Pirate Spacecat Attack (Geronimo Stilton Spacemice #10)

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Pirate Spacecat Attack (Geronimo Stilton Spacemice #10) Page 5

by Geronimo Stilton


  “

  Hurry up!

  ” the mean pirate replied.

  “I want to leave this flea-ridden planet

  before nightfall.”

  The three pirate spacecats

  took off

  immediately,

  disappearing into the city

  streets.

  Left on his own, Black

  Star

  extended his claws

  and began sharpening

  them on a stone.

  Squeak!

  How scary!

  Here’s the Plan . . .

  I’ll take

  care of it!

  “Did you hear that?” Sally whispered.

  “The pirate spacecats have already

  set up

  Hologramix as their spaceship’s onboard

  computer. We have to get Hologramix back

  before their ship leaves or we might

  NEVER

  find them again!”

  “I’ve got this!” Trap

  squeaked confidently.

  “I took three

  cosmic

  karate

  classes last

  year —”

  “Wait!” I cried.

  “Don’t do anything

  foolish

  , Trap! Did

  you see

  Black

  Star

  ’s

  claws? And

  did you hear those other feline meanies?

  They are the

  scariest

  creatures in the

  galaxy! If one of those cats catches us, we’ll

  be

  minced spacemice

  !”

  “Geronimo is right,” Sally agreed. “We

  need to come up with a plan to get into their

  spaceship and rescue Hologramix before

  those rascals get back!”

  We were all quiet as we tried to come up

  with an

  idea

  . Even Fidox seemed to be

  thinking as he

  nuzzled

  his robotic snout

  against my paw. As I patted his head, an

  idea came to me

  suddenly

  .

  “Martian mozzarella!” I exclaimed. “I’ve

  got it: Let’s have Fidox distract Black Star

  while we slip into the spaceship and take

  back

  Hologramix

  !”

  Trap seemed doubtful, but Sally’s eyes lit

  up.

  Woof! Woof!

  “

  That’s a simply brilliant plan, Captain!

  ”

  she squeaked.

  My fur turned as

  red

  as the planet Mars.

  Oh, how embarrassing! I can’t help blushing

  whenever Sally pays me a

  compliment

  .

  But my sweet nephew looked worried.

  “What is it?” I asked, concerned.

  “What if Black Star

  grabs

  Fidox and

  tries to steal or hurt

  him?” he asked.

  “Don’t worry,”

  I assured him.

  “You saw how

  quickly that robot

  can

  run

  , right? And he

  clearly knows this planet like the back of his

  mechanical paw.

  Even if Black Star wanted

  to, he could never catch Fidox!”

  Benjamin smiled, and the robot dog

  barked

  and wagged his tail happily, as if to

  prove my point.

  “Go on, then, Fidox,” Benjamin said,

  patting the robot dog’s head. “Our fate is in

  your paws!”

  The little robot dog ran straight toward

  the

  spaceship

  . Then he started barking to

  get Black Star’s attention. As soon as the evil

  pirate captain glanced over at Fidox, the dog

  jumped up and began scratching the

  shiny

  hull of the spaceship with his metal paws.

  “Hey, what are you doing, you

  mechanical

  mutt

  ?” Black Star shouted. “Go away!”

  Fidox kept his paws on the hull.

  “Oh yeah?” the pirate

  growled

  . “Get

  your greasy robot paws off my spaceship

  right now! Or I’ll have fun taking you apart

  piece

  by

  piece

  ! You’ll be

  a pile of scrap metal

  in no time.”

  Black Star

  lunged

  at Fidox, and the

  robotic pup took off, zipping in and out of

  the parked

  spaceships

  . Black Star

  followed him, growling and shaking his

  sharp claws at him.

  Holey craters! Our plan had

  worked

  .

  Now it was our turn to slip onto the pirate’s

  spaceship and

  rescue

  Hologramix!

  “Trap, you stay on guard duty,” I said.

  “If any of the

  pirate

  spacecats

  come back,

  whistle loudly. Sally and Benjamin, follow

  me! It’s time to

  free

  Hologramix!”

  Trapped!

  The inside of the spaceship was so

  dark

  we had to use our wrist phone

  flashlights

  to see. Sally quickly figured out the way

  to the control room, and we followed her,

  single file

  .

  Suddenly, a door opened and we

  heard

  Hologramix!

