CHAPTER NINE
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I.
The day had come.
I woke up around five-thirty or so. I dressed myself in dark blue cargo pants, a novelty NASA t-shirt, and threw on a backwards Iodine Eyes hat. I grabbed a Fruit Blast Pop Tart from the cabinet in the kitchen and snuck out without a sound.
I had left a little note scribbled on the dry-erase board on the fridge that said, “Europe, here I come!” in order to plant my alibi. Hopefully mom would see that before she thought I was kidnapped or something.
I peddled my bike hard through the early morning darkness that sheltered Kings Town in a cold and quiet state. The wind was cold – it had to be in the forties. Hopefully Bethani was a little warmer this time of year…
After a fifteen-minute ride, I came to Professor Nog’s farm. As I continued up the long driveway, I noticed that he had massive lights shinning onto the barn where the I.P.S. was – you know, not being obvious or anything.
I came to a skid outside of the barn. Principal Smidgeon was already there. He was in a suit and tie, and I’m not sure why. Jakon was there too - early, just as he promised. He had a lawn chair set up, and was sitting in it, drinking a cup of steaming-hot coffee. He turned and waved to me as I approached them.
“Where’s Nog?” I asked.
I’m in the barn, Scout. Hold on, jeez.
Nog sounded irritated for some reason.
“He’s in the barn,” Jakon said.
“Yeah I know, I just heard.”
Professor Ed Nog pushed the barn doors open and came out in a huff. He wore a white lab coat, had a screwdriver in one hand and his other hand was covered in some kind of black oil. “And that’s Professor Nog, Scout. Jeez.” He was definitely irritated.
“What’s wrong? What’s all over your hand?” I asked.
“I woke up at four to get out here and prep the shuttle,” he began to explain, “and when I came out here, the barn doors were unlocked. It looked like someone got in. So I did a once over on the ship, and everything looked fine except for one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“D.R. Fritz was messed with; a latch on the back of him – the screws were loosened. Someone opened up the Fritz and did something to him. I just can’t figure out what.”
“Is he okay?”
“Seems to be, but who knows. He’s responding to everything normally. I went through his system and the details of the trek are still computing. I couldn’t figure out what this ‘ghost’ has done.”
“Did you see or hear anyone this morning?” I asked.
Nog, Smidge and Jakon all stared at me. Okay, I said something stupid.
“You think if Nogger here had heard or saw someone, the Fritz would’ve been tampered with?” Principal Smidgeon lashed out. I was stunned and didn’t respond.
“I’ve been sitting here on guard ever since I showed up,” Jakon said. “There’s been no more funny business on my watch.”
I heard the ground crunching behind me and turned around to see Chuck peddling his Huffy up the driveway. As he slowed down, he nearly lost his balance, and then ended up tossing the bike to the dirt and jogging to his feet, playing it off like he meant to do all that.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hey,” I responded.
“Hey,” everyone else said in unison.
“Are we ready to get this show on the road, boys?” Nog shouted in an excited manner.
Chuck and I were as ready as we’d ever be.
II.
I could smell something rank as Professor Nog strapped me into my seat on the Intergalactic Peace-keeping Shuttle. It reminded me of old pork, with a hint of fart. And that’s exactly what it was - Chuck had farted. The bubbles in my stomach also began to explode like a freshly poured Root Beer, and I let out a nervous clap as well.
Chuck and I farted back and forth for a couple minutes as Nog secured us in tightly. “What’s wrong with ya’s?” He asked, annoyed that he was standing there, marinating in our anxious fumes.
I chuckled at it, but Chuck’s nerves got the best of him. He didn’t seem happy. He was worried about the journey. Actually, I was too a little.
Smidgeon and Jakon walked up the ramp on the back of the shuttle and stood behind the Professor; their arms crossed in an observing manner. Nog made sure we were strapped in tight for the third or fourth time, then stood back in front of us.
