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The Invisible Planet (Geronimo Stilton Spacemice #12)

Page 3

by Geronimo Stilton

carrying an electronic manual that looked

  like a tablet.

  One of them shrugged. “See? There are so

  many BUTTONS! Without our technician,

  we can’t seem to get it open.”

  Sally had already gotten to work. In no

  time, she unlocked the manual and began to

  scroll through its contents. Cheesy comets,

  what a brilliant mouse!

  When she finished reading, she said, “This

  is just a simple instruction manual. There’s a

  map that shows how to get to the Planetary

  Invisibility System, see? It even indicates

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  which antitheft devices are activated

  along the way.”

  “Antitheft? I hope they aren’t d-d-

  dangerous!” I squeaked, shivering.

  Claw took me under his arm. “Don’t be

  scared — we’ll go with you! Surely you’ll

  need the guidance of us Scal — I mean, us

  Eh-Hems!”

  We’ll go with you!

  Umm . . .

  Hey!

  He put his other arm around Sally’s

  shoulders and led us down the path mapped

  out in the manual.

  Before long, we arrived in front of a small

  building. When we set paw inside, we found

  ourselves standing before a mysterious

  tunnel.

  One of the deceptiods snickered. “Please,

  guests first!”

  I gathered my courage and stepped

  forward, just as Sally yelled, “Captain, wait!”

  WHOOOOSH!

  A gust of wind tickled my fur.

  “What’s happening?” I squeaked in alarm.

  I took a few steps farther, and —

  SWISH

  WHOOOSH!

  54

  55

  Another gust of

  wind sent me flying

  through the air!

  Cosmic cream puffs,

  I was struck by a real

  windstorm! Now I

  couldn’t go forward at

  all, not even a whisker-

  length!

  Trap grabbed me by

  the ear and ordered,

  “Cousin, get

  down!”

  Sally came forward,

  yelling, “Captain, this

  Hey!

  Aaaah!

  Stop!

  Ouch!

  SWOOSH

  SWISH

  WHOOOSH!

  is the first antitheft device! It’s an

  air-activated floor. You need to dodge

  the airbursts to move forward!”

  I knew one thing — this wasn’t going to be

  easy!

  Thanks to their size, the aliens could move

  forward easily, and my fellow spacemice

  dodged the airbursts fabumousely. With

  Trap’s help, I finally managed to reach the

  end of the tunnel. My fur stood on end.

  I had made such a terrible impression!

  56

  Hee, hee, hee!

  Ha, ha, ha!

  This way!

  Heeelp!

  Come on!

  Hissss

  Run, Captain!

  We continued on our way and eventually

  arrived at the entrance to a room with a

  floor curved like a frying pan.

  “This is strange,” I muttered.

  I didn’t have time to say more because

  Claw pushed me forward with his tail and

  boomed, “Proceed, mouseoid! You go first!”

  I tumbled forward and noticed that the

  walls were curved, too! The chairs,

  desks, and other furniture were all nailed to

  the ground.

  Strange, very strange!

  I entered the room and tried to take a

  few steps, but — squeak! It was cosmically

  complicated!

  Now, I’m not a very sporty mouse, but I

  58

  really couldn’t manage to move my paws

  forward at all! How mysterimouse . . .

  Suddenly, I noticed that the ground was

  no longer beneath my paws — it was slowly

  moving upward! Black holey cheese! The

  room began to roll faster, and faster, and

  faster. It felt like I was inside a supersonic

  washing machine! HEEEELP!

  Sally squeaked out, “This is the second

  antitheft device! It’s a reverse spin-

  cycle room. Captain, to stop it, you need to

  press the red button on the wall!”

  I was scared out of my fur, but I

  knew I had to follow Sally’s directions.

  I began to RUN like an athlete in the Great

  Galactic Games, as fast as my paws could

  take me. With a lot of effort (and even more

  sweat!), I finally managed to press the

  button.

  59

  As quickly as it started, the

  room stopped spinning. The other

  spacemice, along with the aliens,

  easily walked across to me.

  “You were great, Uncle!” Benjamin

  cheered.

  Captain, press

  the red button!

  Come on, Uncle!

  My muscles felt as wobbly as cream

  cheese pudding, but I was happy.

  Sally pushed on a nearby door

  and said, “We made it! Here’s

  the Planetary Invisibility System.

  Fabumouse job, Captain!”

  Pant! Pant!

  What an

  Extraordinary

  Rodent!

  The door led into a laboratory. In the middle

  of the room was an enormouse computer

  surrounded by a huge tangle of wires.

  Sally walked up to the computer and

  carefully analyzed it.

  “I have mousetastic news!” she said.