  “Who are you?” its voice demanded as a

  huge hologram in the shape of a spacecat’s

  face materialized in front of us.

  Martian mozzarella, what was

  going on?

  The hologram

  looked

  like a spacecat,

  but it sounded just like Hologramix!

  “Wh-what?!” I stuttered. “Who are

  we

  ?

  Who are

  you

  ?”

  But . . .

  that’s

  Hologramix’s

  voice!

  Who are you?

  “Who am I?!” the hologram replied. “I

  am Holocattix, this spaceship’s onboard

  computer. And you cheesebrains are all

  trespassing

  !”

  “No, you’re Hologramix,” Sally squeaked.

  “You’re

  MouseStar 1

  ’s onboard computer!”

  “

  Ha, ha, ha!

  ”

  Holocattix cackled. “That’s

  funny! You’re on the wrong spaceship.

  What are you doing here, you rascally

  rodents?”

  I tried to squeak, but my throat was so

  dry,

  nothing

  came out.

  “The pirate spacecats stole you and

  reconfigured you,” Sally tried to explain.

  “You really belong to the spacemice. We’re

  here to

  rescue

  you and take you back to

  the

  MouseStar 1 with us!”

  But it was impossible to reason with

  Holocattix.

  Help!

  Ack!

  Buzzzz

  Buzzzz

  “The pirate spacecats aren’t
>
  thieves!” the hologram replied. “I

  think you

  rats

  are the thieves, and

  this is what we do to

  thieves

  around

  here . . .”

  Suddenly, two scary

  flying

  robots

  stormed in through an

  opening in the ceiling. They looked

  like giant SPACE

  INSECTS

  . They

  buzzed above us menacingly

  as the door to the command room closed

  behind us.

  We were trapped!

  “Now we’ll wait for Black Star,” the

  hologram growled. “He’ll decide what to do

  with you!

  Ha, ha, ha!

  ”

  I tried to contact Trap with my

  wrist

  phone

  , but as soon as I touched it . . .

  My wrist phone turned off, as if the battery

  had

  died

  .

  Holocattix laughed.

  “Did you really think I would let you use

  your communication device?” it cackled.

  “Wishful thinking, rascally rodent!

  Ha,

  ha, ha!

  ”

  ZING!

  Tell Us a Story,

  Captain!

  Stinky space cheese!

  What were we going

  to do? As long as Hologramix continued to

  believe it was really a pirate spacecat, we were

  in

  big

  trouble

  ! It seemed we had no choice

  but to wait for

  Black

  Star

  to return.

  As we waited, I stared at Hologramix — I

  mean,

  Holocattix

  . I recalled my first

  days as captain of the MouseStar 1. Back

  then, I had

  no

  clue

  how to operate a

  spaceship. Thankfully, Hologramix had been

  there to

  help me

  . I don’t know what I

  would have done

  otherwise!

  With nothing else to do as we waited, I

  began

  reminiscing

  fondly about those days.

  “Hologramix was the best onboard

  computer a captain could ever wish for,”

  I said with a sigh. “On my first mission

  to

  Uranus

  , I forgot all the equipment,

  even my thermal

  undershirt

  ! But

  Hologramix realized it before I did and sent

  a

  shuttle

  with all the necessities.”

  Benjamin listened eagerly, a

  sweet

  smile

  on his snout.

  “Go on,” he said encouragingly. “Tell us

  another story, Uncle!”

  “Well, I also remember when we hosted

  the president of the

  INTERSTELLAR

  FREEDOM

  FEDERATION

  on the MouseStar 1. At the

  gala

  reception

  , I brought my grocery list

  up to the podium instead of my welcome

  speech! But Hologramix saved the day by

  mimicking my voice and

  reciting

  the

  speech for me. It was truly fabumouse

  how

  Hologramix

  saved my snout

  !”

  Bzzzzz...

  Bzzzzz...

  Pop!

  “Keep going, Captain!”

  Sally whispered. “I think

  something’s happening to

  Holocattix!”

  I looked up to see

  static

  breaking up

  the hologram of the

  pirate spacecat’s face.

  Great

  galaxies!

  It

  seemed like Holocattix

  was turning back into

  Hologramix again!

  “Your stories seem to

  be triggering some of

  Hologramix’s

  MEMORIES

  ,”

  Sally explained. “Those

  emotions

  are helping to

  remind Hologramix who

  it really is.”

