Earthling Ambassador (Space Brigade 1)

"I just remembered something Mom and Dad said when they sent their first petition to the princess about saving Earth."

"Ye-es?" encouraged Nicola.

"Well, they said the princess gets so much mail, it would be weeks before she would even see it."

"Can't we just take it ourselves and deliver it to her?" asked Tyler.

"Everybody tries that." Shimlara slumped down on her bed, looking despondent. "There are whole wheelbarrows of mail every day. I'm so sorry I didn't think of this earlier."

"Yes, you really should have thought of it," said Greta.

"No worries.We just ring up the princess and ask her to the party," said Sean.

"You can't just ring up the princess," said Shimlara."She has servants to answer her phone. She would never talk to us."

"The best thing would be to deliver the invitation to her personally," said Tyler.

"But you need an appointment to see her," said Shimlara. "Dad made Nicola's appointment weeks before he'd even gone to Earth to pick the Ambassador."

"Oh," said Tyler.

Everybody sat silently, staring at the floor, trying to work out what to do.

Nicola glanced at her countdown watch. It said:

JUST A BIT OVER ONE DAY LEFT--

ALL YOUR CLEVER PLANS SHOULD BE COMING TOGETHER NICELY BY NOW!

Grrrrr.

There was a slight rustle as a handwritten note slid under Shimlara's door. It was a note from Mully saying: do you WANT SOMEHING to EAT or DRINK?

Shimlara wrote on the bottom: YES, PLEASE!!! She slid it back under the door.

"That would be a good way to get the invitation to the princess," commented Katie. "If we could just slide it under her bedroom door."

"Why don't we just sneak in while she's sleeping and put it on her bedside table," said Greta in a sarcastic voice. "Be realistic, Katie."

"Actually," said Shimlara slowly, "maybe that's an option."

"Really?" said Nicola.

"Yep." Shimlara turned to Sean. "We might need you to do some rappeling after all."

CHAPTER 21

It was the middle of the night.The members of the Space Brigade were dressed from head to toe in black (or at least their darkest-colored clothes), with black beanies and thick black stripes of paint on their faces.

Sean was so excited, Nicola thought he might explode. Katie, on the other hand, was so nervous and pale, Nicola was worried she might faint.

Georgio and Mully had gone to bed hours earlier, leaving the Space Brigade asleep in sleep-pouches (Globagaskar's high-tech, softer, snugger version of sleeping bags--they even had their own built-in thermostats so you could adjust the temperature to suit) on Shimlara's bedroom floor. Nicola had felt bad about telling them that the Brigade wasn't taking any new action until the morning, but Shimlara had said they'd understand once Earth was saved.

Everyone reviewed multiplication tables in their heads during dinner to make sure Georgio didn't read their minds and work out what they were doing. He hadn't said anything except to remark that he'd always found the "one times" table hardly worthy of reviewing, giving Sean a pointed look, and that nine nines were not and never had been eighty-two, if anyone happened to be interested.

They had stayed awake for what seemed like ages until the house was still and quiet except for the sound of Georgio snoring.Then, they'd all crept on nervous tippytoes outside to the garage, where Shimlara apparently kept her very own helicopter, in the same way that most Earthling children would keep a bike.

"You've got a helicopter?" Tyler had said when Shimlara had mentioned this.