“
Hurry up!
” the mean pirate replied.
“I want to leave this flea-ridden planet
before nightfall.”
The three pirate spacecats
took off
immediately,
disappearing into the city
streets.
Left on his own, Black
Star
extended his claws
and began sharpening
them on a stone.
Squeak!
How scary!
Here’s the Plan . . .
I’ll take
care of it!
“Did you hear that?” Sally whispered.
“The pirate spacecats have already
set up
Hologramix as their spaceship’s onboard
computer. We have to get Hologramix back
before their ship leaves or we might
NEVER
find them again!”
“I’ve got this!” Trap
squeaked confidently.
“I took three
cosmic
karate
classes last
year —”
“Wait!” I cried.
“Don’t do anything
foolish
, Trap! Did
you see
Black
Star
’s
claws? And
did you hear those other feline meanies?
They are the
scariest
creatures in the
galaxy! If one of those cats catches us, we’ll
be
minced spacemice
!”
“Geronimo is right,” Sally agreed. “We
need to come up with a plan to get into their
spaceship and rescue Hologramix before
those rascals get back!”
We were all quiet as we tried to come up
with an
idea
. Even Fidox seemed to be
thinking as he
nuzzled
his robotic snout
against my paw. As I patted his head, an
idea came to me
suddenly
.
“Martian mozzarella!” I exclaimed. “I’ve
got it: Let’s have Fidox distract Black Star
while we slip into the spaceship and take
back
Hologramix
!”
Trap seemed doubtful, but Sally’s eyes lit
up.
Woof! Woof!
“
That’s a simply brilliant plan, Captain!
”
she squeaked.
My fur turned as
red
as the planet Mars.
Oh, how embarrassing! I can’t help blushing
whenever Sally pays me a
compliment
.
But my sweet nephew looked worried.
“What is it?” I asked, concerned.
“What if Black Star
grabs
Fidox and
tries to steal or hurt
him?” he asked.
“Don’t worry,”
I assured him.
“You saw how
quickly that robot
can
run
, right? And he
clearly knows this planet like the back of his
mechanical paw.
Even if Black Star wanted
to, he could never catch Fidox!”
Benjamin smiled, and the robot dog
barked
and wagged his tail happily, as if to
prove my point.
“Go on, then, Fidox,” Benjamin said,
patting the robot dog’s head. “Our fate is in
your paws!”
The little robot dog ran straight toward
the
spaceship
. Then he started barking to
get Black Star’s attention. As soon as the evil
pirate captain glanced over at Fidox, the dog
jumped up and began scratching the
shiny
hull of the spaceship with his metal paws.
“Hey, what are you doing, you
mechanical
mutt
?” Black Star shouted. “Go away!”
Fidox kept his paws on the hull.
“Oh yeah?” the pirate
growled
. “Get
your greasy robot paws off my spaceship
right now! Or I’ll have fun taking you apart
piece
by
piece
! You’ll be
a pile of scrap metal
in no time.”
Black Star
lunged
at Fidox, and the
robotic pup took off, zipping in and out of
spaceships
. Black Star
followed him, growling and shaking his
sharp claws at him.
Holey craters! Our plan had
worked
.
Now it was our turn to slip onto the pirate’s
spaceship and
rescue
Hologramix!
“Trap, you stay on guard duty,” I said.
“If any of the
pirate
spacecats
come back,
whistle loudly. Sally and Benjamin, follow
me! It’s time to
free
Hologramix!”
Trapped!
The inside of the spaceship was so
dark
we had to use our wrist phone
flashlights
to see. Sally quickly figured out the way
to the control room, and we followed her,
single file
.
Suddenly, a door opened and we
heard
Hologramix!
“Who are you?” its voice demanded as a
huge hologram in the shape of a spacecat’s
face materialized in front of us.
Martian mozzarella, what was
going on?
The hologram
looked
like a spacecat,
but it sounded just like Hologramix!
“Wh-what?!” I stuttered. “Who are
we
?
Who are
you
?”
But . . .
that’s
Hologramix’s
voice!
Who are you?
“Who am I?!” the hologram replied. “I
am Holocattix, this spaceship’s onboard
computer. And you cheesebrains are all
trespassing
!”
“No, you’re Hologramix,” Sally squeaked.
“You’re
MouseStar 1
’s onboard computer!”
“
Ha, ha, ha!
”
Holocattix cackled. “That’s
funny! You’re on the wrong spaceship.
What are you doing here, you rascally
rodents?”
I tried to squeak, but my throat was so
dry,
nothing
came out.
“The pirate spacecats stole you and
reconfigured you,” Sally tried to explain.
“You really belong to the spacemice. We’re
here to
rescue
you and take you back to
the
MouseStar 1 with us!”
But it was impossible to reason with
Holocattix.
Help!
Ack!
Buzzzz
Buzzzz
“The pirate spacecats aren’t
thieves!” the hologram replied. “I
think you
rats
are the thieves, and
this is what we do to
thieves
around
here . . .”
Suddenly, two scary
flying
robots
stormed in through an
opening in the ceiling. They looked
like giant SPACE
INSECTS
. They
buzzed above us menacingly
as the door to the command room closed
behind us.
We were trapped!
“Now we’ll wait for Black Star,” the
hologram growled. “He’ll decide what to do
with you!
Ha, ha, ha!
”
I tried to contact Trap with my
wrist
phone
, but as soon as I touched it . . .
My wrist phone turned off, as if the battery
had
died
.
Holocattix laughed.
“Did you really think I would let you use
your communication device?” it cackled.
“Wishful thinking, rascally rodent!
Ha,
ha, ha!
