by Dan Kelly
The centrifugal force is deflected toward the appropriate areas of the spacecraft by moveable plates embedded in the walls of the housing. The position of the larger ones determines the heading of the spaceship. The position of the smaller ones determines the amount of movement around the roll, pitch and yaw axes. Speed is controlled by the level of RPM. When normal operating RPM is reached, the system also recharges the energy source in the spaceship. The metal used in this propulsion system is a special alloy able to withstand the forces exerted upon it. It was developed by the Queen’s own scientists and is also a well kept secret.
All of the input for these functions comes from the flight deck. The spaceship has a crew of ten, a pilot, a co-pilot, a navigator, an operating engineer who monitors all systems on the spacecraft for any problems that might develop, a mechanic, an electronics technician, a protective shield operator, a communications officer, a chef and a chef’s helper.
When Pulsar returns to his seat, his mind is swimming with all of the things he has learned. “Wow, this is the way to travel!”
The trip is uneventful, except for Belinda’s incessant pranks, and they arrive at Cygnus’s magnificent spaceport, Cape Cosmos, right on schedule. The commercial buildings in and around the spaceport are fascinating and quite pleasing to the eye. The architects have employed every geometric shape there is and in all sizes. Cygnus has enormous amounts as well as a large variety of mineral deposits, so the buildings are mainly constructed of highly polished granite due to its durability and natural beauty, but in a huge array and creative mixture of colors.
Cygnus has only one sun, but it is a lot brighter than the two suns of Proton combined and it is much farther away from Cygnus than Proton’s suns are from Proton. The sun’s reflection off the buildings is creating a dazzling kaleidoscopic display and the Pack is stunned into silence by the scene before them.
Pulsar breaks the mood when he shouts, “Come on. I want you all to meet my mom and dad. They’re waiting for us over by that souvenir stand.”
King Kudos is a tall, athletically built man with a handsome face that sports the darkest blue eyes and the most pleasant smile any one could possess. All of this is topped with thick wavy hair the color of a Protonese sunset, a deep, reddish orange.
Queen Quester is as beautiful as her sister, but not as tall. She has the same jet black wavy hair, cut much shorter, the same jade green eyes, but her flawless skin has the look of fine white porcelain and her facial structure is more refined and less angular. She too has a pleasant smile and every time she laughs she stamps her foot.
When all the hugs and kisses are done with and the introductions made, the King and Queen lead them to the supersonic royal bullet train that will take them directly to their home, Castle Cassini. The Pack takes an immediate liking to the King and Queen and is looking forward to visiting with them for the next two weeks.
During their first full day on Cygnus, Pulsar, acting as a tour guide, shows the kids the school he attended before transferring to Stellar and its outdoor gymnasium with its various athletic fields where he learned to play disk polo, rocketball and carry the mail. He takes them to the park where he learned how to fence on a tight rope, pitch spheres through swinging hoops, swim, dive and ride a rocket scooter. After a couple of hours of this, he suddenly realizes that his pack mates know nothing about these things and he’s probably boring them to death. “I’m sorry, guys. It just dawned on me that most of the things I’ve been talking about are new to you. They’re a lot of fun though and I’d be happy to show you what to do if you want me to.”
They all say that they’d like to learn, so Pulsar takes them back to the outdoor gym for their first lesson on how to play disk polo. It is a smashing success in more ways than one.
Disk polo is played with a saucer shaped plastic disk a foot in diameter with a lip around its edge for gripping. The players ride on pneumatic aircycles powered by high pressure air ejected through three propulsion pipes at the rear which is controlled by a throttle mechanism. The aircycles are steered with moveable cones which are part of the handle bars. The rider points the cones in the direction he wants to go and high pressure air pushes him there. The aircycles have governors on them to limit the forward speed to 30 MPH and an altitude of 25 feet. The players wear protective padding, gloves and a helmet with a buzzer in it that is activated when the helmet receives a hard slap. The padding’s ability to protect is unquestionable. Players have fallen from
the maximum height and been in head on collisions at the maximum speed and walked away without a scratch on them.
The game is played with two teams, a white team and a black team. A disk polo team consists of six players, a goalie and five field men. The object of the game is to scale the disk into the opposing team’s goal which is a metal box with netting on its sides, back and top and a wide opening in its front. Before the match starts, a needle is spun that is attached to a card that is half white and half black. When the needle stops spinning, the color that it’s pointing to is the team that will receive the opening toss off. The goalies are the ones who do the toss offs at the beginning of the game and after a goal is scored.
The player who receives the toss off can keep the disk and try to ride down to the opposing team’s goal and scale the disk in. If, however, an opposing player slaps his helmet and the buzzer sounds before he manages to do this, the opposing player gets possession of the disk at the spot where the helmet is slapped. The first team to score 20 goals wins.
Learning how to control the aircycles is a little tricky, but the Pack finally gets the hang of it and the game begins.
