 
The Greenwich Interplanetary Society

Published by Stuart Boyd

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2012 Stuart Boyd

Contents

Chapter 1: The Birthday Party

Chapter 2: The Seven-pointed Star

Chapter 3: Followed

Chapter 4: The Mindsqueezer

Chapter 5: The Greenwich Interplanetary Society

Chapter 6: Doctor Nostromus

Chapter 7: b-mail

Chapter 8: The Attic

Chapter 9: Gravo-waxing

Chapter 10: The Kicking Nelly

Chapter 11: The Phantom Quadrant

Chapter 12: Betrayal

Chapter 13: Sharptooth Whitefur

Chapter 14: The Telallamorph King

Chapter 15: Storm Barrier

Chapter 16: The Greddylick Returns

Chapter 17: MorphPlaster
Chapter 1: The Birthday Party

The first chance that Stella Mayweather could get away from her birthday party unnoticed, she dashed upstairs to her bedroom and closed the door firmly behind her. The sound of her entrance woke up her pet dog, Helix: a husky with soft, white fur and a friendly face. Seeing that it was only Stella, Helix gave a wide yawn and asked her whether she was enjoying her party.

Stella gave a frustrated groan and rolled her eyes. "It's as bad as I thought it would be. Worse than that even! They're all still here," she complained, "and look at this..."

Stella pointed to a large cherry-coloured stain that stretched down the front of the delicate, frilly dress she was wearing.

"Somebody spilt a drink all down this stupid thing, but you know that Mum'll blame me."

To make matters worse, Stella spotted a tear in the hem of the skirt, where somebody had trodden on it. She gave another groan. The dress was new, and like the birthday party, it was her mum's idea. Stella normally got on with her mum, but there were times that she caused Stella terrible embarrassment, like when she tried to make her wear clothes with frills and puffy sleeves, which made her look like she was about six years old.

Helix gave a vague sniff of sympathy, but didn't really understand all the fuss about clothes. He, unlike Stella, had been sorry to miss out on the party, he was fond of cakes and jelly and enjoyed any chance to chase around the house, but he had been shut in the bedroom because Stella's mum had caught him chasing the neighbour's cat, Willowmena, around the garden. Stella couldn't blame him for this, as Willowmena was one of those fluffy, spoilt kind of cats who would often sit high up on next door's fence and shout very rude things to Helix, safe in the knowledge that he could never jump high enough to catch her.

There was a knock on the bedroom door.

"Stella?" a voice called from behind it.

The door opened to reveal the tall figure of Stella's dad, Mr Mayweather, looking awkward in his unfamiliar suit. He worked as a gardener, and Stella was used to him wearing scruffy clothes that smelt of grass and earth, but he'd also been told to smarten up for the party.

"What are you doing stuck up here?" he asked. "Come on! We can't cut the birthday cake without the birthday girl."

"I'll be right down," Stella sighed.

She gave Helix a mournful pat on the head, and he asked her to save him some cake. She then reluctantly shuffled her way onto the landing. She had her head down, so didn't notice that somebody seemed to be hiding in the corner until she had walked into them. Stella immediately recognised that she had bumped into a boy from her class at school. His name was Tom Warner, and he was the only other person she knew who was more of an outsider than she was. His mother had been taken into hospital, and he'd spent a lot of time out of school. Quiet, small and obviously alone, he was an easy victim of the biggest bully in school: Shane Biggs, who'd often pick on him at lunchtime or chase him home.

Stella normally felt sorry for Tom, but everyone already thought that she was weird enough, and she wasn't going to draw any more attention to herself by hanging around another obvious target. Tom tried to speak to her, but was too surprised or embarrassed to get any words out clearly. Stella just mumbled a quick 'sorry' and hurried away from him.

Downstairs was a chaotic mixture of spilled fizzy drinks, running children and ear-splitting shrieks. Stella's mum was looking harassed and was trying to herd excited groups of party guests towards the dining table. A huge cake with candles sat in the centre of a stained tablecloth, amidst shards of broken crisps and globs of jelly. Mr Mayweather lit the candles whilst Mrs Mayweather shouted for everybody to settle down.

Once there was something approaching quiet in the room, Stella blew out her candles. After a long pause, everybody sang the 'Happy Birthday' song, though some people ended by singing, " _Happy birthday, dear Smella._ "

It was soon after this that her mum said, "Say goodbye to your friends, Stella, they're being picked up."

Stella had never felt so relieved.

Over the front door, Stella's dad had put up a 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY' banner, which had now come loose at one side and was in danger of fluttering down the street. Stella and her mum stood underneath it as a procession of parents arrived to take the party guests home. Their goodbyes sounded lukewarm, even to her mum, who was wearing a fixed smile on her face and saying things like, "No – no, they were no trouble at all," to enquiring parents. The party guests shuffled out behind them, each clutching a squashed piece of cake wrapped in a pink napkin.

***

After everyone had left, Stella and her dad started to clear up. Helix had been let out of the bedroom and was helping by sniffing out and eating the bits of crisps and cake that had fallen on the floor. Her mum sat in a large armchair, with a folded tea towel full of ice-cubes pressed against her forehead.

"I thought that went quite well," Mr Mayweather said brightly, but he was silenced by the look his wife gave him.

"Never again," she groaned. "I don't know how I'm going to get some of those stains out of the carpet, and if I find out who put that big scratch on the table, I'll... the things I do to make you happy, Stella."

Stella was speechless at the unjustness of this. _She_ hadn't wanted a party at all. She knew that she hadn't any friends at school and hadn't wanted to invite anybody. It was her mum who'd insisted on contacting all of the parents she'd used to speak to on the way to school. So the guest list had been made up of people who called her names or thought she was a bit odd.

"You did enjoy yourself, Stella, didn't you?" her mum asked.

The look in her mum's eyes was so hopeful that Stella couldn't say what was on the tip of her tongue: ' _Thank you for the birthday party from hell!_ ' so she just said, "It was great, Mum, thanks."

Her mum beamed at her.

"Why don't we leave the tidying up till tomorrow," Mr Mayweather started to say, but was interrupted by a loud _rat-tap-tap_ on the front door.

"One of your friends probably forgot something," Mrs Mayweather sighed, and Mr Mayweather went to see who it was.

From the hallway, a deep voice boomed, "Hullo, Bill, I've come for Stella's birthday."

The voice was totally unfamiliar to Stella, but the effect it had on her mum was incredible. Tea towel forgotten; she stood up suddenly from the chair, and her face went very white. Even Helix caught the mood. He had been contentedly ripping up a paper hat under the table, but at the visitor's arrival, he leapt up with a yelp.

Mr Mayweather came into the room, looking just as shocked as everyone else. "Jill, it's... your uncle Dodds."

The man who followed Stella's dad into the room was one of the most extraordinary-looking people she had ever seen. His face was covered with a large, bushy moustache that made him look a bit like a walrus. He took off his battered hat to reveal a bald dome of a head – browned, like old leather. He peeled off his black overcoat. Underneath, he wore a faded maroon jacket and a worn, yellow waistcoat. He handed his overcoat, hat and umbrella to Mr Mayweather, who absentmindedly propped them on the nearest thing to hand: a large potted plant in the corner of the room, which had already taken a battering during Stella's party. The visitor's eyes were so dark, they were almost black, and their fierce gaze scoured the room until they rested on Stella.

"Ah! Stella Mayweather," he bellowed, holding out his hand for Stella to shake.

Helix's fur started to bristle, and he growled softly.

"No need for unpleasantness," Dodds addressed Helix directly. "I'm here as an old friend."

Helix calmed down, but warily kept his grey eyes on the man.

The stranger grasped Stella's hand in a warm grip and shook it vigorously. "Doctor Wilberforce Dodds, at your service," he said.

Stella looked up to her mum for an explanation.

"Stella," her mum said nervously, "this is my uncle, which I suppose makes him your great-uncle Dodds."

With a nimbleness surprising for a man of his size, Dodds span round to face Mrs Mayweather. "Hullo, Jill. You seem surprised to see me?"

"Yes...well...we haven't heard anything from you for over ten years!"

"Oh, you know how it is. Busy times at work. I've had quite a lot of travelling to do."

There was a pause after that, an uncomfortable silence that Stella's mum seemed unable to fill, and one that Stella's newly discovered great uncle seemed oblivious to. He started to look around the room, peering with curiosity into the television, even going so far as to give the screen a little tap with his fingertips.

"Would you like anything to drink, Wilberforce?" Mr Mayweather asked hesitantly. "Tea perhaps? Or maybe something stronger?"

"Do you have any Mercurial Spirits?" Dodds asked.

"Just scotch, I'm afraid," Stella's dad replied, already pouring a very large glass of it for himself.

"A pity," Dodds said with a sigh. "Well, this is only a short visit, I suppose."

Stella's great uncle started rummaging through his jacket, mumbling to himself about keeping too much in his pockets. Finally, with a cry of, "Gotcha!" he fished a crystal pendant out of his waistcoat.

"I am really here to give Stella her birthday present," he said, offering the medallion to Stella.

It swayed in front of her face, swinging from a delicate silver chain.

Light seemed to slip off the surface, glinting in a rainbow of colours. The design was peculiar: a seven-pointed star held together by an 'S' shaped carving across the middle.

"What is it?" Stella asked.

For some reason she couldn't tear her eyes away from the pendant. It seemed familiar to her. She tried to remember where she'd seen it before.

"Don't know," Dodds said slowly. "I've only got guesses."

Stella felt a bit odd: a little dizzy. There seemed to be a rushing sound in her ears, and whenever she blinked, stars seemed to whirl into her vision.

"Stella, are you okay?" Mrs Mayweather asked, but her voice seemed to come from far away.

The familiar surroundings of her front room looked somehow altered next to the sight of the glistening medallion. Everything seemed a little smaller, and even the concerned faces of her mum and dad appeared to blur a little. It was as if everything were a little less solid and certain. Although everyone was waiting for her to take her present, she felt a queasy sensation fluttering in her stomach.

"I'm not sure..." Stella said.

She felt as if she were floating from the floor and tried to anchor herself by staring straight into Doctor Dodds's unfathomable eyes.

"The pendant is yours, Stella. But if you like, I can keep it for a while longer?" Dodds said.

His voice had lost some of its gruffness and sounded almost gentle. He started to put the star back into his pocket.

Stella felt as if someone was shutting the curtains on a sunny day. The sudden sense of loss drove away the strange nervousness she'd been feeling, and she quickly thrust out her hand. The seven-pointed star was hers, and she felt she should take it.

"Please, Uncle Dodds. I'd really like it. Thanks."

Dodds paused thoughtfully for a moment and placed the pendant in her hand. Stella studied the medallion in her palm. It felt heavier than it looked.

"You should take care of it, Stella. It's probably quite valuable," Dodds said.

"Are you sure she's old enough for jewellery?" Mrs Mayweather asked. She seemed quite cross.

"I'll take care of it, Mum," Stella said, offended. She wasn't a baby.

"I'm sure that if Stella was too young to look after it, she wouldn't have taken it, Jill," Dodds said. His voice was curiously gentle again.

He pulled yet another device out of his pocket: a small old-fashioned carriage clock that didn't seem to have any hands on it.

"Ah! I must be getting along. The moon will have set soon." He turned back to Stella. "If things move along as they should," Dodds picked out his notebook again and rifled through the pages, "I should see you in about...seven years' time."

His gaze passed thoughtfully from his notebook to Stella.

"If things move along as they should, that is," he murmured. "Well, it was nice to see you all," Dodds said, shaking Mr Mayweather's hand and giving Mrs Mayweather a bristly peck on the cheek.

He then plucked his hat, coat and umbrella from the plant pot and strode out of the house, seemingly unaware of the astonishment he was leaving behind.

***
Chapter 2: The Seven-pointed Star

The strange appearance of a long-lost uncle had left Stella with a long list of questions. Questions that her parents seemed reluctant to answer. Her mother was frustratingly vague about him.

"Uncle Dodds has always been a bit mysterious," she told Stella the morning after the party. "He was a lot older than my mother, and I don't think she used to have a great deal to do with him."

"But you must know something about him," Stella said. "He knew it was my birthday, after all."

"Well, of course he knew it was your birthday. In fact, the last time we saw him was the day we signed the adoption papers for you."

For as long as she could remember, Stella had known that she'd been adopted; however, it was only when she got older that she had properly understood what that meant. Her mum and dad were her real mum and dad: they'd always been there for her, and she'd never known anything else. She'd once been worried that a set of 'other' parents might suddenly appear and want to take her away. When Stella had asked her mum about it, she'd looked sad and said that her biological parents had been in an accident and that was why Stella had been put up for adoption.

Stella didn't like asking questions about where she'd come from because she felt they upset her mum and dad, but this didn't stop her from being curious. What had these other parents been like? Maybe they would have been able to tell her more about why she felt so different from everyone else at school.

"Does Uncle Dodds know where I'm from?" Stella blurted out, before she could stop herself. "Before the accident, I mean."

"Look at the time," Mrs Mayweather said in a firm tone. "If you don't leave now, you'll be late for school."

Stella was then too busy collecting her school things and cramming the last bits of toast into her mouth to be able to ask any more questions.

On the way to school, Stella said to Helix, "I think Mum's behaving really oddly."

It was Helix's habit to walk with Stella to the school gates in the morning. Go back home on his own and then return at the end of the day to walk her back from school. It still perplexed Mrs Mayweather that the dog never got lost and would scratch on the front door to be let in and out at the same times every school day.

"You haven't heard them say anything about this Doctor Dodds, have you?" Stella asked Helix.

Helix told her, rather huffily, that he wasn't a snooping kind of dog.

"I'm sorry," Stella apologized. "It's just, you saw how Mum and Dad were yesterday – something's going on."

Stella knew her mum well enough to realise that she wouldn't get any more information about Uncle Dodds from her, so that evening she decided to ask her dad, who was working in the garage. She could only see his legs, as he was stretched out on the garage floor, trying to fix his van. The van had certainly seen better days, but he was sentimental about it and forgave every stuttering clank that would normally mean another long walk to the garage.

"Uncle Dodds must work abroad a lot," Stella said to her father, in what she hoped was a matter-of-fact way.

"He might do, I suppose. I don't know," Mr Mayweather said.

"Maybe that's why he hasn't spoken to Mum for such a long time," Stella persisted. "He looked quite tanned as well. I bet he works in a hospital somewhere warm. Like somewhere in Africa, I bet."

"I've not heard old Wilberforce mention anything about Africa. Anyway, I think he's some kind of scientist. He's not the kind of doctor you'd go to if you had the flu. Last we heard, he was living in London. Greenwich, I think. Pass us that spanner, would you, Stell?"

_Greenwich?_ Stella didn't think that sounded a long enough distance away to not visit in ten years.

"Did him and Mum have an argument, then?"

"No, Stella, they did not have an argument. Apparently, it's quite usual for him to disappear off the face of the earth for ages and then pop up again when you least expect it. Not that one, the bigger spanner."

Stella never got to ask anything more because a large spurt of oil splashed onto her dad's face.

***

The next few days left Stella even more frustrated, as she was unable to unearth anything more about Uncle Dodds. Her parents would change the subject every time she mentioned him, or send her off to do washing up, or upstairs to clean her room. Then something happened that pushed Doctor Dodds clean out of Stella's mind.

It was Sunday, and Stella had decided to go on a bike ride around the fields near her house. The sky was murky, and it was a struggle to pedal across the mushy ground, with a slight shower drizzling onto her face. Helix bounded alongside her in the mud, although it made his paws wet and usually meant that he was made to have an unwelcome bath later.

The fact that she was cycling so slowly meant that Stella couldn't avoid Shane Biggs. She spotted him hunched over a large pile of magazines, crisp packets and plastic bottles. He had a cigarette lighter in one hand and was trying to burn the rubbish with it.

Normally Stella was beneath Shane's notice. He preferred to pick on smaller kids, although he did encourage others at school to trip her up or call her names. He hadn't been able to start a fire and seemed bored.

"Hey, Smella, come here," Shane called out, ambling towards her.

He reached out to grab the handlebars of Stella's bike, but then seemed to notice Helix for the first time and thought better of it. The husky's grey-green eyes flashed, and he started to growl at Shane and bare his teeth. Shane sneered, but backed away.

"Nice bike, Smella."

Stella heard Helix sniff, " _Coward._ "

Thankful for her friend's sharp teeth, she cycled out of sight and then gave up riding. She took shelter from the rain under a copse of small trees. She had come there to say hello to a family of squirrels who lived near there. Checking that no one was close by, she called out to them. Stella had learnt from an early age that it wasn't a good idea to let anyone know she could talk to animals. There would either be a chuckling comment like, ' _What an imagination that child has,_ ' or an angry, ' _Stop making up lies!_ ' She eventually learnt that it saved a lot of trouble if she kept her ability a secret. Sometimes, though, she would get distracted by birds swearing at each other and squawking, ' _Get off my tree!_ '

Stella had been visiting the squirrels all year, and they were used to her visits. They soon scampered over to her, offering some of their fir cones and chattering away about how cold it was and how they seemed to feel tired all the time. Stella listened patiently and told them to find somewhere warm to sleep, as it would soon get even colder. The squirrels seemed dismayed by this, but gratefully ate the raisins that she'd brought for them.

Stella leaned back against the trunk of the tree and sighed. No matter how much she tried to explain things, the squirrels never could quite understand how the seasons changed into winter. They didn't comprehend why they couldn't find enough food anymore and why the cold hurt them so much.

Something disturbed the squirrels from eating the raisins. They lifted up on their hind legs, and their tails started to twitch.

"What's wrong?" Stella asked.

A loud yell answered her from across the fields, and the squirrels scrambled up the nearest tree. Stella ran and hid behind a thick growth of bushes, urging Helix beside her. Peering between brambles, Stella could make out who was making the noise. A boy was sprinting towards her hiding place. It was Tom Warner, and he was being chased by Shane Biggs.

Tom was getting close enough for Stella to see that he was red faced and panting heavily. It was only a matter of time before Shane would catch up with him.

"Oi, Warner! What are you running for?" Shane called after him.

Tom slipped on the wet grass, and this was enough of a delay to allow Shane to grab his arm.

"Get off me," Tom cried.

"What are you talking about, Warner? I'm just shaking your hand," Shane sniggered, and he twisted Tom's arm behind his back, forcing him onto his knees.

Stella heard Helix growling, and this added to an insistent buzzing she had started to feel in her ears. She could see Tom's face twisted in pain, as he begged Shane to stop. The sound in Stella's ears got louder, and she felt as if something was boiling within her. ' _Why should Tom get picked on just because he's smaller_?' she thought. ' _Just because he's different?_ ' The buzzing sound now felt like a deafening roar. Her whole body felt as if it would burst with the force of it.

Stella stepped out from behind the tree. "Let him go!"

Shane looked up and leered at her. "Oh, it's little Smella Stella. What's the matter, Smella? Am I hurting your boyfriend?"

"Stop it!" Stella's voice sounded strange to her. It was calm, although inside she was burning with anger.

"Yeah? And what are you going to do if I don't?" Shane mocked and gave Tom a shove on the back, causing him to fall face down in the mud.

"I SAID STOP IT!" This time Stella did shout.

There was a flash of light and a scream, although Stella couldn't tell whether it came from Tom, Shane, or herself. The next thing she knew, she was lying on her back with Helix licking her face. She was dizzy, and it took a bit of time for her to stand up. The ground felt as if it was spinning underneath her. The rushing sound inside her head had stopped and had been replaced by someone shouting. She realised that she was now about twenty feet from where she'd been standing a moment before. Tom was standing by the bushes, where she'd confronted Shane. His mouth was wide open, and he was staring up into a tree.

Following Tom's gaze upwards, Stella could see what he was staring at. It was Shane Biggs. He was caught in the top-most branches, yelling for someone to help. A thin trail of smoke curled up from his head, as if his hair had just caught on fire, and his jeans and jacket were torn.

"How did you do that?" Tom's attention had turned to Stella, and he ran over to her.

"Do what?" Stella felt a bit sick now; her stomach seemed to have caught the dizziness.

Tom just pointed up at Shane Biggs. Stella wasn't sure what she had just done. She just knew she needed to get away. Get back home, away from Tom's wide-eyed stare and Shane Biggs clutching onto the tree.

She hastily picked up her bike, although it was a struggle to stay upright, and unsteadily clambered on top of it.

"Wait!" Tom called. "Wait!" But Stella was already riding back home as quickly as she could.

***

The next day, Stella dreaded what Shane and Tom would be telling everybody at school. She had tried to convince her mum that she was sick. Her stomach certainly felt as if it was doing somersaults, but her mum took her temperature and found nothing wrong.

"You don't look unwell," she said. "In fact, you look very bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning. You're not wearing make-up, are you? I told you, not till you're fourteen!"

"I'm not wearing make-up. I just feel sick."

"Hmm. Well, go in and get the school to give me a call if you start to feel worse. Okay?"

It wasn't okay, but Stella had no choice. She deliberately walked slowly to school, in the hope that she'd be so late that nobody would have the chance to speak to her before lessons. She was dawdling so much that Helix started to grumble. When she eventually neared the school gates, she was relieved to see that the playground was clear and everyone had gone inside. It was an unpleasant shock when she found herself face to face with Tom Warner, who had been anxiously hiding by the side of the gates. When he spotted Stella, he rushed to meet her.

"Hey, Stella. Thanks for helping me out yesterday."

"I told you, I didn't do anything," Stella said, walking past him as quickly as she could.

"Yeah, you did. I saw it," Tom insisted, running after her.

"Saw what?" she asked, turning round to face him.

He stared at her in disbelief. "Light coming out of your hands. Shane Biggs flying through the air. Does any of this sound familiar? How did you do it?"

Stella tried to laugh sarcastically, but it sounded weak even to her. "I don't know what you mean. If this is a joke, it's not very funny."

She strode past him and into school. The corridors were still busy, with people going to class.

_"Joke?_ I know what happened, Stella. I saw it," Tom shouted.

His voice was loud enough to be noticed, and Stella cringed at the looks they were getting. She realised that the whole of her year were waiting for a class in the hallway, and all of them were looking at them with curiosity. She walked back to Tom and grabbed hold of the front of his jumper.

"I don't know what you think you saw. But just forget it, right?" she hissed to him.

"Look, it's Smella Mayweather and that cry baby Warner. What's the matter, having a lovers tiff?" somebody shouted.

Stella swiveled her head around to find herself face to face with Shane Biggs. His hair had been cut really short, although there were still places where you could see that it was singed. When he realised how close he was to Stella, he went pale and took a step back, but then he recovered, and his lips curled into a sneer.

"Go on, Smella, make up with your _boyfriend_."

There was a lot of giggling in the corridor, and she heard somebody from her class whisper loudly to her friend, "A match made in heaven, the cry baby and the freak."

Stella felt her face flush red. She quickly let go her grip on Tom's jumper, causing him to stagger forward. He stretched out his arms and grabbed hold of Stella for balance. The giggling in the corridor got louder, and somebody called out, "Ah, isn't that sweet. They're having a cuddle."

Desperately, Stella pushed Tom upright. "Just keep away from me, Tom. Keep away!"

***
Chapter 3: Followed

After the display in the corridor, things did not go well for Stella at school. Everybody seemed to think that Stella and Tom were boyfriend and girlfriend. She was constantly being teased in class by people making kissey noises at her. She soon got sick of saying that she and Tom weren't together and tried to ignore all the comments.

Tom wasn't helping: he just wouldn't stay away from her. If it wasn't for the look of terror on his face whenever he got within ten yards of her, Stella could have believed that Tom _did_ actually like her. Wherever she was in the school, he always seemed to be around the corner. Despite trying to warn him away with a frosty look or snarling at him to, " _Go away_ ," every lunchtime in the canteen, he'd always have an empty chair next to him. She'd stalk straight past him, but he would cause a lot of sniggering by calling out for her to sit with him. She even suspected that he was following her home. A glimpse of movement would often catch her eye, but whenever she stopped and span around, nobody appeared to be there. What disturbed Stella the most, though, was that whenever she saw Tom, she was reminded of what had happened to Shane Biggs.

One evening, Stella was in her room, trying to do some homework. She couldn't keep her mind on the pages of her exercise books. The same thoughts spun around her head, like clothes in a washing machine, ' _Did I blast Shane Biggs into the tree? How did I do it? What if it happens again?_ ' Tom had said something about light coming out of her hands. Stella stretched out her arms and carefully examined her palms and fingers. They looked the same as they had always done. Cautiously, she pointed her hands at her homework and shouted, "STOP!"

Her book was unharmed. The only marks on it were her handwriting.

She remembered that she had been really angry before and there had been that strange rushing sound. Stella tried to build up a rage over the stupid maths questions that she was meant to be doing.

"STOP!" she yelled again, this time with more force.

"Stella! Stop making that racket!" Her mum's voice floated up to her.

Stella looked down. Her homework had stubbornly remained unsinged.

She gave a sigh and slumped onto her bed. In spite of everything, she felt a bit disappointed, "Maybe it was just a fluke," she said to herself. "Maybe I didn't do anything at all." She was interrupted from these disturbing thoughts by the wet sound of chewing coming from under the bed.

"Helix," Stella called out, "you haven't got in the fridge again?"

She sometimes regretted that she'd taught Helix how to stand on his hind legs and use his nose to open the fridge door (she knew that her mum definitely regretted it). Stella peered under the bed, expecting to see some leftover chicken being licked clean by a hungry husky. It seemed, however, that Helix had found himself a dog toy.

"What is that?" Stella asked.

She reached under the bed and tried to pull the object that Helix was chewing out of his mouth. Helix was unwilling to give it up without a fight and clung on with his jaws until Stella managed to yank it away from him.

"Yuck! You've slobbered all over it."

The toy felt like it was made of thick jelly. It was wet because of being in Helix's mouth and surprisingly warm to the touch. Helix's teeth marks were gradually smoothing away, and it was regaining its shape after being stretched by their tug of war. It was bright orange and shaped like a man, with arms, legs, torso and a round head. The small face had eyes and a nose, but no mouth.

"Where did you get this, Helix?"

Dogs don't shrug as a rule, but Helix did a good impression.

"I suppose Mum must've got it for you. You best look after it. You know how she's always threatening to shave you if you keep breaking things."

Helix gave an offended sniff. He always claimed that it was Stella's dad that broke things and felt it was pretty mean that they always blamed the dog.

***

The next morning, Stella grabbed her school bag from her room as usual, but didn't notice that the orange figure was inside until she pulled out her maths book in class and she found it fixed onto the front cover. It was stuck face down, arms and legs stretched out like a starfish.

Her maths teacher was called Mrs Jenkins, and it was an unfortunate fact that her face had an unhappy knack of turning a bright puce whenever she got upset. She was painfully aware that some classes would deliberately wind her up just to see the brilliant flush of pink stretch up to her hair. It was because of this that she was always on the lookout for bad behaviour.

"No toys in class, Stella Mayweather. You know the rules. Put it away," Mrs Jenkins told Stella, once she had noticed Helix's dog toy.

"Yes, Miss," Stella replied, trying to prize the jellied man off her book.

For some reason it was stuck fast. Her struggle started a ripple of laughter through the class, and Mrs Jenkins's face started to glow pink.

"I said put it away!"

Mrs Jenkins reached over and tried to peel the toy off the book. There was a loud rip as the book cover tore away. She held the little orange man in the air as the cardboard cover suddenly came unstuck and fluttered to the floor. There was another burst of laughter from the class.

"That is school property," Mrs Jenkins squeaked, her face almost purple now. "Detention for you, girl, and I'm confiscating this – this thing."

But the orange man had stuck itself to Mrs Jenkins's hand, and she frantically shook her arm to try and unloose it. With a mighty heave, the toy was thrown from her hand and sailed through the air like an orange snowball, landing with a splat on Mrs Jenkins's whiteboard. It stuck there throughout the rest of the lesson, its gum-like eyes staring into the distance. A flustered Mrs Jenkins told the class to copy out times tables in silence, whilst she fanned her face back to a rosy pink with the cover of Stella's maths book.

Stella was late getting out of school because of her detention, and Helix complained of the wait because the ice on the pavement had made his paws cold.

"It's your fault for putting your toy in my bag," she told him.

Helix denied putting anything in her bag, and they both were moody with each other all the way home. It didn't help Stella's grumpiness that she was sure that Tom was following her again. She tried darting into doorways and peering behind her, but couldn't actually catch him at it. When she got home, her mum told her off for getting a detention and then, after dinner, sat her down at the table to do the homework that she hadn't done the night before.

Stella stomped up to her room, furious with her mum, Helix, Mrs Jenkins and the unfairness of life in general. She slumped onto her bed with a huff and spotted another jelly toy lying on the floor, except this one was the colour of lemon curd. She chucked it straight in the bin.

***

A couple of days later, she found both the orange and yellow jelly men under her bed, and the week after that a blue one had joined them. Helix kept insisting that he had nothing to do with them, and they got into another argument when Stella woke up one morning to find yet another one of them stuck to her head.

"It's caught in my hair, Helix!" she wailed, trying to yank the green jelly man from her scalp, with the least possible hair loss.

"I don't think this is very funny," she told him, but Helix got offended and insisted that he had nothing to do with them.

"I don't know why you're denying it. It's a pretty stupid thing to do, putting them in my bag and everything."

This upset Helix even more, and even though he would still meet her after school every evening, they would walk back home in silence. He also began to sleep downstairs in the kitchen, but Stella still found herself fishing jelly men out of her bag, or under the duvet and untangling them from the clothes in her wardrobe. By the time it got to the last day of school before the Christmas holidays, there were a dozen little multi-coloured jelly men lined up on her desk.

***

Stella had never been more grateful for it being Christmas. Everyone at school was so excited about the upcoming break and the upcoming presents that she was hardly teased at all. Tom tried to speak with her at lunchtime, but Stella fled before he got close enough to say anything. The festive cheer hadn't thawed Helix's sulk after school, though. Stella hoped that they would patch things up before Christmas; she missed their companionship, especially now that she felt more lonely than ever at school.

Even though it was only early evening, the dusk trailed quickly into darkness and the chill lay on Stella, causing her to shiver. She felt more than saw that someone was following her. ' _Tom again_ ,' she thought. ' _Why doesn't he just leave me alone?_ ' She took a sharp turn through the closest alleyway that she could dash into.

She glimpsed a flicker of a shadow, a sliver of movement that told her she was still being followed. Although she realised she was moving further away from her house, she darted from the main street through a narrow cobbled lane that led to a set of garages. Stella twisted around the corner and peered behind her, expecting to see Tom creeping in the shadows. Someone was following her, but it wasn't Tom.

