Earthling Ambassador (Space Brigade 1)

What would happen, Nicola wondered, if I slapped this awful girl right across the face?

"I wouldn't even think about it, if I were you."The princess narrowed her eyes.

"It's not good manners to read other people's minds," said Nicola helplessly.

"I'm a princess! I don't NEED good manners! And if you don't leave now, I'm calling the guards, and they'll lock you up forever if I order them to and I won't even have to say PLEASE!"

There was nothing Nicola could do. She'd failed.There wouldn't be any cheering crowds when she got back to Earth. Everybody would hate her. Greta Gretch would say, "I knew you wouldn't be able to do it, Nicola Berry." And what would Georgio say? He'd be so disappointed.

Nicola refused to cry in front of the princess.With her head high, she turned to go back out the archway.

"Hey!" the princess shouted.

Nicola turned around and the princess tossed her the globe.

"You can keep it," she said. "It will be a good souvenir of what your planet looked like before it became my intergalactic garbage can!"

CHAPTER 15

When Nicola walked out of the palace gates, the first thing she saw was Georgio's hopeful face peering at her through the aero-car window. He took one look at the globe, which she carried under her arm, and his smile faded.

"No luck, eh?" he said as she climbed up into the aero-car beside him. "That princess is a tough nut to crack. No problem! We'll think of something else. I'll speak to the other members of the Save the Little Earthlings Committee after work.We'll come up with another idea!"

"What about people on Earth?" asked Nicola. "Should we tell them what happened?" She cringed at the thought of everyone she knew knowing she had failed.

"Yes, I suppose it's only courteous I let your world leaders know things aren't going so well," said Georgio, absentmindedly tapping the dashboard as they glided back down the hill away from the Rainbow Palace. "Perhaps they'll come up with another idea, but they're a funny lot. Some of them want to declare war on Globagaskar, which is pretty silly, as they don't even know where we are. Some of them want to build a gigantic umbrella over Earth to protect it from the garbage, but they've no idea how to build such a thing. A few of them still think it's all an elaborate hoax and doubt the princess even exists.They can't agree on what to do. Last I heard, the argument had got so heated, they were threatening to declare an all-out world war!"

"Oh," said Nicola. So much for hoping the grown-ups could work things out.

"Don't worry," Georgio said, sounding worried to death. "We'll work something out.Watch out, BOOFHEAD!"Their aero-car zoomed straight into the side of an aero-truck and bounced off, causing a big burly truck driver to shake his head disapprovingly.

They arrived back home just as Shimlara was getting off her school aero-bus. Georgio dropped Nicola off and headed back to the university. He said he was going to ask all his intergalactic history and culture students to write essays on how to save Earth. "Who knows?" he said. "They might come up with something, and at least it will keep them busy."

"Mmmm," said Shimlara sympathetically when she saw Nicola. "I think by the look on your face, you probably did as well as on your mission as I did on my galactic geography test."

"Oh, Shimlara!" said Mully, coming out of the front door. "You didn't fail, did you?" She paused and gave Nicola an apologetic glance. "Of course, I don't mean you failed, Nicola."

"Really sensitive, Mom!" said Shimlara.

"I did fail," said Nicola sadly. "I failed completely."

And then she made the mistake of looking at her countdown watch. It still said:

Only 2 days left--remember, FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION!

Nicola was starting to really dislike her countdown watch.

"Let's have a swim," Shimlara suggested. "That always makes me feel better."

Nicola was much too short to fit into any of Shimlara's current bathing suits, so she had to borrow one from when Shimlara was about four years old.

"I hope you don't feel embarrassed wearing this," Mully said, holding up the suit, which had dozens of smiling teddy bears all over it. Nicola couldn't care less what she wore, she felt so sad and dispirited.

But she started to feel a little better once she and Shimlara were swimming together in pink, fizzy water that smelled much nicer than the chlorinated water in swimming pools on Earth.

Shimlara showed Nicola how to pull a little cord on her teddy-bear bathing suit, so it filled with air and she could float on top of the water as easily as if she were lying on top of a bed. It must be just like swimming in the Dead Sea, thought Nicola as she stretched out comfortably.

But what about all those people floating happily on top of the Dead Sea when the garbage started to fall? The garbage would never sink! "That Nicola Berry even ruined the Dead Sea," people would say to one another.