Rescue Rebellion (Geronimo Stilton Spacemice #5) Read online

  “Er, maybe the captain didn’t explain

  himself thoroughly,” Trap piped up. “The

  comet is on a

  trajectory

  that will cross

  your planet’s orbit. You have to

  leave

  here

  immediately!”

  “And where should we go,

  mouse

  ?”

  the king asked

  indignantly

  .

  “F-for now, you could be guests on our

  ship

  ,” I replied hesitantly. I really didn’t

  TRUST

  this king! “But we will definitely

  help you find another planet to live on.”

  The king seemed

  intrigued

  by my offer.

  “Another planet?” he said thoughtfully.

  “Well, well. It would be

  interesting

  to

  have two planets at one’s disposal instead of

  just one. I’ll think about it!”

  Then he ordered us to leave.

  Trap and I

  LOOKED

  at each other,

  perplexed. Was it possible the cosmosaur

  didn’t understand the

  danger

  he and

  his fellow aliens were in?

  “I’m afraid you can’t

  think

  about it,” I

  squeaked timidly. “You have to act

  right

  now

  if —”

  “Enough!” The king roared, baring his

  fangs. “I give the commands around here!

  And I command that the

  Feast of the

  Hot Sun

  will go on whether the planet is

  destroyed or not!

  Subject closed!

  ”

  The rest of the cosmosaurs roared in

  approval. The king gestured for silence.

  “Now, take our, er, guests away!” he

  ordered. “I have to

  rest

  . Tomorrow we will

  have a banquet of . . . what did you say you

  were again? Ah, yes

  —

  roasted

  spacemice

  !”

  Wh-what?

  Had I heard him correctly?

  A banquet of roasted spacemice?!

  “Are you sure you translated that

  correctly?” I asked Robotix. “We’re here to

  save them and they want to

  eat

  us? There

  must be a

  mistake

  !”

  “No, that’s what he said,” the little robot

  answered

  irritably

  . “I don’t make

  mistakes, Captain!”

  Trap and I exchanged a glance. In a split

  second, I made a

  decision

  .

  “

  We have to ruuuuuun!

  ” I shouted.

  Trap and I grabbed Benjamin’s and

  Bugsy Wugsy’s paws and

  ran

  . Robotix

  followed close behind us. But in no time, a

  cosmosaur

  grabbed

  us and pulled us into

  one of the caves. Then he ordered two other

  cosmosaurs to stand in front of the cave and

  keep us from

  escaping

  !

  Mousey meteorites!

  We were done for!

  ah . . . ah . . .achoo!

  I began to

  tremble

  from the tips of

  my ears to the end of my tail. We were

  prisoners

  of aliens who wanted to

  gobble us up, and there was a

  COMET

  headed straight for us!

  “Uncle?” Benjamin’s voice interrupted my

  thoughts. “What are we going to do now?”

  At that exact moment, my wrist phone

  beeped

  . It was Thea calling from

  MouseStar 1!

  “Come in, Captain,” she said. “How’s

  the mission going? Have you warned the

  cosmosaurs

  ?”

  “You could say that,” I replied. “We

  warned

  them, and they

  captured

  us!”

  “Captured ?!” Thea gasped. “But why?”

  “Well, it turns out the cosmosaurs aren’t

  cute

  and cuddly

  like we thought.

  They’re enormouse and hungry, and they

  want to

  roast

  and

  eat

  us!”

  “What?!” Thea replied. “That means

  something’s wrong with the

  ENCYCLOPEDIA

  GALACTICA

  . And it’s the

  captain’s

  duty to make sure we’re using the most

  updated

  version.”

  Huh?! The captain’s duty?

  Oops

  .

  “Um, well, I guess I

  forgot

  to do that . . .”

  I muttered under my whiskers.

  “So we

  ventured

  to this planet

  thinking we’d find friendly aliens, and

  instead we found mice-munching

  monsters

  !”

  Trap squeaked angrily.

  My snout turned bright

  red

  with

  embarrassment. This mess was

  all

  my

  fault

  !

  “Please, let’s not argue

  now,” Benjamin interrupted

  us. “We’ve got to come up

  with an

  escape

  plan!”