The alleyway was poorly lit. A single streetlight shed its neon glare on Stella's pursuer. A shadow stretched along the narrow beam of light: a spindly silhouette of a stick figure, crooked and pointed. The stranger in flesh was hardly different from his shadow. He was wearing old-fashioned clothes that Stella had only seen in films: a long coat with tails and a tall top hat. His face was almost completely hidden by a scarf wrapped around a long jaw. He wore dark glasses, even though the sun had completely set. Stella could see that if he stood up straight, the man would be very, very tall.

He moved forward in jerky movements, as if his legs wouldn't bend properly. Thin arms snaked forward, and very long fingers twitched at the air, as if feeling their way in the dark. As he neared Stella, the stranger's head slowly swayed from side to side and his hands reached towards her. Stella could hear a sniffing sound, but it seemed to be coming from his long, squirming fingers. The man's head slowly turned to face where Stella was hiding, and then the figure stopped still, as if stunned. His fingers stopped moving, and even one of his legs was suspended, mid-stride, off the ground. Stella froze as well, not even daring to breathe.

The scarf that wrapped around the figure's head started to slip down, revealing a mouth bared to a snarl of pointed teeth. The creature gave a hiss that jolted Stella into action. She spun around and started to sprint up the cobbled driveway. Helix was running beside her and had started to bark wildly. A streak of white fur soon overtook her and disappeared into the shadows.

"Helix! Come back," Stella shrieked.

Urging her legs onward, she knew that the drive led to a gateway into the fields. She clung to the desperate hope that if she could just make it into the open, she could shake off her pursuer. As she left the cobbles behind, it became muddy and uneven under her feet. The path narrowed, and on either side brambles whipped at her legs. Stella could see just in front of her the rusty gate that led out from the alley into the fields. She dared a swift glance behind her, but lost her footing and tripped. The fall knocked the breath out of her body, and she couldn't even cry out as the creature loomed over her.

The creature's fingers reached down to her face, like a kind of skeletal spider. She felt the brush of air against her cheek and heard a sniffing sound. Where there should have been fingertips with fingernails, there were only nostril-like holes, and these were groping towards her neck. Stella tried to twist away from them, but hit her head on the gate. She jerked away from the creature's touch and struck its leering face with her fist, shattering its glasses. Behind the smashed lenses, there were no eyes, only dark pits. The creature's hands pounced towards Stella's neck, threatening to strangle her. Instead, it grabbed hold of the necklace that Doctor Dodds had given her.

As soon as its hands touched the seven-pointed star, there was a flash of light. The creature gave an ear-splitting howl and let go of the necklace as if it had been burnt. Stella struggled to her feet, but kept slipping on the ground. The creature, wary of the pendant, reached out for her arm this time. Its grip squeezed painfully, but loosened as the sound of barking distracted it. Stella wrenched herself away from the creature's grip and crawled back towards the gate.

Helix bounded over the fence in one leap and stood between Stella and her attacker. The dog snarled and snapped at its hands as they reached out for her again.

"Stella!" a voice boomed out of the night.

Stella looked up and saw Doctor Dodds, in his huge overcoat and hat, running over the fields. He was brandishing his umbrella as if it were a club.

"Get away, Greddylick! She is under my protection," Dodds bellowed.

The creature swivelled around to face Dodds. "Dodds!" it snarled in a clicking voice, like bones clattering together. "There is no protection from me."

It leapt into the air straight at Dodds, who lifted his umbrella to fend off the attack. The top of the umbrella flared open and flew straight up into the night sky. Stella's first thought was that the umbrella had broken, but it unfolded in midair into a bat-like animal with leathery wings.

The umbrella-bat had a fierce head that looked similar to a cat's, and its wings were tipped with shining claws. The bat caught the creature's spindly frame in mid-air before it could reach Doctor Dodds. A terrible screech echoed over the fields as the monster recoiled away from the bat's claws. Straightening itself to its full height, the creature launched itself upwards and flew over the treetops, with the umbrella bat swooping after it.

"Are you all right?" Dodds asked Stella, helping her up off the ground, his empty umbrella rod still clutched in his hand.

"Who...what was that man?" she asked hoarsely, rubbing her neck where the pendant's chain had dragged against it.

"That was no man," Dodds replied. "That was a Greddylick!"

***
Chapter 4: The Mindsqueezer

Stella felt numb. Just one thought kept repeating itself over and over in her mind. ' _This can't be happening. This can't be happening_.' The first feeling that returned to her was an ache in her hand, where she was gripping her pendant too tightly. She forced her fingers to uncurl from the star and saw it had left an impression on her palm of an 'S' with the seven points traced onto her skin. A thought streaked across her mind, jolting her like an electric shock.

"It was after the star! It wanted my necklace," she said, holding her hand out for Dodds to see.

He took her hand in his and peered at the strange design on her palm. Lifting his bushy eyebrows in surprise, he locked his unfathomable gaze onto hers. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, but he, I mean it, couldn't keep hold of it. It was like it burnt him or something."

"Perilous indeed, to wield parhelion's flame," Dodds murmured, his eyes losing focus, as if he were remembering something.

"What? What was that...Greddy...thing, and why would it want my necklace?" Stella blurted out.

"I'll do my best to answer those questions, but I first want to make sure we're safe," Dodds said, looking up at the sky.

A high-pitched screech pierced the air, and the flapping creature that had driven the Greddylick away swooped down and perched itself on the umbrella rod that Dodds was still holding. It began preening its wings with a great fuss of chirping and clicking that Stella understood as complaints over being rudely awoken.

"Ah, Persiminon, I'm sorry to have disturbed you," Dodds soothed and stroked a patch of velvet fur between its pointy ears.

"Stella, meet Persiminon. She's a Pyxian bat."

Stella nervously reached out her hand, wary of Persiminon's pointed teeth.

"It's all right," Dodds said. "She won't bite you. Pyxian bats are normally gentle creatures. Persiminon tends to sleep most of the time, but she likes to have her ears rubbed and maybe the odd beetle for a snack. It's lucky for us, though, that if there's one thing that'll surely get a Pyxian bat angry, it's a Greddylick."

Persiminon seemed to be calming down and consented as Stella carefully patted her velvety head. The Pyxian bat gave a final disgruntled cheep, and then yawned to reveal her needle-sharp teeth. She curled her leathery wings around her perch until only those with sharp ears would detect the faint snoring that would mark Persiminon out as anything other than a commonplace umbrella.

"Stella, look sharp. We need to get you home," Dodds said.

He strode into the alleyway, so Stella had to run to keep up. Occasionally Dodds would stop suddenly and stare into the darkness and then abruptly stalk off again, barking at her to keep up. There was something in his tension that spread, causing Helix to whimper and Stella to imagine that she could hear footsteps behind her. Every time she glanced backwards, she felt that she saw a shadow flitting just beyond her vision.

"Do you think somebody is following us?" Stella whispered breathlessly.

"It's not what we might find behind us, but what is in front of us that I worry about," Dodds said grimly.

"But I thought Persiminon chased the Greddylick away."

"That she did, but chased it to where?"

Stella shuddered as she imagined the dreadful sightless face waiting behind every corner and those sniffing fingers grasping towards her. Her pace got quicker and quicker until she could see the familiar lights of her house and sprinted towards safety. She was so desperate to get home to her parents that she ignored Dodds's cry of warning. She rushed to her front door and rang the doorbell several times before she realised that the door was already slightly ajar. She swung it open, and through a blur of tears, she saw the figure of her mum and ran to her.

Wrapping her arms around her mum, Stella was so grateful to be home again that it took her a moment to realise that something was wrong. Always quick with comforting or scolding words, Mrs Mayweather had said nothing, and her arms were slack beside her. Drawing away, Stella looked up.

"Mum?"

Mrs Mayweather wasn't looking at Stella, though, and showed no signs of noticing that she was even there. She was smiling vacantly and staring out through the open door. She almost knocked Stella over as she walked out of the hallway.

"Mum? Don't go out there. The Greddylick could be waiting!"

But Mrs Mayweather was carelessly shuffling into the street. "Pilades Cluster," she said, lifting her hand up and pointing into the sky.

"Mum, get back in the house. It's not safe!" Stella cried. Rushing outside, she tried to drag her mum back in.

Mrs Mayweather looked down as if seeing her daughter for the first time and grinned. "Plenty of sun and plenty to eat, the nicest people you could meet," she sang.

"Mum! Are you drunk?"

"Pilades Cluster is where to go, so why not come and say hello," Mrs Mayweather rhymed. She spotted a neighbour peeking out of their kitchen window and gave them a wave. "Pilades Cluster!" she shouted.

"Poor Jill. It looks like I'm too late," Dodds's gruff voice said sadly. Putting his arms around Mrs Mayweather's shoulders, he guided her towards the house.

"What's wrong with her?" Stella asked.

"It looks like the Greddylick has got here first."

Between them, Stella and Dodds managed to manoeuvre Mrs Mayweather into the sitting room, where Stella was dismayed to see her dad looking out the window and pointing at the sky.

"Great for kiddies, cubs and grubs, just fifty light years past your sun," he said, grinning stupidly. "Pilades Cluster is just the place to put a smile back on your face."

"You'd best close the curtains, Stella, or they'll be at it all night," Dodds said.

"Pilades Cluster!" they both shouted happily.

"What's the Greddylick done to them?" Stella wailed.

Dodds searched his pockets and produced a small torch. He began shining it in Mr Mayweather's eyes and then peered up Mr Mayweather's nose.

"It looks like your parents have had their brains tampered with." He sighed. "All the symptoms show that they've been victims of a pretty powerful mind squeeze."

"You mean the Greddylick's turned them mad?" Stella gasped in horror.

"Not mad. The Greddylick has used a mind-squeezer on them. What a mind-squeezer does is suck out a person's memories and thoughts and replaces them with a simple set of instructions. In the case of your parents, these instructions apparently involve the Pilades Cluster. They won't be able to think of anything else until their own minds have been returned to them."

Dodds turned to Helix, who was consolingly licking Mrs Mayweather's slack hand.

"It looks like I'm going to need your swift paws again tonight, old friend. Gordon should be waiting by the school. Go there and bring him back here as fast as you can."

Helix gave a departing bark and bounded off, a streak of white fur, through the kitchen window.

"You can understand Helix too!" Stella exclaimed.

"Of course. I don't have your obvious gift for languages, Stella, but there are other paths to understanding on this world. As for Helix, he was the one who warned me that the Greddylick had located you. Helix has been quite worried about you for weeks. We all have, ever since your little display in the park."

"I didn't do anything," Stella said automatically.

"Didn't you?" Dodds asked. He swiftly caught Stella's wrist and turned her hand. The seven-pointed star was still emblazoned on her palm. Instinctively, Stella pulled her hand away and grabbed at her necklace.

"It's not my fault. I don't know what I did."

"I realise that, Stella," Dodds said, "but I'm afraid that now you have no choice but to learn."

Stella felt as if her mind was unravelling. There were so many questions bombarding her skull, she felt that it might burst. Feeling dizzy, she sat on the sofa next to her mum. Mrs Mayweather held Stella's hand and cheerily sang, "Pilades Cluster!"

"Oh, Mum, what's going on?" Stella asked. She felt like bursting into tears.

"Your mother wouldn't be able to give an answer, even if she had a mind to do so," Dodds said. "I had hoped that we would never have to have this conversation and you could have grown up quite peacefully and happily with your foster parents, but now I feel you should be told about where you came from. I can only say sorry that so much has been hidden from you, but please know that I have always tried to do as I've thought best, and there are gaps in your past that I do not understand myself. I cannot give you all the answers."

To Stella's eyes, Dodds seemed to look older and somehow more frail.

"You have known from an early age that you are adopted, I think, but you haven't been told about where you came from. This is because no one is sure. All I can say is that you were not born on this world, but on another."

"What? Are you trying to tell me that I'm some kind of alien?" Stella snorted. "I look the same as everyone else, I am..." but Stella couldn't finish her sentence. A thought popped into her head, ' _But I am different_.'

"I'm sorry, Stella. I know it's hard to take, but the truth is, you don't come from here. My work occasionally takes me to different planets, and you came to me as an orphan baby that needed a home. Jill is my sister's daughter, and I knew she wanted to have children. It seemed like the perfect solution, you both needed a family, so I brought you to live here. You have a mother and father who love you, but I felt it wiser to keep your parents in the dark about where you came from. As you said, you look human, even though you can speak to other life-forms on this planet, like our friend Helix. I saw no reason why you couldn't live a happy life here."

Stella was dumbfounded. Yesterday, she'd have thought Uncle Dodds was mad, but after the experience with the Greddylick, she felt she could believe anything.

"Why now? Why is all this happening now?"

"I am responsible, although you must believe that I felt I had no choice. I think it's because of your pendant. It was the only object found with you. It was hanging around your neck when you were brought to me and has been in my keeping ever since you were adopted. It was always my intention to pass it to you when you were old enough. There was always a risk that there would be some consequences if you were re-united with your birthright, but I couldn't have foreseen anything as quite as spectacular as your display in the park. Ever since Helix told me about that, I have tried to stay at hand."

"So you think that this _thing_ ," Stella took the star from around her neck and stared at it, "is the reason why all this is happening?" She felt like chucking the necklace as far as her strength could throw it, but her hands didn't move, somehow she couldn't quite make herself give it up.

"The seven-pointed star is part of you, Stella Mayweather," Dodds said, his voice echoing the thought in her head, "and for good or ill, it always will be."

"I don't want it," Stella said.

"You do not? Would you rather the Greddylick had it? Its kind has always craved power and wished to enslave all others. I fear the terrible things that would happen if it were to get its hands on it."

"But he can't. It burnt him."

"Exactly! And you must use it wisely if it isn't to burn you."

Stella felt as if her world had been turned upside down. It had always been difficult for her to know that she'd been adopted. It made her different, but she didn't realise _how_ different.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud barking outside. Helix had returned and was asking to be let in. Uncle Dodds opened the kitchen door, and Helix rushed inside, followed by a small figure in a baseball cap. He furtively sidled into the house, sideways like a crab. At first glance, Stella thought he was the same age as her, but the face under the cap was wrinkled like a prune.

"Gordon Gordon at your service, miss," the strange dwarf said, sweeping into an elaborate bow. He took off his cap, and two green antennae sprang from his head.

"Nice place yer got 'ere. Like it, like it." Gordon wiped his nose on his rather overlarge sleeve.

Mr Mayweather had followed them into the kitchen and used the opportunity of an uncovered window to point at the sky.

"Don't be stingy, don't be sour. Book a trip to Pilades Cluster now."

"Would luv ter, mate, but already used up me holiday, ain't I?"

"Pilades Cluster is for you, if you want great things to do."

"Wot's wrong wiv 'im, then?" Gordon cocked his head towards Mr Mayweather.

"His mind's been squeezed and so has his wife's," Dodds said. "Gordon, I'd like you to stay here and look after them for a while. Make sure that they eat and don't let them wander outdoors."

"Can't you help them?" Stella wailed. "Can't you stop this mind squeeze thing?"

Gordon whistled. "Very tricky fings, mind squeezes, luv. Veeery tricky."

"Gordon's right, it's too dangerous to move them now. We need the mind-squeezer that the Greddylick used to replace their minds. It's too risky to move them without it."

"That's right, luv." Gordon scuttled over to the Mayweathers' fridge and peered in. "Don't worry, I'll look after 'em. Though, by rights, babysittin' should be paid double time. Yer dad, 'ee don't have any Mercurial Spirits around abouts, does 'ee?"

Gordon was startled from his pilfering of the fridge by a loud crash in the garden. His skin turned an alarming green, and his whole body swelled up remarkably, like an inflated balloon. Spikes prickled out of him, so that he resembled a fat green hedgehog. Dodds was the first out the door, with his umbrella clutched in his hand. Stella followed behind, with Helix beside her. She was glad that she could reach out and be reassured by his soft warm fur.

Edging their way across the patio, Stella could make out a hunched figure in the corner of the garden. Helix growled and sprang forward, causing the figure to yelp and reveal himself. It was Tom Warner.

"What are you doing here?" Stella asked angrily. Wasn't it enough finding out that you're an alien, without having her troubles at school lurking in the back garden?

"I sssaw it!" Tom stammered. "I saw it all. That thing, with the sniffy fingers, that umbrella."

"You have been following me!" Stella gasped.

"I just wanted to know what was going on. You wouldn't tell me."

"I told you. Nothing is going on," Stella said.

"Nothing, is it?" Tom gestured towards the green, inflated Gordon, who had spikes sticking out of him.

Gordon just gave a weak wave and said, "Alright, guvnor?"

"What is your name?" Doctor Dodds asked.

"Tom."

"It would be better for you if you went home now, Tom. This is Stella's business, not yours."

Stella had always thought Tom was weak, especially since he was always picked on at school; however, she began to think she might have been wrong as Tom's eyes remained locked with Uncle Dodds's formidable stare.

"N-no, it isn't," Tom stammered, but held his face up to keep Dodds's gaze, "Stella stopped me...getting hurt. I don't know how, but she did. I also don't know what that thing was that attacked her. I do know that I've seen it, so that makes it my business too."

"No, it doesn't..." Stella started to interrupt.

"Please...I have to..." Tom implored.

He gave a quick terrified glance into the kitchen at Stella's parents, who had started to point at the sky again. Stella noticed his gaze, and her anger increased. Tom obviously thought this was some kind of freak show.

"Stop staring at them. They're...not well."

Dodds had noticed Tom's gaze as well. "Where are your parents? Won't they be worrying about you?"

"I don't have any parents. They're dead," Tom said miserably. "My gran thinks I'm staying with friends."

"Still. I think we should take you home."

"No! No, you can't go there...my gran is... she doesn't like visitors."

Dodds gave Tom another long stare, and this time Tom averted his eyes.

"So be it," Dodds said. "But we have to leave here. Now."

"He can't come with us!" Stella shouted. "This is nothing to do with him." She couldn't understand why Dodds was allowing Tom to poke his nose in.

"I think it's safer that Tom comes with us, Stella."

Stella tried to object, but Dodds just told her to go upstairs and pack some clothes.

By the time she had got a bag ready and had come back downstairs, her parents were placidly standing in the kitchen, watching a deflated Gordon attempt to create the world's first eight-slice sandwich.

"Bye, Mum. Bye, Dad," she said, trying not to cry. Neither of them took any notice of her.

"Will they be okay?" she asked Dodds.

"The Greddylick has already left its message. They'll be safe enough," Dodds replied. "I fear the same cannot be said for the contents of your mother's fridge."

***

Stella, Tom, Helix and Doctor Dodds caught a late train to London. They sat in a deserted carriage in silence, each wrapped up in their own thoughts. Throughout the journey, Doctor Dodds never loosened his grip on his umbrella. Once they got to London, Stella thought they would be going on the underground, but Dodds marched them to the bank of the river Thames.

"If we hurry, we can catch the last ferry," he explained.

Stella remembered what her dad had told her. "My dad says you live in Greenwich. Is that where we're going?" Stella asked.

"Yes. I find that going home is usually an excellent place to start a journey."

Stella was too worried about her parents to notice much of the riverside view sliding past her. Helix clearly relished putting his paws on the side of the boat and feeling the wintry wind rustling through his fur. Tom, however, kept moaning that he was seasick, until Stella told him to shut up. They reached the ferry stop, and Uncle Dodds led them past the imposing museums and up a steep hill. Leg weary and more tired than she'd ever been, Stella was grateful when they at last reached a set of rusted iron gates.

Through the gates, they followed a rambling path, hidden out of sight from the other houses on the hill. It led to a great, rambling building, with a domed roof and long windows, eventually ending at a formidable red door that started to open of its own accord as they walked towards it.

Doctor Dodds's face creased into an unaccustomed smile.

"Welcome," he said, "to the furthest place on earth."

Stella and Tom stood for a while in the tiled porch and looked at a bronze plaque hanging on the door. Etched on it were the words _The Greenwich Interplanetary Society_.

***
Chapter 5: The Greenwich Interplanetary Society

The red door had opened into a long corridor. There weren't any lights on, and Dodds had disappeared into the gloom, followed by Helix, who had bounded after him. Stella and Tom peered into the darkness, trying to make out shapes from the shadows, but it was as if their eyes were just getting sucked into a bottomless dark.

"I'm guessing they don't get a lot of visitors," Tom said.

"Come on, then. Close the door behind you, you're letting in the cold." Dodds's voice called from out of the dark.

"Know your uncle well, do you?" Tom asked Stella.

"Not really, no," Stella admitted nervously.

"Are you sure... you know, it's... well... safe?"

Stella was about to reply ' _of course_ ', but then she thought about what she'd already been through that evening. "All I know is I've got to find a way to bring back my parents and work out what's going on. You can always go back." Stella took a deep breath and walked into the corridor.

"Hey, wait!" Tom shouted and tried to grab Stella's arm, as he stumbled through the doorway. The door slammed shut behind them.

"Uncle Dodds? Helix?" Stella shouted.

"Where's the light switch?" Tom wailed.

"Ow! Get off my foot," Stella yelped.

"It's not my fault. It's too dark in here," he moaned.

"I can see that," Stella hissed back.

She thought she saw a glimmer of something, a faint trace of light. Her first thought was that her eyes were playing tricks on her, but it seemed to get stronger. "I think my eyes are getting used to the dark."

All around them, pin-pricks of light started to glow, and shapes eased into their vision, growing into luminescent pearls of light. It felt as if they were surrounded by stars. Shapes of moons and planets started to swirl into being. Stella traced the course of a silver shower of stars up and up until her neck ached. There seemed to be no end to them.

"Wow," she whispered.

"What are we standing on?" Tom gasped. "There isn't any floor."

Stella looked down to see... nothing. Her feet seemed to be suspended in mid air, and what appeared to be an infinity of stars slowly flowed below her. The effect made her feel a bit dizzy. She wasn't the only one.

"I think I'm going to throw up," Tom said.

"Look," Stella said. On either side of them, a set of old-fashioned doors had started to appear in the midst of the cosmos.

Shuffling forward, she reached out to the nearest one to her.

"What are you doing? Are you crazy?" Tom gulped. He was on his hands and knees and was trying to feel his way forward.

"Well, a door normally opens into a room," Stella reasoned.

"Do they?" Tom gestured around him. "It didn't last time."

"Well, we can't stay here forever."

Grasping a brass handle, she turned it. The door opened to a loud crash, and Stella was hit on the head by a tennis ball, mop handle and an old handbag. They fell down past the stars into nothingness. She had obviously opened some kind of cupboard, and in the cramped space she could see a bucket, a set of skis, a pile of old shoes, a stack of old vinyl records and a broken tennis racket. These were buried amongst other odds and ends, some of which were spilling out into a purple dust cloud underneath her feet. A forgotten-looking green balloon bobbed at the back of the cupboard. It had a string that trailed forlornly under it, like a limp tail. The oddest thing about the balloon was that it had two large eyes and a big frowning mouth stencilled onto it with what looked like a black marker pen.

Tom had made it to his feet and was gingerly creeping over to the cupboard, peering down as if expecting to be plunging into the mass of stars below him at any moment.

"Phew, what a mess," he said. "It looks just like my gran's cellar. I think that's an old gramophone..."

"Ooooohhhh."

"Ssshhh. Did you hear that?" Stella asked.

"It's rude to sssshhh people, you know..."

"Ooooohhhhhh." This time the sound was a bit louder. It was an odd noise, as if somebody was humming through a comb.

"Who's there?" Stella asked.

"I can't see anything," Tom said. He started to rummage through the cupboard.

"Well, I definitely heard something."

"Maybe this stupid balloon has a hole in it." He punched it away from him.

"Yaaaarrgghhhh," a voice pealed out.

"Aaaaaggghhh," Tom bellowed in fright.

The balloon rebounded off the walls of the cupboard, back into Tom's face, and bounced off again.

"Help!" it screeched.

"Help!" Tom yelled, as it bounced back at him.

Tom and the balloon were trapped in the cramped cupboard. Tripping over the shower of bric-a-brac, Tom couldn't get away. The harder he tried to bat the balloon away, the greater the force it bashed back at him. The balloon had turned a deep pink, and its mouth formed a wide 'O' as it squealed for help. Tom gave the balloon a great swipe, and it spun out of the cupboard.

"Aaaahhhh, catch me! Catch me!" it yowled.

Stella reached out and grabbed hold of the balloon's string. It had returned to a sickly green colour now and tried to cower closer to Stella.

"Pull me back! Pull me back!" it wailed.

Stella carefully pulled the balloon back into the cupboard. Seeing Tom, it shied away from him, in danger of bouncing off the wall again.

"It's all right, he won't hurt you," Stella said. "Get out of the way, Tom."

"It attacked me," Tom muttered, rubbing a bruise he'd picked up on his elbow, but he moved quickly away, glaring warily at the balloon.

"Is that better?" Stella asked, as the balloon hovered in the corner, visibly quivering.

"I thought I was done for," it said. "There I was, having a doze, and then suddenly, without warning, you break in and start smashing up the place. And then I get beaten up by that great thug over there."

"Thug?" Tom cried. "It's talking about me, isn't it? I'm not a thug."

"Thug! You caught me by surprise before, but now I'm ready..." The balloon started to butt Tom's stomach.

"Look, there's been a mix-up. I'm Stella, and this is Tom."

"You can call me Wendell. As for this thug here..."

"I'm sorry, all right?" Tom said. "I thought you were a balloon."

"Ah! Just because you don't like my clothes, you think you can punch away, then?"

"Clothes?" Stella asked, pulling the balloon back on its string. "You mean, you're not just air in there?"

"Just air!" Wendell squeaked, turning red in outrage. "I'll have you know I'm a cloud of gaseous matter. I might have let myself go a bit, but I can still vaporise with the best of them."

"You mean you're a load of gas?" Tom asked.

"There's no need to be insulting. You wouldn't like it if I called you a bag of water."

"But why do you wear a balloon?" Stella asked.

"What! And go around stark naked?" Wendell said, blushing pink.

After meeting Gordon, Stella felt she could get used to anything, but she still found it hard to believe that she was speaking to a cloud of gas wrapped in a balloon.

"Obviously, this world is not my natural habitat," Wendell explained. "My people drift through the vacuums of space."

"So what were you doing in the cupboard?" Tom asked.

Wendell seemed to deflate a little as he murmured. "I'm agoraphobic."

"What?"

"I'm scared of open spaces."

Tom and Stella just gaped at him.

"It's a bit of a problem if you're meant to roam about the galaxy. That's why I hate this hallway. I keep asking them to change the wallpaper."

"We can't stay in this cupboard forever," Tom said.

"Why not?" Wendell asked.

"We've got to find my uncle Dodds. We're here with him," Stella said.

"Uncle Dodds? I didn't know he had any family. He doesn't seem the type."

"Well, sort of family. I'm adopted." As Stella said the words, she felt a sudden pang of loneliness again.

"In any case, visitors should go to reception," Wendell said.

"We don't know where reception is," Tom said waspishly. "Do you think we enjoy breaking into broom cupboards?"

"I suppose I'd better show you the way," Wendell grumbled. "Just you keep hold of that string."

Wendell directed them through the dizzying hallway to the furthest door in the corridor. With every step, he hovered a little closer to Stella, who was holding her breath, preparing herself for whatever surprise she felt sure was waiting behind the door. It was more of a shock when she pushed on the brass doorknob and found herself looking into a disorderly, but ordinary-looking office. It reminded Stella of an old waiting room. There was a thin film of dust on the surfaces, and a musty smell of old papers and coffee hung in the air. A hotchpotch of different chairs sat against walls of peeling wallpaper, and there was a wobbly looking desk in one corner of the room. An old-fashioned typewriter sat on top of it, amidst stacks of paper. The room looked quite commonplace in comparison to the corridor, apart from the woman with four arms who was sitting behind the desk.

The woman wore a prim hat perched on top of a thatch of tightly permed hair. Two of her hands were busy typing, whilst one was filing and another held a delicate china cup of tea.

"Ah, there you are, dearies. We were wondering what had become of you." Her face split into a jolly grin.

There was a bark, and Helix appeared from under the desk and ran over to Stella.

"Professor Botwing! Oh, Professor! Our little waifs and strays are here," she called in a sing-song voice, whilst reaching up with a spare hand to open a sliding window behind her.

The woman then stood up and reached over to Stella and Tom, smothering them in an embrace. Something she was able to do quite comfortably with her extra limbs. The hug caused Stella to let go of Wendell, and with a wail, he drifted over to entangle his string onto a large hat stand.

"That's Gladys, the receptionist," he said.

"Doctor Dodds told us all about that disgusting Greddylick and what it did to your poor parents, my dear. It breaks my heart to think of it. It really does." Gladys fished out a lace handkerchief from one of her sleeves to dab her eyes with.

Stella disentangled most of herself from the woman's hug just in time to see a small, rotund figure with grey wings fly through the open window. It looped around the room a couple of times before it came to perch on a filing cabinet. The bird-like creature was clothed in a waistcoat, collar and tie. Tartan braces held up his trousers, with clawed feet sprouting from the end of them and a set of tail feathers sprung from the waistband. His head was crowned with a plumage of grey feathers and wire spectacles, which were propped midway down his beak.

"We hoped we had seen the last of that wretched Greddylick, we did. Oh my. Yes, we did," he cawed. "You must be Tom, and you must be Stella. Or is it the other way round? So hard to tell these days. No telltale plumage, oh my dear, no."

A dishevelled Tom had broken free of Gladys's grip and said firmly, "I'm Tom – she's Stella. Where's Doctor Dodds?"

"Gone, gone. Urgent, oh yes, urgent business. Sorry state of affairs this, oh my dear, quite, quite sorry. I am his associate – Professor BB Botwing. Pleased to meet you, sir, and of course, you, madam. Oh yes, Stella with the seven-pointed star."

"You know about my necklace?"

"Know about it? Oh no, no, no. Not nearly enough. Oh my, nowhere near. An enigma, a puzzle, always was, always is." The professor's bead-like eyes peered intently at Stella.

"The right question is, what secrets and sights does Parhelian's light illuminate for you, Stella Mayweather? Oh my yes, what secrets, indeed?"

"Enough questions!" Gladys cried. "The poor little mites look just about done in. If I have any say-so, they'll get a nice bit of cake and some cocoa down them and then off to bed."

"I'm hungry too," Wendell said, from the safety of the hat stand. "I've just spent three days in the cupboard, with nothing to eat or drink."

"That's because you can't eat or drink. How many times do we have to go through this, dearie?"

"I want cake," Wendell said sullenly.

"I'll see whether I can find some helium for you, how about that, hmm?" Gladys crooned.

At the back of the office, a set of stairs led down into a kitchen. A large table stood in the middle of the room, with a large chequered cloth draped over it. Around the side were an assortment of different chairs and a perch for Botwing to sit on. There was a sink and rows of cupboards displaying a collection of clean but chipped plates and mugs, but there was no fridge, washing machine or even cooker in the kitchen. In the corner, however, there was a large, battered, metallic box on wheels. It had an old brass kettle on top of it and pots and pans hanging from hooks on its side. The surface was a patchwork of little doors, and it had a large dent on the front, as if something large had smashed into it.

