Jacob turned away from the planets and stars whizzing by outside the cockpit and faced Sarah and Dexter instead. He held a yellow notepad and had a pen tucked behind his ear, some of the campaign supplies he had packed for the journey to Planet Headline.

“No more pranks,” Jacob said. “No more tricks, no more practical jokes, no more breaking rules. That’s all over. I have to show the people I’m responsible enough to run the entire universe.”

Dexter tapped his cheek with his finger. “What about the sneezing powder this morning?”

“That was completely necessary!”

“How are we going to deal with your track record?” Sarah asked with a lopsided grin. “I think the news reporters are going to want to know about the time you lined your bedroom with plastic and tried to turn it into a giant hot tub.”

Dexter high-fived Sarah. “That was hilarious! Oh, what about the time Jacob convinced the police department there was a grizzly bear trying to break into the zoo.”

“Stop it!” Jacob shouted, and the edge in his voice made Sarah and Dexter look away. “This is serious.”

“Excuse me, cretins,” Lucy said, “I’d so hate to interrupt the future President Wonderbar’s delusions of grandeur, but we are approaching the tunnel through the space kapow. While we’re passing through, perhaps Mr. Wonderbar will want to figure out how he’s going to expunge that catastrophe from the record as well.”

Dexter and Sarah pursed their lips and Jacob could tell they were trying not to laugh.

“She’s right,” Jacob said. “We should probably come up with something.”

“On it,” Sarah said. She patted Jacob on the shoulder. “Don’t worry.”

He looked out the cockpit window and saw the tunnel, a shimmering tube that bore through the bright mess of stars and supernovas that had been left in the aftermath of the kapow. Lucy passed through slowly, and it was almost as if they were on the inside of a kaleidoscope. The shifting colors shone brightly inside the cockpit, and Jacob was amazed the Astral engineers could have constructed something so vast and incredible in just a year.

He stared ahead at the small black dot of space at the end of the tunnel, but something irregular was blocking the view.

“Ugh.” Lucy shuddered. “Children, we have trouble.”

Jacob stood up and peered ahead as Lucy slowed down to a crawl. His eyes didn’t want to believe what he was seeing, but as they drew closer, there was no mistake. It was a giant tree, with branches snaking up into the high reaches of the tunnel.

“What is a tree doing in the middle of the…” Jacob trailed off as he saw movement in the branches. “Are those… monkeys?!”

Six chimpanzees wearing clear space helmets were swinging around on the branches. An old metal spaceship was parked nearby.

“Space monkeys,” Lucy said. “They always bring this infernal tree with them. I have to slow down to avoid these branches.”

There was one large monkey hanging still at the top of the tree, and Jacob could tell that it was staring at them.

“Are they intelligent?” Jacob asked.

“No, Jacob,” Lucy said. “They are very, very stupid. That’s why they’re so dangerous.”

“Where did they come from?” Sarah asked.

“They came from Earth. A Russian rocket accidentally blasted into space with test monkeys aboard and these are the descendents of those…” She trailed off. “This is not good.”

Lucy drew closer and closer to the tree, which Jacob could now see was actually made of metal. Jacob locked eyes with the largest monkey. All of the other monkeys stopped what they were doing and stared at the spaceship.

Suddenly the big monkey bared his teeth and the other monkeys sprang into action. A few of them launched themselves at Lucy and began scrambling around on the outside of the ship, and others flew back toward their own ship. The big monkey leaped straight for the cockpit. Sarah shrieked when he landed with a thud. He pressed his helmet to the cockpit, his brown eyes looking over each of them.

“We’re being boarded!” Lucy shouted.

Loud clangs rang throughout the hold, and on the cockpit monitors Jacob could see that the monkeys were hitting the hull with metal rods.

“Children, they are causing serious damage!”

“Can you speed up?” Jacob asked.

They heard a loud crash, followed by screeching.

“They’re inside!” Lucy shouted.

The big monkey scrambled off of the cockpit window.

“Lucy, do you have any weapons?” Jacob asked.

“I thought you said they were stupid!” Dexter yelled.

“They are stupid!” Lucy shouted. “They’re even more hateful than you children.”

One of the chimps scrambled up the staircase. He bared his teeth and jumped up and down, then ran up the wall and hung from the ceiling.

Soon the large chimp scrambled up as well. He had gray hair and seemed more intelligent than the others. He took off his helmet and paced in front of the children, looking at each of them in turn. He leaned close to Dexter, who leaned back in his chair in fright.

“Bad breath,” Dexter whispered.

The monkey pushed Dexter in the chest and screeched. The monkey on the ceiling dropped down and grabbed Dexter, pulling him toward the staircase. They were joined by more monkeys, who swarmed Dexter and stood between him and Sarah and Jacob.

“Ow!” Dexter yelped. “Guys, help me!”

“Leave him alone!” Sarah shouted.

Jacob jumped up, but the big monkey paced in front of him, blocking his way. The other monkeys pulled Dexter down the staircase and through the hold.

“Dexter!” Sarah yelled.

Jacob charged into the big monkey, who pushed him back roughly and slapped the ground. He bared his teeth and screeched, and then scrambled down the staircase. Jacob ran down the stairs after them, but he wasn’t as fast as the monkeys. They had docked their spaceship alongside Lucy, and the big monkey had already made it back onto his ship. He turned back at Jacob and screeched in pleasure as the cargo door closed. There was a loud clang as the monkeys’ ship disengaged.

Jacob ran back up the stairs and watched helplessly through the cockpit window as the tree folded back into the monkeys’ spaceship and they blasted off, taking Dexter with them.