“Okay,” he said. “let me go over a few things before this puppy blasts you up there.”
Chuck and I were paying close attention. We didn’t want anything at all going wrong. Nog continued:
“When I start the ship, you will have one minute until the rocket boosters ignite. By this time, you will already be in the sky after a slow, airplane-like take off. From there, D.R. Fritz will take full control of the shuttle. This bad boy will go fast – really fast – and within a couple minutes, you’ll be out of Earth’s atmosphere.
“Once you’ve reached outer space, there are some nuclear thrusters that I’ve installed on the back of the shuttle which will then ignite, and pretty much rocket you through space like a beam of light – like a hyperactive beam of light. Get this, it would take a normal ship 6,500 years to get to the Crab Nebula going at the speed of light. That’s fast, man. With the thrusters I’ve designed, and that the President has signed off on as being ‘legal’, it’ll take you guys two hours.”
“Um, isn’t that a little too fast?” Chuck asked, as I heard a squeaking fart slip from between his cheeks.
“Yeah, it’s super fast. Dangerous as all hell, but with D.R. Fritz in control, you guys are safer than a baby made out of foam, falling onto a foam floor.”
Principal Smidgeon smiled and nodded from behind Nog, almost like he got a little kick out of that comparison.
“Now,” Nog continued, “since the I.P.S. has a gravity converter, you guys will be able to un-strap yourselves and walk around normally. I’d suggest looking out the windows from time to time, because I bet it’s going to be a beautiful sight. Plus, Scout, if we have a quiz or something soon, this would be great preparation.” He winked at me, almost guaranteeing there was going to be a quiz. I got nervous.
“D.R. Fritz will land this thing on Bethani – the estimated coordinates have already been pre-determined and saved to his computers. You guys will get out and follow the Fritz. He has a location tracker already built in. He should be able to pin-point any type of human DNA from anywhere on the planet.”
Nog sighed and I saw a look in his eyes. He was proud of this journey. He was proud to be a part of it, and the one who could make it all happen. I could have sworn I saw a tear trickle down his cheek. But that could have been sweat – it was getting hot in here.
“I think we’re ready,” Nog said. He leaned forward and shook our hands. “Remember all your training. Use the neuro-communication’s device to your advantage. It may be your only hope for answers.” He looked us both in the eyes. “This is monumental, boys - an unheard of journey into the vast unknown corners of space. If the world knew about this, you boys would be trending all over hash tags.”
He clearly didn’t understand what he’d said. “Any final questions?” he asked.
Chuck was silent. But there was something I wanted to ask – something that had been bothering me since the first day I knew about all this. I raised my hand.
“Scout,” Nog called on me.
“When I first stumbled upon this whole thing up near your classroom, you had a little device with a red button that you pressed and it made the alien vanish back to Bethani. What was that thing?”
“Oh that?” Nog said, pulling it out of his white lab coat pocket. “This is a…well, I don’t have a name for it. A vanishing device, I guess. I designed it and built it myself. It was developed to teleport any otherworldly beings back to their planet of origin. They have to be within a five-yard radius for it to work though, so I had to wait for that thing to get right outside of the door. You know what…” he said, grabbing my backpack from a closed compartment on the other wall of the shuttle. He put the device into one of the pockets and zipped it back up.
“Take it with you, you never know what you’ll need there.” He said, closing and locking the compartment back up.
“Are you sure? What if you’re attacked?”
“I made like five of these things, brotha! We’re all cool!” Nog said. “Anything else?”
I had nothing, and Chuck obviously had nothing except for a soiled pair of superhero boxers.
“Then it’s time,” Nog stated, and then tripped over his own feet as he, the Smidge and Jakon left the shuttle.
III.
Chuck and I sat against the inside wall of the I.P.S., secured tightly to our seats. Chuck was breathing heavily to my right. I looked over at him and watched as the poor kid was on the verge of hyperventilating.