"So what shall we have for supper, my lovelies?" Gladys gushed. "Oh! The Mechomator's run down again."

Gladys opened a drawer filled with string, nuts and bolts, and the plastic toys you get free from cereal packets. After a bit of rummaging, she found a large wing-topped key. She inserted it into a hole at the side of the metallic box and started to turn.

"It's always doing this. Last week it switched off in the middle of doing the breakfast. I wanted boiled eggs and didn't notice they weren't done until I dipped the toast in. The latest model, the MM1000 has just come out. We could get one of those?" Gladys asked Botwing hopefully.

"I'm sorry, Gladys, but you know that our money is pretty stretched at the moment, oh goodness me, tightly stretched indeed. Besides, the 200 model was built to last, oh yes. I'm sure it's got a good few years left in it yet. I'm quite sure, years," Professor Botwing said firmly.

_"Years?_ The poor thing is so old it should be drawing its pension. It's gone senile."

"It's true it has gone a bit mad," piped Wendell from where he was hovering over the sink. "It collects sponges. I keep seeing it hide them when it thinks nobody is looking. It hasn't been the same since it got hit by that meteorite."

"Is that what happens to them? I've been wondering why I have to keep buying more sponges every week," Gladys said.

"What would a machine want with a sponge?" Tom asked.

"I'm quite, quite sure it doesn't collect anything," Professor Botwing insisted. "The idea is preposterous, oh yes, preposterous. It just needs a bit of a tune-up, I'm sure. Sponges indeed!"

As the key was wound, the Mechomator started to judder into action. There was a loud metallic bang, and some sparks escaped from one of its doors. It started to rattle with the sound of cogs cranking into motion, and its kettle started to steam. A periscope shot up out of a little door on the top. The lens at the end of it flickered into a blue light, and it started to swivel around. Seeing Tom and Stella, it spun forward, jerking its way towards them on squeaking wheels. A metal arm extended out of the side of the Mechomator, with a boxing glove on the end of it clutching a dishcloth.

"They don't need cleaning, you rusted ninny. They need feeding," Gladys shouted, giving the periscope a tap.

The Mechomator span around and rolled to the sink. On the way, it ran over one of Helix's paws, and he gave a yelp. Another door in the side of the Mechomator swung open, and a sink plunger popped out. Using it to suck onto cups and plates, the Mechomator assembled refreshments in a clanking frenzy of activity. A jet of purple liquid streamed from the spout of its kettle and into the cups. The strange brew bubbled glittering clouds of steam. At Gladys's urging, Stella picked up a cup and took a sip of the concoction. It tasted like chocolate, with a zinging burst of sherbet that prickled her tongue.

Using a saw that appeared out of one of its doors, the Mechomator cut out generous portions of cake onto the plates. The icing was in fact freezing, as Tom discovered when he bit into it with a crunch. It also had a habit of trying to bounce off the plate, which Gladys explained.

"It's jumping jelly-bean cake. The trick is to open your mouth and see whether you can catch them when they leap off the plates."

Stella took a bite of the cake, and one of the beans began bouncing off the inside of her cheeks.

Helix was given some in a bowl and spent his time chasing the jumping beans around the kitchen. Professor Botwing asked for some vintage lunar Brie with crackers to peck at. Only Wendell was left out, and he started to moan that it wasn't fair that he couldn't digest things. He only stopped when the Mechomator produced a canister of helium from one of its hatches and began to fill up Wendell's balloon with it. The helium seemed to have a strange effect on Wendell because he started to giggle and bounce off the ceiling.

Once they had eaten, Gladys caught Stella stifling a yawn.

"Come on, dears, off to bed," she said, and she led Tom and Stella up the stairs.

"There we are. Good thing I got the Mechomator to change the sheets in the guest bedrooms, isn't it? This one's your room, Tom," she said, opening the doors into two comfortable-looking bedrooms, "and you get this one, Stella..."

Tom said goodnight with a yawn, but Stella was more reluctant to get to bed.

"How long do you think it'll be until Uncle Dodds finds out how to help my mum and dad?" she asked Gladys.

"Oh, my poor dear. If I know Doctor Dodds, he'll find a way in no time. Once he sets his mind to something, it usually gets done. You just have to be patient, is all."

***
Chapter 6: Doctor Nostromus

Stella awoke to morning light glowing through unfamiliar curtains covered with yellow rockets. Helix was lying at the bottom of her bed, chewing on something whilst waiting for her to wake up.

She gave his ears a ruffle, and he stopped his chewing to give her hand a quick lick in reply. Thoughts of her parents and the Greddylick flooded into her head, but it all seemed too unreal for her to accept. She got out of bed and looked out of the window. It had obviously snowed during the night, and Greenwich was now transformed by a pristine white carpet of snow. The view out of the window overlooked a cluster of icy houses, and she could make out the river Thames as a grey streak in the distance. Stella sighed. If she were at home, she'd be eager to be outside: rushing off to her local park with Helix and ignoring the shouts to keep warm from her mum. Stella fought back tears at the thought that her mum would now only shout about the Pilades Cluster (wherever that was), and the Greddylick would probably be waiting for her in the park.

Banishing those thoughts from her mind, she got dressed and noticed what it was that Helix was chewing. Somehow, he had found another one of the jellied people. This one was bright red.

"You don't give up with those things, do you?" she said, as she tugged it out of his jaws. "You couldn't leave it at home?"

Stella felt disappointed that even throughout the unpleasant shocks of the previous day he had sneaked one of his toys into her bag. But he just maintained his innocence, saying that he'd found it under the bed. Stella was determined not to get into an argument, though, and decided to wake up Tom. His room was empty, but the smell of breakfast guided Stella down the stairs and back into the kitchen.

She found Tom sat at the table with Wendell hovering beside him. The Mechomator was busy frying some eggs on top of itself. A tall chef's hat was perched on its kettle, and it was making a tinny humming sound.

"Hi, Stella," Tom said.

"You could have woken me up," Stella mumbled grumpily. She didn't like the idea that she was somehow being left out.

"I tried to. I knocked on your door, but your dog just growled at me. Gladys said to let you sleep."

"Where is Gladys?"

"She said she was going shopping." Tom shrugged. "Although I'd have thought she'd get some pretty strange looks when she starts picking stuff up from the shelves."

"What about Professor Botwing? Or Uncle Dodds?"

"I haven't seen them," Tom replied airily and took a large bite out of a fried egg sandwich that the Mechomator flipped onto his plate.

"Haven't you looked?"

"What?" Tom squawked, choking on his sandwich. "And get caught in that hallway again, or worse. No thanks."

"We've got to find them and work out what's going on."

"Will you keep the noise down," Wendell moaned.

Stella noticed that Wendell seemed to be unwell. He had gone a grey colour and was so deflated he was drooping close to the floor.

"What's the matter with you?" she asked.

"I don't feel too good," Wendell replied.

"He's been like this all morning," Tom said.

"It's the helium. I had too much of it. I always feel like I've been sucked through a vacuum cleaner the morning afterwards."

"I knew things were going to get weird when I said I'd follow you to this place, but never in a million years did I think I'd be having breakfast with a sick balloon," Tom said.

"Why don't you go, then?" Stella said. Nobody seemed to care that her world had been turned upside down. "Since you hate it so much. It's not you who's being hunted. It's not your parents who've had a mind block slapped on them."

"No," Tom said quietly, "I don't have any parents, and Shane Biggs picked on me every day until you blasted him into a tree. I'm going where you're going until I find out how you did it."

"You want to know how I did it? It was this!" She pulled out her pendant, which seemed to have caught Stella's mood and was glowing balefully. "You want it? You can have it!" Stella shouted. She thrust the crystal star at Tom, who shied away from it. "Take it with you and go, since no one wants you here anyway."

"Best put your necklace away, Stella. Oh my, it would indeed be best." Professor Botwing had flown in unnoticed through the kitchen window. "I'm sure you don't really intend to give it away. Tom doesn't want it. He doesn't want it at all."

Tom had upended his chair and was pressed fearfully against the Mechomator. Wendell was cowering behind him and trying to avoid the fly swatter the Mechomator was using to fend him away from the breakfast.

Stella began to feel foolish at losing her temper. "I'm sorry, Professor," she said.

"Not at all, my dear, not at all. Until Doctor Dodds gets back, though, it's probably best if you keep the necklace safely tucked away, oh yes, quite the best thing to do. It's me who is sorry, I should have been here when you woke up. Should have, no excuse. But I like to take a few turns over the park after breakfast. Oh yes, a bit of exercise helps the digestion, and today I just couldn't help it. I do like to flutter the old feathers in the snow. Can't resist."

"Do you know where Uncle Dodds is, Professor?"

"Oh yes, I know. Goodness me, of course I know."

Before Stella could open her mouth to ask where. Botwing cut her off. "I'm afraid, my dear, there's no help for it but to be patient, no help for it at all. I always try to keep busy if I'm worried, yes, keeping busy is always a good cure. Now, why don't you two finish your breakfasts and then come up to my study, and maybe you can help me out with a few things? Plenty to be done. Oh my, always plenty to be done."

Botwing gave his wings a shake, spraying a shower of melted snow over them, and then flew up the stairs.

It was probably a good thing for Stella and Tom that they were distracted through the rest of breakfast by Wendell, who complained about how badly his ions hurt. Apparently, a good cure for a helium hangover was to be held underwater. So Tom filled up the sink and pressed Wendell down until he started to turn a healthier orange colour.

"How exactly does this make you feel better?" he asked.

"Something to do with the pressure, I think. Ow, stop pinching!" Wendell gurgled.

After Wendell felt buoyant enough to make it up the stairs, they decided to find Professor Botwing. Neither Wendell nor Tom wanted to brave the cosmic hallway again, so Wendell took them by an alternative route. The house was very old and large and at some point must have had lots of people living in it. Every corner revealed a hidden stairwell or a cramped passageway, and they all led to many different rooms.

Some doorways that they passed were locked, and others led into normal dusty rooms. However, Wendell pointed out some rooms that held surprises.

"This is the laboratory," Wendell told them.

He had guided them into a large chamber containing rows of old wooden benches holding a collection of different-sized glass vials and beakers full of strange liquids. Some of the jars gave off strange gargling noises. In one corner was an elaborate set-up of glass tubes spiralling into a huge glass bowl. A blue flame was warming the contraption from underneath and causing the mixture inside to fizz.

On another table, a selection of many different-coloured wires were attached with crocodile clips to two towering metal coils. Propped atop of each of them was a small hairy ball. A blue thread of electricity buzzed between the coils, and when it reached the top, the hair on each of the balls would fuzz out with a shocked, ' _Eek!_ '

"What's this for?" Stella asked.

"Oh, it's all very scientific," Wendell said confidently. "Lots of important work done here."

They were interrupted by the contents of the fizzing glass jar suddenly exploding, showering them with egg-smelling goo. The furry balls took that as their cue to shoot into the air and started spinning around the room like spinning tops, in a trail of thick blue smoke.

They made a quick getaway after one of the balls swooped after Tom, narrowly missing his head. Despite the possible shocks, Stella found herself getting more and more curious as she peered into cupboards and explored the strange rooms of the house.

"What's down there?" Stella asked, looking down a rickety stairway. At the bottom she could see a vivid white light glowing from a solid-looking door.

"Oh, that's the cellar," Wendell said nervously.

"I'm surprised you don't live down there, Wendell," Stella said. "You wouldn't feel so exposed if you lived under the ground." She walked down the stairs, although with every step she took, the air became more and more chilled.

"Doctor Nostromus already, err, lives there," he said.

"Well, he must like things very cold. This door is covered in ice," Stella said. Now she was so close to the door, she wondered whether it was actually a solid block of ice. It was so shiny she could see her reflection in it. She brushed her hand against the smooth, chill surface and snatched it back as if it had been bitten. The touch was so cold it felt like she'd put her hand in a freezer.

_"She_ likes the door exactly the way it is – shut!" said a voice from the top of the stairwell. It belonged to the palest woman Stella had ever seen. She had straight black hair that framed a sharp, narrow face, and she wore a set of tinted goggles over her eyes.

"Hello, Doctor Nostromus, we don't often see you up and about...this early," Wendell said, with a slight wavering in his voice.

Doctor Nostromus ignored him and walked straight down to Stella. "Ah. Here stands the reason for old Dodds lifting up rocks that should be left where they are and disturbing nasty creatures that don't need disturbing. Stella Mayweather with the seven-pointed star."

"How do you know who I am?" Stella asked defiantly, although she felt more uneasy with every deliberate step the woman took towards her.

Doctor Nostromus's mouth curved into a smile, which only heightened Stella's unease. "Let's just say, you are not the only one with a taste for interesting jewellery." She held out a hand with long thin fingers and sharp nails. On her third finger she wore a large ring that held a glistening gem. The jewel was round and about the same size as a marble. It had the markings of an eye with a blood-red iris. The eyeball moved, and Stella gasped. Its crimson gaze locked onto hers. Stella felt she couldn't tear herself away. She saw a reflection of herself in the eye, and then the image switched to a seven-pointed star blazing with fiery light.

Then there was an incandescent flash that caused Stella to squeeze her eyes shut. Trying to blink away purple splotches, Stella could just make out the back of Nostromus's cloak disappearing into the cellar. Her voice rang behind her.

"Unlike you, I can tell you exactly where I got mine. It was donated by the last poor soul who felt they needed to peek in my room uninvited," Nostromus said, before the door of ice shut firmly behind her with a clang.

The encounter with Doctor Nostromus had made Stella's legs feel a bit wobbly, and she found it took her a while to climb back up the stairs.

"She doesn't seem all that nice," Tom said.

"Yeah, how come Uncle Dodds lets her creep around down here?" Stella asked.

"Oh, she keeps herself to herself most of the time," Wendell said. "I think she just likes her privacy. She can get a bit grumpy, so I tend to steer clear of her."

Stella found her taste for exploration had waned a little and was anxious to find Professor Botwing. Wendell guided them through a narrow corridor to a small door with ' _Professor BB Botwing_ ' stencilled on it.

Wendell, however, seemed reluctant to go near it.

"I'd love to come with you," he said, "but Botwing's office scares the life out of me."

With that worrying comment, Wendell bobbed nervously away.

"Maybe we should go with him," Tom said.

Although she suspected that Tom could be right, Stella ignored his comment and knocked loudly on the door. The muffled voice of Botwing could be heard saying, "Come in, oh my, come in."

Trying not to think about what had scared Wendell, or the disturbing encounter with Doctor Nostromus, Stella opened the door. One look at the room told Stella why it would upset somebody who was scared of open spaces. Stella's gaze was drawn upwards by tall bookcases, stuffed with books, that stretched high up to a glass-domed skylight. The windows in the roof revealed snow flurries swirling in the sky. A spiral staircase wound up to a gallery that hugged the sides of the room, and a narrow walkway spanned the middle of the space, a bridge from one side of the room to the other. Botwing was perched on one of the balconies, dictating a letter to Gladys, who was sat in a comfortable armchair taking notes with one pair of hands, whilst the other pair were knitting some socks.

"...it is with great regret that I must cancel my subscription to _Martian Monthly_ , oh yes, a great shame. However, I feel the recent rise in your fee to _five_ cosmo-dollars per issue is far too expensive a sum for your publication, oh my, you should be ashamed. Yours sincerely, Professor BB Botwing."

"You do realise this has already missed the Christmas post, don't you?" Gladys sighed. "The last mail orbited past yesterday. I did say."

Botwing ruffled his feathers. "Did you? I don't remember. Can't have told me, oh my, no. You must let me know these things, Gladys. Yes, keep me informed."

Gladys mumbled something about professors with flighty memories, but Botwing brushed her objections aside with an airy flap of his wing.

"Ah, visitors!" he said, turning his attention to Stella and Tom. "Did you have a nice breakfast? What can I do for you?"

"You said we could help out, Professor," Stella said.

"Oh yes, of course I did. Clean forgot, memory like a sieve."

Gladys gave a snort.

"I want to help, but what is it that you actually do here?" Stella asked.

"Do? You are inside the Greenwich Interplanetary Society!" Botwing declared.

"Yeah, we read that on the door," Tom said.

"Am I to understand...you don't mean to say...you've not _heard_ of the Greenwich Interplanetary Society?" Botwing spluttered.

"No," said Stella and Tom at the same time.

"But we have links throughout the known universe? Oh yes, and even a couple in the unknown universe," Botwing said. He was so flustered he had started to flap his wings and was rising from the banister.

"It is written in our founding charter that the Greenwich Interplanetary Society is pledged to promote understanding between all planets and cultures in the galaxy. To push against the frontiers of exploration and knowledge. To oppose those that threaten Galactic liberty! A member of the Intergalactic Society works to uphold these noble ideals. Oh my, yes. Our work lights up the galaxy."

"Oh lovely. New volunteers," Gladys gushed. "We always need help with the filing."

***
Chapter 7: b-mail

After Professor Botwing's speech had fired their imaginations towards grand ideas of heroism and discovery, Tom and Stella felt let down at the sight of the large pile of paperwork strewn across Gladys's cluttered office.

"Where does all this stuff go?" Tom asked in dismay, looking at a precarious stack of files.

"I'd just move it from one side of the room to the other, my dear. Yes, right there, by the pot-plant, just to give it an airing. Will you look at the time? I should really check my b-mails."

"Don't you mean e-mails?" Tom asked. He was very good in the IT lessons at school and spent a lot of time at home in front of a computer.

"No, no, my dear, _b_ -mails. Now open that window and let them in."

"I think you mean e-mails," Tom said, in his worst _know-it-all_ voice that he often used to correct the less technically minded teachers, who seemed to have problems turning a television on.

"You don't need to open the window to let them in. They're electronic signals, sent through the internet. Where is your computer?" he asked, searching Gladys's desk.

Amidst the piles of paper, he could only see an ancient slab of a typewriter, some framed pictures of many-limbed toddlers (often with jam smeared all over their faces) and a chipped mug with ' _To a Super Gran_ ' written on it. On a filing cabinet, there was what looked like an old gramophone player, complete with trumpet for the sound and an arm with a needle pointed just above a stack of old vinyl records.

"I don't know what you're saying, dearie, but it sounds like you're a bit confused," Gladys said, patting Tom on the head. "Your friend is a bit slow, is he?" she whispered to Stella.

"Never mind, dear," she said to Tom, in an exaggerated slow and loud voice. "It took a bit of time for my Richard to get to grips with his school work, too, bless him. But he turned out all right in the end. The world would be pretty boring if we were all clever clogs, now, wouldn't it? Would you like a biscuit to cheer yourself up, dear?"

Tom grumbled something under his breath about old people not understanding technology, but he did take a biscuit before going to the window. "Ugh! Are you sure you want me to open this?" he asked nervously. "There's a load of bees banging against the glass."

"Course they are. It's chilly out there," Gladys said.

"But I didn't think there were any bees around in winter," Stella said.

"Yes, they're normally on their hols by now. But these ones wanted the overtime."

Tom opened the window and shied away. He had been stung earlier in the summer by a wasp and had formed a mistrust against anything with a sting on it. The bees buzzed into the office and flew straight to the gramophone and disappeared down into the flared trumpet.

Stella and Tom rushed to investigate.

"What are they doing in there?" Stella asked.

"Delivering the messages," Gladys said.

She opened one of the drawers to the filing cabinet, to reveal a honeycomb. Dozens of furry yellow and black bees were crawling through small wax hexagons.

"Bees are telepathic, you see," Gladys explained. "Every hive, no matter which planet it's working on, can relay a message to another hive. They're such clever little things."

"You mean you can speak to them?" Stella asked. "But I can never understand them. They're not like animals or even birds. I sometimes think that I can catch the odd word, but I can't make sense of it."

"Well, you wouldn't, dearie, each bee is just a little piece of the hive. They're so small they can't carry a whole message all by themselves. They split it up between them and send it out. The bigger the message, the more bees it takes to deliver it. They come altogether to one of these Bee-Communicators." Gladys gestured to what Tom and Stella had thought was an old record player. "We call them BCs for short, dear," she said to Tom. "This is where the message is put together again, and if we're lucky, we get some honey as well. Isn't modern technology wonderful?"

"I knew it!" Tom exclaimed. "I always thought that bees were aliens."

The turntable of the record player abruptly spun into action, and the arm lowered its needle onto one of the black discs and started to vigorously scratch grooves into it. Out of the trumpet came a chirruping sound, and then a cloud of glittering smoke poured into the office and shaped itself into the image of a cheery face.

"Oh, look, it's from Doris," Gladys enthused.

The face peered around the room and began to speak in a loud sing-song voice. "Hello, Gladys. Doris here. Hope U R well. I am well, but little Gemma is feeling a bit peaky. Must meet up soon. Remind me to bring some of my jam. Colon – dash – closing bracket."

The face began to fade as the glittering smoke stopped billowing from the BC's trumpet.

"Oh look, she's sent an attachment," Gladys said.

The needle began to scratch more frenetically on the disk, and black shavings showered into the air as the disk began to disappear and something seemed to be growing in the middle of the turntable. The spinning was too fast to make anything out clearly until, with a click, the arm rose away and the turntable slowed to reveal a lifelike sculpture of a kitten, with a bow around its neck.

"Yuck!" Tom said.

"Ah. Isn't it sweet? I know it's not work, but it does put a smile on your face."

The trumpet emitted another chirrup, and the turntable whirred into action again. This time the cloud that came out of the trumpet was a crimson red and spelt out the word 'URGENT' in flashing letters. A stern voice boomed out, "EXCLAMATION – PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL – TO DOCTOR WILBERFORCE DODDS: FROM JERBIL-DIN."

"Ah, I think that best wait for Doctor Dodds," Gladys said hastily and placed a huge rubber plug into the mouth of the trumpet. "Anyone want a nice cup of tea?" she asked, as she guided Stella away from the BC. Stella couldn't take her eyes away from the wispy remnants of the flashing URGENT sign. It caused her to feel a heaviness in the pit of her stomach. She knew that the b-mail had something to do with her.

***

Tom and Stella spent the rest of the day cleaning the laboratory. Apparently, the electric charge that had caused the hair balls to start whizzing around the room had also caused them to replicate. Each one would grow bigger until splitting in two, so by that afternoon there were hundreds of the little creatures flying around and covering the room in a green fizzing goo. One of the hazards in cleaning them away was that they would zoom out of the air, trying to hit Stella and Tom in the face. So they each took turns in hitting the balls into a wastepaper bin with a tennis racket, whilst Wendell shouted instructions from the ceiling.

Stella had expected the day to drag as she brooded over her parents, but was surprised when Gladys called them down for dinner. The smell of freshly baked pie wafted from the Mechomator. Hungry after all the exertion, Tom and Stella wolfed the food down quickly, whilst Wendell bobbed around them, pestering for a taste. Gladys then sent them off to bed, after trying to reassure Stella that Doctor Dodds would return to the house tomorrow. Stifling a yawn, Stella reluctantly trudged off to bed.

That night, she slept fitfully. She kept having dreams of giant bees and swarms of the jellied dog toys. The Greddylick was in her nightmare, too. Lurking just outside the window, its sniffing fingers scrabbled against the pane of glass. It was this sound that woke her up, but it took her a while to realise that it wasn't the Greddylick. Somebody was knocking at the bedroom door. Helix opened a sleepy eye at the foot of her bed and started to growl.

"Stella, it's me." She heard the muffled voice of Tom behind the door. "Let me in."

Opening the door, she saw Tom crouched on the landing with Wendell behind him.

"What are you doing awake?" she whispered. For some reason she didn't want Doctor Nostromus to know she was up and about.

"It's Dodds. He's back."

Stella's heart leapt. "How do you know?" she asked.

"Wendell told me."

Wendell bobbed up and down in agreement. "I heard him come in."

"Why didn't you wake me up first?" she asked him. "He's my uncle."

"I couldn't squeeze through your door," Wendell said apologetically. "I'd pop if I tried to fit through that keyhole."

"My room has an old fireplace in it. He came through the chimney," Tom explained.

"I shouldn't really have woken any of you up," Wendell said, "but they never tell me anything."

_"They?_ " Stella asked.

"Yeah, Doctor Dodds went into Professor Botwing's study with Doctor Nostromus."

Stella felt a shiver of dread course through her. Whatever they were talking about, it was bound to be about her, and she wasn't sure she wanted Doctor Nostromus involved.

"Is there any way we can get into Botwing's study without being seen?" Stella asked Wendell. "If it's about me, I want to know what they're saying."

Wendell went a sickly green tinge in the darkness. "I don't want to go in there," he quailed.

"Come on, Wendell. You don't have to, just tell me how to get there," she said adamantly.

"We're sticking together, Stella. I want to find out too. And so do you, don't you, Wendell?" Tom said.

Wendell nodded, but turned a brighter tinge of green. Stella was about to argue, but noted the stubborn look in Tom's eyes.

"I know one way," Wendell said, "but we're bound to get caught!"

"Great! Wait a moment, I'll just get changed," Stella said.

Whilst she put on her jeans and jumper over her pyjamas, Stella explained to Helix what she was doing. With a great deal of whining, he persuaded her to let him come along.

"All right, then, you can be lookout," she told him.

Stella and Tom crept along the landing to the kitchen, with Helix behind them, whimpering slightly, and Wendell hovering nervously above them. It was dark in the room, and the cupboards stretched long shadows across the polished chequered floor. Wendell bobbed over to a small cupboard.

"This opens to a small lift that you can pull up to Botwing's study," he said. "It's normally used to carry food and stuff."

Stella slid the doors apart to reveal a cramped gloomy space. There was a thick rope at the side that could be used to pull up the hatch.

"Are you sure we can all fit in?" Tom asked.

"Yes, it's nice and snug. I often like to hover in there, just to relax."

Tom and Stella stared into the gloomy hole. It wasn't where either of them would choose to spend any time.

"I don't think it'll carry two people. Maybe you should stay down here, Tom, and help pull the rope from the kitchen."

"No way. I want to hear what Doctor Dodds says too."

"It's none of your business, Tom. If you really wanted to help–" Stella was cut off by the sound of wheels squeaking outside.

"Somebody's coming. No time to argue, we've got to hide," Tom whispered and started to climb into the cupboard.

"Helix, hide under the table. Nobody will notice you there if you're quiet," Stella whispered.

The dog was trying to crawl into the cupboard with them, but there wasn't enough room, so he reluctantly slunk under the table.

Stella grabbed Wendell's string and pulled him in before sliding the hatch closed, careful to leave it open a crack so they could look through. She was just in time to see the Mechomator sidle into the kitchen.

It squeaked in very slowly, with its periscope scanning the kitchen. It looked as if it was trying not to be noticed as well. Stella held her breath as it cautiously trundled past her. It seemed to hear a noise and stopped just outside the hatch. Stella spent an agonising few seconds holding her breath and hoping that the others would keep as silent. Eventually reassured, the skittish machine went to the sink, and one of its mechanical arms stretched out to grab hold of the cleaning sponge on the draining board. It gave a metallic croon of delight whilst swiftly hiding the sponge in one of its drawers and trundled off.

"I told you he did that," Wendell whispered. "Gladys is going to be fuming."

Stella was anxious to pull the lift up before there were any more interruptions, so with a quick wave to Helix, telling him to stay where he was, she and Tom started to pull at the rope. Even with both of them pulling the lift upwards, it was very heavy going. The pulley gave a high-pitched screech with each heave of the rope. Stella was sure they would be discovered. However, she soon could pick out muffled voices above her.

"We have to get closer," she whispered. "I can't make out what they're saying."

Stella and Tom slowly inched the tray up until they could see a thin sliver of light through the door.

Stella took a risk and slid the door open a fraction, so she could see outside. The angle wasn't very good, but she could make out the tail feathers of Doctor Botwing on his perch. She could also make out her great uncle sitting in an armchair, looking tired and troubled.

"...which is exactly why I can't agree to this foolishness." Stella recognised the sneering voice of Doctor Nostromus. "Have you forgotten the threat that these creatures pose? It's been over a hundred years and there are still whole planets that bear the scars of the last Greddylick swarm."

"This is only one creature, Caroline," Dodds replied.

"Only one! As if that is not enough. If there is one, you can believe others will follow."

"It is because of this that we must stop it now."

"Then leave the girl here."

"She carries Parhelian's star."

"But cannot use it. If she goes, you may as well hand it over to the Greddylick right now."

"I agree with Doctor Nostromus, Wilberforce," the voice of Professor Botwing interjected. "Surely Stella is safer here. Oh yes, definitely safer."

"The stakes are already too high," Dodds replied. "It is clear to me now that this wasn't just an opportunistic attack. The Greddylick's primary goal was to capture the star."

"You know, don't you? You know what it wants?" Nostromus said accusingly.

"If I knew, I'd already have acted," Dodds said gravely.

"You suspect, then?"

"Suspicions, conjecture. Nothing useful. The only thing I am sure of is the danger we all face if we don't act swiftly. The Greddylick must be forced into the open."

"How are we to tell the child. Oh my dear, what to say?" Botwing asked.

"I don't think you have to worry about that, Botwing. She and that little friend of hers have been listening for the last five minutes," Nostromus proclaimed.

Before Stella could react, the hatchway abruptly slid open, and she found herself peering into the strange, dark goggles of Doctor Nostromus.

"Stella? Tom? You may as well come out. It can't have been too comfortable in there. You too, Wendell," Dodds said.

Stella and Tom crawled out of the hatchway, whilst Wendell quivered by the entrance.

Stella stared up at her uncle. Her mouth seemed as if it would burst with questions, but her tongue was tied, as her questions all tried to come out at the same time. Dodds seemed to understand her predicament.

"Stella, I'm sorry it took so long, but I've got some new information, and you have a decision to make. First things first, though, let's use that thing you were hiding in for what it was made for. I could do with some tea and something to eat."

Dodds lowered the tray down, whilst Botwing called for the Mechomator to get some refreshments. After a small interval, the hatch appeared again bearing a teapot with pink smoke billowing from its spout, a tray of interesting-coloured sandwiches and Helix, who seemed to be enjoying the ride.

"Doesn't anybody use a door these days?" Botwing muttered.

Once Dodds saw that they had all settled, apart from Doctor Nostromus, who was pacing the room, he began to speak.

"As soon as I brought you two here, I had to rush off and find out how the Greddylick had tracked you down."

"Without saying goodbye or anything?" Stella said, unable to keep a tinge of bitterness out of her voice.

"Yes, I'm sorry. You have questions, I understand that. I'd think you a bit strange if you didn't, but the answers would have taken too much time. I didn't know whether the Greddylick was still on the planet, but I needed to track down how it got here and seal the breach."

"You mean that you managed to follow everywhere the Greddylick has been?" Tom asked.

"Not everywhere, but enough to know how it got here at least."

