Now that it is April, I'm throwing myself into my history revision whenever I can. I need to learn as much as possible before travelling back in time. There are only two months left. I cannot let myself grow distracted, not by anything. Yes, that even includes alien threats.

It starts out as a normal weekend, which most adventures do. We're all busy revising when Mr Smith reports on the missing Matter Compressor. Someone stole it from the Pharos Institute. Professor Rivers, one of the leading scientists there, emailed Mummy asking for her to help them get it back. "Right," Mummy says, "who's up for an outing?"
"I am," Luke says, "revising can wait a little while."
"I'll come," Clyde says.
"Me, too," Rani says.
"Queens?" Mummy asks, "you in?"
"It's the 11th of April," Catalina reminds Mummy, "Emma's older self needs us."
"Sorry, but we need to be with her today," James agrees. "But I'm sure Emma's younger self will be more than happy to go."
"Oh, I—" I begin, but Anne holds her hand out to silence me.
"Emma, it will be good for you to get out of the house." Anne does have a point. If I stay at my books all the time, I'll miss out on time I could spend with my family.
"Alright, I'm in."

Mummy drives us up to an abandoned factory before we climb out of the car. Of course, aliens love factories. I guess they think it's the best place to hide. Whoever stole the Matter Compressor must be trouble if Mr Smith located it here. We walk into the complex and find someone with a rucksack. He opens it, and I can see the top of the Matter Compressor. Mum and Mummy also spot it and start approaching him. He turns to look at us, grabs his rucksack, and runs off. He rounds a corner and disappears. We sprint after him. "There he is!" Clyde yells.
"Don't let him get away!" Mummy yells as he runs away. We turn another corner to find what seems to be, at first glance, a dead end. However, I spot an opening in one of the walls, big enough for any human to get through. We push our way through into a dark storage area. Before us are large piles of cardboard boxes, creating two different corridors within the warehouse.
"We better split up," Mum whispers, "we'll cover more ground." Mummy nods, and we separate into two groups. I go with Luke and Clyde, while Mum, Mummy, and Rani go the other way.

We don't get very far before we hear a farting noise. "Well, we were overdue a Slitheen invasion," I say when we hear someone unzipping a zip and see a blue glow between the boxes. The Slitheen knocks over a couple of boxes. A Slitheen child stands before us and screams, we try to block the exit, but the Slitheen pushes me over and runs off. "Ow!"

Mum, Mummy, and Rani run over to us. "Are you okay?" Mummy asks.
"Never mind me! Where did he go?" We run out of the building, only we can't find the Slitheen child anywhere. I look around, but there are so many places he can hide. Old pieces of equipment stacked one on top of the other are easy places for a Slitheen to hide, even old barrels work.
"We'll need a bloodhound to find the Slitheen," Clyde groans, "and we don't have one."
Mummy pulls a whistle out of her pocket. "Oh! I don't know why I didn't think of it before!" She blows into the whistle, and that's when I remember we brought K-9 with us. Maybe having a robot dog with us will be helpful in upcoming alien invasions.

"Greetings, Mistress," K-9 says as he rolls over to us.
Mummy kneels so she's roughly the same height as K-9. "K-9, we need you to follow a trail."
"He can smell?" I ask. "How?"
"Psychospore and olfactory sensors."
"Ah, cool! That's amazing."
"Affirmative, Mistress Emma."
"We're looking for a Slitheen," Mummy says, and K-9 extends his antenna.
"Alien pheromone detected, Mistress. The trail leads in this direction." K-9 leads the way back through the complex and through a maze of buildings. When this ends, I have no idea how we'll find our way back. Soon, K-9 starts rolling around in circles. "Insufficient data. Insufficient data.2
"You lost them, K-9?" Mummy asks, sounding defeated. "No!"
"Affirmative, Mistress." We start looking around, hoping to find clues hinting where the Slitheen is. If we can find something, we'll find them.

Rani looks over at one of the warehouses, and I see a blue web-like structure emerging from the warehouse and covering the sky above us. "Do you think that helps?" Rani asks.
"Follow me," Mummy says, and we follow her into the warehouse.

It's very dark, and at one point, we almost have to feel where we are going. However, we make it out to the other end without losing anyone. Before us are two Slitheen and a strange, almost sci-fi-looking set-up. Alright, they're aliens, of course, the machine would look like it came out of a science fiction novel.
"Switch it off, boys!" Mummy yells.
"Sarah Jane Smith," the older Slitheen says, glaring at us, "how predictable."
"I prefer reliable," Mummy says as we walk into the light. "Now, I won't say it again. Switch. It. Off." Mummy uncaps her lipstick as she speaks and readies herself to aim it at the machine.
"No chance." Mummy fires her lipstick in the direction of the machine, but nothing happens. She tries it again, but still no luck.
"Good try, Miss Smith, but not good enough," the child says, "it's sonic wave resistant." I look at the countdown— we only have a minute left.

"So, what does that thing do?" Clyde asks. "And why steal the Matter Compressor?"
"This little planet's stuffed full of carbon," the adult Slitheen explains, "and thanks to your compressor, we can crush it."
"And when carbon's crushed enough, it turns into a diamond," Rani realises.
"A gigantic diamond, worth a fortune."
"K-9, now!" Mummy yells, and we all step to one side.
K-9 approaches the machine and fires at it. "Maximum destruction mode," he says.
"It's still going!" I realise. We have thirty seconds.
"Grab the girl!" The older Slitheen says, and the child grabs me.
"Get your grubby claws off me!"
"Let her go!" Luke yells.
"Nah, don't do that. K-9, keep firing."
"Affirmative, Mistress Emma." K-9 fires at the machine again.
The child Slitheen grabs me around the neck. "Try that again and you'll be sorry!"
"Nah, they won't," I say, "K-9, continue firing."
"Affirmative," K-9 fires again. The Slitheen rips its claws through my throat, and I'm unconscious before my body hits the ground.

