CHAPTER TWELVE

Home

As they zoomed through the quiet depths of space back to the pizzeria, Luno watched Clive contentedly pecking out his scientific findings on his little device and Chooch happily snoring away. Luno turned down Chooch’s volume and concentrated on the drive back home.

VROOOOOM!

Suddenly, the pod was spinning, but Luno remained calm and simply pressed the stabilizer button. Everything was okay in a moment or two.

“Meteor?” Luno asked Clive.

“No, Mr. Zorgoochi,” replied Clive. “It was another Quantum Pizza delivery ship.”

RRRRRUUUUMMMBBBLLLLE!

“Now what?” said Luno.

Emerging from the swirling cosmic mist before them was the biggest ship Luno had ever seen in his life. A steely black structure, the size of 100 spaceball fields, was moving slowly toward them. In letters along the side too large to be read from less than a hundred galactic miles away: QUANTUM PIZZA.

It was the mother ship.

As the enormous vessel moved closer, Luno could see little delivery ships buzzing out of the bottom of it, like angry hornets zooming out of an enormous nest, delivering pizzas all over the galaxy.

How can Zorgoochi Intergalactic Pizza compete with this? Luno thought as his tiny delivery pod floated past the massive Quantum Pizza ship, like a goldfish passing a whale.

Along the side in the center of the giant dot above the letter i was a porthole, and as Luno got close enough, he saw staring out of it a very angry—and ugly—face, its cyber-eye furiously swiveling about, which then came to rest on Luno. Somehow Luno just knew.

It was Vlactron.

Luno’s spine froze as he and Vlactron locked into a stare while passing each other in slow motion. Luno felt as if Vlactron were staring into his very soul. It was a moment he would remember for the rest of his life.

Suddenly laser fire violently rocked the little Zorgoochi delivery pod, breaking Luno’s hypnotic stare.

He tried his best to not only avoid the fire, but to get them out of there as fast as possible.

Through the rearview screen he could see about a dozen Quantum delivery ships pouring out of the freighter. Luno didn’t have time to be afraid. He slammed the pod into high gear.

“Hang on to something!” Luno shouted over the surging engine.

Chooch wrapped his big metal arms around Luno.

“Not me!” Luno shouted.

Chooch crawled under the control panel.

“What precisely do you suggest I hang on to, Mr. Zorgoochi?” asked Clive.

“Just do it!” Luno screamed and shoved his foot down as hard as he could onto the accelerator.

The fleet of ships surged ahead and, just as they were about to surround the delivery pod, pulled back and turned around, as if being recalled.

Regardless, Luno wasn’t taking any chances and continued to pin the accelerator to the floor. By the time they passed through the Capellini Nebula and then entered the spiral arm of the Mezzaluna Galaxy, his foot was completely numb. He finally allowed himself to ease up and slow down once Industro12 was in view.

Luno drew a sigh of relief when he saw that the Zorgoochi Intergalactic Pizza sign was still there. He was determined never to let Quantum Pizza replace his family’s business. He just had no idea how he was going to do it.

As Luno pushed open the front door to Zorgoochi Intergalactic Pizza, the familiar aroma of tomato sauce filled his nose and the heat from the pizza ovens warmed his bones. He was finally home.

“Son!” Geo said, arms open wide. “I’m so proud of you!”

“Here you go, Dad,” Luno said, sliding his hand into his pocket.

When Luno pulled his hand out, it was dripping with water.

“Where’s the money from the deliveries, Luno?” Geo asked.

Luno smacked himself on the forehead. He forgot to put the frozen money in the freezer in the pod. Now it was just a worthless puddle on the floor.

Luno was too afraid to look up. He saw his father’s shoes move toward him. This was it. Luno was prepared for whatever came next. He deserved it. As Geo moved in closer, Luno screwed his eyes up tight.

I’mgonnadieI’mgonnadieI’mgonnadie.

“I know you did your best.” Geo sighed, wrapping his big arms around Luno, pulling him close.

Then Geo showed Luno an order from the microscopic universe of Parva for 1,000 subatomic pizzas, 42 with extra electrons. It looked like Zorgoochi Intergalactic Pizza would be staying in business, at least for the time being.

Once Connie was done checking him for bruises, covering him with kisses, and crying tears of joy, Geo asked Luno how his deliveries went. Although he was bursting to tell them everything, Luno just shrugged.

“They were okay,” Luno mumbled. “I guess.”

Then Connie sat Luno down and plopped a huge plate of Plasma Parmigianino in front of him.

“Mangia,” she said. “You look hungry. Eat.”

The next thing he knew, he was waking up with his cheek resting on a nice, warm, but sticky pillow. Luno sat up and realized he had fallen asleep with his face in his plate. He peeled the mozzarella off his cheek and yawned, then climbed the stairs to his bedroom.

As Luno got to the landing, he saw the dark silhouette of Roog, waiting for him.

“Zo?” he asked. “How vas deliwery?”

Luno couldn’t keep it to himself any longer. He told Roog everything—how the stories his father had told him were all true: the Mozzarella Monks, the Golden Anchovy, Vlactron. Everything. He then told Roog that Quantum wasn’t just trying to run Zorgoochi out of business, it was trying to run all pizzerias in the Mezzaluna Galaxy out of business in order to be the only one left.

“I know,” Roog grunted. “Did you tell fazzer or mudder?”

“No, “said Luno. “I figured they have enough to deal with just trying to keep the pizzeria going.”

“Goot.” Roog seemed relieved.

“I don’t know what to do, Roog,” Luno confessed. “I mean, I know what I’m supposed to do, but I don’t think I can.”

“I vill help,” said Roog, placing his metal claw on Luno’s shoulder. “But parents muzt not know. Ho-kay?”

Luno agreed.

“Do you know vhy I train you hardest of all Zorgoochi?” Roog asked, looking Luno in the eye.

Luno shook his head.

“Because you are zpecial,” said Roog, sounding more serious than Luno had ever heard him. “Vhen you ver leetle boy, I knew you ver de vun.”

Luno’s shoulders slumped with the gravity of the situation.

“Now ees up to you,” said Roog. “You must find Golden Anchovy. Eet ees only vay to save Zorgoochi Intergalactic Pizza, Luno.”

While Luno was slipping into his pajamas, Vlactron’s evil face popped into his mind and a shiver went up his spine. He smoothed the hair sticking up on the back of his neck and looked out the window into the black expanse of space. Delivering pizza was dangerous business, but it was nothing compared to having to do battle with the biggest pizzeria in the universe.

*   *   *

Meanwhile, millions of galactic miles away, deep in the bowels of the Quantum Pizza mother ship, a scaly face with an angry, swiveling cyber-eye was watching a telescreen and on it was the grainy image of a pizza delivery boy looking out his bedroom window.

The face uttered just one word.

“Zorgoochi.”