Gets lost in space
I entered the classroom to find my students working diligently on their solar system diorama.
"Ah! Good morning class! Have you all met Arnold's cousin, Janet?" I placed a friendly hand on the stunned girl's shoulder.
"Yes Ms. Frizzle." The chorused back at me, sounding somewhat less than enthusiastic. I nodded at them and walked to my desk.
"My teacher doesn't dress like that." I heard Janet say to Arnold in a voice that was far from quiet.
"That's nothing." He replied coolly. "Sometimes the Friz looks totally outrageous."
Outrageous? Certain not in this little beauty. The BUS had provided this one especially for today. I did love it when she did that, it was like a little teaser of the adventures the day would contain.
And today certainly would be different.
I had nine today instead of the usual eight. A few weeks ago, the final one of my students, Phoebe Terese had joined us from her old school. She had started off rocky and insecure but my wonderful students welcomed her right in and helped her open up a little. She was one of my own now.
Janet however, was not but that didn't mean she couldn't be important. She was joining us today and that could only make things more interesting.
I placed my books on my desk and removed my planet-mobile head band. I opened my arms up to Liz and she eagerly crawled to her favorite spot across my shoulders. "Well, since we're lucky enough to have a guest today, I'd say it's the perfect time for a field trip!"
The students cheered and I led the way outside. I had something special planned for today. Time to teach Arnold how to stand up to his bossy cousin.
I drove to the planetarium at a normal pace even though the BUS cried to be going faster. No need to terrify Arnold's cousin. I stuck to the recommended speed limit, slow though it was.
Janet did not sound impressed by the surroundings. "We're going to the planetarium?" She observed. "Hardly unusual."
"The Friz, taking us on a normal field trip?" I heard Arnold say from the back seat where he and his cousin were sitting. "Believe me, that's unusual."
I turned to Liz and winked. Oh this field trip would be anything but ordinary.
As we pulled up to the entrance of the planetarium, I noticed that the gates were closed. Someone had placed a padlock on them! "How odd…" I said. "closed today…" No doubt because of some time jumping I would be doing later.
"Closed?" Arnold exclaimed.
"Oh well, looks like we'll just have to go back to school." I told the students as they groaned in disappointment. I pulled away from the curb waiting for the chance to make a u-turn.
"Some field trip Arnold." Janet said. "You know what? My teacher would have called ahead, because my teacher plans ahead, my teacher never makes mistakes! My teacher is a zillion times better than…"
"Nobody…" Arnold interrupted. "is better than Ms. Frizzle."
There it was. I smiled.
"Oh yeah?" Janet said challengingly. "PROVE IT!"
"STOP THE BUS!" Arnold yelled.
I obediently slammed on the brakes. Arnold marched up to my side with confident, determined strides.
"Yes Arnold?" I asked.
"Isn't there… you know… someplace ELSE you could take us?" He asked as the rest of the class looked on in anticipation.
"You mean, another planetarium?" I asked him with a smile. Could he be thinking what I was thinking?
"Well," He said. "sort of but… bigger."
He was. "Bigger?" I inquired just to be sure.
"You know," He smiled at me and whispered conspiratorially from behind his hand. "the… big one!"
I slapped the side of my head. And so this adventure would begin. Brilliant! "Oh Arnold! Why didn't I think of that?" I grabbed the BUS's manual chameleon circuit lever and pulled hard. My wonderful bus immediately responded gave me exactly what we needed even as I thought of it.
"T-5 and counting!" I called to my students as the BUS strapped them in for take-off.
As the BUS transformed and I continued the countdown, my mind raced. How best to do this? I'd need some kind of optimal space craft that was still suitable to Earth but with far more powerful boosters… We could do it. And so long as I coupled the time jump with the escape from Earth's atmosphere, we could easily jump back to 506 B.C. when most of the planets would be neatly aligned and fastest to visit…
"BLAST-OFF!"
With a roar of our new engines, we sprang off the ground and high into the atmosphere.
"WHAT'S HAPPENING?" Janet yelled from the backseat.
"A FIELD TRIP!" My students yelled back.
I took advantage of their momentary distraction to dematerialize and make the time jump. The shaking of the BUS hid any sounds our jump might have made.
The BUS was very happy to be back in the vortex even if just for a second, I heard her singing in my head, a single note of happiness that all my students would be deaf to.
Thanks to the time jump and the advanced rockets of the bus, it only took us a few seconds or, more accurately, about -2501 years to leave Earth's atmosphere and enter the wide emptiness of space.
