Akiko on the Planet Smoo (6 page)

Spuckler insisted on
being the pilot, and Mr. Beeba agreed only after making him promise that he'd be more careful “than last time.” So Spuckler and Gax took the front seat while Mr. Beeba and I climbed in back. Poog, as before, just floated around after us the whole time.

I could see why Mr. Beeba was nervous about letting Spuckler do the flying. He made the ship go as fast as it could and always waited until the last second before swerving to avoid boulders and cliffs and stuff. I think he was kind of showing off.

“Spuckler! For heaven's sake!” Mr. Beeba was furious.

“Relax, Beeba,” Spuckler said, narrowly missing a huge rock, “I'm jus' gettin' a feel for what this thing is capable of.”

“It's capable of
crashing
, you idiot!” Mr. Beeba bellowed. For such a little guy, he could be awfully loud.

Soon, though, we'd left all the mountains and cliffs behind and were heading out across a big blue sea. With warm sunlight on my shoulders and pretty little waves splashing down below, I was beginning to feel better about things. Maybe this rescue mission wouldn't turn out to be so difficult after all.

“This is the Moonguzzit Sea, Akiko,” Mr. Beeba explained, sounding like a patient schoolteacher. “Alia Rellapor lives in an enormous castle on the other side. It shouldn't take us more than a few hours to cross it.”

“What happens if we fail, Mr. Beeba?” I asked. “I mean, what if we aren't
able
to rescue the Prince?”

“I don't know,” Mr. Beeba replied, frowning. “I suppose we'll all have to
hide
somewhere for a few years—”

“Don't listen to him, Akiko,” Spuckler interrupted. “We'll rescue the Prince, no problem! Right, Gax?”

“
ACTUALLY, SIR . . . ,
” Gax began.

“I said,
‘Right
, Gax?' ” Spuckler shouted, grabbing the poor robot by his long scrawny neck with one hand and steering with the other.

“
IF YOU SAY SO, SIR,
” came Gax's obedient reply. I was beginning to understand that Gax had opinions of his own, even if he wasn't always allowed to speak his mind.

Soon there was no land in sight, and the waters of the Moonguzzit Sea stretched out to the horizon on all sides. I could just see in the distance what looked like a flock of orange birds flying across our path.

“Hey, Mr. Beeba, what kind of birds are those?” I asked.

“Those are what we call Yumbas, Akiko,” he replied authoritatively. “They aren't birds, actually, but rather a form of reptile. Fascinating creatures, really.”

“Those ain't Yumbas,” Spuckler said, squinting. “They're Mumbas.”

“Spuckler, don't you think I know a Yumba when I see one?”

“Beeba, the only animals you know about are the ones you seen in them dusty old books of yours. You got no experience in the
field
.”

And so the two of them continued, arguing back and forth about one thing and then another, for well over an hour. I stopped listening to them and started thinking about my mom and dad and Melissa. I wondered what they would think if they knew where I was and what I was doing. Melissa, for one, would definitely be impressed. It was hard to imagine what my mom would say. She's always telling me how much good it would do me to get out of my room, but I'm pretty sure this wasn't what she had in mind.

The hum of the spaceship and the sun on my face suddenly made me feel very sleepy. Before long it was impossible to hold my eyes open for another minute. I slouched down against the seat and drifted off to sleep.

The next sound
I heard was the voice of Poog, who was babbling on about something very loudly.

“What's going on?” I asked, sitting up and rubbing my eyes.

“Go on back t' sleep, Akiko,” Spuckler said calmly. “Poog jus' makes a lot of noise sometimes. It ain't nothin' to be concerned about.”

“Oh, yes it
is
,” Mr. Beeba said, wagging a finger in my face. “Poog is warning us of an imminent threat to the safety of this vessel!”

“Oh, come on, Beeba,” Spuckler responded wearily. “You an' Poog are always warnin' everybody about one thing or another. Doom an' gloom, doom an' gloom. Don't you two ever
lighten up
?”

“Well, it just so happens that Poog is more often right about these things than wrong,” Mr. Beeba instructed sternly, “and right now he says we're heading directly into the domain of some Sky Pirates.”

“Pirates!” I shouted, looking all around with my eyes wide open. “He's
joking
, right?”

“I'm afraid Poog's not much of a comedian, Akiko,” Mr. Beeba replied gravely. “If he says there are Sky Pirates about, we had best take him at his word.”

“Wh-What kind of pirates are they?” I asked. “Are they going to
attack
us?”

“It's very possible they will, Akiko,” Mr. Beeba answered. “From what I've read, I can tell you that they don't take kindly to strangers passing through their territory. I'm sure they'd just as soon shoot us out of the sky as let us pass by unhindered. Spuckler, you must change course at once.”

