carrying an electronic manual that looked
like a tablet.
One of them shrugged. “See? There are so
many BUTTONS! Without our technician,
we can’t seem to get it open.”
Sally had already gotten to work. In no
time, she unlocked the manual and began to
scroll through its contents. Cheesy comets,
what a brilliant mouse!
When she finished reading, she said, “This
is just a simple instruction manual. There’s a
map that shows how to get to the Planetary
Invisibility System, see? It even indicates
52
which antitheft devices are activated
along the way.”
“Antitheft? I hope they aren’t d-d-
dangerous!” I squeaked, shivering.
Claw took me under his arm. “Don’t be
scared — we’ll go with you! Surely you’ll
need the guidance of us Scal — I mean, us
Eh-Hems!”
We’ll go with you!
Umm . . .
Hey!
He put his other arm around Sally’s
shoulders and led us down the path mapped
out in the manual.
Before long, we arrived in front of a small
building. When we set paw inside, we found
ourselves standing before a mysterious
tunnel.
One of the deceptiods snickered. “Please,
guests first!”
I gathered my courage and stepped
forward, just as Sally yelled, “Captain, wait!”
WHOOOOSH!
A gust of wind tickled my fur.
“What’s happening?” I squeaked in alarm.
I took a few steps farther, and —
SWISH
WHOOOSH!
54
55
Another gust of
wind sent me flying
through the air!
Cosmic cream puffs,
I was struck by a real
windstorm! Now I
couldn’t go forward at
all, not even a whisker-
length!
Trap grabbed me by
the ear and ordered,
“Cousin, get
down!”
Sally came forward,
yelling, “Captain, this
Hey!
Aaaah!
Stop!
Ouch!
SWOOSH
SWISH
WHOOOSH!
is the first antitheft device! It’s an
air-activated floor. You need to dodge
the airbursts to move forward!”
I knew one thing — this wasn’t going to be
easy!
Thanks to their size, the aliens could move
forward easily, and my fellow spacemice
dodged the airbursts fabumousely. With
Trap’s help, I finally managed to reach the
end of the tunnel. My fur stood on end.
I had made such a terrible impression!
56
Hee, hee, hee!
Ha, ha, ha!
This way!
Heeelp!
Come on!
Hissss
Run, Captain!
We continued on our way and eventually
arrived at the entrance to a room with a
floor curved like a frying pan.
“This is strange,” I muttered.
I didn’t have time to say more because
Claw pushed me forward with his tail and
boomed, “Proceed, mouseoid! You go first!”
I tumbled forward and noticed that the
walls were curved, too! The chairs,
desks, and other furniture were all nailed to
the ground.
Strange, very strange!
I entered the room and tried to take a
few steps, but — squeak! It was cosmically
complicated!
Now, I’m not a very sporty mouse, but I
58
really couldn’t manage to move my paws
forward at all! How mysterimouse . . .
Suddenly, I noticed that the ground was
no longer beneath my paws — it was slowly
moving upward! Black holey cheese! The
room began to roll faster, and faster, and
washing machine! HEEEELP!
Sally squeaked out, “This is the second
antitheft device! It’s a reverse spin-
cycle room. Captain, to stop it, you need to
press the red button on the wall!”
I was scared out of my fur, but I
knew I had to follow Sally’s directions.
I began to RUN like an athlete in the Great
Galactic Games, as fast as my paws could
take me. With a lot of effort (and even more
sweat!), I finally managed to press the
button.
59
As quickly as it started, the
room stopped spinning. The other
spacemice, along with the aliens,
easily walked across to me.
“You were great, Uncle!” Benjamin
cheered.
Captain, press
the red button!
Come on, Uncle!
My muscles felt as wobbly as cream
cheese pudding, but I was happy.
Sally pushed on a nearby door
and said, “We made it! Here’s
the Planetary Invisibility System.
Fabumouse job, Captain!”
Pant! Pant!
What an
Extraordinary
Rodent!
The door led into a laboratory. In the middle
of the room was an enormouse computer
surrounded by a huge tangle of wires.
Sally walked up to the computer and
carefully analyzed it.
“I have mousetastic news!” she said.
“I know this system — I studied it at the
Plutotechnic University of Ultraphysics and
Galactic Mechanics! It’s based on a voice-
generator model.”
