Chapter 17
Back on earth in Florida, it was a news media frenzy down at the space center. Hundreds of news media reporters raced to Florida from all over the world the second the news spread. They all wanted to get a glimpse of the Neila 1 spaceship to show their viewers.
Kirk was detained by the Brevard County Sheriff's department and further questioned. He repeatedly told the detectives that Timmy, Frankie, and Monica traveled on a modified Cousteau capsule to the planet Neila. He told them about Prince Luna's dilemma with his mean cousin that wanted to take over earth.
The Sheriff's Department placed Kirk in a local mental ward for further observations.
The Watson, Blake, and Hernandez families heard about Kirk's story. Leslie, Elaine, and Rose cried most of the days and nights thinking about their kids' possibility of being on another planet.
Back at Neila, Neila 14 raced back down to the planet.
It was not too long before it flew over Neilaville and flew back to the Army base.
Luna landed the spaceship back on the flight line.
The door opened, and Luna stepped out with Sona and the Space Dreamers right behind him.
The Surfers ran up to the Neila 14 and greeted Luna.
"We're so sorry, Luna. But Meena got the best of us," Lon said.
"I take it you didn't get to the Governing Council in time," Lorge asked with a sad look thinking they failed with their mission.
"No! We saved his crown!" Timmy blurted out all excited.
The other Space Dreamers nodded in agreement.
"And the Governing Council arrested Meena, Boe, Burpy, and Dopey. I'm going to be King! But there's another problem. Father is stranded on Deserta, so I came back to get a tow spaceship," Luna told them.
"Well, let's go rescue him!" Saul added.
Bingo looked at another opened hangar to the right. "There's a tow ship over in that hangar," he said while he pointed at the hangar.
Everybody looked and saw a spaceship with a boom and hook. It was like the one the Space Dreamers used to rescue Luna from jail but larger with front and back seats.
"Let's go rescue Luna's father," Monica called out looking brave.
"We'll take the tow ship," Lon said.
"We'll go with the Surfers," Frankie replied.
"I'll meet you at Deserta," Luna said.
"I need to go to the docks, mom and pop are coming in on the Cruise ship," Sona said.
Luna gave her a quick kiss on the lips then ran back inside Neila 14.
Sona ran over to the Surfers hovering sky boards.
Timmy looked at Monica and wanted to kiss her, but he refrained.
"Let's go," Lon told everybody.
The Surfers and the Space Dreamers all ran over to the hangar.
The engines for Neila 14 started up with a whirl. Then they whined louder, and it lifted off the flight line.
It ascended away into the sky.
Sona jumped on Lon's sky board and took off into the sky. She flew away to the direction of the green river.
A few minutes later, Neila 14 raced out into outer space away from Neila.
Five minutes later, the tow spaceship raced out into outer space from Neila. It flew off after Neila 14. The Surfers sat in the front seat while the Space Dreamers sat in the rear seat.
Way off in the distance, the Cruise spaceship made a slow descent down to Neila.
It was a short trip in space to Deserta, and all Luna could think about was how all this mess was his fault. He had doubts he could make a good King.
Neila 14 raced down toward the desert planet.
It flew all around the desert five hundred feet off the dirt.
Way high up in the clear blue sky, the tow spaceship raced after Neila 14.
King Tona's Cadillac limo was still stuck in the desert with him and Albie sitting in the shade under the raised back end.
King Tona handed Albie that liquid container. He turned it upside down, and a single drop of water dropped into his mouth.
They heard a whirl while a spaceship descended out of the sky.
They looked up at the sky and saw Neila 14 flying at them.
"It's one of our ships," King Tona said with a parched dry mouth while he got out from under his limo and stood up in the hot sun.
Albie got out from under the limo and stood next to King Tona. They watched while Neila 14 landed thirty feet from them.
The doors of Neila 14 opened, and Luna jumped rushed out.
"Luna!" King Tona called out in his parched dry voice.
Albie smiled when he saw Luna.
Luna ran over to his father, who grabbed and hugged him.
"Father, I'm so sorry for causing this problem," Luna told him.
"Why did you fly to earth?" King Tona asked.
They saw the tow spaceship while it landed next to Neila 14. The engines whined down and turned off.
The doors to the tow spaceship opened, and the Surfers jumped out. Then the rear doors opened, and the Space Dreamers all jumped out.
King Tona saw the Space Dreamers walk away from the tow spaceship with the Surfers.
He grabbed Luna and immediately jumped in front of him. "Earthlings!" King Tona yelled out in a panic.
Albie saw the Space Dreamers, and he jumped back and hid deeper under the limo and cringed with fear.
"It's okay, father. They're my friends from earth. They helped me come home after Meena had me shot down by their planet," Luna told him while he walked away from King Tona and walked over to the Space Dreamers.