  “I know this system — I studied it at the

  Plutotechnic University of Ultraphysics and

  Galactic Mechanics! It’s based on a voice-

  generator model.”

  Claw smirked. “It doesn’t seem like it has

  much of a voice to me. This thing is quieter

  than a black hole!”

  62

  All of the deceptiods laughed loudly.

  Sally thought for a moment. “Usually,

  voice systems are really big chatterboxes. If

  yours is quiet, it’s only because . . . it’s been

  jammed!”

  “Jammed?” the aliens said. They were

  suddenly interested.

  “Exactly — the system went into overdrive

  and then turned off,” Sally explained. “But

  it’s functioning. You just need a quick

  reboot to make it talk like before!” Sally

  grabbed her multifunctional pocket tool and

  began working on the computer,

  jumping from one side of the

  enormouse machine to the

  other.

  Leaping light-years,

  what an extraordinary

  rodent!

  63

  My crush on Sally was growing! I have to

  admit, I was watching her so closely that I

  hardly noticed Claw WHISPERING

  something to his friends.

  Psst, psst . . .

  Ah, what an

  extraordinary rodent!

  Suddenly, a noise snapped me out of my

  trance —

  BIP!

  BIIIP!

  BIIIIIP!

  The supercomputer let out a sequence of

  sounds and then lit up like a cluster of

  stars! />
  Galactic Gorgonzola, Sally had done it!

  “Hooray!” Bugsy Wugsy cheered. “That

  was marvemouse! I want to become a

  mechanic just like you, Sally.”

  I was proud of Sally and smiled shyly at

  her. She smiled back, which made me melt

  like cosmic cheddar too close to the sun.

  Cheesy comets, what a mouse!

  I was twisting my tail into knots when a

  voice BOOMED over the loudspeakers.

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  “Good morning and welcome to Lockix,

  spacemice friends!”

  Starry space dust, the Planetary

  Invisibility System had found its voice — and

  it was superpolite!

  “I would like to thank you for the work you

  did fixing me. It is quite a pleasure to

  meet you! I would very much like to chat

  with you, but I must warn you that shortly

  before your arrival, Planet Lockix was

  invaded by the Scaleers. They are large,

  deceptiod aliens . . . and they are extremely

  dangerous!”

  Cosmic cheese chunks,

  did I hear that right?

  Claw and the aliens we had met weren’t

  the real inhabitants of Lockix. Thea was

  66

  right! Suddenly, all of the strange things that

  had happened made sense! And now . . .

  we were in danger!

  Black holey galaxies,

  Planet Lockix had been invaded!

  67

  A Galaxy of

  Trouble!

  The Scaleers surrounded us, but

  Thea stood up tall. “I knew you were hiding

  something!”

  Claw stepped proudly forward and began

  to snicker. “Well, yes, we aren’t the

  ha, ha . . . I mean the hee, hee . . . you know,

  the ho, ho . . . Basically, we aren’t the real

  inhabitants of this silly little planet!” He

  sharpened his nails. “We are the Scaleers,

  the most ferocious, most clever, and most

  dangerous space pirates in the whole

  universe. Thanks to the malfunctioning

  Planetary Invisibility System

  here, it was easy for us to land and take

  68

  over Planet Lockix! And now, thanks to you

  Spacemice, we can make sure no other mice

  find this place again. It’s ours!”

  We were dealing with some real cosmic

  creeps!

  Sally narrowed her eyes. “Why were you

  so interested in Lockix?”

  Claw chuckled. “We need a base for our

  From the Encyclopedia Galactica

  THE SCALEERS

  Planet of origin: Slimedox

  Profession: Space pirates

  Traits: Aggressive, ferocious, and

  love to snicker

  Motto: “You can tell a good day by

  its spoils!”

  raids, and this planet is perfect for

  that. We can hide our stolen loot on Lockix,

  and no one will be able to find it! Who

  would ever think to look on an invisible

  planet?”

  The other Scaleers burst into rowdy

  applause. However, Thea wasn’t intimidated.

  “You’re just a gang of space scoundrels!

  You won’t get away with this!”

  Claw looked at her with a wicked smile

  with this!

  You won’t get away

  on his scaly face. “Oh, you

  galactic fools! Just what

  do you think you’re

  going to do about it?

  No one will be able

  to come rescue you,

  thanks to your help with

  the Planetary Invisibility

  System . . .”

  70

  Stellar Swiss balls, the

  Scaleer captain was right!

  We had helped a gang of space scoundrels,

  and now we were their prisoners. We were

  in a galaxy of trouble!

  71

  Trapped!

  Suddenly, something occurred to me.

