We'd shut off the oxygen intake the moment the Thunder Road shot through earth's cloud cover. The algae sloshed around in its tank, but still looked healthy under the plant lights. Already it smelled like a swamp in the compartment, so we were in good shape. Hopefully it and some other potted plants would filter enough CO2 out of the compartment that we wouldn't pass out from our own exhalations. Just in case, though, Jamie prepared an oxygen tank. We'd have to pass the mask around, but it was workable.

"You think we're going to be safe up here?" Jamie asked. "I mean, Mr. Sigler knew how to build the engine..."

I shrugged. "He wasn't exactly working with the government, and he only saw the part we passed around in class. So he can build an asteroid crusher. It doesn't mean he can actually make something fly. I'm thinking they'll only be able to make guns. Hopefully we'll be gone before anyone figures out the rest."

Clouds passed by, the sky darkening as we reached the upper atmosphere.

Jamie raised an eyebrow. "I thought something was supposed to burn."

"You mean from the friction of air particles? I kinda thought that only happened in re-entry."

"We have a shield," Gertie suggested. "And obsessus, ab, ab, absessius..."

"Asbestos," I corrected.

The word brought her to tears. We held her.

Jamie snorted, then gave Gertie an apologetic look. "Sorry, wasn't laughing at you."

She sniffed. "What?"

"Nothing. Just thinking how the Millennium Falcon probably isn't as great as I thought. I mean, we're practically sitting inside its ancestor. You think it...smells like this?"

I laughed. "I don't know. I guess if we had money, we'd at least be able to move around..."

"Well..."

"Jamie, you told me `they knew.' How did they find out?"

"I'm not sure. I only know what Mrs. Sigler told me. Mr. Sigler said he overheard some kids telling the government guys about me, something about how I glowed and spoke in tongues. I have no idea which kids they were, just after that, the soldiers and space suits started coming after me."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I think your alien friend always wanted us to be together...You liked me before you met him, didn't you?"

"Y-yeah," I stammered.

My girlfriend chortled a bit. "Guess that explains why you were always pulling my pigtails. I think ET just...made you bolder."

I blushed. "Yeah."

Jamie sighed. "You think we'll ever go back?"

My stomach sank and it wasn't just G-forces. "Not sure. We probably need to hide out for awhile. I'm not sure if we'll ever find our families again."

"I hope we made the right decision."

I had nothing to say to that.

"I saw Ruby," Gertie said. "She was on that first bridge we came to. She waved to us. I didn't see her girls."

I wiped tears out of my eyes. Although trying to hold it together and be tough like Dad, I was in the process of losing everything. "Gertie...Jamie..." I choked back a sob. "We're only got each other now."

Jamie patted my back consolingly.

We gazed in wonderment as the stars appeared, our ship entering space itself.

No longer under the pull of gravity, we drifted in our seats, held down only by seatbelts.

The algae in the aquarium sloshed more violently now, threatening to escape, but I and Gertie had developed a system to keep it from spraying out, a filter lid, pipettes and retorts for keeping the water inside. Only moist air would flow out. We sent the CO2 to the algae through two liter bottles and an aquarium bubbler stone. A built-in pump fed the algae liquid plant food.

Before we left, Gertie mentioned how it would be cold, but I hadn't really taken it seriously when she packed a bunch of blankets, and, earlier, insisted that we include the Fiat's heater during the build. Now, away from the earth, all three of us sat bundled up, watching our breath as the heater warmed up.

Jamie rubbed her arms. "This isn't quite as fun as I thought it would be."

I spoke through chattering teeth. "Hopefully we'll meet up with...someone with a warmer ship."

"It would be warmer if this thing ran on atomic energy."

"That's okay. I'd rather not turn into a mutant."

"We should have brought along the kerosene heater."

"We only got one fire extinguisher, and I'm not sure that kind of heat expansion would do to the hull."

"The kerosene is in the trunk," Gertie said.

Jamie's eyes bugged out. "Good Lord! Right now? It's a wonder we didn't blow up!"

My sister looked embarrassed. "We had a spare tank in the basement. I thought we might need to start a fire, you know, if we need to cook something."

Jamie scrunched up her face. "You mean onboard?"

"No, I mean, whenever we land. If we need a fire, we can start one."

"I hope that hot plate still works. I'd much prefer to use that." My girlfriend clutched her chest. "Kerosene!"