Claw smirked. “It doesn’t seem like it has
much of a voice to me. This thing is quieter
than a black hole!”
62
All of the deceptiods laughed loudly.
Sally thought for a moment. “Usually,
voice systems are really big chatterboxes. If
yours is quiet, it’s only because . . . it’s been
jammed!”
“Jammed?” the aliens said. They were
suddenly interested.
“Exactly — the system went into overdrive
and then turned off,” Sally explained. “But
it’s functioning. You just need a quick
reboot to make it talk like before!” Sally
grabbed her multifunctional pocket tool and
began working on the computer,
jumping from one side of the
enormouse machine to the
other.
Leaping light-years,
what an extraordinary
rodent!
63
My crush on Sally was growing! I have to
admit, I was watching her so closely that I
hardly noticed Claw WHISPERING
something to his friends.
Psst, psst . . .
Ah, what an
extraordinary rodent!
Suddenly, a noise snapped me out of my
trance —
BIP!
BIIIP!
BIIIIIP!
The supercomputer let out a sequence of
sounds and then lit up like a cluster of
stars!
Galactic Gorgonzola, Sally had done it!
“Hooray!” Bugsy Wugsy cheered. “That
was marvemouse! I want to become a
mechanic just like you, Sally.”
I was proud of Sally and smiled shyly at
her. She smiled back, which made me melt
like cosmic cheddar too close to the sun.
Cheesy comets, what a mouse!
I was twisting my tail into knots when a
voice BOOMED over the loudspeakers.
65
“Good morning and welcome to Lockix,
spacemice friends!”
Starry space dust, the Planetary
Invisibility System had found its voice — and
it was superpolite!
“I would like to thank you for the work you
did fixing me. It is quite a pleasure to
meet you! I would very much like to chat
with you, but I must warn you that shortly
before your arrival, Planet Lockix was
invaded by the Scaleers. They are large,
deceptiod aliens . . . and they are extremely
dangerous!”
Cosmic cheese chunks,
Claw and the aliens we had met weren’t
the real inhabitants of Lockix. Thea was
66
right! Suddenly, all of the strange things that
had happened made sense! And now . . .
we were in danger!
Black holey galaxies,
Planet Lockix had been invaded!
67
A Galaxy of
Trouble!
The Scaleers surrounded us, but
Thea stood up tall. “I knew you were hiding
something!”
Claw stepped proudly forward and began
to snicker. “Well, yes, we aren’t the
ha, ha . . . I mean the hee, hee . . . you know,
the ho, ho . . . Basically, we aren’t the real
inhabitants of this silly little planet!” He
sharpened his nails. “We are the Scaleers,
the most ferocious, most clever, and most
dangerous space pirates in the whole
universe. Thanks to the malfunctioning
Planetary Invisibility System
here, it was easy for us to land and take
68
over Planet Lockix! And now, thanks to you
Spacemice, we can make sure no other mice
find this place again. It’s ours!”
We were dealing with some real cosmic
creeps!
Sally narrowed her eyes. “Why were you
so interested in Lockix?”
Claw chuckled. “We need a base for our
From the Encyclopedia Galactica
THE SCALEERS
Planet of origin: Slimedox
Profession: Space pirates
Traits: Aggressive, ferocious, and
love to snicker
Motto: “You can tell a good day by
its spoils!”
raids, and this planet is perfect for
that. We can hide our stolen loot on Lockix,
and no one will be able to find it! Who
would ever think to look on an invisible
planet?”
The other Scaleers burst into rowdy
applause. However, Thea wasn’t intimidated.
“You’re just a gang of space scoundrels!
You won’t get away with this!”
Claw looked at her with a wicked smile
with this!
You won’t get away
on his scaly face. “Oh, you
galactic fools! Just what
do you think you’re
going to do about it?
No one will be able
to come rescue you,
thanks to your help with
the Planetary Invisibility
System . . .”
70
Stellar Swiss balls, the
Scaleer captain was right!
We had helped a gang of space scoundrels,
and now we were their prisoners. We were
in a galaxy of trouble!
71
Trapped!
Suddenly, something occurred to me.
“Wh-what h-h-happened to the r-r-real
inhabitants of L-Lockix?” I stammered.