"We had to find out how it got onto Earth," Botwing said. "You see, there are powerful defences guarding this planet against any unwanted visitors. Otherwise, we'd have any passing galactic explorer roaming the streets, causing untold havoc, oh yes!"

"Defenses? What kind of defences?" Stella asked.

"The planet Earth is in a designated conservation zone. Any off-world visitor would need special permissions from the Galactic Quorum," Dodds answered.

Doctor Nostromus gave a grunt of derision. "Bunch of incompetent busybodies."

"However, there are those who manage to slip through the net from time to time," Dodds continued.

"Smugglers, oh my, yes, they sometimes get through," Botwing said.

"Which one was it?" Nostromus asked. "I keep telling you, you're too lenient on them, Wilberforce. One of them was bound to cross the line sooner or later."

"It was Slimeface," Dodds admitted. "One of the more unsavoury smugglers of our acquaintance."

"Slimeface! I should have guessed. Once I get hold of him, I'll make him wish he'd never been spawned," Nostromus snarled.

"I wouldn't be too sure that even you're quick enough for that, Caroline. When I eventually caught up with him, he was hiding in one of his old haunts and quite anxious to get as many light years from here as possible. It seems he'd narrowly avoided having his mind squeezed."

"Serves the fool right for trusting a Greddylick."

"Even Slimeface has enough sense to avoid anything like a Greddylick. He'd taken up a job from someone in the Pilades Cluster. Someone called Vanga-Tron, who hired him to deliver a crate to Earth. This Vanga-Tron paid him a million Cosmo-dollars extra not to ask too many questions."

"You mean he didn't even check what he was carrying? A little careless for Slimeface."

"I'm sure he tried to open it, but couldn't. He denied it, of course, but I think he attempted to dump the crate when he got into the atmosphere. So he could say to this Vanga-Tron that it was delivered, but if it was something dangerous, it would burn up in the atmosphere and any remains couldn't be tracked back to him."

"A double cross," Nostromus said. "That wouldn't go down well with other prospective employers, if they found out Slimeface had gone back on a deal."

"Whatever happened, he got the shock of his life when the Greddylick popped out of the crate and tried to wipe his brain. We should be grateful for Slimeface's devious nature. A less unscrupulous smuggler would have landed on the planet first and wouldn't have been able to fly clear of the danger. They surely would have had their minds squeezed, or worse. Then the trail would have gone cold, and we wouldn't even know the name of this Vanga-Tron."

"So you think this Vanga-Tron is helping the Greddylick?" Stella asked.

"I doubt that they would be helping by their own choice. Remember this, Stella, the Greddylick's method is to force people to do things through violence or fear. They don't understand feelings like friendship or trust. It is important you know the nature of this creature. I do not want you to be frightened, merely have some idea what we all face. Over a century ago, a swarm of Greddylick, hundreds of thousands of them, tore across the galaxy, destroying whole planets. Their goal is only to feed and destroy anything they see as a threat. If a swarm of them ever reached Earth, it would only take days for them to raze it to ashes, consuming what they want and then moving to the next world to do the same. It has always been a mystery as to what happened to the last swarm. With the exception of the worlds that hold great numbers of Pyxian bats, all other planets were helpless against the destruction unleashed by the swarm. But the Greddylick disappeared suddenly, without a trace, and have not been seen since. Some thought that they moved away from this galaxy to find richer worlds to plunder. Others say that they became extinct, that they started fighting amongst themselves, as is their nature when they don't have enough to feed on."

"Idiots!" Nostromus sniffed. "Blinded by their own wishful thinking."

"Whatever the reason, we know that one has returned, and it wants the power held in your pendant."

It took all of Stella's will not to tear off her necklace and throw it as far away as possible. She hadn't asked for this, she just wanted to get rid of it and be at home with her parents. She pulled the chain from around her neck and held the star in her hand.

"If it wants this so much, couldn't we just hide it?"

"Hide it? Why? Far better to use it, surely?" Doctor Nostromus challenged.

She snatched the pendant out of Stella's hand. There was a flash of light, and Nostromus gave a cry. The star fell to the floor, where it glittered dangerously. Stella rushed to pick it up, but Doctor Nostromus held her back in an icy grip, frost started to form on her sleeve where Nostromus was holding.

"Listen to your uncle," Nostromus hissed. "The Greddylick wants the power held in your pendant. But only you can use it. It knows this. After your little adventure in the alley, it knows it cannot even touch it. The Greddylick is no longer just searching for Parhelian's flame, but the one who holds it. Why else take your parents' memories if not to lure you into a trap."

She eased her grip from Stella's arm, and Stella pulled away.

"You, boy. Pick up the pendant," Nostromus ordered, pointing at Tom.

"Me? No way."

"You can't resist your dramatics, can you, Caroline?" Dodds said.

"Sometimes it's the only way to get a point across," she said.

Dodds shrugged in reply and said, "It's all right, Tom. It won't burn you. It's quite safe for you to touch."

Tentatively reaching out with his hand, Tom bent over to pick up the star. Grimacing, he expected to be burnt, but surprise dawned on his face as he gripped the star. "It's not even warm," he said in wonder.

Stella reached out and snatched her pendant back. She didn't like the thought of anyone holding it but her.

"It seems only to react when somebody other than Stella tries to use it," Dodds stated. "As Doctor Nostromus has most ably demonstrated. To those who don't intend to channel its power, it is quite harmless. After all, I had it for years."

"I just want to get my parents back," Stella said, fighting back tears. "I haven't heard anybody say how we're going to do that."

"Doctor Nostromus and Professor Botwing disagree with what I advise, although no doubt for different reasons." Dodds stared meaningfully at Nostromus, who ignored him. "They think you and the pendant should stay here, under whatever protection the Society can provide, whilst we try and find a way to track down the Greddylick. I have always believed that it is always better to be the hunter rather than the hunted. I think that the best chance we have is to follow our leads to the Pilades Cluster and try to capture the Greddylick."

Helix started to growl, obviously not liking what he was hearing.

"A dangerous route, I know, old friend," Dodds said to him, "but no less dangerous than waiting for the Greddylick to grow even stronger. You know we cannot protect her here forever. The decision, though, is up to you, Stella."

Stella didn't have to think about it very hard. The thought of sitting and waiting in the Greenwich Interplanetary Society, frightened that any tap at the window could be the Greddylick, made her want to scream out loud.

"I'm coming with you. I've got to help get my parents' memories back," she said.

"So am I," Tom said.

"I could stay here," Wendell said.

"The bait without a sting will surely be eaten. More than your safety rests in you learning how to use that star of yours, little girl," Nostromus said to Stella, but her shielded eyes made her emotions unreadable. "They call it Parhelian's flame. A curious name, don't you think? Remember this, child, the flame that burns from within is the one that gives off the most heat."

With that cryptic declaration, Nostromus turned on her heel and stalked away with a swirl of her cloak.

"I expect you wish me to wake up the Earth guardians, Wilberforce?" she drawled behind her.

"If you would, Caroline. That should be protection enough to ensure that the Greddylick doesn't come back to this planet."

"I'm not surprised that you want to be off-world when they wake up. Once they hear what you've done, they'll be furious with you," she retorted as she left the room.

"She does love her dramatic exits." Dodds chuckled. He clapped his hands and turned to Botwing. "Botrus, we're going to need as much information as we can get. Could you and Gladys get in touch with our associates and try and find out as much as you can about the Greddylick?"

"Oh my! You want us to solve a riddle that has baffled scholars for decades?" Botwing asked.

"I know you like a challenge, Botrus."

"Hmm," Botwing grumbled. "Nostromus was right. This is too reckless, too reckless indeed. I'll try first where the Greddylick swarm was last seen. The Goliath sector. Our contact there would be young Fredrick. I'll have to wake him up. What with the time delay, it would be October there..." he muttered, fluttering over to select some heavy books from his bookshelves.

"The rest of you, get your things and make your way up to the attic." Dodds pulled the curious handless clock out of his jacket and peered out of the skylight into the night sky. "We don't have much time if we want to catch the lunar tide. We launch for Pilades Cluster within the hour!"

***
Chapter 8: The Attic

Stella felt her heart leap in excitement. At last! They were going to save her parents. She rushed to her room to pack her bag, but Tom chased behind her, trying to catch her up.

"Lunar tide? What does he mean by that? Do you think we're really going to go into space?" he asked breathlessly. "I mean, isn't all this getting really dangerous?"

"It was already really dangerous," Stella replied. She didn't know what else to say.

"Stella, listen! You could stay here, like Botwing and that Nostromus woman said, and let Dodds find this Greddylick thing," Tom said.

"Even though I'd be staying, it'd just feel like I was running away, though," Stella said thoughtfully. "Uncle Dodds thinks that I need to help, and he's the only one who seems to care what happens to my parents."

She stopped and turned to look directly at Tom. He looked pale and frightened and she began to feel sorry for him.

"Look, you don't have to come, you know. I wouldn't be doing any of this if I didn't have to."

"I'm not scared," Tom said, shaking his head, although he still looked as if he were about to be sick.

"It's just, what if Dodds is wrong and that Greddylick thing is really just waiting out there?"

"I don't know whether this is the right thing to do. I just know that I need to do something. You heard what Uncle Dodds said. The Greddylick forces people to do what it wants by scaring them or hurting them. I can't let it do that to people like my mum and dad just so I can stay hidden away."

Stella went upstairs to her room to pack her things and found that Helix had gotten there ahead of her.

"I suppose it's no use telling you to stay here either?" Stella asked him.

Helix just sniffed disdainfully at her suggestion and put his bowl in her bag. She knelt down and buried her face in his soft fur. Despite what she'd said to Tom, she was very afraid and was fighting an urge to burst into tears. Helix gave a gentle woof and licked her hand. Stella stood up and wiped her eyes.

"Just make sure you leave those jelly toys here this time."

Dodds's voice boomed down the stairs. "Get a move on! Follow the stairs up to the top. We've only got about ten minutes."

Tom had already packed and was waiting for Stella outside her room.

"I wonder what all the hurry is about?" he said. "I don't see why we can't wait until morning?"

"I guess we're going to find out," Stella said, and Helix barked in agreement.

***

The house had many floors, so there were a number of sets of stairs to climb, each one slightly narrower than the last, until they reached a ladder that stretched upwards to a hole in the ceiling.

"I guess that's the attic," Stella said.

Helix started to whine. He couldn't see how he would be able to climb the ladder.

"Don't worry, we'll lift you up. Just put your paws on the top rung," Stella told him.

It took a great deal of lifting, scratching and affronts to canine dignity before Helix eventually scrabbled over the lip of the ladder. Tom followed him after moaning about Helix's weight. Stella climbed the rungs, wondering what there was in the attic that could transport them to Pilades Cluster.

When her head peered through the hatch, the first thing Stella noticed was the room had very shiny, wooden floorboards. At first glance, the attic looked quite ordinary. Although the roof did slope down, Stella could easily stand up in the room. A set of purple, velvet curtains hung across one wall, and an ornate brass door was set on the opposite wall. The only furniture that she could see were a couple of worn leather armchairs and a comfortable-looking green sofa.

In the middle of the room, there was a large object covered by a large, white blanket, the kind that decorators put over things so they don't spatter paint on them. The object underneath was so broad that it looked like somebody had put up a tent. Dodds was waiting by the hatch to give her a hand up from the ladder.

"You're all here. Just in time. Another couple of minutes and we'd have missed the moon," Dodds said, pulling up the ladder.

There was a trapdoor on a hinge by the hole they'd just entered. It had a golden wheel as a handle that made it look like the door of a safe. The door made a loud clang as Dodds heaved it shut. He span the wheel to lock it and walked over to a metallic cone that sprouted out of one of the walls. He bellowed into it, "Hatch is closed! Weigh anchor!"

Dodds then sat on one of the worn armchairs. "You'd best sit down. Take off can get a bit rough," he said to Stella and Tom.

Helix, taking the prompt, bounded onto the other chair.

There was a wrenching creak, and the floor lurched upwards. Stella almost fell over, but managed to keep herself upright by grabbing hold of Tom. Propping each other up, they both staggered onto the sofa. The room started to judder, and Stella felt the sensation of being pressed down, as if she was on a very fast fairground ride.

"What's happening?" she managed to gasp. She felt as if someone was squeezing her whole body very tightly.

"We're leaving the Earth's atmosphere," Dodds shouted over the rattle of the walls. "Don't worry, this only lasts until we get into space."

"How can we be moving?" Tom asked, sounding just as out of breath as Stella. "I didn't notice any rocket or anything in the house."

"A rocket? What would I want a rocket for? They're pretty dangerous, you know. One spark in the wrong place could wipe out most of South London. Not to mention the damage it would do the environment."

"So how are we moving, then?" Stella shouted back. She didn't know whether it was the pressure or the conversation that was making her the more dizzy.

"Moon-magnet!" Dodds yelled.

"What?" Tom and Stella shouted together.

"Moon-magnet. The _Attic_ is built out of stone ore that contains a kind of metal that is magnetic to the moon. As long as the moon is in the right place in the sky, you just let go of the anchor and whoosh! Up we go."

"He is mad!" Tom wailed, and Stella found herself ready to agree with him.

Stella's head felt as if it were heavier than a bowling ball, and her bones seemed to be shaking so much they could've been jelly. Then, there was a loud pop, and the movement abruptly stopped.

"Ah, you see, we're now out of the atmosphere," Dodds said cheerfully and hopped up from his chair.

Tom rubbed his jaw. "I think I need some new fillings," he said.

"Are you telling us we're in space now?" Stella asked.

"Yes. Where did you think we were?" he replied. "Help me with this, will you?" Dodds was trying to unentangle the white blanket from whatever it was covering, but it kept getting caught on whatever was underneath it.

"Then how come we're not floating around, then? There isn't any gravity in space," Tom said.

"That's because of the Gravo-wax," Dodds replied, sliding one of his boots on the shiny floor. "It keeps the gravity in. As long as you apply a good coat of it every couple of days."

Dodds finally managed to tug the blanket free to reveal the object underneath. It was a huge wooden wheel set on a golden stand. It had spokes bristling at regular intervals around the circumference. Tom and Stella looked at themselves and then back to Doctor Dodds, their disbelief plainly written on their faces.

"It's the steering wheel," Dodds explained. "There's no point in having a spaceship that can't turn around, is there?"

"Are you sure we're in space, Uncle?" Stella asked.

Dodds just looked at her, perplexed.

"I mean, it's just..." Stella gestured around her. "We're in the attic."

"Yes. We're in the _Attic_ ," he repeated, obviously confused.

"In space?" Stella said.

"Yes, in the _Attic_ , in space. Just look out the window," Dodds said and gave an airy wave at the curtains.

Tom joined Stella beside the curtains.

"This is going to be really embarrassing when we open these curtains and see Greenwich outside. I mean, he's really lost it now. Moon-magnet? Gravo-wax? Does he think we're stupid or what?" Tom said, tugging open the curtains. "I knew all along this must be some kind of hoax. Look, I've got to tell you..."

But Tom never finished his sentence, as his jaw dropped open, making him look like a particularly surprised fish.

"What's the matter? Tell me what?" Stella asked, looking at Tom and then at the window.

The window was a huge round pane of glass that took up most of the wall. In the centre of it hung the green-blue orb of the planet Earth.

"Wow!" she said.

"Believe me now, do you?" Wilberforce chuckled.

Tom tapped at the window, trying to re-assure himself that it was real.

"It's a big television screen, it must be," he muttered. "Where's the plug?"

"There are some cabins back there," Dodds said and gestured towards the brass door on the opposite side of the room.

"They're a bit cramped, but that's life on a spaceship, I'm afraid. You can store your things there, though. Could you do me a favour and find Wendell and send him to me. He's supposed to be helping me navigate this ship."

Stella picked up her and Tom's bags, whilst leading Tom away from the window. He was still looking stunned and kept repeating, "We're in space! We're in space!" under his breath.

She was about to call for Helix, but noticed him curled up asleep on the armchair. He was already bored with the wonders of space travel.

The corridor behind the door was cramped, and Stella found it difficult to pull her baggage and Tom through it. As she passed, she opened doors on either side of her, trying to find a cabin. The first had the word ' _Galley_ ' written on it and opened into a cramped kitchen. A small basin was fitted into the corner, and the rest of the space was taken up with the Mechomator, who gave her a cheery whistle and offered her one of the pancakes it was flipping. Wondering how the Mechomator could have made it up the ladder, she stuffed the pancake into her mouth and continued on.

The second room opposite was smaller still. Inside, there was a shower and a toilet and Wendell.

"Oi, close the door!" Wendell said.

"Uncle Dodds said he needed your help," Stella told him. She was sure that Wendell was only using the toilet to hide in.

"Impossible. I'm far too sick," Wendell said.

"Well, he seemed pretty sure."

"He did, did he?" Wendell said, in a defeated tone. "Well, it'll be his fault when I get space sick on him."

"We're in space Wendell," Tom said, his eyes still held their glassy sheen.

"Don't remind me," Wendell said gloomily and bobbed past them to find Doctor Dodds.

The next door opened into a sparse cabin with a bunk bed in it. Stella guided Tom into the room and told him to lie down for a bit. For once, he didn't argue with her. She then went out to explore the rest of the ship. Once she'd got over the initial shock of being on a real-life spaceship, Stella found that she was very excited. When looking out of her bedroom window at night, it had always been a secret wish of hers to see what was up in the stars. Now that she was here, she wanted to explore. The door opposite held another cabin almost identical to the one she had put Tom in, so Stella decided that it would be hers and put her bag on the bunk.

At the end of the corridor, there was a flight of very narrow stairs. They were so steep that she had to use her hands and feet to climb up. She couldn't believe that even in the _Attic_ , there was yet another floor. However, the top passageway doubled back on itself sharply and was even more cramped than the corridor below. It also had doors to open. The first had a sign on it saying ' _Communications room'._ When she opened it, the room was little more than a cupboard. It was brightly lit and contained shelves of plants, with bees buzzing around them. The door opposite was the storeroom: another cupboard with heavy sacks that were leaking out clouds of blue powder onto the floor. There were also some crates stacked by the corner and lots of tins.

Stella picked up one of the tins. It had a garish cartoon label on it, showing something that looked like an octopus and a little green alien with a bib on, trying to prod it with a fork. There were words in bold letters that Stella read as _'Pallett & Abel – Delicious, Jupitopus tentacles in a creamy tomato sauce_' and then, below it, ' _Fresh and wriggling in every can!_ ' Whoever had packed the provisions certainly liked the Pallett & Abel brand. There were dozens of tins of ' _Pallett & Abel, Sizzling Sun Beans – The beans that cook your toast, so you don't have to_,' or ' _Pallett & Abel Saturn Spaghetti rings – The Universal Snack._' The exceptions to the Pallett and Abel collection were a couple of golden tins right at the back of the cupboard. Stella picked one up and turned it around in her hand. It didn't have a label on it, but some lettering was carved into the side: ' _Caution: this way up_ '. Stella was tempted to turn it upside down, just to see what would happen, but she carefully replaced it at the back of the storeroom.

Pushing aside worries over the food, Stella looked at the next door along. It had the name of ' _Doctor Dodds_ ' written on it, so she assumed that it was his cabin. She wanted to take a peek, but thought that to go in uninvited would be a bit rude, so she moved to the door opposite, with the words ' _Engine Room_ ' inscribed on it.

She walked into a room filled with rattling pipes and the chuffing sound of pistons and moving cogs. The room was alive with clattering and rhythmic motion, except at the end of the room, where a statue stood motionless. It looked like a gargoyle, complete with a tail and little horns prodding out from its head. Its face was carved with a large overhanging forehead and a fierce long jaw. The stone was grey and dappled with soot. Stella was fascinated and moved closer to it. She reached out her hand to touch the gargoyle's rough surface, and it moved.

"Vot you do here, lady?" it said, in a deep, rasping voice. It slowly turned to face her, and she could hear the sound of its joints creaking. The small eyes that stared at her had a red tinge.

"Sssorry," she said, "I-I thought you were a statue."

As she said it, she realised that this could be taken as an insult. Stella was preparing to run when she heard a disturbing noise, like gravel falling. It was obviously something coming from inside the statue, and its cavernous mouth split into a huge grin. Stella realised that it was chuckling.

"A statue. Dat is very good joke. I am Grandas. Vot call you?"

"Vot call me? Oh my name? I'm Stella Mayweather. Good to meet you," she said, holding out her hand for Grandas to shake.

She regretted it because his grip was so tight she felt her hand getting crushed. She gritted her teeth and tried not to flinch as Grandas brought her hand up to his mouth and gave it the most delicate, pebbly kiss.

"I am pleased to meet you, Stella Mayveader." Grandas let go of her hand and gave an old-fashioned bow.

"Do you live here, Grandas?" Stella asked him and looked around at the collection of machinery, in what she hoped was an appreciative way.

Grandas started his deep chuckling again. "You are very funny, Stella Mayveader. Grandas live here? Very funny. My planet is far away. It call Cragulus, very fine planet, has many great mountains. I vork here," Grandas said, banging a massive fist, with eye-watering force, onto his chest and causing a chip to fly off. "Am chief engineer for Doctor Dodds."

There was a whistle, and Doctor Dodds's voice, sounding metallic, could be heard coming from a cone, similar to the one that Stella had seen him speaking into in the wheel room.

"There's a solar wind on its way, Grandas. Hoist the main sail, if you please."

"Aye, Doctor Dodds, sir!" Grandas bellowed into the cone. "Doctor Dodds is very fine man. Grandas feel for him, like he is family," Grandas said, giving an emphatic nod.

He trudged over to a portal that was embedded in the ceiling. Stella peered up and could see the roof of the _Attic_ jutting out against the darkness of space.

"Ve must raise sail up. If ve don't use solar vind to change course soon. Splat! Moon in face. You vant to see, Stella Mayveader?"

"Yes," Stella replied. The uneasy thought popped into her head that her first trip into space might end with a nasty crash-landing on the moon.

"Climb up my back, den, and stand on my shoulders. You get good view of deck."

"Are you sure you don't mind?" Stella asked, although the size of Grandas's shoulders made her believe that he could quite happily lift a house.

"Vy? You dink Grandas is veak? Just cos he is small?" Grandas rumbled in outrage. He loomed over Stella, her head only reaching up to his chest, and his pillar-like arms bulged menacingly.

"No, no. Not at all. I think you look very strong. And you're much bigger than I am, look." Stella hastily reassured him, lifting her arms up to show him the difference in their respective sizes.

"You are right. You are very small. But dat is not your fault. I am sure you vill grow, Stella Mayveader. You mustn't let dem pick on you. Grandas is little under-height for Cragulon, and sometimes dey tease him. But he soon show dem how strong he is." Grandas illustrated his point by smashing one of his huge boulder-like fists into his palm.

"I can see that." Stella gulped.

"If anybody try and pick on you, Stella Mayveader, dinking you are too small, you tell Grandas, and he vill come visit dem, eh?"

Stella was very tempted to tell him about Shane Biggs and some of his gang. She liked the idea of Grandas stomping into school canteen, looking for them.

"Must raise solar sail, climb on Grandas back and see."

Stella lifted herself up Grandas's granite torso; it felt like she were rock climbing. From his shoulders, she was able to peer through the window in the ceiling. She could see that the roof of the _Attic_ was a lot flatter than she had first supposed. It was dotted with normal things that you expected on a roof: chimney pots, a weathercock and TV aerial. In addition, there were chains and winches and three massive pillars lying along the roof. There were also four more statuesque beings moving around outside that looked just as much like gargoyles as Grandas did, but even bigger.

"Dose are Grandas cousins. Very fine fellows, very fine crew," Grandas explained.

He rapped on the window with knuckles like marbles. The blows were so hard that Stella wondered that the window didn't crack.

One of the Cragulons noticed and came over to the window. Grandas put his thumb by the window and gestured upwards with it. His cousin gave a nod and a salute and bounded off to join the others.

"Are your cousins okay out there?" Stella asked. "I mean, it must be very cold, and there isn't any air."

Stella felt a rumbling underneath her, as Grandas chuckled again. She wondered whether this was what it was like being in an earthquake.

"Is not cold for Cragulons, and ve do not need air like you, Stella Mayveader. My cousins like being out dere. It is your planet vich is uncomfortable. Too much gravity. Not like Cragulus. Most of the time is very hard for a Cragulon to even move on your planet. Is okay, dough. Is good vay to get dinner. You stand really, really still, vid moud open," Grandas said and opened his mouth, to display fearsome jaws and a long tongue. "Bird come rest on shoulder and den on head and den in moud and den, crunch! Nice pigeon snack."

Three of the Cragulons formed a line. They held a chain in their hands and pulled on it, whilst another Cragulon waved directions. With each heave of the chain, one of the pillars lying on the roof slowly moved upwards. The Cragulon giving directions then started to push the pillar from the other side, whilst the others were pulling it upright.

"Look, Stella Mayveader. See? They pull up main mast," Grandas explained.

Once one of the pillars was fully upright, they did the same thing to the other two masts. Zero gravity seemed to agree with them, as the Cragulons worked quickly and easily, despite their heavy-looking bulk. They climbed the pillars, carrying chains and pulleys, and started to assemble a network of lines and spars.

"Are they the solar sails?" Stella asked, pointing at a Cragulon who was lifting what looked like a rolled-up carpet on its shoulders.

"Very good, Stella Mayveader. Is indeed solar sail. Ve make a spacefarer out you yet. Ya!"

The Cragulon attached his burden to a winch and organised the others to start pulling chains again. This time with two on each side of the pillar, they began to pull the sail up the mast. When it got to the top, they gave one final heave and the sail unfurled down in a sheet of dazzling silver. The sail looked like it was made out of tinfoil, and as it caught the light of the sun, it billowed outwards as if a great wind was blowing into it.

As the Cragulons were raising the other two sails, Stella peeled her eyes away from the window and looked around at all the machinery in the engine room.

"Grandas, if the ship is moved by solar sails, how come we need all this?" Stella asked, waving at the pistons and cogs.

"Ah, sometimes the solar vind is not so strong. Den is best to be powered by engine. Not as fast, but at least ve don't get stuck. Also, ve need lights, and Doctor Dodds like hot vater for shower. Vich reminds me, Grandas must start boiler. If you vish, Stella Mayveader, you can see deck better in observatory."

Going back into the passageway, Stella saw a ladder at the end of it that led up to the round opening of the observatory. Stella climbed up to a small platform enclosed by a glass dome that looked out onto the deck. There was a circular bench she could sit on around the side and a telescope hanging down from the middle of the dome that Stella discovered she could move around. She spent a long time looking at the Cragulons, occasionally giving them a wave when they tried to catch her attention. One of them proved quite good at juggling flower pots, until he misjudged one and it went spinning off into space. Another Cragulon started showing off on the rope ladders that were hanging from the mast, swinging from one to the other like a trapeze artist, and occasionally doing somersaults.

Stella found it most relaxing, though, to stare out at the clusters of stars and the planets in the distance as they sailed past. It was a curious thing, but for the first time that she could really remember, Stella felt as if she belonged.

***
Chapter 9: Gravo-waxing

Life aboard the _Attic_ quickly began to follow a routine. Once Tom had gotten over the shock of meeting Grandas and the other Cragulons, he seemed as eager as Stella did to learn more about how everything worked. They would both spend hours looking out of the telescope in the observatory. Doctor Dodds also taught them how to steer the big steering wheel, and they would take turns piloting the ship.

Tom and Stella stood in the wheel room, whilst Doctor Dodds explained to them how it worked.

"Only one person can pilot the ship at any one time," Dodds said. "You first, Stella. Just stand right in front of the wheel there and look directly through the middle of the window. See that planet straight ahead?"

A huge green planet loomed in the centre of the great circular window.

"As you can see, we're heading straight for it, so I'd like you to turn left or, as spacefarers say, to port. Port is the left-hand side, and starboard is the right-hand side."

Stella stood in position immediately behind the wheel and looked out of the window. On the golden stand that held the steering wheel, there were a number of levers and a pedal on the floor beside it.

"What do these do?" Stella asked.

"Don't worry about them just now. Today, I'll just go through the basics. Are your eyes dead centre?"

"Yes."

"Good. Now keep your head still and look up."

Keeping her head level, Stella raised her eyes upward. As she did, the deck of the ship slipped into her vision, and in the window, she could see the deck and the Cragulons playing a game of skittles with the chimneys. It was if she were a bird looking down on the top of the ship.

"Where's the planet gone?"

"What are you talking about? It's still there," Tom said pointedly, "and it's getting closer."

"I can't see it," Stella said, and she jerked her head to one side. This time the side of the _Attic_ slid past her gaze, until she shifted her focus to the dead centre of the window and the planet appeared in view again.

"There is a lens in the middle of the window," Dodds explained. "It lets you see the whole of the ship, or if you look far enough back, you can even see behind the ship."

"You mean like looking into a side mirror on a car?" Tom asked.

"Possibly. I've never driven in a car," Dodds admitted.

Stella directed her eyes upwards again. She found if she moved her gaze slowly, she could make out more detail. She could see the deck of the ship, with the solar sails and one of the Cragulons demolishing a chimney pot. Once her eyes were looking directly upwards, she could see behind them. She tried looking down, and the same sensation occurred. This time she could see the hatchway they'd come through and noticed jagged bits of plumbing sticking out of the floor. Next, she looked right, and a row of starboard side portals shifted past her gaze. She could even make out the Mechomator through one of them: cleaning the galley with a feather duster. As long as she kept her head still, Stella found she could roll her eyes and see the whole of the ship. It took a bit of getting used to. If she moved her head too far, she couldn't see through the lens at all, and it was as if she was just looking out the window.

After a few goes at it, Stella thought she'd got the hang of steering, once she'd stopped getting confused over which side was port and which was starboard.

"Why can't we just call it left or right?" she asked Doctor Dodds.

But he insisted, saying it was a traditional space-faring practice. Although she hated to admit it, it soon became clear that Tom was the better pilot. He seemed to pick it up quite naturally.

"I knew all those hours playing computer games would come in useful one day," he said smugly, after swerving the ship through a meteor shower.

Stella stood behind him, secretly envious that he'd managed to avoid them so well. She knew that if she was steering, they'd have probably smashed into a passing moon.

"I feel a bit queasy," Wendell said. He was hiding behind the sofa. "Why did you have to go so fast?"

"That wasn't fast," Tom replied. "A bit quicker would have made it much more interesting."

Stella sighed. She wasn't sure whether she preferred the nervous Tom or the boastful Tom. Raising her eyes upwards, she noticed the Cragulons waving at them frantically.

"Hey, Tom, look up!" she said.

Tom turned his eyes upwards and spied the Cragulons. "What's wrong with them?"

There was definitely something amiss, as they kept gesturing more frenetically and pointing into space. Stella followed where they were pointing to and picked out the flaming tail of a comet. It was moving really fast and coming straight for them.

"Err, I think we've got a problem," Stella said.

"I see it," Tom said.

