Dave's Amazing Space Adventure

“We are aspiring stewards of the universe, cloaked with immense, divine power to protect it, starting, of course, with our own magnificent blue planet.”

~Unknown

Alice Jennings had finished her homework and was preparing for bed. She had completed her required chapters of physics, computer coding, linguistic arts, bio, chemistry and advanced math. Alice could hear a bolt of lightning from far away and thought it might be a thunderstorm coming her way. She could feel the vibration on the hardwood floor in her room. She thought that she heard the pitter-patter of little feet on the roof but quickly dismissed it as her mind playing tricks on her.

Alice’s mirror began rattling as she brushed her long blonde hair. It stopped as suddenly as it started and she turned off her bedroom light and crawled under her covers. Alice awoke and her whole room was bathed in a bright yellow light. She noticed that her window was wide open and could feel a cold draft on her face. Trembling, she pulled her blankets up to her face. Then everything went dark.

Dave was riding by and saw all the commotion on his friend Alice’s block. Everyone was on the street looking at lights trailing off in the night sky. Dave quickly jotted down on a notepad all the information from the neighbors. He got a description of the metallic craft they had seen and the girl that had been carried off. Just then a loud scream could be heard from down the block. “They took my Alice! You must find her, Dave,” Alice’s mother pleaded.

Alice’s mom now stood on the street staring at the night sky, expressionless.

Dave drew a rough sketch of the craft and wrote down the speed and direction it was traveling.

Sweaty and now breathless from his bike ride home, Dave reached Grandpa’s control center in the garage. He began shifting some knobs and switched on a huge lever. Grandpa had been working on a spaceship and he intended on exploring a wormhole very close to one of Saturn’s moons. Dave wasn’t sure if the spaceship was working yet. But he knew that he had very little time to lose if he wanted to save Alice.

Gabriel, Grandpa Joe’s robot, raced in the room. “No, Dave! I just heard about what happened to Alice. But the spaceship is not completed yet. I was told by your grandfather not to let anyone interfere with it until his return!” Gabriel shrieked and waived his metallic arms up and down. “Grandpa is in lower Botswana investigating a jewel-encrusted cave he found in the jungle. I should have plenty of time to rescue Alice from the aliens that took her and return home before he finds out,” Dave said, as he pulled the last of the three levers on the console.

The Earth began rumbling from behind the house. Two large gunmetal black doors started to spread open from the ground, dirt, gravel and dust flying everywhere. The massive spaceship, around two stories high, was rising upwards from underneath Dave’s backyard. “That’s my ride, Gabriel. Catch you later, alligator,” Dave said with a smirk, as he hit the countdown button.

Dave’s pet spider monkey, Simon, hurried along after Dave. Dave grabbed food for himself and Simon and two space suits. One was marked extra small.

“Dave, you must come back this instant. Your grandfather will not be happy about this at all!” Gabriel yelled out to him. Dave adjusted the coordinates for the spaceship so that they would be on a steady course to Pandora, one of Saturn’s many moons. That is where Grandpa’s orbital satellite last tracked the aliens heading. The rocket’s engine started up and a big cloud of smoke rose up and engulfed the craft and the crew, consisting of Dave and Simon, went soaring into the heavens.

Simon was noticeably frightened and kept pointing his finger down, wanting desperately to get back down to Earth. He decided that sitting on Dave’s head was the safest place to be for the moment. The ship was working fine and even had warp drive, which helped them get there in no time. Dave landed the spaceship slowly on the rocky-cratered surface of the moon. As they exited their craft, Dave concluded that the moon had been terraformed and supplied its own oxygen and they did not need their space suits.

They were soon greeted warmly by two strange creatures holding signs and huge balloons. The signs read:

Welcome, Simon and Dave.

My name is Hugo and my friend here is called Twice. “You must be Dave,” said Hugo, a large furry creature about six feet tall with horns, who reached out his hand to Simon. “No, no Hugo, that’s my pet spider monkey, Simon,” said Dave, impatiently. “I assumed Simon was Dave because Alice had told us how handsome he was,” Hugo mumbled as he pulled back his hand.

“You spoke to Alice?” asked Dave excitedly. You must bring us to where she is. We are here to rescue her.” Twice looked around. He was small with a big goose-like head and said, “Twice, twice” and then fell silent again.

“Sorry. Twice was named Twice because he says twice two times every so often. But he’s right. We can’t save Alice. The Pandorians will vaporize us in a floogle’s millisecond if we go anywhere near their hidden cave. Oh no, I’ve said too much already,” Hugo said while grabbing his horns as if in pain.

Simon looked cautiously at Twice from behind Dave’s leg. Hugo motioned to Dave and said, “Come with me. There’s something I want you to see.”