Gertie pulled the shower curtain closed around our little bathroom area, coming out a few seconds later in her homemade flight suit. "This was a good idea! I feel warmer!"

"Embarrassment will do that to you," I muttered.

Jamie scowled at me. "Hey. Don't be mean."

"Are you going to wear yours?"

To my chagrin, she actually put hers on. "Hey, they're just pajamas."

Hers had a patch with the Kansas flag, reading `Ad astra per aspera,' or, `To the stars through difficulties.'

I rolled my eyes. "Pass."

Gertie had packed a portable cassette player, and a couple of her favorite tapes. We would eventually get sick of Genesis, and have better uses for the flashlight batteries, but at the moment, Home By the Sea and some other tunes seemed okay.

We traveled for about an hour. No sign of any aliens.

"I thought you said ET's friends were waiting," I complained.

Gertie frowned. "I thought they were."

Jamie pointed to the screen. "We're still going somewhere."

"Maybe they're using a cloaking device?"

We tested the hot plate with a couple cans of beans. A little tricky in zero G. You don't want to make the can explode, or open it up and have it spray all over. I resorted to using a pot and holding the lid really carefully. We pretty much had to pass it around and eat holding the lid down.

The moon, oddly enough, seemed to be looming closer and closer. I furrowed my brow as its shadowy craters enlarged outside the window.

Jamie scratched her head. "Wherever we're going, it doesn't look like a spaceship."

"I hope it doesn't try to land. We never put in landing gears."

"We didn't have a problem with that before!"

"We never tried to land on a rocky moon before."

Jamie chuckled a little. "`That's no moon!'"

I could only roll my eyes. "I somehow don't think humankind has been living under the Death Star for thousands of years."

"You never know!"

I snickered. "Yeah. I'm sure that's exactly what happened."

Minutes later, we hovered above long stretches of dusty gray desert pitted with craters. Whoever it was, they wanted us to visit the moon. We traveled the moon's shadowy side, the one currently turned away from the sun.

"Why are we going here?" Jamie asked.

"Don't ask me. I'm not driving."

"Maybe someone's hiding behind the moon?"

"...Maybe." Then I chuckled. "Salvage One."

She stared at me. "What?"

"Maybe we're being taken up here to remove garbage from the moon."

"Elliott, we're literally inside a piece of garbage, I mean, salvage."

I only shrugged.

Jamie had been smirking, but now she stopped. "Oh that's great. You're saying they hired us for sanitation?"

"I...don't know."

Gertie peered through the drier door. "Where's the flag and the moon buggy?"

"Gertie, the moon is over two thousand miles in diameter, and I don't think we're in the right spot. You might as well fly over China and ask where your tricycle is."

"It's five thousand miles smaller than the earth!"

"Fine," I groaned. "Keep looking. But I bet you're not going to see anything."

She pointed to a car shaped blotch on the cracked terrain. If you squinted, it kinda looked like a lunar rover. "What's that, then?"

I sighed. "It's a rock."

She leaned against the wall, looking progressively less hopeful the further we got.

Jamie rested her chin on her palm, looking bored. "You think they've got a moon base or something?"

"Not sure."

She squinted at the dark rocky landscape. "I'm not seeing any domes."

The Thunder Road approached a massive crater, dozens of miles in diameter, its sides tall and mountainous. I paled in horror as we descended into it.

"Oh hell no!" Jamie cried. "There isn't even anything down there! What do those aliens think they're doing!"

The jagged sides of the crater blotted out the sun, giving it the appearance of a gigantic open toothy maw. I stared with dismay at the inky blackness. "Remember that other scene from Star Wars? "

"You mean when they landed inside that thing that tried to eat them? No. Trying not to think about it."

We entered darkness.

"...You're right, Elliott. We probably should have shut the thing off when we crossed that river."

"Yeah," I groaned. "But it's too late. If we shut it down now, this thing is going to implode."

Gertie pointed to the monitor. "We're getting nearer to the dot. Maybe they're hiding down there."

I swallowed. "...Maybe."

Jamie clutched my hand tightly.

My sister grabbed my other one. "You think we're going to see Selenites?"

I stared in puzzlement. "Why would we see car parts?"

"No. Selenites. Mrs. Sigler showed us a video about them in class. You see, Baron Munchhausen takes a boat to the moon, and..."

