“Really?” Thea asked, her ears perking
up. “What are they saying?”
“The robots and all the other electronics
discarded by the Cleanix aliens have
organized,” he explained. “They want to
prove that they’re still
useful
, and
that it isn’t right to
just throw them in the
TRASH
!”
It was just as I had
thought! But there was
one thing that I didn’t
understand.
“I thought I saw a
robot made out of
kitchen appliances
,”
I told Robotix.
“Who built it? Did the
rebel robots put it together
by themselves?”
“Of course!” Robotix said. He sounded
insulted. “The Cleanix aliens tossed out very
sophisticated
artisanal robots that
were still in working order. And robots are
very
intelligent
, you know!”
“We have to do
SOMETHING
,” Thea said.
“There’s no time to lose!”
“We need to get to the
Galactic Garbage
Shooter
immediately,” I agreed. “If the
Cleanix aliens and the rebel robots have any
chance of working things out, we have to
first
save
the emperor and his family!”
The guard
led us
to the palace garage,
where the
s u p e r l u x u r i o u s
(but
supertiny!) imperial spaceship was parked.
“We won’t all fit in there!” I squeaked.
Trap
pushed me
inside unceremoniously.
“Stop complaining!” he scolded me. “We
just need to
squeeze
!”
Ready to Launch!
We
flew
over the city, which was much less
bright
and sparkly since the robot attack.
“There it is!” Benjamin exclaimed when
the
Galactic
Garbage
Shooter
appeared
before us.
Solar smoked Gouda!
Thousands of
robots were milling around!
We landed on a small hill and slowly made
our way through the
robots
. They didn’t
seem to care about us at all. Instead, they
were all looking at the Galactic Garbage
Shooter.
Unfortunately, the recycled robots were
so
TALL
, I wouldn’t have been able to see
a comet even if it had flown right over my
head!
“Trap, let me
climb up on your
shoulders,” I told
my cousin. “That
way I can
see
what’s going on!”
“
Great
idea
,
Cuz,” Trap replied.
But even from the
top of his shoulders,
I couldn’t
see
worth
a crumb of cheese!
“Benjamin,
CLIMB
up on top of
my
shoulders!” I told
my nephew.
“Sure, Uncle!” he
replied, scurrying to
the top.
“Can you see anything?” I asked.
“Yup!” Benjamin squeaked. “The robots
are loading the emperor and his daughter
into the Galactic Garbage Shooter!”
Slimy space Swiss!
We had to act fast.
“Run, Trap!” I called down to my cousin.
“We need to
stop
those robots!”
Trap dashed through the crowd as
Benjamin and I
WOBBLED
back and forth.
Just as we were about to
lose our fur
by
tumbling off Trap’s shoulders, we reached
the Galactic Garbage Shooter. The rebel
robot leader was about to give the order to
“Stop!”
I squeaked.
The robot leader turned to us in surprise.
“It’s those
funny aliens
who arrived this
morning!” he said. “Who are you and what
are you doing here?”
“We are
spacemice
, and we came here
to track down the source of all that junk
floating in space,” I replied.
“You’re at the source,” the robot leader
said. “The junk comes from this
garbage
shooter
, which the emperor of Sparklina
invented. The
Cleanix
aliens
throw away things constantly
—
including
robots!
—
to make room for newer models.
And they do it by shooting
the trash into
space
.
I worked for the
emperor for months,
but he threw me
away just like
everything else. He
replaced me with a
newer model with an
underwater
feature!”
“That’s terrible,” I said sympathetically.
“No, it’s
ridiculous
!” the robot
exclaimed. “There are no oceans, lakes,
or rivers on Cleanix. So it’s a useless
feature! And I still work! It’s been the same
for all these robots, too.”
He gestured toward the other rebel robots.
“It’s true!” cried a robot made of
spaceship
parts. “I was thrown away
because my owner didn’t
like my
color
anymore!”
“And I was thrown
away and replaced by
a model with
six
screens
instead
of five!” another
robot shouted.
“You’re right to
be angry, but maybe
there’s another
solution
to the problem,”
I suggested gently. “Sending the emperor
and his family into space won’t
change
the way the other Cleanix aliens behave.”
“Maybe not, but it doesn’t matter now,”
the robot leader replied. “From now on, the
robots
rule
! Begin the countdown!”
“Ready for
launch
,” another robot
announced.
“Ten . . . nine . . .
eight . . . seven . . . six . . .”
What a Surprise!
I covered my eyes with my
paws
so I
wouldn’t have to see what happened to the
emperor and his family.
“Wait!” someone cried. “
F2-C7
, is tha
t
really you? I can’t believe it!”
It was
Robotix!
“F1-C7! What a surprise!” replied the
robot leader.
Then he
stopped
the countdown.
I uncovered my eyes and saw the two
robots hugging each other,
sparks
flying
everywhere.
Great
galaxies!
They
knew each other?!
“You’re still
intact
,” the robot leader
said to Robotix in disbelief. “So you weren’t
demolished
after all?”
“No, I still carry out all my functions
perfectly on the spaceship
MouseStar 1,”
Robotix replied happily. “And, not to
brag,
but I’m much more advanced than their
onboard computer.”
“Lucky you!
” the robot leader said,
still in awe.
“And what are you doing these days?”
Robotix asked.
“Well, I was working for the emperor’s
family, but after just six months of service,
they substituted a
new
robot for me,” F2-
C7 explained. “On this planet, they throw
CONSTANTLY
. That’s why
we robots have decided to
rebel
!”
“I see,” Robotix said thoughtfully. “But
maybe there’s another solution . . .”
