One Calm Day in Space

     He plopped down in his chair and appraised the screens. The beeping was coming from the screen that covered Sector 12, it was flashing blue which meant that there was an environmental disturbance, no emergency or invading ships but something out of the ordinary. Gerald pushed the button to indicate that he registered the notice. He buckled in and then grabbed his headset.

     “Paging Jean and Sandra – disturbance in Section 12 we will be heading over to investigate. Lightspeed will be initiated once you indicate we are clear for departure.” Gerald spoke confidently and clearly; he was getting excited for a change in the day-to-day.

     Jean was first to respond, “Jean here, communications have been sent to headquarters, I am strapped in and ready to ride!”

     Then Sandra’s high-pitched voice rang in, “Sandra here, ship doors are locked and loaded; ready for take-off”.

     Gerald smiled, he did not often get to use the lightspeed feature on the ship and it was thrilling. He clicked the controls into place and they shot into the abyss. The stars and Novas twinkled by dazzling in all their glory. His stomach did flips but it was exhilarating. Sector 12 was not too far off from where they were patrolling, just towards the space over central Neopia. That was his favorite area – he could watch the main lands pass by as Neopia turned on its axel.

     Just a few minutes later the ship slowed, engaging into auto pilot. They had arrived. Gerald clicked the button to indicate all clear and that seat belts could be removed. A few seconds later Jean and Sandra sauntered into the room. While they all had their particular roles aboard the ship, they were a team especially when they got an alert.

     Sandra dropped down in the co-pilot chair, “So what are we looking for?!” she asked cheerily. Jean was already scanning the windows looking for anything out of the ordinary.

     Gerald told them about the alert, but indicated he was not sure what they were looking for. “Time to gear out” he commanded.

     The three Neopians quickly jumped into their space suits, and grabbed their essentials: one weapon, a scanner and their headsets. Sandra depressurized the cabin and unlocked the door. They floated out into space with binoculars in hand. They quickly figured out the disturbance, globs of jelly were everywhere! The colorful pieces floated through space looking like a kaleidoscope. Gerald wondered how it all got up here.

     They tried to grab a few of the floating pieces for testing, as they gathered them, they noticed another space ship coming in hot. Jean indicated that they better get back to the ship to evaluate if this was friend or foe.

     The team of three scrambled the best they could back on board. Sandra took the Jelly samples into the laboratory to store them safely for testing and returned back to the others. Jean was at the communication board already making contact with the unknown ship. Luckily, they did not appear to be a threat. Jean could not clearly distinguish where the ship was from, but it was recorded as non-threatening. They received an invitation to enter the space ship. Jean accepted the invite, and quickly sent over a note to the main headquarters with an update.

     The team once again set out into space. As they floated towards the other ship Gerald felt uneasy. He very rarely entered a ship he was not the captain of, but he trusted Jean’s instincts. They reached the door which was depressurised for them and they stood waiting for the next door to open.

     As the inner door opened, they were shocked to see the Cybunny, Cylara, standing there in all her glory. The dazzling space explorer was smiling at them but behind her were several grumpy-looking Mutant Grundos with Star Blasters aiming their way. Gerald gazed up taking in the immaculate white walls with silver everywhere, there were screens, buttons and lights all around them.

     Sandra gulped and looked down at her wrinkled spacesuit, she was not prepared to be in the presence of greatness today. She did not even know what to say.

     Luckily, Cylara jumped into motion, ushering them in while the airlock closed sharply behind them. “Welcome aboard, mates!” she giggled, “You must be from the Grundo Warehouse, eh?!”

     Jean studdered, “Uhm, yes Miss, we are… I am Jean, this here is Sandra and our captain Gerald. How may we be of assistance to you today?” He had reverted immediately into his customer service training. The Mutant Grundos followed a few paces behind, their Star Blasters still aimed.

     Jean’s formal tone had Cylara laughing even harder, “You are so silly! Please call me Cylara! And this here is Brynx, Sperye and Wendxyl” she nodded back towards the Mutant Grundos who grunted in response. They entered a side chamber of the spacecraft which was about the size of their ship.

     Cylara gestured to a chair, “Now sit and have some Tea” she ushered cups towards them that seemed to appear out of nowhere. “Let’s get down to business. You saw what was out there… and right place, right time my friends. You will be joining me to get to the bottom of this.”

     Gerald looked confused and accidentally blurted out his inner thoughts, “But what is it?!” Realizing he said it out loud, he blushed.

     Cylara chuckled once more, not looking at all fazed by his outburst. “I am glad you asked…have you ever heard of Jelly Blobs of Doom?” The three nodded. “Well, it is here in space too… but it should not be, it should be safely contained to the land below. So, we need to figure out what is going on down there.”

     Sandra laughed, “Oh so we are headed into the atmosphere?!”

     Cylara smiled, “That’s right! My ship is bigger and will be able to handle it more smoothly, so send out a note to your supervisors and let them know you won’t be back until late.”

     Jean nodded, one of the Mutant Grundos led him into a side room where he could send out the communication. Gerald smiled again to himself; this was turning out to be quite a day!

     A few moments later, the team was buckled in and ready to head to land as the ship flew through space. The spaceship beeped with a warning and then the robotic voice indicated that the landing was approaching. The Mutant Grundos secured the cabin. Turbulence shook the ship as it entered into the thick atmosphere of Neopia. The wheels went out and Cylara grabbed the steering control to help glide the ship smoothly to a stop. The controls stopped blinking, and Gerald sighed with relief – that went much smoother than anticipated. Now he just needed to orient himself.

