Of course, the truth was that the members of the Space Brigade weren't exactly 'highly trained'. Nicola felt a flutter of fear as she considered the words 'grave danger'. Imagine if something happened to one of them and it was Nicola's fault. Everybody would hate her. She'd never be invited to another party for the rest of her life. Why was she even considering it? She put her hand over the card ready to tear it up but then her eye was caught by the promise that 'Payment would be both generous and delicious'. That sounded so tempting.
Nicola's great-grandmother was turning one hundred years old in a few days' time and Nicola wanted to find her the perfect present. After all, not many people had been alive for a whole century. If they were paid with something delicious, Nicola could give it to Grammy. 'This is just a little something I picked up in outer space,' she could say casually.
She looked down at her cereal.
What should she do?
She slapped her hand to her forehead.
'It's pretty obvious,' she said out loud.
'What's obvious?' said a voice, and Nicola got such a fright that she jumped up and sent her cereal bowl flying with her elbow.
2
'What are you two doing here?' asked Nicola.
It was as though her best friends Katie Hobbs and Tyler Brown had materialised out of thin air. They were standing right in front of her wearing sunglasses and caps, with beach towels draped over their shoulders. Katie had leapt forward and caught Nicola's cereal bowl just before it landed on the floor.
'We thought you might want to come to the pool with us,' Katie said. She took Nicola's cereal bowl to the sink, rinsed it out and put it in the dishwasher.
'What's that you're reading?' asked Tyler.
Nicola pushed the letter over to him. 'Read it for yourself. You too, Katie.'
Katie stood next to Tyler and read over his shoulder.
Tyler finished first and looked up. His eyes shone through his glasses and the tips of his ears glowed pink.
'When are we going? Have you rung the Commander yet? Oh, this is just . . . this is just - I can't think of a word that's good enough!'
'Stupendous?' suggested Nicola.
'Yes, stupendous! What do you think, Katie?'
'Ummm.' Katie pulled her long brown ponytail over her shoulder and chewed on the end. 'I guess.'
'Great!' said Tyler. 'So, Nic, we've got to act fast.'
'Wait a second.' Nicola studied Katie. 'I want to know what Katie really thinks.'
Katie threw back her ponytail and chewed on her lip. She grabbed a cloth from the sink and began scrubbing furiously at the kitchen table. 'It's just that . . .'
'What?' said Tyler.
'It's just that it says "grave danger",' said Katie.
'We don't have to do it,' said Nicola.
'I want to do it but I don't want to do it,' said Katie. 'Our first mission was the best time I've had in my whole life, but it was also the worst time. Does that make sense?'
'Yes,' said Nicola.
'No,' said Tyler.
'Anyway,' continued Katie. 'We don't have a choice - we've got to do it. They need us! All the poor people on their "small but exquisite" planet are depending on us!'
Nicola felt guilty. All she'd thought about was how fun or scary the mission would be. She nodded seriously and frowned as if she'd been worried to death about the people of Shobble. 'Yes, I know,' she said. 'It's a big responsibility.'