  “Wh-what h-h-happened to the r-r-real

  inhabitants of L-Lockix?” I stammered.

  “That is a very interesting question,

  indeed,” Claw said.

  “Wh-why?” I squeaked.

  “Because it’s the same thing that’s going

  to happen to you!” he exclaimed, laughing.

  He turned to his companions and ordered,

  “GRAB THEM! ”

  Rat-munching robots, I was frightened

  out of my fur!

  As quick as comets, the Scaleers

  surrounded us. They led us to a big building

  cloaked in darkness.

  One of them waved an arm at the building.

  72

  Ha, ha, ha!

  We’ll imprison you!

  Noooo!

  Help!

  “Welcome to the Lockix megastadium!”

  As we went inside, another added, “Don’t

  try any tricks! There are always guards

  watching the doors. There’s no escape!”

  Then the Scaleers left, locking the

  enormouse door behind them.

  I was squeakless. We were trapped!

  Wait one whisker-loving minute — we

  weren’t all here! Where were Benjamin and

  Bugsy Wugsy?

  Thea noticed the panicked look on my

  snout. “I saw them slip away,” she said

  quietly. “I’m sure they’re safe!”

  Phew! At least my beloved nephew and

  his friend weren’t trapped in this horrible

  place with us!

  I sighed. “Mousey meteorites, we’re done

  for! We’ll never be able to stop those space

  scoundrels . . .”

  74

  At that moment, a VOICE whispered

  from the shadows, “Who are you?”

  I nearly jumped out of

  my fur! Who said that?

  We flipped on the flashlights on our

  wrist communicators

  and

  looked around. Swiss supernovas — the

  stands were filled with small aliens! They stared at us with a mixture of curiosity

  and fear. I suddenly understood — these

  were the real inhabitants of Lockix, the

  Eh-Hems!

  75

  Who are you?

  Who said that?

  NOW WE’RE

  HERE, TOO!

  Thea breathed a sigh of relief. “You’re the

  inhabitants of Lockix, right? Are you

  all right? What happened?”

  No one answered. In fact, the alien who

  seemed like the leader of the Eh-Hems

  took a step backward and turned his back

  to us.

  How mousetastically strange!

  But then I thought about what we had

  read in the Encyclopedia Galactica, and it

  all made sense!

  I whispered to my friends, “Remember

  what we learned about the Eh-Hems when

  we first arrived here? They are a very private

  77

  species. That’s why they’re behaving like

  this — they’re

  shy!”

  Trap exclaimed, “Good thinking, Gerry

  Berry! That must be it. You know how to

  get them to speak to us, right?”

  I held up my paws in protest.

  “I actually—”

  But Trap pushed me toward the Eh-Hems.

  “A true captain always knows how to gain

  t
he trust of a shy and private alien

  population.”

  Stinky space cheese, he couldn’t be

  serious!

  “Go on, Cousin!” he continued.

  “We’ll all support you from afar.”

  Then he left me alone in front of the very

  confused Eh-Hems.

  Squeeeak! Why did this sort

  of thing always happen to me?

  78

  I tried to start a conversation with the

  aliens. “Hello! Well . . . I . . .”

  The leader of the Eh-Hems gave me a look

  that made me shut my snout.

  I glanced toward Thea, who nodded

  encouragingly. Next to her, Trap was waving

  his arms like a soccerix fan. Sally gave

  me a smile and a thumbs-up. Holey space

  cheese, I couldn’t disappoint my

  friends! But what in the universe could I do

  to gain the trust of these aliens?

  I began to think and think and

  think . . . until I got a fabumouse

  idea. The best thing is always

  to tell the truth!

  I gathered my

  courage

  and turned back to the

  Eh-Hems. “Friends, I am

  Umm . . .

  wh-what?

  79

  Geronimo Stiltonix, captain of the

  spacemice. We landed on Lockix to help you,

  but instead, we got into a

  cosmic

  mess!

  We are truly sorry!”

  The head of the Eh-Hems stopped glaring

  at me, cleared his throat, and spoke in a tiny

  voice. “Eh-hem . . . eh-hem . . .”

  Eh-hem . . . eh-hem

  eh-hem . . .

  I noticed that he was blushing slightly.

  Those aliens were TREMENDMOUSELY shy!

  “Thank you for your honesty, spacemice.

  We Eh-Hems appreciate those who tell the

  truth. Now we know that we can trust

  you.”

  I squeaked a sigh of relief.

  We want to help you!

  Thanks, spacemice!

  He went on. “My name is Sam

  Shyguy, and I am the governor

  of Lockix. Our planet was

  invaded by the Scaleers just

  after the Planetary Invisibility

 

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