by Dan Kelly
Pulsar is feeling really bad. “I’m sorry, Aunt Cue. I just didn’t think anything like this would happen. I still don’t know what started it all.”
Seeing the look of confusion on Pulsar’s face, the look on the Queen’s face softens and she says “Well, if it makes you feel any better, what happened is not entirely your fault, although you should have given us some advance warning. From what some of the kids told some of the servants who told me, it appears that when these kids get too rambunctious they sometimes lose control over their powers and all kinds of crazy things occur. Headmaster Herby tells me that he doesn’t have this problem and believes as you kids get older and mature more, these incidents will disappear. I sure hope so.
“Well, what’s done is done. I’ll have Head Butler Barker prepare daily lists of activities for you and your friends to engage in while you’re on your school break. Head Chef Gruel will have to work something out with the diets. But, Pulsar, don’t ever do anything like this again before talking it over with me, ok?”
“Ok, Aunt Cue, and I’m sorry, really sorry about all of this.”
The Queen stands up, walks around her desk, gives Pulsar a hug and with a gentle shove says “You’re forgiven, Pulsar, but get out of here before I change my mind.”
The next morning, bright and early right after breakfast, the kids gather around Head Butler Barker, waiting to see what’s on the agenda for the day. The entire morning will be spent gargan riding in the vast fields surrounding the castle. Pulsar jumps with joy as this is one of his favorite activities. The afternoon will be spent flying and racing remote controlled flying saucers and swimming in the warm amber water of the huge lake in the field north of the castle. It’s going to be a terrific, fun filled day. At least, that’s what they are thinking now, but before this day ends it will be one to remember for other not so nice reasons as well.
They all head for the stables where the gargans are kept and saddle up for the morning’s ride. Gargans are fascinating animals. They are six legged, bluish black in color, stand seven feet tall from hoof to withers with another two feet added when the neck and head are included, are very muscular, have deep gray eyes, are extremely intelligent and fearless and can run very, very fast for long periods of time. Pulsar has a favorite, the only one with a snow white forelock. He quickly saddles him up and, with the help of some portable steps, climbs aboard.
As soon as everyone is ready, Pulsar leads them out of the corral and into the open countryside. A gargan is controlled with pressure from the rider’s knees and/or voice commands. As soon as they all clear the corral, Pulsar shouts out the command “Go girl!” and his mount catapults forward with astonishing speed. The others follow suit and they soon disappear over the horizon. They race over hill and dale, laughing and enjoying the warm breeze in their faces. After riding for about an hour and a half, they come to one of the many regional water reservoirs serving the villages, towns and cities of Proton.
As they draw closer to the maintenance shed for the reservoir, Pulsar and Tommy Tornado who have been leading the group notice two men who aren’t wearing the required uniforms of the water district tampering with some of the bags of chemicals used to purify the water. Pulsar yells out “Hey, what are you two doing there?” He barely has the words out when one of the men points some kind of ray gun at them and an instant later a white flash zips by his head and disintegrates a young sapling a couple of yards behind him. Needless to say, they and the rest of the group take off like a “flash” and get out of there.
When they are out of sight of the two men, Pulsar uses his transceiver to notify the head of the Queen’s security force about what has happened. In minutes, a team of security people in their lightening fast patrol vehicles are on the scene to investigate, but the two men have fled to parts unknown. Fortunately, the men didn’t have enough time to do whatever it was they wanted to do. Examination of the chemicals and the water in the reservoir reveals that no damage has been done.
When the security people tell them that they can leave, it is time to return to the castle for lunch. The ride back is at a slower pace as they all are thinking about what has happened and how close Pulsar has come to being hurt or even killed. As they approach the castle, the door to the reception hall flies open and Queen Quasar rushes out to see for herself that no one has been hurt. It’s obvious that she is deeply troubled over what has transpired and very thankful for the group’s safe return.
After lunch, they all go outside to participate in the flying saucer competition. There will be aerobatic and obstacle course contests which will be judged by none other than Queen Quasar herself. This will give her the opportunity to get to know these students better and allow her to watch over the brood at the same time. She is very worried about the goings on at the reservoir this morning.
The obstacle course contests are held without a hitch. These are elimination contests with several rounds of competition taking place. Everyone has a blast and Mickey Meteor is the final winner which surprises no one as he has the best eye-hand coordination. After a 15 minute break, preparations are made for the aerobatics contests. There will be two teams of six students each, assembled by drawing lots. The teams will be judged on their ability to fly in close formations and their precision in performing various stunts and maneuvers.
Everything is going fine until Norman Nebula decides to misbehave. Norman doesn’t like to lose at anything and he sees his chance to get even with Mickey by using his special power. As soon as Team One is airborne and beginning to close up in their first required formation, Gracie Galaxy’s flying saucer veers off and crashes into a tree and she’s just standing there with this confused look on her face. The rest of Team One goes through the remaining required formations without a problem.
