"Don't worry about it," said the princess. "I'm used to a life without fun or interest."
"Thank you for your help, Princess Petronella," said Shimlara humbly. "This is very nice of you. You're a great friend."
"It sure is nice of you," agreed Nicola. Actually, now that she thought about it, it was a bit odd that the princess was being so generous with her time.
The princess beamed. "I am an incredibly nice friend, aren't I? And I'm also giving up important study time with a new tutor. He's a galaxy-famous mathematics genius and he was going to give me a weeklong workshop on 'The Fine Art of Multiplication.' Unfortunately I'm going to have to miss it now! And he's not available for another five years!"
Aha. So, it wasn't just helping out Shimlara's parents that was motivating the princess! She was getting out of studying math! That made more sense. The Space Brigade smiled at one another, while the princess pondered, "Perhaps I should write a book one day--The Seven Secrets of Friendship."
There was a crackling sound and XYZ40 turned away from them, pressed a hand to her ear, and listened carefully. She was obviously wearing some sort of two-way radio earpiece.
"Roger that," she said crisply.
She dropped her hand. "The Royal Spaceship is ready."
It was early evening and Nicola had her face pressed to the Royal Spaceship window, ready for her first glimpse of the Planet of Volcomania.
It was amazing to Nicola that this spaceship was even airborne. It was a small city! It had its own bowling alley, movie theater, and a giant swimming pool the size of a football stadium.
Instead of the cramped pods on Tyler's Mini Easy-Ride Spaceship, passengers reclined on full-length velvet sofas. Staff was available to rub your feet, but Princess Petronella was the only one taking advantage of this service. The others were all too nervous about what lay ahead of them.
They had all slathered themselves, their hair, and their clothes in lava screen and strapped their parachutes to their backs. Fortunately, the parachutes seemed quite simple to operate, with a PULL HERE! tag on the rip cord. Nicola's hand hovered near it.
"Just don't pull it until you've jumped," said Tyler, from the sofa next to Nicola.
Nicola moved her hand away. "Of course not."
"I see the volcanoes!" said Sean.
Nicola looked out and saw explosions of fiery red on the planet below. She could also see the tiny Planet of Whimsy with its halo of pink dust attached to Volcomania by the long tube that Nicola knew was an Underground Sea. She shivered as she imagined scuba diving through it. She liked swimming but she didn't particularly l
ike diving underwater for too long. Of course, it wasn't like she'd have to hold her breath the whole time, but still.
As the spaceship got closer to Volcomania, they got a clearer view of the volcanoes and the red molten lava exploding from each one, like rows of bubbling cooking pots. Nicola imagined how just one drop would sear her skin. She took out her lava screen and began to reapply a fresh new layer. She saw the rest of the Space Brigade doing the same.
"A little harder, please," said the princess sleepily, to the poor servant who was rubbing her feet. Apparently, the president's family lived in a specially constructed Lava Protection Bubble so she didn't have to worry about applying lava cream.
"Can the Space Brigade please assemble at Exit Door Five Hundred and prepare for drop-off," said a polite voice over a loudspeaker.
Nicola's heart jumped like a crazy gymnast. She packed her lava screen into her satchel and stood up, wondering if her own face looked as terrified as the others. They were all adjusting their parachutes with trembling fingers.
"Shouldn't we have had some training before suddenly jumping out of a spaceship wearing a parachute?" said Greta to Nicola, as if Nicola had any control over the situation.
"Parachuting is easy!" Princess Petronella sat up so abruptly her foot-rubbing servant toppled backward onto the floor. "I once spent a delightful week parachuting on the Planet of Bliss."
"Did you have any training?" asked Katie, helping the servant back to her feet.
"Of course! I spent a month working with my own personal parachute trainer," said the princess. "He had me land on a specially built soft surface until I got my technique right. He said I would have broken my legs otherwise." She laughed merrily. "Ah, good times."
The Space Brigade looked at her with stony faces.
"Oh," said the princess. "Well, I'm sure you'll all be fine. Just remember to bend your legs when you land."
"Space Brigade report to Exit Door Five Hundred right NOW!" said a rather less polite voice over the loudspeaker.
"Have fun," said the princess, lying back down and presenting her feet to the servant. "Please don't worry about me, stuck with the boring toad. I'll manage. Royals are used to making sacrifices."
"Is she for real?" said Sean, as the Space Brigade ran down the corridor along the side of the spaceship.