Flying Burger

by Jared Martin

  "I have heard that vampire will not chase you if you hold your breath and stop breathing for a while," Melissa was gasping for air after saying the last word.

  "I have heard about that, but what if it still comes after us? We will be caught," Nikita was panting hard too.

  "If we stop breathing, we cannot run far. We will still be caught," Antonio ran as fast as his little legs could carry him and flapping his little hands like wings.

  "How about trying garlic? Samuel, do you have any garlic?" Mrs. Andersen suggested.

  "How about garlic bread? Will this do?" Samuel said, holding two loaves of garlic bread in his hands.

  "Just throw it to the monster and see whether it is afraid?" Mrs. Andersen said.

  Samuel did as he was told. He threw the two loaves of garlic bread to the vampire chasing close behind him. The monster stopped running, stretched out both hands and caught the two loaves in midair. Out of curiousity, the vampire brought one loaf close to its nose and inhaled deeply. It apparently was not afraid. At this time, all the kids stopped running, to see how the monster would react to the garlic bread. Without any warning, the monster brought a loaf of bread to its mouth and took a bite. It began chewing. Suddenly, it spit out everything.

  "Yuck!" came from the monster. It threw away the other loaf of garlic bread and began chasing the children once again. The children ran for their lives.

  "Samuel, you have to get garlic, not garlic bread," Mrs. Andersen said.

  "Okay. Okay. Let me try again."

  This time round, Samuel rummaged through his utility pouch and finally managed to pull out a string of garlic. He held it in his right hand and threw it immediately to the vampire who was closing in on the kids again. The monster caught it and did not seem to be afraid at all.

  "It's no use. The monster is not afraid," Samuel said.

  "Oh my goodness, this is a mutant vampire. We are in trouble," Mrs. Andersen was worried.

  DATA called out to the kids to enter her protective force-field. She had shut down her force-field for a fraction of a minute, just long enough for all the kids to join her. The monster's hands were about to catch hold of Antonio when the force field shot up and stunned the miserable creature, extracting a screeching howl from it.

  The monster snarled, bared its teeth, dripped more saliva on the floor and circled the rainbow coloured brilliance, just like a predator hungering for its prey. Every kid was frightened to the core, especially the girls. Nikita hid so close behind Chen Wei, that she could feel his strong back and inhale his fresh male scent. Carrying Antonio close to him, Chen Wei had all the others clustered behind him, making him feel like a mother-hen protecting her flock.

  Samuel tugged at Chen Wei's arm and handed him a small canister. The label read 'Itchy Powder - high concentration 750 ml.' After chasing the kids for about half an hour, the monster again turned to Mrs. Andersen. Beebo again fired its beam on the alien monster but this time it was rapidly losing power. The panting, blood-thirsty monster was about to pounce on Mrs. Andersen, when out of nowhere, she took out an umbrella and began to hit the monster over its head with all her strength.

  "How dare you frighten me, you miserable creature!" Mrs. Andersen scolded. She poked, jabbed and smashed the monster using her umbrella. The snarling alien crouched in pain as it was jabbed in the waist.

  BURGER123 was approaching another star with solar mass three times our sun's and Beebo's solar batteries were quickly recharged to full-strength. Beebo increased its fire-power and the alien monster screeched an unearthly howl, suffering from the scorching intensity of the deadly beam. DATA's force field suddenly shut down due to another malicious computer virus attack.

  The alien monster was all too happy to come after the kids as it could not get close to Mrs. Andersen. It chased the kids round the command deck for one complete circle. Once they reached where Mrs. Andersen was, all the kids rallied behind her except for Chen Wei and Samuel who ran further away. They both took up positions facing the monster with their canisters of itchy powder ready for action!

