shaking is
distracting
me from
driving!”
So I tried to sit
calmly
in my seat.
One positive thing was that the
curling
effect of the Tail Twister 2000 had worn
off — my tail was back to normal!
We continued to cruise through space
until we heard a
strange
buzzing sound.
“What’s that sound?” Thea asked.
Zzzzzzzz . . .
“It’s just Trap,” I replied. “He’s snoring!”
Bzz . . . bzz . . . bzz . . . Zzzzzzzz . . .
“No, Trap’s snoring is getting mixed in
with another sound in the background,”
Professor Greenfur explained. “Can’t you
hear
it?”
Bzz . . . bzz . . . bzz . . . Zzzzzzzz . . .
The professor was right: What could it
be?
“Trap, wake up!” Thea shouted.
Only then did I realize where the
What’s that
sound?
B
z
z
z
z
z
z
z
Z
z
z
z
z
z
z
z
sound
was coming from: my wrist
phone! It was
vibrating
loudly.
“It’s me!” I exclaimed. “There’s a call
coming through!”
I answered the call with a push of a
button
.
“Hello?” I squeaked.
Even though the connection was
terrible
,
I could hear Sally’s voice faintly: “Captain
Stiltonix, Captain Stiltonix ...
bzz
bzz
.
.
.
I have finally managed to
BZZ
BZZ
. . . get in touch with —”
“What was that?” I asked. “There’s a lot
of
static
!”
“Captain, can you hear me?” Sally
continued. “The connection isn’t working
properly. It’s as if there is an
energy
field
blocking the
bzz
. . .
bzz
. . .”
The buzzing sound cut her off again. It
was the same type of interstellar interference
we had heard in the
control room
when
we were trying to listen to the elfix’s message.
“Captain, Captain!” Sally said loudly. “It
will be hard to get another connection, so
please listen
carefully
. There’s someone
else on Twinklix in addition to our elfix
friends.”
“Someone else?!” I shouted. “But
who
?”
There was
no reply
: My wrist phone
had suddenly turned off. But thanks to my
shouting, Trap was finally awake.
“What’s going on?” he yelped. “Who woke
me up?
Did I miss anything?
”
“Yes, you missed the entire flight!” Thea
said with a sigh. “Now we’re getting very
close to
Twinklix
. Prepare for
arrival!”
Twinklix
The Planet Twinklix
I had never
SEEN
Twinklix, but I had
read in the
Encyclopedia
Galactica
that it was a
beautiful
planet
covered in brightly
colored
plants.
But when we landed, I was
shocked. Everything was dark
and gray. There was no color
anywhere
!
“
How
strange!
”
Professor Greenfur
exclaimed.
The space pod had landed near a village
made up of
small
houses with
pointy
round
wreaths.
But instead of the
bright
colors
that
we had seen in the Encyclopedia Galactica,
everything here was
dull
. Plus, the village
was shrouded in a damp,
foggy
mist.
What was going on?
How strange!
We took a few steps forward, but we
couldn’t
see
a thing.
Suddenly, we heard a loud sound from
near our space pod.
“W-what was that?” I stuttered.
Was it a scary alien from Venus?
A horrible, fur-eating monster?
Crash!
Huh? What
was that?
Crash!
A dangerous mutant space vegetable?
The space pod door
creaked
open slowly.
“Uncle G!” squeaked a
tiny
voice.
I breathed a sigh of relief: It was Benjamin
and Bugsy Wugsy!
“What are you two doing here?”
I asked. “I told you this mission
was too
dangerous
!”
It’s you!
Uncle G!
“We want to help the
elfix
, too,” Bugsy
Wugsy explained.
“Plus, we want to be with you, Uncle!”
Benjamin added.
I was touched. The mouselings’
bravery
reminded me that I needed to be
brave
,
too.
“Okay, you can come,” Thea said. “But no
more stowing away! You have to stay with us
all the time. Trap, grab the
flashlights
!”
“Uh, how many are there supposed to
be?” Trap asked. “I only see
two
.”
“There should be
FOUR
,” I reminded him.
“Didn’t you pack them?”
“I thought you were doing it!” he replied.
“After all, you are the captain!”
I was about to reply when my sister cut us
off.
“We don’t have time to
argue
!” Thea
said in exasperation.
“We have to find the
elfix
!”
So we began to
walk through the
deserted
village. Trap and I
held the flashlights,
but they didn’t
illuminate
much. We could barely see two pawsteps in
front of our snouts!
Suddenly, Professor Greenfur
stopped
walking. I was right on his tail, and I crashed
into him.
“
Ouch!
” I sque
aked. “What is it? What’s
happening? Why did you stop?”
“Captain, I see
pawprints
!” he
replied.
to do it!
You were
supposed
No, it was
your job!
Pawprints in
the Dark!
Pawprints?! Trap pointed his
flashlight
at the ground, where we could clearly see
an enormouse
pawprint
on the
planet’s sandy surface.
Holey
craters!
My
tail curled up in fear.
Those pawprints were
much too
big
to
belong to the elfix.
“
Look!
” Thea
exclaimed, pointing
ahead. “There are more.
Let’s follow them and
see where they lead.”
“
F-F-FOLLOW THEM?” I stuttered,
my whiskers
trembling
. “A-are you s-s-
sure that’s a g-good idea?”
Before we could make up our minds, the
flashlights suddenly
went off
.
I almost
jumped
out of my fur.
