The Shocking Trouble on the Planet of Shobble

by L. M. Moriarty

  She opened her mouth to speak but Shimlara spoke first. Her face was clenched, as if she had a toothache. ‘I was reading Enrico’s mind before. Even if we do achieve the mission he doesn’t intend to let us off Shobble. He knows that more and more people are supporting Topaz and they’ll be upset if anything happens to her, so he wants to make examples of us all. He’s planning a huge public trial. We’ll all be found guilty of murdering Topaz and then he’ll put us in something called a mobile jail for the rest of our lives. We’ll be taken around from village to village in a glass cage so the people can throw rocks and spit at us. He thinks the meaner he is to us, the more the people of Shobble will love him. He wants to give the people someone to hate – and that will be us.’

  Nicola, Sean, Tyler and Greta all stared at Shimlara with open mouths. Even Joy looked shocked. This nightmare was getting worse and worse.

  ‘Oh!’ said Shimlara. ‘One more thing. To ensure we can never tell anyone the truth, he’s going to do to us what he did to Silent Fred. He was so pleased with himself for thinking of it. He kept saying to himself, My extraordinary intelligence never ceases to amaze me.’ She looked at Joy questioningly. ‘What does that mean? What did he do to Silent Fred?’

  Joy’s eyes filled with tears. She took a trembling breath and explained, ‘Once my husband had a beautiful voice. He was the lead singer of The Fleas, a famous Shobble rock ’n’ roll band. When Enrico came into power he banned all music. He introduced the Quiet-please decree. Well, Fred thought he couldn’t be serious and went ahead and performed. Straight after the concert Enrico’s Security Thugs took Fred away. They gave him something to drink and told him it was lemonade. It wasn’t! It was a sort of chemical concoction that burns your tongue so badly you can never speak again. The last five words Silent Fred ever said were, “Gee, thanks! I love lemonade!”’

  There was silence except for the sound of running water as everybody imagined their tongues being burned so badly they could never speak again.

  Each time Nicola thought she couldn’t be more shocked by Enrico’s evil, she learned something new and disturbing about him.

  ‘I guess we could just say no thank you to lemonade,’ mused Sean, but everybody ignored him.

  ‘How did such a vile person become the Commander-in-Chief of such a lovely planet?’ asked Shimlara.

  ‘He wasn’t always evil,’ said Joy. ‘I’ve known him since he was a teenager. He was a charming, rather nervous sort of boy, although he did like to get his own way. Anyway, he rose up through the ranks until he became the Commander. People adored him! And that’s when he slowly began to change. All that power and popularity went to his head. It rotted him from the inside. Yes, rotted! That’s the word! He’s gone black and evil like rotten fruit!’

  The bath was nearly full. Joy wiped a tear from her eye and leaned towards them, her sweet face serious.

  ‘You’re in a terrible predicament and I believe there is only one person on this planet who can help.’

  ‘Who is that?’ asked Tyler.

  Joy paused, as if she wasn’t sure if she should say what she was about to say. Then she took a deep breath and said, ‘Topaz Silverbell. The girl you’ve been hired to kill!’

  15

  It was about three o’clock in the morning and Nicola lay in her four-poster bed staring into the darkness.

  STOP THINKING AND GO TO SLEEP, she ordered herself.

  She needed to be well rested for tomorrow morning’s journey. The Space Brigade had agreed that they needed to find Topaz to at least talk to her.

  ‘Why Topaz? How could she help us?’ Nicola had asked Joy.

  Joy’s reply had been unexpected. ‘I think the Space Brigade should join forces with Topaz and help her overthrow Enrico!’

  Nicola still didn’t know if they should help her overthrow Enrico or not. It seemed like stirring up trouble, as her mum would say. Joy had said that Topaz didn’t believe in violence and was hoping for a ‘peaceful revolution’. ‘Oh,’ Sean had said, clearly disappointed. ‘Are you sure about that? Because from what I’ve heard, peaceful revolutions don’t really work.’

  Nicola sat up and punched hard at her pillows to make them more comfortable. She couldn’t stop thinking and worrying about Katie. What sort of bed was she sleeping in? Was she also lying awake, worrying? GO TO SLEEP! Nicola closed her eyes tight, but now there was a strange noise disturbing her. It sounded like the flapping of a bird’s wing.

