by Korey Troyer
“We are approaching the jump point,” Twenty Three Oh Six announced over the intercom. “We will exit the wormhole at the Wakeasha system shortly.”
“Thanks, pally,” Ralph said from his seat at the helm. “We’ll be ready to roll in a minute. Need to get a pebble out the hatch to let Arthur know what’s up.”
Ralph popped the pebble from the computer dock and placed the object into a translucent tube. He pressed a button and the pebble jettisoned from the saucer.
Ethan explained to Tyler how the pebble was a clandestine form of communication. The device resembles a tiny piece of space debris, hence the name ‘pebble’. The small stone was loaded with a message and shot from a vessel traveling through a wormhole. As the ship jumps out of the wormhole, the pebble continues on to its recipient at a rapid rate.
A pebble is nearly undetectable due to its size and make up. Once the pebble arrives to the destination, it lands in a docking station where the encrypted message was translated. Even if a pebble was intercepted, the assigned computer may only extract the information.
All the passengers slept while Ralph made sure the transition from wormhole to space went fluidly. The saucer slid out with the grace of a ballet dancer and gently skipped into the Wakeasha system.
The journey to Ikzonia passed uneventfully, to the relief of the young Earth kid. Tyler had been unaccustomed to so much excitement. All on board Twenty Three Oh Six needed sleep to recharge, and the twelve-hour trip gave everyone time to rest and focus on the added mission. The long haul also allowed them ample time to plan the retrieval of the AMPP.
“How big is the thing? The AMPP I mean,” asked Tyler as the two friends ate breakfast.
“Well, it’s a little smaller than your Mom’s Jeep Liberty.” Ethan swallowed a bit of food.
“Holy cow! I hope we have the right tools to get the job done.”
“Not to worry, I know how they got the AMPP into place so I know how to get it out.” Ethan popped a smirk. He turned to observe Ralph in his Unu dining ritual, which caused him to stammer. “We…we…we will have the right equipment, space suits and anti-gravity grapplers and such. We should be fine.”
The three travelers finished their breakfasts and ambled up to the bridge to find Hooper once again flying in nervous circles along the walls while patting his head with an abrupt twitch. He hummed an obscure Ganrean symphony in sync with his flight pattern and tick-tock tapping.
Ralph sat down at the helm. “So what’s the plan man? I don’t know anything about Ikzonia. I’d guess this place is an isolated wilderness in the sticks. We’ll have to get the stats on this rock.”
Ralph spun around to his console. “Twenty Three Oh Six, can you please bring up everything you have on Ikzonia?”
“Here you go Ralph.”
The lights dimmed as a planet, nearly ten feet across, materialized in the center of the bridge.
Ethan walked around and around the planet, scanning up and down. He finally stopped and pointed at a small island, excited by his discovery. “That’s where the AMPP is located.”
Ralph lined up behind Ethan and peered over his shoulder. “Twenty Three Oh Six, please zoom in on that archipelago.”
The planet magnified to reveal a rocky gray spire in the middle of a violent ocean. At a mile in diameter, the island jutted sharply upward with sharp uneven turrets. The land resembled a tall tube of granite cliffs rather than an island.
Ethan manipulated the image with his hand and spun the map so the east side faced him. “You see the small hole in the cliff face? That’s the entrance to the cave which holds our AMPP.” Ethan zoomed in closer.
“Wow, what a perfect place to hide,” Tyler muttered under his breath. “No one would ever think of looking there.”
Ethan stared intently. “Right you are Tyler. It’s a nasty desolate place. The mountain is made entirely of lead so it masks any energy signal.”
“I hate to be Johnny Kill Joy here but how do you propose to get the AMPP out of the pernicious escarpment? Please tell me you have the plans and schematics.” Ralph raised his eyebrows.
“As a matter of fact, Hooper is carrying them.”