“It’s okay, man,” I tried to say in a soothing voice, but it came off kind of seductive. “This blast off will be over in no time.”
“I’m not worried about the blast off, Scout. What if we don’t make it? What if the ship crashes, or we get killed or something? What if Mandy, Farrow and Radar are already dead? You can’t explain something like that!”
All of Chuck’s points were good ones. I’d thought about all of those things as well. “Were in a situation, man. We just have to deal with the cards that have been dealt to us. Let’s go into this thing with an open mind. Look at the positives.” I scrambled my brain for the positives. “We’re the first two people in history to go to another planet that has life – in another galaxy might I add. We’re pretty much superheroes by now. We carry cool laser guns, were trained for combat -”
THUURRMMP! I was interrupted by the sound of the ship starting up. “Here we go!” I shouted and hung on.
The shuttle hummed and jolted back and forth a couple times. When it settled, it sounded like a running engine on an airplane. Chuck closed his eyes. I left mine open; I wanted to take it all in.
You boy’s ready?
“Yes, sir,” I said.
Don’t call me sir. That’s my father’s name.
Nog waited another few seconds and then started to count down from three in a very slow and vigorous way.
Three…
Two…
…One.
There was a loud crashing sound and steam poured out of all the vents on the walls and ceilings inside the shuttle. The lights dimmed and were replaced with dark red emergency back-up lights. Chuck started to cry.
I could feel the I.P.S. start to move slowly. The engine started to roar, and the constantly loud hum that the ship was expressing was becoming deafening. I looked straight across from me where there was a small window on the wall. I watched as we slowly rolled out of the barn and into the dark and cold early morning of Kings Town.
The shuttle began to shake as I felt us picking up speed. I looked out the window again and watched as the white fence around Nog’s farm seemed to pass us by slowly, and then within seconds, like a speeding freight train.
My eyes widened and I felt pressure on my body. I looked around and the I.P.S. was now shaking violently. I looked at Chuck – he had passed out.
I quickly turned my head back to the window and didn’t even realize we were in the sky already. With one final THUD! I heard and felt the rocket boosters on the back of the shuttle explode. My body was forced hard against the back of my seat. It was paralyzing – I couldn’t move at all.
I looked out the window again and couldn’t see anything. It was dark and everything was moving so fast. I started to feel dizzy, and then it really sunk in – I was a fourteen-year-old being blasted into space in a homemade space shuttle built by my high school Astronomy teacher, on my way to another galaxy to save three people from evil robotic aliens. Some would roll their eyes and say “yeah, right.” I, however, say “Awesome!”
The shuttle seemed to slow down a little bit. I glanced out the window and it was official; we were in outer space. I could see stars in the far corners of the universe and I could see Earth still close by.
“Initiating Nuclear Thrusters,” D.R. Fritz spoke in a very dry, metallic tone. I had never heard the guy speak before.
Instantly, the nuclear thrusters were ignited and it sounded like an atomic bomb blew up right next to my ear. The entire shuttle flashed a blinding white color before it settled down, leaving me blinking ferociously as my vision came back.
The sound of the thrusters dissipated after a few minutes, and then D.R. Fritz made his second announcement, “You may now walk freely about the cabin.”
I reached down and un-hooked all eleven latches on my seat, freeing myself from it. I immediately rushed to the window and looked out into space. It was beautiful – like a painting. The stars were bright and Earth already appeared to be tens of thousands of miles away. We were moving at the speed of light, but it didn’t really feel like it since space was so vast.
I glanced around the galaxy and could see the outlines of swirling and multicolored splotches of light and gas – nebulas. We were heading to the Crab one. And in a couple hours, we’d be landing on an unexplored planet. What crazy adventures awaited us?
I went back and unhooked Chuck from his seat. Still unconscious, he fell hard to the metal floor. I sat with him until he finally woke up.
IV.
