Last time, The Winx girls, the Specialists and three witches from Cloud Tower embarked on a voyage of discovery. Techna, Timmy and Elise Caplin (from C.T.) discovered a means to travel to an unexplored part of the universe, as well as a way back home. And now, on with the show!
Chapter 2: First Contact
The ship had arrived at an apparently ordinary area of empty space. "We're right where we're supposed to be." Said Timmy. "The wormhole should open any second." Just as he finished talking, the area of space in from of the ship began to glow bright blue. "This is it!" exclaimed Elise. The wormhole had opened, a bright blue tunnel in space. "Punch it Sky!" exclaimed Techna. Sky brought the ship to full power. "Things are going to get a little rough!" exclaimed Sky as piloted the ship into the tunnel. There was another flash of bright blue and the wormhole closed.
Inside the wormhole, it was all blue and white light. The ship was rocked and bumped from all sides. "When you said 'a little rough' snookums," said Stella, "Did you mean 'breakfast tossing' rough?" Stella was looking two or three shades green. "I told you not to eat so much this morning," said Musa, "But you never listen to me." "I would have if I'd known if we were going through a wormhole!" exclaimed Stella. "Just hold on Stella," said Brandon, "The inertial dampers should be adjusted soon. Right Riven?" "I'm working as fast as I can!" said Riven who was trying to compensate for the turbulence of the wormhole.
"I don't mind the ride." Said Morgan Rogers. "I can take it. I've got an iron constitution." "You may be able to take it," said Carmen Dawson who was as green as Stella, if not greener, "But some people aren't as lucky." There was an exceptionally hard jolt. "Oh god!" exclaimed Stella, "I'm gonna be sick!" "Riven?" asked Brandon anxiously. "Two seconds!" exclaimed Riven, and the ship stopped rocking about. "That's better." Said Sky. "Where's the bathroom?" asked Stella. "In the back." Said Helia. Stella ran out of her chair towards the back, but was pushed out of the way by Carmen who shouted "Out of my way pixy!" The two reached the bathroom at the same time. The door closed, and there were two sets of hurling.
"Do you thing someone should check on them?" asked Flora. "They'll be fine." Said Elise. "Well, Carmen should be fine." "So how much longer until we reach the other side?" asked Musa. "We should exit the wormhole in about eight minutes." Answered Timmy. Meanwhile, Stella and Carmen had emerged from the bathroom. "I had no idea that you fairies had such a varied menu at your school." Said Carmen. She and Stella were supporting each other back to the front of the ship. "That's just breakfast," said Stella, "You should see what they serve for lunch."
Seven minutes later, Elise pulled out from her bag several digital watches. "When we emerge from the wormhole," she said, "We'll have exactly 29 hours before the second wormhole opens." She pressed a button on her watch, and a set of numbers appeared on each watch.
29:00:00
"The clock starts when we come out of the wormhole." Said Timmy. There was a flash of blue light, and Bloom could see stars again, only they were completely different stars than she was used to. "Now!" exclaimed Techna, and the clocks began to count backwards.
28:59:59
28:59:58
28:59:57
"Okay then," said Elise, "Let's take a look around. See where we are." Techna and Timmy began to scan the area. A holographic display appeared on the screen. "We are currently within the vicinity of the star 'Delta Sigma Kappa.'" Said Techan. Bloom could see a bright yellow star on the display. "Seven planets of various sizes," said Timmy. On the display, seven planets appeared in various orbit paths. "Various moons and an asteroid belt as well." Said Techna.
"Let's take a closer look." Said Sky as he piloted the ship into the star system.
27:52:31
As the craft crossed the system, more details appeared on the display. "The last two planets are gas giants." Said Elise. "And the first planet is too close to the sun for any life. It's just a hunk of rock." On the display, two gas giants were labeled as planets six and seven. Planet one was labeled 'uninhabitable.' "The second planet has a breathable atmosphere," said Timmy, "But the surface is almost completely arid. Surface readings show an average temperature of 139 degrees. It's a desert planet." Planet two was labeled 'desert, not suitable for habitation.'