  What was that?

  Nicola sat up in bed. There it was again – a sort of soft thwack, thwack sound. It was coming from outside.

  She threw back the covers and hurried over to the window. She pressed her nose against the glass. It had stopped snowing and the moonlight made everything bright and clear against the gleaming snow. There was a man standing knee-deep in snow and tapping a giant feather against Nicola’s window. Although he was bundled up in warm clothes, Nicola recognised him immediately. It was Silent Fred. When he saw her, he put his finger to his lips.

  As quietly as she could, Nicola lifted the window. Silent Fred beamed and held up one finger, as if to say, ‘Just a minute.’ Then he took a piece of paper from his pocket and folded it into a paper plane. He stood back and took aim. His paper plane glided straight through Nicola’s window. She picked it up and waved it at Silent Fred to show she had it safely. He gave her a cheerful thumbs-up and trudged off through the snow.

  A cold blast of air made her shiver. She pulled down the window and got back into bed. Switching on her bedside lamp, she carefully unfolded the paper plane to reveal a message written in red ink. Nicola knew the handwriting well; it was Katie’s.

  Dear Nicola,

  PLEASE DON’T WORRY ABOUT ME. I AM FINE! I am in a room they call the ‘hostage room’ somewhere right at the bottom of Enrico’s house. It’s not as bad as it sounds. They have made it very comfortable for me – I guess because I am a HAIRITY. (It’s all so silly and I hate that ‘hairity’ word – it makes me think of something my cat would cough up.)

  I can imagine that Sean wants to plan a big rescue mission but there is NO POINT. I am being guarded by more Security Thugs than I can count.

  Silent Fred brings me my food so I am hoping he will get this note to you.

  I know you and the others will work out some way to convince Enrico to let me out. Don’t forget how we convinced Princess Petronella not to destroy Earth!

  In the meantime I am trying hard to become friends with the Thugs. My Travel Scrabble set has come in handy. The Thugs had never heard of the game and tonight I suggested we play it. They loved it! The meanest-looking one with the piggy eyes got a triple word score and he was so happy! See! I knew it would come in handy!

  I know you’ll be worried about me but everything will work out fine, you’ll see. Say ‘hi’ to the others.

  Lots of love,

  Your friend,

  Katie xxx

  PS Try not to let Greta annoy you. Remember, you are the BEST!

  The Space Brigade would fall apart without you as our leader.

  PPS I am cutting all my hair off as soon as we get back to Earth.

  Nicola laughed and almost cried. Leave it to Katie to be thinking about other people. If Nicola were in the same situation, she would have sent only one line: GET ME OUT OF HERE NOW!

  She folded the letter up carefully and put it in her backpack. At least she knew Katie was managing to keep her spirits up.

  Nicola lay back down in bed and questions she couldn’t answer filled her head.

  What would Topaz be like? How much time had already passed on Earth? Was the Time Squeeze working? Should they help Topaz overthrow –

  Suddenly, as if she’d just stepped into a deep black hole, Nicola fell asleep.

  It seemed like only seconds later that she woke to find the room filled with a kaleidoscope of glimmering colour. The sun had risen and Shobble’s rainbows were out again.

  Nicola sat up, rubbing her eyes. She could hear a strange high sound that wa
s like a cross between a horse’s neigh and a turkey’s gobble. The ShobGobbles were obviously being saddled up in their stables.

  There was no time to waste. Topaz had to be found at once.

  16

  Tyler, an early riser like Nicola, was already on the front steps of the mansion when Nicola got there, stamping his feet to keep warm.

  Nicola gave him a nudge on the shoulder to say hello, then looked up at the rainbows soaring above them. At this time of the morning the light wasn’t too bright and you didn’t need sunglasses to appreciate the colour-splashed snowy landscape. She took a deep breath. Something about all this beauty made her feel stronger.

  ‘Did you sleep okay?’ she asked.

  ‘Not really. I was worrying about Katie and then when I did finally get to sleep I dreamed that Enrico put our spaceship into the washing machine on the maxi-wash cycle.’ Tyler rubbed his eyes. ‘I woke up screaming.’

  The front door of the mansion opened and Shimlara and Greta appeared together, both pulling their backpacks over their shoulders, running fingers through their messy hair and yawning.