He spun the wheel around to try to veer the _Attic_ away from the hunk of rock that was heading towards them at an alarming rate.

"It's moving too quickly, I don't think we can avoid it," Tom said.

"We'll be blasted to atoms!" Wendell cried.

"You already are atoms!" Tom snapped back.

"Uncle Dodds!" Stella cried, running to the door, but Dodds was already coming through it.

"A comet is heading straight for us," Stella gasped.

"I know. I was looking through the telescope in the observatory, and it quite blocked out my view of the Sea Horse Nebula," he said. He seemed more put out than worried.

"Can you turn the _Attic_ to face the meteor, Tom?" Dodds said.

"Yeah, but that'll mean we just get a better view when it smashes into us."

"Just do what he says, Tom!" Stella shouted.

Tom span the wheel round until they could see the comet blazing straight into the front window. Wendell started to moan, and Tom flinched away from the sight of the hunk of rock filling the window. His hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly that his fingers had turned white.

Doctor Dodds didn't seem too concerned; he just stood behind Tom and reached to the pedestal that held the steering wheel in place and pulled on one of the levers. Immediately above him, a trapdoor opened, and four lots of rope dropped down from the ceiling. At the end of each one, there was a handle.

"Oh, the meteor's not all that big, now it gets up close, is it?" he said.

Stella disagreed. She felt that it would certainly make a big enough hole when it smashed through the front window. Tom just squeezed his eyes shut.

"Hold on!" Dodds urged. "Three...two...one...Now!"

Just as it looked as if the comet was about to hit the ship, Dodds pulled on one of the cords. A large shutter swung down across the window. There was a shower of sparks as the meteor ricocheted away. The ship juddered as the comet hit, but the shutter had swatted it back the way it had come from. There was another clang, as the shutter swung back into place. The front window cleared again to reveal the peaceful scene of stars. Except now you could trace the red streak of the altered trail of the meteorite.

"Shields," Dodds said, gesturing to the cords above him. "The _Attic_ 's got four of them. A tug on one of these ropes will pull them down. This one for the front, this one for the back, and one each on either side," Dodds explained and tugged at each rope in turn. Every time he did, there was a clang as they flapped down and back into place again. "You have to be careful to get the timing right. The trick is to hit any object away from the ship just before it strikes you. If you release the shield too early, you miss, if you leave it too late, it's already hit you. Good thing that meteor was a tiddler, eh?"

***

After the excitement of the meteor strike, Stella thought she'd welcome a bit of boredom. She was wrong. Dodds announced over breakfast that it was time the _Attic_ was Gravo-waxed, and Tom and Stella were volunteered. They were each given a pair of very smelly overalls and an extremely heavy bucket of foul-smelling goop. This, apparently, was Gravo-wax, and they had to rub it onto every surface of the _Attic_ , so they wouldn't all start floating about. It took them all day to finish the whole ship. Tom complained throughout that the wax was so stinky it made his eyes sting and his nose run. Stella hated the fact that it was so sticky it seemed to get everywhere, including her hair. It also didn't help that Wendell would take any opportunity he could to sneak away from the wheel room and mope by them.

"You missed a bit," he said, as he bobbed along the ceiling.

Tom threw a filthy rag at him, but Wendell dodged out of the way.

"Haven't you got anything better to do?" Stella said. She stood up from rubbing the wax on the floor and gave a grimace as she rubbed the ache in her back.

"No," Wendell said, "I'm meant to be studying some boring old star charts, but they just end up sending me to sleep."

"How come?" Stella asked.

"Well, it doesn't help that they're written in such tiny writing. I try to concentrate, but I end up just drifting off..."

"No, I mean, how come Uncle Dodds has got you studying."

"Yeah, you could help us Gravo-waxing," Tom said. "I could smear some on the top of you, and you could bounce into the hard-to-reach places."

"That stuff just weighs me down. I fell into a bucket of it once, and I was as heavy as a bowling ball for a week."

"So what are you studying for?" Stella interrupted.

"I'll have you know that _I_ am a trainee navigator," Wendell pronounced, glowing proudly.

"Oh yeah?" Tom sniffed, wiping his nose on his overall, leaving a brown streak across his face.

"Yes, actually," Wendell said indignantly. "My family are all navigators. It's a family tradition."

"That's nice," Stella said.

"No, it isn't," Wendell said. He sagged and drooped down to the floor. "I'm rubbish at it. Both of my parents are brilliant navigators, and my brothers and sisters are all going to Navigation Academy."

"A lot to live up to, then?" Tom said sympathetically.

"Don't worry, Wendell, you'll get the hang of the studying sooner or later." Stella tried to reassure him.

"The star charts are just a part of it," Wendell said miserably. "I'm a Nebuloid, and normally Nebuloids are meant to guide ships from the outside. It's like my father keeps lecturing me: 'A good navigator follows their instinct. Nebuloids can pinpoint their place in the galaxy, wherever they are, and use the currents of the cosmos to guide them."

"What does that mean?" Tom asked.

"I think it means we can never get lost. But I've never been outside long enough to even meet a cosmic raisin. I'm a complete failure as a navigator. Doctor Dodds only took me on as an apprentice because I flunked out of navigation school. Nobody else would take me."

"I'm sure Doctor Dodds wouldn't have taken you on as an apprentice if he thought you were that bad, Wendell," Stella said.

Wendell wasn't reassured, though, and turned a depressed blue colour.

Stella spent a long time in the shower that evening, but no matter how much she scrubbed her skin, the smell of the Gravo-wax just wouldn't go away. She staggered back to her bunk that night, aching all over, and her hands felt raw.

Helix was lying on the bottom bunk (Stella had taken the top). He was indulging in his favourite hobby, chewing a jellied dog toy. Stella didn't know how he had done it, but she supposed he had smuggled a few onto the _Attic_. She had long since given up telling him off about it. In fact, Stella was more worried about how life in space was affecting the husky. It was noticeable that he was looking a little more podgy than usual. Stella was sure it had a lot to do with the fact Helix didn't have anywhere to run around, and he was proving to be a little too successful in begging for scraps of food from the Mechomator.

"I don't know how far away it is to the Pilades Cluster, but I hope it's not too long because another few days like this and you won't be able to fit out the hatch," she told him. "Tomorrow I'm going to ask Doctor Dodds whether we can get you some exercise."

Helix just gave an offended woof and sprawled back on the bunk.

***

The next morning, Stella's arms were still sore from the Gravo-waxing, but she made her way up to Dodds's cabin. Knocking on the door, she waited until she heard him say, "Come in."

The cabin was dimly lit by a small lantern standing on a desk. The pool of light illuminated a jumble of scientific-looking instruments scattered around the hunched figure of Doctor Dodds. He was placing a disc onto the turntable of a Bee-Communicator. Stella noticed a lingering trace of an URGENT sign flashing above the funnel and guessed he was viewing the b-mail that Gladys had stopped her seeing.

Persiminon hung upside down from a hook beside the door, clinging onto her umbrella handle. She yawned a sleepy, "Hello," to Stella.

"Hello, Persiminon," Stella said politely and gave the soft underside of Persiminon's chin a tickle.

Persiminon started to purr gratefully.

"If you're too busy, Uncle Dodds, I can come back?" Stella said, although she desperately wanted to hear what the b-mail said.

To her relief, Dodds said, "You best stay, Stella. Unless I'm very much mistaken, this b-mail may concern you particularly."

The turntable whizzed around, and puffs of steam started curling up from the BC's trumpet, coalescing into the likeness of someone's face. The nose on the face drooped down, like a small trunk, and there were two tusks protruding up from its mouth.

"Greetings. To my esteemed colleague Doctor Dodds," a grave voice intoned.

"Poor old Jerbil," Dodds said, with a chuckle. "He speaks like that all the time, you know. When he was professor of Galactic History at the Pilades University, his students were always making fun of him."

"Is that Jerbil-Din?" Stella blurted out.

"Yes. How did you know that?" Dodds asked.

"Gladys had a b-mail from him."

"Oh, you saw that, did you?"

"No. She wouldn't let us see it, but I recognise the name."

"Jerbil-Din is the Interplanetary Society's contact in the Pilades Cluster. He's a bit of a dry old stick, but I asked him to help out with a few enquiries."

"I have located, as per your request, the suspect Vanga-Tron," Jerbil-Din's face continued. "He took some time to find. But eventually he was found in the psychiatric wing of the Sagittarian Hospital, on Pilades."

The image of the face cleared and was replaced by the sight of a hospital ward. All the figures had similar noses and tusks as Jerbil-Din. Some were laid up in bed, whilst others in nurses' uniforms were taking temperatures and reading charts. The scene focused in on one figure who was strapped to a chair. His arms were bound into a straightjacket, but his eyes stared blankly into space. His mouth was open, as if in a silent scream. Stella shuddered, she realised that this must be Vanga-Tron.

"Any attempts at questioning have failed. All tests confirm that Vanga-Tron has quite literally lost his mind," Jerbil-Din's voice continued. "Vanga-Tron was formerly a tour guide in one of the more remote areas in the cluster, specialising in guided tours for the more adventurous holiday-maker in grid reference TC085. Known locally by Piladeans as the Phantom Quadrant."

The image changed again to a map of murky dust clouds lit by a glow of purplish lights. An arrow pointed to a small ship drifting in space.

"It was on the edge of this quadrant that the vessel containing Vanga-Tron was found. There was no sign of a struggle, but all passengers and crew were missing. I am setting off to the Phantom Quadrant for further investigation into these strange disappearances and the mysterious malady of Vanga-Tron. Expect a detailed b-mailed report when I return. Your colleague, Jerbil-Din."

"The pompous old fool!" Dodds cried out. "I told him to wait for us. Who knows what trouble he's got into now?"

"Do you think that the Greddylick is at this Phantom Quadrant?" Stella asked.

"I don't know," Dodds said, slumping into the chair behind his desk, "but I don't think there can be any doubt that it has been there. Whether it's still there now...?" Dodds gave a shrug and a sigh. "It's too late to stop Jerbil now. We won't get to the Pilades Cluster until tomorrow."

Stella tried to stifle a surge of excitement. She knew she should be worried, but the prospect of getting some of her answers overtook her fears. Dodds passed a hand over his face and looked up at Stella.

"Well, there's no point being worried about something we can't do anything about. Anyway, you came here to see me about something?"

After the news from Jerbil-Din, Stella had completely forgotten about getting some exercise for Helix. That seemed quite trivial now.

"It's just, I wondered whether there's anywhere Helix could stretch his legs? He's been cooped up in the cabin all this time. I think he's getting a bit fat."

"Putting on the pounds, is he? Well, we can't have that," Dodds said with a smile. "He needs to be fighting fit, for when we get to the Phantom Quadrant."

"It's just, normally, I'd take him out for a walk. But there's nowhere we can go. The corridors are all too cramped."

"Don't worry, I know what'll do the trick," Dodds proclaimed. "Space walkies!"

***
Chapter 10: The Kicking Nelly

Helix didn't like the idea of going on a spacewalk at all. It had taken all of Stella's persuasion, bribes and threats to get the dog into his baggy spacesuit. Doctor Dodds seemed to have a selection of them, in all different shapes and sizes (including one that was shaped like a fish). All of them were made from a thick, shiny material and had weighted boots. Stella selected a small spacesuit for herself and a four-legged one for Helix. Stella dragged the reluctant husky on a lead that was attached to the wrist of her suit. Doctor Dodds was waiting by the ladder to the observation dome. Grandas was also in the observatory. He'd shown an interest in 'a nice valk on deck also'.

"Don't worry, old friend, a quick space walk will do you no end of good. Work off a bit of the space living, eh?" Dodds said, patting Helix's stomach.

Helix started barking such awful language that Stella had to put the glass space helmet over his head to muffle the worst of it. The helmet looked like a large goldfish bowl, but it didn't stop Helix from yelping abuse.

"I'm sorry. I don't know what's got into him," Stella said.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say he's scared of space walking," Dodds shouted.

Stella didn't know if Helix heard Doctor Dodds, but he immediately stopped barking and gave Dodds a filthy stare. Deeply offended, Helix began trying to climb up the ladder to the observatory. Stella felt as if he was trying to prove to Dodds that he wasn't afraid. Grandas reached down an arm and easily scooped the dog onto the platform.

"How long have you known Helix?" Stella asked her great-uncle, wondering whether there were things about her dog that she didn't know.

"Like I said, we're old friends," Dodds replied. "Don't worry about Helix. Once he's out there, he'll love it."

Dodds then passed a thick pipe up to Grandas, who looped it through the middle of a thick ring of metal that he was holding. Dodds screwed the pipe onto a round hole in the side of Stella's spacesuit. Stella heard a hiss as she felt the suit inflate with air.

"Now remember, this pipe is your air supply," Dodds explained. "Helix is attached to it through his lead. Any problems, give it a tug and we'll pull you back. The soles of your boots are weighted with moon rock, so as long as you don't go too far, you'll always float back to the ship. Now have fun."

Dodds helped Stella up to the ladder, and Grandas hauled her up to the observatory platform.

"Ready for space valk, Stella Mayveader?" Grandas asked. "I close hatch now, so everybody down there not get sucked into space."

Stella nodded that she was okay. She had started to feel a bit queasy now that she was actually on the brink of stepping outside and didn't trust herself to speak. 'I suppose this is what Wendell feels like,' Stella thought to herself.

"Ve make a spacefarer out of you yet, Stella Mayveader." Grandas chuckled, as he latched on her space helmet.

He then closed the hatch and pushed at the glass wall of the observatory. Stella winced. Although she couldn't hear anything, she was sure that Grandas's bricklike hands would shatter the glass. Instead, the glass seemed to stretch outwards, like someone pressing through cling-film, until Grandas tore a neat flap through the observatory wall and flicked it outwards, like he was opening a tent.

Stella felt herself get lighter and tried to take a timid step forward, but even this small bit of motion vaulted her out of the observatory and onto the deck. Grandas reached out a steadying hand and grabbed hold of her. Stella was glad, as she was finding her weightlessness a little dizzying. It didn't help that all she could hear was the sound of her own breathing. She pushed these panicky feelings back into her stomach, though, and started to become aware of what was around her. Helix was also rising off into space, his legs pumping feverishly, looking as if he was running into the air. Stella took a grip on his lead and guided him downwards. Grandas gave her a thumbs-up gesture, to check whether she was okay, and she gave him a thumbs-up in reply.

The other four Cragulons bounded over to join her. Each one shook her by the hand and guided her over to look at the rigging. At first, she took tentative steps, worried over her lack of control, but as she got used to bobbing around, she began to get more confident. One of the Cragulons made the motion to jump and nodded to her. Stella nodded back, and the gargoyle gripped hold of her sleeve and jumped into the air. Stella jumped too, shouting out an unexpected whoop. She couldn't believe she was flying. The Cragulon guided her back to the deck and made another motion, like diving. Taking his cue, Stella leapt into the air again, with her arms outstretched. One of the Cragulons jumped up too and waved as they crossed paths in mid somersault. When she landed, she realised she had bounced from one end of the deck to the other.

Stella and Helix joined Grandas and his cousins in an acrobatic game of zero-gravity tag amongst the rigging. Stella found herself spinning and leaping further and higher, until she was so out of breath she had to rest, clinging onto one of the rope ladders that hung from the masts. Weighing the lightness of a feather, she found it very easy to guide herself up to the top of the mast and crawl into a crow's nest that sat atop of it. Looking upwards, Stella felt as if the whole universe span above her. The lightness of her body seemed to be shared by her mind, and she couldn't stop laughing.

She saw Helix spinning above her. He was trying to do some somersaults of his own. Stella could see his tail wagging energetically in his spacesuit. His earlier fear seemed to have floated away. Stella pulled at his lead and began to guide the dog into a figure of eight. This spurred Helix to new efforts. He began arching into loop the loops and spirals like some manic kite: his tongue lolling out of his mouth, as he panted in glee.

Stella was about to leap out again when she felt a tug against the air pipe on her suit. She searched out Grandas, who motioned for her to go back to the observatory. The other Cragulons had stopped their antics and were scrambling about the deck, tugging at the sail ropes. Stella looked around to see what had disturbed them. The answer loomed immediately above her.

A gigantic spaceship had come alongside the _Attic_. Stella could see that on one side of the ship there was a row of hatches, like shadowy pits gouged into the side of the hull. A shaft of light from a nearby sun stretched along the length of the strange ship, revealing lines of cannons inside the hatches, and each one of them was pointed at the _Attic_.

Stella started to pull on Helix's lead to gather him back towards her. At first, he seemed reluctant to be reined in, but once he saw the ship behind them, he thrashed his legs furiously, trying to propel himself towards her. Her dog safely under her arm, Stella jumped down off the crow's nest. Grandas was by the observatory, waving at her to hurry. With a couple of leaps, Stella made it to the glass dome, and Grandas dragged both her and Helix inside.

Grandas pulled the flap that he had made back into place, and the smooth bubble of the observatory was whole again. He pulled up the circular hatch in the floor to let in some air. After a few seconds, he gave Stella the thumbs-up, and she began to unfasten her helmet. Helix was shaking his head, trying to loosen his helmet.

"Hold still," Stella said, when she'd pulled her helmet off, and began to take off Helix's

"What's happened, Grandas? What is that ship?"

"Is bad. Very, very bad, Stella Mayveader. Dat ship is pirate ship!"

"Pirates?"

"Ya. Dey sail in space, robbing oder ships. You try to resist. Boom! Dey fire wid space cannon. You okay? Dodds needs Grandas in engine room."

Once out of his spacesuit, Helix jumped down the ladder and bounded off into the wheel room, with Stella close behind him.

Doctor Dodds, Wendell and Tom were already there. They were staring at a bee-console that was busy foaming out an image. The smoke revealed a bulky figure wearing a large, wide-brimmed hat.

"This be Captain Dreadcut, of this here privateer vessel, _Kicking Nelly_. Stand to, and prepare to be boarded, fer ye ship and any bounty ye may be carryin' are now mine!" a voice cackled out of the b-mail speaker.

"Captain Dreadcut!" Wendell cried. "The most fearsome pirate that ever sailed the stars."

"That's if you believe all the hype," Dodds retorted.

Stella agreed with Wendell: Captain Dreadcut did look fearsome, two cutlasses, their handles crossing each other, hung from his waist, and a pistol hung from his neck. The face under the hat had a sharp beard that curled upwards at its tip and protruding eyes that gleamed manically.

Dodds stepped forward in front of the image.

"This is Doctor Wilberforce Dodds of the GIS _Attic_. Any attempt to waylay space traffic in this sector is prohibited by the laws of the Galactic Quorum."

This only prompted more laughter from Captain Dreadcut. "Looks like we got ourselves a lawyer here, boys. Quoting us laws and such, is he? What do you reckon we should do, Lieutenant Monkeyfoot? Turn on our tails and go home?" he mocked.

Beside Dreadcuts' image, another form appeared. It was slightly stooped and had a simianlike face topped by a bandanna.

"Well, Cap'n, I don't see any Galactic naval vessels hereabouts," the figure said.

"I think you may be right, Monkeyfoot. I don't see any abouts neither. I guess that means we'll just have to do exactly as we please."

"I reckon so too, Cap'n," Monkeyfoot snarled.

"We're on vital interplanetary society business. I can't let you take my ship," Dodds said.

"So you're sure you'll not surrender peaceable, then?" Dreadcut asked. "Good. We do like a bit of sport, don't we, lads?"

The sounds of whooping and laughing could be heard from the _Kicking Nelly_.

"Let's give 'em a taste o' the cannon. Monkeyfoot, give the order to fire!"

Monkeyfoot whooped, and there was a loud bang that could be heard from the b-mail.

"Grab hold of something!" Dodds yelled.

In the window lens, Stella could see a green flare that looked like a firework, fizz out of the _Kicking Nelly_. It arced towards the _Attic_ and crashed into one of the chimney pots on the deck. The ship juddered, and Stella was almost knocked off her feet.

"Where's the Galactic navy when you need it?" Dodds muttered. "Look, I need a couple of minutes. I need you to try to dodge some of that cannon fire."

"Where are you going?" Tom wailed.

"To see whether I can find a thirty-gun naval frigate," he replied and rushed out of the wheel room.

"I can help with the shields," Stella said. She thrust down the lever that released the shield cords and looked through the lens, only to see a number of the green fireworks heading straight towards the port side of the ship. She waited until they had almost reached the hull and tugged hard at one of the cords. The _Attic_ shook, but the shield had managed to fend off the barrage.

The image of Captain Dreadcut just cackled harder. "Looks like they've got a bit of fight in 'em, lads. Give 'em another volley."

"Tom," Stella snapped, "you're the best at piloting the ship. Take the wheel!"

Tom, who had been staring in horror at the b-mail, shook himself out of his stupor and took his place at the helm. "Right. Sorry about that. I freaked out for a bit there."

In the lens he could see another burst of flares as the _Nelly_ fired on them again. He spun the wheel around hard and pressed on the pedal by his foot. The _Attic_ dipped suddenly, and the cannon fire sailed over them.

"I've been wondering what that pedal did," Tom said.

The _Kicking Nelly_ had moved to chase them, preceded by the green trails of cannon fire.

"I hope the Cragulons are okay," Stella said.

A quick glance in the lens showed that they had ripped off some spars and were using them as bats to hit away any cannon fire that threatened the rigging. Despite their efforts, the sails showed some signs of damage, with holes ripped through them. Also, some cannon fire had got through and smashed some rigging from the main mast.

"Take us up, Tom," Stella said. "They're aiming for the rigging. The shields can only protect the hull."

"But if you miss, we'll be smashed through with holes."

"I won't miss," Stella said.

Tom angled the ship upwards and turned the _Attic_ around so Stella could use the starboard shields. He swerved the ship from side to side, in order to evade the cannon fire and keep the _Kicking Nelly_ as far as way from them as possible. Stella waited, her hands gripping the shield cords. The _Kicking Nelly_ fired another volley, and Tom frantically span the wheel, lurching the _Attic_ away. It wasn't quite quick enough. Stella jerked on the port side shield and managed to deflect the majority of fire away, but there was a nasty ripping sound as some of the cannon fire blasted the portside shield off its hinges.

"The portside shield is broken. Keep them to starboard, Tom," Stella shouted.

"I can't keep them there for very long," Tom replied grimly. "They're getting too close."

Sure enough, the _Kicking Nelly_ was aware that they had hit the _Attic_.

"We've crippled her port shields, Cap'n," Monkeyfoot said. "They can't last too long now."

"What are you waiting for, then? Finish 'em off." Dreadcut cackled.

"Head for that moon," Wendell cried.

"What?" Stella said.

"That moon! Over there!" Wendell bobbed in front of the lens, trying to get their attention.

Stella peered around. Behind them there was a moon shining palely against a swirling dust cloud.

"We'll never make it," Tom said. "They'll cut us off before we get anywhere near it."

"No, they won't," Wendell said. "That dust cloud hides a gravity well. It's like a dent in space. If we sail into it at the right angle, it's like we'll be going downhill. We can go faster!"

"Are you sure?" Stella asked, tugging at the shield again to deflect another cannon flare.

"Yes!"

"Won't they be able to do the same?" Tom asked. "They'll be even quicker."

"Not if they don't know about it. It'll just push them off course."

"Well, we've got to do something," Stella grunted. "That cannon fire's coming thick and fast."

"Okay," Tom said, and he spun the wheel around full circle.

Stella bellowed into the horn that led to the engine room. "Grandas, we need full speed now."

"You got it," was the tinny reply.

The _Attic_ jolted forward as they sped towards the gravity well.

"Ah-ha!" Dreadcut cackled over the b-mail. "Making a run for it, are we? Reel 'em in, lads. Reel 'em in."

It looked as if the _Attic_ 's desperate flight was doomed, as the _Kicking Nelly_ easily outpaced them.

"There it is!" Wendell shouted, banging against the window. In front of them was a moving whirlpool of dust and space debris. It seemed to distort the space around them.

"Head straight for the middle, Tom."

"Here we go!" Tom shouted.

They all gave a yell as the _Attic_ spurted forward. The _Attic_ shot down and then up again, out of the gravity well, whilst the _Kicking Nelly_ only caught the edge of the well and rebounded away. There were howls of outrage coming from the pirate ship as it started spinning in helpless circles.

"After 'em, you currs. Don't let 'em get away," Dreadcut bellowed.

The b-mail image showed him leaning at an odd angle. His hat was askew, and his beard was twitching in anger. The spurt of speed enabled the _Attic_ to get out of range and sail directly for the moon.

"It worked," Stella cried jubilantly. "Nice bit of navigating, there, Wendell."

"Yeah, we needed that," Tom agreed.

Wendell flushed a pleased, pinkish hue. "It was nothing. Simple stuff for a trainee navigator."

"They're still after us," Stella declared.

The lens showed that the _Kicking Nelly_ had recovered its bearings and was chasing after them again. Tom kept his course straight towards the moon, which was getting larger and larger in the screen. They didn't have any clue what the _Kicking Nelly_ was doing because the ship to ship b-mail was only billowing out a fizzing static. Both ships were in a desperate race to the moon.

"If you get too close to the moon, we're going to crash," Stella said to Tom.

"I know. I've got an idea. I'm going to try to lose them on the other side of it. I need to be tight enough against the surface, so they can't see me when I slingshot around. Hopefully, they'll head straight past us," Tom replied.

The _Kicking Nelly_ was steadily getting closer and started firing again. Stella had to use the shields again as they were just in range. Glancing behind her on the lens, Stella noticed that there was a spacesuited figure on the deck with the Cragulons. She recognised Dodds's moustache through his space helmet.

"Uncle Dodds is on the deck," she said.

"I hope he's come up with something because if my idea doesn't work, they'll have caught up with us," Tom said.

The surface of the moon was so close that individual craters could now be seen on it. The _Attic_ accelerated again, as the moon's gravity started to pull them towards it.

"You best hold onto something," Tom yelled, and he turned the wheel sharply.

The _Kicking Nelly_ fired another burst of cannon fire, but it sailed past them as the _Attic_ veered sharply across the moon. From the corner of her eye, Stella could see that Doctor Dodds was hanging vertically off one of the rope ladders with one hand, as the _Attic_ tilted horizontally. She spotted a flash of something gold that spun out of the grip of his other hand.

The _Attic_ had almost travelled full circle around the moon.

"Did they fall for it?" Tom asked, peering through the lens behind him.

The answer laughed nastily out of the b-mail speaker. Directly in front of the _Attic_ loomed the _Kicking Nelly_. Captain Dreadcut and Monkyfoot appeared again out of the b-mail image.

"You must think old Captain Dreadcut was born yesterday to fall for the spin around the moon trick," Dreadcut sneered. "You've led us a merry chase, me beauties, but now there's nowhere left to run. Do yer surrender yer ship? Or do we blast yer out o' the stars?"

"Cap'n!" Monkeyfoot tugged at Dreadcut's sleeve. "Cap'n, you better look at this."

"What are yer blatherin about, you great loon?" Dreadcut asked, tugging his arm away.

In answer, a red flare of cannon fire arced over the _Kicking Nelly_.

"Oh, me gizzards, Cap'n. It's the _Triumph_!" Monkeyfoot whined.

Sailing out from behind the moon was a gleaming giant of a ship.

"I don't believe it. The _Triumph_! Out here?" Captain Dreadcut gibbered.

"Do we fire on her, Cap'n?" Monkeyfoot asked.

"Turn her about, you great chimp. That's the flagship of the galactic naval fleet out there. With thirty guns to blast us to smithereens." Dreadcut started beating Monkeyfoot into action with his hat. "Run, I say, run! I'll not risk the _Nelly_ being breached."

The b-mail cut off, and the _Kicking Nelly_ swiftly turned around and sped off, chased by the _Triumph_ , an occasional blast of cannon fire fizzing after them.

"That was lucky! That ship turning up when it did," Tom said.

"Lucky? It had nothing to do with luck." The voice of Dodds carried across the wheel room. He was still wearing bits of his spacesuit. "It had a great deal more to do with a tin of very powerful illusion."

Something clicked in Stella's mind. "I saw that you chucked something gold-coloured into space when you were on deck. It was one of those cans, wasn't it? The ones in the storeroom."

"You didn't play with any of those, did you?" The colour drained from Dodds's face. "They're really quite volatile. I really mustn't let Gladys do the packing. It's bad enough that we've got Jupitopus tentacles for dinner."

"You mean that ship wasn't real?" Stella asked.

"No. I doubt whether the _Triumph_ has ever sailed within a million light years of this place. Each one of those tins you were playing with contains the particles of a very sophisticated space phenomenon that I stumbled across a few years back. I was on an expedition to a nebula where a person's worst fears were reflected back at them. It took me ages to work out that it was all an illusion. I canned a few specimens taken from the nebula, to study later."

"Well, it looked pretty convincing," Tom said.

"Yes, but it'll wear off soon, and I don't think we should be here when those pirates find out. Turn us around, Tom. Let's get going."

"Which way do we go?" he asked.

"Just past that constellation that looks like a shark," Wendell blurted out. When he realised they were staring at him, he said, "...I think."

"See what happens when you study?" Dodds said approvingly. "That was pretty fancy flying by all of you, by the way."

"Yeah, we should enter the Intergalactic1000," Wendell exclaimed.

"The Intergalactic1000? Never heard of it," Tom said.

"Well, it's like a really long race, from one end of the galaxy to the other. All the best teams in the universe enter. Although not all of them finish. It's really exciting, what with all the asteroid fields and passing through the space-dragon zone. We should enter. I bet we'd be brilliant at it."

"Not in this ship!" Dodds said firmly.

***
Chapter 11: The Phantom Quadrant

The _Attic_ continued its journey to the Phantom Quadrant, but the run-in with the pirates had put extra pressure on the crew. Dodds asked Tom and Wendell to carry on piloting the ship, whilst he helped Grandas and the other Cragulons make repairs to the damaged rigging. Helix had seemingly overcome any worries over space-walking and was helping out on deck, delivering messages or sometimes carried tools tied onto his collar. Even the Mechomator was enlisted to help out with fixing the broken shields. It was lowered down the side of the _Attic_ in a harness. Using a hammer that it kept in one of its compartments, it began a loud clanging on the hull, to try to prise the shield back into position.

Everyone was so busy, Stella found herself with nothing to do except lie on the top bunk of the cabin and brood. She leant back for a bit of a doze, but felt something just under the pillow. Lifting the pillow up, Stella could see one of Helix's rubber-like dog toys underneath. She was about to chuck the thing away, but instead placed it beside her. She realized she was being silly, but at that moment, she felt very alone. She thought about the impending arrival in the Phantom Quadrant and possible meeting with the Greddylick. Whenever she closed her eyes, she could see the creature leering down at her, and her skin came out in goose bumps as she remembered the sniffing fingers.