"Into outer space?" I heard Janet say as Earth grew smaller and smaller below us. "Highly unusual…"
We leveled out as we hit open space. I killed the rockets to give us a moment of just floating in space. Ah, it had been too long!
"Welcome to outer space class. The only planetarium open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And how are all my astronauts doing?"
The students giggled as they got used to their new weightlessness. I was tempted but decided not to engage yet. I had to focus on this tour. As they all laughed and explored a world without gravity, I swung us around and headed for the sun. I pulled up a map on the BUS's screen.
"Hmmm…. Let's see now… we are just about… there! Wonderful! Let the tour begin!" I shouted to them. "We're coming up to the sun!"
The students all crowded around the windows to get a better look. We circled once around the sun, wearing our special heavy-duty, sunblock 8000 goggles that the BUS had so thoughtfully provided so that we could enjoy its splendor. Then off we shot to begin the tour of the planets.
A few minutes later, a red, sun-baked rock of a planet appeared out of the black cosmos.
"So class," I told them as they gathered around the screen to peer at the map. "we've traveled from Earth, around the sun, and now we are on our way too…"
"Mercury." Janet interjected. "The closest planet to the sun. When I tell my class, they're gonna be so jealous."
Our approach to Mercury was flawless despite the BUS and myself being out of practice.
"Wow, we're landing!" Several of my students said in unison.
"Of course." Couldn't show them the solar system without actually showing them the solar system, now could I?
"Told you, Janet." I heard Arnold whisper to his cousin.
We had to do a vertical landing but that was quickly remedied by the slight pull of Mercury's gravity.
The airlock opened and my students bounded out onto the surface of the new planet, marveling at the difference in gravity that allowed them to leap several feet in the air.
"We hardly weigh anything compared to my old planet, Earth!" Phoebe exclaimed as she, Ralphie and Dorothy Anne jumped over the craters and crags of Mercury's surface.
Off to the side, Keesha was practicing her ballet moves in the freedom of Mercury. "I wonder if that means there's less gravity pulling on us here." She said as I bounded out of the BUS and came to a stop at her side.
"Exactly Keesha." I told her. "Good thinking!" I patted her helmet gently. That was something humans did right? As a friendly gesture? Luckily, Liz saved me from any potentially awkward continuation by bouncing past on her tail, relishing in her first experience of different gravity. "Come along class," I called to the rest of my students. "follow the bouncing lizard!"
We followed Liz across the planet's surface, my students laughing and flapping their arms as if they were ready to fly. This planet almost reminded me of home. Only the fires of its center had burned out long ago. And I didn't have a home I could go back to anymore. Not for another year at least.
As we were hopping around, we came across several holes in the surface of the planet.
"Man," Ralphie said. "The aliens on Mercury sure make big footprints!"
"Nothing can live on Mercury, Ralphie." Keesha told him, reading the Thermo-probe. "It's too hot and dry during the day."
More like the species that visited here saw no need for climate control but there you go.
"And according to my research," D.A. was saying to Ralphie, "way below freezing at night."
"and day or night there's no air," I added. "Which makes it extremely difficult," I inhaled deeply. "to breathe." That is for species without bacterial cultures in their throats.
While Ralphie continued to speculate about the 'footprints' and Janet began demonstrating her knowledge of meteorites, I took a quick look around. Hmmm. There was a rather nice cliff over there, perhaps I'd let my students explore the impact of lower gravity on fall times.
"Come along class!" I called, leading the way to the cliff. We explored a little while longer before I decided we'd best get a move on if we wanted to see the rest of the planets. I pretended not to notice as Janet pushed the meteorite she had picked up on Mercury under her seat.
Humans.
We shot off for Venus. With the light-speed thrusters it took us about five minutes to reach our destination.
"We are now approaching…"
"Venus," Janet answered. "The second planet from the sun. I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait!" She cheered.
Our descent through Venus' storm clouds was rocky but as gentle as could possibly be under the circumstances. Good old BUS.
"Come along class." I called as we landed and set off across the planet's surface. I let them wander a little ways, exploring the surface. Janet pulled Arnold off, most of the rest of them hung pretty close to the BUS.
"Check out those weird clouds…" I heard Carlos say. I looked up at the swirling sulfurous storm clouds brewing overhead and smiled.
"Oh good," Wanda said. "A little rain will cool the place down."
"Except that's not rain water in those clouds, Wanda." I told her. "It's sulfuric acid."
"Sulfuric ACID?" Ralphie exclaimed.
I nodded. "It's a deadly poison." The perfect opportunity to test the full capabilities of these suits, not to mention the BUS's tolerance for acidity. "Oh we're perfectly safe." I assured my students, who looked more than a little worried. "As long as we keep our space suits on." Well, I was pretty sure they would hold up.