  The monster had learnt that it could not get close to Mrs. Andersen, instead it went for Samuel seeing that he was much smaller than Chen Wei. It never knew that Samuel was the imp of the group and not only that, he was very agile and nimble of feet, having won many medals in the academy's annual sports meet. Samuel made a funny face at the vampire and then stuck out his tongue, pulling his ears at the same time. Before the vampire could get hold of Samuel, he had sprayed a high dose of itchy powder in its direction and ducked away. The spray was aimed at the monster's naked hands and arms. The monster began to feel the itch where its skin came into contact with the itchy powder. This was high concentration itchy powder and the effect was almost immediate. Chen Wei, when he saw that the alien began to scratch itself, quickly came from behind and sprayed more itchy powder on its neck. Soon, the monster was lying on the floor and scratching itself all over. It rolled and twisted and scratched and hissed. Samuel and Chen Wei kept spraying more itchy powder on the alien's feet and other exposed parts, just to keep it busy scratching.

  The monster began to transform into a bat. It barely flew upwards before it fell to the floor with a 'thud'. It began to change back into a monster and started scratching and laughing like a hyena. The itch proved too much for it to bear and it again changed into a bat and tried to fly upwards. Before it could fly high, it fell onto the floor with a 'thud'. This process repeated itself. Everyone stared in disbelief with their mouths wide open!

  "How come like that?" Samuel asked.

  "Samuel, you should say 'why is this so?' I have told you many times not to translate directly from your native tongue to a foreign language. The grammar rules and syntax are completely different," Mrs. Andersen corrected him. Samuel looked up from his mischievous task and grinned widely, displaying a set of sparkling white teeth. By this time, DATA's anti-viral cleaning procedure was completed and Mrs. Andersen asked to contact Fontasia's supreme commander, Zorak. DATA immediately sent out a communication signal to Zorak. After what seemed like eternity, video communication was established.

  "Earthlings, I have received your distress call. Rest assured that the Sorceress of Azura will come to your rescue," Zorak reassured from afar.

  Immediately after this message ended, there was a purple glow beginning to form close to DATA's rainbow force-field. The Sorceress of Azura appeared holding her magic wand. Everyone was glad to see her. She smiled and pointed her magic wand at the monster on the floor, muttering some incantations. Slowly the creature was enveloped by a blinding white light and began to disintegrate right in front of everybody's eyes. When the light faded, what was left of the monster was a pile of dust. This heap of dust disintegrated further into thin air.

  "This monster comes from the planet Draconia, the outermost planet in the Pegasus star. This species is a highly advanced form of vampire and feeds on human blood. It will not stop until it has drained its victim dry," the Sorceress informed.

  "No wonder it has such a big mouth and thick lips," Melissa said.

  "It must have followed your starship after you left Fontasia. See the coffin out there?" the Sorceress pointed to an object floating outside the starship. Everyone looked outside the cockpit window and was horrified to see a dusty cobwebbed coffin floating in space at close range.

  "We do not know how to activate the magic ring of Azura. Could you tell us?" Melissa asked.

  "This magic ring is attuned to the feminine psyche. It will give out a purple glow when the right person wears it," the Sorceress informed.

  Melissa was anxious to experiment with the magic power of the ring and removed it from Beebo's antenna. She wore it on her finger but there was no purple glow. Next, Nikita wore the ring on her finger and this time, a faint purple glow shone from the ring.

  "Your psyche is of the same frequency as the magic ring. You can use the power of the ring just by thinking hard. Your wish will be granted. Remember, evil has no place here as this ring d
raws on the power of Light," the Sorceress instructed. Having said that, the Sorceress dissolved in a pale purple glow. All the kids crowded around Nikita marvelling at the magic ring.

  Melissa was feeling upset that the magic ring did not work for her. Nikita saw the sad expression on her face and she suddenly had an idea. She began to think of a spicy supreme pizza laced with onions and chopped chicken meat, pineapple cubes and green chilli. Lol and behold, a pizza materialised on the computer console side-desk. It was exactly what Nikita had wished for. When Melissa saw the pizza, her face turned into a smile. When she ate one piece of the pizza, she was already thinking of the next flavour! Nikita knew her too well so she got her another pizza - seafood flavour. By this time, Melissa was too busy eating her pizzas, spicy supreme flavour on one hand and seafood flavour on the other hand. All thoughts of the magic ring were thrown out of her mind. Everybody had a taste of the pizza. Antonio wanted Cornetto ice cream, so Nikita got one for him too, just by wishing. She was wondering what Chen Wei likes to eat but he did not say anything.