  ‘I had such bad dreams,’ said Shimlara. ‘I kept dreaming that Enrico was offering me tall glasses of lemonade to burn my tongue.’

  Greta looked around irritably. ‘I see Sean isn’t here yet.’

  ‘I hope he’s not still asleep,’ said Nicola, thinking about the times her dad had resorted to spraying Sean with a water pistol to try and wake him up for school.

  There was a clip-clopping sound. Silent Fred and Joy came walking down the driveway, leading five ShobGobbles by their reins. Two scowling Security Thugs stomped behind them.

  ‘I hope the ShobGobbles are easy to ride,’ said Nicola. She’d only been on a horse once before.

  ‘Good morning, Space Brigade,’ said Joy. She was speaking much more formally than the night before, obviously conscious of the Security Thugs listening to her every word. ‘These are your ShobGobbles. They’re fresh out of training school and haven’t been given names yet. You’re welcome to name them yourselves.’

  She pointed at the large saddlebags slung across the ShobGobbles’ broad backs. ‘You’ll find plenty of provisions for your journey.’

  Shimlara stroked the glossy feathers of the nearest ShobGobble. ‘What do they eat?’

  Silent Fred held up his board. It said: Indigo berries. He’d sketched a little picture that looked like a bunch of misshapen grapes.

  ‘They grow wherever the rainbows shine indigo light,’ said Joy. Silent Fred handed each of them a large white feather about the size of a cricket bat.

  ‘ShobGobbles are very sensitive,’ said Joy. ‘You just brush your feather-whip very gently against their sides.’

  Silent Fred was still holding out one last feather. ‘Oh,’ said Joy, looking around. ‘Where is –’

  The mansion doors opened and Sean came skidding down the steps towards them.

  ‘Sorry I’m late,’ he said. ‘I had the worst night’s sleep. My room was between Tyler’s and Shimlara’s. Tyler kept waking me up yelling something weird like, “At least use the GENTLE cycle!” and Shimlara kept screaming, “But I’m NOT thirsty!”’

  ‘Sorry,’ said Shimlara and Tyler together. ‘Bad dreams.’

  ‘Now you have your maps?’ said Joy. She glanced at the Thugs and put on a ferocious voice: ‘So you can track down that evil, horrible, nasty girl, Topaz Silverbell!’

  Silent Fred discreetly handed Joy his blackboard. Nicola saw that it said: No need to overdo it, love. He rubbed it out quickly while Joy looked embarrassed.

  ‘Yes, we’ve got our maps.’ Nicola patted her top pocket. She’d studied the map for ages trying to work out the fastest, easiest way to reach Topaz.

  ‘I’ve worked out the best way to get there,’ said Greta. She pulled out her own map and Nicola saw she’d drawn a series of neat little arrows across it. ‘We head east through the Forest of Thwarted Dreams, cross the Raging River at the Touch-and-Go Bridge, then travel west towards Treachery Bay and directly north across the Perilous Sea to the foothills of the Cloud-Capped Mountain.’

  ‘Uh, okay . . .’ said Nicola uncertainly. She knew that Greta was much better at geography than anyone else in the group, but some of those places sounded pretty unpleasant. She took a deep breath. ‘I was planning for us to head west through the Valley of High Hopes, cross the Raging River at the Safe Hands Bridge, then go east through the Sweet Dream Swamplands and south across the Honey Sea to the foothills of the Cloud-Capped Mountain.’

  ‘That would take much longer!’ scoffed Greta.

  ‘Yes, but Nicola’s way would actually get you there,’ said Joy. ‘Nobody ever makes it through the Forest of Thwarted Dreams. They always have to turn around and come back. That’s why it’s called Thwarted Dreams.’

  ‘Well, I don’t even know what that stupid word “thwarted” means,’ muttered Greta. ‘It sounds like wart!’

  ‘To thwart someone means to stop them from doing something,’ explained Nicola, trying hard not to sound like she was showing off. (Although on the inside she was giving herself a high five and thinking, YES! My way is better!)

  ‘Okay, so we go Nicola’s way,’ said Shimlara impatiently.

  Joy was still studying Nicola’s map. ‘Yes, it will probably take you about two days. Tonight you can stay at the Why Not Drop Inn. It’s just a few kilometres past the Safe Hands Bridge. You’ll be very comfortable there.’