A little ways away, Arnold and his cousin were carrying more rocks. I pretended not to notice them even as we loaded back on the BUS (my students were not as keen to test the protectiveness of their suits as I was. Humans. What a pity.) and took off to continue our tour.
We passed Earth a few minutes later. The students marveled at their home planet out the windows commenting on how perfect it was to support their species. I didn't even slow down. I was fighting down my feelings of nostalgia and envy. No need to visit Earth, we'd be back there soon enough. No reason to cry in front of my students either.
Janet's voice interrupted my thoughts. "And coming up is Mars. The fourth planet." She walked up next to me and pointed at the map. "Right, Ms. Frizzle?"
"Very good Janet." I complemented her. "You certainly do know your planets." Maybe in the future she'd discover a new one. I wasn't too concerned about her future, it didn't shine out of the vortex of time like those of my other student's did when I tried to look. All the same though…
"I got straight A's on all my reports!" Janet was boasting, not noticing my distant look.
"We know, we know, enough already!" My class chorused.
Within a few minutes we had reached Mars.
"Ah, here we are class!" I told them as we approached my favorite planet in the system. "Take a look at Mars! How marvelous!" From a distance, it almost reminded me of home.
I made sure we landed on a section free of the Ice Warriors' settlements and put the shields and radar scramblers on full. No need for my students to meet an alien race. Yet. Too many complications and uncertainties, plus the Council would probably expand my one-year sentence to several decades.
"It looks like the whole place is rusting!" Tim observed as we looked around.
"No wonder it's called the "red planet."" Dorothy Anne agreed as she read up about Mars in one of her innumerable books.
"As you can see," I told them gesturing out over the planet's surface. "the soil here is colored by red dust, which has iron in it."
"Look at those cliffs of ice!" Tim yelled, pointing at the shear faces surrounding us.
Wanda was already halfway up one of them. "ice-climbing anyone?" She called down. The class ran to the wall and eagerly started to follow Wanda up. I joined in, ascending with ease. I hadn't gone ice climbing since my visit to the Himalayas. Thank goodness I remembered most of it!
"I wonder if Mars could have been another Earth." Keesha said as we reached the top and got a good look around the planet's surface. "If it had water and wasn't so cold!"
It was thinking like that that was going to drive the humans to the stars in the next century. But no need to jump into anything right now. Or maybe there was…
"Maybe." I agreed. "But as I always say, Mars is the best place for I Scream."
"Ice cream?" Ralphie asked, looking around excitedly. "Where?"
"Here." I replied. "I… SCREAAAAMMMM" I leapt off the cliff and plummeted down the far side, screaming the whole way. No reason education and going under the radar couldn't be fun! My class was right behind me as we jumped and fell our way back to the surface, landing in a dusty, shallow crater.
We did have a minor, momentary alien scare as Arnold appeared through a dust cloud, carrying buckets of red dust but everyone laughed about it.
Then humans left Mars for the last time until they would colonize the planet in 2056.
The BUS seemed to be having some difficulty engaging light-speed as we passed through the asteroid belt. Probably because her back was suddenly loaded down with Mars rocks and ice blocks and she didn't like it one bit. My students were talking and examining the asteroids but I was too busy trying to steer to answer some of their observations.
"It's part of the asteroid belt." I said once I had a few seconds between asteroids to speak up, and an opportunity to join in the conversation. "A ring of asteroids which divides our solar system into the inner and outer planets." This one certainly was a lot thicker than some of the other ones I'd seen.
The BUS suddenly ground to a standstill. The engines were dead. It appeared Janet had found the emergency brake, I had been wondering where that had got to…
As everyone floated about in confusion trying to figure out what had happened, Janet's voice rang out: "An asteroid! I've got to have one! Please? It'll only take me a second!"
"Watch out!" Arnold yelled pointing out the window. I turned just in time to see a rather large asteroid flying right at us. But with the engines cut and the BUS being dramatic due to being weighed down, there was little chance of avoiding it.
We were able to move just enough to duck under it but the giant hunk of rock hit the roof with a rather loud scrape. The whole BUS shuddered.
My students began to panic:
"What was that?"
"What happened?"
"What's going on?"
"Don't worry class." I told them. "Just an unexpected orbital interruption." Honestly, humans were always making such a fuss out of nothing! My tough old BUS could handle this. I turned back to the navigation screen. "Let's just see where we are, shall we?"