  “That’s right!” Thea agreed

  through my wrist phone. “In the

  meantime, I’ll get the space shuttle

  ready to pick you up.”

  Trap sat down on a

  rock

  so that he

  could calm down a bit. A minute later . . .

  drriiiip

  !

  A

  drop

  of water fell on

  his head.

  “That’s it!” Trap

  exclaimed suddenly.

  “If water is dripping

  from the ceiling, that

  means there’s an

  opening

  somewhere!”

  We all looked

  UP

  .

  There was a tiny hole in the wall of the cave

  where water and a feeble

  flicker

  of light

  came through.

  “Yes!” cheered Trap. “We can get out!”

  “But how?” Benjamin protested. “That

  hole is so

  high

  .”

  “I’ll take care of it!” Robotix said proudly.

  “This is a job for a highly

  advanced

  robotic being. Namely, me!”

  He took out a propeller, activated the

  flight mode, and lifted himself up a couple

  of inches from the

  ground

  .

  “I’ll go up first,” he explained. “Then I’ll

  lift each of you up with my

  MECHANICAL

  ARMS

  !”

  That sounded

  perfect

  ! It was an

  excellent plan, except for the fact that right

  at that moment . . .

  “Ah . . . ah .
. . achoo!”

  I exploded in a huge

  sneeze

  . Then I lost

  my

  balance

  and landed right on top of

  the little robot.

  Crunch!

  Robotix tipped over and his propeller

  blade

  cracked

  !

  “Geronimo!” Trap

  moaned

  . “Look

  what you just did!”

  “I’m so sorry,” I

  whispered

  .

  “When my snout

  itches

  like that, I just can’t control myself!”

  As if that weren’t enough, my galactic

  sneeze had attracted the

  attention

  of the

  two cosmosaurs at the entrance to the cave.

  They turned toward us

  menacingly

  .

  “What’s going on in there?” they asked.

  (Robotix continued to

  translate

  for us.)

  “Oh,

  nothing

  ,” I replied nonchalantly.

  “We’re just

  exercising

  a bit!”

  But the two

  cosmosaurs

  didn’t buy it.

  “Yeah?” one of them replied. “Well, we

  think you were trying to

  escape

  !”

  The other one pointed to the hole at the

  top

  of the cave.

  Holey craters!

  They were on to us!

  One of them immediately rolled a giant

  boulder

  in front of the hole. Then the

  aliens sat in front of the entrance to the cave

  and began to

  snore

  .

  I'll catch you!

  When

  darkness

  fell, Benjamin turned on

  the

  light

  on his wrist phone.

  “Luckily, we’ve got these,” he squeaked.

  The beam of light

  lit

  up

  the cave wall,

  illuminating the den where

  we were being held

  captive

  . I, too,

  lit my wrist phone,

  but I aimed it in the

  wrong

  direction

  .

  Instead of the wall,

  the light hit my snout,

  blinding

  me for a

  second!

  I

  staggered

  around the cave,

  STELLAR SWISS!

  accidentally

  flashing

  the light all around me.

  “Be careful, Uncle G!” Benjamin warned.

  “You’re going to wake up the cosmosaurs!”

  But it was too

  late

  .

  The two aliens guarding the cave opened

  their

  eyes

  . We cowered in

  fear

  , wondering

  what they would do

  next

  . But they didn’t

  even seem to

  notice

  us! Instead, they

  focused on the beam of light. Then they

  stretched out their sharp claws and tried to

  catch

  it!

  “What are they doing?” Trap whispered.

  I didn’t have a

  clue

  !

  “It looks like they’re

  attracted

  to the

  light,” I replied.

  “That’s it!” Bugsy Wugsy squeaked. “We

  can use the

  light

  to escape!”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, perplexed.

  “I get it!” Benjamin said, pointing his

  wrist phone’s

  light

  at a spot on the wall

  near the two cosmosaurs. The aliens got up

  and began

  chasing

  after the light.

  “They follow the light as if it’s

  prey

  ,”

  Bugsy Wugsy explained.

  Now I understood! We could trick the aliens

  into following the light around instead of

  guarding

  the entrance to the cave. Then

  we would be able to

  slip

  past them!