The journey started off fairly relaxing. Chuck stared out the window for at least an hour after he woke up, and I sat in the corner reading part one of Dragon Wind. I could tell Phil had written this a while back. It was sort of cheesy, lacked any kind of complicated vocabulary, and seemed to be a complete rip-off of every fantasy video game ever made. It dealt with a chilling wind that came across a far away land, froze the villages, and it was up to a young hero named Otis to journey across the fantasy world and solve the puzzle of why his land was frozen over.
I was about halfway done with it – it was only seventy-five pages – but for some reason, I don’t know if it was just because it was our pal Philly who wrote it, I wanted to read his whole series. Phil surprised me with his hobby. It was definitely inspirational.
“Do you think were almost there?” Chuck asked. Nog said it would take about two hours. I looked at my watch and only about an hour and fifteen minutes had drug by.
“Almost. Forty-five minutes or so, man.”
I looked down the center aisle of the shuttle to where D.R. Fritz was sitting in the control pit. Ahead of him were large, thick glass windows that portrayed the cosmic universe that lied ahead. So many wonders, mysterious and adventures out there.
I went back to reading Phil’s book and tried to lose myself in its generic story, hoping it would make our trip go by a little faster. Chuck sat down next to me, leaned his head back and shut his eyes.
“Approaching cosmic mass known as Bethani,” The metallic echo of D.R. Fritz’s voice woke me up out of a nap. In front of me, Dragon Wind sat on the floor. I must have dozed off. I looked over at Chuck who was waking up from his slumber.
I glanced over at Fritz, who repeated his previous statement. We were there! “Chuck, we’re there!”
Chuck and I stumbled to our feet and dashed up behind Fritz. We looked out of the front windows and saw a gigantic planet sitting before us. The I.P.S. slowed its’ speed as we entered the area.
The planet was brown with darker brown swirls all over it. It was hard to compare it to the size of any other planets, because frankly, my attention was elsewhere in Astronomy class. Chuck and I were in awe of the massive planet.
“Please secure yourselves for landing,” D.R. Fritz said, his voice echoing through the shuttles’ cabin.
Chuck and I ran back to our seats where we strapped ourselves in the best we could, and hung on as we felt the shaking vibrations of the shuttle as it entered Bethani’s atmosphere. The sounds were loud again, just as they were during blast off.
The I.P.S. shook violently as the brightness from outside over took the inside of the shuttle. Once again, it was blinding.
“Hold on, Scout!” Chuck shouted over all the loudness. What did he think I was doing?
I kept my eyes glued to the window because I wanted to know the exact moment we were in the atmosphere. I wanted to see Bethani.
A few minutes passed by where I couldn’t see anything out the window, and then it cleared. I could feel the shuttle’s vibrations slack off and I could finally see outside. It was cloudy; dark gray clouds in the sky threatened a storm of some kind. When I was able to see the land itself, it shocked me. I didn’t really know what I was expecting to see, but what I saw was…a forest. We seemed to be landing in or around a large, thick forest.
“Descending,” Fritz’s voiced echoed.
I kept looking outside as we lowered to the ground. The huge and odd-looking trees seemed to grow right before my eyes as we lowered into the forest. We hit ground, and the shuttle shook hard before falling still. The engines shut off and all was quiet.
Chuck and I unlatched ourselves and stood up.
“Prepare for dismount,” D.R. Fritz said.
I assumed that meant we were getting off the shuttle now. Chuck and I strapped on our backpacks, made sure we had everything we were going to need, and armed ourselves with our laser phasers.
I looked at Chuck. “You pumped, man?”
“Yeah,” he said; I could see it in his eyes.
We were on another planet; the whole thing was ours to explore. We had a mission, we had laser guns – we were on top of the world. We moved to the rear end of the shuttle where, after Fritz did some computer stuff, the back gate opened, and a ramp lowered, embedding itself into the soft soil below.
Chuck and I slowly walked down the ramp, creating suspense, and then we heroically set foot on the planet of Bethani.