She didn't finish. The Thunder Road now turned to face a rock wall, the headlights revealing something like a giant camera iris opening along its surface. A cloud of steam poured out from its center.

The iris widened. Our vehicle drew closer.

Jamie's grip on my hand tightened. "I sure hope whoever lives down here is friendly."

We passed through the opening, entering a large gray cave, eerily dark and empty.

The round gate closed behind us as the Thunder Road slowly settled on the floor.

"We're heeere..." Jamie said in a sing-song tone.

"...Wherever here is," I murmured.

A second iris door on the wall ahead of us stood closed. "I...don't see anybody. What are we supposed to do? Get out and walk around?"

Jamie switched on Roger's amplifier, speaking into the mike. "Hello? Is anyone here?"

Nobody answered.

I sighed. "Okay, we've got a scuba tank, that army surplus gas mask and one of us can wheel out an O2 unit and use it like an old lady."

Jamie rolled her neck. "Or an old man!"

When we gathered our supplies and popped the lock on the door, something made a loud clank. The iris door ahead of us gradually eased open, blinding light shining into the cavern.

I squinted as a handful of small lumpy creatures came waddling out.

Gertie let go of my hand, pressing her face to the window with excitement. "It's ET! It's really him! And he brought friends!"

I stared through the windshield, watching the squat figures hobble closer and closer with breathless anticipation. Soon they stood at the window.

Gertie had that tearful expression she got when she got lost in a crowd and separated from Mom. "Where's ET? Where is he?"

Jamie frowned. "He's...not one of these guys?"

"Yeah," I mocked. "They all look the same."

"Sorry. I...didn't mean..." She looked ashamed.

None of these...creatures looked anything like ET. If you compared ET to an old man, these aliens were ancient. Tons more wrinkled, their skin a pale tan coloration, kind of like how ET once looked when he got sick. Wispy gray hairs grew out of every place in their bodies. One creature had frog green coloration, but the others were mostly that same pale color.

They came in different sizes, too. Short, talk, wiry, fat. Their flesh bore odd beauty marks, stripes, splotches, leopard spots. I gave them a nervous wave.

The creatures stretched their necks to get a better look at us, made their fingers glow.

"Can we trust them?" Jamie asked.

The question gave me pause. "I...don't think we really have a choice."

A potbellied cow splotched alien reached for the windshield. "Oooohhhh."

Gertie pressed her hand to the glass, and her hand glowed.

`Cow Spots' tilted his head quizzically, making a low moaning sound to an overweight creature next to him.

The fat one let out a low dog-like growl, and "Uhhhh." The other aliens made similarly funny noises.

"Any idea what they're saying?" I asked Gertie.

My sister didn't answer, just held up a hand to tell me `wait.'

"Do you have this feeling like we're not exactly welcome here?" Jamie asked.

I sighed. "I don't think we're unwelcome, I just think they're...curious. Or maybe puzzled by us."

They all moved really slow. ET seemed like The Flash by comparison.

It took what felt like forever before Gertie said anything in explanation. "They...were talking about our ship. Some of them thought it was cute. Others said we're ruining their place with trash. I tried to explain with my...thinks, but I'm not sure they understand."

Splotches pointed a glowing finger at his green associate at the iris door. A conveyor belt hummed beneath us, vibrating the whole compartment.

As we rolled forward, the aliens stepped aside to let us through.

"What now?" I asked.

"They...want to examine our ship."

We entered what I can only describe as an underground jungle, like something out of Land of the Lost or Journey to the Center of the Earth, but futuristic devices with crystals, monitors, and complicated wiring arrangements interwove themselves amidst all the plants. Large blooming plants of every known species, a whole rainbow of different flowers, fruit bearing trees, an impressive bumper crop of every sort of plant that people live on, most notably corn, oats and wheat.

All earth plants, obviously. Nothing truly exotic. ET's crew had apparently been cultivating and transporting large quantities of stuff from earth, and somehow working the dead lunar soil into something fertile for it to grow in. Glowing orbs on the ceiling provided the sunlight. They even had a waterfall.

"It's like the Genesis cave from Wrath of Khan!" Jamie muttered.

I smirked, once more amazed at my girlfriend's interest in science fiction.

Gertie nodded. "Or that jungle apartment from Troll."

