Stowaway Boys by Gary Whitmore - HTML preview

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Chapter 26

Inside the Stardonia tow ship, Biggka and Redka heard all the transmissions and knew Scoota was in big trouble.

“We better see what we can do,” Biggka told Redka. He pressed some buttons and moved his control stick forward.

The asteroid smacked into the You Can Run in outer space above Earth, But You Can’t Hide satellite.

The satellite tumbled down to Earth.

In the Space Spy Agency Peek A Boo We See You room, Johnson pulled out his hair the second he saw the “Lost Transmission” message flash across his screen.

“Wilbur, we lost our last satellite,” Johnson yelled out.

He heard a door shut as Wilbur was scared and left the building.

In outer space above Earth, the asteroid continued to fall to Earth. It smacked into numerous satellites along the way. This created a shower of debris tumbling down to Earth.

High in the sky, an airliner was going to Germany, where people wanted to hide out in the Alps, thinking they would be safer in those mountains.

Inside the airliner, a woman looked out her window and saw four fireballs race out of the sky. She got horrified and screamed and pointed at her window.

Other passengers quickly looked out their windows and saw showers of fireballs that zoomed out of the sky.

A big bully, muscular man screamed like a girl when he saw fireballs from his window.

Soon all the passengers screamed, thinking they would die any second.

High in the sky, the airliner made numerous evasive maneuvers and missed the fireballs by inches.

It flew away safe toward Germany.

Lance, Clint, and Jake worked the controls inside the Magellan capsule.

“Mission control, this is Magellan five,” Clint called out in his microphone.

“Go ahead, Magellan five,” Kara replied from the speakers.

“The engines of the asteroid will not start. I repeat it will not start. The asteroid is falling to Earth faster,” Clint cried out in a panic into his microphone.

In the Oval Office of the White House, President Barnaby sat at his desk with his phone stuck to his ear. He looked like he wanted to cry.

“That’s not the news I wanted to hear, Richard,” President Barnaby softly said into his phone while fighting back the tears.

“I’m sorry, sir. We gave it our best shot. It was nice knowing you, and we had some great times in the past,” Richard replied from the phone.

President Barnaby hung up the phone.

The wall of TVs came on by themselves.

“US of A failed. It’s time we nuke!” the Chinese President yelled from his TV.

“We also nuke!” the Russian President yelled from his TV.

All the other leaders of the world cheered in agreement.

President Barnaby got up from his desk and stormed out of the Oval Office.

In the secret military base in Russia, alarms and sirens blared while the nuclear missiles came out of silos from the ground. They got into position and were aimed at the sky.

In the middle of China, Chinese soldiers worked on the trucks in the field. All the nuclear missiles from the three military trucks rose simultaneously. They pointed at the sky and stopped.

Inside the Lunar Module, Scoota floated to the window and looked out.

He saw Earth while it got closer. Scoota wondered what he could do. Then he looked at the control box on the floor.

He floated over to it and kicked it. He banged the box with his fist a couple of times.

Outside in outer space, the Stardonia tow ship zoomed after the asteroid.

Inside the Magellan capsule, Todd, Ricky, Lance, Jake, and Clint huddled together while looking out their windows. They saw the tow ship while it zoomed to the asteroid.

“That spaceship must be from Scoota’s planet,” Lance said.

“He did say he had a ship coming to rescue him,” Todd replied.

“What happens if, you know?” Ricky asked while he held back his tears.

“We head up to the space station and survive as long as possible,” Clint replied.

Todd and Ricky’s eyes welled up, thinking they would never see home again.

They all continued to watch out the windows.

In outer space, the tow ship flew to the middle of the asteroid.

It slowed down and stayed even with the asteroid. A boom with a hook came out of the back of the ship. The boom was maneuvered from inside the ship, and the hook latched onto a piece of space junk.

The tow ship fired its engines and moved upward a little; it slowed down.

The tow ship was able to slow down the asteroid from falling. But the tow ship was straining and wouldn’t be able to keep this up for much longer.

Inside the Lunar Module, Scoota flipped switches and turned knobs on his control panel.

“Hurry up, Scoota,” Biggka cried out from Scoota’s Space Pad.

Scoota removed his Space Pad from his suit pocket and pressed a button.

The hologram of Biggka and Redka emitted from the Space Pad.

“Our ship can’t last much longer if you don’t ignite those engines, Scoota,” Biggka yelled.

Scoota floated around the module, trying to figure things out.

He floated by the hatch where the cable ran from the control box through the opened hatch.

He saw sparks while the cable touched. Scoota moved the cable and saw some of the insulation was missing, and bare wires were exposed.

He let go of the cable and floated over to the locker where the suits were hung. He opened up a toolbox inside the locker and removed some special tape.

He floated back to the cable and quickly taped over the bare wires.

Outside the asteroid at the rear, the three engines at the rear all started with a loud vroom!

The asteroid ascended upward.

Inside the Lunar Module, Scoota felt the asteroid move upward. “I did it, Lance!” he cried out.

“Good job, Scoota. You saved the Earth!” Lance cried out from the speakers.

Scoota looked proud of himself for fixing the problem.

In outer space, the asteroid flew upward and away from Earth. The tow ship released its hook from the space junk, and the boom with the hook retracted back inside the ship. The tow ship flew alongside the asteroid.

Inside the Magellan capsule, Todd, Ricky, Clint, Lance, and Jake cheered over the news of the engines firing.

Clint grabbed the microphone. “Mission control, we have good news. The engines of the asteroid have fired, and the asteroid is moving away from Earth. I repeat. The asteroid is moving away from Earth. We’re on our way home,” Clint said into the microphone.

In Mission Control, Kara, Howard, and the controllers danced around the room in joy after hearing the good news.

In the Oval Office of the White House, President Barnaby just received the good news from Richard. He hung up his phone and jumped up from his desk.

He did another dorky victory dance around his office with his arms and legs flying around.

Then he remembered something important.

He rushed over to his desk and grabbed his remote. He pointed it at the wall of TVs.

They came on, and the leaders of the world appeared.

“We completed our job, and the asteroid is moving away from Earth. The threat is over! I repeat, the threat is over! Please stop your missiles!” President Barnaby cried out.

“Stop them!” the German Chancellor, Spanish President, Italian President, English Prime Minister, Canadian President, the Prime Minister of Japan, and the French President all cried out in unison from their TVs.

In the secret military base in Russia, alarms and sirens blared while missiles retracted back into their silos.

In the middle of China, Chinese soldiers worked on the missile trucks and lowered the missiles in the field.

Inside the cave in the Moon mountain, the Man the Moon looked relieved that the asteroid would finally be sent away from Earth.

“I have one more task to perform,” he told Taa and Raa who worked the console.

The Man in the Moon left the cave.

The Man in the Moon walked out of the Moon cave in his spacesuit.

He walked a little way from the mountain and looked at Earth. He pointed a remote control at Earth and pressed a button.

In outer space above Earth, the Lunar Module descent stage separated from the rear of the Magellan capsule.

Everybody looked concerned inside the Magellan capsule because the capsule shook a little when the descent stage separated.

“What was that?” Lance asked, concerned.

“I don’t know,” Clint replied, looking the console over. “But everything seems to be nominal,” he added.

“Well, let’s go home,” Lance said, then grabbed the microphone.