  By this time, the starship's communication system had been fully restored to operational status. Mrs. Andersen commanded DATA to power the spaceship forward at warp speed. BURGER123 sped through space.

  Chapter 8

  After travelling in deep space for what seemed like eternity, star-ship BURGER123 approached Epsilon Eridani, a K2 red giant star.

  “What a beautiful star. DATA, tell us about it,” Melissa said.

  “Epsilon Eridani. Magnitude, 3 point 7. Spectral Type, K2. Distance from Sun, 10 point 5 light years. Has five planets revolving around it. We will be passing by the third innermost planet Mora,” DATA reported.

  A short while passed before the star-ship approached planet Mora. When the star-ship sent out a sweeping communication signal to Mora, a reply came back. A masculine image was seen on Big Screen on command deck.

  “Greetings. I am the head-master of The Moravian Institute of Space Science. Please identify yourself.”

  “Greetings to you. I am Captain Baldwin, star-ship commander. We are from planet Earth and happen to be passing by your planet. We are on a deep-space exploratory mission.”

  “In that case, I would like to invite your crew to our planet. We will be holding a ‘Power Astronomy Quiz’ in the late afternoon, at 15:30 hours. I welcome your crew to take part in this annual event. A grand prize awaits the champion team.”

  “Thank you. We accept your invitation to participate in this quiz.”

  "I will arrange for our Sky Shuttle to fetch your team members. We look forward to your arrival."

  Not long after, an egg-shaped spacecraft approached Burger123.

  "Calling star-ship commander, this is pilot from Mora, request permission to dock."

  "This is Captain Baldwin. Permission granted."

  Soon after, this spacecraft docked with BURGER123 by means of an extended tube. This white tube connected with the exit door of the decompression chamber outside BURGER123, and served as a passageway between the two spaceships. Captain Jessie, Mrs. Andersen and the children were already inside the decompression chamber waiting impatiently. Once the connection was completed, the exit door finally opened. Everyone walked quickly through the passageway and entered the Moravian spacecraft. Antonio was rather surprised to see a huge egg-shaped cabin.

  "What a big egg!' Antonio laughed louldly.

  An adult Moravian walked out from the pilot chamber and spoke to Mrs. Andersen and Captain Jessie in a masculine voice. He looked just like a huge teddy bear.

  "I am the pilot. Welcome onboard. Have a safe and pleasant ride." He entered the pilot chamber once our space team entered this egg-shaped cabin and sat down on the sofa inside. The children stood up and went close to the window from where they could see outside. They saw the vast expanse of space and a gleaming planet below. At this instant, the shuttlecraft began its journey at a steady speed, much to the relief of Mrs. Andersen, who did not like super-speed transport. She carried herself in a manner befitting a lady of high social standing.

  When our visitors descended on planet Mora, they quickly took in the sights and sounds. Many houses were painted in different colours and they looked like toy-houses made from Lego bricks. These houses were big enough for living in. Some of them were even built up till three storeys high. The traffic lights at the road juncture were equally comical. They were built with plastic poles and the traffic lights worked fine, directing the traffic with ease. Only a few cars and motor vehicles were on the road.

  A tall Moravian walked up to Mrs. Andersen and introduced himself. He was followed by a group of young Moravians behind him. Adult Moravians looked just like grizzly bears. Hence, young Moravians looked like small cute teddy bears. Samuel and Antonio were very happy to see so many friends of the same age group as them. Both boys made friends with the young Moravians within a short time.

  “Welcome to Mora. I am the head-master of The Moravian Institute of Space Science. These are my prefects.” The head-master pointed to those younger Moravians who followed behind him.

  “Thank you. I am Mrs. Andersen and this is Captain Jessie. The rest are my students.” Mrs. Andersen introduced her group. The children each gave a short self-introduction. The head-master nodded his head at each introduction with a smile on his face.

  “The ‘Power Astronomy Quiz' will be held shortly in our academy. Please follow me,” he said.