The inner cave showed no signs of any space vehicles other than ours, though I hadn't been familiarized enough with the place to know if they had a `garage.'

The population seemed...light. Other than our welcoming party, I only saw one alien in the whole place, who, strangely enough, seemed way too obsessed with watching The Jeffersons on one of the machines.

"Well," Jamie joked. "At least we've still got TV."

"I wonder how they get reception down here. You'd think the signal wouldn't be that great."

"You've heard of satellite TV, right?...I've read somewhere that we've been beaming signals into space ever since the first televised world Olympics. Honestly, I'm surprised they haven't greeted us with `Where's the beef?'"

The conveyor stopped in the middle of a clearing, before a machine resembling a human heart. A pair of fleshy moon chairs grew from it, along with two keyboards with spongy buttons that looked like octopus suction cups. The aliens had carved a pair of tall sculptures out of the stalagmites around it. Rather idealized versions of their species, but the size and level of detail impressed me.

Jamie pointed to the machine. "What do you think that thing is for?"

I squinted at a screen on a `valve'. "They're monitoring something. Recognize the code?"

She paused to read it. "I can't believe I can actually understand what that says...well, the gist of it, anyway...You think it's safe to get out?"

I shrugged. "I don't know if we can breathe the air. Take the scuba gear."

Jamie donned the equipment, opened the door. I and my sister held our breath as she climbed out.

Gertie only watched at the window for a moment before eagerly grabbing the gas mask and following her. I rushed behind with the wheeled oxygen tank and nose plug, carefully closing the ship to maintain our air supply.

Crystalline overhead plant lights kept the place at a comfortable spring temperature. We stretched our cramped bodies, shaking off the cold.

The aliens came up to us, making weird noises as they stared and poked various regions of our anatomies. My glasses floated off, the aliens playing with those too.

They immediately started messing with our breathing apparatuses. I pushed a slimy hand away as it attempted to remove my nose plug. "Leave that alone. I need it."

They had Gertie's mask removed before I could stop them. "Hey! She needs that!"

Instead of handing it back, the aliens passed it around, playing with it, trying to take it apart. I rolled my O2 unit to my sister to give her a few puffs, but she had already gasped in...whatever served as the atmosphere down there.

"Gertie, don't breathe that. Here." I offered her the tube. In her panic, she only gasped more.

Splotches held up a staying hand, and in a deep, old sounding voice, replied, "Safe."

I scowled, watching Gertie take another breath.

"He's right," she said. "They breathe air too. How else could ET live with us so long?"

"Gertie, I..."

Jamie took off her mask. "Gertie's right. Look!" She pointed at a small brown rabbit emerging from a shrub.

"How did that...?"

Before I could answer, a Canada goose came waddling out from behind our ship, letting out a faint questioning honk.

I removed my nose plugs and inhaled. Great air quality, a blending of musty earth, pine and flowers, very clean, pollution free. Jamie sneezed a couple times after she took off the scuba tank, but didn't suffer any other ill effects. Since everyone seemed all right, we stowed our life support equipment in our vehicle.

Although I protested about the air escaping the aliens soon had the ship open again, staring at the interior, sticking their heads inside. I groaned and let them do what they wanted, after all, we were guests. At least I got my glasses back.

A sudden growl shook me to attention. Gertie screamed as a red and translucent white bug the size of a Great Pyrenees burst from a thick cluster of sorghum, tackling her to the ground.

She squirmed, tried to fight it off, but before she could get away, it shoved claws and feelers into her mouth.

My sister gurgled and flailed her arms as the bug monster stuck tentacles and small chitinous limbs in her mouth.

"Hey!" I yelled, rushing at the beast with clenched fists.

A second later, an invisible force sent me to the ground. The tiger striped alien faintly smiled at some private joke, one hand hidden behind his back.

I held out my hand, trying to mentally shout to the aliens, but I guess my sister had more of a gift with that kind of stuff. They didn't seem to respond to me.

Gertie scrunched up her face, like someone had told her a confusing knock-knock joke, her hands only half heartedly raised in self defense.

Upon closer examination, I realized the bug creature merely messed around in her mouth.

Jamie gawked at the insect. "What is it doing to her?"

Gertie's eyes opened, brow furrowing as she stared up at the thing.

