Akiko on the Planet Smoo by Mark Crilley

way to treat prisoners!”
    â€œDon’t waste your breath, Spuckler,” Mr. Beeba said. “These Sky Pirate friends of yours seem to speak a language all their own.”
    â€œOh,
great
,” Spuckler said angrily. “More people I can’t understand.”
    While half of the Sky Pirates stood there gawking at us, the other half took an interest in our spaceship. They poked it and prodded it and finally just started tearing it apart. I guess they figured they could sell the spare parts or something. By the time they were done with it, there was nothing left but a few nuts and bolts and a couple of broken headlights.
    â€œWell, Gax, there goes our transportation,” said Spuckler. “Any ideas?”
    â€œ TO BE HONEST, SIR, ” Gax replied with an electronic whine, “ I’M JUST HOPING THEY DON’T HAVE A SIMILAR FONDNESS FOR ROBOTS. ”
    â€œDon’t you worry, Gax,” Spuckler said, sensing Gax’s nervousness. “I wouldn’t let anyone rip you apart but me.”
    â€œ I APPRECIATE THAT, SIR. ”
    Meanwhile, the Sky Pirates were passing around our rations and other supplies, eating whatever was edible and destroying everything else. When some of the Sky Pirates discovered Mr. Beeba’s bag of books, he went into a panic.
    â€œMy books!” he cried, whirling in circles as he tried to free himself.
    Two of the Sky Pirates opened the bag and turned it upside down, allowing the books to tumble onto the deck in a big messy pile. The Sky Pirates briefly examined the books to see if they had any value. After a few minutes of discussion they started tossing them overboard, three or four at a time.
    â€œNo!” Mr. Beeba shouted, spinning wildly. “This can’t be happening!”
    â€œRelax, Beeba,” Spuckler said calmly. “Those books were just deadweight anyway.”
    â€œ
DeadWEIGHT
?” Mr. Beeba cried, struggling to remain face to face with Spuckler. “I’ll have you know those books contained the maps we needed to get to Alia Rellapor’s castle!”
    Suddenly it dawned on me just how desperate things had become. Not only were we at the mercy of these horrible Sky Pirate guys, but we were also completely lost! I’d have given anything to go home at that point. Even a bad day at school was better than this!

After we’d hung from the masts for more than an hour, there was suddenly a big roaring sound and the Sky Pirate ship’s engines came to life. The whole ship lurched forward, and after a minute or two we were moving through the air at a pretty good speed. The clouds rolled by above and below us, and a warm breeze blew across the deck. For some reason it felt good just to be moving again, even if I didn’t know where we were headed.
    â€œWhere do you think they’re taking us?” I asked Spuckler, who wasn’t too far from me.
    â€œHang on, Akiko,” he said, turning to Gax. “Switch on your hypervision, Gax. Akiko wants to know where we’re headed.”
    There was a buzzing and clicking sound as Gax switched on the proper equipment inside his head. Though Gax was pretty beat up, he was obviously filled with all sorts of useful machinery.
    â€œ I’VE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE IT, SIR, ” Gax said, sounding as if he were straining to make out a variety of details from a very great distance. “ CLEARLY WE’RE GOING TO BE DEALING WITH SOME VERY ROUGH TERRAIN . . . THERE ARE IMMENSE CRATERS OF VARIOUS SHAPES AND SIZES . . . NO SIGN OF LIFE THAT I CAN SEE— ”
    â€œYou idiot!” Spuckler interrupted. “You’re lookin’ at
me
!”
    Sure enough, Gax had actually been studying Spuckler’s face at very close range.
    â€œ SORRY, SIR ,” he sputtered as he tried to refocus his eyes in the right direction. By then Poog had done his job for him, though. He blurted out another string of high-speed syllables,