The Underwater Planet (Geronimo Stilton Spacemice #6) Read online

side. But I still couldn’t let go: I was

  too

  afraid

  ! So Trap began to

  pull

  me

  with all his strength. The more he

  pulled, the more the cave

  shook

  and the

  louder the

  scary

  howl became.

  Eventually, with all that pulling,

  the coral I was holding on to

  snapped

  . A moment

  later, we were all

  floating in the

  water

  toward the

  spaceship. And, strangely,

  the trembling of

  the cave and the

  scary

  howling had

  stopped!

  Once we got back inside the spaceship,

  we took off our helmets and backpacks.

  “Are you ok, Uncles?”

  a scared Benjamin asked me and Trap.

  “We’re fine,” I assured him. Now that I was

  back inside, I was feeling a little

  calmer.

  “But we’d better get out of here soon. I don’t

  want to feel another underwater earthquake

  in this lifetime!”

  “Yes, we should go,” Thea agreed. “And

  we should do it quickly, because the

  cave

  entrance is closing!”

  “Wh-what?” I exclaimed. “How can it be

  c-closing?”

  Suddenly, I realized what was happening.

  A Thorny Issue

  Thea

  pushed

  the engines to their

  limits and managed to guide the spaceship

  out right before the cave entrance

  —

  or

  what

  seemed

  to be a cave entrance

  —

  snapped

  shut.

  “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” I

  asked everyone.

  “Yup,” Trap replied. “We just came

  through some really

  giant

  teeth!”

  “Then we were in the

  mouth

  of a giant sea

  creature?!” Benjamin asked, incredulous.

  “Exactly!” Professor Greenfur confirmed

  as he glanced back at the giant beast through

  the porthole. “We were inside an enormouse

  silverix whale

  !”

  “And why didn’t you let us know this

  earlier, Professor?” Thea objected, her paws

  on her hips.

  “I didn’t notice,” Professor Greenfur

  replied. “The whale had perfectly camouflaged

  himself to look like a cave. I imagine he was

  trying to attract

  prey

  !”

  “Yeah

  —

  us!” Trap chimed in. He peered

  out the porthole. “What’s he doing now?”

  The

  whale

  had started moving toward us.

  “He thinks we’re food and wants to

  eat

  us!” I squeaked at the top of my lungs. “This

  time, we’re done for!”

  “Full speed ahead, Thea!” Sally shouted.

  “We’re already at

  top speed

  !” my

  sister replied.

  The creature caught up to us in three

  shakes

  of a whale’s tail.

  But to our great surprise, he didn’t slurp

  us up in one

  gulp

  . Instead he lifted a

  gigantic fin in front of

  his

  eyes

  and let out

  a strange whistle:

  “It seems like he

  wants to tell us

  something,” Bugsy

  Wugsy mused.

  Fiiiiuuuuuuiiiii!

  “Let’s activate the

  translator

  I installed to

  be able to

  understand

  alien languages,”

  Sally suggested.

  But I was

  suspicious

  .

  “A-are you really sure?” I asked. “It could

  be a setup . . .”

  “Uncle, look at those

  big, sweet eyes

  !”

  Benjamin remarked trustingly. And to be

  honest, if Benjamin wasn’t

  afraid

  , why

  should I be?

  Sally’s device began the translation:

  “My name is Lucas. Thank you for

  pulling the thorn from my throat!”

  We all looked at one another, dumbfounded.

  What thorn was the whale talking about?

  But then Trap understood.

  “Of course!” he realized. “He’s talking

  about what you thought was a piece of

  coral

  , Geronimo. When I pulled you, it

  was dislodged from the whale’s mouth.”

  I stepped up to the

  microphone

  .

  “It’s very nice to meet you, Lucas,” I

  replied. “We are

  spacemice

  , and

  we’re

  happy

  we were able to help you!”

  “I’ll always owe you, spacemice!” he

  replied. “

  Bon voyage!

  ”

  We waved from the porthole and the whale

  winked

  back at us before he disappeared

  into the abyss. We had finally made a

  friend

  on the strange underwater planet

  of Aquarix!