"I'm...not sure," I stammered. But then something clicked in my brain. "Hey, you remember those scavenger shrimp we had in the fish tank at our old school?"

"You think it's cleaning her mouth?"

I shrugged.

"Safe," the splotchy mulatto alien answered in his typical slow drawl.

Jamie chuckled. "This guy would make a terrible baseball umpire."

Gertie winced in pain.

"Hey!" I shouted, clenching my fists again. "That doesn't look so safe to me!"

My sister waved me off. A moment later, the creature retreated from her.

Gertie looked perplexed, fumbled for words. "He...took out my filling...and replaced it with...something." She made smacking sounds with her mouth, grimacing in disgust. "It tastes like old French fries and moldy bread."

The bug thing approached Jamie next. She held up her hands in protest. "I've barely eaten anything since lunch and you want to clean my teeth?"

Well, I supposed, after eating all those Reese's Pieces, ET had to clean his teeth somehow.

Splotches pointed to a trail. "Fol-low."

"Where are we going? Are you leading us to ET?"

The alien smiled stupidly at me, narrowing its slanty eyes. "Yeah!"

Jamie frowned. "I...kinda don't think he's leading us to ET somehow."

I pointed my hand at him, thinking my question. He just laughed at me.

Gertie pointed her finger. It glowed for a moment, but she ended up frowning. "I can't make it do the thing."

"I thought you guys could speak the language," Jamie complained. "Remember how you read those notes and started speaking in tongues? Gertie said you even spoke to a monkey in sign language."

"Nobody's actually talking that much...and I'm having trouble thinking in that language right now. It's like trying to get in the mindset of Spanish when you've forgot."

"Those monitors didn't help?"

I shrugged. "Did they help you?"

Jamie groaned. "Gertie, you were reading their minds earlier..."

"Yeah, but my head hurts."

"Oh brother!"

The potbellied creature moved like a turtle, which forced us to impatiently stand around and wait for him to waddle ahead.

At least we had an interesting place to stare at.

On the whole, their home was a masterpiece of horticulture, reminding me of that magical tree palace from one of those Narnia books. The aliens, being clever with plants, had built tunnels with carefully bent trees. The one Splotches led us through even branched out into rooms of various sizes, with furniture appearing to be grown from the ground and shaped rather than built. If you didn't look at anything up close, you would have sworn someone had used woodworking tools, but not a single saw or chisel had touched it: Stools that looked like giant mushrooms, `chaise lounges' with an `earth chair' sort of design, grown from some exotic plant not found on earth, and the kind of strange organic bed I'd seen ET lying on in my vision.

Along the way, rabbits hopped, squirrels chattered, scurrying up the structures, birds flapped by. At the time I had no idea how they could have possibly gotten there.

The tree corridor ended in a narrow cave tunnel, descending on a slant. I worried about Gertie getting tired out from all the walking, but gravity is lighter on the moon, so it didn't bother her too much.

Several feet later, we reached an unmanned command center at the bottom. Same setup as the monitoring station we'd seen up top, weird chairs, spongy keyboards, but featuring a lot of glowing crystals and crystal orbs. The equipment appeared to regulate the environment, plants nutrient levels, light and so forth, temperature, power, keeping tabs on the animals, as they had deer, panda bears, reptiles and varieties of birds I hadn't previously spotted.

Splotches glanced around the area, letting out a couple chirps and a mewling noise. When no one answered, he waved his fingers at another tunnel. "Fol-low."

"There," Jamie said. "He spoke. You thinking in the other language yet?"

"That was English." I sighed through my nostrils. "Anyhow, I heard someone talking on their machines, but it's like low German or something. I don't understand it yet."

Gertie rubbed her forehead.

We descended further, entering another cavern, this one appearing to be for ceremonial or religious purposes. Giant stone heads, carved to look like members of ET's race and other weirder types of aliens regarded us from the perimeter. At center, two weird glowing figures on rugs bowed to blank wall framed by dark obelisks resembling the Washington Monument. The obelisks had holes all over like Swiss cheese, and they burned aromatic plants at the base of each, as an offering, I suppose.

Gertie squeezed my hand, and a hidden fiery symbol appeared in the air before the bowing figures, perhaps the real object of their worship. It kinda looked like the plastic thing you put on a record when it's on the spindle, but obviously of greater mystical significance.

