I exploded into a cosmic sneeze.
“That’s the same kind of sneeze I had on
planet Jurassix,” I mused. “
How weird!
”
“Not really,” Trap chuckled. “It’s clear,
dear cousin, that you are
allergic
to
Jurassix rock moss!”
“That can’t be!” I replied. “There’s no
moss
here.”
Trap smiled and
pointed
behind me.
“There’s no
moss
, but there’s one of
those
,” he said. “Maybe he’s got some
moss stuck in his
claws
!”
I turned around to see the cosmosaur that
had been chasing me sitting in the corner!
“
Arrrgh!
” I squeaked. “
Heeelp! Run!
”
“Calm down, Geronimo!” Trap said.
“Can’t you see he’s
sound
asleep
?”
I wasn’t convinced, so I approached him
slowly
. As I got closer, I saw he was tied
up with a
thick
rope. I pulled his tail,
but the alien didn’t move! However, I began
to sneeze all over again!
“Ah . . . ah . . . achoooo!”
Then I asked, “What’s he doing here?”
“When you
flew
into the shuttle, Thea
immediately closed the hatch, but he had
already jumped inside after you,
smacking
his head against the wall!” Benjamin
explained.
“And just like you, he fainted on the spot!”
Bugsy Wugsy added with a giggle.
“B-but what happens if he wakes up?” I
asked, my whiskers
shaking
.
“Can’t you see we
tied
him up so tight
he can’t get away?” Trap asked.
I breathed a huge
sigh
of relief. But a
moment later, Benjamin reminded us that
we still had a
big
problem. In fact, it was
comet-sized
!
“We still haven’t completed our mission,”
Benjamin said. “Even though the cosmosaurs
wanted to
eat
us, we can’t let them be
smashed by that comet.”
“And besides, our friend
Fred
is still on
Jurassix,” Bugsy Wugsy added.
I sighed. I thought about that sweet
baby cosmosaur and knew we had to
do
something.
But what?
“You’re right!” I told my nephew and his
friend.
“
We
have
to
find
a
solution!
”
Grandfather William cleared his throat
from across the room.
“Good for you, Grandson!” he squeaked.
“For once you said the right thing!
Spacemice
never give up! It’s our duty
to help any inhabitants in the galaxy who
are in
danger
, even if they are less than
friendly
!”
His words
cheered
us and gave us
courage. We weren’t going to
give up
!
What can
We Do?
Suddenly, I heard a
noise
in the
background.
“Trap, did you say
something
?” I
asked.
“No,” he replied. “I didn’t say a
thing
!”
“Grrrrrrrrowl
.
.
.”
“What was that, Benjamin?” I asked.
“Nothing, Uncle!”
“Grrrrrrooowwwl
. . .
”
My whiskers quivered.
Solar-smoked
Gouda!
The cosmosaur was awake!
I asked Robotix to translate for me.
“Er . . . Hello, c-cosmosaur,” I squeaked
nervously
. “You are on the
spaceship
MouseStar 1.”
“Grrrrrrowl rooooooarrrr
grrrrrrooowl groarrr!”
“He says if he gets free, he’ll eat everyone
up!” Robotix translated.
Gulp!
I swallowed and continued
anyway.
“Well, uh, as I was saying, you don’t have
to be frightened because
—”
he said, interrupting me.
I turned toward
Robotix.
“He says we’re the
ones who should
be trembling with
fright
!” the
robot said.
“Well, okay, but
“He says to take him back to Jurassix now,
or we’ll be in
deep
trouble!”
“These cosmosaurs are so
stubborn
!”
I said with a sigh. “Hologramix, activate
external visualization!”
An image appeared on the screen
immediately
.
“That’s your planet right there,” I explained
patiently
. “See that comet? It’s
zooming
toward Jurassix! It’s going to
crash
right
into your planet! If you’d just
relax
for
perhaps you
misunderstood
,” I
tried again. “We came to your planet to help
you —”
“Grrrrrrrrrowl
rooooarrrrr
grrrrooowl!”
a moment, you’d see that we’re only trying
to
help
you.”
The alien stopped
fidgeting
instantly and stared at us. Maybe he
finally
understood the danger his fellow
cosmosaurs were in!
“
Growl
. . .” he whispered softly.
“He says he’s sorry . . .” Robotix translated.
“Grrr. Prrr prrr.”
“His name is Reginald, and he wants to
work with us to
save
his fellow aliens!”
We agreed to free Reginald if he promised
not to
eat
us. Then we went to find Sally
de Wrench, the ship’s official mechanic.
She’s a truly
clever
rodent who always has
great
ideas
. She’s also one of the nicest
rodents on board the MouseStar 1!
Sally wanted to calculate the
trajectory
of the comet down to the tiniest detail. She
thought that might give us some ideas as
to how we could
STOP
it. But we were
running out of
time
. We had to get the
other cosmosaurs off Jurassix, and we had
to do it
quickly
!
“Why don’t we go back to Jurassix with
Reginald?” Benjamin suggested. “He’ll
convince
everyone there that they have
to follow us onto our spaceship if they want
to
survive
!”
Thea shook her head.
“There’s no time to
transport
them all,” she
explained. “They’re too
LARGE
! We would
need to make at least
ten
trips on the space
shuttle, and we only have six hours left before
the comet’s
impact
! We’ll never make it!”