  An Underwater City

  Galactic Gorgonzola

  , this had been

  a really difficult trip! Luckily, the map was

  showing that we were getting closer to our

  destination. Thea

  guided

  the spaceship

  over a steep reef, around an underwater

  mountain

  with sharp peaks, and

  through a narrow canyon. Finally we

  reached the point that was marked by an

  X

  on the map.

  A

  beautiful

  city came into view.

  “It’s so pretty,” Benjamin said. “But it’s

  also so

  dark

  !”

  It’s true

  —

  the few lights in the city

  seemed to barely

  illuminate

  the

  houses and streets.

  Thea gently landed the spaceship outside

  the gates to the city.

  “We’re finally here!” Trap announced.

  “Come on, everyone. Let’s go! I can’t wait

  to see if there really is a

  treasure

  . Then

  we can get back to the

  MouseStar 1

  . Boy,

  do I miss Cook Squizzy’s lunar cheese

  fondue!”

  I had no desire to get out of the

  spaceship

  again, but I knew I had

  to. So I reluctantly pulled on my

  helmet

  and headed for the door.

  “I’ll wait on the ship,” Thea said.

  “And we’ll

  keep in touch

  through

  the helmet microphones.”

  1.

  Here I go!

  2.

  Ha, ha, ha!

  3.

  Oof!

  Sally was
/>   already standing

  by the door, lining

  everyone up.

  “Here we go!”

  she announced briskly.

  “Professor Greenfur and

  I will go last. Trap

  —

  OUT

  ! Benjamin and Bugsy

  Wugsy —

  OUT

  ! Captain

  Geronimo Stiltonix

  —

  OUT

  !”

  Knock!

  Knock!

  Knock!

  As soon as I stepped outside, I immediately

  flipped

  upside down

  in the murky

  water. It took me a while to

  flip

  back over

  and join the others, so I was the last one to

  arrive at the gate to the underwater city.

  “Finally, Captain!” Trap said, rolling his

  eyes at me. “Now what do we do?”

  “I don’t know,” I replied. “Knock?”

  No one objected, so I reached out a paw

  and knocked

  three

  times:

  Masters of the

  Light

  A few moments later, the door opened.

  Some small, friendly-looking

  blue

  aliens

  greeted us. Each alien had

  four

  eyes,

  eight

  tentacles, and some unusual

  pipes

  on its head. Tiny

  bubbles

  streamed

  out of the pipes.

  “This would be a good time to introduce

  yourselves,” Thea reminded us through our

  helmet microphones.

  Trap

  pushed

  me forward.

  “It’s your turn, Captain!” he whispered.

  Me?

  Why, oh why is it always

  me

  ? Oh,

  right . . . because I’m the

  captain

  !

  “Hello! We are

  spacemice

  ,” I told

  the aliens. “We come in peace!”

  “Nice to meet you!” one of the aliens

  replied. “We are

  polpyx

  . Welcome to

  Aquarix City, our capital! If you follow us,

  we’ll take you to our

  wise ones

  !”

  “And who are these wise ones?” I asked

  hesitantly. I hoped they were

  friendly

  , too!

  “They are our three Masters of the Light.”

  Masters of the Light?

  What

  in the cosmos were they?

  We had no other choice but to

  follow the polpyx, so we

  swam after them

  along the city’s

  dark

  streets.

  As we passed

  each little

  house, other

  polpyx came

  W

  e

  l

  c

  o

  m

  e

  !

  out to say

  hello

  .

  “What nice,

  friendly

  aliens,” Benjamin

  remarked. “I could do a

  paper

  about

  this planet for school!”

  “That’s a

  great

  idea!” I agreed.

  We soon arrived in a small

  underwater

  cavern. The wise ones were three polpyx

  with

  thick white beards

  . Each one held

  a long stick topped by a small,

  shiny

  star.

  The wise ones slowly rose and

  swam

  toward us. The polpyx that had led us to the

  cavern whispered something to one of the

  wise ones. The alien nodded his head.

  “Hello, spacemice!” the wise one said in

  a

  WELCOMING tone. “We are happy to have

  you visit. We are a friendly species.”

  Then he stopped and another wise one

  took over.