“What’s going on?” I asked, worried.
I
checked
one of the flashlights,
and it suddenly
turned back
on
, shining
right in my
snout!
Then, two
astroseconds
later, the
light
went out again.
“There must
be some sort of
What’s
going on?!
interstellar interference in this area,”
Thea pointed out. “That’s probably why
our
equipment
isn’t working very
well.”
Suddenly, I was very aware that we were
on an unusual planet at the edge of the
cosmos in the complete
dark
. Squeak! I
was so scared, my
fur
was standing on
end!
Then I realized I hadn’t heard Benjamin
or Bugsy Wugsy
SQUEAK
in a while.
“Benjamin?” I called out. “Bugsy Wugsy?”
“We’re right
here
, Uncle,” Benjamin
replied.
“Great!” I said, trying to sound more
confident than I felt. “Stay close.”
A light ahead of us caught my attention
—
it looked like a flashlight!
“Nice work, Trap!” Thea exclaimed. “How
did you fix the flashlights?”
“Uh
.
.
.
well, to be honest, I didn’t do
anything
!”
The next thing I knew, I saw
two
,
four
,
six
,
eight
more lights go on!
Galactic
Gorgonzola!
Those lights couldn’t
have been our flashlights, because we only
had
two
of them!
I soon realized what they were. The bright
lights that had looked like flashlights were
really the
Eyes
of some
mysterious
aliens!
W-w-who
are they?
Huh?
Run!
cauGht!
I gulped. The aliens were looking at us
threateningly.
“Back to the spaceship, quick!” Thea
yelled. “Come on!
Run!
”
But the aliens didn’t intend to let us get
away. They
set off
after us faster than a
falling meteor, caught us, and
tied
us
up tightly like we were
Night
of
the
DaNciNg
StarS
gift
packages!
We weren’t able
to
move
a
whisker. Then
the
aliens
picked us
up and
carried us each away. It was
pitch-
black
.
Stinky space cheese! A thousand questions
crowded my mind:
1.
Who were these mysterious aliens?
2.
Where were they taking me?
And most importantly . . .
3.
Where were my friends?
Then I heard the sound of a door opening,
and a dim light flooded the space. From the
corner of my
eye
I could see Thea, Trap,
and Professor Greenfur. We were in a large
room with a
hardwood
floor. But there
was no sign of Benjamin and Bugsy Wugsy!
At least we could get a clear look at the
aliens who had
mousenapped
us.
They were enormouse! Their gray fur was
matted and tangled, and they had gigantic
fangs
hanging from their mouths.
I glanced at Professor Greenfur to see if
he seemed familiar with the species. But he
looked as shocked as I was! I noticed that
each alien had a
dark little ball
at the tip
of its tail.
How strange!
Then a large,
husky
alien came toward
me. He seemed like the
boss
. He looked
me up and down carefully.
“What mouseoid species are you?” he
asked menacingly. “We want to know
why
you came here and
what
you want!”
“We are spacemice,” I replied, trying
my best to sound
firm
and
brave
. “My
name is Geronimo Stiltonix, and I am the
captain of the MouseStar 1! These are my
shipmates. We are here because we received
a message from our friends the elfix asking
Hee,
hee,
hee!
Squeak!
for our help! Now,
who
are you? And
what are you doing on Twinklix?”
“We are the
nebulos
, and we come from
the planet
Nebula
,” he growled in
reply. “My name is
Negativix
, king of
the nebulos. We have invaded Twinklix and
captured all the elfix. Hee, hee, hee!”
“But
why
?” Thea asked. “And where
are our friends now?”
Negativix burst out
laughing
.
“Oh,
they’re safe!” he replied. “But we had
to imprison them! You see, the
elfix
never
bring us any gifts! Year after year passes,
and they’ve never come to Nebula. Not even
once! So we decided to come get the
gifts
ourselves. And to make up for lost years,
we’re forcing the elfix to make presents for
us
and only
us
!”
“But surely there’s been a mistake,”
From the Encyclopedia Galactica
THE NEBULOS
Home Planet: Nebula
Personality:
Bad-tempered and
obnoxious
Distinguishing Mark:
Each alien
has a mysterious dark ball at the
tip of its tail.
Motto:
“When the gifts don’t come
to us, we go take them without a
fuss!”
Professor Greenfur said simply. “The elfix
are
good
and
gentle
. They wouldn’t
have skipped Nebula on purpose! They
drive their star sled all over the universe,
delivering gifts to
everyone
.”
But Negativix just shook his head.
“What I say is true,” he replied. “We poor
nebulos have
never
received anything
from the elfix.”
They’ve
never
given
us
anything!
“But couldn’t you have talked to them
first?” Thea suggested. “You didn’t have to
imprison
them!”
“Enough!” Negativix growled. “It’s
too
late
now. And we can’t let you get in the way
of our plan. Guards, take these spacemice to
prison
immediately!”
He signaled to two aliens behind him. We
tried to fight back, but the nebulos were
much
bigger
and
stronger
than we were. They lifted us and carried us
down
a steep staircase. Then one guard
opened the door to a room with many cells.
The other alien tossed us into a cell and
locked it behind us.
We were in big trouble!
a
brave
little
elfix
The situation was as prickly as a Plutonian
thorn bush: We were in a
dark
cell with
iron
bars all around us and no way out!
“Now what do we do?” Trap asked,
sounding discouraged.
Thea sat next to him on the floor,
looking worried.
“We’re in big