Chapter 7

The First Three Inner Planets

Gravity was overtaking us once again as we entered the space shuttle. We felt ourselves being lifted into the air as we removed our space helmets and the mechanical arms appeared again as they came towards us to remove our oxygen tanks. They yanked them off so roughly that the arms almost took us with them causing Carlos to let go of the moon rocks he had collected "Why do they have to be so rough?" i asked "Don't know, but i now have to chase my moon rocks!" Carlos said as another hand grabbed his helmet out of his hands. I then to felt my helmet being taken from my hand "I guess they are being put away for now!" i observed as i watched everything being placed back in the cupboard the oxygen tanks orginally came from. "Now let me see if i can find my book that had that info about Pluto" i mumbled to myself but before i started to look around, suddenly we could hear the sound of the rockets starting to rev up to leave. "Guess we better get ourselves strapped in" said Carlos as he looked at me floating upside down again "Oh never mind, i can check on it later. oh and by the way you look funny when your upside down Carlos!" i told him "Ah DA, your the one who is upside down!", i looked around and he was right no wonder i could feel the blood rushing to my head. We both then laughed! We then swam through the air towards our seats, just reaching them in time before the intercom started to speak again "Hope you enjoyed your time on the moon, now fasten your seatbelts, its time to visit some planets!".

"Oh goody!" i shouted as i grabbed the backrest of my seat. Carlos was still getting himself to his chair "Don't worry, i'm sure the rocket is not going to take off until we are both firmly fastened into our seats" i told him. "I'm coming!" he shouted shortly before i could see that one of the arms was following him, almost looking like it was about to grab him to pop him in his place but luckily Carlos managed to get to his seat in time. We pulled ourselves into our chairs and fastened oursleves down "Where to next?" Carlos asked looking towards the flashing console. "Next stop Mercury!" the intercom announced "The 1st planet closest to the sun", "Guess we are missing the sun then..." i then said to Carlos "properly a good thing!

The sound of the rockets go louder and smoke was ballowing out of them as we could see from the inside "Starting count down!" we heard the intercom say as it began the count down from 10 "Is that going to happen everytime we visit a planet?" Carlos asked. I just looked at him and moved my shoulders up and down. "And were off!" i shouted as the rocket took off and left the moon, it was going an enormous speed! Faster then an normal average rocket but when you have a magical rocket anything is possible. The rocket or the intercom had taken charge again, we were powerless in driving it. We both looked through the main windscreen and could see that we were heading for Mercury going now where near the sun "Good we are safe" i said under my breath "We live for another day" i heard Carlos say. Mercury was getting closer and closer towards us, it looked almost like the moon only it was slightly bigger. The rocket started to disend and slow down towards the ground of Mercury. The intercom informed us that we had arrived and did the whole "must wear your helmet and oxygen tanks announcement" and that we had 30 minutes to explore. The intercom did also inform us hat we were welcome to return to the ship at any time but with in the 30 minutes. So we got equipped with our helmets and oxygen tanks went to the airshaft and in a few short seconds we were let out to explore Mercury. Carlos and I bounced around Mercury and did a selfie or 2 with Carlos's camera. It was amazing that it was even able to work out here in outaspace! It wasn't long until the ship was giving us an alert warning to return to the ship in order to continue the adventure.

Next was Venus with its Sulpuric Acid clouds. Thankfully our rocket was protected with a protected barrier to help us get through the storms. We landed and had 30 minutes again to explore. Again Carlos jumped out of the ship thinking that the gravity on Venus was like the gravity on the Moon and Mercury and by again he did the same thing when we were on Venus last time "Ouch!" he said as he landed on his backside, I giggled at him and he continued to speak "I forgot that Venus has the same gravity as Earth...". As i helped Carlos up, we could hear the intercom giving us a quick low down about Venus. It was talking about its gravity and its sulpuric acid clouds. One line that it did say that both Carlos and i picked up on "Your prefectly safe, as long as you keep your space suits on" was the very much like the same line that Ms Frizzle said at our last visit "This was got to be Frizzle Technology!" Carlos said trying to scratch his head forgetting that he was wearing his space helmet. The 2 of us wandered around Venus noticing that not much had changed, same colour, some shaped rocks "Hey lets take home a sample for Arnold" i suggested to Carlos, he immediately answered me "Ok, but maybe a small and i mean small sample, you remember what happened last time with Arnold's cousin?". I looked up to him as i was kneeling on one leg picking up a small rock "Gosh, don't remind me! i'm nothing like Janet as you know!" i answered back to him reminding ourselves the trouble that Arnold's cousin Janet caused all those years ago. Janet claimed she needed PROOF that she had been to every planet to show her friends to make her look good basically. We thought of her as the evil twin cousin of Arnold as they dressed and looked alike but Arnold was the kinder one "She wasn't that evil Carlos! She did have a heart" i said to Carlos "Hmmmmm sometimes" Carlos answered in a low annoyed tone.

It wasn't long until our time on Venus was up and the Intercom was calling us to return to the ship to continue the tour. We boarded the rocket and watched as the door closed tightly as we said our goodbyes to Venus. The door of the airlock shaft opened and we returned to the console room. We got yanked into our seats by the mechanical hands after we removed our helmets and oxygen tanks "I swear those hands are getting rougher" said Carlos as he did up his seatbelt, i agreed with him "I guess we have a tight schedule?" i said using an unsure voice. I buckled myself in and the sound of the rockets began to rumble. Before we knew it we could feel the rocket starting to move again and we were flying towards our next planet our home Earth in great speed. You could see it from the outside but couldn't feel it from the inside of the ship. Carlos was gazing through the front windscreen "It would normally take 120 to 130 days or 4 months to get to Earth from Venus but when you have a magical mode of transport anything is possible" well that was totally out of the blue, i just sat there and stared at him in amazement "Well its an estimate, i remember seeing it on Google when i was doing was research on space not too long ago" Carlos stated. "Carlos i'm impressed" i said as i congratulated him, clapping with my gloved hands. Carlos turned and smiled "I was bored one day ok!" he said in a quick voice folding his arms "Also DA, look!" he continued as i saw him pointing towards the windscreen. Earth was insite, could we be going home or continuing being hi-hacked to explore more of space? It got closer and closer still looking as beautiful as ever with its blue and green tones, there was no sign of the rocket slowing down though. I had the feeling that we will be bypassing our home for now but Carlos and i were not too worried at this point as long as were are able to get home and some point. The intercom spoke and was giving us details about our Earth, 10 seconds in and suddenly there was a scratchy sounding noise. The lights were flashing and the intercom was cutting out. Carlos mentioned that he thought he could hear a voice but there was no one else on the ship. I suggested to him that maybe it was some sort of transmission. We both agreed that it had to be a transmission but who was trying to communicate with us?

Who is trying to get through to DA and Carlos? Are they the answer in bringing them back safely to Earth? Find out soon in the next chapter.