Everyone followed Hugo. Simon and Twice struggled to keep up. They reached a high ridge and peered into an endless dusty wasteland of trash and ground that had been cut into by some kind of heavy equipment. “The Pandorians have mined this moon for precious metals, silver, gold and iron ore until it was all gone and left junk for as far as the eye can see,” Hugo said as he gazed ahead.

“Twice, twice,” said Twice, looking concerned. Simon was staring at Twice in puzzlement.

“All the animals and plants that once lived on this great moon have been destroyed. They intend on going to Earth next and do the same thing on your blue planet,” Hugo explained to Dave with sadness in his heart. Suddenly, a large cage was dropped from above around Dave and Simon. The Pandorians had them trapped and surrounded. They were small with purple-hooded cloaks and held strange weapons.

“Sorry, Dave, we were forced to bring you here to be captured. Twice and I were taken by the Pandorians years ago, when our ship crashed. We have been stranded here ever since,” said Hugo, with tears welling up in his eyes.

It felt like hours as they marched through the blistering heat to the Pandorians’ base camp. Dave was surprised to be thrown in a cell with Alice. “Holy cow. Simon and I have been looking all over for you, Alice. We have come to save you,” Dave said gleefully. “That’s great, Dave. Just one question. Who’s going to save you?” Alice asked, giggling.

“Why don’t we steal their weapons and make a run for the door?” suggested Dave. “Been there, done that. It seems the weapons only work when they are holding them. But I was able to hack their computer and in the majority of their health records it did mention allergies to shellfish and fruit,” Alice explained. “Fruit?” asked Dave. “There are two crates of bananas for Simon on the spaceship. Perhaps, if we feed it to the Pandorians they will have an allergic reaction and stop their plans for destroying Earth,” Dave said as Simon began shaking his head from side to side, clearly upset with the idea of sharing his bananas.

A serving platter with a silver lid was given to Dave and Alice by one of the guards. “I’m as hungry as a bear,” said Dave as he pulled off the lid. A disgusting squid-like animal with long tentacles slithered out and dropped to the floor. Frightened, Alice and Dave grabbed each other, screaming. The creature managed to crawl its way through the bars of their cell and scurried down a long, dark passage. “Psssst, psssst. Hey, Dave. It’s Hugo.” Dave looked all around for the sound and found that it was coming from a vent above their heads.

“I have come to set you free. Twice is distracting the guards as I speak.” The vent cover dropped to the floor and Hugo pulled Dave and then Alice up into the vent shaft and they made their escape. Twice could be heard somewhere in the cave fighting with the guards.

The jailbreak was a success. Aside from Twice biting a Pandorian guard, no one was injured.

“Why did you come back and risk your safety, Hugo?” Dave asked while handing Simon a banana.

“Twice convinced me it was the right thing to do. We just can’t bear to see the Pandorians destroy another ecosystem,” Hugo said. “Alice and I may have come up with the perfect plan to defeat the Pandorians for good. We need a kitchen with pots and pans and a stove. Do you have those here?” Dave asked. “Sure, Dave, I have all that stuff you’re talking about. On my planet, I was quite the sous-chef,” Hugo proudly replied as he led the way.

The motley crew made up of Dave, Hugo, Alice, Simon and Twice eventually made it to Twice’s and Hugo’s crashed spacecraft.

The journey took longer than expected. Dave had stopped to get a crate of bananas from his spaceship and an unexpected sandstorm made walking difficult. Hugo’s broken ship was actually quite nice inside and even had a fully equipped kitchen. “Twice, twice,” Twice chirped as if to say this is our home. Dave explained the plan to Hugo, and Hugo began to create the biggest banana cake with frosting that Dave and Alice had ever seen.

Simon dipped his finger in the frosting bowl and began eating what was left.

The banana cake was left on a stool outside of the Pandorians’ compound with a sign that read:

Free Cake for Pandorians

Dave and his friends could see one of the guards grab the cake eagerly and bring it inside. After a few moments, we could hear the sound of explosions, confusion and chaos coming from inside the Pandorians’ cave.

They were all rushing outside, still holding gobs of cake and flatulating uncontrollably. The eyes of Dave and his friends began to sting and it became hard to breathe, even though they were hiding many yards away.

A combination of the low gravity, strong winds and their small size caused the Pandorians to be propelled upward with each noxious fart blast and out of Pandora’s orbit. Dave could see them disappearing one by one with his binoculars. “Looks like we found Grandpa Joe’s wormhole,” Dave said with a smile, and they all began to cheer.

Dave took Hugo and Twice back to their home planet and they all hugged each other. Dave thanked Hugo and Twice for their help in saving them and their planet Earth. Simon even hugged Twice, which made everyone laugh. Dave started the rocket engine and in just moments they were just a flicker of silver in the blue-gray sky. “Twice, twice,” uttered Twice while waving his feathered hand goodbye.

The End