"Yeah, they're cool King Tona," Bingo said while he placed his left arm around Monica's shoulder.
Timmy looked jealous.
King Tona looked at the Space Dreamers. "Cool!" King Tona said when it dawned on him what Luna previously said. "Meena did what?" he asked Luna.
"It's a long story," replied Luna as he placed his left arm around King Tona's shoulder.
Luna, King Tona, and Albie walked to Neila 14 with Luna telling the whole story.
The Surfers walked back to the tow spaceship with the Space Dreamers. They got inside and started it up. Lon drove with the assistance of Monica. They hovered the tow ship over to King Tona's limo.
While Neila 14 started its engines and soon lifted off the desert, the Surfers and the Space Dreamers connected the hook of the tow spaceship to the rear of King Tona's limo.
Back at Neila, the Cruise spaceship slowly descended to the docks on the green river in Neilaville.
The Cruise spaceship stopped near a dock that hovered twenty feet up in the air with stairs that led to the main dock.
After a few minutes, ten gang planks automatically extended and hovered at the Cruise spaceship. Then ten doors opened up on the ship.
Hundreds of Neilas walked out of the ten opened doors with suitcases in hand.
They walked down the hovering gangplanks to the main dock.
Sona stood in the main dock with Lon's sky board hovering inches above the dock. She scanned everybody for her parents.
After two minutes of Neilas walking past her, she finally saw Sona Sr. and Fona walking towards her each carrying a suitcase. She waved at them.
They saw her and waved back.
Sona ran over to them and gave them each a quick kiss on their cheeks.
"How was your cruise?" Sona asked.
"It was marvelous. How was your time alone?" Fona replied.
"Well, it was fascinating, to say the least," Sona told them while she grabbed her mother's suitcase and carried it for her.
Fona looked at Sona, and his stomach made him feel she had something to tell them. "Okay, Sona, what happened?"
Sona looked at them and knew they would find out soon. "Well, it all started," she said and started to tell them about her adventure with Luna and the earthlings while they walked down the main dock.
Later that day, on the sidewalk off of Neilaville Parkway, at a newsstand, a hologram emitted a newspaper with "General Meena's Evil Plan Revealed. Prince Luna Was Innocent! King Luna Rescued By Prince Luna!" headlines.
Numerous Neilas stood by it and read the headlines. They all clapped with their standard seal sound.
"Looks like he's going to be a great King!" said a female Neila.
"Yep, I guess we had him figured all wrong," a male Neila replied.
All the surrounding Neilas nodded in agreement while they clapped.
Back on earth in Florida, it was a clear night sky with twinkling stars.
Scooter, Ricky, and Ernst stood out by the back of their homes. They all gazed up at the stars and wondered if their kids were still alive on that far away planet called Neila. They now believed Kirk's story.
It was the next day on the planet of Neila.
In Neilaville, the grand auditorium was packed with Neilas who looked extremely happy.
At the back of a stage behind a red carpet, was Lon with a strange guitar, Saul with a peculiar bass guitar, Lorge with another unusual guitar and Bingo with a unique looking drum that hung from his neck. They started up another weird alien song, which sounded like a national anthem. It was the Neila national anthem called "Peaceful Neila."
King Tona entered the stage from the right side in his best-dressed red robe with a flowing red cape. He used this one for special ceremonies like the one being held today.
He walked on the red carpet and stopped and stood in the center of the stage. He faced an anxious audience and waited.
Luna entered from the left side of the stage and wore a fancy red outfit and held the crown in his hand. He looked so proud while he walked over and stood next to his father's left side and faced the audience. He now had his hair combed more professionally and got rid of those spikes.
Governing councilmembers 1, 2, 3 and 4 entered the stage from the right side while governing councilmembers 5, 6, and 7 entered the stage from the left side of the stage. They walked over and stood behind King Tona and Luna.
The Surfers finished playing the national anthem.
Governing councilmember 8 entered from the right side of the stage and the Space Dreamers followed behind them.
The Space Dreamers waited behind the other councilmembers while councilmember 8 walked over and stood in front of King Tona and Luna. He faced the audience.
"Under Neila law forty-five dash seventeen, King Tona is hereby officially retired from service as King of Neila. Also under Neila law forty-five dash eighteen, the next of kin in possession of the crown at the exact moment of this official ceremony is at this moment declared King of Neila."
Councilmember 8 took the crown from Luna and placed it on Luna's head.
"At this exact moment, Prince Luna is at this moment declared King of Neila and shall have the name, King Luna," Councilmember 8 addressed the audience.
Everybody stood up and clapped with the standard Neila seal cheer.
King Luna had a look of extreme confidence and a huge smile on his face when he saw that his people loved the fact he was now King.
Tona got a huge proud smile while he glanced over and saw his son with the crown on his head.
