Shelby and Shauna Kitt and the Dimensional Holes. P. H. C. Marchesi

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СКАЧАТЬ mission?” asked Shelby, noticing Lendox’s elaborate black and white buttons for the first time.

      “The mission to save Earth and Miriax,” said Lendox.

      ”Miriax?” repeated Shelby and Shauna, in perfect unison.

      “Yes, my home planet,” Lendox said, as if this were the simplest piece of information in the world. “I am Lendox, vice consul of Miriax, and I have come to ask for your help.”

      Shauna and Shelby looked at each other, and a faint smile crossed their lips. Their day was finally looking up.

      The Virus

      Hardly anyone called the Kitts – least of all past midnight. When the phone suddenly rang, therefore, Shauna and Shelby stared at it with a mixture of disbelief and suspicion.

      “Are you expecting a call?” asked Marina.

      “Uh, not really,” said Shelby, jumping over the armchair to reach the faded, slimline phone.

      “H-hello? Uh-huh. Ok, I’ll get her,” Shelby said, glancing at Marina with wide, astonished eyes.

      “Who is it?” asked Shauna, itching with curiosity.

      “It’s the president,” whispered Shelby, handing Marina the receiver. “He says he’s been trying to call you.”

      Marina fumbled inside her pocket, flipped open her cell phone, and looked decidedly mortified.

      “Mr. President, hello,” she said, apologetically. “Yes. It’s because the battery died. How did you find us here? Yes, of course you have people who can do that,” she added, embarrassedly.

      “I can’t believe the president’s calling here,” Shauna whispered to her brother. “Marina must be really important.”

      “Yes, we found the kids,” Marina continued, “but there’s a problem.”

      As Marina began to tell the president about the klodian attack on Fran, Shauna glanced at Lendox. She always had trouble talking to people she did not know well, but something about him made her feel unusually at ease, so she decided to try.

      “Can I ask you a question?” she ventured.

      “Certainly. You may ask as many as you would like.”

      “What were those sounds we heard before?”

      “When your mother was attacked?”

      “Yeah,” she said. “It was like something growling.”

      “It was a klodian.”

      “What about that creepy, moaning sound?” asked Shelby. “It totally freaked me out.”

      “That is because it belonged to a space ghost,” said Lendox. “The space ghost is the ship that carries the klodian roomix.”

      “What’s a roomix?” asked Shelby.

      “You will see,” said Lendox, tapping his ear. “Mirians also use them.”

      Shelby and Shauna glimpsed something inside Lendox’s ear that looked like a hearing aid, except that it pulsated with emerald light.

      “You’re deaf?” asked Shelby.

      “Not at all. What I have in my ear is a ripple emitter. When you throw a stone in a pond, it creates several ripples, correct?”

      “Yeah, so?”

      “In just this manner, the tap I made creates a ripple in space. My ship is capable of locating the source of the ripple, and thus locating me.”

      Shelby’s heart jumped at the mention of a ship. He had always dreamed of flying something – anything. When he was only five years old, he had announced his intention to become a pilot. He had never actually been on a plane, but every night he imagined what it would be like to race through the sky with the clouds below him – and now he was about to fly in an alien ship! Nothing, as far as he was concerned, could beat that. He was about to ask Lendox a battery of questions about the ship when Marina got off the phone, looking as if she had important news.

      “I’ve arranged everything,” she announced. “The president said the hospital’s expecting us. They’ll take care of your mom for as long as she needs it.”

      “Will she be ok?” Shauna asked, seeing her mother sleep peacefully.

      “She will recover with enough time,” said Lendox, so reassuringly that Shauna did not have the least doubt of her mother’s complete recovery.

      “Are they sending an ambulance?” asked Shelby.

      “Nope,” said Marina. “Lendox can take us there on his ship – it’ll be much faster.”

      “Here she comes,” added Lendox, as an emerald trail flew in through the window, cutting the air like a watercolor brushstroke under the rain. “Perfect timing.”

      “That’s so pretty,” muttered Shauna, following the brushstroke with her eyes.

      “My guess is that you were too preoccupied with your mother to notice Loola before,” said Lendox.

      “Who’s Loola?” asked Shelby.

      “I am,” said a voice right behind them. They turned around, and saw a tall girl who looked about fifteen. She was not wearing anything that could be considered clothing, for her entire body was covered in emerald and silver scales. Her bright, white hair flowed down to her feet, and her emerald eyes shone brightly from under a pair of square goggles.

      “Hello, Loola,” said Lendox, pleasantly. “Thank you for coming so promptly.”

      “No problem, L,” Loola said, smiling with teeth that looked as if they were made of pearls. “I was just taking a ride round the block – this planet is awesome!”

      “You’re the ship?” asked Marina, flabbergasted.

      “Hi, M,” Loola said, cheerfully. “What’s up?”

      “That was you I saw before?” Marina cried, remembering the unfocused emerald blur she had not been able to identify. “How come you don’t look anything like Lendox?”

      Loola proudly threw her hair back.

      “Just because Novia is Miriax’s moon,” she said, with a superior air, “doesn’t mean we’re anything like them. Mirians are totally boring.”

      “Thank you, Loola,” said Lendox, amused. “I can always count on you to express your opinion, no matter how inaccurate it is.”

      Loola’s brief attention span, however, had already found its next focus in Shelby and Shauna.

      “You guys must be S and S,” she said, quickly scanning Shauna and then focusing on Shelby. “Nice to meet you, S.”

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