Garbage Shooter!”
“Galactic what?” I asked, perplexed.
“If you go to the
top floor
—”
But before the spy robot could finish
his sentence, one of the garbage robots
approached.
“Class
Z
robot trash detected,”
the garbage robot said in a
metallic
voice.
“Vacuum immediately!”
Then he vacuumed up the little robot
before turning to
face me.
“Contamination
detected!” the
robot said. “Begin
disinfecting
!”
I didn’t have
time to move a
paw before I was
covered from ears
to tail in white
foam
. A second
later, a stream of
HOT
air dried me
off.
“Have a good day,
sir!” the robot said
when the cleaning
was complete.
Stinky space cheese
, what was
that about?
First the dusty little
spy robot
, then
the garbage robot with his
vacuuming
and
disinfecting
devices . . . something
strange was going on!
Suddenly, I remembered what the spy
robot had told me before he was vacuumed
up:
“If you go to the top floor . . .”
So I went to the top of the building,
where I found a panoramic terrace with a
beautiful
view of the entire city.
Initially, I didn’t notice anything
strange
at all. But then I looked through
one of the telescopes mounted around the
edge of the roof. What I saw made me jump
back in shock. In the distance, an enormouse
catapult was
shooting
mounds of objects
into orbit. It was the
Galactic Garbage
Shooter
the spy
robot had been
taking about!
Black holey
galaxies!
It was
true! The Cleanix aliens
launched their garbage
into space!
I had to return immediately to the others
to tell them what I had discovered!
When I arrived back on the ground floor,
the first one I found was Robotix.
“Captain!” he greeted me. “Look at my
new
antenna! I had to negotiate for a
while, but —”
“Yes, yes, that’s very nice,” I interrupted.
“Have you seen the others? It’s
important!”
H
o
w
d
o
I
l
o
o
k
?
At that moment, Thea
popped
out of the
store she had been in.
“I’m right here, G!” she called excitedly.
“I just bought a supercomfortable
space scooter. It’s parked right
outside . . .”
“Okay, okay,” I replied
quickly. “But where are
Benjamin and Bugsy?”
“Uncle!” squeaked a
small voice behind
me. “Look what we
won!”
The two mouselets
showed me a copy of the
latest popular
video game.
“Great,” I said. “Now, where’s Trap?”
“here
i
am
, Cuz!” my cousin
shouted. “So, how do I look?”
I turned around and saw Trap dressed in a
new
sparkly gold
spacesuit.
“Terrific,” I replied. “Do you know where
Shimmer
“Oh, she went to buy some new shoes,”
Trap explained. “She was wearing a pair she
got yesterday, but she thinks the STYLES
have changed already.”
I was
RELIEVED
to hear that the emperor’s
daughter was busy somewhere else. I turned
to my friends and lowered my voice. Then I
told them about my
encounter
with
the spy robot and about what I had
seen
from the top floor of the building.
“This story
stinks
!” Thea exclaimed when
I had finished. “And it’s not just because it’s
about
garbage
! The emperor didn’t tell us
the
truth
when we asked. I wonder
what else he’s hiding!”
An Unauthorized
Expedition
Thea and I had just made a plan to do some
investigating when Shimmer
returned
with four new pairs of shoes. Everyone
showed her their purchases.
“I knew you’d
like
it here!” she said,
smiling brightly. “No one can resist the allure
of the shopping mall! But now we need to
return to the imperial palace. My father will
be
upset
if we’re late.”
Thea and I exchanged a glance. We had to
slip
away
! Suddenly, I had an idea.
“Speaking of your dad, uh, I’m a little
embarrassed
about these clothes,”
I told Shimmer, gesturing toward my
crumpled
spacesuit. “I’d love to buy
a new outfit before we head back.”
“Of course, Captain!” she quickly agreed.
“I didn’t want to
offend
you, but that
spacesuit you’re wearing belongs in the
trash
! Come on, I know a great store —”
“No, no,” Thea quickly intervened. “I’ll
go with him because, uh, I know what he
likes!”
“And these two mouselings
and I didn’t get a chance to
stop at the
CANDY
shop,”
Trap added. “Would you come
with us, Shimmer?”
“Definitely!” she said. “As
long as we don’t take too long,
we’ll get back to the palace
on time. Let’s meet back here in a bit.
Happy shopping!”
As soon as Shimmer was out of sight,
Thea and I
headed
toward the spaceport,
where our space pod was parked.
Before we could reach our ship, though,
an alien from the
imperial guard
stepped in front of us.
“Hold it right there, spacemice!” the guard
ordered. “You cannot use your spaceship
without the emperor’s authorization.”
Holey space Swiss!
Now what?
But Thea was
prepared
. She
put on a friendly
smile
.
“Won’t you
please help us?”
she asked sweetly.
“We just need to
run back up to the MouseStar 1 to get the rest
of our crew. This mall is
so wonderful
,
we wanted to give our friends a chance to
experience it for themselves.”
“I’m sorry, but I cannot let you pass,” the
guard responded
severely
. “Emperor’s
orders.”
“I don’t think the emperor would be
happy if he knew that you
refused
friendly guests the right to go shopping,”
Thea said slyly. “We had heard that the
hospitality on Cleanix was the best in the
entire
universe
. But it turns out that’s not
true. How disappointing!”
The guard looked flustered.
“Oh, well . . . I . . . umm . . .” he mumbled.
After a moment of
hesitation
, he finally
stepped aside.
“Go ahead,” he said quickly.
We scooted past him immediately, thrilled
at our
good luck.