  So I began to

  recount

  one more incident.

  “One time, I thought I had lost my very

  precious notebook, when —”

  “I activated

  MouseStar

  1

  ’s control sensors,”

  a familiar voice cut in. It was Hologramix!

  “I was able to find your notebook just before

  it was shredded by the ship’s superstellar

  paper recycling machine

  !”

  I looked up to see a digital

  mouse snout

  smiling

  at me.

  “Look!” Benjamin

  squeaked excitedly.

  “The hologram

  changed!”

  Stinky

  space

  cheese!

  Hologramix

  was

  back!

  aye

  aye,

  caPtain

  stiltonix!

  “

  CAPTAIN!

  What are you doing here?”

  Hologramix exclaimed. “Actually, what am

  I

  doing here? This is not the MouseStar 1!”

  “It’s a long story,” Sally began. “Basically,

  you were mousenapped and

  re-configured

  by Black Star and his pirate spacecats.”

  “But how?” Hologramix asked. “Also

  when, where, and why?!”

  “We don’t have time to explain it all now,”

  I said quickly. “We have to

  GET OUT

  of here before the pirate spacecats return.

  Please turn off these two

  insect

  robots

  and turn on our wrist

  phones?”

  “

  Aye aye, Captain Stiltonix!

  ” Hologramix

  replied.

  As soon as my wrist phone was working,

  I called Trap.

  “

  Mission

  accomplished!

  ” I announced. “We

  have

  Hologramix

  back and we’re

  leaving the pirate spacecats’ ship. We’ll

  meet you back at our spaceship!”

  “Just a sec, Captain,” Trap replied. “

  I have

  a special delivery for the pirates!

  ”

  So as Sally, Benjamin, Hologramix, and I

  dashed out of Black Star’s ship, Trap slipped

  past us. He was holding a strange-looking

  little box

  in his paws. Shortly afterward,

  he met us back at our spacecraft.

  “What did you do?” I asked him, curious

  .

  He grinned. “Nothing, really,” he replied. “I

  just left a little surprise for our

  spacecat

  ‘friends’ . . .”

  A minute later, our shuttle was blasting

  Huff!

  Puff!

  off into space as we headed back to the

  MouseStar 1. I glanced out the window to

  see Black Star running back to his spaceship,

  gasping for air

  .

  Fidox had do
ne a

  mouserific

  job tiring

  him out!

  I got out my space

  telescope and

  watched

  through the

  window as Black

  Star boarded

  his ship. I saw

  him pick up the

  package Trap had

  left for him. Then he

  began

  shaking

  his paw angrily and

  SHOUTING

  something. He must have

  !

  K

  A-

  B

  O

  O

  O

  O

  M

  !

  realized we had taken back Hologramix!

  Soon Black Star was sitting at his

  spaceship’s controls,

  firing

  up

  the engines!

  “Uh, Thea,” I said

  quickly

  . “We have a

  problem! It looks like Black Star is coming

  after us!”

  Trap just

  chuckled

  .

  “No worries, Cuz,” he said confidently,

  kicking up his paws. “He’s not going

  anywhere.”

  Then he pulled a

  remote control

  from his pocket and pressed a button. A

  moment later . . .

  Black Star’s ship suddenly transformed

  into an amusement park, full of superstellar

  attractions like

  floating slides

  ,

  spinning

  satellites

  , and

  bumper spaceships

  .

  Surprise,

  spacecats!

  Ha,

  ha,

  ha!

  h

  a

  !

  “B-but how did you do that?” I stuttered

  in shock.

  “It’s called a

  portable

  intergalactic

  amusement

  park

  !” Trap squeaked proudly.

  “It’s a new space invention. When we were

  at the university, a group of

  scientists

  gave it to me as a sample. I figured this was

  a pretty good chance to use it!”

  I glanced back out the window at the

  spaceship port as we flew away and saw a

  group of small

  aliens

  lining up to check

  out the new amusement park.

  “Well done, Cuz!” I exclaimed. “Twisterix

  will be proud of you!”

  Holey craters!

  That reminded me that

  in the rush to

  save

  Hologramix and escape

  from the pirate spacecats, we had forgotten

  to say

  good-bye

  to the professor! But I was

  sure we would see him again someday . . .

  everythinG’s

 

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