“How long will this take? Getting out into the right sector for Mr Mouse, I mean?”

Wiz looked up at Walpurgis with his head on one side. Serious face.

“Quite a while” said the TricTrucTracker. “Could be a whole a netday… and that’s just to get us the right Portalmatch. Then we have to clear exit. Which doesn’t just happen, you know!”

“A day, hmmm?” said Fromage, twirling his mousey whiskers. “Alors, ca va!” *

“But we need the time, anyway” Walpurgis went on. “Poor Lucia is in a state!”

And it was true. With the damage done by the Zeensucker, the Tracboat badly needed attention. As Dot looked up and down inside Lucia, she could see that only about three of the little screens along her sides were undamaged. The rest were all blackened and twisted. In some cases little streams of plastic had melted down the front of them.

“Quelle débacle!” ** said Fromage, scampering down from Dot’s shoulder and peering up at one particularly bad screen. “ ‘Ow will you feex?”

“And look at the opticons!” said Dot, leaning over the side of Lucia to look at the golden eyes along her side – some half shut, some wide open, some just hanging by a wire - all obviously seriously damaged. The little propellers – the propters – were also in a bad way.

“Oh, we can do all that all right!” said Walpurgis.

“Easy for you” muttered Eldenbeam. Carmeramalita rolled her eyes at Dot. “It’s us lot who have to do the work. AND find the right key for musicenance!”

Walpurgis flushed angrily. “Well we can’t just leave poor Lucia like this.” The Tracboat did a little dip, as if to say no indeed! “Come on everybody! Key of C!”

Eldenbeam grumped, but joined all his fellow TricTrucTrackers as they stood up and got in a line, tallest down to smallest.

Then Carmeramalita went: “Baaaaaa… ” in a high musical tone.

“Baaaa… ” went Hombellyton, slightly lower.

“Ba- BAAAAA” That was Katzilow, lower still.

“BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” Eldenbeam, lowest of all.

And that’s musicenance - music maintenance. Just as the TricTrucTrackers can sing a Tracboat into being, so too can their singing voices fix her up!

Well they should be able to. Because when they stopped their first go at getting the right key, before the full fix-Lucia-up song, and looked at the little screens - no change.

“Key of B flat, please!” said Walpurgis, holding up a paw, just like a conductor with an orchestra.

More “Baaaaa’s”. Nothing.

Key of A, F sharp minor, B, E, A flat… nothing.

Lucia seemed to slump down in the sky a bit, as if she feared she’d never be “feexed”.

Walpurgis was starting to look worried. “OK… OK… let’s try the key of G!”

“Never works” muttered Hombellyton. Walpurgis glanced at him and sighed.

But off they went. Lots of “Ba – AAAAAAAAA’s” in the key of G.

All this time, Wiz had been getting more and more worked up. Can’t stand singing, you see. Whenever Britney Spears is on TV, he either leaves the room or howls and HOWLS.

Well maybe Britney does lots of her songs in the key of G.

Because, suddenly –

“A-ROOOOO!” Wiz threw back his head and howled. A big, long, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel howl, full of soul and meaning,

The TricTrucTrackers stopped their musicenance, and gazed at him, beaks wide open.

“A-ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!”

Pop-pop-pop-pop!

There it was! Like a row of dominoes falling up, the little screens all along the side of Lucia suddenly went back to just the way they were before!

From outside the Tracboat:

Pip-pip-pip-pip!

Dot went to the side and looked over. That was the opticons fixed!

Whirr-whirr-whirr-whirr!

AND the propters, every single one!

“I… I’ve never seen anything like it!” spluttered Walpurgis.

“Sorry!” muttered Wiz, “Just can’t STAND that Britney sound!”

“Sorry?” crowed Eldenbeam. “SORRY? That could have taken us hours of singing! And look – the musicenance all done!”

And it was! And Lucia seemed to know. Even her long ribbon-like ‘Combers’, which had been lying flat on her deck ever since the Zeensucker attack, were standing straight up again and fluttering in the net-breeze, ready to comb the net-sky in a new search.

“Excellent!” said Walpurgis. “Well done, Wiz! You’ve become quite a TricTrucTracker!”

Wiz blushed – which in his case, only when he’s on the net of course, means his brown and cream fur kind of glows.

“Glad I could help” he mumbled.

Suddenly Dot saw something, hovering in the sky far ahead of them – a shimmering, silvery oval, about the size of a house door.

“What’s that?” she asked, pointing.

Walpurgis swing round.

“Aha!” he said. “Even better! A Portalmatch!”