"Yes, but what I was about to say, just before you turned up, was that--"
The princess took a breath and turned away from her father to face Nicola. "I've changed my mind," she said. "I think Earth is a funny, strange, beautiful planet, and you're very lucky it's your home. I should never have said I'd destroy it. I'm sorry."
Nicola felt such a fizzy happy feeling she thought she might float away like a balloon.YES! The mission was successful! At last!
The king and queen looked at their daughter, aghast. "Darling, we're royalty.We don't say that word!"
"What word?"
"That word beginning with s."
"But I am sorry."
"It doesn't matter.You should never admit it out loud.
Otherwise people will think we're just like them and that we can make mistakes."
"But I did make a mistake."
The queen threw up her hands in frustration. "Nelly, you're going to be the death of me!"
The king said, "Let's just not hear that sort of language again, Nelly. Now it's true that we would never have approved of your decision to destroy Earth. It's such a dear little planet! What were you thinking? Why not destroy Arth if you felt like destroying a planet? So, we're glad you've come to your senses about that, but there is no need to act like a commoner and apologize.We don't speak like that in our family."
"Okay, fine, whatever," said the princess. "Do you think you could just go away now? We were toasting marshmallows and then we're going to sleep on the beach and boogie on waves before breakfast!"
The king and queen looked baffled.
"Obviously we have to take your kidnappers straight off to jail," said the king. "They must be tortured!"
The Space Brigade moved closer to each other, their faces ashen.
"But they're my friends!" wailed the princess. "I've never had friends before!"
The queen said soothingly, "Well, we'll only torture them the teeniest bit, and keep their jail sentences to twenty years! That's more than generous."
"Generous?" muttered Sean.
"But I don't want them locked away in jail. I want to keep them in my room!"
It seemed that the princess still had a bit to learn about friendship.
"Excuse me," said Greta. "We may be your friends, but we're not your toys."
"See, they're not even friendly!" pointed out the king. "They must go straight to jail.What sort of example would it be to the rest of the galaxy if we just let anybody kidnap us when they don't like our decisions? Guards, bring out the other prisoners--we'll handcuff them all together for convenience!"
Other prisoners?
They all looked toward the spaceship as the guards roughly pulled out two handcuffed people.
It was Shimlara who recognized them first.
"MOM and DAD! Hey! Stop pushing my parents around like that, you big bullies!"
Georgio and Mully shuffled down the walkway, both still wearing their pajamas, their ankles chained and their hands cuffed in front of them.
"Ahoy there!" cried Georgio cheerfully. "What a superb Earth beach! Have you been swimming in an Earth ocean, Shimlara?! I'm very envious!"
"Oh dear, all of you are drenched!" said Mully. "You'll catch colds!"