Next are the individual performances of a variety of stunts and maneuvers by Team One. The first up is Casey Cloudburst whose spacecraft reaches the desired altitude then heads straight for the large stained glass window above the door to the reception hall and shatters it. There is tinkling everywhere. Queen Quasar can’t believe her eyes and Casey looks like he’s swallowed his tongue. Nothing like this has ever happened before. These remote controlled spacecraft are state of the art in every way. The rest of Team One goes through their routines without a mishap and then they all sit down on the lawn with defeat in their eyes, all except for Belinda Black-Hole.
Belinda realizes that Norman has been cheating by using his ability to create confusion in Gracie’s and Casey’s minds thus causing them to lose control of their spacecraft. Belinda decides to take matters into her own hands and teach Norman a lesson.
She makes herself invisible and sneaks over to where Team Two is sitting in front of their spacecraft waiting for their chance to perform. Belinda reverses all of the wires in their controllers and scurries back to where her group is sitting and reappears before anyone is the wiser.
Team Two is instructed to launch their spacecraft and it is demolition derby time. Spacecraft are crashing into each other, into other windows of the castle, into the Queen’s prize flower beds, the castle’s solar panels and eventually fall to the ground completely beyond repair. Queen Quasar is totally bewildered, but her bewilderment soon turns to anger when Pulsar, who has figured out what has been going on, gives her the lowdown. She can’t remember ever being so agitated. She is beside herself and orders everyone into the reception hall and lowers the boom.
For several minutes there’s not a sound in the hall. The Queen is standing before them glaring at each student, one at a time, and then she begins to speak. “You have been at Castle Capella for less than two days and have set what must be some kind of record for misbehavior and disrespect for property. I will not tolerate this kind of conduct in my castle. Therefore, you can forget about going swimming this afternoon and there will be no activities planned for the rest of your stay. If I could be assured that your parents would be at home upon your arrival, I would ship you off this instant. Since that is not the
case, you will spend the rest of your time with us doing assigned chores and discussing ways to better apply your special gifts.” Having said this, she turns and leaves the hall.
Gracie walks over to Pulsar and says “Boy, the Queen is really upset, Pulsar.”
“I’ve never seen her this mad.” Pulsar responds. Pulsar is not happy with his whole group, but he is really ticked at Norman and Belinda. To their credit, they do come over and admit to their actions and apologize for the trouble they caused, but that doesn’t make the damage done go away. He’s thinking, “It’s going to cost Aunt Cue a bundle to fix the windows, solar panels and her flower beds and, even though Aunt Cue is very wealthy, like most adults she doesn’t like spending money for things like this. As for the fun we were going to have, we can forget about it.” To Norman and Belinda he says, “I hope you two have learned something from all this trouble you’ve caused. You’ve got to think before you act. Norman, if you had admitted to yourself that cheating was wrong for all the obvious reasons and played fair none of this would have happened. And, Belinda, talk about overreacting. Did you have to rig all the remotes? One or two would have done the trick.” Pulsar pauses, sighs and says, “Ah, nuts! I really wanted these two weeks to be something special for all of us. Something we would remember for the rest of our lives. Well, we’ll remember them alright, but not for the reasons I had in mind.” He then turns, leaves the hall and goes to his room. The others do the same.
Chapter 7
The next few days go by in an extremely boring fashion and the kids are ready to climb the walls. The Queen’s anger has cooled, but there is no sign of her relenting on her ban on fun and games. Then one night, shortly after the twin suns of Proton fall below the horizon and darkness settles in, things begin to pick up at Castle Capella.
Pulsar and Casey Cloudburst are standing on one of the castle’s enormous balconies looking through some powerful binoculars at the beautiful array of constellations spread across the northern sky. Suddenly, something catches Pulsar’s eye. It’s a jerky movement of a dull flashing light close by the lake. He quickly scans the spot with his binoculars, but it vanishes as quickly as it appeared before he can get a lock on it. “I wonder what that could be” thinks Pulsar. He tells Casey what he saw and they decide to check it out. As they are descending the stairs leading from the balcony to the terrace below, the rest of the group comes onto the balcony, sees them near the bottom of the stairs and Molly Moonbeam asks where they are going. Pulsar tells them all what he saw and they all wind up heading for the lake.
When they get to within a hundred yards of the near shoreline, they fall to their knees and begin to quietly crawl forward. As they get nearer to the lake, they hear some voices about 200 feet to their right and then they see four figures moving stealthily about with hoses in their hands that are attached to a large black tank on a big truck that is also painted black. Then a fifth figure appears, grumbling something about a pressure valve being clogged on the tank. Apparently, whatever is in the tank has to be moved through the hoses by a fair amount of pressure or nothing comes out. This fifth figure is wearing glasses that reflect the light from the shielded flashlights the other figures have attached to their headgear whenever one is pointed at him. This must be what Pulsar saw from the balcony.
