Earthling Ambassador (Space Brigade 1)

"Fancy living without servants!"The queen ruffled Nicola's hair playfully.

"Speaking of which," Georgio rubbed his wrists where the handcuffs had been. "May I respectfully suggest you call off the garbage dumping, due to begin tomorrow morning? Otherwise, your daughter may wake up in a pile of garbage!"

"Yes, good thinking."The king flicked his hand at the chief guard. "You there, take care of that."

The guard rushed off.

"Work, work, work," said the king. "I never get a moment's rest. I think as soon as we get back home, it will be high time we treated ourselves to a nice, restful vacation, don't you agree, dear?"

"Oh yes," said the queen. "I'm exhausted. Shall we give you people a lift back to Globagaskar?"

"That would be very kind," said Mully.

"Unless, of course, you'd like us to stay with the Space Brigade here on the beach?" Georgio looked at Nicola brightly. "I wouldn't mind trying one of those mershmullows. Squid is staying with his grandma, so we've got the night free now we're not going to jail!"

Nicola thought for a second.There were times when you wanted adults around.There were other times when you just wanted to be alone.

Then she saw the hopeful look in Georgio's eyes and thought about all he and Mully had done to help save Earth.They'd spent hours collecting signatures for their petitions.They'd risked their lives for Earthlings! She knew there was only one answer.

"Of course you can," she said, and Georgio immediately launched into a celebratory chicken dance, while Shimlara covered her embarrassed face with both hands.

CHAPTER 38

The early morning sun was warm on Nicola's face. A gentle salty breeze lifted her hair from her forehead. Some nice person was already up and frying bacon. It smelled delicious.

She stretched out luxuriously in her sleeping bag without opening her eyes.There were two things to be happy about today. It was her birthday, and best of all the mission was complete.

Last night, after the king and queen had left in their giant spaceship, Greta had made another huge, crackling fire, which dried their clothes in a snap.Then they'd drunk mugs of creamy hot chocolate and eaten Tim Tams, while Georgio and Mully had told them about how they'd tricked the palace guards for hours by racing around Globagaskar with Molly Smith's redheaded daughter pretending to be the kidnapped princess in the back of the car.

"Hmm, I think we might need to employ some smarter guards," the princess had said.

&nbs

p; They had also explained that it was Mully who had been responsible for tracking down the king and queen on the Planet of Doom.

"All the time the Committee was convincing people to sign petitions, Mully had a covert operation underway to find the king and queen," Georgio had boasted. "She had some of her old army buddies working undercover to make contact with them.We knew they'd put a stop to the princess's ridiculous plans for turning Earth into a garbage can--oh, excuse me, Princess Petronella."

"It's okay," the princess had said. "It was a pretty ridiculous idea."

After that, Georgio had tried to tell them ghost stories that weren't scary at all and Mully had told them a story about being in the army that actually was pretty scary.Then they had tucked themselves into their sleeping bags on the sand under the stars.The princess had snored like some sort of wild animal and Shimlara couldn't stop laughing, but Nicola had been so tired, she'd fallen into a deep, dreamless sleep right away.

Now it was morning. She was a year older. Everything was perfect.

"OH NO! HERE COMES THE GARBAGE!" shouted someone and at the same moment something cold and greasy landed splat on Nicola's face.

She opened her eyes in panic. Had the mission failed after all? She wriggled around desperately in her sleeping bag, trying to get to her feet.

"Happy Birthday, Nic," Sean picked up the sandy piece of bacon he'd just thrown in her face.

"Thanks a lot," growled Nicola and wiped her cheek. "You nearly gave me a heart attack."

She realized her countdown watch was beeping and flashing like crazy. It said:

ALERT! ALERT!

NO TIME REMAINING! NO TIME REMAINING!

IS MISSION COMPLETE? IS MISSION COMPLETE?