”
ZING!
Tell Us a Story,
Captain!
Stinky space cheese!
What were we going
to do? As long as Hologramix continued to
believe it was really a pirate spacecat, we were
in
big
trouble
! It seemed we had no choice
but to wait for
Black
Star
to return.
As we waited, I stared at Hologramix — I
mean,
Holocattix
. I recalled my first
days as captain of the MouseStar 1. Back
then, I had
no
clue
how to operate a
spaceship. Thankfully, Hologramix had been
there to
help me
. I don’t know what I
would have done
otherwise!
With nothing else to do as we waited, I
began
reminiscing
fondly about those days.
“Hologramix was the best onboard
computer a captain could ever wish for,”
I said with a sigh. “On my first mission
to
Uranus
, I forgot all the equipment,
even my thermal
undershirt
! But
Hologramix realized it before I did and sent
a
shuttle
with all the necessities.”
Benjamin listened eagerly, a
sweet
smile
on his snout.
“Go on,” he said encouragingly. “Tell us
another story, Uncle!”
“Well, I also remember when we hosted
the president of the
INTERSTELLAR
FREEDOM
FEDERATION
on the MouseStar 1. At the
gala
reception
, I brought my grocery list
up to the podium instead of my welcome
speech! But Hologramix saved the day by
mimicking my voice and
reciting
the
speech for me. It was truly fabumouse
how
Hologramix
saved my snout
!”
Bzzzzz...
Bzzzzz...
Pop!
“Keep going, Captain!”
Sally whispered. “I think
something’s happening to
Holocattix!”
I looked up to see
static
breaking up
the hologram of the
pirate spacecat’s face.
Great
galaxies!
It
seemed like Holocattix
was turning back into
Hologramix again!
“Your stories seem to
be triggering some of
Hologramix’s
MEMORIES
,”
Sally explained. “Those
emotions
are helping to
remind Hologramix who
it really is.”
So I began to
recount
one more incident.
“One time, I thought I had lost my very
precious notebook, when —”
“I activated
MouseStar
1
’s control sensors,”
a familiar voice cut in. It was Hologramix!
“I was able to find your notebook just before
it was shredded by the ship’s superstellar
paper recycling machine
!”
I looked up to see a digital
mouse snout
smiling
at me.
“Look!” Benjamin
squeaked excitedly.
“The hologram
changed!”
Stinky
space
cheese!
Hologramix
was
back!
aye
aye,
caPtain
stiltonix!
“
CAPTAIN!
What are you doing here?”
Hologramix exclaimed. “Actually, what am
I
doing here? This is not the MouseStar 1!”
“It’s a long story,” Sally began. “Basically,
you were mousenapped and
re-configured
by Black Star and his pirate spacecats.”
“But how?” Hologramix asked. “Also
when, where, and why?!”
“We don’t have time to explain it all now,”
I said quickly. “We have to
GET OUT
of here before the pirate spacecats return.
Please turn off these two
insect
robots
and turn on our wrist
phones?”
“
Aye aye, Captain Stiltonix!
” Hologramix
replied.
As soon as my wrist phone was working,
I called Trap.
“
Mission
accomplished!
” I announced. “We
have
Hologramix
back and we’re
leaving the pirate spacecats’ ship. We’ll
meet you back at our spaceship!”
“Just a sec, Captain,” Trap replied. “
I have
a special delivery for the pirates!
”
So as Sally, Benjamin, Hologramix, and I
dashed out of Black Star’s ship, Trap slipped
past us. He was holding a strange-looking
little box
in his paws. Shortly afterward,
he met us back at our spacecraft.
“What did you do?” I asked him, curious
.
He grinned. “Nothing, really,” he replied. “I
just left a little surprise for our
spacecat
‘friends’ . . .”
A minute later, our shuttle was blasting
Huff!
Puff!
off into space as we headed back to the
MouseStar 1. I glanced out the window to
see Black Star running back to his spaceship,
gasping for air
.
Fidox had do
ne a
mouserific
job tiring
him out!
I got out my space
telescope and
watched
through the
window as Black
Star boarded
his ship. I saw
him pick up the
package Trap had
left for him. Then he
began
shaking
his paw angrily and
SHOUTING
something. He must have
!
K
A-
B
O
O
O
O
M
!
realized we had taken back Hologramix!
Soon Black Star was sitting at his
spaceship’s controls,
firing
up
the engines!
“Uh, Thea,” I said
quickly
. “We have a
problem! It looks like Black Star is coming
after us!”
Trap just
chuckled
.
“No worries, Cuz,” he said confidently,
kicking up his paws. “He’s not going
anywhere.”
Then he pulled a
remote control
from his pocket and pressed a button. A
moment later . . .
Black Star’s ship suddenly transformed
into an amusement park, full of superstellar
attractions like
floating slides
,
spinning
satellites
, and
bumper spaceships
.
Surprise,
spacecats!
Ha,
ha,
ha!
h
a
!
“B-but how did you do that?” I stuttered
in shock.
“It’s called a
portable
intergalactic
amusement
park
!” Trap squeaked proudly.
“It’s a new space invention. When we were
at the university, a group of
scientists
gave it to me as a sample. I figured this was
a pretty good chance to use it!”
I glanced back out the window at the
spaceship port as we flew away and saw a
group of small
aliens
lining up to check
out the new amusement park.
“Well done, Cuz!” I exclaimed. “Twisterix
will be proud of you!”
Holey craters!
That reminded me that
in the rush to
save
Hologramix and escape
from the pirate spacecats, we had forgotten
to say
good-bye
to the professor! But I was
sure we would see him again someday . . .
everythinG’s