Stowaway Boys by Gary Whitmore - HTML preview

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Chapter 22

The Magellan capsule and Lunar Module zoomed toward Earth in outer space between Earth and the Moon.

Inside the Magellan capsule, Lance, Jake, and Clint sat in their seats, still out cold.

"Magellan five. This is Mission Control. Come in Magellan five," Kara called out from the speakers.

Lance, Jake, and Clint did not wake up.

Down on Earth, at the secret military base in Russia, alarms and sirens blared while nuclear missiles moved out of the ground and got into position from their silos.

In the field in the middle of China, three new missile trucks arrived yesterday. They parked near the other trucks that had previously launched their missiles.

Alarms and sirens blared while Chinese Soldiers rushed out of the nearby tents and raced to the new missile trucks.

In the Oval Office of the White House, President Barnaby anxiously waited at his desk for his phone to ring with updated information.

It finally rang, and he quickly snatched the receiver off the phone. "President Barnaby," he promptly blurted into the phone.

"Mister President. This is General Howers. We just learned that the Chinese and Russians have some new nuclear missiles ready to be launched," he said from the phone.

President Barnaby thought for a second, then got mad. "Get our nuclear missiles ready to fire," he ordered.

"Yes, sir! Just give me the go-ahead, and I'll fire the babies in a heartbeat!" the General excitedly replied, inching to blow something up.

"Get them ready and stand by," President Barnaby said.

"Yes, Mister President," said General Howers, dancing for joy inside.

President Barnaby hung up his phone and slammed down his fist, pissed off with the Chinese and Russians.

Upon the top of the asteroid, Todd, Ricky, and Scoota walked and climbed over space junk. The front of the asteroid was still a long way off, and it looked hopeless; plus, they were exhausted.

"Can we take a nap?" Todd asked after a long yawn. "I'm exhausted."

Scoota and Ricky yawned. "That sounds good," Scoota replied.

Scoota, Ricky, and Todd found secure spots between some space junk. They closed their eyes and were soon asleep.

Back down on Earth in a secret military base in America, alarms and sirens blared while nuclear missiles rose out of their silos.

In the secret military base in Russia, alarms and sirens still blared while nuclear missiles got into their final launch position from the silos.

Inside the Russian military base control room, the soldiers configured the consoles to fire the missiles.

"All missile systems are ready to be fired," a male Russian soldier called out into a microphone in Russian while four Russian Generals watched over his shoulders.

In the field in the middle of China, alarms and sirens blared from the missile trucks, and the Chinese soldiers raced back to the tents for cover.

A truck with a trailer drove into the field, and it was the control room.

The General got out of his tent, saw the truck, and walked over it.

Inside the Chinese missile truck control room, four Chinese soldiers turned on the console, and it soon lit up. They turned knobs, flipped switches, and typed on computer keyboards.

The General entered the trailer. "Are we ready?" he asked.

"Yes, sir!" one of the soldiers snapped back.

"Good, we'll wait for our orders," the General said.

 Up in space in the Magellan capsule and Lunar Module, Lance, Jake, and Clint sat passed out, but they stirred a little.

"Magellan five, this is Mission Control. Come in Magellan five," Kara cried out over the speakers.

Clint, Jake, and Lance woke up in a daze.

"Magellan five, this is Mission Control. Come in Magellan five," Kara cried out again from the speakers.

It dawned on them that they were alive when they heard Kara's words over the speaker.

Lance quickly released his straps and rushed over to the microphone. "Mission Control, this is Magellan five. We're alive! I repeat," Lance cried out into the microphone.

Down at Mission Control, Kara stared at her console in disbelief. Did I hear correctly? She thought to herself.

"Mission Control, this is Magellan five. We're alive!" Lance cried out again from the speakers in the room.

All the controllers jumped up, and the room erupted in cheers.

"You're alive! What happened?" Kara asked into her microphone.

In space in the Magellan capsule and Lunar Module, Lance scratched his head, confused, while Jake and Clint looked baffled.

"We don't know. All I remember is something hitting our capsule. Then we woke up on the Moon. Now we're off the Moon somehow," Lance said into his microphone.

"You what?" Kara asked in disbelief. Then there was a long pause. "Have you been drinking? Did you sneak some booze in your capsule?" Kara asked from her microphone.

"No way!" Clint said while he grabbed the microphone.

"Where are you?"

Lance, Jake, and Clint quickly looked out the windows.

"We're back in space and headed to the asteroid," Lance said.

At Mission Control, Howard grabbed the phone from Kara's console and made a call. "Richard, Howard here at Mission Control. We've established contact with the Magellan five capsule. Our astronauts are safe and sound. They're heading back to the asteroid," Howard said into the phone.

At Richard's office in NASA Headquarters, he talked into the phone at his desk. "That's fantastic!" Richard said. "Where did they go?"

"You won't believe this. They claim that they woke up on the Moon then somehow got off it, and are now on their way back to the asteroid," Howard said.

"Did I hear you correctly?" Richard asked as this sounded bizarre.

"That's what they claim."

"They must have hit their heads. Who cares, as long as they're on their way back. That's what's important," Richard said. "Thanks for the update," he added, then quickly hung up the phone.

He stood up and danced around while making another phone call.

In the Oval Office of the White House, President Barnaby drank a cup of hot cocoa with marshmallows at his desk while he sat depressed that the stowaway boys would soon be blown to smithereens.

His phone rang, and he answered it. "President Barnaby."

"Mister President. We've established contact with the Magellan Capsule. The astronauts are alive and heading back to the asteroid," Richard cried out in one breath.

President Barnaby slammed the phone down and quickly picked up the remote. He pressed two buttons, and on the wall of TVs, the Chinese and Russian President appeared.

"We will fire our missiles any minute now," the Russian President said from his TV.

"We also fire our missiles any minute now," the Chinese President said from his TV.

President Barnaby jumped up from his desk and ran over to the wall of TVs.

"Stop! My astronauts are alive and will be back at the asteroid. They'll finish the job," President Barnaby cried out.

"Sorry. We can't take that chance," the Russian President said from his TV.

"We can't take a chance either," the Chinese President said from his TV.

The Russian and Chinese Presidents looked at their computer screens.

Another TV came on by itself, and the German Chancellor was visible, and he was mad. "I just had half of my precious Neuschwanstein castle destroyed by some space junk. Poor Ludwig must be rolling over in his grave," he yelled out from his TV.

"We're going to nuke the asteroid now," the Chinese President said from his TV.

"Good! Nuke it now!" the German Chancellor added from his TV.

"Twenty, nineteen, eighteen, seventeen…" both the Chinese and President called out in unison.

President Barnaby ran back over to his desk. He picked up his red phone.

"General, fire our nuclear missiles at Moscow and Beijing in one minute," President Barnaby ordered.

The Chinese and Russian Presidents looked concerned when they heard his order. They typed on their computers and saw on their monitors that our nuclear missiles were out of their silos and appeared ready to be launched.

From the wall of TVs, President Barnaby watched while the Chinese and Russian Presidents quickly picked up their red phones.

"Stop the missile launch!" the Russian President yelled into his red phone.

"Stop missiles!" the Chinese President yelled into his red phone.

President Barnaby sat down at his desk, relieved. "Thank you," he said.

"If they don't get rid of that asteroid, we will still fire missiles," the Chinese President said from his TV.

"Same here," the Russian President added from his TV.

President Barnaby turned off the TVs with his remote.

He stood up and looked out his window. I hope they succeed. He thought to himself while he looked outside.