Jacob scanned the monitors and saw the Valkyrians gaining on Praiseworthy with their three eagle-shaped ships. They hadn’t fired any shots… yet.

He gave Catalina, Dexter, and Rufus a grim smile to help them be brave. Rufus chirped with worry.

“Praiseworthy, can you outrun them?” Jacob asked.

“Master Wonderbar, if I did not already think so highly of you, I might be offended by that question. I assure you it will not be a problem.”

Space blurred as Praiseworthy shifted into high gear, and Jacob breathed a sigh of relief. The Valky-rians should have known better than to try and stop Praiseworthy, one of the fastest ships in the universe.

A light on the console flashed red. “Praiseworthy, what’s that light?” Jacob asked.

Praiseworthy gasped. “How dare they! They’re shooting me with a…”

The ship shook with a mighty heave, and sparks flew from the console. “What happened?” Dexter asked.

Praiseworthy came to a stop, and then they started speeding backward, directly toward the Valkyrians.

“Stop! Praiseworthy, stop!” Jacob shouted.

“Praiseworthy!” Catalina said. “What are you doing?”

“Bolt backward a with me shot they!” Praiseworthy shouted.

The children looked around at one another frantically. “What?!” Catalina asked.

“Bolt backward! Me shot they!” Praiseworthy shouted.

“That doesn’t make any sense!” Catalina cried. “You shot them with what?”

Jacob checked the monitors, and the Valkyrians were dangerously close now that Praiseworthy was heading in reverse. It dawned on him what was happening. “Backward bolt! Praiseworthy’s talking backward, they shot him with a backward bolt! It’s making him go backward!”

“Happened what exactly that’s! Wonderbar Master you thank!” Praiseworthy shouted.

“What are we going to do?” Catalina asked.

Jacob stared at the console. He knew what he had to do. If Praiseworthy was out of commission, he had to fly the ship. Someone had to get them going in the right direction.

Only the last time he took control of a ship, he ended up breaking the universe in a giant space kapow. His heart pounded in his chest, but he knew he had to overcome his fears and fly the ship.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. “You can do this,” Dexter said. “I know you can.”

He felt another hand on his other shoulder. Rufus screeched in his ear.

Jacob slammed the manual override button and took the wheel. He shoved it forward and the ship creaked to a stop before it started heading in the right direction again. He swung back and forth in erratic arcs just in case the Valkyrians were thinking of hitting them with a bolt that made Praiseworthy even crazier.

“Haw-yee! Wonderbar Master flying good very!” Praiseworthy said.

Jacob was getting used to the controls, and he started to relax. He could do this. He wasn’t going to destroy the universe.

A voice filled the cockpit. “You might as well surrender,” Patrick Gravy said. “We’ll get you soon enough.”

Jacob yelled, “Praiseworthy, tell them they won’t catch me in a million years, and when I’m president they’re going to pay for this!”

“To happy be would I!” Praiseworthy exclaimed.

Jacob wasn’t feeling as confident as he sounded. The Valkyrians were proving relentless, and they would clearly do anything to get him. He wasn’t sure how long he could outlast a crazy group of highly trained commandos, and Mick was probably even more motivated to stop him now that Jacob was gaining on him in the polls. They needed to get somewhere they could hide out.

“Catalina, check the maps and find out where we are,” Jacob said.

A bright gold beam shot out in front of the cockpit window. “That was close!” Dexter yelled. Jacob swung hard to the right.

“Oh!” Catalina said. “We’re close to Planet Blueprint. Jacob, head in a forty-five-degree angle at full throttle.”

Jacob did as he was told. Maybe they could get help. “What’s Planet Blueprint?” he asked.

“It’s where all the construction workers live,” Catalina said.

Everything was silent for a moment, until Dexter sighed loudly.

“Oh no,” he said.