Earthling Ambassador (Space Brigade 1)

"All I can see is ... mud." She held her nose. "Bubbling ... black ... mud."

They weren't going to have much luck convincing the princess to save Earth if this was all they could show her. Besides the smell, the sky was a menacing dirty yellow and there wasn't a tree or bird in sight, let alone a butterfly. The mud stretched as far as she could see. It was like they'd landed on a huge mud desert.

"Hopefully we can catch a bus to somewhere nicer," she said to Sean.

"Yeah, but I don't exactly see any bus stops." Sean took off his baseball cap and scratched the top of his head.

Shimlara appeared behind them. "Is this Earth? It doesn't look like I thought it would look. Actually it reminds me of something we studied in intergalactic geography. Now what was it?"

Just then Nicola saw a figure in the distance coming toward them. It looked like a rather plump woman carrying an umbrella.

"Oh good," she said. "We can ask that lady about the nearest bus stop."

"I'll go." Sean jumped out of the spaceship.There was a glooping sound as he sank up to his knees in the black mud.

"Huh!" said Sean, in a pleased way, as if he enjoyed being knee-deep in mud. He began wading his way toward the lady with the umbrella.

Nicola turned back around to find the princess having some sort of fit. She was wriggling around in her seat, bobbing her head up and down, and rolling her eyes like a frightened horse.

"I guess you'd better take the masking tape off now," said Nicola to Katie. "Let's hear what she has to say. As long as her hands stay tied for now."

Katie was nervous as she reached over and tugged gently at the edge of the tape. "This might hurt a little, Princess Petronella."

"Oh for heaven's sake," said Greta, and she ripped the tape from the princess's mouth in one swift movement.

"We're not on Earth, you ridiculous fools," Princess Petronella spat out. "We're on ARTH!"

At the word "Arth," Shimlara gasped.

"And that's NOT a lady your brother is so cheerily waving at," continued the princess. "It's an Arth-Creature looking forward to a delicious Earthling snack!"

CHAPTER 27

"She's right." Shimlara spoke so fast and breathlessly, she could barely get the words out. "Our teacher showed us pictures.That's why it looks familiar. Arth is at the top of the Galaxy's Ten Most Dangerous Planets list. Arth-Creatures eat ALL other species--Globagaskarians, Earthlings, whatever!"

"I mustn't have pressed the E key hard enough."Tyler sounded devastated. "I should have been more careful."

"You were rushing," said Katie. "It could have happened to anyone."

"So are you just going to sit around and have a good long chat about it?" asked Princess Petronella. "May I suggest we get out of here, fast?"

"SEAN!" yelled Nicola. "COME BACK RIGHT NOW!"

Sean didn't seem to hear. He kept wading through the mud toward the creature, waving his arm to get its attention. Either he was too far away to hear Nicola, or he was just pretending not to hear her, which was something he often did when it suited him.

"Nic-o-la."

It was such a croaky, quivery voice and it sounded so unlike Greta that it took Nicola a confused moment to identify the voice. Greta's face was chalky white. "Look." She pointed a shaky finger to the left of Sean and the lady.

Nicola felt a jolt of pure fear. A line of squat furry brown creatures with large umbrella-shaped heads, curved, cruel claws, and hungry, sharp-toothed mouths came lumbering toward Sean.

Nicola could hear a strange low humming sound becoming louder and louder.

"They're smacking their lips," explained Princess Petronella.

"Right," said Shimlara. "Let's go rescue Sean."

"Wait!" Nicola grabbed her by the elbow just before she launched herself from the spaceship. "We need to arm ourselves."