Episode 1: The Missing Core Crystal
The cozy red tomato-ship drifted lazily through the glittering galaxy, in no particular hurry to be anywhere at all. Emil sat in the pilot's chair with his boots up, and Tom lay curled on the dashboard, watching the stars slide by the big round window.
It had been a few quiet days since they'd waved goodbye to the silly puppet folk of Quirx, and now the two friends were enjoying a peaceful stretch of empty space. But peaceful, after a while, can turn into something else entirely.
"Emil," said Tom at last, with a long sigh, "what should we do next? We've just been floating along for days. I'm starting to get the wriggles."
Emil tapped his chin thoughtfully. "You know, I was wondering the very same thing." Then his eyes lit up. "I've got it! The book — the ancient traveler's book! It's full of hundreds of worlds we haven't seen yet. Why don't we let it decide where we go?"
"Oh, yes!" Tom bounced up at once, his wriggles forgotten. "Pick a page! Any page!"
So Emil fetched the great heavy book from its shelf and laid it across his lap. He closed his eyes, let the crackling old pages flutter through his fingers — fwip, fwip, fwip — and let them fall open all on their own.
The two friends leaned in to see where fate had landed them this time.
On the page was a drawing unlike anything they'd seen before. It showed a planet that wasn't made of rock, or metal, or grass — but of clouds. Great soft billowing clouds, tinted pink and blue and lavender, glowing gently against the dark. Beneath the picture, in the traveler's faded hand, was written a single name.
"Nimbus-9," Emil read aloud. "A world of living clouds, where the ground itself is soft as a dream." He grinned at Tom. "A planet made of clouds! Now that I have to see. What do you say?"
"Set the course!" cried Tom.
And so they did. The tomato-ship turned its nose toward the faraway cloud-world, and off they flew.
It was not a long journey, and before they knew it, Nimbus-9 swelled into view through the window — a magnificent ball of swirling, glowing clouds, soft and round and beautiful. There seemed to be no hard ground anywhere at all, just billows upon billows of fluffy pastel mist.
"Hold on tight, Tom," said Emil, easing the ship down through the clouds. "I'm not sure how one lands on a planet made of clouds. This might be a bit bumpy..."
Down they sank, into the soft pink mist — and then, instead of a crash, there came a gentle—
Boing! Boing... boing... settle.
The ship bounced two or three times, as though it had landed on an enormous trampoline, and then came to rest, rocking softly. Emil and Tom blinked at each other, then burst out laughing.
"A soft landing!" Tom giggled. "The softest landing ever!"
They opened the door and cautiously stepped out — and the moment their feet touched the ground, they sank in a little and sprang right back up. The whole surface of Nimbus-9 was springy and bouncy, just like a giant trampoline made of cloud. With every step, they bounced; with every bounce, they laughed. And the air! The air smelled sweet and sugary, exactly like fresh cotton candy.
"This," declared Tom, taking an enormous sniff and bouncing on the spot, "is the most wonderful planet we have ever visited."
But as they bounced happily across the clouds, they began to notice something odd. The clouds beneath their feet seemed to be... shivering. Here and there, wisps of cloud were breaking loose and drifting up into the sky, fading away into nothing. The whole world had a faint, trembling, uneasy feeling to it, like a jelly that wobbles when you bump the table.
"Emil," said Tom uncertainly, "is it just me, or does the ground feel a bit... unsteady?"
Before Emil could answer, a voice called out to them.
"Visitors! Oh, visitors — thank the stars!"
Bounding toward them across the clouds came a gentle figure — a young cloud-herder with flowing silver hair and a soft pastel robe that billowed like mist. All around her drifted little puffs of cloud that looked rather like fluffy sheep, and she gathered them along as she came. In her hand she carried a glowing lantern that floated just above her palm, casting a warm, steady light. But her face was creased with worry.
"Hello," said Emil kindly. "I'm Emil, and this is my friend Tom. We've come to visit your beautiful planet. Are you... all right? You look troubled."
"My name is Luna," said the cloud-herder breathlessly. "I tend the clouds of Nimbus-9. And oh — you've come at a terrible time. Our planet is in dreadful danger." She wrung her hands. "Have you noticed the clouds shivering? Drifting away?"
"We have," said Tom. "What's happening?"
Luna's eyes filled with worry. "It's the Core Crystal," she said. "Deep at the heart of Nimbus-9 there has always been a great glowing Crystal. It is the most precious thing on our whole world — for it holds the clouds together. It keeps them firm and solid and safe beneath our feet. Without it, the clouds lose their strength..." She gestured at the shivering ground. "...and they begin to come apart. Wisp by wisp, they drift away into space."
Emil felt a chill. "And the Crystal — what's happened to it?"
"It's gone," Luna whispered. "Vanished from its resting place. I don't know how, or who, or why. But I know this: without the Core Crystal, our whole planet will slowly dissolve — every cloud, every home, everything we love — until there is nothing left of Nimbus-9 but empty sky." A tear sparkled in her eye. "And I have no idea where to even begin looking."
Emil and Tom looked at one another. They had not come to Nimbus-9 expecting an adventure — but they had never in their lives turned away from a friend in need.
"Then we'll help you," said Emil firmly. "Won't we, Tom?"
"Absolutely!" said Tom. "We'll help you find your Crystal, Luna, and save your planet. We're rather good at solving mysteries, you know."
Luna's worried face broke into a grateful, hopeful smile. "You will? Oh, thank you — thank you both!" She lifted her glowing floating lantern. "Then there's hope yet. You see, this lantern is no ordinary light. It's a guiding lantern. It remembers. It can lead us back to the very last place the Crystal was seen — to where the trail begins. With its light, we can—"
But Luna never finished her sentence.
For at that very instant, out of the gathering dusk, a shadowy figure came rushing across the clouds. It moved fast and silent, all darkness and swirling cloak, and before any of them could so much as cry out, it swept past Luna — and snatched the glowing lantern right out of her hand!
"My lantern!" Luna gasped.
The shadowy figure spun on its heel and bolted away across the clouds, the stolen lantern glowing in its grasp, growing smaller and fainter as it fled into the darkening mist.
"Stop! Come back!" Emil shouted, but it was already vanishing.
Tom stared after it, his little heart pounding. "Emil," he breathed, "that lantern was the only light that could lead us to the Crystal. And now it's gone too!"
The three of them stood frozen on the shivering clouds, watching the last faint glimmer of the lantern disappear into the dusk — taking with it their only clue, and the only hope of saving Nimbus-9.
The adventure had only just begun... and already, the trail had gone dark.
To be continued in Episode 2...