  Without losing a moment, we put our

  plan into

  action

  . We activated the light on

  one of our wrist phones and attached it to a

  root

  hanging from the cave’s ceiling.

  The

  beam

  of light reached the ground

  beyond the entrance to the cave! The first

  Galactic Gorgonzola!

  cosmosaur ran after the

  light

  , and soon

  the second alien followed the first. Quickly

  and

  quietly

  as mice, we scampered out of the

  cave undisturbed.

  *I'll catch you!

  melted Martian

  cheese

  .

  run, geronimo,

  run!

  As soon as we had escaped, I called Thea.

  “We got away!”

  “Stellar Swiss, that’s great!” she exclaimed.

  “I’ll wait for you with my shuttle at the same

  spot

  I left you!”

  We followed the directions on the map

  and hightailed it down the

  rocky

  path. In

  seconds I was out of breath, my legs

  burned, and my paws were

  so heavy it felt as if I was

  running on two wheels of

  I didn’t think I would be able to make

  it back to the shuttle! But then I heard

  Benjamin’s sweet voice

  encouraging

  me.

  “Just a little farther, Uncle!” he squeaked

  helpfully. “We’re almost there.

  Look!

  ”

  There it was! Thea’s shuttle was waiting

  for us. The hatch was

  open

  and the engine

  was

  running

  ! We were saved!

  But suddenly a

  strange

  feeling washed

  over me, setting my

  fur

  on edge. I felt as

  though someone — or something — was

  watching

  us.

  How weird

  .

  I looked to my right as I ran, but there

  was nothing there. Still, I felt the strange

  presence.

  Very weird.

  Then I looked left, but there was still

  nothing.

  Very, very weird.

  Finally, I glanced behind me.

  Holey

  craters!

  A pair of

  bright

  yellow eyes

  was staring right at me.

  Wait a minute

  — it wasn’t just

  one

  pair of eyes. No, there were

  ten

  pairs!

  Martian mozzarella!

  That’s

  twenty

  eyes!

  With what little breath I had left, I

  shouted

  to my friends.

  “The cosmosaurs . . .

  puff

  . . . are

  right . . .

  pan
t

  . . . behind us!” I yelled.

  “Run as fast as you

  caaaaan

  !”

  There was only one small

  hill

  between me

  and the shuttle. But I could feel a cosmosaur’s

  hot

  breath on my fur. The alien was trying

  to

  bite

  my tail! I began running in a

  zigzag

  so he wouldn’t

  catch

  me.

  Meanwhile, Trap, Benjamin, Bugsy Wugsy,

  and Robotix had already climbed

  safely

  inside the shuttle. They

  cheered

  me on,

  * If I catch you . . . * * You’re done for, mouse!

  ** *You’re not gonna get away!

  but I was losing steam. I turned for a second

  and saw the

  sharp

  , pointy fangs of the

  cosmosaur right

  behind

  me. I thought I was

  a goner for sure!

  Then things got even

  worse

  !

  I felt a little

  tickle

  on my snout, just below

  my whiskers. A second later . . .

  “Aaaaaaaachoooo!”

  The force of the sneeze made me close my

  eyes, and I

  tripped

  on a rock. Luckily, I

  went flying forward and sailed through the

  shuttle’s

  open

  hatch. I was

  saved

  !

  As soon as I realized my fur was safe at

  last, you guessed it —

  I fainted

  !

  never give up!

  When I woke up, we were back on board

  MOUSESTAR

  1

  .

  “Mmmm,” I murmured. “What’s

  that delicious smell?”

  “It’s Cook Squizzy’s

  galactic

  Gorgonzola

  extract!” Trap

  explained. “I told him if he held

  the bottle open under your nose,

  you’d come to

  immediately

  !”

  “Are you okay, Uncle G?”

  Benjamin asked worriedly.

  “Now that we’re all

  safe

  , I’m fine,” I

  exclaimed as I gave my nephew a big hug. “I

  just gave myself a bit of a

  bump

  !”

  I touched the

  lump

  on the top of my head.

  “Whew!” I sighed. “We had a close call

  losing those —

  Aaaaaachooo

  !”