by Leon Castle
Nodding to Alex, I answer the boys. ‘It’s getting late, I’ll answer this question first thing in the morning, and we’ll spread your other questions out over our month stay here.’
‘Ok Granddad.’ grins Maxxy yawning as he settles back into his sleeping bag falling asleep almost instantly.
As I began to recall the whirlwind romance between the croc and Taneasia, a smile breaks out on my face as I retire for the night myself.
Up at sparrow’s fart, are boys were busy resurrecting the warm embers of the fire with some fresh firewood. Soon a small blaze crackles in the crisp desert morning. Smoke swirls lazily rose from the new fire, the smell of cooked food wafts around the camp, getting some interest from Alex, who until this time was still snuggled up in his sleeping bag snoring his face off.
‘Morning, all.’ I call out as I walk back into the camp. I’d been on my early morning walk checking out some good places to start prospecting for the gold we will need for the Croc’s prophecy.
‘Morning Granddad,’ Maxxy replies ‘Dave’s got some breakfast cooking, it should be ready soon.’
After we had ate our breakfast, I tell the lads about the couple of good spots I had found to prospect.
As the sun rose high in the afternoon we return to camp with some small nuggets. The boys are excited as we weigh our haul. Sixteen troy ounces in total, pretty good for our first day.
We enjoy a late lunch in the shade of our annex.
Sipping his cold drink, Maxxy pipes up: ‘Granddad you haven’t told us about the Croc and Taneasia yet, so what happened?’ he asks.
A smile breaks out on my face as I recall the announcement.
Chapter 74
After six months of courting, the Croc visits the Sobek on a special mission. He has a spectacular diamond crafted to fit an exquisite ring, a gift for a very beautiful young lady.
Starfish 3 is abuzz with rumors about the Croc’s interest in Taneasia. Is the Croc really coming out to Starfish 3? Or will Taneasia go to the Sobek? Is Taneasia really interested in the Croc? He is a fair bit older than her. If they do marry will they have kids? How many? The questions are endless, and they get the rumor mill cranking. Soon it takes on a life of its own!
On Starfish 3, Tarillia is so excited for her best friend.
‘I want to buy your wedding frock,’ she announces to Taneasia, grabbing her hands dancing around on the spot.
‘Hey, just back it up a second there, sis…He hasn’t done anything yet, and he certainly hasn’t popped any questions yet, we’re just…really good mates.’
‘Yeah right! The whole place is buzzing with rumors about you and the Croc,’ ‘The only one that’s not pleased is Stan, I reckon he had the hots for you, girl!’ giggles Tarillia.
‘Mmm…poor Stanley, I heard he got a transfer to Starfish 48.’
‘Yep, he flew out yesterday.’
‘I gotta run and get changed for work or my boss will kick my tail!’ Taneasia laughs breaking free from her friend, and smiling back at her as she runs up the hallway to her accommodation.
‘OK see you at the PSI meeting.’
When they arrive together the conversation hubbub dies, people move aside to let them through. Waiting up front with a huge smile on his face is the Croc. They both give him the customary bow of respect.
‘I have canceled the shift for today,’ announces the Croc. ‘I am here to invite you all for a small private dinner this evening, Taneasia come over by my side please.’
With a little trepidation and a lot of excitement, she takes her place by his side.
‘Taneasia, with our friends here as witnesses I’d like to ask you a very important question.’
Dropping to one knee, with his frills erect and quivering, he takes a small box from his pocket opening it to reveal the exquisite ring, he then takes her hand and asks:
‘Will you be my Queen?’ His face locks with hers.
After the initial shock, her frills erect and flushed with pink, she grabs him around the neck, planting her first kiss on his lips.
‘Of course I will!
While still on his knee, he takes the ring from the box and slides it onto her finger, it’s a perfect fit. He gives a smiling nod to Tarillia.
Taneasia picks up on the exchange, giving her friend a playful scowl, remembering now a couple of months ago they had a jewelry day just comparing and admiring each other’s jewelry pieces, trying on rings, bangles, necklaces and such. Taneasia remembers now that Tarillia had to put Taneasia’s ring on her pinky, giving them both a good laugh at Tarillia’s stubby little fingers.
