for dinner.”
The mouselets began to giggle. It was
almost as if they knew something
I didn’t.
“Yes, he told us!” Bugsy
squeaked.
“Actually, could you bring
him these?” Benjamin added,
handing me a box of
Gorgonzola chocolates
.
“But why?” I asked, confused.
“Um, he forgot them in the command
room,” Bugsy explained.
“
Hurry
, Uncle,” Benjamin squeaked.
“You don’t want to make, um, Trap wait!”
Bugsy Wugsy and Benjamin burst into
giggles
again. What was so funny?
When I arrived at the
Space Yum
Cafe, Squizzy greeted me at the entrance.
“Welcome,
Captain
!” he said. “Your
cousin Trap told me to inform you that he
will arrive in a moment. Meanwhile, please
come this way!”
Squizzy led me to a private room in the
back of the restaurant. A giant
window
offered a breathtaking view of the
galaxy
.
“Are you sure this is our table?” I asked,
stunned. It seemed a little too
fancy
for a quick bite with Trap.
“Of course, Captain!” Squizzy answered,
lighting
a candle on the table.
Stellar Swiss! A candle? What was
going on?
A DATE IN SPACE!
A moment later, I heard a
sound
. I turned
to see . . . Sally de Wrench!
My paws began to sweat and my tail
twisted
into a knot. She looked extraordinary!
Her
long evening gown
shimmered
in the galaxy light, and her eyes
sparkled
like stars.
But just a minute! What was she
doing here?!
We
looked
at each
other in silence for a
second. Then we both
squeaked
at once:
“But . . . where’s Trap?”
“But . . . where’s
Thea?”
Then I understood: My
sneaky
cousin
Trap had led me to believe we were going
to dinner together. But he had arranged for
me to have dinner with
Sally
instead. That’s
why I was so
dressed
up
!
And my sister, Thea, must have done the
same thing to
Sally
!
“So that’s why Thea insisted I look
elegant
,”
Sally
said as she sat down at the table with
me.
And that’s why Benjamin had given me the
Gorgonzola chocolates: It was a
present
for Sally! With my heart
pounding
, I
handed her the box.
“A s-small gift for you,” I stuttered.
She smiled at me, and I turned
bright
red
!
“Thank you!” she said. “You’re
quite a
gentlemouse
, Captain!”
I
melted
like fondue when I heard the
compliment.
“This is a really beautiful view, isn’t it?”
I asked, trying to keep my whiskers from
shaking
as I squeaked.
“Yes,” Sally agreed, smiling
kindly
. “Trap
and Thea certainly went out of their way
Onion soup
with French bread
and melted galaxy
Gruyère on top
Moon-mozzarella-
flavored ice cream
sundae
Intergalactic salad
with four cheeses
Fried Parmesan
wedge
with a Martian-
spaceberry-fondue
dipping sauce
to organize a really
mouserific
evening
for us!”
A moment later,
Squizzy
arrived with
our menus.
SPLATTT!
After a few moments of
awkward
silence, Sally got the conversation going.
“So, what do you like to do best, Captain?”
she asked.
“Er
—
well, to tell you the truth, my real
passion is
writing
,” I admitted.
“Wow!” Sally exclaimed. “I had no idea.
What are you working on?”
“It’s a
novel
called —”
But before I could finish my sentence . . .
Splattt!
Something
slimy
and
sludgy
splattered
against the window of the dining room! I
decided to ignore it. I wouldn’t let that goopy
slime interfere with my
romantic
dinner!
“As I was saying,” I continued. “I’m
writing a novel about spacemice. I’m still on
the first chapter
—”
Ding!
Splash!
Glop!
Sally and I turned toward the window.
Hundreds of objects in all shapes and
sizes were
speeding
straight toward the
MouseStar 1!
A moment later, Hologramix
appeared
in the air in front of us.
“
Yellow alert! Yellow
alert! Yellow alert!
”
Hologramix
shouted.
Martian mozzarella! A yellow alert? That
meant there was a real
emergency
. We
were in
danger
!
“Our spaceship is passing through a
galaxy
cluster
of unidentified objects,”
Hologramix explained. “Captain,
get to the
control room
right away!”
How unlucky! A
yellow
alert
right in the middle
of my dinner with Sally!
“I’m sorry, Sally,” I said
with a sigh. “But I really
have to go.”
“Don’t worry, Captain,” she replied
quickly. “I’m happy to come with you! I’ll
help you figure out what those objects are.”
We hopped in an astrotaxi and
zoomed
toward the command center. When we
stepped into the room, everyone turned to
look at us
.
Trap and Thea winked at me, Benjamin
and Bugsy Wugsy giggled under their
whiskers, and Grandfather William looked
ANGRIER
than a cosmocat with space fleas!
“What took you so
long
, Grands
on?”
my grandfather grumbled. “And look
how
you’re
dressed
. Don’t tell me that you
were at a fancy gala while our spaceship
is splashing through a sea of space junk!”
“Um, hello, Grandfather!” I replied, not
sure what else I should say.
“Why aren’t you ever at your post when
there’s an
emergency
?” he continued to
berate me.
“Don’t be
angry
, sir,” Sally intervened.
“Your grandson was at dinner with me.”
Suddenly, my grandfather changed his
attitude
.
“Oh, excuse me!” he replied. “Well,
everyone deserves a night off every now and
then, right?”
Incredible!
Sally had managed to defend
me successfully to my grandfather!
“Of course,” Sally agreed. “Now, let’s
get to more important issues: Did you say
something earlier about
SPACE JUNK?”
“Yes!” Grandfather replied. “Space junk
is
hitting
us at top speeds!”
WATCH OUT:
JUNK AHEAD!