Most of all, she worried that she would freeze again. Doctor Nostromus's words back in Botwing's study echoed in her head, 'More than your safety rests in you learning how to use that star of yours, little girl.' Stella held her necklace in her hand. It seemed an innocent trinket: a doubtful tool to defeat something like the Greddylick. In fact, the more Stella examined the crystal, the more absurd it all seemed. In the dim light of her cabin, the star seemed to have lost a bit of its lustre. It didn't even glitter in the way that it used to. Yet, she had used it to blast Shane Biggs into a tree, hadn't she? Stella tried to remember what she had done on that day. It had all happened so quickly. She remembered seeing Shane twist Tom's arm and then stepping out from her hiding place. Looking back, she had no idea why she had done that, it was like she was seeing herself as another person.

"Maybe it's all been a mistake," she murmured to herself. "They say this is mine, but I can't do anything with it."

The little man seemed to stare back at her in a dumb rebuke.

"All right, I'll give it a go," she resolved.

Concentrating on the star, Stella tried to recreate what she had been thinking and feeling that afternoon Shane was bullying Tom. She knew she had been angry, and there had been that rushing sound in her ears. Lifting the crystal up, Stella stared at it really hard. She tried to feed her anger. 'It's not fair,' she thought. 'I don't want any of it.' She didn't want to be adopted, she wanted her mum and dad to be her real mum and dad. She didn't want to be different, she just wanted to be normal: with normal friends at school, who didn't think she was weird. Thinking of the Smella Stella chanting and the faces at school who laughed at her, she felt she could burst with the unfairness of it all. Concentrating hard, Stella tried to channel all that pent-up emotion into her pendant.

"Stop!" Stella shouted. But nothing happened.

It was no good. Stella didn't feel like stepping out and blasting the Greddylick; she just wanted to be safely at home. The crystal showed no sign of having changed, and the whole experience made Stella feel a little silly. Giving a sigh, she replaced the pendant around her neck.

"I told you it was no good," she told Helix's dog toy. "It's just a stupid old necklace."

Abandoning sleep, she vaulted down from her bunk to find some company.

Grandas was in the observatory, gesturing directions to the Cragulons.

"Hi, Grandas, is there anything I can do?" Stella asked.

She felt that even a hard few hours of Gravo-waxing would be better than her moping around.

"Hello, Stella Mayveader," Grandas said. "Much to be done, we took plenty a beating from those pirates."

Stella looked out onto the deck at the roof tiles pockmarked by space cannon shot and the splintered rigging. "Yeah, it looks pretty bad."

"Looks bad, but ve are still here," Grandas said. "Danks to some good shield vork, eh?"

"I dunno, Grandas. I think it had more to do with Tom's piloting."

"Good piloting, yes. Good shield vork. Good navigating. Dat make good spacefarers. Grandas very proud to be part of good crew with Doctor Dodds."

Stella wished she could feel as confident as Grandas, but she wanted to change the subject.

"When will we get to the Phantom Quadrant, Grandas?" she asked.

"Very soon. Ve must be cautious, Stella Mayveader. De Phantom Quadrant is a very strange place. Some ships, dey go in, but not go out."

"Is it the pirates again?"

"No – not pirates. Nobody knows. Grandas has heard stories of ghost ships in the Phantom Quadrant. Old ships that appear out of nowhere from the stars and then phut! Gone. As if never there."

This kind of conversation didn't help Stella's unease, and she decided to leave Grandas searching into the void after ghost ships and return to the steering room. She found Doctor Dodds guiding Tom through a cloud of interstellar dust, whilst Wendell cowered under the sofa. The window was filled with a billowing grey gas, broken occasionally by a flash of lightning.

"Ah, Stella, glad you're here, Helix has just gone to your cabin to find you," Dodds said. "We're just about to come to the co-ordinates where Vanga-Tron was found."

"Are you sure we should be going straight in there, then?" Tom asked nervously, from his place behind the wheel. "I mean if the Greddylick is there..."

"I hope that he is still here," Dodds retorted. "Once we catch up with him, we can get those stolen memories back," he said, giving Stella a reassuring smile.

The gas cleared from the window, like a veil being lifted, to reveal the macabre sight of a giant, grinning skull. It hovered in front of them, glowing a pale, white, bone colour against the inky mirk of the mist.

Wendell gave a wail. "Aaaaagggh! It's going to eat us!"

"Nonsense." Dodds sniffed "That thing hasn't moved in thousands of years."

The huge skull loomed in a perpetual grin in the window, but it remained perfectly still. Behind it, eleven more identical skulls hung amidst the wispy fog. They looked to have been carved out of gigantic meteorites.

"This is the Field of Skulls," Dodds said. "If a certain trainee navigator had studied their star charts more thoroughly, they would have seen that these have been used as space markers for centuries."

"You mean somebody made these?" Tom said.

"Well, someone or something definitely put them here," Dodds said. "They're not a natural space phenomenon. The theories are varied. Some say that an old intergalactic civilization carved them and placed them in the middle of this dust cloud. Others say they had a religious meaning, or they were put here as a warning. It's another mystery of the Phantom Quadrant. That's why people come here," Dodds said and pointed to a ship that was drifting by one of the huge skulls.

"That must be Vanga-Tron's ship. Could you please head towards it, Tom?" Dodds asked.

Symbols flashed on the side of the floating craft's hull. At first, Stella found them incomprehensible, but they kept flashing into different forms, until they shaped themselves into alphabetic letters she could understand. These spelled out 'Vanga's Venture Voyages', before forming another set of images. She remembered what Jerbil-Din had said about Vanga-Tron being a tour guide and realised what it meant.

"Tourists come here!" Stella said in amazement.

"Oh, yes. The adventurous ones," Dodds agreed. "You don't often see a dozen enormous skulls staring back at you, even in deep space."

There was something about the skulls that made Stella feel deeply uneasy. She couldn't understand why anyone willingly visited this creepy place.

"We need to dock onto that skull over there," Dodds said, pointing to the nearest skull to Vanga-Tron's ship. "That must have been the one the tour party visited."

"And the Greddylick was waiting," Tom murmured anxiously, but he steered the ship closer to the skull.

Stella started as a feeling of wetness brushed against her hand. It was Helix's nose. He had entered into the steering room and had pressed his face into Stella's palm, with a plaintive whine.

"It's all right, Helix," Stella said uncertainly. "It's just an old rock."

This sounded unconvincing even to her, as Dodds began guiding Tom's progress into one of the cavernous eye sockets. A blanket of darkness engulfed the ship, and the Cragulons on deck started lighting lanterns that shone as pinpricks of light within the chasm.

The _Attic_ inched forward slowly, until almost pressing against a vast granite wall. Stella looked in the window lens and saw that the bottom of the ship was very close to the cavern floor.

Doctor Dodds spoke into the intercom trumpet, "Weigh the anchors, Grandas."

There was a set of loud cracks as what looked like a number of enormous bath plugs sprang from the ship and clamped themselves to the sides of the cave.

"Without so much as a scratch to the keel," Dodds said with satisfaction. "You keep this up, Tom, and you've got the makings of a first-class helmsman. You all best get ready. You too, Grandas," he said into the trumpet. "We're going for a little walk. I've always wanted to visit one of the fabled skulls of the Phantom Quadrant."

Dodds clapped his hands together and stalked away from the steering room, whistling to himself.

Stella expected Tom to be pleased at this praise from her uncle, but he just bit his lip. He looked even more wretched than when they first spotted the skull.

"Don't worry, Tom," she said to him. "I'm sure it'll be quite safe. Remember what Uncle Dodds said. Tourists come here all the time."

"Yeah! But do they always come back again?" Wendell squeaked from under the sofa.

Tom grabbed Stella's arm, squeezing it so much that it began to hurt. "We don't have to go. We should stay here. Especially you. The Greddylick could be out there. Just waiting."

Stella pulled her arm away from him. "I know. That's why we're here."

"Well, if you won't hear sense, maybe I should stay, then."

Stella couldn't believe Tom's change of heart. He had always been so eager to follow her everywhere. Although she'd been against him coming along in the first place, she felt stung at the thought of him not being there. It was as if he was letting her down.

"I thought you said you weren't afraid," she sneered at him. "If you're too scared, maybe you should stay here!"

"I could stay too," Wendell said, but Stella had grabbed his string and pulled him after her.

"Come on, Wendell. Uncle Dodds needs us."

"Oh, well, if you insist," Wendell gulped, as Stella stormed away.

Helix trotted after her, whining to himself.

Stella climbed up to the store cupboard to fetch the spacesuits, but was met by Uncle Dodds, who was wearing a rucksack and carrying two others in his arms.

"I've got our kit," he said, handing Stella one of the rucksacks. It was heavier than it looked.

"I'm not sure I can carry this on top of a spacesuit. Uncle," Stella said.

"You won't need a spacesuit. Not in the skull. Whoever built it breathed oxygen, the same as we do."

Stella looked at the other rucksack in Dodds's hand.

"We won't need the third one. Tom's not coming," she said, unable to keep the bitterness out of her tone.

"Oh, I see," Dodds said.

"I knew he was too afraid. He shouldn't have come."

"You judge your friend too harshly, Stella."

"He's not my friend," Stella retorted, trying to ignore the stinging in her eyes.

"Oh?"

"No. He's just a stupid coward."

"Friendship can be a scary thing sometimes. But there are more powerful things than being scared, Stella. That is why it is always worth taking that risk."

Stella hadn't a clue what her uncle was talking about, but she followed his lead back to the steering room. By the time they got there, Grandas had hauled open the hatch in the _Attic_ floor, but Tom was nowhere to be seen. Grandas lowered the ladder down the hatch, but it was so dark outside that Stella couldn't see the bottom of it.

"I can't see a thing," Stella said.

"Yes, it is a bit murky. We'll have to use our peepers." Dodds reached into his rucksack and pulled out a curious cone-shaped object. There was a spring at the narrow end of it, and he slammed it into his palm. The cone gave a _wha-tong_ sound, and the wide end opened and flared into a bright light.

Stella rummaged through her rucksack and found a similar cone. The wide end of it looked like a large closed eyelid, complete with eyelashes. When Stella hit the spring at the other end of the cone on the floor, a similar _wha-tong_ sang from the peeper, and the eyelid flickered open. A beam of light speared into Stella's face, causing her to blink away purple spots from her vision.

Dodds ignited another peeper and strapped it around Helix's head. "Go on, old friend. Looks like we're going to need your nose," he said.

Helix gave a bark and leapt down from the hatchway. The distance wasn't as far as Stella had first thought. Helix had landed on his feet and had started patrolling around the cavern, sniffing at the floor to find a trace of a scent. Stella was becoming increasingly surprised at the versatility of her dog. She had always thought that Helix's keen sense of smell was only used for sniffing out food.

Dodds then climbed down the ladder himself. He called upwards, "Stay close. Let's not get split up."

After Dodds had made it to the floor, Grandas urged Stella after him. "I follow you, Stella Mayveader. Do not vorry, any Greddylick must get past Dodds and Grandas." He gave a gravelly laugh. "I vould like to see dat, I vould," he said and slammed his fist into his palm with a crunch.

Stella replaced the peeper in her rucksack and began lowering herself down the ladder.

Wendell decided to help her down. He floated down beside her, glowing in the dark. "It's not all that bad, I suppose," he said. "Almost cosy."

Stella couldn't agree. But she didn't say anything, as she was gritting her teeth and telling herself it was childish to be afraid of the dark.

The ground was uneven, and the beams of light from the peepers illuminated a set of ridges on the floor. They looked uneasily like piles of tightly packed bones. Stella gave the floor a kick, but nothing seemed loose. If the cavern was made of bones, they were all stuck together. All sound seemed eerily hushed in the gloom, so when Helix broke the silence with a bark, Stella jumped in surprise. He had picked up a scent by the mouth of a narrow tunnel. Dodds gestured for everyone to follow and strode to investigate.

Helix trotted in front, the peeper on his head lighting the way. Dodds followed after him, whilst Wendell and Stella trailed behind. Grandas stomped behind them, his granite footfalls echoing across the cavern. Their shadows stretched onto the roof of the tunnel, disappearing into the darkness.

"Hey, Stella, I didn't know you could do it too," Wendell said. "Do you have any gas in your family?"

Stella looked at the bobbing balloon, glowing with a green tinge in the dark before her. She wondered what he meant. Looking around her, everything seemed to be tinged with a blue gleam. She jutted her chin down to her chest and could see the source of the light. It was her crystal, shining a bright blue at her neck.

"Uncle Dodds," Stella called out, "I think you should see this."

Dodds turned around and noticed the burning star at Stella's neck.

"Maybe it is a varning?" Grandas said, swiveling his head around, looking for danger.

"It could be," Dodds said thoughtfully. "Or it could be that the star knows this place. How do you feel, Stella?"

"I...I don't know."

"Are you scared?"

"No, I'm not scared. I just feel very sad. I don't know why."

"Let me know if you feel anything else, anything at all. This place obviously has an effect on your necklace."

They were interrupted by Helix barking, and they all ran towards the peeper light that Helix was shining into the tunnel. A figure was crouched against a craggy outcrop of bones. It was whispering words to itself and rocking backwards and forwards. Lifting its face towards the light, it froze, stunned. Although the face was slack with fear, Stella recognized the bushy eyebrows and dark eyes, from Uncle Dodds b-mail.

"Jerbil?" Dodds asked. "Jerbil-Din? What has happened to you?"

Jerbil-Din's mournful gaze squinted against the peeper lights. His gaze latched onto Stella's, and he lurched to his feet.

"Get her away! Get her away! There is great danger here," Jerbil-Din moaned. "The master has come for the seven-pointed star," Jerbil-Din screamed, turning away from Stella and sprinting down the tunnel.

"Stella, go straight back to the _Attic_ and stay there. Wendell, you go with her. Helix and Grandas, we've got to get Jerbil. He's our best chance of finding the Greddylick," Dodds said. He thrust Stella back the way they had come and ran off after Jerbil-Din.

"Wait," Stella called after them, "I'll come with you." But her voice trailed off into the shadows.

"I...I think we should do as Doctor Dodds says," Wendell stuttered.

Stella felt tempted to follow them, but the tunnel felt quite threatening with just the two of them. "Okay," she said, "but I don't know what we're going to do if they get into trouble."

She grabbed Wendell's string and allowed him to light their way back. Turning the corner to the tunnel, just before they reached the mouth of the cave, Stella could make out another shadow stretched along the walls. It was thin and spindly, and it caused Stella to rear back.

"Hello!" a voice called. "Stella, is that you?"

Stella recognized the voice and traced the distorted shadows back to their source. "What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I was trying to find you," Tom replied.

***
Chapter 12: Betrayal

"I thought that you weren't coming," Stella said.

"I wasn't," Tom murmured, "but I changed my mind."

Although Tom obviously seemed very awkward, Stella reasoned that this was because he was embarrassed about being afraid and decided not to remind him about it. She was quite relieved that he had changed his mind. She had realised that without Tom's company she felt more alone.

Reaching out and patting him on the shoulder, she said, "I'm glad you did, Tom, but we've got to get back to the _Attic_. We found Jerbil-Din, but I think that the Greddylick has done something to him. When he saw us, he ran away. Uncle Dodds and the others have gone after him."

"I think I might have found...a...a spaceship," Tom said, cringing away from Stella's touch. "I got lost looking for you and found some kind of weird staircase."

"That's brilliant. Let's go and get the others," Stella cried and turned to go back into the tunnel.

Tom reached after her and grabbed her back. He was obviously a bit rougher than he intended, because he snatched his hand away once Stella had stopped.

"No – we can't do that!" Tom yelped. "I mean, do you think we can find them? I think we should go now. What if this Jerbil-Din is running back to that ship to make a getaway? It stands to reason, doesn't it? I think the stairway is a short cut. We can be there waiting for all of them to turn up."

This made sense to Stella. She wondered whether she could take the risk of losing Jerbil-Din. Uncle Dodds himself said that he was the best chance they had of finding the Greddylick.

"I don't know about this. Doctor Dodds said we should go straight back to the _Attic_ ," Wendell said.

"But Jerbil's spaceship is here," Stella replied. "What if Tom is right? If he does return there, we can catch him."

"Yes, yes. Come on, we might not have much time," Tom said and beckoned to them. "The staircase is this way."

Tom led Stella a breathless chase through the tunnels. She very soon lost her way in the labyrinth of corridors, often stumbling on the ridged flooring, and it was only through the light of the peeper and Wendell trailing behind her that she could keep track of the way Tom was leading them.

"Hey, Tom, slow down," Stella called.

"It's just down here," Tom's voice called from below them.

Stella shone the peeper's gaze along the tunnel wall. There was a crack in the wall. A skeletal archway of spindly bones. Stella peered inside. The floor spiralled downwards in uneven steps.

"It might be best if you go first, Wendell." Stella gulped. "Those stairs look pretty steep. You can light the way."

"Your star is glowing too," Wendell whined. "I'm sure it'll be best if you went first."

"I thought you liked the dark," Stella said.

"I like it when I know what's in it," he said. But he tentatively hovered down the staircase.

"Tom? Are you down there?" Stella called out.

Stella followed Wendell down the spiral staircase. She had to hold out her hand to steady herself against the narrow wall.

Finally, she got to the bottom, surprising herself by stepping down when her foot reached the floor before she expected. Shining the peeper above her, she saw that they had descended into a vast chamber, similar to the one that the _Attic_ was anchored in. Wendell gave a whimper and bobbed close to her.

In the centre of the cave, Stella traced the torpedo-like outline of a spacecraft that hovered in front of them. This ship was made of metal and glinted the light back at her. It was about twice the size of her father's van, but looked more like pictures she'd seen of submarines.

"Look. There's Tom," Wendell said, "behind the ship."

"Tom, why didn't you wait for us?" Stella shone the peeper at him, but he just cringed away.

"I...I'm sorry, Stella," he said. "It told me that if I led you here, I'd get my gran back. She's all I've got left."

"What do you mean? What about your gran?"

"It's the same as your mum and dad. It took her. The Greddylick took her memories."

"I told you, boy. When you speak of me, you call me master," a terrible voice hissed.

Stella saw a shadow drop from the cavern roof. It uncurled, and Stella recognised the twitching fingers and pitted eye sockets of the Greddylick. It no longer wore the top hat that had disguised its elongated, scaly head.

"You!" Stella gasped.

She grabbed at her necklace, and its blue light flared even brighter. The Greddylick snarled and leapt towards Stella. It covered the distance between them in one bound. One of the forearms of its overcoat tore open as a serrated talon sprung from it. The Greddylick slashed at Stella's neck and sliced through the chain that held her pendant. The crystal clattered to the floor, and its light snuffed out.

"You dare to resist me, little girl?" The Greddylick cackled. It was a hideous screeching sound. "I can't think why Dodds would entrust Parhelian's flame to such a weakling."

"You better watch out," Stella spat back at him. "Doctor Dodds is on his way here right now!"

"It is Dodds's meddling that brought you here, fool. I knew it would be difficult to get hold of the star whilst it was on that filthy planet of yours. Far easier to wait here until you wandered into my trap."

Stella could see her crystal glittering on the floor. Unfortunately, the Greddylick stood in the way, preventing her from reaching out and grabbing it.

"You still have to get the star out of here," Stella said. She was just saying the first things that popped into her head, trying to distract the creature, whilst she frantically thought how she could get her pendant back. "That's going to be difficult since you can't even touch it."

Stella sprang forward, rolling across the cavern ridges, and stretched her hand out to pick up her pendant. The Greddylick, however, grabbed hold of her before she could touch it.

"But I don't need to touch it," the Greddylick hissed. "Not since that imbecile Dodds brought along my little pet spy. You, boy! Pick up the crystal."

Tom was hunched by the spaceship, but lurched to his feet as if kicked.

"No, Tom. Run and get Doctor Dodds," Stella pleaded.

"Do as I say, boy, or watch that gibbering old woman you care for die a drooling vegetable."

"But you said you'd make her normal."

"I said pick it up!" the Greddylick yelled furiously.

Tom inched forward, visibly trembling. He reached down and picked up the star.

"Tom, you sneak," Stella shrieked. "You've just been waiting to give us away the whole time."

"It said if I told anyone, I wouldn't see my gran again."

"When you speak of me, you call me master," the Greddylick hissed and cuffed Tom in the face.

Stella saw the chance to free herself from the Greddylick's grip, but its fingers just closed more tightly around her arm, and the digits of its other hand started to sniff around her face, curling around Stella's jaw.

"I'd like to get rid of you right now," the Greddylick mused, "but you could still be useful." Squeezing her face, the Greddylick reached into his coat and pulled out a shiny metallic globe. "You don't need much of your mind. Just enough to fetch and carry and call me master."

One half of the globe split open. The top came apart like segments of an orange until they looked like opened petals of a spiteful flower. The Greddylick lowered the claw-like instrument onto Stella's head, and the talons clasped onto her scalp. Stella opened her mouth to shout, but no sound came out.

Although Stella could see the cave, it was as if time had slowed in some way. She could see the Greddylick standing above her and Tom looking on in terror. She even noticed Wendell floating above. But the more she looked, the more the figures in the cave became more indistinct as if they were fading away. Other figures started to appear beside her, like wispy phantasms. Soon it felt like she was standing within a bustling crowd. The figures were whispering and moaning, but she had to concentrate to hear what any of them were saying. Even then, she could only hear snippets of thoughts. As the figures became more substantial, Stella could make out some she recognised. Jerbil-Din floated past her muttering, "My esteemed colleague..." Then she spotted Vanga-Tron. He seemed to be chanting, "Ancient ruins...perfectly safe."

One of the more disturbing figures was an old woman who was weeping. She kept repeating the same words over and over again, "My poor boy. My poor boy." Then Stella spotted her parents. Her mother was frantically looking for something, running around the cavern, her head turning from side to side. "Have you seen her?" she kept insisting. Her dad was standing still, his hands to his mouth. He was shouting Stella's name over and over.

'Mum!' Stella tried to shout, 'Dad,' but no words would come. She realised this was because someone was holding her jaw. It hurt, so she jerked backwards with all her strength.

The Greddylick's grip was momentarily loosened as Stella tried to burst free. It snarled and grabbed her rucksack. One of its talons caught the fabric, tearing it open. The maps and gadgets that Dodds had packed inside spilled onto the cavern floor, along with one of the jellied dog toys. A distant part of Stella's mind wondered, ' _How did Helix put that in there?_ ' as she struggled to break free from the Greddylick and reach her parents. If she could just reach out a little further, she could touch them.

The orange, rubber man was stuck to the rags of Stella's rucksack. However, the effect of being close to the Greddylick brought it to life. It gave a squeak and leapt at the Greddylick's face. The Greddylick tried to tear at the figure, but like elastic, it just stretched. Caught by this unexpected attack, the Greddylick's grip on Stella loosened, and she pulled herself away from its grip. Stella fell to the ground, dislodging the claw that had attached itself to her head. The figures in the cave started to flicker away. Stella felt the mind-squeezer try to shift its grip again. She yanked it free from her head, and it clattered to the floor. Immediately, all the figures cleared from her vision. Her mum and dad had gone, again.

Stella's attention was swiftly brought back to the present, as she saw the Greddylick struggle with the orange coat of plastic-like substance that had attached itself to its face. The Greddylick finally managed to rip the thing off, and it returned back into its original shape, its legs and arms thrashing against the Greddylick's hand.

The Greddylick brought its talon to the rubber man's face. "I'm going to spit you, you interfering little vermin."

Before the Greddylick could skewer the helpless creature, another toy appeared, out of seemingly nowhere. Then another. Then another. Soon the cavern held over twenty of the little rubber figures. They all followed the same behaviour. They would take one look at the Greddylick and launch themselves at it with a brave squeak of rage, plastering themselves to a part of its scaly body. Snarling and hissing, the Greddylick started to rip at the sticky blobs as they wriggled around. Wendell also decided to add to its discomfort by whizzing around the Greddylick's head, narrowly avoiding being punctured by its sharp teeth.

The Greddylick got so enraged it slashed at the figures with the talon on its forearm. A similar blade appeared on its other arm, and then two more appeared on each of its shins. Although the creatures were an obvious irritation to the Greddylick, he managed to cut some of them off. The figures would limp away, clutching bits of their limbs, and would stick bits of their arms and legs back to themselves until they would slowly become whole again. One jelly man found itself cut in half and crawled on its torso over to its legs. Although they could seemingly reattach various limbs, the severed jelly men seemed to be sluggish and disorientated. It looked like the Greddylick had started to wear them down. Swatting away the creatures with ease now, the Greddylick turned its attention back to Stella.

"Pathetic. Your little friends won't save you," it sneered and retrieved the mind-squeezer from the cavern floor.

The sound of Helix barking echoed across the cavern, and the Greddylick gave a hiss of rage. "Keep your mind, then, little girl. What there is of it. The deeper your despair when we meet again."

It grabbed hold of Tom, who was seemingly frozen in fear, his hand still clutching Stella's pendant.

"Tell Dodds that I now have Parhelian's flame, and the galaxy will again taste the wrath of the Greddylick."

The Greddylick levitated into the air, pulling Tom behind him, and dragged them both into the hatchway of the spacecraft. Stella could now see Helix, the peeper strapped to his head, piercing the darkness of the cavern. Behind him sprinted Doctor Dodds and Grandas.

They both arrived at Stella's side just in time to see the spacecraft spear out of the cavern, carrying with it the Greddylick, Tom and the seven-pointed star.

***
Chapter 13: Sharptooth Whitefur

The force of the spaceship flying away knocked Stella to the floor. Helix was the first to reach her and began worriedly sniffing at her, to check that she was all right.

"I'm okay, Helix," Stella said, which wasn't true, she felt bruised and had twisted her ankle. The physical pain, however, was nothing to the horrible empty feeling in her stomach. Doctor Dodds reached down to help her to her feet.

"It's gone," she said simply, picking up the broken chain that had once held her pendant. "Tom as well. He's been helping the Greddylick all the time. He brought me here and took my pendant."

"Willingly?" Dodds turned her to look straight into his eyes. His gaze was avidly searching for something. "Think clearly, Stella. Did the Greddylick tamper with his mind?"

Stella wasn't sure, in the face of the disaster, why her uncle was intent on knowing the nature of Tom's betrayal. "No. That's what makes it worse. Tom knew what he was doing."

"Worse? I think not," Dodds said.

He pulled out the pocket light that Stella had seen him check her parents with and began examining her in the same way.

"Stella Mayveader, you okay?" Grandas said, as he stomped over. He was dragging the struggling figure of Jerbil-Din with him.

"We got here just in time. It looks like you had a close run-in with a particularly powerful mind-squeezer, but no lasting damage," Dodds said.

"No lasting damage?" Stella pulled away from Doctor Dodds, who was trying to look into her ear. "Didn't you hear me? My crystal has gone. Tom has given it to him."

"Tom can't use it. Neither can the Greddylick. I think we can be pretty sure of that now."

"How come?"

"We're still here. If the Greddylick was able to wield the power of Parhelian's flame, none of us here would possess any skill to thwart it. I'm sure it wouldn't have run from us."

"What if it learns to use it?"

Dodds gave a sigh. "It is you it needs to unlock the power of that star. Although, I wonder how much it is aware of that yet. You are correct, though. We don't have the luxury of time. If, in fact, we ever did. The Greddylick has shown its hand. We must now reach it before it becomes so desperate that it'll do something to hurt Tom."

"It was Tom who helped him!" Stella spat. "Why should we care what happens to him?"

"As I told you before, the Greddylick manipulates through fear. Tom's grandmother was attacked by the Greddylick. The same as your parents. You could hardly expect him to abandon her."

"You knew!" Stella said. "You knew that the Greddylick sent him with us."

"I tracked the Greddylick's movements back to when he arrived on Earth. After its run-in with Slimeface, it had managed to trace where the star had last been used. This naturally led him to Tom. Patience is not normally an attribute you'd associate with a Greddylick, but this one seems to have been especially cautious. It used Tom to follow your movements until it perceived that you were too weak to be a threat. Once it had been thwarted in its first attempt to get the star, it sent Tom to your house, presumably with instructions to follow us and wait until it made itself known to him again."

"So how come you didn't say anything? You could have left him at home."

Dodds seemed to crumple at Stella's question. When he answered, his voice was unsteady. "I knew it was a terrible risk, but I felt it was our best chance of locating the Greddylick. I thought Tom would be safe if he stayed with us and we could capture the Greddylick when it tried to contact him. Tom needed to be kept unaware of any suspicions I might have. Any change in behaviour and the Greddylick might have picked up on it. It was also for this reason that I couldn't let anybody in the crew know, especially you, Stella. I now realise this was an unforgivable conceit on my part. I should have listened to Doctor Nostromus and left him at the Society. I was glad when you told me that Tom had decided to stay in the _Attic_. I thought he'd be safer there. The Greddylick must have got past the Cragulons and contacted Tom there. Also, I didn't expect him to use poor old Jerbil here as a diversion. The Greddylick must have seen his arrival as a bonus. It just took a well-planted idea in his mind to have me chasing at shadows."

"Poor Tom!" Wendell said.

Stella rounded on him and snapped, "He still had a choice, hadn't he? My parents' minds are in that machine too!" Stella shuddered, remembering the ghostly figure of her mum that she had seen, always searching for her, never to find her.

"He should've trusted us," she said adamantly.

"Yes, he should have trusted us, and now he is in awful danger because he didn't. I also wonder that if perhaps I had trusted him with the truth of what I knew, this may have been prevented. I take a crumb of comfort in that the Greddylick has kept Tom's mind intact. This suggests he still feels he has use for him. I can only hope that this means that Tom is safe for a while."

"None of us are safe. The Dreadful One must not have the Key to the Doom Gate!" a voice intoned.

Stella looked down to see that it was one of the little men, which she had mistakenly supposed were Helix's dog toys, that had spoken. It looked like the orange one that had first sprung from her bag. Its voice was far deeper than she would have expected from something that struggled to reach her knee. It seemed to have been injured in the fight with the Greddylick and was limping.

"You can talk?" she blurted out in wonder. "But I thought you were..." She felt she couldn't finish the sentence with the words ' _dog toy_ ,' whilst she was having a conversation with one of them.

The small figure seemed to find this amusing. It gave a wry smile. "I think there have been misunderstandings on both sides," it said. He glanced at Helix, who looked as surprised as a husky can look.

"Let us start anew," the figure said, giving a dignified bow (a little hampered by his limp), and then exclaimed, "I am Prince Fawcus, of the Telallamorphs." He indicated the group of his kind behind him, who were principally involved in returning back to their original shape or reacquainting themselves with their limbs. "These are some of my people, who came to my cry of need."

Those that could gave Stella a deep bow.

Stella felt embarrassed in the face of the polite formality of these Telallamorph people, especially as she remembered chucking so many of them out of her window.

"Err, I'm Stella," she said, attempting a curtsey. "Pleased to meet you. Thanks for saving me from the Greddylick. If you hadn't been there, I would have been in big trouble."

