Professor Greenfur looked at the mouselets
and then rested his gaze on me.
“Captain, there is one other possibility,”
he said seriously. “We can secure the net
manually
!”
the last
resort
There are times when the captain has to
show he’s a real
leader
. At these times,
everyone counts on the captain to make the
right decision in a
stressful
situation.
This was one of those times!
“
GRANDSON!
” my
grandfather barked.
“
Why
are you
still standing there?
Take action!
Hurry up and put on
your
spacesuit
.
We have a planet
to save! Snap to it!
Snap!
Snaaaaaap!
”
Grandfather William’s
booming
voice
penetrated my thoughts.
“Got it, Grandson?” he shouted again.
Of course I got it! The only way to save
Jurassix
from destruction was for me to fly
out into space and manually harness the net
around the comet. And everything had to be
done incredibly
quickly
because the
comet was going to
crash
into Jurassix
in less than an
hour
!
I knew what I had to do, but truth be told,
I was
scared
. I would have to go out into
deep space all by
myself
!
Luckily, Thea seemed to sense my
fear
.
“Okay, I’m ready,”she announced
calmly
.
“I’m going with you, Geronimo!”
What a brave
and
courageous
sister I had! Still, I continued to
tremble
with fear. The mission in space was going to
be very, very
dangerous
!
“Uncle, we have
faith
in you!” squeaked a
reassuring
little
voice. It was Benjamin, of
course. “You’re the best uncle
in the whole
universe
!”
Ahhh, my sweet little nephew.
What would I do without him?
Before I could change my mind, I
put on my spacesuit and headed
toward the exit
hatch
.
Just as I was about to
open the door, I felt a
HUGE
claw clamp
down on my shoulder. I turned and saw an
enormouse tear
sliding
down Reginald’s
worried face.
“Grrooowwl roar frrrr!”
*I’m sorry!
“He says he’s moved by
the great
risk
you
are taking to save
his planet,” Robotix
translated. “Also, he’s
sorry he tried to
eat
you.”
I smiled at him. “Well,
we all make mistakes!”
a Walk
in Space
When the
hatch
first opened, I was
paralyzed with fear. The comet was right
in front of me, but beyond that was
outer
space
! As a spacemouse, I had gone through
six galactic months of training to learn how
to use my
special
spacesuit, how to
walk
and
float
in space, and even how to make
basic
repairs to the MouseStar 1. But it had
been a long time since I had gone through
training. Now that I needed to use those
skills
, I couldn’t remember a
thing
I heard a
voice
through my helmet’s
headphones.
“Hurry up, Geronimo,” Thea squeaked.
“Jump!”
“O-okay, I’m
coming!” I tried to
sound
confident
,
but I was so scared my
legs felt as soft as
Brie
!
I took a
deep
breath and
jumped into space! Then I activated
the small motor on my spacesuit that
would allow me to
move
around.
But when I pushed the button,
I
jolted
forward, losing my
balance! Suddenly, I was
hanging
upside
down
!
Solar-smoked Gouda!
I couldn’t turn around!
“Ger, what are you
doing?” Thea asked.
“To regain your
equilibrium
,
you just have to
move your arms!”
I began
flapping
my arms and legs
like crazy. After
a lot of effort, I
finally got back
into a
vertical
position. Then Thea
and I moved toward
the comet together.
But a moment later,
I found myself
inside a
cloud
of
stardust. I couldn’t
even
see
my own
whiskers!
Galactic Gorgonzola!
I was lost in space!
“Thea, where are you?” I
shouted into my space helmet.
“I’m right in front of you,” she
replied. “Don’t you
see
me?
Come
forward
slowly!”
Slowly?
That
was easier said
than done!
I could
barely hold myself
upright, much less
control my speed.
In fact, I inadvertently
turned up the speed of
the motor in my spacesuit.
I
took
off
like a bolt of lightning
and smacked right into my sister!
“OOOF! SORRY!”
“Well, at least we found each other,” Thea
said. “From now on, hold on to me. We can’t
afford to
lose
each other!”
A few minutes later, we found ourselves
right in front of the
enormouse
comet.
“Take out the space net,” Thea instructed
me. “We’re close enough to launch it now!”
I turned and saw that the comet was very,
very close to
Jurassix
.
“I hope this works,” I whispered to myself,
&n
bsp; crossing my paws for good
luck
.
a speck of
Moss Dust
Thea and I floated on either side of the
comet, ready to
launch
the space net.
“We’re almost there, Ger!” Thea said. “I’ll
throw the net around the comet, and you’ll
have to tighten it —”
Suddenly, sparks shot out of the
comet
.
One of them hit Thea, and she dropped the
net. I was able to retrieve it quickly, but Thea
wasn’t responding. She had
fainted
!
I shook her and shook her until she came
to.
“Would you please stop
shaking
me
Zzzaaaap!
like a cream cheese milkshake?” she said in
a wobbly voice.
I breathed a deep sigh of relief.
“I’m so glad you’re
okay
!” I replied.
“You gave me a real
galactic
fright!”
“I’m okay, except my paws feel a little
numb
,” she admitted. “I must have gotten
too close to the comet and been
hit
by the
sparks.”