     They exited the ship; the bright sun blinded them as they tried to look around. Gerald could not yet tell which Neopian land they settled in. He shifted into the shade of the ship, still warm to the touch. He jumped and bounced back up, this land was yellow and squishy… and smelled stickily sweet. Gerald’s first thought was of the Evil Fuzzles, he hoped this was not their homeland! But he could not find any evidence of fuzz sticking to this strange surface.

     Jean pulled out his binoculars and glimpsed a Giant green lump in the distance and what looked like Neopians gathering there. He was too far away to call out but they all looked strangely shiny. He swivelled his binoculars left, beyond there appeared to be a volcano, but it did not seem like there was fire or smoke, but rather a peculiar goo flowing from it.

     Cylara took command, “Alright, before we go any further, we need to grab some equipment.” The team started scooping up the boxes the strange Grundos were gesturing at. There was a box filled to the brim with just Ocular implants, a bag with several Zero-G Scout Packs, a Locator Device tossed in a pile of Space Fungus Spores that he had no idea how he would grab and two Pocket Blasters… yet, the Grundos kept pulling things out of storage.

     Gerald spoke up, balancing as many weapons as he could hold, “Listen, I want to help but we need to prioritise. We can’t carry all of this”.

     The Mutant Grundos grunted but shuffled to move some boxes back into storage. Cylara turned around and said “Just take what you’re holding, I will grab the important things that are left and then we need to get out there!”

      Jean finally spoke, “Excuse me, where are we and how will we find our way to the source of the Jelly Blobs of Doom?”

     Cylara smiled a toothy grin, “Well, the location is classified but I will fill you in as much as I can on the way out… the faster we can get in there, the better!’

     Finally, Jean, Gerald, Sandra and Cylara filed out into the land beyond. The three Mutant Grundos stayed behind to guard the ship and monitor for any threats.

     Cylara bounced with joy on the strange sticky land, she had clearly been here before, and she slowly filled them in on the landmarks and other tidbits of this land. They were moving towards the volcano. Gerald looked around seeking out threats but could not find any. This land was strange, colourful and smelled so sweet.

     Finally, they arrived at the base of the volcano, it oozed jelly and every so often shot a blob into the atmosphere… this was clearly the source of the Jelly Blobs of Doom.

     Cylara shifted into boss mode, “Listen up. We need to destroy as much of the jelly source inside of this volcano as we can. Use the weapons I provided you with or eat them. Eat as much as you can…it will make you a bigger target but it is the most effective way to get rid of the blobs. The Mutant Grundos have detected a Chomby here messing with the balance. It is likely him who is shooting these chunks into space. If you see the rare blue jelly blob… RUN! It is too big and it will consume you.”

     Sandra looked flabbergasted and Jean was silently brooding. Gerald was still secretly excited to be on this adventure. The crew started hiking the volcano looking for an opening into the core. They quickly found one and the battle started immediately. There were Blobs of Jelly everywhere and they spotted the giant Chomby holding an even larger slingshot…. he was not pleased.

     Sandra blasted the first Blob of Jelly with the Pocket Blaster, while Jean sat down and started eating as much as he could. Jean made a great dent in the jelly levels, but he grew too large and had to crawl out the top of the volcano. From the outside he used the Locater Devices and communicated to the rest of the team.

     Cylara and Gerald went straight to battle the giant Chomby. He shot Blobs of Jelly at them in every colour imaginable. Gerald figured dodging the Blobs of Jelly was better than it being sent into space. He spotted the main source of jelly, a pit filled to the rim with sugar. Cylara followed his gaze and shouted a command, “Get the Space Fungus Spores!”

     She dodged a blue blob of jelly and used one of the Ocular implants to disorient the Chomby. Gerald shuffled towards the prime jelly source with the Space Fungus Spores in hand. He dismantled the jelly source by infecting it with the Spores. He figured this would not be a permanent fix but would solve the problem for a while.

     They felt the volcano shake. Jean’s voice filled their headsets, “You all need to MOVE, the rare blue jelly blob is headed straight for you!”

     Sandra blasted a hole in the side of the volcano which Cylara and Gerald quickly jumped towards. When they looked back down, they saw the giant blue jelly blob consume the Chomby. That would keep him occupied for a while.

     The team sighed, pleased with their progress. Gerald knew they barely scratched the surface of fighting off the Jelly Blobs of Doom and hoped Cylara would pick them again the next time she needed to battle. They were all sticky and lost most of their weapons in the exit; the volcano seemed quiet. They started back towards the ship.

     Cylara was gratified but surprisingly quiet on their journey home. Sandra was covered in sticky jelly and Jean had a stomach ache. Gerald was satisfied with their win and was smiling sweetly. They reached the ship and the Mutant Grundos took over, cleaning them up and bringing them safely back into space.

     When they reached Sector 12, Cylara thanked them for their help, the team was too tired to say much back. They boarded their ship and prepared to embark back to the headquarters. Jean started typing in his communication but realised it was blocked… Sandra squealed and Gerald jumped into action… but before he could move anywhere Cylara’s face came onto the screen, her voice echoing throughout the ship, “Sorry to have to do this to you when you really were quite a help… but as I said. That location is classified…”. Gerald was confused but the next thing he knew there was a blinding light and then darkness.

     ….

     Gerald jolted awake, he was sitting in his captain’s chair and did not remember dozing off. He quickly checked the control panels: no alerts and the ship was in cruise control. He let out a long breath, thank goodness nothing had gone wrong… he had never fallen asleep like that before. Memories of large Mutant Grundos, floating jelly and Cylara lightly danced in his brain. He checked the communication logs: blank, the GPS history: all indicated they never left Sector 7, and then over to his space suit: nothing sticky or out of the ordinary. He laughed to himself and felt silly. It must have been all a dream… it was a calm day in space anyways.

     The End.