CHAPTER 1 TARGET EARTH The astronauts aboard the space station were used to seeing some amazing sights in orbit They watched the sun rise every forty-five minutes They could view comets and stars not seen on Earth Sometimes they even caught a glimpse of a super hero flying out of the atmosphere on the way to an interstellar mission But today they witnessed something so startling that none of them would ever forget it A fleet of alien spaceships came from behind the moon and flew toward Earth A normal space capsule took three days to travel that distance
The alien vessels were so fast they grew closer and closer with every minute Commander We’ve got company one of the space station crewman yelled He could not hide the concern in his voice Unknown spacecrafts are tracking in from the moon I have a visual the commander said He was on the station’s observation deck They’re coming in fast There are hundreds of them another astronaut said The radar is lighting up What’s their course the commander asked They’re headed straight for us the astronaut at the radar post replied All personnel get to the evacuation pods the commander ordered Immediately The crew of the space station scrambled to the
pair of Soyuz capsules They squeezed into the emergency space vehicles and shot away from the station WOOOOOOOOOOOSH The re-entry rockets were fired and the escape pods fled toward Earth Aboard the alien command ship Queen Bloorga watched the little capsules drop into the planet’s atmosphere She debated whether or not to destroy them and the space station She decided against it They were worth their mass in metal Queen Bloorga’s fleet was from a planet called Mullooska They had used up all the water and minerals on their world and now they were looking for more
The fleet traveled through space searching for planets that had vast oceans and plenty of metal Earth was perfect for their purposes Captain Feg order the fleet to surround the planet the queen said Your Supremacy the Yes officer replied The captain glided over to the control station on a smooth trail of slime His body had the form of a six-foot snail without the shell He wore metal armor to protect his tender flesh On Mullooska only the queen was allowed to have a shell
