Leah didn't have even one second to wonder why all the humans were staying home. Her thoughts were stopped once again by the wailing of the ship alarm.
"EMERGENCY ALERT!!!" boomed the ship's voice in the small cockpit. Bob and Leah both jumped.
"What's the problem NOW?" shouted Bob, as he looked across his monitors and control surface.
"The huge chihuahua finished the tacos and he wants MORE! He's tearing the ship apart again. He's worse than last time."
Bob was confused. He asked the ship, "What happened? You said he'd be busy eating for 10 minutes!!"
"Sorry my estimate was wrong, sir. We discovered three of the taco boxes were empty."
"Empty?" shouted Leah over the noise of the siren. She turned to Bob. "I checked the cargo before we left. Those boxes weren't empty."
Bob looked sheepish. "I might have had some...a couple nights. I--"
"Three boxes?!?" Leah exclaimed. "That's enough for a normal week of meals."
"Sorry, they were long nights," Bob muttered.
Just then the door to the cockpit opened. It was one of the small helper robots. When Leah turned to see who came in, she saw the dog for the first time. Boxes, taco wrappers and lots of equipment was flying everywhere. Helper robots were trying to catch him. The dog thought it was a fun game as he yipped and pranced around the cargo area.
All Leah could do was gasp.
Bob turned for a look. As he did, his eyes met with the dog's. Immediately it started running toward Bob.
Now, Bob tried to tell the helper robot to close the door. He didn't get that far, though. Three things happened at the same time.
The dog tried to cram his huge body through the small door.
Bob managed to say, "Clo---"
The helper robot was knocked through the door with the force of a small booster rocket.
Leah and Bob both leaned out of the way of the flying bot. It screamed a high pitched WHHHHIRRRRLLL as it flew by, smashing into the control surface and bouncing into the window.
Of course the front window of the ship was strong enough to take a blast from a super laser. A small robot, even at such great speed, would not scratch it, Unfortunately the little robot was not so tough. Metal pieces, wires and microchips flew everywhere when it struck the glass.
Bob shrieked when he saw the damage to the control surface. "No! It hit the auto-controller." Before he finished the sentence, the ship started to dive toward the dark planet below them.
Leah and Bob grabbed their drive handles and punched buttons. The ship tilted hard to the left. Everything that wasn't bolted down slid or fell across the floor and slammed into the wall. That included the huge chihuahua.
"We are coming down too fast!" said Leah. "Power up the left booster."
Bob groaned. "I tried. It's not working."
"Try it again!" she shouted. "I just switched over the generator." She normally wouldn't tell the Captain what to do, but neither of them cared at the moment.
Bob pushed the booster button once more and this time it lit up. The ship started to level out as Leah put all her weight into the controls. Just then a tree branch scraped across the front window and ran along the side of the ship.
"We're closer to the ground than I thought," said Bob. "Can you pull it up?"
"I'm trying. We need to get away from the houses," said Leah.
Bob looked ahead and saw what she meant. Lights of a neighborhood dotted the land in front of them.
Leah pressed her drive handle far to the right and leaned on it. Slowly the ship started to adjust its course. Soon only darkness was ahead of them.
"Good job," said Bob, as he punched a few more buttons and turned a dial. "We are now coasting in hover mode. This should be a good place to land it."
But it wasn't exactly a landing. The ship was moving much slower now, but the bottom hit something solid. It sent them into a slow spin. Before Bob or Leah could get it under control, the right wing caught the ground and pulled the whole ship to the earth with a very rapid stop.