Everyone expects Mickey and Pulsar to outperform the rest of them because of their natural athletic ability, but everyone is surprised when Gracie and Shannon outperform them all. They quickly develop a knack for handling their aircycles in the tightest of quarters while at the same time preventing anyone from slapping their helmets. They can’t throw the disk as far as Mickey or Pulsar, so they compensate by out riding them and getting closer to the goal.
After a couple of hours of playing, the score is 19 all and the black team, Pulsar and Mickey’s team, has the disk. Mickey scales the disk to Pulsar, but halfway there a strong gust of wind sends the disk soaring 30 feet in the air and down towards the white teams goal. Both teams make a bee line for it with Pulsar getting the first chance at grabbing it. Just as he reaches for it, another gust of wind sends it diving down and back towards the black team’s goal. Both teams race after it again, the air filled with their laughter and squeals. This time Mickey catches up with it first, but again, just as he’s about to snatch it out of the air, another blast of air sends it careening off to their left and skimming the ground with inches to spare. No matter how hard they try, no one can get their hand on it.
Finally, the wind dies down and the disk comes to rest in the middle of the field. Seeing this, they’re all thinking, “Now’s my chance!” At full speed, they all take dead aim at the disk, oblivious to everyone else around them. There is the sound of the crash and then there are bodies and aircycles flipping end over end all over the place, helmet buzzers going off, dirt and grass flying in all directions, flocks of birds in the trees taking off screeching, with one pooping on the disk. It is truly a picture for the memory books.
At first, Pulsar is afraid that the rest of the Pack is unconscious or worse because, remarkably, none of the Pack has made a sound. His fear quickly dissipates as he looks around and sees that no one appears to be hurt and even the aircycles have come through the ordeal with only a few scratches. As he continues to look around, he sees that Artie who was playing goalie for his team has left his position to see if anyone is hurt, but the other goalie, Tommy Tornado, has gotten off his aircycle and is standing alongside his goal, looking sheepish and a little scared.
“I wonder.”, thinks Pulsar. He walks down the field toward the other team’s goal and shouts, “Were you messing with us out there, Tommy? Did you use your power to blow that d
isk around like that?” While he’s speaking, he glances back and sees that the disk is still resting on the same spot it was on before the crash. It hasn’t been moved a fraction of an inch. “Amazing!”
Tommy admits to using his power and says, “I’m sorry, Pulsar. I thought you guys would find it funny when you found out what I had done. I didn’t think anything like this would happen.”
“Well, now that I think about it, it was funny. You really had us going out there. We’re really the ones at fault for not using common sense and looking around before we took off like heat sinking missiles locked onto a target. We’re lucky no one got hurt and there’s no serious damage to the aircycles. Come on. Let’s tell the rest of the Pack what you pulled.”
True to form, first they laugh and then they chase Tommy all over the field. If they catch him, he’s in for some enthusiastic tickle torture. Fortunately for him, the club house manager calls out to them saying, “We’re closing down for lunch. Turn in your gear and aircycles in the maintenance shed at the rear of the club house.” Since he managed to elude their revenge, he is given the duty of returning all their gear and aircycles by himself and taking the scolding for the scratches.
Pulsar leads them back to Castle Cassini for a bite to eat, planning to return to the athletic field to teach them how to play rocket ball.
Chapter 28
When the Pack arrives back at the castle, they find King Kudos, Queen Quester and Queen Quasar waiting to join them for lunch. “Well, what has my precious Power Pack been up to this morning?” asks Queen Quasar. Pulsar tells her, leaving out the part about the aircycle crash.
“It sounds like you’re all having a lot of fun and I’m delighted that you’re enjoying yourselves.” remarks Queen Quester. “Come. It’s time for lunch. We’re eating in the outdoor atrium so that you can enjoy the sights and sounds of the aviary that His Highness had built for me for our 20th wedding anniversary. It’s truly breathtaking.”
As they walk out into the atrium, Shannon leans over and softly whispers in Pulsar’s ear, “Boy, your mom wasn’t kidding. This is something else.”
“My mom has loved birds ever since she can remember. My dad is always bringing some new bird home for her to admire when he returns from his frequent trips to the other planets in the Gastar galaxy. There are over three thousand species represented in her aviary which extends for miles around the entire castle, but tens of thousands of bird species have been discovered and documented throughout the known universe, so her collection is quite small by comparison.”
“Nevertheless, Pulsar, this is im-press-ive!”
Artie is in a world of his own, completely absorbed by the sights and sounds bombarding his senses. He’s wondering if the King and Queen would adopt him.
As they sit down for lunch, Pulsar’s classmates become very quiet and he can see that they are a little nervous. He knows that this is a new experience for them, eating with so much royalty, and he surmises that they’re probably worried about how to act and what to say. King Kudos senses this too, so he breaks the ice with, “Tell me, Tommy, what did the club house manager say to you when you returned his aircycles all scratched up?” The bug-eyed, opened mouth, shocked expressions on the Pack’s faces, accentuated by Tommy’s surprised “Huh”, were so comical that the King and Queens could contain themselves no longer and burst out laughing.
