by Erin Downing
“Hera,” Chamberlin began quietly. “We cannot take on anymore pets. Don’t you think we have our hands full caring for the five pets that already live with us onboard the space transport? Think of how crowded your room would be with this, uh … adorable creature and Roxie.” When she heard her name, Hera’s beloved pet, Roxie, leaped onto Chamberlin’s shoulder and gave him a furry kiss. Chamberlin swatted her away.
A moment later, the four other princesses’ pets—Athena’s confident Mykie, Luna’s sweet Adora, Rhea’s silly Springle, and Juno’s timid pal Skitter—surrounded Chamberlin. The girls’ pets loved the royal butler, but, as cute as the five colorful little furballs were, Chamberlin didn’t always return their overwhelming affections.
All five royal pets had begged to join Hera at the animal-adoption event for the weekend. After a month on the road, they all needed a chance to run around in open spaces and play with other creatures. The space bus could get rather tight and tense from time to time, so the girls and their pets all needed a chance to hang out with new friends and stretch their legs on solid ground once in a while.
“But Chamberlin,” Hera said, pushing the sweet and slimy creature’s tentacles away from her mouth and eyes. “This little critter has become very attached to me.”
“Little?” Chamberlin looked baffled. “That thing is anything but little.” He tried to pry one of the arms away from Hera’s body, but the creature was, indeed, attached. Chamberlin shook his head. “Little or big, no matter how attached it has become, the rule is: no more pets.”
Hera pouted. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure. You can cuddle any of these creatures as much as you like while you’re here, but your role at this event is finding them homes with other families. Their perfect forever home … that is not the SPACEPOP tour bus.”
“Fine,” Hera grumbled. She whispered a few comforting words into the creature’s slime-filled ear hole, then gently pulled its many arms away from her body one by one. “Good girl,” she cooed.
Within minutes of finishing her photo shoot, the images of Hera holding the homeless pets were uploaded to various news sites, animal-rescue blogs, and the SPACEPOP band home page. SPACEPOP’s biggest fan—Bradbury—shared a bunch of the images on his fan vlog, ensuring even more exposure.
Less than an hour later, every last one of Hera’s new pals had already been adopted. But the thing no one told her? The evil empress Geela had adopted the tiny kwub-kwub, hoping it would help soften her image … which meant Hera’s pet-rescue project was far from over.
ATHENA
“Nonsense,” Athena said, tossing aside a sheaf of papers. She flicked away a messenger bot, powered down a mail droid, and deleted nearly a dozen messages begging for her support, time, or money. “They want me to do an ad for a cleaning bot, Chamberlin,” Athena grumbled. “Ridiculous.”
“Indeed,” Chamberlin agreed, but he was only half listening. He was too focused on steering the SPACEPOP tour bus through an asteroid field. The nervous butler preferred clear skies and open space roads for travel days, but sometimes the girls’ schedule now required him to navigate more dangerous airways. He kept reminding himself that any bumpy airways and ship-squashing asteroids were nothing compared with some of the scary situations he’d found himself in during the princesses’ missions for the Resistance. Those days were truly terrifying.
“And this,” Athena said, holding up a tiny messenger droid as if it might bite her. “This company wants me to be the face of a new makeup line. Makeup! Offensive. I’m a singer-songwriter and a keyboard player—what does music have to do with makeup?!”
Athena, the most practical member of SPACEPOP—and the band’s unofficial leader—had spent the entire morning riffling through a collection of endorsement and guest-judge offers. Like the rest of the members of the band, Athena had been receiving countless requests to use her newfound celebrity to support products, shows, or events. “A singing-competition judge?” Athena said, scowling as she pressed delete. “After what happened to Rhea on Galactic Fashion, there’s no way I’m going to risk a run-in with Geela. I’d much rather see Geela on my terms.”
“Yes, Your Highness,” Chamberlin muttered. “Personally, I would prefer not to see Geela at all.”
Athena—whose full, royal name was Mettathena Mystos—rolled her eyes. Chamberlin was terrified of the so-called empress and constantly trying to persuade the undercover princesses to give up their role in the Resistance. He insisted that they were putting themselves at unnecessary risk. No matter how many times Athena had explained to him that someone had to fight back to save their planets, Chamberlin just couldn’t understand why it had to be them.