“Way to go, Thea!” I said as we hopped
into the space pod.
Thea immediately pointed our spacecraft
toward the part of the planet surrounded by
green fog.
We saw black mountains and
dark gray clouds on the horizon.
What an
ugly
landscape. We were
flying over an enormouse garbage
dump
!
Trash was piled up as far as the eye
could see. There were scraps of
metal, computers, clothes, furniture, robots,
spaceships, and more.
“It’s so sad,” Thea said, shaking her snout.
“How could they do this to their planet?”
Suddenly,
I noticed
some
movement
under one of the heaps of trash.
“Thea, use the
zoom
scope on that
patch of garbage!” I said, pointing to the
spot below us.
We were shocked by what appeared on the
screen
. Hundreds of discarded robots
were emerging from the trash!
“What’s going on?” Thea asked. “It looks
like the trash is coming to
life!”
I remembered the spy robot’s words:
“We’re preparing for an invasion . . .”
Galactic Gorgonzola!
This wasn’t good.
“Thea, I’m afraid these rebel robots are
about to invade Sparklina,” I said, worried.
I quickly reminded her of what the
spy
robot had told me back at the shopping mall.
“Oh no!” Thea cried. “The Cleanix aliens
haven’t treated those discarded robots
—
or
their planet
—
very well. But there has to
be another solution
. We need to warn
the emperor about their plan to
invade
Sparklina!”
Stop Right There,
Spacemice!
With our motors at
full
speed
, we headed
back to Sparklina. But as soon as we got out
of our space pod, a member of the imperial
guard intercepted us.
“Spacemice, you are
under arrest
by order
of the emperor,” he said harshly. “You flew
your spacecraft over the
prohibited
area!”
“U-under a-arrest?
” I stuttered. “But
we have extremely important information
to —”
“Silence!” the guard ordered. “Now follow
me to the imperial palace!”
Stinky space cheese!
This was
just what we needed!
As we followed the
guard, I carefully
activated my
wrist
communicator
and
called Trap.
“Cousin, we’ve been
arrested!” I whispered so
the guard couldn’t hear. “Where are you?”
He responded immediately.
“We’re
imprisoned
in the emperor’s palace,”
he explained quickly. “He found out that you
took the space pod to
SNOOP
on the other
side of the planet, and he came after us!”
“We found a bunch of discarded rebellious
robots,” I told Trap. “We think they’re about
to
invade
Sparklina and —”
I was interrupted by sudden
shouts
. I
turned and saw some
Cleanix
aliens running
at top speed.
The rebel robots
had already entered
the city!
In the distance,
I saw a
rusted
robot squirting oil
on buildings. A bit
farther off, an old
garbage
truck
was pouring its
contents out onto the
street and sidewalks.
Another robot made
out of
household
appliances
was
blaring music that
was so loud and
high-pitched
,
it was breaking
windows all around us!
Suddenly, a shadow
fell over me. I
turned and saw an enormouse rebel robot
made of
machine parts moving toward me
threateningly.
Shooting stars!
I was in trouble!
A moment before I was crushed by the
robot, Thea pulled me out of the way.
I was
trembling
from the ends
of my whiskers to the tip of my tail. I had
almost
lost my fur!
“Thanks, Thea!” I gasped. “Just one
astrosecond later and I would have been as
flat as a fur-covered flying saucer!”
“No problem, G!” she said with a
wink.
“Where did the guard go?”
“He ran,” I explained. “He must have been
scared!”
“Well, that’s
good news
for us,” Thea
replied. “Let’s get to the emperor’s palace
immediately . . . The rebel robots are heading
that way!”
When we reached the palace, though,
we realized we were
too
late
. The
rebel robots had already arrived! The
palace entrance was covered in broken
glass and metal.
What a galactic mess!
You’re Finally
Here, Captain!
Thea and I entered the imperial palace
slowly
, kee
ping an eye out for the
rebel robots. The building was almost
completely
destroyed
: There was broken
glass everywhere, and statues were in pieces.
“It’s completely
empty
,” Thea observed.
“Where are the Cleanix aliens? And where
are our friends?”
At that moment, we heard noises above
us. We
climbed
some stairs and found
an imperial guard tied up with electrical
cords.
“What happened?” Thea asked as we
freed him.
“Those recycled
robots
captured
the emperor, his wife,
and their daughter,” the guard
explained. “They want to throw
them into space
!”
Oh no!
It sounded like the
robots were planning to get their
revenge
on the Cleanix aliens
for flinging them into space with their
Galactic Garbage Shooter.
“The leader of the rebel robots is one
of the emperor’s old personal-computer
robots,” the guard explained. “He said he
wants to
take back
the city.”
Things were starting to make more
sense
. The recycled robots wanted to
live in Sparklina instead of being thrown
away and tossed into space!
“Maybe the
spacemice
can help
settle the dispute,” I told the guard.
“Great idea, Captain,” Thea agreed. “But
first we need to free our friends.”
The guard seemed to
trust
us.
“The other spacemice are locked in the
basement,” he said. “Follow me!”
We hurried down to a large
metal
door.
The guard punched a code on a keypad,
and the door
burst
open. There were our
friends!
“It’s so good to see you, Uncle!” Benjamin
said, giving me a little
peck
on the snout.
“It’s about time!” Trap exclaimed. “I was
starting to get a little
hungry
.”
“Well, you may still have to wait,” I told
him. “A lot has been happening!”
“Of course, some of us already know
that,” Robotix said in an
annoyed
tone. “Thanks to my new antenna, I’ve
been
listening
in
on the rebel robots’
conversations.”