Chapter 9
Magic Intruder
DA and Carlos are going to get quite the suprise when a intruder appears in their spaceship!
We are seconds away from landing on Mars. The rocket began to tilt upwards and the sound of the rockets are dying down as it was reversing. We landed with an almighty BUMP, "The landings could be a bit more gentle" Carlos observed. "Welcome to Mars! Please make sure you remain in your spacesuits and put on your helmets & oxygen tanks that have been kindly handed to you" we heard the intercom say, not once have we even tried to take the suits off because we were too afraid and smart enough to know that a human wouldn't last in space with out a spacesuit! Who knows the spacesuits could be magically stuck on us and unable to be removed. "Well lets explore Mars" i happily said to Carlos as i jumped out of my seat and seatbelt noticing that the gravity in the spaceship had been put to normal Earth gravity. Carlos got out of his seat too and agreed as he was putting his oxygen tank on and helmet "Thought i'd quickly put these on myself before those pushy hands decided to come to do it for me!" he was saying using a concerned voice. I laughed while totally agreeing with him so i did the same. Oddly there was no sight of the mechanical hands anywhere "Do you think they have gone to sleep?" i asked Carlos in concern, "With the way things a going, anything can happen DA. We are on a magic rocketship after all" he answered. "Door to the shaft open!" the intercom began to say as we walked towards it to exit the ship. We stepped inside the sharf and there was flickering of lights before the door to the outside began to open as door behind as to the rocket closed. We then heard the intercom voice coming through "Make sure to observe your surroundings, you have 30 minutes to explore! GO!". We jumped out and felt the ground beneath our feet creating a cloud of red dust to fly around us.
We explored for awhile walking around (more slowly then we would normally due to gravity pulling us down like on Earth) and took some snaps. Carlos kept jumping around as he thought it was cool how Mars's dust was flying around gentley around him. "Bing! Bong! Your 30 mintues is up, time to leave" we heard the voice of the intercom say through a speaker outside of the rocket to order us to return. As it spoke, I was busy trying to get the perfect shot of the beautiful view "In a sec!" I screamed to it as Carlos watched on behind me. Click! "There perfect!" i said quietly, i wanted it to be the perfect shot as we may never get this type of opporunity again to visit Mars or space even. Couldn't wait to go through the snaps we had so far. Just then i heard Carlos scream "DA!", i turned round to see that we were about to be grabbed by the hands from the rocketship. I swallowed and before i could even escape it had grabbed me and Carlos returning the both of us to the ship "Guess it was getting impatient again" Carlos observed "Did you manage to get the pic?", "Yes, hopefully!" i answered to him. We were unable to escape from the clutches of the metal hands as they were holding us very tightly until it had placed us back into the airlock shaft "Goodbye Mars!" i heard Carlos say as the door to the outside world slammed shut.
The door to the console room re-opened as we made our way into the room we noticed that the gravity function had been magically put on and we were able to walk normally instead of floating. It was also dark, like all the lights had switch off, the only lights you could see were the flashing lights on the console. As we took off our helmets and oxygen tanks (not being assisted by the mechanical hands this time and YES IN THE DARK), the lights suddenly came back on but were more dim then before. I noticed Carlos was covered in red dust "Carlos look at you, your all covered in red dust from jumping around on Mars!" i said while laughing. "So are you Dorothy-Ann!" he said responding to me, he was laughing too. We both brushed the dust off oursleves creating dirt marks on our spacesuits. "Oh thank goodness i've found you" Carlos and i jumped and were startled. It didn't sound like the intercom voice, it sounded more human well to me anyway!. Carlos had grabbed my hand at this point as he whispered to me "What do you think is happening now?". I was shaking however when i looked down seeing my hand being held by Carlos, i had this sudden feeling on calm-ness and i could feel myself blushing. We then heard a squeaking noise that came from in front of us, we looked straight ahead to see a tall figure sitting in one of the chairs at the console "Which we had more light to see" I whispered to Carlos and sure as eggs the lights become slowly brighter. Like magic! We still had our backs up against the door to the shaft like they were glued on. Carlos and i were a little uneasy about taking a step further towards the chairs to investiage who or what has joined us on this magically weird adventure. I could see that the thing was playing around gentley with the console in front of it and that it was tall and had reddish coloured hair "Carlos" i whispered "I think its human!", "DA, i think its a women!" Carlos shouted back to me. We watched in horror as the intruder got up from the chair and headed towards us "MS FRIZZLE?" we both screamed!
Carlos was right our intruder was a women. Her appearance was tall and attractive, her red hair was tied in a single plait and had emerald green eyes. She was also in a spacesuit, though hers was companied by what looked like a chucky wrist watch. The women smiled as she walked towards us calmly with her magenta coloured lips and began to speak "Oh sorry to disapointment you Dorothy-Ann and Carlos but i am not your old elementry school teacher! However i do know both Valerie and Fiona very well". "Ha?" Carlos and i said in response, both feeling very confused and freaked out "You may know me as Beatrice or Ms Oliver if you would like to be formal and i was the one trying to make contact with you through the radio!" she stated as her calm smile became a more serious look. By this stage we had dozens of questions spiraling around our heads. We wanted to ask who she was, how did she get here and how she knows us but before we could even make a sound, she turned her back towards us and headed back to the console "Now we need to focus on getting back home to Earth, before we are all lost in space forever". Carlos and i looked at each other in agreement that this intruder was someone we could trust. Just then the intercom began to speak "Our next planet we will be visiting is Jupiter the last inner planet before we hit the asteroid conveyor belt and the outer planets, please strap yourselves in and relax, we will be there soon". "Quick we better get ourselves into our seats before we get picked up by those awful hands" i stated "Just how rough have those arms have been to you?" Beatrice then asks "Very rough, i'm going to be bruised in the morning...that's if we ever return to Earth!" Carlos then says responding to Beatrice's question. "Oh i'll make sure of it" Beatrice said confidently as she pressed a few buttons on the console. Suddenly a 3rd chair appeared "Have you managed to hack into this kind of system before Beatrice?" i asked the women as Carlos and i strapped oursleves into our chairs "Hacking is my middle name Dorothy-Ann but i'm going to need some time as its been ages since i've been in a situation like this" answered Beatrice still sounding confident that she will get us out of this situation. Carlos and i looked at each other and gulpped.
The roar of the rockets sounded and Beatrice had placed herself into the 3rd chair doing up her criss-crossed seatbelt. The intercom began the count down and in seconds we were in the air leaving Mars behind. Beatrice was busy playing on the console and connecting cables to her wrist watch "What are you doing now Beatrice?" Carlos asks, Beatrice then answers "I am connecting cables from the console to my electronic wrist watch that has believe it our not, the same technology as the well known Magic School Bus, i believe you are familiar with this particular vehicle?". "OH YES!" i screamed in delight and Beatrice turned her chair to face us "Oh Good! What i am trying to do is to program this magical runaway rocket so we can have full control and return home!". Carlos and i were very excited to hear that, the best news we have had all day. Meanwhile as Beatrice was fiddling with the controls, she asked us to tell her exactly what happened and how are got ourselves into this "We kinda didn't have a choice" Carlos answered to her. The women patiently listened to us, nor did she interupt while we were entering Jupiter's orbit.
Will Beatrice help the kids crack the code and get the ship to return to Earth? Find out in the next chapter.