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.”
    â€œOf course you are, sweetie,” said the king. He stood up and yawned. “I’m off for my nap.” Then he and the queen swept out of the room. A moment later, the queen popped her head back through the door and trilled, “I nearly forgot! Good luck, Space Brigade! I do hope none of you die!”
    She vanished.
    Princess Petronella’s face was bright red. “They are just . . . impossible !”
    XYZ40 spent the next few hours giving the Space Brigade detailed instructions about meeting places, geography, history, secret agents, and code words, by the end of which Nicola felt like she’d spent two weeks stuck in a classroom.
    Finally she consulted her clipboard. “I think that’s everything. I’ll just give you your kits.”
    She handed each member of the Space Brigade a satchel.
    â€œIt contains your parachute, lava goggles, extra tubes of lava screen, two-way radios, binoculars—that sort of thing,” said XYZ40.
    â€œWhere’s my satchel?” said the princess.
    â€œBut your highness, you won’t be parachuting,” said XYZ40. “You’ll be—”
    â€œ Playing nicely with the toad, ” finished the princess sulkily.
    â€œYour highness, let me assure you that your role is absolutely crucial,” said XYZ40. “For one thing, we wouldn’t be able to smuggle in the Space Brigade if we didn’t have the excuse of the royal visit, and for another, you may actually have some luck convincing the toad, I mean, Mrs. Mania’s son, to influence his mother.”
    â€œDon’t worry about it,” said the princess. “I’m used to a life without fun or interest.”
    â€œThank you for your help, Princess Petronella,” said Shimlara humbly. “This is very nice of you. You’re a great friend.”
    â€œIt 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.
    â€œRoger that,” she said crisply.
    She dropped her hand. “The Royal Spaceship is ready.”
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    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.
    â€œJust don’t pull it until you’ve jumped ,” said