"Planet three different," said Elise, "but not much better. Mostly jungle, rain forests and swamp; temperature averaging at 115 degrees, with humidity levels at 85 percent." "That one's for you Flora." Said Layla. Indeed Flora's interest had been peaked. "Oh can't we land and look around?" she asked earnestly. "You can look around," said Stella, "But all that humidity is gonna be murder on my hair." "We'll come back and look later," said Techna, "Until then I'll send down some probes to collect more data.
27:36:32
The ship had passed through the system's asteroid-belt. "Mostly nickel and iron," said Techna, "With trace amounts of uranium and carbon."
27:17:49
"Planet four looks much better than the others." Said Timmy. "Oxygen nitrogen atmosphere; multiple large land masses; several bodies of water, and an average surface temperature of 82 degrees." "Any sign of intelligent life?" asked Helia. "No, mostly large mammals and reptiles." Replied Elise. "It has potential." She entered data onto the computer, and the display marked planet four as "Possible for settlement."
26:58:12
"One more to scan," said Elise. "Planet five not that much different than planet four." Said Techna. "Less surface water; most of the fresh water is in the polar ice caps. Varied climates ranging form artic tundra to tropical rain forests. Average surface temperature is 78. It's a lot like your Earth, Bloom." "We can call it Earth 2." Said Bloom.
"Any sign of intelligent life?" asked Carmen. "Nothing so far," said Elise, "Just land mammals and reptil… Wait a moment! There's something moving down there. Something that's moving metal." At this, everyone crowded around Elise's screen. "Can you get a closer look?" asked Techna anxiously. Elise tried, but the image didn't get any clearer. "What's with this thing?" asked Stella. "It could be any number of problems," said Elise annoyingly, "It could be the planets' magnetic field, the weather, or something else."
"What else could it be?" asked Sky. Elise hesitated before answering, "Who ever is down there might be jamming us." "Why would they do that?" asked Flora. "I don't know." Answered Elise. "So what do we do know?" asked Brandon. "I think," said Carmen, "That this would be a golden opportunity to make first contact with whoever is down there."
"I agree," said Timmy, "I mean, how often do we have the chance to be the first to say 'hello' to a new species of intelligence?" "What about you Bloom?" asked Sky. "Well, we should ask Techna, it's her project." Techna thought and answered, "Let's go for it."
26:40:38
Within moments, Sky had landed the ship. "We should be within an hour's walk from where we detected the aliens." Said Elise. "One thing Elise," said Carmen, "We're the aliens here." "She's right," said Bloom, "We have no idea what we'll see. These people have probably never seen anything like us." "Well I hope they can appreciate beauty when they see it." Said Stella.
"They'd have to be blind to appreciate your beauty." Said Morgan. "Morgan," said Carmen, "Remember what I said about no jokes?" "Yeah," said Morgan, "What about it?" "Well, we need to set a good example for these people we're about to meet. First impressions are lasting impressions. So lay off the jokes please?" "You have my word." Said Morgan. "Yeah right." Said Brandon. "What?" asked Morgan, who sounded hurt, "Is my word not good enough?"
"Considering what you did to us at Red Fountain, not very much." Said Riven. "What did she do to you?" asked Musa. "For starters," said Timmy, "She put raw sodium in all the shower heads at school. When we turned them on, they all exploded." "Raw sodium will do that." Said Techna. "She also switched all the sugar packets in the mess hall with salt." Said Sky. "Oh man!" exclaimed Morgan, "That was a classic!"
"Quiet!" hissed Flora, "I think I hear something. There was a moment's silence, before two creatures Bloom had never seen before entered the area. They were short, with green skin, thin limbs, and large pupil-less eyes; one had red eyes, and the other had purple eyes. On their backs were strange metal devices. "Oh my god!" exclaimed Techna quietly, "Bipedal insects!" "They must have evolved over billions of years to get to where they are." Said Elise.
Carmen and Bloom stepped forward. "Greetings," Said Carmen, "We come in peace." "We're explorers," said Bloom, "We want to be friends." The creatures looked at each other before pulling out what looked like laser riffles.
"DIE HUMAN FILTH!" shouted the creatures as they fired.
The end of chapter 2. Didn't see that one coming, did you? Note: If the time index doesn't match up with the flow of events, you have my most sincere apologies. Next time, the obviously hostile aliens chase our heroes. Who makes it? Who gets captured? You'll have to wait until the next chapter. Until then, please read and review. See you next time!