'That was us!' yelled the Space Brigade as one.
'You're kidding!' said Katie.
'So I guess now you've got Katie back you don't need to help us with the revolution,' said Topaz, once they'd all stopped exchanging stories. 'You'll probably be wanting to go straight back to Earth.'
Nicola was about to answer but Katie got in first. 'No way! We have to help you! Silent Fred and Joy are keeping Enrico away from the Hostage Room by pretending that I've caught some sort of horrible contagious disease, but they won't be able to keep that up forever. Enrico will find out the truth eventually and I don't want anyone to get in trouble because of me when he does.'
'That's not your responsibility. We'd understand if you wanted to return home,' said Serena.
'We wouldn't just desert you,' said Nicola.
'We can't go back to Earth,' said Tyler.
'We must do our duty,' agreed Nicola. Our noble duty, she thought grandly to herself.
'No, I mean we can't,' said Tyler. 'Enrico has still got our spaceship, remember?'
'Oh, that's right,' said Nicola. It somehow didn't feel quite so noble once she realised they were trapped on Shobble.
'He's keeping it under his bed,' said Shimlara unexpectedly.
'How do you know that?' asked Tyler.
'I remember reading his mind when he took it,' said Shimlara. 'He thought, The little peasants will never think to look under my bed.'
'That's really creepy the way you do that,' said Joshua.
At that moment there was a thud of something falling.
'Someone's sent us a message through the underground chute,' said Serena. She walked over to the side of the cave, moved aside a rock and picked up a tube with a rolled-up parchment inside it.
'Wow. I wish we had a way of contacting each other like that on Earth,' said Sean.
'We do,' said Tyler patiently. 'It's called the postal system.'
Serena looked at the parchment and brought it over to Topaz. 'It's from that newspaper reporter,' she said.
Topaz took the letter. She read a few lines then looked up and smiled. 'She's going to run a story about the protest march for us!' She went back to reading and her smile disappeared.
'What is it?' asked Nicola anxiously.
Topaz looked up again. 'Enrico has found out that Katie escaped. He's not happy.'
'What do you mean by "not happy"?'
Topaz said, 'He's on his way to find us.'
35
'Everyone who helped Katie has gone into hiding,' said Topaz. 'Joy, Silent Fred, the nice Security Thugs and all of the Katie Hobbs Fan Club.'
Katie looked devastated. 'I shouldn't have escaped,' she said. 'I've put them all in danger!'
'It gets worse,' said Topaz. 'Everyone in this cave has been put on trial for a whole list of crimes. We've all been found guilty.'
'What sort of crimes?' asked Nicola.
'Let's see.' Topaz looked again at the reporter's letter. 'Disobeying a direct order of the Commander-in-Chief, Impersonating a Hairity, Stealing a Hot-Air Balloon.'