Stella didn't like to dwell on how close she'd come to having her mind erased.

"The Telallamorph people?" Doctor Dodds said, with a touch of awe in his tone. "I have heard of the planet Telallamorph, Your Majesty," he bowed to the prince, "but it is always spoken of as if a myth."

"We do not usually make ourselves known when we journey abroad. We have found it... safer this way. You are Doctor Dodds of the Greenwich Interplanetary Society?"

"I am, sire."

"Your work is known to us, and if the circumstances were less dire, it would be my pleasure to offer an invitation for an audience with my father, the king. He has often spoken of his desire for you both to meet. However, we stand at the moment of greatest peril. I fear that fast actions are needed if the Dreadful One is not to open the Doom Gate."

"This Doom Gate? I'm not familiar with the term. Will you tell me what connection it has with Stella and the Greddylick?"

"We do not have the time for discourse, Doctor. My father must be told that the Dreadful One has what it seeks and the last battle will soon be upon us. Also, my kin have taken grievous wounds and need the attention of our healers, as I fear they will be needed to fight once more."

"Last battle? You mean with the Greddylick?"

The Telallamorph prince sat wearily down, and he spoke in a tone of someone who was very tired. "The creature you name _Greddylick_ , we know as the Dreadful One. It became known to us some months before. When I, myself, was investigating reports of whole families going missing around the Doom Gate, I found the cruel answer to the disappearances: our people were somehow enslaved, their minds made completely blank except to some foul whim of a strange beast. I managed to escape and give a description of the creature to our scholars. The etchings of our ancestors match the disgusting creature exactly. Our sacred texts warn us of its coming. They tell us to beware the return of the Dreadful Ones, as they will try to open the Doom Gate. They also say that if the Doom Gate is opened, we will face a great evil, bringing with it the destruction of our world. My family has pledged that we will fight to the death against this fate. Though we have little hope of triumph."

Dodds squatted down, lowering his head almost to the floor. Until his eyes were level with Prince Fawcus. "We can help you with this menace."

"You?" For the first time, a hint of bitterness entered the Prince's tone. "You could not stop it taking the Doom Key. You cannot stop it now."

"What is this Doom Key?" Stella asked.

"The seven-pointed star you carried." Fawcus said plainly. "Long has it been the bane of our people. The symbol of the ruin that awaits us. That is why we did not make ourselves known to you, Stella Mayweather. The pendant you wore was that of the doom of Telallamorph. Until I witnessed your fight with the Dreadful One, we could not tell if you were friend or foe."

"I am a friend," Stella said desperately. "If you know where the Greddylick is, you must take us there."

"Your Majesty, maybe there still is time to avert the disaster," Dodds said. "If I can confront the Greddylick before it reaches this Doom Gate, I think I can retrieve the seven-pointed star."

Fawcus pondered a while. "The reputation of Doctor Dodds is known far and wide throughout the galaxy, for truth and the fight for justice. I believe that my father would wish your assistance. I warn you, though, that the task you assign yourself is a hard one. Even absent, the Dreadful One has placed lethal defences around the Doom Gate. Since I escaped, further attempts by our people have been made to get past them. None have been successful."

"I only ask for the chance to try," Dodds replied.

Fawcus got to his feet. "Very well, you shall have that chance."

"It's true, then? What the stories say?" Dodds asked.

"What stories?" Stella said.

There wasn't much that she had understood in the conversation that had taken place. She didn't see how her pendant could be the key to this Doom Gate on some distant planet, but Fawcus and Dodds clearly seemed to believe it.

"According to the tales I've heard, the inhabitants of Telallamorph have the gift of teleportation. Admittedly I did hear most of them from spacefarers who had drunk more Venutian rum than is considered safe," Dodds said.

"The rumours you heard are true, although we need a point that we recognise in order to reach a place. For instance, my people came to my aid by using me as a marker. I can return to the throne room of my father's palace by thinking of him."

"Can you take us with you?" Dodds asked.

"We can carry a certain amount of weight with us," Fawcus said.

The rest of the Telallamorph people had all managed to get themselves more or less complete and were gathered around their prince. Some of them looked at Grandas and couldn't help giving a groan. The Telallamorphs all got together in a huddle, where they started whispering to each other furiously. Eventually, Fawcus turned back to Dodds.

"There are not enough of us here to carry you all," he said, looking significantly at Grandas.

Grandas noticed this and began to growl ominously. "You call Grandas fat?" he said balefully. "Grandas is lightest Cragulon, but hits the hardest. I vill not leave Doctor Dodds and Stella Mayveader."

If Fawcus felt intimidated by Grandas, he didn't show it. "We are not even sure whether we can carry any of you. It has been years since any of our people has attempted to transport aliens. Doctor, you must come. So must the Key holder. I feel confident that I can bring the gas infant on my own, and although it's against my better judgement, we have enough numbers to bring Sharptooth Whitefur."

At the sound of that name, many of the Telallamorph people cried out loud in dismay.

"Sharptooth? Whitefur? Oh, you mean Helix," Stella said in realisation.

Helix gave a whine of displeasure.

Fawcus said, "I'm afraid those of my kin who returned from their Doom Key vigil in your bedroom, Stella Mayweather, gave lurid accounts of the dangers on your planet. The reputation of Sharptooth Whitefur's strong jaws is now nefarious on Telallamorph. I hear that parents have started to threaten their Telallamorphlings that if they do not behave, Sharptooth Whitefur will come and chew them up."

Helix hid his face in his paws, embarrassed with the realisation that he had spent the last few months chewing the Telallamorph royal family.

"I'm afraid you can't come with us, Grandas, but we really need your help in getting the _Attic_ to Telallamorph as soon as possible," Dodds said.

Grandas was about to argue, but Dodds cut him off. "Please, Grandas, if we run into any trouble, we're going to need the ship. You best take Jerbil with you as well." Dodds indicated the professor, who was gibbering softly at a wall.

Dodds turned to Fawcus. "Sire, thank you for your help, I hate to ask for more, but could you ask one of your people to stay with my crew. It might be invaluable to have them as a marker, so we can teleport back. Besides, Telallamorph isn't on our star charts, and we need directions to your planet."

"Our people are no navigators, but it shall be as you say," Fawcus said. "Ilka." A blue Telallamorph stepped forward. "Out of all of us here, you have studied our star charts the most. You must stay here and be a guide."

Ilka saluted before vanishing, only to reappear on Grandas's bulky shoulder.

The Telallamorph people broke into groups and started to huddle around Stella and the others, although it was noticeable that the group that was to teleport Helix looked very nervous. At an order from Fawcus, they began to leap into the air. It felt to Stella as if she was being pelted with something soft as the Telallamorph people stretched themselves over her.

"Are you sure this is safe?" Stella asked.

"The Sacred Texts give accounts of our people providing this service for aliens long ago," Fawcus said, from his position sitting on top of Wendell. "They tell of great riches we received in payment and the treasury still holds many marvellous jewels and precious objects from that time."

"Why did they stop?" Dodds asked.

"We do not know. The latest records on the subject are merely requests for refunds from the passenger's next of kin."

"All I want to know is whether it's like going through space?" Wendell asked.

"No, the effect is almost instantaneous."

"At last! A civilised way to travel," Wendell said.

That was the last Stella heard before she felt as if she'd been turned upside down.

***
Chapter 14: The Telallamorph King

To Stella, teleportation felt like falling in every direction at once. It took a while for the dizziness to clear before she was aware that she was lying on solid marble. The Telallamorphs sprang from her as she tried to sit up. She managed to focus her eyes in time to see Helix popping into the air, just above the floor. He fell on all four paws with a yelp and immediately started to shake his fur free of Telallamorphs. He didn't need to tell Stella that he hadn't enjoyed the experience of teleporting.

It seemed as if Wendell hadn't liked it either. He was shivering directly above Stella's head, whilst Prince Fawcus climbed down his string.

"Th-th-th-that was horrible!" Wendell stuttered, uncontrollably flashing into different vivid colours. "It was like I'd been stretched to cover the whole galaxy all at once."

"I, too, felt a similar experience," Fawcus said. "Not the usual feeling of travelling at all. I think perhaps it's because you have no solid form."

Stella managed to clamber to her feet and take in her surroundings. They had teleported into the middle of a huge courtyard. A set of columns spiralled around her, leading up to an open sky that was tinged a peach colour, with swirling streaks of magenta. In front of her stood a set of gates that dwarfed the Telallamorphs but were only as high as her shoulder. The gates were guarding a palace in miniature. Stella felt like she was a giant looking down upon the graceful minarets and marble walls.

Another set of Telallamorphs teleported out of mid-air, but without Doctor Dodds.

"Where is Dodds?" Prince Fawcus asked his people.

The Telallamorphs all started speaking at once.

"One at a time!" Fawcus ordered.

"I do not know," one of the Telallamorphs replied.

"I felt as if something was tugging at me," another said.

All the Telellamorphs started chorusing, "So did I! So did I!"

Fawcus shouted for order again.

"It was like I was being dragged somewhere," one of them said. "Then suddenly, I felt as if I'd been let go, and we transported here."

"Uncle Dodds has gone?" Stella asked, aghast.

She couldn't believe it. First Tom had betrayed her, and now her great-uncle was missing. How could this have happened? A terrible thought entered into her head. "It must have been the Greddylick!" she exclaimed.

"How?" Wendell asked. "The Greddylick can't teleport? Can it?"

"We do not know the full extent of the Dreadful One's powers," Fawcus said gravely. "We can't discount the worst."

They were interrupted by the sound of a high-pitched fanfare. Stella could hear Helix growl and followed his gaze to the palace walls. They were lined with Telallamorph faces peering at them in horror.

"Invasion!" a voice shouted. "Giants at the gates!"

"Look!" another voice cried. "It's Sharptooth Whitefur! Run for your lives, he means to chew us all!"

This news bought pandemonium, and the sound of screaming and panic could be heard from behind the walls. Helix started barking back at the commotion, which made it worse.

The gates to the palace creaked open to reveal a large group of Telallamorphs. Each wore a helmet and carried a small spear. They marched grimly towards Stella, who started to back away from the needle-like points of their sticks. One of the soldiers, wearing an officer's cap, shouted the order to ' _Attack!_ ' The soldiers gave a fierce battle cry and rushed towards them. Wendell hovered precariously above them, trying to avoid being pricked. A group of them surrounded Helix and started stabbing their spears menacingly whilst he snapped his jaws at each prod.

"Stop!" Prince Fawcus roared.

He strode forward and clasped at the Telallamorph captain's arm, to stop him thrusting the point of his spear into Stella's leg.

"Captain Nelkoo, I said stand down. These people are friends."

Captain Nelkoo reluctantly lowered his spear, and the other soldiers warily drew back.

"Are you sure, sire?" Captain Nelkoo asked. "They look like evil minions of the Dreadful One to me. Especially that one!" he said suspiciously, waving his spear at Helix.

"I tell you, these aliens mean us no harm. We need an audience with my father."

"All of you?" the captain asked incredulously, staring up at Stella, who towered over them.

"He can receive us in the great hall," Fawcus said.

"If you say so, milord," Captain Nelkoo replied, although the tone of his voice betrayed obvious doubts. "Inform the king," he barked at one of the soldiers.

The soldier gave a hurried salute and disappeared.

"Form a guard!" Captain Nelkoo bellowed.

The rest of the Telallamorph soldiers formed ranks around Stella and Helix and started to herd them forward. Helix gave a yelp as he was prodded with a spear to get him moving.

"Only proper for a state visit to the great hall, sire," Captain Nelkoo said.

"It's all right, Helix," Stella said to him, ruffling the fur on his head. "We need their help."

She allowed herself to be ushered forward by the Telallamorphs at her feet. She surprised herself by how calm she sounded, as she still hadn't got used to the shock of Doctor Dodds's disappearance. She kept looking around her, expecting him to appear out of the air at any moment.

Stella, Helix and Wendell were led through the palace gates by the Telallamorphs. Stella, taking great care not to step on any of them by mistake, had to lower her head to avoid headbutting the archway. Stooping down, Stella walked through a very grand hallway. She had to weave between the intricate chandeliers that hung like clusters of tiny jewels from the vaulted ceiling. Wendell managed to find a way to deflate himself to a more suitable size, although the effort made him all wrinkled. When he spoke, it was as if he was holding his breath.

"They've done this place out quite nicely. I could do with something like this back at home," he said.

On either side of the corridor, small archways led into smaller passageways. Helix couldn't resist putting his head through some of them to see what was there. Once he sniffed at an unfortunate maid, who gave a shriek and threw up the bundle of sheets she was carrying and ran back down the corridor.

Stella almost had to crawl through the doors to the great hall. Groups of gaudily coloured courtiers huddled together nervously, as the aliens were squeezed in. At the far end of the room, a small throne was set upon a dais. On it sat a rotund mauve-coloured Telallamorph who was wearing a crown. He was staring at them all intensely, but didn't say a word. Although the room was vast by Telallamorph standards, with huge windows and tall columns that coiled upwards, it wasn't quite tall enough for Stella to stand, and her neck was starting to ache from her holding it at a strange angle.

When Helix entered, gasps of fear could be heard amidst the fevered muttering of the court. Prince Fawcus strode forward to the throne.

"Father. May I introduce these foreign guests? Friends who have agreed to help us in our direst of needs. The Nebuloid Wendell."

Wendell gave the king a bob.

"The fierce protector, Sharptooth Whitefur."

Helix whined at the tremor of fear that followed his introduction.

"And holder of the Key to the Doom Gate, Stella Mayweather."

A wave of dismay swept across the hall. The Telallamorphs started to cry out in anger, waving their fists at Stella. The king stood up from his throne and bellowed.

"Silence!"

The hubbub died down, and the king asked Fawcus in a stern tone, "My son, you have long been my source of greatest pride, but what madness has possessed you to bring those who would bring about our doom to the very heart of our realm?"

"We're not your enemies," Stella pleaded. "You're thinking of the Greddylick, or Dreadful One, or whatever you call him. We're trying to help."

"Help?" the king roared. "You wield the seven-pointed star, do you not? The Key to the Doom Gate. Your coming heralds the destruction of Telallamorph!"

"She speaks the truth, my liege," Fawcus shouted. "I have seen her battle with the Dreadful One. It took the Doom Key from her, and she wishes to retrieve it."

This news fell heavily on the king. He slumped back onto his throne as if he had been struck.

"The Dreadful One has the Doom Key?" he murmured. "A bleak day for us all."

"Yes, but he can't use it!" Stella blurted out. "Doctor Dodds said so."

"Dodds? Does she mean Doctor Dodds?" the king asked his son.

"Yes. The Key Holder was under Doctor Dodds's protection. We brought him with us, but he disappeared whilst transporting," Fawcus explained.

"Disappeared? I've never heard of such a thing," the king said thoughtfully.

Fawcus shrugged. "I can think of no explanation, although I suspect that the Dreadful One may be involved."

"Hmm. There is nothing mentioned in the sacred texts about the Dreadful One being able to transport," the king said. "The name of Dodds is held by many in great regard, and his loss is grievous indeed.

"Can't we find him?" Stella asked. "Please, Your Majesty, if we could just find him, I know he could help."

"But where should we look, Stella Mayweather?" the king asked.

"What about at this Doom Gate place? If it was the Greddylick that captured him, that's where he'd be."

"Father. It is possible. If there is a chance that Dodds is being held there, I would like to go back and try and release him."

"My son, you have courage, and that is good, but you must know the difference between bravery and recklessness. You only just made it back from the Dreadful One's lair before, and since you have been away, the evil shrouding that place has thickened. Remember that we cannot transport to a place unless we recognise it or someone who is already there. You have seen yourself the terrible alterations that the Dreadful One is making to that land, and we no longer can reach those poor souls it has imprisoned to do its foul bidding. Your duty is here, with your people. If the Dreadful One has the Key to the Doom Gate, I fear the worst. We must prepare. All of Telallamorph must prepare. For the last battle will soon be upon us."

After this pronouncement, the king called an end to the audience. Stella, Wendell and Helix were politely, but firmly, escorted out of the great hall. The king had offered the gardens beside the palace for them to rest in. Fawcus had assured them that the weather on Telallamorph at that time of year was quite mild and they should be quite comfortable there for the night. He also said that he would arrange for some food to be sent to them.

Stella found that Fawcus was right about them being comfortable in the gardens. An emerald-coloured brook ran through them, and there was soft russet moss underfoot. Captain Nelkoo led them to the side of a large hill. An airy structure stood on the top, and Stella could see that a number of Telallamorphs were housed in it. A lot of them appeared to be on crutches, though, and some had their arms in slings.

"What is that place?" Stella asked.

"That's the hospital," Captain Nelkoo curtly replied, obvious that he still viewed them with distrust.

Although she was curious, Stella didn't want to move any closer, for fear of disturbing the patients. However, she could see rows of beds through the windows. Each one held a Telallamorph figure, swathed from head to foot in a kind of plastic sheet.

"Why are they wrapped up like that?" Wendell asked.

Stella wished that he hadn't. None of those Telallamorphs were moving, and she worried what the answer may be.

"Don't you foreigners have plasters where you come from?" the captain asked.

"Not like that," Stella replied.

"Morphplast we call it," one of the escorts said. "I had a nasty run-in with Scissorpinchers a few years back. Vicious little beggars they are. Got myself sliced clean in two. They wrapped me in that stuff for a couple of days, and I was right as rain. O'course, I've still got a scar. It runs right through my–"

"Silence in the ranks!" Nelkoo barked. "No fraternising with the priso...er, I mean, guests," he said.

Nelkoo left them, but stationed guards a discreet distance away, and Stella sat down wearily on the moss. Fawcus had arranged for stacks of Telallamorph cakes to be left for them, and Stella nibbled at one of the saucer-sized tablets. They were very sweet, and it felt like she was chewing through a tough type of jelly. Leaning on her arm, she looked up at the sky that was fast darkening into a purplish dusk. Everything from the strange cries of the brightly coloured birds to the breeze rustling plastic-looking leaves made Stella feel even more away from home.

She supposed that this wasn't the first time that she had spent the night on another planet. Her uncle had said that she had not been found on Earth. Maybe her real home looked just like this, or maybe even stranger. It was like she didn't belong anywhere. Uncle Dodds might have told her, but he wasn't here, and she didn't know whether she would see him ever again. ' _My life has been taken away from me, a bit at a time_ ,' Stella thought. 'First it turns out I'm not a Mayweather at all. I'm not even human. Then my parents get taken away, or their minds do, anyway. Then Uncle Dodds, even Tom.' She felt a choking in her throat. It felt difficult to breathe. What was she going to do? How was she going to get home? Where was home? The urge to cry out was almost irresistible, and she even clapped her hand over her mouth to try and stop it escaping. 'Stop it!' she scolded herself. 'I _won't_ panic.'

Helix had noticed that something was wrong. He scratched at her arm with his paw and asked whether she was okay. She forced herself to drop her palm away from her mouth and noticed a faint outline of her pendant still traced onto her skin. 'I won't panic,' she repeated to herself. 'I'll be strong. As hard as stone.'

"Grandas!" she murmured. "Grandas and his cousins will help us get to that Doom Gate and save Uncle Dodds," she shouted and jumped to her feet.

"I don't know, Stella," Wendell said. "We don't even know where Doctor Dodds is."

"The Greddylick must have captured him," she said firmly. She had to believe that she could still find her uncle. He was her only chance to get her parents back and find some answers. "Besides, that's the only place we know where to look. Uncle Dodds asked Grandas to steer a course from the Phantom Quadrant. Do you know how long it'll take the _Attic_ to get to Telallamorph, Wendell?"

"How should I know? I don't even know where this planet is."

"You're a navigator, aren't you?"

"A trainee navigator," Wendell said sourly.

"Please, Wendell, give it a go. Nebuloids can always find out where they are. Anywhere in the galaxy. You told me that."

"A pity humanoid females can always remember what someone says. When it suits them," Wendell muttered, but he whizzed up into the air and started to bob around in the air currents.

He spent a lot of time drifting over a large ornamental lake on the other side of the hill. Stella could make out the balloon hovering over the reflection of the two Telallamorph moons shining in the water. After he had studied them intently, Wendell shot into the air and disappeared into the night clouds. Stella strained her eyes, trying to catch a glimpse of him. She thought she could make him out, only to be disappointed by it being a wisp of cloud. He was out of sight for so long that Stella began to get worried that he might have left her as well.

Just as she had decided to try to find Prince Fawcus and say that another member of the _Attic_ 's crew had disappeared, she spotted a balloon-like shadow on the horizon. As he got closer, she noticed that Wendell's colour was more muted than usual, and she resigned herself to the thought that it meant that Wendell was dejected. Wendell sped closer, his string fluttering behind him like a streamer.

"Wheeeeeeeeee," Wendell squealed and proceeded to do a loop-the-loop in the air.

"It worked! It worked! It worked! It worked!" he whooped, zooming around Stella's head until she felt quite dizzy.

Stella grabbed Wendell's string to try to calm him down. He jerked backwards as Stella tugged him towards her, and he started to bounce up and down.

"I've never been able to do that before! Never!"

"So you know where we are now?" Stella asked.

"Course I do. I told you. I'm a trainee navigator."

"Okay. So how long till the _Attic_ gets here?"

"Two days!"

"Two days?" Stella repeated in dismay.

"If they take the most direct course, that is."

"But that's too long. Who knows what the Greddylick would have done by then?"

The news seemed to dampen Wendell's enthusiasm, and he deflated a little.

Helix licked Stella's hand and reminded her that they were all tired and there was nothing more they could do that night. Stella reluctantly agreed with him. Although the temperature was still very mild, Stella felt a chill. She curled up next to Helix and cradled her head on her arm. She thought that she would be too uncomfortable and worried to sleep, but weariness overtook her and proved her wrong.

***
Chapter 15: Storm Barrier

Stella awoke with a start. It was cold and gloomy, and she didn't know where she was. She certainly wasn't lying on the soft moss in the landscaped gardens. The ground was hard, and a sharp rock was digging itself into her back.

"Helix?" Stella called out tentatively. "Wendell? Are you there?" Her eyes were gradually getting used to the dim light. She searched along the ground with her hand. It felt dusty and rough, until her fingers touched something rubbery. It moved, and Stella snatched her hand back.

"Doom," a voice moaned in the dark and then another, "Doom. Doom. Doom."

Stella sprang to her feet and could feel, rather than see, a number of objects scattering around her. Peering at the small crawling creatures, she recognised them as Telallamorphs. Whereas every other Telallamorph Stella had seen was a bright colour, these were pale and sickly. They also seemed to have lost all co-ordination. Stella watched as they tried to clamber on their feet, often stumbling into each other. One of them had attached itself to her shoe and wouldn't let go.

"Get off of me!" Stella whispered, shaking her foot in an effort to disentangle the Telallamorph.

She realised that she now wasn't in the royal gardens and tried to be as quiet as possible.

"What are you doing?" she hissed at the Telallamorph, peeling it off her shoe. It just looked vacantly up at her.

"Doom!" it replied.

As she held the Telallamorph in her hand, Stella could feel that it was pockmarked. She examined it and recognised the unmistakeable teeth marks. "You've been chewed," Stella murmured.

The poor Telallamorph showed signs of Helix's rough handling. 'Surely Helix wouldn't have started that again,' she thought. Stella wondered why the sickly looking rubber man hadn't smoothed himself back into shape, as she had seen others do before.

It smelt damp and musty, a lot like her grandmother's cellar, so Stella concluded she was somewhere underground. The walls had been roughly hewn out of rock. What light there was came from a glow further ahead, and Stella warily made her way towards it.

As she got closer to the source of the light, she could hear the sounds of digging. A shaft of light shone down from a hole in the roof of the tunnel, and there were metal handholds knocked into the side of the tunnel beneath it. Stella climbed them and peered over the lip of the entrance, ready to duck down again at the first sign of trouble. She could see that she was in a vast pit, and all around her figures were digging into the floor with picks and shovels. Most of them were the strange, pale Telallamorphs, but there were also much larger figures toiling away. None of these figures looked dressed for heavy work; they were wearing tattered shorts and T-shirts.

Stella couldn't see anyone forcing them to be carrying out this backbreaking labour. There did seem to be something unnatural to the methodical clang of the picks, as they burrowed through the rock floor. It took Stella a moment to realise what it was. 'Nobody's saying anything!' she thought. The only sound she could hear was the digging and an insistent whistling. It was like a heavy gale of wind blowing through a narrow passageway. It seemed to come from grey billowing clouds that covered the sky. Stella traced the swirling mass to the horizon that covered the whole digging site in a vast dome.

Stella pondered her decision: either stay in the dank tunnel, or risk crossing the pit. 'Wherever I am. That digging doesn't look too much fun,' Stella thought to herself. 'I don't know how I got here, but I think I'd better find a way of getting back,' she resolved and climbed out of the tunnel. She tried to keep out of sight by dashing between the piles of rubble that formed mounds on the pit floor, although she needn't have worried about any of the diggers giving her away, they didn't even glance in her direction.

As she crept past one of the tall diggers who was clattering at the rock, something tugged at Stella's memory. She was sure she had seen him before, and Stella inched closer. The digger had the same look as someone who came from the Pilades Cluster; Stella recognised the tusks and large nose that she had seen on Vanga-Tron and Jerbil-Din. The memory came back to her in a flash; she had seen him in the skull cave when the Greddylick had put the mind-squeezer on her. He was one of the ghostly figures in the crowd. Although he had looked a lot less ragged then, he still had on the sandals and baseball cap that he had been wearing when his mind had been taken.

With a sense of horror trickling through her, Stella realised where she was. Prince Fawcus said that the Greddylick had enslaved those of his people who had lived by the Doom Gate. The other figures must have been part of Vanga-Tron's tour party that had disappeared in the Phantom Quadrant. She didn't know how, or why, but she found herself exactly where she was so desperate to get to last night, at the site of this Doom Gate.

Peering around her, Stella tried to get a glimpse of anything that looked vaguely like a door. At first glance, all she could see was the thick grey of the strange cloud. However, in the midst of the smoke, she spotted a large dark smudge that looked like a building of some sort. Stella stumbled her way towards it. The ground was very uneven in places, and Stella found herself crawling most of the way, trying to keep out of sight. The distance wasn't as far as she had first thought, but by the time she had reached it, her elbows were grazed and she had a number of new bruises on her knees.

Although she could see that some great structure loomed over her, she couldn't make out any details. A grey wall of cloud seethed in front of her, blocking her way. The whistling noise had become louder too and was now a deafening howl. Stella saw one of the pale Telallamorphs wander a little too close to the threshold of the barrier. It got sucked into the swirling mass and was tossed into the air. A streak of static lightning jagged through the storm and struck the unfortunate Telallamorph. Stella was sure that the wind gave a screeching jeer at the melted puddle of goo that was now the Telallamorph.

Careful not to get too close, she followed the cloud along until she reached a corner of the barrier. It was there that she could see where the spiteful substance was coming from. Jutting out from the floor were two metallic spouts, moulded into the form of gigantic heads. The heads faced in opposite directions, and each had a gaping mouth that spewed out gusts of the grey smoke. On the side of each of the jaws there was a huge wheel, and one of them had a piece of rag attached to it. The wind from the mouths caused the scrap of cloth to writhe frenetically in the air.

'Well, these wheels must do something,' Stella thought. She knelt down and tried to turn the wheel with the rag attached to it. It wouldn't budge. Then she tried to turn it the other way. It moved slightly, causing the jaws to edge together. She tugged at the wheel with all her strength and managed to close the mouth on one of the heads a bit more. A sliver of a gap appeared between the floor and the cloud. The wind seemed to whine in outrage, but Stella ignored it and turned the wheel again. She kept on turning until there was a gap in the barrier large enough for her to crawl under. She wriggled through the gap, careful not to touch any of the cloud. Tendrils of mist tried to reach out for her, and sparks of static spat in frustration.

The smudge Stella had seen on the other side of the barrier was a gigantic pyramid built in layers of perfectly formed marble cubes. These formed steps that led up to a flat platform. A cylindrical shape was outlined at the top of the pyramid, and there were two figures moving beside it. One tall gangling silhouette was unmistakably the Greddylick.

Stella desperately hoped that it wasn't looking down. She crept to the base of the stones, but froze at a clattering sound. It sounded like something was falling down the pyramid. She shrank back against the marble, expecting the Greddylick to pounce on her at any moment.

A metallic globe bounced off the step above her and rebounded over Stella's head. Stella gasped. It was the mind-squeezer, glinting in front of her on the floor. The Greddylick must have been careless and dropped it down the pyramid.

Stella didn't ask too many questions about how it had got there, just thanked the luck that had given her this opportunity. Stella made a dive for the globe and desperately tried to spy out the nearest mouth funnel. Lying on the floor, clutching the mind-squeezer, Stella spotted one of the strange heads piping out mist. It didn't look that far away, if she could just get outside, she might have a chance. Rolling to her feet, she sprinted to the storm barrier mouth.

Stella heard a shriek of rage behind her, but dared not look back. She ran as fast as she ever had done and could hear her heart thumping and the ragged sound of her breath. She reached one of the mouth funnels and began to turn the wheel on its jaw. The wind wailed loudly at her as the mouth slowly shut.

A gap opened in the barrier, just large enough for her to get through. The peach tinge of Telallamorph sunlight stretched underneath the mist, and Stella lurched towards it. Just as she felt as if she had made it, she felt herself being wrenched backwards. She was spun around to face the eyeless visage of the Greddylick. It had grabbed her ankle and was holding it in a vice-like grip.

"No!" she yelled at him.

She could see the Telallamorph sky behind her and began to frantically kick at the Greddylick's bony hands. The Greddylick was too strong, though, and dragged her up by her ankle so she was dangling upside down. She still hugged the mind-squeezer, but the Greddylick plucked it out of Stella's grip.

"I'd better take that," it hissed. "I wouldn't want to see it broken. Besides, didn't Doctor Dodds tell you not to take things that weren't yours?"

"Then give me back my pendant, then, you thief!" she choked back at the Greddylick defiantly.

"Not very nice," the creature cackled. "Not very nice to call me bad names. Especially when I'd hoped to introduce you to some old friends of mine."

***
Chapter 16: The Greddylick Returns

The Greddylick lifted Stella with ease. She could feel the sharp ridges of its forearm prickling out of the torn sleeve of its coat. It leapt three steps at a time to the apex of the pyramid and flung Stella onto the stony plateau at the top. Stella slid along the shiny marble blocks until she thumped into the cylindrical slab that stood in the centre.

Shaken and battered, Stella used the monument to lean on as she clambered to her feet. The surface was a smooth, amber type of rock. Up close, it looked more like a translucent gem than a stone slab. Stella felt a strange vibration under the palms of her hands as she touched it. She could hear a rushing in her ears, quite apart from the insistent whine of the storm barrier. Her fingertips followed a groove that seemed etched into the side of the stone. As she followed the path of the carving, a golden light threaded along the lines of it. It traced the shape of a seven-pointed star, with an 'S' carved in the middle. It was the exact likeness of Stella's crystal pendant.