Space
junk?
What was my grandfather
talking about?
“Space junk is a conglomeration of
many unwanted objects that
are floating through space,”
explained
Professor
Greenfur
,
MouseStar 1’s resident
scientist.
Sally
nodded
in
agreement and squeaked,
“I think I saw a piece of an
old motor!”
But
Robotix
, the ship’s know-it-all
multipurpose robot, corrected her.
“To be precise, it was a piece of an
interstellar wave
antenna,” he said.
“Are we in danger?” I asked. I was
worried about my ship and its crew.
“Not if we remain
still
,” Thea
explained. “That’s why I already
turned off the motors. But if
we start up the ship again,
a piece of metal could
DAMAGE
the external
hull!”
“Well, what do we do
now
?” Trap asked
impatiently. “Wait until the
junk floats away?”
“Yes, but that could
take days, or even weeks!”
Professor
Greenfur
replied.
From the Encyclopedia
Galactica
STELLAR GARBAGE
SORTRIX
A superstellar piece of
machinery that can analyze,
break down, and recycle
garbage and waste. The Stellar
Garbage Sortrix then uses the
recycled materials to create
small objects for use in daily life.
Solar smoked Gouda!
We had
to come up with another solution.
Suddenly, I remembered something I’d
seen during the inspection that morning.
“We could collect the garbage and
recycle it using the
Stellar
Garbage
Sortrix
,” I suggested.
“That’s a great idea!” Benjamin exclaimed.
“We learned all about recycling in school.
Instead of
throwing
all the garbage out,
the Sortrix will divide it up based on the
material it’s made of. Then it can be broken
down and turned into
new
objects
.”
Professor Greenfur did some
calculations
.
“We should be able to clean everything up
and get
moving
again in about three galactic
hours!”
Everyone cheered.
“Well done, Grandson,” my grandfather
said, a look of
surprise
on
his snout. “I knew there was a reason I
appointed you
captain
of this spaceship!”
I couldn’t believe it. Was Grandfather
really complimenting
me? That only happened
once in a
blue-cheese
moon.
“Um, wow! Thanks,” I replied, still
stunned.
But then Grandfather continued. “Since
you had such a
great
idea, Geronimo,
I elect you to be the official space junk
collector!”
Ah, I knew it was too good to be true!
“Come on, Cuz,” Trap said confidently.
“I’ll come with you! A bit of
exercise
will be good for us!”
“But I suffer from terrible
space
sickness
whenever I go on a space walk!”
I squeaked in
protest
.
“Aw, you’ll be fine,” Trap replied.
There was nothing I could do. A few
moments later, I was wearing a spacesuit
and headed off into the cosmos to pick up
the
trash
!
Soon I heard Sally’s voice through a
microphone in my helmet.
“When you’re ready, I’ll activate the
vacuum
suck
up
all the space junk.”
“
Ready!
” Trap squeaked immediately.
I was still trying to figure out how my
spacesuit worked, but it was
too
late
.
The vacuum was already on, and the tube
had
wrapped
itself around me!
“Grab the handle, Geronimo!” Trap yelled.
Handle?
I reached out and tried to
aim
the tube toward a mass of garbage.
But my paw ended up at the mouth of the
tube instead, and I was nearly sucked inside.
“Trap, heeeeeelp!” I squeaked in
terror
.
Luckily,
he quickly came to my rescue.
Then a piece of trash got stuck in the tube
and Sally had to reverse the flow to get it
out. But I didn’t move in time
—
and I was
blasted
with a spray of liquid garbage.
Mousey
meteorites
, what a day!
WHOSE TRASH IS IT?
Once we had successfully vacuumed up
all the trash, Trap and I
returned
to the
command center.
“Great work, team!” Thea cheered. Then
she turned the MouseStar 1’s
motors
back on and we began moving again.
“I wonder where all that
trash
came
from,” Professor Gr
eenfur mused.
“Well, if you had ever thought to ask your
resident robot genius for help, you might
know the answer,” Robotix replied in a very
ANNOYED tone. “But no. Instead you rely
on that digital fur-faced
illusion
that
appears and disappears whenever it wants!”
Sure enough, in an instant, Hologramix
appeared
.
“How dare you!”
the computer
countered. “I
resolve seven
hundred forty-
nine queries
every second!”
“And yet
you don’t know
how to identify a simple
piece of
garbage
!”
Robotix replied in a huff.
Somehow, Trap managed to
calm
the
two of them. They never missed a chance to
fight about which one was a more developed
form of
artificial intelligence
.
Once they had stopped
arguing
, I took
Robotix’s bait.
“Robotix, do you know where the space
junk came from?” I asked.
The robot looked at me with
satisfaction
.
“Of course!” he replied. “The trash is from
Planet Cleanix, Captain! It’s easy to figure it
out: Just look at the pieces of
metal
out
there.”
“Huh?” I asked, confused. Robotix just
sighed and shook his head.
“My memory bank contains a list of all
the robotics that have ever been produced
in this
galaxy
,” Robotix explained. “And
these pieces come from Cleanix!”
“So all the trash must be from Cleanix,”
Trap concluded. “
Stellar Swiss
, what
littermice!”
“It’s true,” Professor Greenfur confirmed
a moment later. “I calculated the
trajectory
of the garbage, and the planet
Cleanix is located right in this part of the
galaxy, so it all makes sense!”
“Okay, we now know Cleanix has a
garbage-disposal
problem,” I said
with a yawn. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I
really need to get some sleep
. It’s very late
and I’m so
tired
. And tomorrow —”
“Tomorrow we head to
Cleanix
!”
Grandfather William interrupted. “This
galaxy belongs to all of us, and everyone
must work together to keep it