"Sontaran again?" Captain Smith asks.
"Slitheen, actually," I say.
"Not those buggers again!" Will groans. "What did they try and do this time?"
"Tried to turn Earth into a diamond by crushing the planet."
"When are they ever going to stop pestering Earth?"
"Probably never."

I notice Henry, Herbert, and Joseph are looking behind me. I turn around to see two orange Slitheen in the same room as my parents, Luke, Clyde, Rani, and the two Slitheen. "What are they?" Joe asks.
"No clue," I reply, "but I guess they're from Raxacoricofallapatorius."
"I am not going to even ask how you pronounced that." The other officers all start laughing. We can see them talking, but we cannot hear what they're saying. "How comes this only started now and not any other time Emma or the other queens came through?"
"Maybe the Higher Authority knows," Captain Smith suggests. "I will ask next time I see them."
"Them?" I ask.
"The Higher Authority prefers going by they/them pronouns."
"Ah, that makes sense."

"They must be the Blathereen Emma talked about," Henry says.
"Blathereen?" I ask.
"They are also from Raxacoricofallapatorious. I would be cautious of them if I were you."
"Let me guess; they also cause trouble."
"That is right. You said something about Luke falling ill."
"But the Bane created Luke as the perfect human being. He's never fallen ill before." I look back to find the image of Earth glowing brighter. "I guess that means my time here's up." I look back at the officers. "I'll pass on what you said."

The next thing I know, I'm looking up at the ceiling. "Emma, you're alright!" Mum smiles, and she slowly helps me up.
"Yeah, I'm okay." I get to my feet, and it only takes a couple of moments for me to find my balance. I turn around to find the Blathereen there. "Hi."
"Hello," one of the Blathereen says. "You must be Emma Murdoch."
"It's Smith-White. I haven't travelled back in time yet."
"Well, Emma, your work is spoken of great regard back on Raxacoricofallapatorious, especially of the work you did with the Titanic officers. Your future self should be proud."
"That's the problem. Considering it's the Titanic and what happened, she doesn't feel proud. If anything, she probably feels guilt."
"Why is that?" The female Blathereen asks. Mummy then tells them about the fate of the Titanic. "Oh, I see. Emma, my name's Leef Apply Glyn, Leef for short. This is my husband, Tree Lorn Acre. I call him Tree."
"It's nice to meet you both." Not when my brother's health is at stake.

I make myself scarce as soon as we get back home. I shut myself up in my room with a history book and refuse to come out, even when my parents call me. "Luke's health is at risk," I whisper to myself, "I will not dine with the enemy." I do not go with the others when they head over to Rani's house. The queens come around, leaving my older self with the Titanic officers, and we all cook dinner together.
"We haven't done this in a long time," Catalina says. "Where's Sarah Jane, Ruby, and Luke?" I explain to the others what happened, and they all grow concerned.
"Maybe we should trust the Titanic officers on this one, no matter what your parents say," Jane suggests, "we know them, but we don't know the Blathereen. They could be up to anything!"

We hear the others return a few hours later and we join them in the attic. I notice that Mummy is carrying a plant. "What's that?" I ask.
"This is Rakweed, the Blathereen gave it to us," Mummy explains, "but we want to make sure it's safe before we give it to other people."
"Huh?"
"The Blathereen said it could end famine," Rani says, "isn't that amazing?"
"I'd tread cautiously around that thing," I say. "From what I'd learnt, the Blathereen cause Luke to fall ill."
"What?" Luke asks. "How?"
"I don't know but keep your guard up."
"How may I assist you, Sarah Jane?" Mr Smith asks.
"I need you to analyse something." Mummy holds the Rakweed out, and Mr Smith scans it. I glare at the plant.
"Oh, come on, Emma," Rani groans, "it doesn't bite." Mummy takes the plant over to her desk and sits down.
"I wouldn't bet on it. Slitheen, Blathereen, whatevereen, they're all from Raxacoricofallapatorius, and that place spells trouble!"
"You can't condemn an entire race just because a few of them are bad! Sarah Jane, what do you think?"
"If I make this public, it'll be huge,' Mummy says, 'no more saving the world in secret, it will all be front-page news. So will the Titanic officers coming back, the time travel. I don't know if—"
"Analysis complete," Mr Smith says, interrupting Mummy, "although the Rakweed has a more complex cell structure than Earth flora, there is, as far as I can tell, no threat."
"Right, it's time you lot were in bed. School tomorrow. And you've all got a test. Am I right?"
"A test?" Clyde asks. "I'm sorry, did someone say "test"? I don't really understand that word."
"Test," K-9 says, "an assessment of knowledge. A method through which one human demonstrates intellectual superiority over others." We all start laughing, and Clyde looks irritated.
"He knows what it means, K-9," Rani says, "just not how to pass them."
"Anne, Jane, Emma, Luke, Rani, bed. I've put a towel in your room. Clyde, the rest of you, home. And tell the Titanic officers to not make it too late."
"They'll say you're not their mother," Mum points out.
"As long as they live here, they will need to respect our boundaries."
"Ah, I won't be a sec," Clyde says as we head downstairs. He later calls, "I'll see myself out!"

I'll keep an eye on the Rakweed tomorrow. Should I fake an illness so I can do it?