
The mouselets were right. We had to do
everything in our power to save those aliens!
“Contact the
cosmosaurs
immediately!”
I ordered Hologramix.
“
Negative
, Captain,” the computer
answered. “According to the info in our
archives
, the cosmosaurs don’t have the
technology for
intergalactic
communication
.”
“I guess that means we’ll have to warn
them
in
the
fur
,” Trap said. “And I
volunteer to go on the
mission
!
I’ll bet there’s something
good
to eat on that planet, and
I want to taste all the
cosmosaur specialties!”
“That’s the
spirit
,
Grandson!” Grandfather
William
squeaked, clapping a paw
on Trap’s back. “But
warning
them isn’t
enough. We have to
bring them on board
MOUSESTAR
1
if we
want to
save
them!”
“They can stay in the
spaceship’s spare
cabins
until we find a new
planet for them to inhabit,” Thea suggested.
“But what if the cosmosaurs don’t want
to
leave
their planet?” I asked, worried.
“They may be too
scared
.”
“It won’t be a
problem
, Cuz,” Trap said.
“No one likes leaving his home, but it’s better
than getting hit on the head by a
comet
!”
Trap wasn’t wrong, but I was still
concerned
. Benjamin was hopeful,
though.
“Uncle, didn’t you see what
gentle
creatures the cosmosaurs are?” he said. “I
bet they’ll greet us with open paws!”
I gave in. I can never say no to my
sweet
little nephew. And we really had no other
choice
. We had to help the cosmosaurs,
and we had
no time to spare
! In one
day, seven hours, fourteen minutes, and
thirty-three astral seconds the comet would
make
impact
.
“Hurry up!” Grandfather William urged
us. “The cosmosaur
rescue
mission
is
under way!”
But before we left, we had to take care of
a few problems.
First:
How would we get to
Jurassix?
“Let’s take my space shuttle,” Thea
suggested. “I saw a
flat
area on the map
where I should be able to land
easily
!”
But there was another problem: How
would we communicate with
the cosmosaurs?
“Modestly speaking, I’m programmed
to speak all
3,847
known languages
in the galaxy,” our multipurpose onboard
robot, Robotix, declared
proudly
.
“Therefore, I know Saurese, the cosmosaur
language.”
“Are you sure?” Trap challenged him.
“Prove it!”
Robotix then produced a series of
incomprehensible
grumbling
sounds.
“What does that
mean?” Trap asked.
“It means, ‘You don’t
know if I can speak it
or not,
Cheesehead
!’”
Robotix replied.
Everyone except Trap
burst out
laughing
!
Finally, there was a
third problem: Who would go on
the mission?
Benjamin and Bugsy Wugsy came forward.
“Uncle, can we go?” they asked. “We’d
like to join Trap and Robotix and help save
the
cosmosaurs
!”
“I don’t know,” I replied, hesitating. “It
could be dangerous . . .”
“And that’s why you will go, too,
Grandson!” Grandfather’s voice boomed.
“You’ll be in charge of the mission! After
all, you’re the
captain
, aren’t you?”
I sighed. The truth is, I would have
preferred to spend the day relaxing
peacefully
in my cabin, but of course I
couldn’t. We were on a mission to save
those
defenseless
aliens. And I
was in
command
!
We
boarded
Thea’s space shuttle, and in
no
time
at all we had landed on Jurassix.
anyBoDY
home?
Thea’s space shuttle landed in a
desert
on Jurassix. Trap, Robotix, Benjamin, Bugsy
Wugsy, and I all climbed out.
“This is where I’ll pick you up,” Thea told
us. “I’m heading back to MouseStar 1 to
prepare for the
cosmosaurs'
arrival.
See you soon!”
We watched as the space shuttle
disappeared
in the distance. We
were completely
alone
on an unfamiliar
planet. Which way were we supposed to go?
Stellar
Swiss
cheese!
Why do I
always have so much
trouble
reading astral
maps?
Luckily, Benjamin came to my rescue.
Ha!
Ha!
“Do you need help,
Uncle
?” he asked
sweetly.
“Er, yes,” I admitted,
embarrassed
.
“Thank you!”
“This
dot
is where we are,” Benjamin
said, pointing
confidently
to the
map. “According to the map, the cosmosaur
village is here. So we have to go
north
!”
Bugsy Wugsy was so
excited
she could
barely stay in her fur.
“I can’t wait to meet those
adorable
cosmosaurs!” she squeaked.
But instead of excitement, I felt a strange,
annoying
itchiness on my snout. I
twitched my nose and we headed north.
After a while, we saw a narrow path
between some
rocks
.
“According to the map, we have to
go
this way
,” Benjamin explained.
Trap took a
step forward.
“
Yoo-hoo!
” he shouted.
His voice echoed, but there was no
reply.
Yoo-hooo
. . .
Yoo-hoooo
. . .
Yoo-hooo
oo . . .
“Anybody home?” Trap continued.
Anybody home?
Anybody home?
Anybody home?
All of a sudden I had an
uneasy feeling.
“Stop it!” I told my cousin. “You might
disturb —”
“Who?” Trap interrupted me with a
chuckle
. “Those cute little cosmosaurs?”
Suddenly, a huge
shadow
fell
over us.
We turned and . . .
GALACTIC GORGONZOLA!
A
terrifying shape had appeared behind us. It
had an
enormouse
face, two
tiny
arms, and a massive body that ended with
a comma-shaped tail. Hey, wait a minute!