“Now what?” Pulsar is thinking. Casey taps him on the shoulder and points to himself. Pulsar gets the message and nods his approval. Casey moves to the left of the group and a few yards closer to the water, but is hidden by a large tree. He stares at the water for a moment and then these characters are in for the surprise of their lives.
This lake is a couple of miles across at its widest part and 100 hundred feet deep 75 yards from its entire shoreline. This is a lot of water. Initially, Casey plans to rise up only a small portion of the lake’s water, just enough to almost drown them and bowl them over. These people are really focused on what they are doing and have no idea what is about to happen to them, so Casey figures he’ll scare the wits out of them as well as drench them. Slowly all the water in the lake rises and begins to move over the figures as they hassle over how to unclog the pressure valve. One of these figures finally notices what is going on, lets out a frightened gasp, the rest look up and then there is a loud whoosh as gallons and gallons of water pour over them, knocking them down and floating them away into a 50 foot deep crevice far back from the shoreline. The rest of the group leaps up and lets out a loud whoop of victory, but Casey has to keep his mind on what
he’s doing or some serious damage could be done to the surrounding fields. Casey slowly moves the water back over the lake bed, planning to just as slowly lower it into the lake bed. This is what he plans to do. This is not what happens.
Without warning, Casey is hit with a fit of sneezing, one body rattling sneeze after another. This breaks his concentration and, instead of slowing lowering the water, it comes crashing down into the lake bed. This amount of water falling form a height of 25 feet weighs many tons. The ground shakes from the impact for miles around, bursting water pipes that deliver water not only to the castle, but to many homes and businesses surrounding the castle.
As luck would have it, the Queen has just stepped into her shower and turned the water on when the flow reduces to a dribble. The Queen explodes with a loud yell and screams, “What have those monsters done now? I’m going to short circuit that over-charged power pack when I get my hands on them.” She is absolutely certain that the kids are behind this latest caper.
Since none of the kids has a transceiver with them, they all retreat to the castle to report what has happened to castle security. The security force is on the scene in less than a minute and captures the trespassers before they have time to recover and skedaddle.
These five men are really shook up over what they’ve experienced and are easily convinced that things will go better for them if they fess up. It turns out that they have been hired by someone whose identity they don’t know to pollute the waters of Proton, beginning with the waters in the region surrounding Castle Capella. They were paid handsomely in advance and supplied with the pollutants to use. Analysis of the pollutants determined that they were not lethal, but could make anyone coming in contact with them severely ill.
Meanwhile, as the interrogation is taking place, Queen Quasar is scouring the castle to confront the kids about the lack of water and give them a good tongue lashing. She is not a happy camper. She can’t find them anywhere, so she decides to enlist the assistance of her security force. Of course, upon her arrival at the Office of Security, she finds the pack of trouble makers. “Humph”, she thinks. “Pack of trouble makers describes them perfectly. Power pack of trouble makers suits them even better.” She likes that name. “So be it. That’s how I will address them from now on. Power Pack for formal occasions and just Pack for any other time.”
She’s about to lace into them when the head of security comes over and says “We owe a lot to these kids, Your Highness.” Pointing to the men he has been interrogating he says, “If it wasn’t for their bravery in sneaking up on this bunch and letting us know what they saw, our hospitals would be overflowing with some very sick people.” He then proceeds to fill the Queen in on all the details. “What we don’t understand though is how they got into that crevice and why they were soaking wet.” The prisoners won’t tell them because they don’t think anyone would believe them and are afraid they might wind up in a loony bin somewhere. The kids play dumb because they are under strict orders to keep mum about their special powers to all but a select few.
The Queen is greatly mollified, but is still determined to find out what happened with the water. She thanks the head of security for all that he has done and leads the Pack back through the reception hall and into the royal kitchen. “Ok, you’ve got me. I’m stumped. How did you pull this off and what did you do that cut off our water supply?” She’s no longer angry, but she wants all the facts and she wants them now. So the Pack gives them to her. Despite her efforts to keep
a stern look on her face, she bursts out laughing and says, “You must have scared the daylight out of those scoundrels.”
She then instructs one of the chefs to give each of them a heaping dish full of iced grengan, a sweet creamy combination of green berries and milk from a female gargan. There’s not a kid on the planet who doesn’t like grengan. “This is your reward for a job well done. Casey, don’t feel bad about what happened when you were putting the water back. When you gotta sneeze, you gotta sneeze.” Everybody laughs and Casey feels a whole lot better.
Chapter 8
Queen Quasar is not feeling better though. This latest incident has pushed her worry meter into the danger zone. The more the Queen thinks about what happened at the reservoir and the lake the more she’s becoming convinced that Emperor Eclipse is behind these nefarious shenanigans. When she’s back in her office, she calls a meeting for early tomorrow morning with her Chief of Castle Security, Director of Global Bureau of Clandestine Investigations and Commander of Proton’s military forces. They must put a plan together to combat these latest efforts to pollute the planet’s water supply and put Emperor Eclipse where he belongs, in the escape proof prison on the planet Yanzorg in the vast and distant Maffei One galaxy.