"Okay, please be seated. We have some more officiating to complete," Councilmember 8 said to the audience.
From the left side of the stage, Sona entered wearing a beautiful long flowing dress with a small cute Neila girl who followed carrying a Queen's crown on a red fluffy pillow.
They walked over, and Sona stood next to Luna.
That girl walked over to Council member 8, who took the Queen's crown off the pillow and placed it on Sona's head.
"Under King Luna's wishes, Sona is at this moment declared Queen Sona," Councilmember 8 said to the audience.
In the front row of the audience, Sona Sr. and Fona both wiped tears from their eyes, as they have waited for this moment for ten years.
"King Luna! Queen Sona!" the audience chanted numerous times while they stood up.
Councilmember 8 motioned for the audience to sit and be quiet.
The audience sat down and got quiet.
"King Luna has some special presentations to perform," he told everybody.
King Luna stepped forward and looked back at the Space Dreamers.
"Will my friends from earth, please come forward," he said to them.
All the Space Dreamers walked over to King Luna.
Some of the audience looked a little fearful of the earth creatures.
"I heard they're friendly and helped saved King Luna's life," one male Neila said to a Neila next to him.
A small Neila man entered from the left side of the stage carrying a fancy box.
He walked over and stood by King Luna.
King Luna noticed some of the audience in the room moved away afraid of the Space Dreamers. "Don't worry. They won't bite," he assured them.
"Hard!" Timmy jokingly commented. The Space Dreamers chuckled.
King Luna glared at the Space Dreamers with a "Be quiet" look. It was his first official, serious act since being King.
The Space Dreamers got serious when they saw King Luna's glare.
"As King of Neila, I at this moment proclaim my earth friends, Timmy, Frankie and Monica honorary space knights of Neila," King Luna told everybody.
King Luna opened in the box and removed three badges on gold chains from that box.
The Space Dreamers all looked proud while King Luna placed the gold chains around their necks.
The audience stood up and did their seal sounding clapping for the Space Dreamers.
Tona hugged King Luna.
The Space Dreamers got teary-eyed and hugged each other.
Queen Sona's eyes filled with tears of joy.
Later that day, King Luna had the Space Dreamers and the Surfers over for dinner at the Palace.
It was during dinner where King Luna was provided with news of the arriving earth probe. He wanted the Space Dreamers to be present when it arrived.
Up in the sky, the earth probe with the attached Neila probe descended to the Palace.
The Neila probe detached from the earth probe and flew off in another direction while the earth probe continued to descend.
The earth probe descended and landed on the front grounds of the Palace.
King Luna, Sona, both wearing their crowns, the Surfers and the Space Dreamers, who all wore their badges around their necks, rushed out of the front entrance of the Palace.
King Luna and some of the Space Dreamers held signs in hand. They saw the earth probe in the grass and rushed over to it.
Meanwhile, back on earth, in the big conference room on the fifth floor of OSB II, two huge plasma TVs were hanging on the wall. At the moment it showed nothing but static snow.
The room was packed with NASA scientists and local news media people who stared anxiously at the TVs. The static TV snow disappeared away, and the sight of the beautiful countryside of Neila with exotic vegetation and landscaped grounds of the Palace appeared.
Everybody in the room stood up and cheered and clapped while some patted each other on the back while some shook hands.
They watched the TVs when suddenly, King Luna and Queen Sona wearing their crowns appeared in view.
The NASA and media folks stared in shock. "Aliens! We finally found aliens!" cried out a scientist all excited.
They stared in awe at the TVs then saw King Luna hold up a "Welcome Earth! This Is The Planet Neila. Let's Be Friends!" sign.
"Friendly aliens. I knew it!" said another scientist.
Everybody cheered and clapped louder while they looked at the TVs. Then on the TVs, the Space Dreamers came into view behind Luna and Sona.
Timmy, Frankie, and Monica all held up, "Hi Mom. Hi Dad," signs.
Everybody in the room looked extremely disappointed.
One female local news reporter's eyes widened at the sight of those kids. "Wait, those are those three missing kids," she called out and looked disappointed.
"Oh, great! NASA faked another planet landing," said a disappointed male news reporter.
All the news media folks got up and walked out of the room shaking their heads in displeasure.
The NASA scientists scratched their heads in confusion as all their data indicated the probe made it into deep space.
"I bet this is a hoax by these kids. They never flew off into space," another female reporter added.
Everybody in the room nodded in agreement with what that reporter said.
One of the NASA officials turned off the TV.
Everybody started to pack up their stuff and started to leave the conference room disappointed.
An hour later, the "Missing Florida Kids Pull Off Alien Hoax" type of headlines started flashing all across the Internet and news channels.
But the Watson, Blake and Hernandez families just knew their kids did travel to another planet. And they were still worried to death.