Once she’d gotten through all her other mail, the fair-skinned princess of Athenia pulled open a medium-size packing crate. SPACEPOP’s clumsy roadie, Rand, had delivered the package to her in the steering cabin just a few minutes earlier. She carefully lifted off the lid of the crate and peered inside. The box was filled with puffed-up packing materials, protecting something small in the center. “What’s this?” she asked, pulling out a gleaming bronze box that was only slightly larger than Athena’s two hands held side by side.
Under the box was a letter. Athena scanned it, then threw it aside. “Seriously?” she groaned.
“What is it, Your Highness?” Chamberlin asked, daring to look back over his shoulder for only a moment.
“This takes the prize for most ridiculous offer yet,” Athena griped. “This company—Ampersand—wants me to get behind a product called Amp It Up that supposedly helps elevate your music to such a high pitch and volume that you can be heard on another planet.” She held up the small bronze box and studied it. “Impossible.”
“Is it?” Chamberlin asked.
“Absolutely,” Athena said. “This product is tiny! There is no way it works the way they say it will. But according to this letter, they want me to test the product out with the band, then talk it up in a few interviews. They’re hoping to build business through word of mouth.” Athena studied the amp from all sides. “Apparently we have to be careful about how we use it, since…” Athena trailed off and referred back to the letter. “‘Misuse of the device can cause glass to break and metal to shred.’ Sounds like a quality product.”
“Sounds dangerous,” Chamberlin noted.
“Sounds made-up,” Athena said. She tossed the letter aside and groaned, “This is all so foolish. Of course I’m pleased that SPACEPOP is getting so much attention—it will help us get our message of freedom and rebellion out to the galaxy more quickly. But I despise wasting time on nonsense like commercials, trivial holo-viz programs, and junk products. I just want to get on with our mission! We can’t keep wasting our precious free time on these side projects. Our newfound fame is getting in the way of our bigger mission. We should be using every spare minute we have to write and rehearse new songs, do more for the Resistance, and build new spy gadgets.”
Chamberlin twisted the wheel of the space bus and veered away from an oncoming asteroid. He gritted his teeth. All this talk about Resistance missions, combined with the asteroid field, had made him feel a bit ill. He would give anything to put the ship on autopilot and curl up with a nice book of poetry and a cup of just-hot-enough tea.
“But Athena,” Chamberlin said, treading carefully. During their weeks together, the royal butler had slowly learned that all the princesses had a tendency to become even more stubborn when Chamberlin tried to tell them what to do. So he had begun to offer advice without it sounding like advice—he liked to pose his advice as questions. “Building more spy gadgets will not get your parents back, right? Do you need to spend time on that activity, or should you focus on other activities?” Like songwriting, he added silently.
“You’re right, Chamberlin!” Athena said, her face brightening. “Sitting around in the space bus building spy gadgets won’t help us rescue our parents.”
Chamberlin nodded. He hoped Athena would see that patience was the best cour
se of action. Waiting patiently, performing some quiet activity, while a brave fellow from the Resistance team rescued the royal families from Geela’s Dungeon of Dark Doom—that was the best (and safest) strategy.
Athena narrowed her eyes and stared out the front window of the space bus. Slowly, she said, “What we need to do is find our parents. We need to search for Geela’s Dungeon of Dark Doom—and when we figure out which planet it’s hidden on, we need to rescue our parents ourselves! We can save our parents and our planets and restore peace to the galaxy. Anything else is merely a waste of time and energy and entirely impractical.”
Chamberlin gaped at her. He stuttered, “Th-th-that is not what I was saying at all!”
Athena flashed him a small smile. “Maybe not … but you helped me figure out our next plan. Thanks for the assist, Chamberlin.”
Chamberlin sighed and gripped the space bus controls with shaking fingers. “As always, I am happy to help.”
CHAPTER 1
Five dark shadows hustled along a low-lit corridor on the planet of Kantal-ka. Dressed in all black and outfitted with sleek weapons and cleverly disguised spy gear, the five princesses of the Pentangle felt very removed from their former posh lives.