Phoebe gasped. "The map! It's gone!" The screen shorted out and then went blank. Oh dear. That wasn't good. I'd just had that fixed…
My students' reactions were predictably, much more dramatic. They all drew a collective gasp.
"We're lost in space!" Ralphie cried.
"WE'RE LOST IN SPACE!"
"As I always say, there's nothing a good space mechanic can't fix." And I was one of the best. Janet, Liz and I were on the roof, assessing the damage. I had to get her out of the BUS, for some reason the old girl didn't like having Janet onboard. "Wrench." I told Janet, holding out my hand. She placed it in my hand and I set to work. Not much was broken thankfully, more just knocked out of place by the crash. I buried my head in my work, loosening the guard so I could reposition the display interface. "Pliers." I called to Janet, holding out my hand as I finally got the guard free.
"An asteroid… I mean pliers." Janet placed the pliers in my hand. I used them to prop open the interface and called for my screwdriver. It was placed into my hand. I held it backwards so I could scan it with the sonic function.
It appeared as if only navigation memory was shot. So the map was no longer stored it had to be re-learned by the system. Well, at least we had half of it and I knew the rest of the way. And this would give the trip a great spirit of adventure.
"Ms. Frizzle," Tim called up to me as I reconnected the interface. "We've got half of the map now."
"Good, one… more… adjustment…" I wanted to check the readings on the light-speed rockets, they should have been able to compensate for the extra load I wonder why they weren't? Maybe this wasn't the kind of repair to be making right now… it would be easier back on Earth when I had all my other tools…
I looked up in time to see an asteroid headed right for me and Liz.
There was no time to think: Liz jumped in panic and landed on the emergency light-speed boosters button on the back of my jetpack.
"Whoops!" I cried as we shot away from the BUS. The asteroid landed on the roof right where we had been standing but caused no more damage I was sure. The BUS didn't alert me to anything new as it faded into the distance. "Keep your claw on that button, Liz." I told her. "Up… up and away!" We were going on an adventure.
It only took us a few seconds to clear the asteroid belt. Within a minute we were passing Jupiter. The BUS must've refueled this pack to maximum for me before I'd strapped it on. Good old BUS. As Liz and I shot towards Saturn, I pressed my remote activation emergency programming for the BUS. If I knew me (and really, did anyone know me better?), future me would have traveled to the past to make sure that when this happened, the class would still be able to find me. Now it was up to them to find their way across space to wherever I decided to go. They may not have a map but they had Janet. She knew all the planets. And they were basically aligned so it was a straight shot. Even if they hadn't been, the BUS's gravity sensors would reorient them towards the next planet.
I just hoped they didn't run into any wandering species… or burn out the light-speed rockets, those were expensive to fix.
My light-speed pack was only about half full just as we reached the edge of the solar system but I decided it was best to stay in, navigation would be simpler that way. Plus, I technically wasn't allowed outside of the solar system. I drifted gently down onto the surface of Pluto.
"Well Lizalria, how about we do a little star-gazing?" I asked her as she jumped off of my shoulder. She nodded enthusiastically. I pulled my collapsible telescope out of my pocket and set it up facing out to the stars. "I think I'll be able to find Kasterborous from here, just give me a second…" I swung the high-powered telescope out towards the endless expanse of stars beyond Earth's solar system. It only took me a few minutes to locate the constellation containing my home. "Look Liz, that's where I'm from." I moved aside to let her peer through the lens. "My home planet is right in the center of that constellation, the fires of its center burning with all the force of a star. The soil is a deep, rich red and the trees silver. They glow with the light constantly." Lizalria patted my arm comfortingly. I smiled at her and took the telescope back.
I just stared at Kasterborous for a long time, watching the gas clouds swirl and the fires of my home world burn.
It had been such a long time since I'd just been able to be alone and think like this. Back home, everyone had been breathing down my neck from the moment I saw what I wasn't supposed to. And then there had been the trial and research and preparations and my transport to this system. My spare closet (another room of my wonderful BUS) was still a mess, stuffed with various gadgetry from home and Earth-objects to help me blend in. I'd need to straighten that out soon…
And what about when all this was over? I straightened up at the thought, leaving the image of my home star system burning in my retinas. Would I just pack it all up again and leave? Return home either triumphant or outcast? Would they remember me for this or hate me for this? Was this plan even going to work?
One year. One year and then maybe, maybe I'd be able to finally return. And if I couldn't? Where would I go then?
It took them some time to find me. Granted, it takes a long time to travel to Pluto without the light-speed rockets operating at full capacity. As I stood gazing out at the stars of Kasterborous, a beam of light swept past me. I looked up. They were here! I waved and abandoned my telescope to greet them.