‘The little rat! She was in cahoots with the Croc to find out her ring size. Come to think of it, it was Tarillia’s idea to have a jewelry day!’ she thinks.
Through the uproar that followed. congratulations and handshakes with backslapping follow as the new happy couple leave to go to the communications center.
‘Righto you lot!’ booms Tarillia’s voice to her crew. ‘The Croc has given you the shift off, I suggest we get the restaurant ready for the party tonight, who wants to help me?’
‘We all do!’ they all chime in.
At the communications center, the young lady at the front counter bows low as the Croc enters with his new fiancée.
‘Rise little one, can I have a Kingdom wide broadcast arranged, please?’
‘Of course, my liege. I will get it set up for you immediately. Please follow me to our communications studio.’
‘Beautiful ring, Taneasia, who’s the lucky guy?’ she asks over her shoulder, knowing full well it is the Croc
Taneasia just smiles and squeezes the Crocs hand.
They enter the small studio and move over to the back drop.
‘My liege, we can change the background on the backdrop to suit whatever you desire,’ instructs the young lady, Becky.
‘I think a background of the royal pyramid courtyard should do the job, thank you Becky,’ replies the Croc.
The background scene changes to the large open courtyard with the magnificent royal golden pyramid soaring skywards. The Croc gets Taneasia to check his appearance is ready for the broad cast. He laughs at himself as he realizes in all the excitement he had forgotten that Taneasia is still in her work overalls and boots!
‘My apologies my dear. I got swept away in all the excitement,’ tugging at her overalls.
‘My goodness me too!’ she giggles grabbing Becky to go back to her accommodation and change into something a little more appropriate.
The girls giggle all the way back to Taneasia’s room. ‘What the heck am I going to wear Becky?’ as she starts searching through her wardrobe.
‘Would you like a coffee, my liege?’ asks Becky’s assistant Robert.
‘That would be great son, I guess the girls will be awhile.’
Robert bows and leaves to brew some coffee.
Now the Croc has some time to calm his nerves down. ‘She said…Yes!’ pure joy surges through his soul.
At the restaurant it’s a hive of activity. Every eating, drinking and cooking utensil is being scrubbed for the second time and polished to a mirror finish. Tarillia smiles at her crew, working in little groups to make sure everything is perfect for the evening. She slips away to retrieve the wheeled case she brought out with her four swings back. Taneasia had asked why she had such a big bag, she told her that it was just some extra stuff she needed and Taneasia had just smiled and changed the subject, not wanting to pry.
Returning with the wheeled bag stuffed full of party decorations, Tarillia organizes a small team to put them up.
After what seemed like an eternity, Taneasia enters the small studio with Becky close at her heels. Taneasia has chosen a light orange frock, highlighting her excited erect frills, as they pulse in vivid red.
‘You look magnificent!’ comments the delighted Croc.
She just bows her head coyly, smiling at her fiancé.
‘For your announcement, I’ll get you both to stand over here,�
� motions Becky walking over to the spot she wants them to stand.
‘We’ll get a good camera angle, and we have our sound gear set to get a clear sound take.’
‘Would you like us to broadcast live? Or would you prefer to edit the shot first, then broadcast?’
‘That won’t be necessary, thanks Becky, we’ll just go live,’ confirms the Croc.
‘OK, I’ll activate the Kingdom wide broadcast and make sure everyone is connected, then I’ll give you the thumbs up and you can start. May I have the security code to authorize the Kingdom wide broadcast please, my liege?’
‘Yes of course, my dear. The code is zbd 3860271,’ replies the Croc as he readies himself for the announcement, yanking on his neck collar. Every screen in the entire kingdom lights up with the broadcast.
The announcement of the Croc and Taneasia’s engagement goes off without a hitch. The reception is all round unanimous applause and congratulations. The Croc will release the wedding date closer to the time of the event. Now all that was left to do is celebrate! And that they do!