Pulsar recovers first and asks his father, “How did you know?”
“I have ears everywhere, Pulsar. It’s very hard to keep a secret from me.” Pulsar blushes a little with embarrassment, but the smile in his dad’s eyes tells him that he’s not in any trouble for editing his recount of the morning’s activities.
“Come on, Dad. Who told you?”
Smiling, he replies, “I ran into the club house manager, literally, on my way home for lunch with you guys. He was in a hurry heading for restaurant row to have his lunch and I was in a hurry exiting the parliament building and we collided in the middle of the sidewalk. After exchanging apologies, he told me that you kids had been over at the athletic filed playing disk polo and returned the aircycles all scratched up. He can’t figure out how you kids managed to do that just playing disk polo. How did those scratches get on those aircycles, Pulsar?”
“Do I have to tell you, Dad? We’d like to keep what happened to ourselves. We did something really stupid.”
“No, you don’t have to tell me. I’ve done some stupid things in my life time that I hope no one finds out about.”
Pulsar can’t believe what he’s just heard. “Wow, I didn’t think Dad ever did anything stupid.” Out loud he says, “Thanks, Dad.” He glances over at Aunt Cue and she gives him a wink and a big smile.
Then the expression on her face changes to one of mild surprise and Pulsar hears footsteps approaching and the words, “Up to your old tricks, eh knucklehead?” Pulsar bounds up out of his chair, runs over and gives the source of the gibe a big brotherly hug.
“I was wondering why you weren’t at the spaceport when we arrived. I was about to ask Mom and Dad where you were.”
“Sorry about that, Pulsar, but the dean at my school asked me to help out on a science fair they’re putting together and it took a little longer than I thought it would.”
As the brothers walk over to the table, Pulsar says, “Hey, gang, this is my brother, Phaser.”
Introductions are made and Phaser joins them for lunch. Phaser is three years older than his brother, but they’ve always been close and are always teasing each other. The mood around the table has changed and the kids have become as comfortable as they’d be in their own homes or seated around a table in the cafeteria at Stellar. Phaser is almost a carbon copy of his dad, the same hair, eyes, facial features, build, but he’s probably going to be taller because at 16 he already stands eye to eye with him. He’s got the same smile too and Gracie Galaxy has really flipped over him. She’s been nervously giggling since his arrival and keeps glancing over in his direction, hoping that he’ll notice and start talking with her. She’s not having any luck with her histrionics though as the brothers are busy catching up on what’s been going on in their lives while everybody else is engaged in the social palaver that always takes place during small group lunches like this.
During dessert, the conversation takes a more serious turn as the King asks Queen Quasar about her recent encounters with Emperor Eclipse. Silence settles over the table and everyone turns toward Queen Quasar, waiting for her response. King Kudos only has a general idea about the seriousness of the confrontations and the potential danger that surrounds Prince Pulsar. He’s looking for details and ways he might be able to help his sister in-law.
Queen Quasar gives him a complete run down of everything that has occurred since Pulsar enrolled at Stellar and her frustration is quite evident in the telling. In finishing she exclaims, “Instead of being discouraged by his failures, he has become more determined, a lot bolder and, I believe, much more dangerous.” The King has been listening very intently and Pulsar knows, just by looking at him, that his dad is processing the information and conjuring up all sorts of possible means of retaliation. King Kudos is a brilliant ruler and has successfully dealt with uprisings and aspiring conquerors in his own realm.
Once again, an awkward silence has settled over the table with everyone staring at the King, waiting for him to speak. When he does, it’s with a sense of humor, a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his face. “He’s a clever and an extremely lucky rodent, isn’t he? The term fits him well. He has a voracious appetite which emboldens him to face many hazards to obtain satisfaction and is quite creative in doing so. Yes, the comparison is perfect. But you know, Queen Quasar, what appear to be a rodent’s strong points are, in reality, his weakest points.
“This particular rodent has a voracious appetite for territory, an unquenchable thirst for wealth, power and influence. His desire for these things is so strong that his willingness to take risks overwhelms any prudent thoughts of caution and reconsiderati
on. What you need to defeat this scum is not only a better mouse trap with more tempting bait, but a lot of them spread all over the place. Force him to spread his resources, weaken his ability to respond effectively, expose him to more risk of capture or annihilation. This ruler is a glutton and, if you do it right, he’ll eat and drink himself to death.”
The analogy and the recommendation it led to has really ignited the creative fires of those seated around the table. Everyone’s mind has slipped into high gear and the mental energy being expended to come up with better “mouse traps” and where to place them is almost palpable. Pulsar and Phaser look admiringly at their Dad then at each other and Phaser whispers, “I hope he lives forever because I’m never going to be that smart.”