Chapter 1 Chapter 1

I opened my eyes. I'd been sleeping so soundly that for the first few seconds I had no idea where I was. Then it slowly came back to me: I was on the planet Smoo with my new friends Spuckler Boach, Gax, Mr. Beeba, and Poog. We were floating peacefully above the clouds on our little flying boat, resting up before the next leg of our journey.

I was a little embarrassed to notice that everyone else was already awake. Mr. Beeba was steering the boat, Poog was floating quietly by himself just behind the mast, and Spuckler was giving Gax a little tune-up. (After all that poor robot had been through lately, I'm sure he needed it.)

"Hey there, Akiko," said Spuckler, smiling as always. "How ya doin'? Feels good to get a little shut-eye, don't it?"

"Yeah," I said, yawning and stretching my arms. "How long was I asleep?"

"Not particularly long," Mr. Beeba said, turning his head to join the conversation. "You've nothing to be ashamed of, dear girl. I would encourage you to get all the rest you can."

"Yeah, 'Kiko," Spuckler agreed. "'Cause there ain't nothin' else to do on this boat."

"You have entirely misconstrued the meaning of my statement, Spuckler," Mr. Beeba said wearily.

"I'm right, though," Spuckler insisted.

"You most certainly are not," Mr. Beeba answered. He was never one to pass up a good argument with Spuckler. And who was I to stop him? Watching the two of them go at it was as good as any television show. Poog was interested too, apparently. He floated over and gave himself a good view of the debate.

"I'm sure there are any number of interesting activities for an intelligent child like Akiko to do on a boat such as this," Mr. Beeba continued.

"Name two," Spuckler grunted, tightening a bolt on Gax's underside.

"Well," Mr. Beeba began, "she could practice memorizing the names of all the books I've written—"

"That don't count," Spuckler interrupted. "You said interesting."

"She could follow that up," Mr. Beeba continued, ignoring Spuckler for the moment, "by memorizing passages from the books themselves."

"Well, that just proves my point," said Spuckler victoriously. "There ain't nothin' for 'Kiko to do on this boat but sleep." Gax clicked and whirred quietly as Spuckler tightened another bolt underneath his helmet.

"Hmpf!" Mr. Beeba snorted, apparently losing interest in the argument. There was a long pause, during which neither of them said anything. I found myself staring at the clouds and secretly agreeing with Spuckler.

After a long while I saw some orange-winged creatures flying overhead. They were the same creatures I'd seen way back when we'd just begun our journey.

"Hey, look, Mr. Beeba," I said, pointing up at them as they passed over us. "There's some more of those reptile-bird things you were telling me about before."

"Yumbas, Akiko. Yumbas," he replied, sounding slightly disappointed that I hadn't remembered the name. "An odd species, actually. All Yumbas fly in precisely the same direction by instinct. Northeast, I believe. Or was it southwest? Well, in any case, it is said that the average Yumba literally circles the planet once every fourteen days."

"No kidding," I said, shielding my eyes from the sun as I watched the Yumbas fly off into the distance. "Where I come from, birds fly in pretty much any direction they want." I thought for...