I HAD SEEN MY MOTHER GET ANGRY BEFORE, BUT pretty much that meant her eyes got kind of scary and tight lines appeared beside her mouth. I had rarely heard her raise her voice. So though I expected her to object to this idea, I was pretty surprised when she slammed both fist on the coffee table and shouted at the top of her lungs, "No! Absolutely, positively not!"
Grakker and Madame Pong flew up from the table. I think it was the force of Mom's pounding that sent them into the air. But they both immediately switched on their rocket belts and shot up to the ceiling where they hovered until Mom had settled down a little.
I was surprised that Grakker didn't pitch a fir of his own, and wondered which module Madame Pong had put in the back of his skull before we left the ship.
Mom was just getting warmed up. "You have got to be out of your minds!" she shrieked "I am not sending my son off into outer space with a group of . . . foreigners!"
The twins had scooted back from the table and were hiding behind an armchair. Little Thing Two was crying—not loudly, just a few tears rolling down his cheeks.
"I told you, she wouldn't like the idea," whispered Elspeth, as if this had been some brilliant prediction.
Before I could tell her to shut up, my mother turned to me and said, "Rod, did you know about this?"
At the moment all I knew was that I would rather be put through a meat grinder than have to deal with this kind of uproar.
"Rod . . . ?"
She wasn't going to let go of it.
She was also the one who had trained me to tell the absolute truth under all circumstances, no matter how dangerous it might be. For reasons of survival, this was something I was trying to get over. But I certainly hadn't progressed far enough to be able to lie to her when she asked a direct question. Probably never would.
So I swallowed hard and said, "I want to go find Dad."
I could almost hear the buzzer go BLAT! Wrong Answer!
"Go to your room, young man!" cried my mother.
I sighed. I had triumphed in hand-to-hand combat with the most horrible creature in The Old Lobby, and I was being sent to my room?
What was even more ridiculous was that I stood up to go.
Well, I guess it wasn't that silly. It was a good reason to get out of the living room, which at the moment felt scarier that The Old Lobby.
Didn't work, though. Madame Pong said what I had been unwilling to. Her voice gentle but firm, she said, "Mrs. Allbright, Rod has been through a great deal since you last saw him. He is now an honored member of the Galactic Patrol."
"He's my baby!" shouted mom.
"That he is," agreed Madame Pong. "But there is a time when the child must leave the home and enter the wider world."
"Well, that time isn't now. He has to stay home and . . . and get an education!"
Madame pong shook her head and smiled sadly. "What better education for a young person than to travel the galaxy? Think of it, Mrs. Allbright. We will show your son the weeping forest of Kryndamar, take him to hear the singing waters of Farallan. We will carry him with us to planets strange and wonderous, introduce him to life forms beyond your imagination. you live on a beautiful world, Mrs. Allbright. But it is, all in all, a very small part of the galaxy. Let Rod come with us, and we'll show him worlds beyond worlds beyond worlds, give him an education far reaching than anything available here on earth."
"I want to go, too!" shouted Little Thing One.
"Me too, me too!" cried Little Thing Two.
I tried to shush them before they got Mom even more upset than she was already.
Ignoring the twins, Madame Pong said, "Moreover, as we told you during our briefing, our Master of the Martial Arts, Tar Gibbons, had made Rod its krevlik. This is a rare honor, Mrs. Allbright, and it has already been much to Rod's benefit."
Mom looked at me. Adventures can be pretty rough on a person, but given the shape I had been in when I left, a little roughness hadn't been a bad idea. While I was gone I had lots a lot of my pudge and grown some extra muscles, which had to be clear to her.
What she hadn't noticed yet was how much better I could move. At school my nickname had been "Rod the Clod"—which was a little cruel, but very accurate.
I still had moments of clumsiness. But Tar Gibbons had taught me a lot about how to move gracefully—not to mention how to protect myself from bullies/
Even though I wanted to go with the aliens, the idea of leaving my family was almost ripping my heart out. So I could imagine what it must be doing to Mom. but when it came right down to it, the question wasn't how hard it was on me, or Mom, or the twins.
The bottom line was, my father was in trouble, and I had every intention of going out there to find him.
Before I could say that we were interrupted by a splatter of light against the window.
Looking up, my mother once again cried out in astonishment.
The Ferkel was floating outside. The little spaceship bumped gently against the glass, as if asking to be let in.
The plan had been for the ship to stay out of sight until the meeting with my mother was finished, no matter how long it took. If Tar Gibbons and Phil had decided to change that, it must mean something serious was going on.
Without waiting for Mom to okay things, I went to open the window.
Much to the delight of Little Thing One and Little Thing Two, the ship floated into the room.
Grakker, who did not deal well with changes of plan, was not at all delighted. In fact, he was furious, something I could tell from the way his nostrils were opening and closing.
The ship settled onto the coffee table. A door opened in its side, and a ramp extended downward.
"Excuse me," said Grakker, flying down to the table. "I will return shortly.
He stomped up the ramp.
We all stared at the ship, wondering what was going on.
It couldn't have been more than two minutes before Grakker stomped back out, more upset than ever. "We have to leave," he snapped.
"Now?" Cried Madame Pong in astonishment.
"Now."
"Why?"
Grakker paused. He looked around the room suspiciously, then said, "By Galactic Ordinance Number 135.379.744 I am swearing you all to silence. Disobedience is punishable in ways of which it is better not to speak. Do you understand?"
We all nodded, even the twins.
Turning back to Madame Pong, Grakker said, "The Merkel has vanished!"
"Merkel! Merkel! Merkel!" said Little Thing One.
"Perkel! Perkel! Perkel!" said Little Thing Two, who couldn't stand to be left out.
As for me, I felt a cold chill of dread. The Merkel, another ship of the patrol, had been carrying our old enemy, BKR. Did this mean the little beast was on the loose again?
That would have been horrible news all by itself, of course. But what made things worse—far worse, from my point of view—was that just a day earlier we had been told BKR knew something about what had happened to my father. Our plan had been to head for the Merkel as soon as we left my house so we could question BKR.
I realized now that I had built up that meeting in my mind to the point where I was convinced BKR would tell us exactly where to find my father. The news that the ship was missing made me feel as if I had been punched in the stomach.
"What happened?" I asked.
Grakker scowl deepened. "The ship had made a routine stop on a planet called Zambreno. Shortly after it left its radio broadcast were cut off. It has not been heard from since. We are ordered to go search for it immediately."
Madame Pong looked grim. "I am sorry, Mrs. Allbright. but we must go, and we must go now. It is vital that Rod comes with us."
My mother crossed her arms and shook her head. "Absolutely not!"
Madame Pong closed her eyes again. then, her voice little more than a whisper—almost as if she was apologizing for what she had to say—she hit Mom with one argument she couldn't possibly resist.