"The Doom Gate!" Stella murmured, in a grim realisation.

Her touch appeared to have ignited a light inside the stone, the surface started to glow with a reddish gold, and Stella thought that she could see shadows inside the stone. She could just make out a face in the surface staring back at her as if through tinted glass. As the darkness lifted, Stella could see that it was the face of a Greddylick. Its face horribly contorted into a vicious snarl.

Stella leapt away from the Doom Gate, but the creature didn't follow. It seemed frozen in the rock, like a fly caught in amber. The glow in the stone grew brighter to reveal a deep chasm, and Stella's gaze was sucked further and further in. She was looking into a window that revealed thousands of Greddylick, all caught motionless, like waxwork dummies.

"It knows you!" the Greddylick growled. "Of course! It knows the touch of a Calridian. It knows the touch of its creator!" It gave a harsh cackle that sent a shudder of dread through Stella's body.

"See what your betrayal has cost you, Earthling?" the Greddylick crooned.

Stella noticed for the first time the huddled figure of Tom. He was crouched as far away from the Greddylick as he could get. He had obviously been hit in the face recently, as he had a large purple bruise on his cheek, and a trickle of blood flowed from his lip. His gaze pleaded to Stella.

"I'm sorry, Stella. I shouldn't have brought you here."

"You brought me here?" Stella exclaimed. "How?"

"I thought they were toys at first. Your dog was always playing with them. But they can move from one place to another at a blink of an eye. They're kept as slaves. Their minds are wiped so they'll dig those tunnels all day. One of those things was captured on Earth. It remembered Helix, and since Helix is always with you, I sent it to lead a bunch of them to bring you here."

"So you betrayed me again?"

"No! No, I didn't. After what happened in the skull cave, I knew the Greddylick has no intention of letting my gran go. I told those teleporting things to hide you in a tunnel. I tore the sleeve off my shirt and put it on those head things so you'd know how to open them."

Stella looked at what was left of Tom's shirt and recognised it as the same material as the rag fluttering by the wheel she'd turned to get through.

"The Greddylick kept the mind-squeezer close to it all the time. I wouldn't have had a chance to make a run for it, but I was looking out for you. When I spotted you at the bottom of the pyramid, I kicked the mind-squeezer down to you. I thought you could escape and everybody would get their memories back."

"This Dodds must like the company of simpletons!" the Greddylick grunted and swiped one of its hands at Tom again, who managed to duck his head away. "It's lucky that your bungling stupidity has proved useful, otherwise I would gut you right now."

The Greddylick's talon clicked out from its forearm, completely shredding away the last remnants of a tattered sleeve. "Your pathetic attempt at disloyalty has led the key to the swarm's freedom straight into my hands."

The Greddylick pounced at Stella and caught hold of her wrist. "Do you know how long I have waited in exile? The ages I have skulked in dark places, always hungry, picking off the weak to feed? I have learnt to be patient, ready for the moment I could free us from our bondage. But I never dared wish for a chance of revenge. Never dared hope that I would have one of our jailors in my grasp."

The Greddylick bent over Stella, its face so close she could smell its fetid breath. Stella tried not to gag, as the Greddylick whispered into her ear. "Struggle, Calridian. Struggle all you wish. I should let you keep your mind and let the swarm feed on your flesh, but I think a pet Calridian, using Parhelian's flame for the swarm, would be much more useful."

The Greddylick lifted up the mind-squeezer, opening it into a claw once more. Stella cried out and tried to twist her head away. The Greddylick ignored her and lowered the mind-squeezer down, but before the twitching fingers touched Stella's scalp, it hesitated.

"No, not yet. That would be too kind. First, your eyes shall see the Greddylick return. The hands of your people fashioned our prison, and it will be your hand that sets them free."

The Greddylick dragged Stella to the opposite side of the Doom Gate. Stella couldn't tear her eyes away from the Greddylick swarm inside it. She felt numb with the idea of so many of them freed. It was almost as if her gaze was frozen inside with them. A flash of light snapped her out of her reverie. Stella recognised her pendant inset into the side of the Doom Gate. It had been slotted into a carving that fitted its shape exactly. The crystal was glowing with a light that was almost painful to look at.

"I got that idiot Earthling to place the Key inside the lock, but the door would not open. I see now why that is. Why I could not even touch the cursed thing. Other races have forgotten, but the Greddylick remember the truth of your people. I should have known that it would take a Calridian to open a Calridian cage."

The Greddylick stretched Stella's arm towards her pendant. She knew that she should be struggling, bunching her hand into a fist. Anything to stop her touching the crystal star. The rushing in her ears, however, almost drowned out all else, and she felt a compulsion to grab hold of the pendant. It felt like the right thing to do; it was hers, after all. She was almost stretching her hand out with the Greddylick. Her fingertips longed to touch the blazing crystal. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that Tom had hurled himself at her, and then she felt herself sliding across the floor, knocked out of the Greddylick's grasp.

Her first thought was one of outrage, ' _Why had Tom taken away her crystal? Again!_ ' She quickly came to her senses as she saw Tom standing defiantly in front of the Greddylick. He had flung himself between it and the pendant. He fumbled at the star-shaped lock and managed to prise loose the crystal.

"Stella! Run!" he yelled, tossing the star towards her.

It clattered onto the marble floor and slid past her outstretched hand.

"I have lost my patience with you, Earthling. When the swarm feeds on your grandmother's withered carcass, you will not shed a tear, as you will not recognise her at all," the Greddylick said, and it plunged the opened claw of the mind-squeezer onto Tom's head.

Tom's eyeballs span upwards until only the whites were showing, and he fell to the floor, screaming. The Greddylick turned to face Stella, the tattered remnants of its overcoat hanging loosely over its spindly frame. It uncurled from its habitual crouch to its full height, and its mouth stretched into a sneer. It beckoned at Stella with the serrated talon protruding from its forearm. The nostrils on its fingers were sniffing furiously.

"You must know there is nowhere you can run," it hissed.

Stella scrabbled for the crystal pendant beside her, but the Greddylick got there first. A gnarled foot, with streaks of mud caked on the edges of a dirty talon, stood between Stella and her necklace. She was about to dart her hand towards it when she heard a loud barking. Both she and the Greddylick turned towards the sound. Stella saw Helix bounding up the steps of the pyramid. Prince Fawcus clung onto his back, desperately trying to keep a grip on Helix's fur with one arm, and the other held Wendell's string. Wendell was flashing a deep blue colour and had swelled to double his normal size.

As Helix jumped the last steps of the pyramid, Fawcus catapulted off Helix's back, still holding onto Wendell's string. Carrying the dangling Telallamorph prince, the Nebuloid flew straight at the Greddylick's face, screaming, "Aaaaarrrggghh!"

The Greddylick swung its blade into Wendell's balloon, and it burst open with a loud pop. A glittering gas substance poured from the split plastic, and Wendell swirled around the Greddylick's head. Fawcus used the momentum of Wendell's charge to vault onto the Greddylick's hand. He stretched himself over the Greddylick's fingers, and it looked like it was wearing an absurd plastic mitten. The Greddylick tried to shake its hand free by using the blade on its forearm, but Fawcus was still covering it. This gave Helix the time he needed to bound to the top of the pyramid and across the plateau. Stella had never seen the husky so angry. The dog leapt at the Greddylick, who tried to fend him off with its other arm. It wasn't enough to stop Helix's attack, and his jaws sunk into the Greddylick's neck. The Greddylick fell to the ground and tried to beat off the crazed dog with its fist.

Stella used the opportunity to grab her pendant. It felt reassuringly warm, and she was surprised at how much she had missed it. It took her a few attempts to get to her feet. The knocks to the ground had winded her, and she was feeling dizzy. A glittering fog buzzed in front of her, and she heard Wendell's voice whisper in her ear.

"Stella, get out of here. We can't keep it busy for long."

Stella was about to protest, but Wendell whispered, "Go!"

Stella breathlessly stumbled forward to the edge of the pyramid. She was about to try to climb down the steps, but she turned to look at her friends.

After the initial surprise and ferocity of Helix's attack, the Greddylick was starting to get the upper hand. It had managed to crawl to its feet and was fending off Helix with swipes of its uncovered forearm, whilst trying to unloose Fawcus. There was a loud squeak as the Greddylick finally managed to free the blade on its other arm. The talon had sliced clean through Fawcus, and he dropped to the marble floor in two separate pieces. One bit of him formed back into his lower body and legs, and the other his torso, arms and head. Helix didn't see the uncovered blade until it was too late. The Greddylick slashed its talon onto the dog's unprotected flank, and Helix slumped to the floor with a whine.

Stella knew she should run, but she couldn't. Wendell was swirling around the Greddylick's fingers, causing them to writhe in discomfort. But it was only an irritation to the Greddylick, who was swatting the Nebuloid away like a troublesome fly.

Stella knew she should try to get away, the gap in the storm barrier was still there. In fact, it looked as if it had widened. However, she couldn't look away from the carnage around her. Tom was writhing on the floor, struggling against the mind-squeezer. Prince Fawcus was using his arms to try to inch his body towards his legs, which were kicking helplessly on the other side of the plateau. Helix was slumped on his side, unnaturally still, his white coat smeared with a streak of blood. Stella couldn't run away. These were her friends, and if she could help them, she would.

"When will you creatures learn?" The Greddylick cackled as it stepped over Helix's limp form. "The Greddylick is master."

The rushing in Stella's ears was becoming deafening. That could have been the reason for the strange calmness that rose within her. She stepped aside from the edge of the pyramid and turned to face the Greddylick.

"Not running anymore?" the Greddylick mocked.

Stella lifted her eyes towards its sneering elongated head and gripped the seven-pointed star in her hand.

"No." Stella lifted the pendant, and a beam of light shot from it, blasting the Greddylick backwards onto the Doom Gate.

Instead of crashing into the slab of rock and falling to the floor, the Greddylick seemed to sink inside the gate. The creature thrashed to escape, but the rock moulded around it like molten wax. The Greddylick began to screech in fear and rage, but the more it thrashed to free itself, the faster it seemed to melt into the amber-coloured rock. Stella stared dumbly into her hand. Her crystal was still glittering, but now it felt cooler to the touch. A change in the cries of the Greddylick brought her gaze back upwards.

Although the Greddylick was almost totally submerged inside the cylindrical stone, its squawks of rage had now turned into shrieks of exultation. It took Stella a moment to realise why. The other Greddylick behind it had started to move. She could see the fingers of countless Greddylick starting to twitch. The spiky limbs, frozen for millennia, were thawing out and starting to move. The light within the Doom Gate got brighter by the second, and with it, the Greddylick were waking up.

Just a moment before, Stella had felt invincible as she had blown the Greddylick into the gate. She could now only stare at the nightmare that unfolded before her. She pointed the star at the Doom Gate and squeezed her eyes shut in concentration. She tried to fire another beam of power into the gate, but nothing happened.

The Greddylick were flickering into life, although they were moving slowly, as if caught in glue. The noise of them hissing and snarling in jubilation turned Stella's stomach. The worst thing was that she knew that it was her fault; somehow she had opened the Doom Gate. The surface of the cylindrical rock looked almost transparent now, like the skin of water on a pond. Some of the Greddylick had noticed a chink of light in their prison, and those that could move more freely were flying up the chasm towards it. The original Greddylick that Stella had pushed through the gate turned around and waved to the rest of the swarm. It gave a high-pitched squeal to call them. First one, then two, then ten, then hundreds screeched back, and Stella could see them flying straight for her.

Stella shied away from the gate. Turning too fast, she stumbled over her feet. She managed to stay upright, but was now facing away from the Doom Gate. She spotted a figure at the bottom of the pyramid. They couldn't know that a swarm of Greddylick were about to escape and terrorise the galaxy again. She was about to bellow at the figure to give them some warning. It was too late for her, but maybe the person below could manage to warn the Telallamorphs. The words stopped in her throat as she recognised the figure.

"Uncle Dodds!"

Doctor Dodds was sprinting along the base of the pyramid. Stella could make out his garish waistcoat, bushy moustache and umbrella. He lifted it above his head, and Persiminon launched into the sky, emitting a loud screech. The Pyxian bat soared up the side of the pyramid. Stella tried to warn her.

"No. There are too many of them," she cried.

But if Persiminon had heard Stella, she ignored her and flew straight at the Doom Gate. As the bat flew above her, Stella saw that she was carrying something shiny in her hind claws.

The swarm of Greddylick were moving a lot more easily now, and most of them were flying very fast towards the Doom Gate. Persiminon saw the numbers, but she still swooped bravely forward, as if she were going to attack them all. Stella was sure the bat would be ripped to shreds, but at the last moment, Persiminon veered upwards and dropped the golden tin that she had been carrying in front of the Doom Gate.

Stella didn't have time to look away, and she saw the can explode in an incandescent flash of light, and thousands of Pyxian bats suddenly fluttered around her. They all streaked into the gate and headed straight for the Greddylicks.

"Stella!" Doctor Dodds shouted, as he climbed the pyramid. "Stella. Use the star to close the gate."

"How?" Stella shrieked.

She couldn't see her uncle through the storm of bat wings.

"The lock, Stella. Put the Key in the lock!"

Stella scrambled to the Doom Gate. The surface of it was almost entirely clear now. She could see that the Greddylick had halted to fend off the attack by their old enemy. They were so enraged at first, they didn't notice that although the bats were swooping at them, they never caught any of them with their talons, or that despite all the diving and gnashing of teeth by the bats, they were never touched. The Greddylick closest to the gate was the first to recognise that the bats were an illusion, when its talon sliced through one to no effect.

"It's a trick!" it bellowed. "A trick."

Stella got close enough to the Doom Gate to just make out the outline of the star-shaped lock. It looked like a shadow of a thing, traced on the air. Stella pressed her star towards it, conscious that she had very little time. The outline of the rock was fading fast, leaving an open portal for the Greddylick massing behind the gate to escape through. The Greddylick that Stella had blown away noticed what she was doing, but was the only one close enough to stop her.

"I'll see you dead, Calridian!" it said and reached out to grab at the crystal. Its hand stretched through the Doom Gate and grasped hold of the pendant. There was a tendril of smoke as the star burnt the Greddylick's hand. It let go with a shriek of frustration and pain, and Stella slammed her star into the lock.

The effect was immediate. The Doom Gate quivered back into its solid state, trapping the Greddylick's outstretched hand in a skin of ruby stone. There was no other trace of the Greddylick swarm, as the Doom Gate had again turned into an opaque slab of cylindrical rock. Persiminon swooped down to the lock and lifted out Stella's necklace. Diving over to Stella, she dropped it into her hand and told her, in a scolding tone, not to lose it again and then swooped back to her umbrella.

***
Chapter 17: MorphPlaster

It started to rain Telallamorphs. They appeared out of mid-air, most of them were wearing nurses' hats, and as soon as they hit the floor, they would rush off to tend to one of the casualties. Helix's wounds looked the most serious. When she saw the horrible gash on the husky's side, Stella started to cry. At first she thought that he wasn't breathing, but he whimpered when Stella buried her head in his fur. The Telallamorph physicians ushered Stella aside and bound the wound in a blanket of Morphplast.

"He'll live to chew again!" one of them said before a number of Telallamorphs covered the dog and teleported him to hospital.

The Telallamorph physicians did much the same for their prince, but not before he assured Stella that he had suffered worse, although he couldn't mask the groan as a group of nurses carried him to his legs.

There was nothing the Telallamorphs could do about Tom, though. He was lying prone on the marble, with the mind-squeezer still attached to his head. His eyes were wide open, but he was staring up at nothing. Stella could only look on, totally helpless, as the Telallamorphs stretched his limbs to his side, so at least he looked more comfortable.

All this happened before Doctor Dodds had managed to wheeze his way to the top of the pyramid. When she saw his bald head and walrus moustache, Stella thought she had never been happier to see anyone in her life. She ran into her uncle's arms.

Hugging her close for a moment, Doctor Dodds said, "Time for hellos in a moment. Lots of mess to be tidied up." But he paused, noticing the pendant that Stella was still clutching in her hand. "You've found your little star again, then. Best not let it out of your sight. At least until we leave here, eh," he said, nodding his head towards the Doom Gate, with the Greddylick's arm reaching out of it in a silent warning.

"They say Prince Fawcus and Helix are going to be fine, but what about Tom?" Stella asked Dodds, who was already striding towards the boy's inert form. "I don't even know where Wendell is."

"I'm here," a voice whispered behind her.

Stella moved to speak to him.

"Don't turn around. I'm naked!" Wendell whined. "What about Tom, is he going to be all right?"

"I don't know," Stella replied. "Uncle Dodds is looking at him."

Doctor Dodds was knelt beside Tom on the floor. He had somehow opened up the top of the mind-squeezer, revealing an intricate set of cogs, and was prodding at them with what looked like a revolving fork.

"Here we go," Dodds murmured to himself. The cogs sparked into motion, and the mind-squeezer started to hum. "Come on, Tom. Let's get you back to us."

Stella knelt on the other side of Tom, silently urging him to wake up.

After what seemed like an hour, but was in reality about half a minute, Tom's eyes flickered open.

"Stella!" He reached out to her and tried to drag himself up. "I'm sorry, Stella," he said. "I should have trusted you." His eyes focused on Doctor Dodds. "I should have trusted you all."

"It's all right, Tom," Stella said. "We're all okay."

Tom eased back, but his face looked puzzled. "I think I'm seeing stars," he murmured.

Stella followed Tom's gaze behind her and spotted the cloud of glitter that was Wendell, who gave an embarrassed squeak.

"No, that's Wendell."

Just before he lost consciousness again, Tom asked, "Why doesn't he have any clothes on?"

***

Doctor Dodds found himself very busy over the next few hours. He took the mind-squeezer to the pit by the Doom Gate and patiently gave back the memories to all those that the Greddylick had enslaved. Stella had turned down repeated attempts to send her back to the Telallamorph palace for some sleep. Although she felt very tired, she didn't want to be on her own. Her uncle seemed to recognise this and allowed her to stay and help him. Stella found it comforting to see the colour return to the Telallamorphs as Doctor Dodds placed the mind-squeezer on their heads and retrieved their memories. Her relief, though, was tinged with the terrible knowledge that they might easily have remained like that forever and she would have been one of them.

Thankfully, none of the Greddylick's victims seemed to remember anything about their experiences at all. The Vanga tour party seemed to be the most confused. The last that any of them remembered was peering out at the Skull Field in the Phantom Quadrant.

"Hey? Where's my camera?" one of the tourists exclaimed and looked around at the piles of rubble that she'd helped dig up. "Is this part of the tour?"

Eventually, Doctor Dodds insisted that Stella go to the palace, after he spotted her curled up asleep in a newly dug trench.

"'M just a little drowsy." Stella yawned.

"I should have all these people's memories back to them before morning, Stella. I'm sure they'll want to thank the one who saved them. It would be quite a muddle if they've just woken up and she's asleep," Dodds told her.

"I didn't save anybody, it was..." Stella tailed off. She felt terribly guilty that her friends had got hurt trying to save her.

"It was you who closed the Doom Gate, was it not?"

"I only did it after you told me to. I nearly messed everything up. If the others hadn't been there, the Greddylick would have got me."

"But they were there. They were there to help. They believed you would do the right thing, and Stella Mayweather, they weren't wrong because, in the end, you did!"

Stella was taken back to the lawns of the palace gardens, and despite her misgivings, she did, in fact, sleep very well. The news of the Dreadful One's defeat had spread across Telallamorph during the night, and the next morning held a definite sense of festivity. When Stella awoke early in the afternoon, she found Helix and Fawcus in the quiet little hospital on the hill. The Morphplaster's healing properties were remarkable. Helix had been given a ward all to himself, but he was awake and a little restless. When he saw Stella, it was all she could do to persuade him not to run out and jump up at her, as it might re-open his cut. She managed to restrain him to pushing his head out of one of the windows, so she could pat his head.

Prince Fawcus also appeared a lot better, but then Stella supposed that this wasn't that difficult, as he had literally been in pieces when she had last seen him. He was sat comfortably in a wheelchair and wiggled his legs a little as proof that he was on the mend. Stella asked him if he had seen Doctor Dodds or Tom.

"Doctor Dodds has asked Tom to help him track down those last stragglers that have lost their memory," he replied. "Although, I do know that they hope to be back this evening, to attend the feast."

"Feast?"

"My father has called for a planet-wide holiday to celebrate the defeat of the Dreadful One. There is a party planned later in the palace courtyard. You are to be the guest of honour, I believe." Fawcus smiled at the look of horror stretched over Stella's face.

"But I've got nothing to wear!" she exclaimed, looking aghast at the ragged state of her clothes.

Fawcus squinted up at her and gave a chuckle. "You are right. It will be a bit of a disappointment. I have heard rumours that as Key Holder of the Doom Gate you are considered akin to royalty on your world. My people are very formal, and they expect a princess to look like a princess."

"Princess!" Stella spluttered. "That's ridiculous. You've seen my bedroom. Does it look like where a princess would hang around?"

Prince Fawcus laughed again and called for a page to come to him. A Telallamorph child appeared out of mid-air, and the prince issued a royal proclamation. Writing on an official piece of paper, he called for all members of the Tailors Guild on Telallamorph to stop whatever they were doing and make a suitable dress for the Key Holder.

***

Stella found the experience of being measured for her dress mortifying. Various members of the Tailors Guild popped beside her without warning, making comments like, "This'll be a big job," or, "It's a tall order."

Stella told them to shut up about her size, and they began bouncing in and out of the air, measuring her with tiny tape measures. After they had managed to get her exact sizes, the tailors huddled together and began arguing over different styles.

"I think the magenta would suit her colouring."

"Are you insane? With that complexion, it has to be aquamarine."

"Do we have enough lace for the frills?" one asked.

"No frills!" Stella said adamantly.

Once she saw the dress, Stella had to admit that the Telallamorph tailors had worked very hard. She couldn't believe that they had managed to come up with something so nice in only a few hours. She tried not to mind that making her a dress had apparently brought the entire Telallamorph textile industry to the breaking point. The garment shimmered in a range of different colours as the light hit it. She gave the tailors a twirl, and they applauded, some of them with tears in their eyes.

"The greatest achievement of my career!" one sobbed.

"A masterpiece!" exclaimed another.

***

The palace courtyard that Stella had originally transported into was the venue for the feast. She assumed that the dress fitting had made her late because everybody else seemed to have got there before her. As she stepped between the spiralled columns, the feasting crowd gave a large roar.

"Hurray for Stella! Hurray for the Key Holder!" they shouted.

Stella felt embarrassed about the applause and tried to spy out her companions. Large amounts of scaffolding had been put up as tables and chairs, to accommodate the aliens, and judging by the piles of buns and cakes on platters, Stella was sure that the Telallamorphs must have emptied their food stores. Helix and Fawcus had been brought from the hospital to attend, and even the Vanga tour party were given a whole table for themselves. They were behaving as if this was all part of the holiday and enjoying themselves immensely. The king's throne was placed next to Doctor Dodds's place on the table, and they were both deeply engaged in conversation. But there was an empty seat next to Tom.

"I saved you a place," Tom said to Stella. Doctor Dodds had obviously lent Tom the use of his maroon jacket to cover his torn shirt. It was overlarge for him, and the sleeves kept slipping over his hands.

"I didn't know whether you'd want to sit next to me. You don't like to at school, I know..."

"This isn't school," Stella reminded him.

Tom looked around him. A set of acrobatic Telallamorphs were turning themselves into different shapes. "I guess it isn't. I can't imagine this going on in the canteen?"

"It depends. I might call down Grandas if anybody calls me Smella Stella again."

"That would certainly be a surprise for Shane Biggs," Tom said, with a laugh.

They sat for a while in an awkward silence, until Tom eventually said, "Look. I know I was stupid, and I put you all in loads of danger..."

"Yes, you were stupid. You did put us all in danger." Stella recalled an image at the Doom Gate of Tom standing between her crystal and the Greddylick. "But then you did your best to put it right."

"So... so you forgive me?"

Stella gave a sigh. "Are you sorry?"

"Yes."

"Are you going to do it again?"

"No."

"Good, because I don't know who else is going to save me a seat in the canteen," Stella said, giving Tom a smile.

Another late arrival bobbed into view. It was Wendell. He had found himself a new balloon, but this one seemed to have a metallic glint to it. He whizzed over to Stella and Tom, obviously very pleased with himself.

"Do you like my new suit?" Wendell crowed. "It's made out of that Morphplaster stuff. Look, it's really strong." Wendell stretched himself out, so he appeared almost flat. "Apparently it's heat resistant too."

***

The evening's celebrations carried on well into the night. There were fireworks and Telallamorph shape-changing competitions. The king also gave a great many speeches. In one of them, he presented a medal to: "Sharptooth Whitefur! For outstanding valour and distinction in the defeat of the Dreadful One."

Apparently, this also made Helix an honorary colonel in the Telallamorph army. A fact he was evidently very proud of, as he puffed out his chest to best show his new gleaming gold medal, whilst Captain Nelkoo led his platoon in a salute.

All through the festivities, Stella looked for a chance to speak to her uncle. There were a number of questions that were nagging at her. She waited until she saw him get off his chair and give the king a bow. She was about to get up herself and follow him, when she realised that she didn't have to, as he was coming over to speak to her.

"Stella, could I have a quick word with you," Dodds said.

They walked back through the ornamental gardens side by side. Dodds occasionally would stop a while and admire the view, commenting on something strange.

"That is what I love the most about travel," he said. "You get to see such remarkable wonders. Once you've experienced them, nothing ever seems quite the same again."

Shaking himself out of his reverie, Dodds said to Stella, "I received a b-mail from Grandas today. The _Attic_ will reach Telallamorph tomorrow. I suggest that we should rejoin the ship as soon as it gets here so we get back to Greenwich as soon as possible. There are still a number of memories that need to be returned, and I'm sure you'll want your parents back with you for Christmas, won't you?"

Stella had completely forgotten that back on Earth it was the Christmas holidays. In fact, she realised she hadn't once thought of her mum and dad during the feast. Now that she had been reminded, she felt a need to be with them again as soon as possible.

"Why don't we go to the _Attic_ tonight?" she asked. "We could ask the Telallamorphs to transport us."

"You could do this, but I'm not sure I want to risk teleportation for a while."

"How come?" Stella asked. "I mean, what happened to you when we transported from the Phantom cave?"

"I was wondering when you'd get round to asking me that," Dodds said.

He gestured up at the twinkling stars, still visible through the purple murk of the Talellamorph night. "There are beings, who live just outside of our galaxy, to whom the cosmos is merely a mortal veil. During the course of my travels, I have had contact with these people, and they have some claim on me. It so happens that the Telallamorphs travel through their realm as they teleport from world to world. When I teleported, I was recognised and sent for, but when they heard of my errand with the Greddylick, they sent me back here, via a quick detour to the _Attic_. That is why I was late. Thankfully, Persiminon and I got to you just in time with that tin of illusion. I know I've said it before, but that stuff can be very useful."

"Is there anything else you want to ask me, Stella?" Dodds asked.

Stella did have a question, but she was scared to ask because she wasn't sure she wanted to hear the answer.

"What's a Calridian?" she said. "The Greddylick seemed to think that my necklace was made by them."

"Ah, I see. I am no expert, you understand. The Calridian were an ancient people, even older than the Greddylick. They were fabled to be in possession of quite astounding powers. Many of the knottiest puzzles of the galaxy can be found in the relics that are believed to be Calridian made."

"Were an ancient people? You mean there aren't any left?" Stella asked hopefully.

"Apart from you, you mean?" Dodds replied. "That is what you are thinking, isn't it? It is true that the necklace you were found with as a baby was the sign of the Calridian people, but no other trace of them has been recorded for millennia. I think it is clear, from the fact you carry a Calridian star, that your fate is tied with them in some way. However, if you are asking me whether you are Calridian – no one knows what they looked like and you have the physical form of a healthy human. I guess what I'm saying is, that I don't think anyone can tell for sure."

***

Early the next morning, Stella was eager to leave for the _Attic_. Doctor Dodds had retrieved Jerbil-Din's ship from the Doom Gate site and was going to launch it so it could be towed back to Pilades Cluster. The Vanga tour party had already left. The Telallamorphs were eager to teleport them home, as they had eaten rather too much jellied beer during the feast and had become clumsy and raucous. The damage to the Telallamorph palace wasn't serious, just a few walls had buckled from the tourists sitting on them. It had, however, given the Telallamorph king second thoughts about the possible advantages to his treasury in opening his planet up as a tourist destination.

Prince Fawcus was waiting in the courtyard for them, and Helix was enjoying a march past of the Telallamorph guard in his honour.

"Thank you for everything, Your Majesty," Stella said to Prince Fawcus.

"There is no need for formality between us, Stella. You don't want me to keep calling you Key Holder of the Doom Gate all the time, do you? Either that or princess?"

Stella flushed red with embarrassment. That was definitely what she didn't want.

"My father has agreed to me being the Telallamorph envoy to the Greenwich Interplanetary Society," the prince continued. "He believes it is time Telallamorph rejoined the rest of the galaxy. So I expect we'll be seeing a lot more of each other."

Grandas and the Cragulons were relieved to see them return. The Mechomator had cooked a large fry-up to welcome them back. Stella had thought to ask for some Telallamorph sponges as a souvenir for the machine. They weren't really very sponge-like, more like bars of rubber. The Mechomator pretended not to be interested, but Stella caught it stroking one of them when it thought no one was looking.

Doctor Dodds had brought the mind-squeezer with him and had used it to return Jerbil-Din's memories. He didn't seem too upset about what had happened to him at all. He just hummed and hawed and started to give a lecture on galactic politics.

Tom spent most of the voyage home at the steering wheel of the ship, and Wendell, to his dismay, found that Doctor Dodds expected him to resume his navigation studies. Stella spent a lot of her time sat in the observatory with Helix, looking out at the stars. Sometimes she would talk with Grandas, who never seemed to tire of hearing what had happened on Telallamorph.

"So how did you blast that Greddylick, Stella Mayveader?" Grandas asked her.

"I still don't know, really," she said. "I keep trying, but I can't seem to make it work again."

"You vill learn. I am sure. You are still only very small. But you vill grow strong. Maybe even stronger dan Grandas," he said.

"Impossible!" Stella replied. "For I hear that Grandas is the strongest person on all Cragulus."

"Is true," Grandas said with a chuckle. "Maybe you could be second strongest, eh?"

"I'll do my best."

"Very good, Stella Mayveader. Ve make a spacefarer out you yet!"

####

Thank you for reading The Greenwich Interplanetary Society. If you have enjoyed the book, please consider leaving a review, or emailing any comments to  tgisattic@gmail.com