  When the formalities were over, the head-master quickly hailed a flying cup from the road. This was the usual means of transport for the Moravians. The transport vehicle looked like a cup, except that this cup looked as big as a truck and with a sliding door. It could easily accommodate ten to fifteen persons. Everybody hopped onto this flying cup and off they flew to their destination, the city centre.

  Chen Wei, Antonio and Samuel had made many friends with the younger Moravians and they were talking and laughing happily. Captain Jessie wondered what were they talking about. Mrs. Andersen noticed that Nikita was rather quiet and kept looking in Chen Wei's direction from time to time. She was quite surprised at this discovery and guessed that Nikita must have taken a fancy to Chen Wei. Chen Wei on the other hand, was totally unaware of what was going on. Mrs. Andersen's eyes met Melissa's, the latter gave her a mischievous grin!

  The flying cup travelled for a short distance before it arrived at its destination. At the city centre, there was a choo-choo train-stop. Everyone alighted from the flying cup. Our crew members were amused to see two plastic trains waiting patiently there. The head-master explained that one railway line ran in the north-south direction while the other railway line ran in the east-west direction. Nikita looked at the travel signboard, which read, “Railway 1 - Moravian Institute (N), Cool Arcade (S), Railway 2 - Sakura Mall (W), Orchid Park (E).”

  The head-master ushered everyone up an empty choo-choo train on railway 1, headed for the Moravian Institute of Space Science. Each train was made of hardened plastic, painted brown, had a small chimney and a horn at the front. A horizontal row of multi-coloured lights ran along the middle of all the train compartments on both sides. Each train had on average about ten compartments. Each choo-choo train compartment can only sit one adult passenger. Hence, after discussing with the head-master, it was decided that Captain Jessie and Mrs. Andersen were to sit at the last two compartments while the head-master was to sit in front. This was done in order that all the kids were under adult supervision. The children and young Moravians quickly occupied the remaining empty seats in between. Nikita happened to sit behind Chen Wei. She was thrilled! She could see Chen Wei’s back, and his short porcupine hair clearly. Melissa sat behind Nikita. Samuel and Antonio sat in front with the Moravians.

  Chen Wei, Samuel and Antonio were fascinated by so many youngsters on the streets. They were also fascinated by the train they were travelling on, especially the swivel-chairs they were sitting on, which could rotate 360 degrees! These chairs gave them the freedom to face any direction they wanted. Although Che
n Wei had almost grown into a young adult, he was still young at heart. He asked his Moravian friend many questions regarding this strange planet. Samuel and Antonio talked and laughed with the young companions they were travelling with.

  Chen Wei took out a box of candy which he had brought along. He shared it with the Moravians. The Moravians also shared their fluffly, cotton candies with the Earthlings. These cotton candies looked like big cotton balls and came in colours of red, white, yellow, green and pink! Chen Wei held five sticks of different coloured cotton candies with both of his hands. He turned around facing Nikita and passed some of these candies to the rear of the train to Mrs. Andersen, Captain Jessie and Melissa. Nikita helped in this process. Finally Chen Wei had two sticks of cotton candies left, a red candy in his left hand and a white candy in his right hand.

  “Which candy do you want?” Chen Wei asked Nikita. He smiled widely at her displaying a set of sparkling white teeth. He looked at her with his dark, intelligent eyes.

  “I’ll have the red candy, thank you,” she replied.

  A short while elapsed.

  The choo-choo train gave a loud whistle, signalling it was about to begin on its journey. The two rows of multi-coloured lights began flashing back and forth from one end of the train to the other. The train-master started the engine and sounded the horn, making the 'choo-choo' sound. The choo-choo train took off carrying with it a trainload of excited passengers. It travelled happily along the plastic railway at a moderate speed. Along the way, all the passengers could see many Moravian kids blowing soap bubbles and chasing each other around the city area. Before reaching the first station, Big Playground, the choo-choo train slowed down and started playing a tune,

  'London bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down,

  London bridge is falling down, my fair lady.

  Build it up with iron bars, iron bars, iron bars,

  build it up with iron bars, my fair lady.'

  Antonio and Samuel were very excited when they heard this familiar tune. Wide smiles were seen on their faces.