My poor BUS collapsed as soon as it touched down. Poor thing, it must be exhausted traveling that far in first gear and carrying all that "proof" for Janet. I'd probably need to find a rift and refuel before our next field trip.
The students cheered as they filed out of the BUS and hopped towards me.
"Good work class!" I congratulated them as Tim and Phoebe embraced me. "I knew you'd find us. Right Liz?" Liz jumped eagerly into Phoebe's arms.
"Sure can see the stars from here." Keesha remarked, looking around. "I wonder where the sun is…"
I leaned in next to her and pointed at a small yellow star. "See that tiny star?" I asked her.
She nodded.
"Well," I said. "That's it."
"That's the sun?" Wanda exclaimed.
"No wonder Pluto's so cold and dark, look how far away the sun is!" Tim said.
"So the colder we got… the warmer we got to finding you!" Phoebe told me.
"It was a good hint, if I do say so myself." I admitted. Or at least it would be. Hmmm… it did have a nice ironic confusion to it… now I knew exactly what clues to leave them. I'd also probably have to shut down the isomorphic controls. Oh and the planetarium! I needed to close the planetarium for this whole day to work out. Looks like I had my work cut out for me upon our return to Earth…
The BUS drove up to us and let out a deep sigh. The doors opened and a cascade of Plutonian rocks fell out. Janet poked her head out of the BUS.
"I got enough stuff for all of us to prove we made it to Pluto!" She called to us. How had she fit all that "proof" in there? Surely the BUS hadn't created new closets and rooms for her?
"Well what are you waiting for?" Janet was saying. "Let's go!"
"Are you kidding?" Ralphie asked.
"There's no room in there!" Keesha pointed out.
"Alright, be that way." Janet said. She gathered up an armful of rocks, tossed them inside and shut the doors.
The BUS had had enough. It forcefully ejected Janet and all her accumulated "proof" out of the back door. I'd need to have a word with it later about manners towards our guests.
"There's no way I'm going home without my stuff!" Janet said, perched on top of her pile.
"There's no way I'm going home without you!" Arnold said, hopping over to stand at the bottom of Janet's pile. I backed up and began to fold my telescope into my pocket again but kept my eyes on the students. This could end badly.
"It's proof!" Janet protested. "Nobody will believe me without it!" Well she was probably right about that. Not that I was agreeing with her.
"I'll believe you!"Arnold told Janet. "They'll believe you!" Janet was not satisfied.
Arnold tensed up. "Janet, you want proof? I'll give you proof. Here's proof of what'll happen to you if you stay here with your stuff!"
"Arnold, no!" Janet shouted. I began to run towards them. But not fast enough.
Arnold pulled off his helmet.
Oh dear. That wasn't good.
Where I was frantic however, Janet was positively hysterical. She grabbed her cousin around the middle and dove inside the BUS, screaming at me to get us back to Earth. The rest of the class and Liz rushed on and we were off.
My concern for Arnold far outweighed my trepidation at revealing the full capabilities of my BUS. I couldn't let the light of his future fade. As a result, we arrived back on Earth in our own time nearly instantaneously so long as one overlooked the time jump. Luckily, I don't think anyone noticed, they were a little too concerned about thawing him out. The nano-genes I had brought along silently went to work on Arnold anyway and as a result, he was all thawed out, good as new within six minutes of returning to the classroom. Unfortunately, the nano-genes, clever as they were, could do nothing for his immune system so Arnold found himself with a rather nasty but not life-threatening, Pluto-frozen induced cold.
Janet kept apologizing profusely and giving Arnold tissues, telling everyone how wrong she had been to try to prove that she'd been in space. I smiled as I stored the glass jar full of Jupiter's storm that she'd collected deep in the recesses of the classroom closet. No, Janet was definitely not one of mine, nor was she a threat to exposing me. But she was still important. I looked forward to teaching her again in the future.
An announcement suddenly came on the PA system as I rejoined the class: "Attention all students, we've just learned that scientists have made their first contact, with an alien from outer space!"
The class began to whisper in confusion and amazement.
I myself was a little surprised. "Oh my…" Had the day finally come? Did I no longer need to hide? It seemed a little early for such an event. Unless, of course…
Before I could finish that thought, Liz leapt off my shoulder and pushed aside a large box on the floor to reveal…
"Ralphie!" The class indicted. He laughed, his jest revealed.
Oh well. Someday it would be time for my identity to be known. Or my year would run out. Whichever came first.
"As I always say class, you're out of this world." They gathered around me and laughed cheerfully, endearingly.
I had a year. This was just the beginning.
