“Trap, please —” I tried to say, but before
I could even finish the sentence, a big alien
in a
black cape
bumped into me, almost
knocking me
down
.
“How rude!” I squeaked, but he had
already disappeared into the crowd. The air
around him smelled of
moldy
sardines
!
Ugh!
“Quiet, Trap!” Sally exclaimed. “The
professor asked us to keep a
secret
, and
there may be
nosy
aliens around us.”
Trap finally stopped talking, and we made
our way back to Thea and our spacecraft.
After we said good-bye to
Fidox
, we flew
back to the MouseStar 1 for the night.
Clumsy, Rude
Aliens!
The following day, we headed straight back
to the secret lab. Once again, Thea waited
for us at the
spaceship
port
, while
Trap, Sally, Benjamin, and I went to meet
Professor Twisterix.
As before, the streets of Inventor’s Alley
were crowded with all kinds of
aliens
busily buying, selling, and fixing the
weirdest
objects.
“
I can’t wait to see Hologramix again!
”
I squeaked. I would be so relieved once
Hologramix was healthy and back on board
the
MouseStar 1.
“Me too, because
.
.
.
ouch
!” Trap said.
A huge alien in a big black cape had just
How rude!
CRASHED
into him.
Martian mozzarella!
It was the alien
who had bumped
into me the previous
day! I recognized the
same
stinky
stench
of moldy
sardines!
I was about to say something when two
smaller aliens
BUMPED
into me, knocking
me down. Ouch!
“
What clumsy, rude aliens!
”
Trap mumbled.
“Everything okay,
Captain
?” Sally asked
as she helped me up.
“Yes, but I know I’ve seen those two aliens
somewhere
before,” I said. I just couldn’t
recall where.
KNOCK
KNOCK
KNOCK
KNOCK
KNOCK
KNOCK
KNOCK
KNOCK
KNOCK
We finally arrived at Twisterix’s workshop.
Sally knocked on the door.
There was no answer.
We waited a minute and then tried again.
Again, there was no answer.
“Professor!” Trap shouted loudly as we
knocked a third time.
Once again, there was no answer.
“That’s strange,” Sally said quietly.
“Professor Twisterix may be secretive, but
Hmmm. . .
What do you see?
he’s always
very meticulous
and
punctual
!”
“Maybe he went out for a bit,”
I suggested.
“I hope he’s okay,” Sally
went on, a
worried
look
on her snout.
“We’ll just have to
find out!” Trap said as
he approached the
outside wall of the
building and stood
on the
tips
of his
paws, peeking in
a window.
This mission
had suddenly
taken a
strange turn!
“Can you see anything?” Benjamin asked.
Trap took another look.
“There’s no sign of the professor, but
there’s a
box
with a note on it sitting on the
table,” Trap told us.
Can you read the note?
” I asked eagerly.
“Yes,” he replied. “It says:
For the
spacemice
!”
Mousey meteorites! Why was there a box
for us in the lab but no sign of Professor
Twisterix?
There’s Something
Fishy Going On
It was very suspicious that Twisterix wasn’t
home at the
time
we had agreed on. And
it was even more suspicious that there was a
box for us in his lab instead of him!
We decided to go
inside
to see if we
could find any
clues
to explain what was going
on. Sally got out her special
multipurpose
tool
and
used it to unlock the door.
It has a sensor that can open
and close all kinds of locks!
Sally put the tool in the
lock
, and the
door to the lab opened.
“What a great
invention
!” I squeaked.
“Thank you, Captain!” Sally replied. “I
was able to design it because I studied with
Professor Twisterix.”
As soon as we got inside, we took a look
at the box on the table. It
looked
like the
box Hologramix had been packed in.
“Perhaps the professor had an emergency
and left
Hologramix
all fixed up for
us,” Trap thought out loud.
“Hmm . . . that’s not like him,” Sally
squeaked. “And he would have left a note
on the
door
, not in the lab.”
“There’s only one way we can
find
out
if Hologramix is here:
We have to turn
the box on!”
So Sally pushed a
button
. A bright
beam of light
shined out of the box.
But instead of Hologramix’s snout, it was
the hologram of a
baby bird
!
Can a cat
play
patty-cake?
“And
who
are you?” Sally asked, taken
aback.
The hologram replied
mechanically
: “Can
a cat play patty-cake? Paw-sibly! Ha, ha,
ha!”
Martian
mozzarella!
Was it telling
jokes?
We were all quiet
while the
baby
bird
hologram went on: “What
did the zero say to the
eight? Nice belt! Ha,
ha, ha!”
We
looked
at one
another, dumbfounded
.
Then we all burst out
laughing.
“Do you like my
jokes
?”
the baby bird asked. “Here’s another one:
Why do mice need oiling? Because they
squeak!”
Black holey galaxies!
Why had Professor
Twisterix left a weird, robotic
baby
bird
hologram for us?
“Let me check something out,” Sally said.
Then she pushed some
buttons
to turn off
the box and unlocked a little compartment
MMMHHH ...
MMMHHH!
MMMHHH ...
on the bottom with her
multipurpose tool
.
“It’s just as I thought. This isn’t Hologramix,
but a toy for the alien mouselets of
planet
Gigglyx
!” Sally declared.
“B-but what kind of a
JOKE
is this?” I
asked.
Sally looked puzzled as well. “There’s
definitely something
fishy
going on
here,” she said.
Suddenly, Trap shushed us.
“Quiet!” he whispered. “
Can you hear
that?
”
We pricked up our ears and heard a very
soft
Professor!
