Book Description

Brady lost his father over a year ago and is still coping by refusing to care about anything anymore. He's failing in school, rejecting the efforts of his friend Franky to help him and lashing out at his mother for dating Brady's science teacher, Mr. Tibbetts. Then his dog, Skip, hears something outside one night and Brady follows him out into the darkness where they find a strange bio-mechanical train which tries to run over Brady. He escapes with Skip only to find that Skip has stolen something off the train, a strange, dark, glowing tube. Brady's mother doesn't believe his tale, so he calls Franky and together they find the tiny alien (Lil Dude) hidden in the tube. As Brady and Franky try to figure out what to do with this strangely recalcitrant little creature, a larger alien, Rotaxis prowls the neighborhood, looking for the stolen tube. And although Rotaxis has a perfectly competent, shape changing, wise cracking, personal assistant, Chimera, he refuses her offers of assistance and in doing so, manages to send Earth through a wormhole. Brady and Franky wake the next morning to see a lime green sky, three suns, and a string of planets now on a collision course with Earth. When neither Mr. Tibbetts or the conspiracy nut sheriff, Sheriff Joe, can figure out what to do, Brady grows desperate. And when Rotaxis manages to hunt them down, Brady and Franky steal his shape shifting train space craft and head out into the galaxy with Lil Dude and (unbeknownst to them) Chimera, to search for the Wormhole Reverser that will save the planet. As Brady navigates through the galaxy, he regains his confidence and remembers what his father said about taking responsibility. As the voice of the still unseen Chimera guides them safely toward their destination, Brady bonds with the ship and begins to suspect that the tale Lil Dude has told them is not the entire truth. After an excursion to another planet where Brady and Franky face incredible creatures, some of whom want them for supper and others who re-open their hearts, the kids find the Wormhole Reverser. But on the journey home, Brady discovers that Lil Dude not only intended to destroy the Earth, but that it is all part of an inter-galactic game. And now Brady is part of it, and must win at all costs. Franky and Brady return to Earth, where, with the help of Mr. Tibbetts, Sheriff Joe and the real Rotaxis, Brady races against time to save the world. And when the battle is over and the Earth returns to its normal orbit, Brady wants nothing more than to go home and start his real life again. Too bad that somewhere in the galaxy, Brady's name appears on the game board & nd another game is just about to begin.