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(posted on 01-13-2001)
The Miranu (chapters 1 and 2)
written by Max Beckman-Harned (1999-2000) ------
Chapter 1
I woke up from a deep sleep. I yawned loudly. I looked at the holocalendar. October 7, 2053. I lay on my bed for a while, gazing at my UE Space Academy holoposter. Since I was 7, I've wanted to be in the academy, and get a UE fighter. But all I had was a lowly AirCar, with no space capacity.
I looked out the window, noticing that there was a large round ship using MY backyard as a parking space. I searched through my paddshelf, finding the 'Ship Data' padd and plunked it into my computer and scanned the ship. An image came up, telling me that it had no idea what the ship was, although the shield was down. I decided to read the news to see if anything could help me. I clicked- 'news'. This came up.
UE News Broadcasting to human space and beyond!
Try Ben & Jerry's new flavor- Chunky Gorilla! Some people wonder if old versions of the Miranu's half-circle scout are fully circular, and if they studied Earth many years ago.
Ah-ha! Now I'm getting somewhere. I decided to hail the ship. The screen read:
~Hail v. 1.2.6~ ~Revision 231~ Comm. frequency: I typed list choices.
Miranu 226 NkZ UE 456 NkZ Voinian 612 NkZ Azdgari 762 NkZ Zidagar 112 NkZ more? I typed No and clicked on Miranu. Maybe they could understand that frequency.
~Hail Comm~ Initializing... Setting comm freq... Hailing... WARNING: Audio only. No video. Done
"This is Captain Gara. We need some fuel." said a crackly voice. It sounded alien, maybe because it was alien.
"Well, first," I said, "WHY ARE YOU USING MY BACKYARD AS A PARKING SPACE???"
"Well, um, it was Kalla's idea," came Captain Gara's voice.
"It was not!" said another voice, probably Kalla's.
"Was too!"
"Was not!"
"STOP BICKERING!" I screamed. They did. "JUST TELL ME WHY YOU LANDED IN MY BACKYARD!!"
"Well, we were panicking at the time, and then we noticed your back-yard."
"Oh." I said. "I understand. What kind of fuel do you need? Liquid jumpstart fuel?"
"What's liquid jumpstart fuel?"
"It's.. Oh! What's your top speed?" I asked.
".72 lightspeed," the captain replied.
"Well, we have discovered hyperspace, and can go faster than light."
"Wow! This .72 drive iswasexperimental."
"Well, can you tell me how much fuel your drive can hold?"
"Well, it's about 10 koujus of MiranuJuice."
As I knew, MiranuJuice is compatible with liquid jumpstart fuel. And a kouju is 0.6732156651 of a jump. "OK, so you could make the trip back to Mira in about a week, give or take a few days."
Chapter 2
I finally decided to go to the Alien Minister. Maybe he might know about this ship.
So, (first telling my Miranu friends) I took my AirCar to the Capitol building in Jerico, New York (which is where I live) and quickly walked up to the security person at the front desk. I stood on tiptoe, my head barely over the top of the tall marble desk.
"Can I help you, little boy?" asked the huge security manager at the desk. My cheeks turned burning red from the embarrassment of being in a Capitol building and talking to someone at least four feet taller than me.
"Yes," I replied shakily, "I need to speak to the Alien Minister."
"Why?" he boomed. I had thoughts of God yelling down WHY?? at me.
"Um," I squeaked, " it's about these five Miranu and their ship, the Expelliagarus or something."
"The Expallergus," corrected Captain Gara, looking a little piffled.
"What five Miranu?" asked the guard.
"Oh!" I exclaimed. "You can't see them! They're over there." I pointed, suddenly realizing the guard couldn't see my finger and then said "Near the 'Really Old Computers: 1999-2005 Macintoshes' exhibit with the iMacs and Power Macintosh G4s."
"And what do you want with the Alien Minister?" he said, sounding rather sarcastic.
"These Miranu came here in a ship, called the Expallergus, with a .72 lightspeed drive, and decided to park in my backyard. I wonder if the Alien Minister knows about it." I replied.
To make a long story short, after what seemed like two millenia, I talked to the Minister, and he said that he didn't know of such a ship, and that we should travel to Mira. Since I didn't have much money, he kindly gave me eleven thousand credits to buy my very own shuttlecraft and a parking space at Earth Base 68A, which turned out to be number 457363617065. I requested clearance for takeoff, and the controller droned:
"Number 2056656C6F63697479, you are cleared for takeoff, and hyperspace flight," and cut the transmission. I set my navcomp for the route to Mira, and it scrolled with numbers, and finally flashed 'Jump : Centauri 45562C2045564F2C204B6573747265 6C2C2043726573656E742 0576172736869702E' and the ship accelerated, and hit lightspeed. I set the autopilot, and waited until Mira came. Suddenly, without warning, my ship screamed with sirens.
To be continued....
(This message has been edited by moderator (edited 01-13-2001).)
Cool story!
------------------ "One Ring to rule them all one Ring to find them, one Ring to bring them all into the darkness and bind them, in the land of mordor where the shadows lie." Check out the upcomming Lord of the Rings Movies at (url="http://"http://www.lordoftherings.net/home.html")http://www.lordofthe...s.net/home.html(/url)
YEAH! It's about freakin' time I see Chapter 2!! Keep sending those chapters, man!
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Funny and clever. I like it.
------------------ PlanetPhil not drowning, waving
Hmmm. Good story but... Since when do 7 year old boys get sent on missions to alien planets? (I mean can you imagine what his parents would be thinking?)