Chapter 75
‘Grandfather what happened with Endorok, that’s his name right? And the survey team?’ asks Dave.
‘Endorok is correct Dave, now there’s a scallywag!’ I muse as I now shift my thoughts to the survey team under Endorok’s leadership.
A newly modified prospecting vessel has just been recommissioned and is immediately commandeered by Endorok. The first thing Endorok organizes is a name and artwork for the vessel, he dubs it ‘the Crocs Eyeball’, and he has the name painted on both sides of the fore of the flight deck, with a massive Croc’s eye painted to scale directly above the name on each side. It gives the craft an almost live appearance! Endorok sends the Croc a snapshot of the finished craft. The Croc almost has a heart attack from laughing! He loves it, and gives Endorok the go ahead to start the mission. Two days later, loaded with supplies, they are on their way.
The Sobek shrinks away behind them as they forge ahead on their voyage of discovery. Initially they head out towards their first target, Ceres.
‘Everyone up on the flight deck please,’ comes the ship wide announcement.
Five minutes later, the entire team are all packed onto the flight deck, with Endorok coming in last.
‘Ok lads and ladies, listen up. We have a pivotal mission on our hands, it’s up to us to find our new home, the Croc is depending on us. Our first priority is find a suitable rock to build the city. Second, find and identify minerals and elements we can use. And maybe find some new ones while we’re at it.’
After the pep talk concludes Endorok smiles: ‘I have a wee gift for you all!’ With that he drops the biggest, loudest, smelliest fart in all of Mazuban history! and spins around through the airlock door, locking it behind him. He smiles through the glass port hole at his trapped, gagging victims, pointing and laughing like a mad man.
Dave just smiles as he watches his little brother explode into fits of laughter.
‘You are unreal, Granddad!’ Maxxy wheezes between bouts of laughter.
It takes Maxxy ages to get his composure back, when he does, he asks: ‘Do the crew get him back?’
‘What would you reckon? I reply.
‘I don’t know, they would have to get him back somehow…wouldn’t they?’ Maxxy replies, wanting justice for the crew, but secretly wanting Endorok to get away with it.
Months pass and nothing happens, then as they approached Ceres someone places an egg in each of Endorok’s spacesuit boots. The eggs were on the turn when they were placed in the boots, two weeks later they are fit to bust, going soft and green. Putrid would be a good word to describe the waiting stink bombs!
Endorok wears his coveralls and neoprene bootees fitted with high grip rubber soles. He opens the back of his spacesuit, climbing in oblivious to the waiting surprises in his suit boots. He wiggles his feet into the space boots and with a muffled pop both eggs go off simultaneously. Still with no clue, Endor seals his suit and fits his helmet. As the auto seal mechanism activated, so does the pressurized air supply, giving Endor an experience he’ll never forget! The stink is horrendous, his eyes instantly water as a massive fountain of vomit power spews, out of his mouth, splashing all over the inside of his helmet visor. By this time the entire crew is on the suit floor squealing with laughter and slapping at his helmet. They let him suffer a little longer, then rescue him from the evil smelling suit!
Maxxy collapses on his sleeping bag, howling with laughter holding his belly.
‘You’re too much, Granddad!’ he wheezes.
‘From that day on horseplay is banned!’ I say, making a fake scowling face straight at him, sending Maxxy into another fit of laughter.
After Maxxy settles down a bit, I continue with the story.
Ceres is classed as a small planet. She is 1003 km in diameter, with an icy water mantle containing more fresh water than Thera, some 200 million cubic km of water. The surface temperature varies from 168 Kelvin to 235 Kelvin.
‘Approaching landing target, back off thrust just a fraction, Adam,’ instructs Mindy the pilot, to her co-pilot.
It’s a fine balance of thrust and steering to position the vessel correctly for landing. Gently the vessel touches down on the rock outcrop. The slab of rock is approximately 10 kilometers long and about five wide. The rock slab is actually floating on a sea of liquid gel, much like melting permafrost. The exploration team are already suited up ready to check out the rock.
‘Nev, check this out!’ calls Jamey.
