PROLOGUE
Two girls and a boy stood knee-deep in snow on the side of a mountain. A thousand dazzling rainbows soared above them. Beneath them a frozen sea shimmered like a giant sapphire.
The shorter of the girls had curly red-gold hair that blew in a halo around her head and dimples that dented her cheeks even when she wasn't smiling.
She was in a bad mood.
'Are you sure it's true?' she snapped.
'No. I made the whole thing up just to ruin your day,' sighed the boy. He was her younger brother, which explains a lot.
The other girl, who had dark brown frizzy hair and a pale, serious face didn't say anything. She was thinking, pressing her finger hard against her bottom lip.
The girl with the red-gold hair blew her nose noisily. She said, 'I just never thought things would go this far. It's frightening.'
'Yes,' admitted the boy. 'But we'll fight!'
'Of course we'll fight! What is this evil Earthling's name?'
The boy pulled a sheet of paper from his back pocket and examined it.
'Nicola,' he answered. 'Nicola Berry.'
1
Nicola Berry had a problem.
She needed to make a long-distance phone call.
An extremely long-distance phone call.
She needed to ring someone who lived on another planet.
Unfortunately, whenever Nicola's mother opened the phone bill lately, she made a sound like she had a fishbone stuck in her throat. If an intergalactic phone call appeared on the bill she might stop breathing altogether.
Nicola pondered her problem while she sliced a banana to put on top of her breakfast cereal. The house was still and silent. A shaft of summer sunlight was creeping its way across the kitchen floor. It was early Saturday morning and her brother and parents were still sound asleep. They wouldn't be up for hours, when they would appear rubbing their eyes and saying things like, 'You're up already? Why?'
Eating her cereal at the kitchen table, Nicola studied the newspaper clipping her dad had pinned to the noticeboard. The headline read:
NICOLA AND HER FRIENDS SAVE THE WORLD!
She frowned. She still got the strangest feeling from seeing her name in a newspaper. Nicola read the first paragraph of the article again.
Last week, Nicola Berry and a group of young friends she refers to as 'The Space Brigade' undertook a daring intergalactic mission to kill an unspeakably evil alien princess - Princess Petronella - who had been left in charge of the planet of Globagaskar while her parents were on holiday. The spoiled young princess had come up with a despicable plan to destroy Earth. Fortunately, Nicola and her young friends found out about the Princess's intentions. They travelled to Globagaskar by spaceship and kidnapped the Princess from her palace bedroom . . . Now the Princess is dead and Earth has been saved, thanks to the heroic efforts of 'The Space Brigade'.
The newspaper reporter had got it wrong. Nicola and the Space Brigade had kidnapped the Princess and convinced her not to destroy Earth but they certainly hadn't killed her! The Princess was very much alive and kicking on the planet of Globagaskar.
Actually, she was kicking all day long, according to her latest i-mail (intergalactic email - sent from the super-advanced computer in the Globagaskar Palace all the way through outer space and cyberspace to the Berry family's battered old computer in their living room). The Princess had i-mailed to say that her new hobby was kickboxing and she was spending hours practising on her poor guards.
Without a doubt, travelling to Globagaskar and kidnapping the Princess had been the scariest thing Nicola had ever done. Not surprisingly, most people assumed Nicola was in no hurry to head off into outer space again. 'You probably want to put your feet up, eat popcorn and watch TV for the next twenty y
ears or so, hey, Nic?' her dad had said hopefully.
Little did he know that Nicola was actually hoping for the Space Brigade to embark on its second intergalactic mission very soon.
She put down her spoon and pulled a crumpled white card from her pocket to read it for about the twelve-hundredth time. It said:
Dear Nicola,
I understand you're the leader of a brigade of highly trained intergalactic freedom fighters and that you recently saved a planet by the name of EARTH.
Our small but exquisite planet is currently facing grave danger of a rather unusual kind and we would like to engage your services. Payment would be both generous and delicious.
If you are available and interested in taking on a new mission, please don't hesitate to call this number: 902856082484509342508905180891230943809421.
We look forward with much anticipation to hearing from you,
COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF,
PLANET OF SHOBBLE
Nicola looked longingly at the phone. If she didn't hurry up and ring him, the Commander might find another brigade of 'highly trained intergalactic freedom fighters'.