“Beeba, will you stay calm for once and not lose your head at th' first sign of danger?” said Spuckler, as if he'd been through this sort of thing with Mr. Beeba many times before. “Sky Pirates ain't nothin' to be scared of, so long as you know how to
deal
with 'em.”

“We are not on a mission to make peace with the Sky Pirates, Spuckler,” Mr. Beeba said angrily. “Our top priority is to pass safely from one side of the Moonguzzit Sea to the other, not to serve as a captive audience for your daredevil antics!”

“If I see any Sky Pirates I'll take a different route,” Spuckler said in exasperation. “Will that make you happy?”

“You're giving me your word?” Mr. Beeba asked suspiciously.

“Cross my heart, Beebs.” And with that, Spuckler made the ship go even faster in the direction we were already headed.

Unfortunately there was a little problem with Spuckler's plan. It's easy enough to say that you're going to change course as soon as you see a pirate. The thing is, once you've seen a pirate, the pirate has also seen
you
. And by then it's a little too late to change course. At least that was the lesson we learned when Spuckler suddenly announced that the tiny little speck he was pointing to out among the clouds was a giant Sky Pirate ship.

“That's one of the biggest ones I've seen. I sure would like to go in an' get a closer look.”

“You will do nothing of the sort!” Mr. Beeba protested, half leaping out of his seat. “I
order
you to change course!”

“I will, Beebs, I will. Just as soon as we get a li'l bit closer.” Spuckler took the ship up higher to get a better view.

“Turn
right
! Turn
left
!” Mr. Beeba was shrieking. “Turn arouuuuund!”

“
CHANGING COURSE IS CERTAINLY AN OPTION WORTHY OF CONSIDERATION, SIR,
” Gax offered meekly.

Poog floated in toward one side of Spuckler's head, as if to show his agreement with Gax. He remained silent, though, and Spuckler showed no sign of slowing down.

“Spuckler,” I said finally, leaning forward from the backseat, “I think maybe we'd better not get any closer.”

“Oh, all right,” Spuckler said, surprising me by giving in so easily. It was almost as if he really
did
think I was in charge.

Spuckler took the steering wheel in both hands and gave it a good turn. The ship nearly flipped sideways as we finally began to turn away and fly for safety.

But it was too late.

The Sky Pirates had already seen our ship and had sent a bunch of men out after us. They were riding in little wingless things that looked like motorboats but sailed through the air like jet planes.

“Don't worry, gang,” Spuckler reassured us. “The trick with Sky Pirates is to show 'em you ain't scared.” And with that he turned our ship back around and began flying straight toward them.

“Have you lost your
mind
?” Mr. Beeba cried, beside himself with fear.

“Trust me, Beebs,” Spuckler said, gritting his teeth, “all's they need to see is that we ain't a bunch of cowards.”

By then we were on a collision course with the giant Sky Pirate ship, a huge majestic vessel that looked like an old Spanish galleon, complete with many giant sails and masts. There it was, floating silently among the clouds. Its decks swarmed with hundreds of men readying themselves for battle.

By pulling on the steering wheel with all his might, Spuckler just barely managed to keep us from plowing into the body of the ship. Instead, we took a sharp turn up, shot clear through the sails, and came right out on the other side, slicing through ropes and rigging and sending pieces of wood crashing down to the deck.

“Spuckler . . . you . . .
idiot
!” Beeba screamed, clawing pieces of mast away from his face. “You're going to get us all
killed
!”

Just then a bolt of fire shot right by Spuckler's head, sending me and Mr. Beeba scrambling down into the lowest spaces of the backseat.

“Whoah!” was all Spuckler could manage to say.

“They're . . . They're
firing
at us!” I shouted, hardly believing that things were actually becoming even
more
dangerous.

“I know,” Spuckler called back to me. “They're not supposed to be doing that.”

“Well, they
are
, Spuckler!” bellowed Mr. Beeba at the very top of his lungs. “What do you propose we
do
about it?”

“Beeba,” Spuckler said as he snapped the steering wheel back, nearly flipping the ship upside down, “you're really startin' to get on my
nerves
.”

Next thing I knew, Mr. Beeba had almost fallen out of the ship altogether and was clinging to the backseat by his very fingertips, his legs twirling behind him like a rag doll. For the first time Mr. Beeba was quite speechless, gasping for air as he tried to pull himself back into the ship.

That was when a bunch of fire bolts came hurling at us from all directions, narrowly missing Mr. Beeba and forcing Spuckler into even wilder maneuvers. One shot finally made a direct hit, leaving a big flaming hole in the back of the ship and sending us all into a horrible dizzying tailspin.

“What do we do now?” I called out to Spuckler as we fell helplessly toward the surface of the Moonguzzit Sea.

“Hold your breath,” was all he said.