  “We have been living at the bottom of the

  sea for

  thousands

  of years,” the second

  alien said in a voice that was

  lower

  than

  the first alien’s. “We like to meet new friends

  from

  faraway places

  .”

  Finally, the third wise one spoke. His voice

  was the

  lowest

  of all of them.

  “Yes, you are most welcome here in

  Aquarix City

  ,” he agreed. “But please do

  tell us what brought you all the way down

  It was the sphere!

  here to the

  dark

  abyss.”

  Before I could reply, Trap stepped forward.

  “Excuse me, Captain,” he

  whispered

  in my ear. “Mind if I speak? Otherwise we’ll

  never get through these pleasantries, and

  I’m

  starving

  !”

  Before I could protest, my cousin grabbed

  the

  sphere

  with the map from Professor

  Greenfur’s paws and showed it to the polpyx.

  “This

  sphere

  brought us here!” he

  announced.

  A Secret Key

  When they saw the sphere, the three aliens

  were

  speechless

  . After a moment

  of silence, they finally spoke:

  “I-I . . .”

  “C-can’t . . .”

  “B-believe it!”

  Then they began chattering quickly among

  themselves,

  ignoring

  us completely!

  Finally, the creatures turned back to us.

  “Oh, please

  forgive

  us,” the first one said.

  “We thought this sphere had

  disappeared

  forever!” the second one added.

  “The last time we saw it was three

  lunar cycles ago, just before the

  great

  tsunami!” the third one concluded.

  “

  How did you find it?

  ” they asked in unison.

  “Well, it happened to be on our

  SPACESHIP,” I replied.

  “After we

  activated

  it, we decided

  to follow the map,” Professor Greenfur

  explained. “We wanted to find out where

  the sphere had

  come from

  !”

  The wise ones smiled widely.

  “We are extremely grateful to you for this,

  spacemice!” the first wise one said. “This

  isn’t just a map

  —

  it’s also the secret key to

  the

  light chest

  !”

  I didn’t have a clue what they were

  squeaking

  about!

  The

  wise

  ones

  began mumbling among

  themselves again.

  “Did you understand any of that?” I asked

  Professor Greenfur.

  “I think so,” he murmured. “The stars on

  top of the sticks they’re carrying look like

  extremely rare

  marine cos
mostars

  . They are

  packed with

  energy

  that helps plants

  grow in really

  dark

  places like this city.

  Maybe the light chest has something to do

  with that.”

  The second wise one turned back to us.

  “That’s

  correct

  !” the alien said. “Our

  civilization has been able to grow down here

  in the dark abyss thanks to the

  marine

  cosmostars

  .”

  “But we only have a few cosmostars

  left,” the first alien added. “And

  it’s extremely difficult and

  dangerous

  to find new

  ones!”

  “Our ancestors hid an

  emergency supply of

  cosmostars in a

  special chest,”

  the third alien explained. “They wanted to

  keep our civilization from using them all up

  RIGHT AWAT. But we thought the key to

  the chest had been lost forever

  !”

  So the strange blue sphere really was a

  treasure

  map! And the treasure was very

  precious

  to these aliens and their entire

  underwater civilization.

  “Spacemice, we trust you,” the first wise

  one said. “Follow us!”

  Follow us!

  The wise ones

  illuminated

  the

  way with their

  sticks,

  and we followed

  them toward a tall,

  dark

  building.

  A

  chill

  ran

  down my tail. The

  polpyx seemed

  friendly, but

  I was afraid of the unknown. I turned to

  Benjamin and Bugsy.

  “This could be

  dangerous

  ,” I told the

  little mice. “Why don’t you two wait here?”

  Benjamin was a little disappointed, but two

  young polpyx came up to us and began to

  play with him and Bugsy Wugsy right away.

  I waved good-bye and

  entered

  the tall

  building with the others.

  Unexpected

  Visitors

  We followed the Masters of the Light all the

  way to a great hall.

  “There it is!” the second wise one

  exclaimed, pointing to a

  big chest

  in the

  center of the room.

  As soon as we got closer to the chest, the

  sphere began to

  shine

  !

  “The sphere is letting us know that we have

  reached the ultimate

  destination

  ,”