“Psst,” Rhea hissed from the back of the line as she and the other girls raced around a corner. “Luna! Can you tie your hair back or something? It’s huge—there’s no way Geela’s security cameras aren’t going to spot it. It’s almost big enough to warrant a few of its own moons.” Luna spun around and glared at Rhea—her hair spun with her. Rhea grinned and wiggled a few fingers in a wave.
Luna’s long blond hair was her most prized accessory. She had spent several hours deep conditioning and blow-drying it that morning, to prepare for SPACEPOP’s show that night. It had taken days and gallons of expensive creams and tonics, but Luna had finally managed to wash away all remnants of Solar Glow. After weeks of suffering through bad hair days, Luna’s locks now looked better than ever. “My hair is a lot less noticeable than your constant yammering and bad jokes,” Luna snapped back.
“Can we all just focus on the mission?” Athena asked, shushing them both. “We need to finish our exploration of Kantal-ka, then get out of here. In case anyone has forgotten, according to the information Captain Hansome sent over this morning, Geela’s troops are scheduled to return from their training session in fifteen minutes. And tonight’s gig starts in less than two hours. We need to wrap up this search and get out of here. We have another job to get to.”
The five girls paused when they reached a T in the corridor. Straight ahead of them stood an imposing, glossy black wall. To their left was a giant archway, leading out into the blue-purple Kantal-ka night; to their right, a closed door. There was no sign of life in either direction. “Which way?” Hera asked, glancing at the others. Without waiting for an answer, she closed her eyes and hummed. “I’m trying to visualize the correct path,” Hera said in a moony voice. “I’m getting a definite left vibe. The night sky is calling to me, telling me we all need to step outside and recharge before moving on.”
“Then let’s go right,” Juno said, moving toward the closed door in the opposite direction. “We don’t need to recharge. If we want this mission to be successful, we need to explore every possible wing of Geela’s facility here on Kantal-ka. Otherwise, we might miss something that could lead us to our parents. And who knows when we might get back to this planet again.”
“Juno’s right,” Athena agreed. “We need to see what’s behind that closed door.”
“Behind Door Number One…” Rhea said in a funny game show announcer voice. “A new space transport!”
Luna flipped her enormous hair over her shoulder and shushed Rhea. Then the five princesses slipped around the corner and made their way toward the mysterious closed door.
On orders from Resistance leader Captain Hansome, Rhea, Luna, Athena, Hera, and Juno had been exploring Geela’s central command station on Kantal-ka for just short of four hours. During that time, they had found no evidence that Geela’s Dungeon of Dark Doom was hidden away on the foggy planet of Kantal-ka. But it seemed that every time they thought they had reached the end of the facility, there were more doors leading into unexplored turf.
Athena reached out to press a button, and the closed door whooshed open. They all slipped through the door and waited as it closed behind them. Ahead of them stretched another long, empty corridor that led to yet another door. The girls raced down the corridor, pressed another button, and this door slid open. On the other side of this door was yet another long corridor with yet another door at the far end. The girls carried on. And on. And on.
“What’s with all the doors?” Rhea asked after they had passed through the sixth identical door. “Think Geela’s just really into climate control or something?”
Juno narrowed her eyes. When she was a contestant on Fight or Flight, she had faced a maze of doors and hallways that felt eerily similar to the one they were in now. Her stomach clenched into a fist and she muttered, “I hope it’s not some kind of trap. These doors must be protecting something.”
Rhea scanned the smooth walls, searching for security cameras or any other indication that someone might be watching their every move in some far-off control room. She couldn’t find any signs of enhanced security or tracking devices, which made her think they were on a wild-goose chase. “Has anyone else considered the fact that none of these doors are locked? And we haven’t seen a single guard or one of Geela’s Android Soldiers all day. If the Dungeon of Dark Doom was hidden somewhere in this facility on Kantal-ka, don’t you think it would be better protected?”