“So what in
space
are we going to do?” I
asked. We were out of
ideas
, and almost
out of
time
!
i have the
solution!
Suddenly, a commotion behind us got our
attention.
Professor
Greenfur
had just
come running into the
control room
.
“Professor, where have you been?” Trap
asked him. “We could really use your
help
.”
“I was in my
laboratory
making
some calculations,” the scientist explained
as he caught his breath. “I have the solution
that will save the cosmosaurs!”
We all gasped. What
fabumouse
news!
“Well, what is it?” I asked, eagerly awaiting
his reply.
“We need to calculate the speed of the
comet
and its rocky mass and compare
it with the dimensions of our
spaceship
.
Then we have to multiply the
power
of
our engines by the force of the comet, divide
by the
length
of the hangar, and
—”
As usual, I didn’t have a
clue
what he
was squeaking about!
“Er, Professor, we’re in a bit of a hurry,”
I said, interrupting him. “What’s the
solution?”
He looked me right in the snout.
“Well, it’s
obvious
, isn’t it?” he said.
“We need to seize the comet and
shift
its
trajectory!”
Trap burst out
laughing
.
“That’s funny!” he guffawed. “And how
are we going to grab and
shift
a comet?”
Before Professor Greenfur could answer,
Sally squeaked up.
“But of course!” she cried. “We’ll use a
huge
space net
!”
“Exactly!” Professor Greenfur confirmed.
“
Thea
will take MouseStar 1 as close as
possible to the comet so that
Sally
can
launch the space net. Once the
comet
is
harnessed to our ship, we’ll set our engines
on warp speed so we can move its trajectory
to exactly 7.64921 degrees! After that, we
can set it free to follow its own course.”
“But where will the comet go?” Benjamin
asked
dubiously
.
Professor Greenfur tapped the control
panel and an image of a
bleak
,
isolated
asteroid appeared on the screen.
“The comet will head toward the asteroid
Solitarius, which is completely devoid of
life. Then there will be a
galactic
explosion!”
“Okay, spacemice!” Grandfather William
exclaimed. “Everyone, get to your posts.
Let’s start operation rescue!”
“
Grrrrrrrrrroowl!
” Reginald said.
We didn’t need a translation to understand
that he was very
happy
with
our new idea!
cast the
space net!
Thea immediately began planning the
complicated maneuver of getting
near
the comet. First she double-checked the
coordinates
Professor Greenfur
had provided. Then she began to fly the
MouseStar 1 straight toward the comet!
From the control room, I looked out the
window
and saw the comet right in front of
us. Its
smoky
halo
and
silvery
tail
were truly beautiful. We moved closer
and closer, until suddenly the ship came to a
halt with a
jolt
.
Beep!
Beeeep!
Beeeeep!
An alarm sounded.
“Why did we stop, Thea?” I asked,
worried.
“We’re getting too
close
to the comet,
Captain,” she replied. “From now on, I’ll
have to proceed with manual controls.
Otherwise our ship might be
damaged
A second later, Thea began guiding the
MouseStar 1 manually. Suddenly, the ship
began to
tremble
.
“Wh-what’s happening now?” I squeaked.
Black
-
holey
galaxies
. . . I wasn’t sure my
nerves could take
much more of
this. I felt like
I was inside a
blender
!
“We’re experiencing some
turbulence
due to our proximity to the comet,” Thea
replied. “But everything’s under
control
!”
I trusted my sister completely, but I really
hoped the
shaking
would stop soon!
“Activate the position stabilizers
!” Thea
squeaked.
The situation improved instantly, and the
turbulence became just a mild
vibration
.
“We’ll have to be quick!” Thea said, a
worried
look on her snout. “It’s difficult
to stay this
close
to the comet for long.
Plus the stabilizers use a lot of
energy
! Let’s
go ahead and cast the
space
net
!”
3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .
cast off!
Sally was already in position. She began the
countdown:
“5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . .
&
nbsp; 1 . . . CAST OFF!”
We watched the space net
fly
toward
the comet, its
superstellar
cable
tethering it to our ship. The launch seemed
to have gone well, but I waited for Sally to
give me the
signal
.
“The launch has . . .
failed
!” Sally
squeaked. “I repeat: The space net
did
not
reach the comet.”
What a disappointment!
Martian
mozzarella!
We were all upset by the news, but
Reginald was especially distraught.
“
Groooooar
,” he moaned
unhappily
.
“We’ll try
again
,” Trap reassured him.
“You’ll see. This time we’ll do it!”
“Recover the
net
!” I ordered. “Prepare for
the
second
launch!”
We held our breath as Sally prepared to
launch the net again.
Thea realigned the MouseStar 1 with the
comet and began the countdown:
“5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .
Cast off!”
Sally cast the net.
We watched the net fly out again, waiting
with
QUIVERING
whiskers for Sally’s
word.
“The launch has
failed
!” Sally said. “I
repeat: The launch has
failed
!”
The command room grew very
quiet
.
Then Reginald burst out in a
desperate
moan. I ran to
console
him. He hugged
me tightly and began to cry,
spurting
tears like a fountain. In less than a minute,
my uniform was sopping
wet
.
I couldn’t believe that just a few hours
earlier, Reginald had been about to
eat
me
for lunch!
“So, what do we do
now
?” Benjamin
asked quietly.
“There’s got to be another way to shift that
pesky
comet!” Bugsy Wugsy replied, a
determined
look on her snout.