Rescue Rebellion (Geronimo Stilton Spacemice #5) Read online

  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.