(I was pretty scared, but hiding it incredibly well, I thought).
‘Come on, Sam!’ Zoe whispered. ‘Bernard and I will watch out for Ms Winkleworth. You can do it – show everyone that you aren’t afraid!’
‘Don’t do it, Sam!’ said Regina. ‘You’ll get in trouble. Or worse!’
By ‘worse’ I think she meant that the Astro Blast Simulator could kill me. Because it looked like it could.
‘Now, Sam! Ms Winkleworth is looking away – this is your only chance!’ said Zoe.
‘He won’t do it,’ said Ralph.
You can do it, Sam, said a voice in my head. It was the voice of Captain Jane, the captain of the Space Blasters crew. Sometimes, when I’m feeling SLIGHTLY less brave, I hear Captain Jane or Spaceman Jack in my head. Don’t you think I was afraid when I went through my first wormhole? Or when I first saw the Ghost King on TUBS? Do it for the universe, Sam.
I knew what I had to do. I couldn’t let Captain Jane down.
I turned and looked at Zoe, Bernard and Regina. I shot my hand up towards the sky like a rocket. ‘For the universe!’ I declared and then, before I could change my mind, I ran as fast as I could towards The Astro Blast Simulator.
I hoped they didn’t see how much I was shaking. Which wasn’t even that much.
It was dark inside The Astro Blast Simulator. Darker than I thought it would be. Dark like in-space dark.
Before I even got my seat belt on or could turn on one of my flashlights, a countdown started.
‘Five, four, three . . . ’
‘Wait!’ I shouted at the Astro Blast Simulator. ‘I need to put my seat belt on!’ TUBS always listens to the Space Blasters when they yell at it.
The Astro Blast Simulator did NOT listen to me.
‘Two . . . one . . . BLAST-OFF !’
And blast-off it did.
I finally understood what Spaceman Jack meant when he said blast-off felt like being an egg scrambled in a hot frying pan. The whole thing was shaking so hard I thought my head was going to fly off.
AND THEN IT STARTED SMOKING.
I coughed; I couldn’t breathe; I bravely yelled for someone to make it stop, but it kept shaking!
And then I took matters into my own hands. I banged on the side of the walls. I kicked. I shouted, ‘I command you to stop, Astro Blast Simulator!’ as loud as I could. But it didn’t. It was out of control!
It was just like when Captain Jane’s worst enemy, the Ghost King, took over TUBS. I tried to think what Spaceman Jack would do but all I could think was:
I’M GOING TO DIE.
And then:
OH NO, WHY DID I START THINKING ABOUT THE GHOST KING?
The Ghost King is the scariest thing in the entire universe. Even Captain Jane and Spaceman Jack are afraid of him. I like to think he’s my greatest fear because I’m a born spaceman. And ANYONE with a brain would be afraid of the Ghost King.
And just when I thought it couldn’t get worse, THE FACE OF THE GHOST KING APPEARED IN THE SMOKE. HE WAS COMING TO GET ME.
Goodbye, world . . .
And then there was light. The Ghost King must have got me. At least I died a brave death.
‘Sam Wu! What are you doing?’
I blinked up into the light. The voice sounded angrier than a heavenly angel would. It actually sounded a lot like Ms Winkleworth.
‘Sam! Get out of there, right now!’
I rubbed my eyes. It WAS Ms Winkleworth! I wasn’t dead! I had survived, AND I had somehow defeated the Ghost King. And I was NOT afraid! I crawled out of the Astro Blast Simulator and stood proudly in front of everyone.
I was expecting applause.
I wasn’t expecting what happened next.
A shocked silence.
And then . . .
And rising above the laughter, Ralph’s voice . . .
I looked down.
It was true.
You should know that Spaceman Jack has never, ever peed his pants.
So. There it is. Don’t ask me any questions about it. We’ll never speak of it again.
But then I had to prove that I WASN’T a scaredy-cat. (And hope that I had banished the Ghost King for good.)
After the INCIDENT, I knew I could never show my face at school again. Just like when Five-Eyed Frank got framed for an evil crime on his home planet and had to blast-off to a faraway moon.
As I’m sure you’ve gathered, unlike the SPACE BLASTERS, I don’t fly spaceships so I didn’t have the faraway moon option. Instead, I took off on my version of an intergalactic travel machine: Two-Wheel TUBS. (I named my bike after the SPACE BLASTERS’ spaceship: TUBS, which stands for ‘The Universe’s Best Spaceship’. I added the ‘Two-Wheel’ so people would know it was a bike.)
I didn’t know where I was going, but I just had to get out of town and escape the name ‘Scaredy-Cat Sam’. I would have a brave adventure. And I would have to do it while Na-Na was napping and before my mum and dad got home from work.
So I packed a bag with everything I’d need for my new life on the run:
