The people looked quite similar to Silent Fred. They all had fuzzy hair and round chubby faces. Their shoulders were slumped with exhaustion, as if they’d been working very hard. However, when they caught sight of the Space Brigade, their faces broke into friendly smiles. They waved enthusiastically and called out words of welcome like, ‘Warm Shobble Greetings, strangers!’ and ‘Shobble Joy to you and yours!’

The Space Brigade smiled and waved back. The people of Shobble really did seem especially nice.

They had travelled for another ten minutes when Silent Fred turned around and showed them his board. He’d written: Marshmallow mine coming up on your right.

They could hear the distant clanking of machinery. A divine smell filled their nostrils. It was like a mixture of strawberries, honey and rain on a summer’s day. Nicola could see the other members of the Space Brigade lifting their noses high and sniffing the air like dogs.

As they got closer to the mine, the smell became even stronger, until Nicola’s head was swimming. She looked out and saw a hive of activity. There were hundreds of miners busy at work. A foreman yelled instructions at a miner driving a forklift. A group of miners appeared at the top of a mineshaft, drenched in marshmallow, and were immediately replaced by another group. ‘Look,’ said Sean, as one of the forklifts lifted a huge vat of bubbling pink marshmallow and poured it into a waiting container on the back of a truck.

‘It’s amaz –’ began Tyler.

A huge explosion drowned out the rest of his words.

The ShobGobbles reared up in terror and the sleigh rocked violently. Nicola clung to the side, spilling what was left of her hot chocolate on the white rug. She could see a massive ball of red smoke right where the forklift carrying the vat of marshmallow had been. Gradually it cleared and Nicola saw that the vat had been overturned in the explosion. The miners who had been standing nearby were covered head to foot in marshmallow. Those who had been further away were removing their helmets and scratching their heads.

Nicola looked back at her friends in the sleigh and saw that they were all covered in tiny pink shreds of marshmallow. Sean was busy peeling them off his clothes and eating them.

Silent Fred turned around again with his board. You all okay?

‘We’re fine,’ answered Nicola. ‘What happened?’

Silent Fred wrote, Explosion.

‘Well, we know that,’ said Greta. ‘What caused it?’

He shrugged and wrote, Don’t know, but Nicola, who was watching him closely, saw a curious look in Silent Fred’s pale blue eyes. It seemed to her that he did know, he just didn’t want to say.

He turned to face the front and brought the feather down twice on the backs of the ShobGobbles. The sleigh moved ahead at a quicker pace, leaving the mine behind them.