“That is a very interesting question,
indeed,” Claw said.
“Wh-why?” I squeaked.
“Because it’s the same thing that’s going
to happen to you!” he exclaimed, laughing.
He turned to his companions and ordered,
“GRAB THEM! ”
Rat-munching robots, I was frightened
out of my fur!
As quick as comets, the Scaleers
surrounded us. They led us to a big building
cloaked in darkness.
One of them waved an arm at the building.
72
Ha, ha, ha!
We’ll imprison you!
Noooo!
Help!
“Welcome to the Lockix megastadium!”
As we went inside, another added, “Don’t
try any tricks! There are always guards
watching the doors. There’s no escape!”
Then the Scaleers left, locking the
enormouse door behind them.
I was squeakless. We were trapped!
Wait one whisker-loving minute — we
weren’t all here! Where were Benjamin and
Bugsy Wugsy?
Thea noticed the panicked look on my
snout. “I saw them slip away,” she said
quietly. “I’m sure they’re safe!”
Phew! At least my beloved nephew and
his friend weren’t trapped in this horrible
place with us!
I sighed. “Mousey meteorites, we’re done
for! We’ll never be able to stop those space
scoundrels . . .”
74
At that moment, a VOICE whispered
from the shadows, “Who are you?”
I nearly jumped out of
my fur! Who said that?
We flipped on the flashlights on our
wrist communicators
and
looked around. Swiss supernovas — the
stands were filled with small aliens! They stared at us with a mixture of curiosity
and fear. I suddenly understood — these
were the real inhabitants of Lockix, the
Eh-Hems!
75
Who are you?
Who said that?
NOW WE’RE
HERE, TOO!
Thea breathed a sigh of relief. “You’re the
inhabitants of Lockix, right? Are you
all right? What happened?”
No one answered. In fact, the alien who
seemed like the leader of the Eh-Hems
took a step backward and turned his back
to us.
How mousetastically strange!
But then I thought about what we had
read in the Encyclopedia Galactica, and it
all made sense!
I whispered to my friends, “Remember
what we learned about the Eh-Hems when
we first arrived here? They are a very private
77
species. That’s why they’re behaving like
this — they’re
shy!”
Trap exclaimed, “Good thinking, Gerry
Berry! That must be it. You know how to
get them to speak to us, right?”
I held up my paws in protest.
“I actually—”
But Trap pushed me toward the Eh-Hems.
“A true captain always knows how to gain
t
he trust of a shy and private alien
population.”
Stinky space cheese, he couldn’t be
serious!
“Go on, Cousin!” he continued.
“We’ll all support you from afar.”
Then he left me alone in front of the very
confused Eh-Hems.
Squeeeak! Why did this sort
of thing always happen to me?
78
I tried to start a conversation with the
aliens. “Hello! Well . . . I . . .”
The leader of the Eh-Hems gave me a look
that made me shut my snout.
I glanced toward Thea, who nodded
encouragingly. Next to her, Trap was waving
his arms like a soccerix fan. Sally gave
me a smile and a thumbs-up. Holey space
cheese, I couldn’t disappoint my
friends! But what in the universe could I do
to gain the trust of these aliens?
I began to think and think and
think . . . until I got a fabumouse
idea. The best thing is always
to tell the truth!
I gathered my
courage
and turned back to the
Eh-Hems. “Friends, I am
Umm . . .
wh-what?
79
Geronimo Stiltonix, captain of the
spacemice. We landed on Lockix to help you,
but instead, we got into a
cosmic
mess!
We are truly sorry!”
The head of the Eh-Hems stopped glaring
at me, cleared his throat, and spoke in a tiny
voice. “Eh-hem . . . eh-hem . . .”
Eh-hem . . . eh-hem
eh-hem . . .
I noticed that he was blushing slightly.
Those aliens were TREMENDMOUSELY shy!
“Thank you for your honesty, spacemice.
We Eh-Hems appreciate those who tell the
truth. Now we know that we can trust
you.”
I squeaked a sigh of relief.
We want to help you!
Thanks, spacemice!
He went on. “My name is Sam
Shyguy, and I am the governor
of Lockix. Our planet was
invaded by the Scaleers just
after the Planetary Invisibility