“It sounds like it’s coming from the closet
over there,” Benjamin squeaked. “
Let’s
go see!
”
We opened the doors of the closet and
found
Professor
Twisterix
inside! He had
been
bound
and
gagged
!
To Catch a Thief!
We quickly untied the professor, and he
filled us in on what had happened.
“About two
galactic
hours ago, three
aliens suddenly burst into the lab,” he
explained. “Two of them
bound
and
gagged
me and locked me in the closet. In the
meantime, I heard the other one remove
Hologramix, which I had just
fixed
.
Meanwhile, the other two chattered about
leaving a ‘little gift’ for you spacemice.”
“Did you get a good
look
at the aliens?”
I asked him.
Twisterix
shook
his head.
“Stellar Swiss, not really!” he said.
“Everything happened so
quickly
, and then
they locked me in the closet.”
“I’m so sorry, Professor!” Sally said sadly.
“I feel responsible. I didn’t mean to get you
into
trouble
!”
“It’s not your fault,” Professor Twisterix
reassured her. “Those three came with the
intention of stealing HOLOGRAMIX
, not
hurting me! But how did they know it was
here? Did you talk to anybody?”
“
Absolutely
not!
” I squeaked.
But then I remembered how loudly Trap had
been talking in the street the previous day.
Martian mozzarella!
Someone had
overheard him!
Trap seemed to have the same thought.
“I’m so sorry,” he admitted, hanging his
snout. “I made a
mistake
yesterday. I
was so
happy
we had accomplished our
mission that I spoke a little too
loudly
while we were walking down the street.”
“There are open eyes and ears everywhere
on this planet,”
Twisterix
replied,
shaking his head. “I warned you to be
careful.”
I sighed, leaning my paw on the table.
A sharp, protruding nail stuck my fur.
As I massaged my hurt paw, I noticed a
scrap of
black
cloth
had caught on the
nail.
Where had
I seen that
fabric before?
Holey craters, of course!
It looked just like the
black
cape
the alien who had
bumped
into me and Trap in the street had
been wearing! He must be the thief!
OUCH!
Woof! Woof!
I explained my
theory
to the others.
“At least we know who to look for now,” I
said. “Spacemice, let’s go!”
“Please, let me help!” Professor Twisterix
said. Then he whistled for the cute
robot
dog
we had met the previous day.
“If the thieves are still on planet Factorix,
they won’t be able to
get
away
from this
guy!” he explained. “Fidox has the most
amazing
mechanical sense of smell
in the entire universe. He can recognize
and analyze
seven billion
different
scents!”
“Wow!” Benjamin squeaked in awe.
The professor grabbed
the piece of black cloth
and placed it under the
dog’s nose. Fidox began
barking
immediately.
Then he headed for the door.
“Follow him!” Twisterix urged us. “He’s
equipped with a high-tech
intergalactic
tracking device
. I’ll monitor your
movements from here. If you should need
help, I’ll know
EXACTLY
where you are!”
Huff, huff
Puff, puff
Pirate Spacecat
Alert!
We
RACED
through the streets
of Factorix on Fidox’s heels. Martian
mozzarella, that robot dog moved
fast
!
He’s leading
us to
the
spaceship port!
Come on!
“That dog is . . .
huff
. . . quick!”
I squeaked between breaths.
“Why aren’t there astrotaxis on this
planet?” Trap moaned in reply.
“I think Fidox is heading toward the
spaceship port
,” Sally said.
“
COME ON!
” Benjamin urged us.
“We’re almost there!”
“I . . .
puff
. . . hope so!” I replied. “I don’t
think I can make it much
farther
!”
Thankfully, my sweet nephew was right:
The
robot
dog
stopped running as soon
as we reached the spaceship port. He barked
once and then carefully led us through the
parked ships. He stopped in front of one
with a black flag
with a fish bone on it.
Mousey
meteors!
That flag was the symbol
of the
pirate
spacecats
*
! They
are feared across the galaxy. They love to
invade planets and steal whatever precious
treasures they find. Just thinking about their
ruthless captain,
Black
Star
, made my
fur stand on end! Were the pirate spacecats
the thieves?
“Quick, hide!” Sally
whispered
, pointing
to the spaceship. “Someone’s coming!”
*
We spacemice met the pirate spacecats in The Underwater Planet.
Quick, hide!
Someone’s
coming!
Shh! Quiet,
fishbrains!
We quickly slipped around a corner. From
there we
peered
out and saw three pirate
spacecats exit the spaceship.
“Thanks to this
onboard
computer
and this tool that provides endless power,
we’ll be the most
feared
creatures in the
entire galaxy!” one of them exclaimed.
“Argh!” another one cackled. “But aren’t
we the most feared
already
?”
“Well, yes,” the first spacecat replied.
“But now we’ll be even
scarier
! We came
to this planet for a small engine
repair
and look what we got instead?
Bwa,
ha,
ha,
ha,
ha!
”
Suddenly,
Black
Star
emerged from
the space ship and joined the other three.
His
twirly
black whiskers looked as evil
as ever. And I noticed that his black cape had
a
tear
in the back! There was no doubt
about it: He had stolen
Hologramix
!
“Quiet, fishbrains!” he barked, hushing
his crew. “Galaxia, have you
checked out
the
new onboard computer as I ordered?”
“Sure, Captain!” one of the spacecats
replied.
“It works
perfectly
!”
“Excellent!” Black Star growled. “Now go
Moldy sardines
yummy!
get me something to eat!
Moldy sardines
would be ideal.”
“Right on, Captain!” came the reply.