The other girls nodded their agreement. But until they were absolutely sure they had hit a dead end, none of them was willing to call off the search. Because when—if?—they found Geela’s Dungeon of Dark Doom, the girls were sure they would also find their imprisoned parents. That singular goal was propelling them all forward, giving them strength to carry on with their difficult and dangerous Resistance mission. If they could find the secret location of Geela’s Dungeon of Dark Doom, they would be able to release their parents, thus allowing the Pentangle Galaxy—and its princesses—to go back to life as usual.
Thanks to intelligence the girls had helped gather on one of their first assignments for the Resistance (the SPACEPOP crew planted trackers on Geela’s entire fleet of space tankers), Captain Hansome and his team had been able to figure out that Geela and her army spent the majority of their time and resources on five planets—Kantal-ka, Lud, Pallomo, Tik-tik, and Pluton. By using the tracker data the disguised princesses had helped to collect, Resistance forces decided to turn their attention to these five planets to see if they could figure out how to weaken Geela’s strongholds.
When Hansome told the girls about the team’s findings, Athena was the one who pointed out that it would also make sense to narrow the search for the missing royal families to those five planets. Geela was the kind of leader who would enjoy visiting her prisoners regularly, relishing in their discomfort and weakness. She wouldn’t be likely to hide the Dungeon of Dark Doom anywhere that would be too hard for her to reach or too remote for her to visit regularly. Therefore, if Resistance forces were to conduct an extensive search of each of the five planets Geela spent most of her time on, they would very likely find the hidden Dungeon of Dark Doom and the royal prisoners.
The trouble was, each of the five planets the Resistance forces needed to search was in strict lockdown mode. All travel onto and off each of the planets was restricted, and the only way anyone was allowed in the planets’ airspace was with a valid travel authorization. Anyone caught entering or leaving without said authorization would be destroyed without question. So it wasn’t as simple as dispersing Resistance forces to search each planet in a hurry—no one could land on any of these planets to start the hunt.
When Captain Hansome had delivered the bad news, Luna shrugged. “So we use our cover as SPACEPOP to get the necessary travel authorizations.”<
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Hansome stared at her blankly for a moment, and then his eyes brightened on the holo-screen communicator. “Yes!” he cried. He flung his muscled green arms up into the air and pumped his fists. Luna swooned at the sight of his strapping muscles. She had a major thing for Captain Hansome, but the Resistance leader didn’t seem to return her affections. The handsome captain was so caught up in his own awesomeness that he didn’t have time to flirt back. “Luna, you are absolutely right.”
“I am?” Luna squeaked. The self-confident princess only ever lost her cool in front of Captain Hansome. But after a moment of wide-eyed blinking, she gathered her wits, then splashed an enormous smile across her face. “I mean—yeah, I guess I am.”
“If you book a concert or … gig? Is that what you call them, gigs?”
“Yeah,” Rhea said, rolling her eyes.
Hansome stroked his chin. Luna sighed dramatically when he flicked a braided lock of hair off his forehead. The strapping Resistance captain went on, “If you book SPACEPUP gigs on the five planets we need to gain access to, it will give you the perfect cover. You can slip in and out without attracting notice.”
“Um,” Rhea muttered. “The point of a gig is to attract attention. We’re not going for empty stadiums here, y’know. It’s kind of hard to spread our message of peace, love, and rebellion if no one’s listening.”
Juno growled, “And it’s SPACEPOP, bub. Not SPACEPUP.”
“Of course, of course.” Hansome laughed his gruff belly laugh, which made Luna swoon—again. The miniature holo-version of the captain patted his blue-and-pink Mohawk into place and adjusted his worn leather vest over his muscled chest. “I just mean, if you secure clearance to enter these planets for your band stuff, you won’t be calling attention to yourselves as spies. You’ll garner plenty of attention for your cute little songs, of course.”
The girls exchanged irritated looks. Hansome was constantly dismissing their band as fluff and failing to realize the impact their successful missions had had on his precious Resistance. They had destroyed Geela’s servers and taken down her whole media empire! Yet he never gave them the credit they were due. Whenever they reported back to him after a mission, he would scold them for not following his orders to the letter, write off their successes as lucky breaks, or take credit for the results himself. Someday, the princesses hoped, he would realize just how useful they were … to him, and to the Pentangle Galaxy.