It was
identical
to the cosmosaur
Hologramix had shown us, but it was much,
much, much
bigger
! And it didn’t
seem to have a
sweet disposition, either.
scary
!
The
alien
looked at us menacingly,
baring its
sharp
fangs. Benjamin, Bugsy
Wugsy, and Robotix hid behind me in
fear
.
Trap, on the other hand, wasn’t scared at all.
“Relax!” he said calmly. “This guy is just a
little
bit bigger than we expected.”
“You mean, they’re a little bit bigger
than we expected,” I corrected him as three
more cosmosaurs emerged from behind the
rocks. The aliens
STARED
at us for a
moment. Then another one bared its
fangs
and roared.
“Groooarrr!
Grrrrr roooarrrg.
Grrr groooaaar!”
“Wh-what is it saying, Robotix?” I asked
in a
shaky
voice.
“They want to know
who
we are,
where
we come from, and
what
we
want!” Robotix replied quickly.
Trap stepped forward.
“Dear
cosmosaur
friends, we are a
delegation of
spacemice
who have
come to —”
The cosmosaurs didn’t let him finish.
We all looked at Robotix.
“He said, ‘You can
explain
what you’re
doing on our planet to our king,’” Robotix
translated. “‘He will decide what to do with
you. Follow us!’”
it was just
a baby!
We
followed
the cosmosaurs toward
their village.
“Cousin, do you think we can
trust
them?” I whispered to Trap as we walked.
“I really don’t like the way they’re
looking
at us!”
“We don’t have a
choice
,” Trap
replied. “We’ll have to talk to their king and
explain that they are in
danger
!”
“Yes, of course,” I
squeaked. “It’s just
that . . .”
“What?”
The itch on
my snout was
worse
than ever, and I
couldn’t hold back.
“Ah . . .
ah .
. .
ah .
. .
achoo ! ”
I exploded into a galactic sneeze that
startled
everyone!
“Uncle, you frightened him!” Benjamin
scolded me. “Try to sneeze more
quietly
next time!”
“But who did I
frighten
?” I asked,
perplexed.
“Him!” Benjamin replied. He pointed to a
little
cosmosaur who was scampering on
the path by the rocks.
I suddenly realized our
mistake
.
The image of the cosmosaur we had seen on
board the MouseStar 1 had been a picture
of a
baby
!
“Uncle G, can we say
hello
to him?”
Bugsy Wugsy asked.
I hesitated. “Well, I suppose so,” I said.
“But be very
careful
!”
But Benjamin and Bugsy Wugsy were
already
running
toward the little
creature. After a moment’s hesitation, the
tiny alien came closer and was now letting
them
scratch
his tummy!
“Look how nice
he is!” Benjamin
exclaimed.
“He’s so sweet!” added Bugsy Wugsy.
“Grrff frrrrr frrrrfrrrr . . .”
“He says his name is
Fred
!” Robotix
translated.
“Hi, Fred!” exclaimed Bugsy Wugsy.
The little cosmosaur
licked
and Bugsy Wugsy’s faces, making them
giggle
with delight.
The three of them had already become
friends
!
Meanwhile, Robotix and Trap were
walking beside the adult
cosmosaurs
.
Unfortunately, they seemed a lot less
friendly
than the baby. I could hear
Trap squeaking about food, as always.
“So, what are the
special
dishes
served on your planet?” Trap asked.
The cosmosaur licked his fangs and
growled to Robotix.
Martian mozzarella!
“
‘You’ll find out soon!’
” he translated. “
‘To
celebrate your visit, our king will have a
banquet
in your honor!’
”
Trap smiled at me.
“See?” he boasted. “They’re very polite!
I told you there was
nothing
to be afraid
of! Robotix, tell them we’d be
honored
to
attend their feast. And ask them what the
specialty is. I’m very
curious
!”
As soon as Robotix finished translating,
the cosmosaurs burst out
laughing
. Trap
and I
looked
at each other, perplexed.
What was so
funny
?
BOW TO THE KING!
A few minutes later, we
arrived
in a
circular clearing with a
small lake
at
its center. All around us were high rocks
with caves opening onto the clearing.
There were signs hanging all around, which
Robotix translated. One read, “
CLAW
SHARPENING
” and another read, “
SPEAR
TRAINING
.”
Squeak! For some reason, that
place really gave me the creeps!
On one side of the clearing an enormouse
cosmosaur looked down from a
HUGE
stone throne.
“Could that be their
king
?” Trap
asked me.
*I want very sharp claws!
**What do you want?
* * * Let’s see what you can do!
*Mmmmm . . .
I took a better look and saw
that the alien on the throne
was wearing a crown of
little bones
on his
head! A
shiver
ran down
my fur . . .
The cosmosaur got
up and addressed us
through Robotix.
“I am King Rex the
Sixteenth,” he said. “Welcome to
Jurassix
. I’m so pleased to see foreigners
who are so
healthy
and
plump
!”
“What does that mean?” Trap grumbled.
“I went on a
diet
last week!”
“My name is
Captain Stiltonix
,”
I replied slowly so my squeak wouldn’t
shake
with fear. “My friends and I come
from the spaceship MouseStar 1. We are
here on a
rescue
mission
. A comet is
heading this way! It will
destroy
your
planet in exactly one day!”
“That’s
impossible
!” the king roared. “In
one day is the
Feast of the Hot Sun
!”
“Er, okay,” I replied. “I’m not sure what
that is, but you really must
evacuate
Jurassix as soon as possible! One of our
space shuttles
is ready to —”
“That’s enough!” the king interrupted
me with a growl. “This conversation is
BORING
me!”