Nev walks over to Jamey quite quickly in his powered suit ‘What’s up?’ he asks as he arrives, squatting down next to Jamey looking over the edge of the rock.
‘I reckon the surface down there is liquid like a thick milkshake.’
‘Good pick up mate! I’ll get Chris to bring out the probe arm and we’ll check it out before anyone steps out onto it. It could be like quicksand, and we don’t want anyone disappearing in that lot!’
Probing confirms Jamey’s suspicions and no one is allowed to venture out onto the slushy surface.
Andy drives the drill rig over to where Nev and Jamey are standing close to the edge of the rock. He jumps down to have a look with the lads.
‘It looks a bit dodgy to walk on doesn’t it?’ he comments to no one in particular.
‘Yep, you won’t see me walking around out there,’ Nev comments back.
‘How big do you think the core is?’ asks Jamey, his mind wandering off for a second.
‘I’ll fire up the drill and we’ll find out, I think because this asteroid is so soft and liquid its core may be quite large and soft too.’
‘I’m here to look after the data side of things, so it may be a dumb question, but why do you think it could be soft, Andy?’ asks Nev.
‘No, your question is not dumb at all Nev, the core tends to be large and soft when the crust is soft.’ Answers Andy. ‘When the crust is hard and that hardness penetrates down into the core it creates pressure, and as it does the pressurized core becomes smaller hotter and denser, sometimes either remaining a dense superheated molten liquid, or it cools and becomes solid.’
‘Never thought of it like that before, thanks Andy.’
After punching a few exploratory holes down around the edge of the rock into the soft surface layer, a decision is made to probe deeper towards the core. After six days of continuous drilling they finally enter the core. Two days later they get the first sample from the core. The material is a thick, dense, brown glop that stinks like the aroma of wet sweaty socks left in a plastic bag for a month! Amanda, the geologist, is ecstatic with the discovery.
‘I’ll run this sample through the molecular ID profiler and see what we have here!’ she blurts, hardly able to contain her excitement.
As she disappears back into the bowels of the vessel, Nev looks at Andy: ‘what’s all that about?’
‘I’ve seen her like this before, when she first discovered tirillium. I think we may have stumbled onto s
omething new here as well, lads.’
There is no viable surface to build a city on. So the decision is made to move onto the next target asteroid Vesta. It will take at least six months to get there. Traveling through the vastness of the asteroid belt holds a few surprises.
Chapter 76
‘Shit! What was hell was that!’ screams Mindy, as she heaves on the controls in an evasive maneuver.
A massive rock shoots past the vessel, missing it by a hair. Endorok scrambles up to the flight deck to see what all the fuss was over.
‘Endorok, we were nearly a hood ornament on that flip’in huge rock that just flew past!’ Mindy yells over her shoulder as Endorok enters the flight deck, still recovering from the evasive maneuver Mindy had just executed.
‘Was that just a rogue rock, or is something else going on?’
‘I’ll get the long range scanner flicked over to close range and see what’s going on,’ comments Adam, as he climbs into his seat wiping the sleep from his eyes.
Endorok looks out the flight deck windows, looking for more angry rocks hell bent on pulverizing them.
‘Endorok, check this out!’ Adam yells, his voice tinged with panic, ‘we’ve strayed into a hot zone!’
‘Get us out of here girl!’ he breathes in to Mindy’s ear.
‘You don’t have to tell me twice!’ Mindy responds hauling on the controls.
‘Endorok, we are not out of the woods yet, this seems to be a mobile hot zone. I’ve never seen anything like it!’ squeaks Adam.
‘Adam, can you establish a pattern in its movement? And hopefully predict what direction it’s going so we can get as far away from it as possible?’
‘Give me five and I’ll see what I can do.’
By this time the entire crew has crowded onto the flight deck various levels of concern on their faces.
‘OK guys, I need the flight deck cleared, can you all wait in the galley? I’ll join you as soon as we are clear of this anomaly. Mindy and Adam need their space to figure out what exactly we’re dealing with and how to get us out of here. Thanks guys.’