Hooper had an astonished look. Well, as astonished as a traffic light-like head could look. “I recall no such data being uploaded, Ethan,” he exclaimed. “To what do you refer?”
“You had the schematics uploaded during the pre-trip inspection. They are imbedded in your entertainment database. The plans are encoded in an Earth song I downloaded to familiarize myself with the planet. My Dad told me he hid something very special in Hooper’s Earth music collection. Once you play the song, the plans will surface and we’ll be able to relay them.”
“Ethan, I’m accessing my entertainment file. What composition contains the information?”
“Hooper please play ‘Superstition’ by Stevie Wonder.”
A keyboard line rumbled in a crescendo, the illuminated drawings and data ejected from Hooper’s green lamp face and washed over the room like the dome of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Each image exited Hooper on cue, in rhythm with the downbeat of the song.
Tyler gazed in amazement and laughed a hard belly laugh. “I love Stevie Wonder!” he shouted over the cacophony. “My Dad says he’s a musical genius!”
The floating images slid out of the way of the drawings being catapulted from Hooper like a Tetris game, and the glow undulated to the rhythm of the song. This entire event appeared to be an intentionally choreographed Imax show at a theme park.
Ralph grinned ear to ear while snapping his fingers in a Sammy Davis Junior like motion. “Nice! You picked a bad jam my funky little friend!”
Everyone took a moment to escape the seriousness of the mission and enjoy the show.
The song ended and they found themselves in the dark surrounded by red and yellow glowing drawings floating around the room.
“Twenty Three Oh Six, did you pick up what Hooper just threw down?” Ralph asked.
“Yes Ralph, I downloaded the embedded file from the song and encrypted the data onto my system.”
“Excellent, thank you very much. Now let’s get down to business.”
Ethan and Ralph paced back and forth, looking up at the floating maps and drawings. They both rubbed their chins crossed their arms.
Tyler stood to the side gazing around the space. “Taking a bubble won’t work, the AMPP is too big,” he offered. “We’ll need to fly Junior down to the surface and find a way to pull the AMPP out of the mountain first. Then we should load it up into Junior and return to the saucer.”
“You know, he’s right. That would be the most logical and efficient way to accomplish the task," said Ralph.
Tyler’s blue eyes sparkled as a glowing smile erupted on his face.
“Agreed. But you need to get passed the security system as well as find your way in the dark to the storage chamber.”
“Ah, and that’s why Hooper is accompanying us,” Ethan declared. “He also has all the codes and passwords.
Tyler chuckled as Hooper started trembling from the idea of descending to an awful planet. “You’ll be okay, Super Hooper.” We won’t let anything happen to you.”
“You don’t have to go down to the surface,” Ethan said to Tyler. “Hooper can assist me. You stay here with Ralph.”
“No way, Ethan,” Tyler retorted, his eyes popping with surprise. “I have to make the trip with you. It’s the buddy system. Never let anyone go alone.”
Ethan pointed back over his shoulder with his thumb out like a hitchhiker. “But I’ll have Hooper with me, he can be my buddy.”
Tyler had a determined expression in response. “Ethan, Hooper with be working on the security system and navigating. He’ll be way out ahead and not paying attention to you.”
Ralph squatted to be at eye level with Tyler, and put his hand on Tyler’s shoulder in agreement. “You’re wise beyond your years my young sage.” He looked up at Ethan in a fatherly way. “Hooper will be locked in and synced with the computer on the surface. He’ll be entirely focused on his gig. You require a buddy for sure.”
“Ralph, you should go with me and leave Tyler on the ship.”
“No can do Compadre. Have to be on watch here. You need an eye in the sky in case the bad guys catch wind of our little shindig. I will handle everything up here in command central.”
The gang finally agreed Tyler should accompany Ethan and Hooper down to the planet in Junior. Once Junior landed on the beach, the boys would use hyper-sleds, follow Hooper into the cave and recover the AMPP.
At least that was the plan.