Our guide made the chirps and clicks again. I supposed it to be someone's name, because one bowing creature rose to its feet to look at us.

Apparently not everyone there was of ET's species. About the same size as an adult human being, Chirp Click towered over all of us.

Its face featured iguana fins and scales, a bunny's wiggling mouth and nose protruding like a muzzle. Its body, when not concealed by its slight amount of clothing, bore a coat of speckled brown fur. A tail flicked out the back of its loincloth.

Its companion, of ET's race, seemed unusually young, its skin orange and black like a tiger, or maybe an Amazonian tree frog.

I looked into the tall creature's goat eyes, giving her (I could only assume the gender) a wave. "Hi. I'm Elliott. Do you speak English?"

The stranger's bat ears wiggled, and its hare lips made squirrel quacks at me.

I frowned at Jamie. "This doesn't even sound like ET's language."

When the tall thing noticed my disappointed expression, it waved back, responding in a croak, "Hi. Elliott."

Its thin gauzy jacket, seemingly crafted from an immense butterfly wing, fluttered in the slight breeze.

Gertie smiled, touching the a translucent shiny green jacket material. "I like your outfit. It's very pretty."

Tall Thing stared in puzzlement, head fins rattling. She waved her tail, nodding toward the center of the room.

"I hope you don't want us to start bowing," Jamie said.

Tall Thing only quacked at us, gesturing for us to sit around her, taking my hand with her right, Gertie's with her left. Jamie held hands with me and Splotches, Gertie taking the old one's pale hands.

Our hands glowed, and a voice spoke into my brain: My name is Rilquza. Why are you here?

Jamie frowned. "Shouldn't you know? You're the one who brought us here!"

"Jamie," I scolded. "Be nice. We're guests."

I looked into Rilquza's goat eyes, opening my mouth.

Before I could say anything, Gertie and Jamie's voices popped into my head, a mishmash of confused images appearing in my mind's eye, competing with my thoughts.

Please, thought the orange creature. One at a time. Listen or qamdoji (unify) the thought.

The goat eyes fixed sternly on my human ones. Quiet your mind.

You will accomplish nothing with this chaos.

We tried.

Rilquza smiled as Gertie again complimented her on her outfit.

We want to see ET, I thought.

Splotches thought more rapidly than his aged body could move. We do not know who that is.

Gertie supplied an image of ET hiding in the closet back home, partly concealed by a mountain of stuffed toys, then one where she'd dressed ET up in her girl clothes and a wig. This puzzled Tall Thing, so I gave her an image of ET leading me around in a forest of California redwoods.

The orange creature stretched its neck. You have met Vorxora!

Rilquza smiled at the mental images. We are friends with him as well.

We call him ET, ma'am.

Tiger lowered his head sadly. Vorxora, or ET, as you call him, is not here. He has left for Jufuceri.

I squeezed the alien's hand. "We want to go there. We need to see him! Please help us!"

Why do you wish to go to Jufuceri? Splotches thought.

You do not belong there.

It is not your home.

"We don't have a home. There's bad men after us. We can't go back."

Gertie's emotions hit me like a punch to the stomach. "Please, Rilquza! We love ET! He's like family. We have to see him!"

It is not safe for you.

"It's not safe for us on earth," I said.

My sister sent a wave of emotional loss and abandonment. "Please! We came all this way!"

"If you don't want to help us, why did you bring us here?"

We thought you needed some mentoring on how to save your planet, and improve your space technologies.

Jamie scoffed. "We won't be able to do any of that inside a government lab!"

I have examined their craft, Splotches thought. Their vehicle and supplies will not survive the voyage to Jufuceri.

Rilquza frowned. Then they must go home.

"No!" I cried. "Don't you understand what we went through to get here?"

The tall one flinched at the barrage of memories going through our mental connection.

I felt Gertie's tears before they came out. "Rilquza, we can't go back. They'll send us to the place!"

I sensed the misgivings as the aliens paused to think. A lot of unfamiliar images and thoughts flashed through our minds.

Jamie and Gertie sent me confusion. I sent them an `I don't know' in return.

Quiet, please. The alien thoughts and images kept swirling.

At last Rilquza thought, We must hold council. Tolmina, show them to the guest quarters. Colzest, call the others to the chamber.

[0000]

Thanks to Egbert Fitzwilly at for the oxygen scrubber idea.