  She seemed as if she badly wanted to say something else but the Security Thugs were hovering.

  Suddenly there was a commotion from inside the mansion. The doors opened and a flustered servant appeared, wringing her hands.

  ‘There’s a crisis!’ she called. ‘Enrico says his cornflakes aren’t crunchy enough! He says they’re disgustingly . . . SOGGY!’

  The two Thugs immediately ran up the steps towards the mansion doors speaking urgently into their radios. ‘Code Soggy. Code Soggy. I repeat, we have a Code Soggy. This is not a drill.’

  As soon as they were gone Joy dropped her formal tone and spoke urgently. ‘Enrico’s spies will be everywhere,’ she told them. ‘They’ll be sending back information to Enrico. So watch what you say.’

  Silent Fred grabbed Joy’s arm and pointed at something on his forehead.

  ‘Oh, yes,’ said Joy. ‘One more thing. We don’t know how many people support Topaz. Some people think that because Enrico is our Commander-in-Chief he can do no wrong. Others are just so nice they think it’s bad manners to complain. And of course, everyone is frightened of the Thugs. So, if you want to know if someone is a Topaz supporter you can recognise them by this secret mark.’

  She pushed back her frizzy hair. High on her forehead was a tiny speck like a freckle, but when Nicola looked closer she saw it was actually a tiny letter ‘t’.

  The door to the mansion opened again, and another servant yelled, ‘All hands on deck! Enrico’s toast is . . . lukewarm!’

  Joy and Silent Fred rolled their eyes at each other.

  ‘You’d better get going,’ said Joy. Silent Fred helped each of them climb up on to the saddles of their ShobGobbles.

  ‘Good luck,’ said Joy fervently.

  Silent Fred held up his board. It said, We’ll keep an eye on Katie for you.

  Nicola felt like she was very high up off the ground. She clung to her ShobGobble’s back with her knees and grasped her reins tightly. She noticed that the rest of the Space Brigade were all watching her expectantly.

  Whenever you don’t feel confident, just pretend you are, her mum had told her once when she was nervous about a speech she had to give.

  Nicola lifted her chin. ‘Follow me,’ she said, and tapped her feather-whip against her ShobGobble’s back.

  17

  ‘WHOA!’

  The ShobGobble shot off like a firecracker exploding. Nicola’s head snapped back and her legs gripped the saddle in panic. Her feather-whip nearly slipped from her grasp as her ShobGobble pounded down Enrico’s long
driveway, splattering snow with its hooves.

  Cold wind rushed against her face, tearing the breath from her throat and blurring her eyes. She could hear cries and shouts from the other members of the Space Brigade behind her. It seemed they were all having the same trouble. A ShobGobble streaked past hers with someone clinging desperately to its back. She recognised Sean’s voice yelling, ‘WHAT’S YOUR HURRY?’

  Up ahead, Nicola could just make out the huge brick wall that surrounded Enrico’s property. Her ShobGobble seemed to pick up pace.

  ‘WHOA!’ shrieked Nicola again, pulling on her reins. ‘OH PLEASE, PLEASE WHOA!’

  It seemed her ShobGobble was determined to slam them both straight into the wall. She tried to sit up so she could use her feather-whip to guide him towards the gates but it was all she could do to keep her balance. Should she just throw herself off? Which would hurt more, hitting the ground or hitting the wall?

  The wall loomed up in front of them. The ShobGobble lifted his head and stretched out his long neck. Suddenly Nicola knew what he was planning to do. He was going to try to jump over the wall.

  ‘No!’ she cried. There was no way they could make it!

  Her ShobGobble ignored her. In one powerful movement he leapt into the air. Nicola closed her eyes, leaned forward and buried her face into the animal’s strange-smelling feathery neck.

  Suddenly, the roaring sound in her ears vanished. All she could hear was the sweet chirping of a bird. Nicola opened her eyes and laughed with delight.

  ‘You can fly!’ she shouted. ‘I didn’t know you could fly!’

  Her ShobGobble flapped his huge wings, tilted his head and gave her a humorous look as if to say, What’s all the fuss about, Earthling? I know what I’m doing.

  She looked around and saw the other ShobGobbles were also flying over the wall. ‘I just remembered something else about ShobGobbles,’ called Shimlara. ‘They can fly!’