“I have to take you right back to the
MOUSESTAR
1
!” I told her.
“No,” Thea said firmly. “We don’t have
time. You must get the net on the comet
quickly
. Otherwise everything we’ve
done so far is for nothing!
Come on!
”
I
sighed
.
I knew my sister was right. But would I
be able to do it by
myself
? I thought again
of Benjamin and Bugsy Wugsy, and of
Reginald’s
big
,
worried eyes. There
was no question about it.
It was up to me to
save the
planet
!
I couldn’t possibly let the spacemice
—
or
the cosmosaurs — down. So I picked up the
space net once more,
shook
it out, and
tried to center it on the comet. But I lost
my equilibrium and began
rolling
around
again!
“Be strong, Ger,” Thea said encouragingly.
“You can do it!”
She was right. I
could
do it! I managed
to stop
spinning
. Then I gathered all
my
strength
and picked up the space
net. Suddenly, what looked like a
tiny
speck of Jurassix moss dust floated in front
of me and landed on my nose. I felt the usual
ITCH
. . .
“
Oh no!
” I squeaked. “
No, no, no.
Not now!
“Aaaaachooooo!”
The sneeze made me lose my balance
again
! I started rolling head over tail.
When I regained control, I couldn’t believe
my
eyes
. The comet was perfectly wrapped
and harnessed inside the space net!
“You rock, Ger!” Thea exclaimed. “That
was
perfectly executed
! Now let’s get back
to the space shuttle. We have a comet to tow
away from Jurassix!”
I took Thea’s arm. Then we followed
the safety
cable
all the way back to
MouseStar 1.
engines on!
full Speed ahead!
When our
paws
were firmly planted
back on the MouseStar 1, we were greeted
with a big
cheer
. But the mission wasn’t
complete yet: We still had to
tow the
comet
away from Jurassix.
“Spacemice, to your posts!” I ordered.
“There’s no time to
lose
! Engines on! Full
speed ahead!”
The
display
signaled that
we had exactly
four minutes and
fifty-two seconds
before the comet
crashed
into Jurassix!
“Roger that, Captain!” Thea replied.
Then she revved up the engines to full
speed. We looked out the window and saw
that the net was
stretching
! Would
it hold?
What if the comet was too
heavy
for
the
MouseStar 1 to move?
What if the professor had made a
mistake
in his calculations?
What if . . .
Suddenly, the ship began to
inch
forward
. . .
But Professor Greenfur was worried.
“The engines are working too
hard
,” he
said anxiously. “The comet is too
heavy
!”
“Thea, give it more
power
!” I
shouted.
Black-holey galaxies!
Everything began to
tremble
. I held on
tightly to my seat so I wouldn’t
roll
to the
floor! The comet was now very, very close to
Jurassix. The countdown clock showed just
one minute
remaining before impact . . .
Then
fifty seconds
!
Forty . . . thirty . . .
twenty . . . ten . . .
A golden cloud of
space
dust
rose
from the collision as thousands of sparks
streaked across space.
MouseStar 1 suddenly
accelerated
,
pulling the comet along with it. Then the
comet began to
spin
. At that point, we
released the space net. The comet moved
away from us like an enormouse top,
whirling
wildly toward the asteroid
Solitarius.
“In a few minutes, the comet will
hit
Solitarius,” Professor Greenfur announced.
“Come,
look
!”
We all held our breath as we looked out
the window, waiting for the comet and the
asteroid to collide.
Wow! What a show!
It was as if we were watching an exhibition
of interplanetary
fireworks
!
“Uncle G, this is even better than a
5-D
mega mouserific movie
, isn’t it?”
Benjamin whispered as he hugged me tightly.
“It sure is!” I answered my little nephew
with a
smile
.
I had already
forgotten
that this
entire adventure had started just one day ago
at the movie theater. So much had happened
since then that it seemed as if an entire lunar
century had gone by. But most important,
we had
accomplished
our goal:
Jurassix was finally
safe!
*Hooray!
PUT YOUR
PAW HERE!
Thea slowed
MOUSESTAR
1’S
engines.
Mission accomplished! We had done it. We
hugged one another
happily
.
Robotix and I approached Reginald.
“We did it,” I told him. “Your planet is
safe
!”
He looked at me suspiciously.
“Grrrowlll frooar?” he roared
softly
.
“He’s asking if you’re sure,” translated
Robotix.
“Absolutely!” I replied, smiling at him.
“The
comet
will no longer be a danger
to anyone!”
The cosmosaur breathed a
sigh
of relief.
* Thank you!
“Spacemice, you’ve saved my planet,” he
said through Robotix. “You’re
awesome
!
Put your
paw
here!”
He took my paw and
squeezed
it so hard
he almost
CRUSHED
it!
Thea turned the ship and headed to Jurassix
to take Reginald home. This time, the
cosmosaurs
welcomed us
like heroes.
They had
seen the
comet
crash
into Solitarius. Reginald
explained we were the ones who had
changed
the comet’s course and saved
their home!
Benjamin and Bugsy Wugsy found their
little friend
Fred
with a bunch of other
cute, gentle baby cosmosaurs. When we
were all gathered together, King Rex the
Sixteenth made a speech.
“I want to thank our new friends, the
spacemice