The two robots began to chatter in another
language
. Of course I didn’t understand
a thing!
“Um, excuse me, Robotix,” I said politely.
“Can you tell me what’s going on?”
“Oh, I apologize, Captain Stiltonix,” he
replied. “I forgot to introduce you! The
robot leader is my cousin
F2-C7
!”
“Y-your cousin?” I asked, stunned.
“Yes, my real name isn’t Robotix
—
it’s
F1-C7
,” Robotix explained. “F2-C7 and
I were
built
together in the same astroyear.
But when I moved to the MouseStar 1, I lost
track of him.”
“And now here we are!” exclaimed the
robot leader. “And my
clever
cousin has
an interesting idea about how to
SOLVE
our problem.”
“That’s superstellar!” I exclaimed. “What’s
the plan?”
“Robotix suggested that we use the
MouseStar 1’s garbage-recycling machine.”
“Of course!” I squeaked. “The
Stellar
Garbage Sortrix
would be
perfect
for
the job!”
“We could bring the
Sortrix
here to Cleanix to
RECYCLE
the planet’s
garbage,” Thea agreed. “That way all the
trash will have a
new life! And, of
course, we’ll encourage the Cleanix to
throw out less.”
“Well done, Robotix,” I congratulated
him. “That’s a
genius
idea!”
“Could you let us down now?” the emperor
called anxiously.
“Yes,” I agreed. “We wouldn’t want
someone to press the
launch
button by
mistake!”
A NEW ERA
FOR CLEANIX
The rebel robots released
the emperor, his
wife, and his daughter from the Galactic
Garbage Shooter.
“Thank you for your help,” Emperor
Sparkle said. “Without the spacemice, who
knows where we might have ended up.”
“That’s easy,” Trap replied. “You’d be in
space
!”
Shimmer threw her arms around my
cousin’s neck.
“
My hero!
” she exclaimed. “You and
your friends saved us.”
“I’m very sorry for having doubted you,”
the emperor said to me. “When you went
to the
DARK
side of
the planet, I thought that
you were our
enemy
. . .”
“I told you that
the spacemice were
our
friends
, dad!”
Shimmer interjected.
“You’re right,” the
emperor told his
daughter. “I should
have
listened
to you.”
Then he turned to me.
“And I should have trusted you, Captain,”
he said. “Now what can I do to
make
up
for it?”
“Solving your garbage problem would be
a great start!” I replied.
“But that’s why we invented the
Galactic
Garbage Shooter
,” he said.
“I’m afraid
polluting
space with
your junk isn’t the answer,” Thea said sternly.
“You should try using things until they no
longer work, instead of just throwing good
things away. Then you can
recycle
any
garbage that you accumulate.”
“Recycle the garbage?” the emperor asked,
a puzzled expression on his face. “Okay, but
how?”
“The Stellar Garbage Sortrix, a machine
we developed, can recycle
ninety-nine
point nine percent
of all our garbage,”
Thea explained. “That way we don’t throw
anything away — not even
cheese rinds
!”
“We’ve already
promised
the robots we will
lend you the Sortrix,” I added. “That way
you can clean up your planet from
TOP
to
bottom
. And you’ll give new
life
to
things that used to be
garbage
.”
The emperor gave me a serious
look. Black
holey galaxies, I couldn’t tell what he was
thinking
! But then he broke into a
grin.
“Captain Stiltonix, I must admit that this
is an
excellent
idea!” he exclaimed.
Then he turned to
F2-C7.
“I’m sorry I tossed you out without
thinking,” he said contritely. “Since you
know garbage so well, I would like to
make you Cleanix’s official
Recycling
Manager
. What do you think?”
“I
accept
the position, Your Highness,”
F2-C7 replied enthusiastically. “Let’s start
recycling right away.”
What a relief! We had c
ome up with a
solution for an incredibly
messy
problem.
I activated my
wrist
communicator
and
called the MouseStar 1 to tell everyone on
board the GOOD NEWS
. Unfortunately
for me, Sally answered!
“What’s the word,
Captain
?” she asked
eagerly.
“Umm . . .er . . .
I — I . . .” I stuttered.
cosmic
Cheddar!
My nerves always took
over whenever I had a chance to talk to that
fabumouse rodent!
“Captain Stiltonix?” Sally asked. “You’re
not coming in
clearly!”
Luckily
, Trap came to my rescue.
“The captain’s wrist communicator
isn’t working well,” Trap explained. “He
wanted to ask you to prepare the
Stellar
Garbage Sortrix
for transport to
Cleanix. We’re loaning it to the emperor so
he and his people can
clean up their
planet.”
“Copy that!” Sally replied.
From that day on, the Cleanix aliens
began an era of
respect
for their
environment
—
and for their objects. Before
we returned to MouseStar 1, the emperor
threw a party in honor of the spacemice.
It was
superstellar!
Finally, it was time for
good-byes: Robotix and
his cousin
F2-
C7
promised they
would meet again
within two galactic
years, and
Shimmer
convinced Trap to
return to Cleanix as
soon as his new
spacesuit got
crumpled.
The Cleanix aliens insisted on giving us
thank-you
GIFTS. Mine was the highest
honor
in the city: A statue made from
recycled
metal was installed on
Sparklina’s main street, right next to the one
of former emperor Reginald Shiny!
Mousy meteorites
, what an honor!
Our mission complete, we returned to
MouseStar
1
. Now space would be clean
again, and I could get to work writing about
our encounter with the
Cleanix aliens.
And, of course, I had to reschedule my
dinner
date
with Sally! Though, first I’d
have to find the
courage