"The Big Pull"
The Starship Jupiter glided silently over the puffy white clouds; her occupants, taking a well-deserved rest from the adventures beset upon them thus far. The three young women and one young man slept peacefully in the lower deck quarters. At the helm of the spaceship, the robot—of tireless abilities—maneuvered the saucer shaped vehicle in a never-ending, circular hover until the humans awake. Napping in various corners of the vessel; a winged horse from ancient Greece, a cubed shaped, little, rubber creature from the Deadly Forest (now known as the False Forest) and a supposedly mythological and extinct beast from Living Land.
Ten hours passed before the occupants began to stir. They showered and freshened up. The young man opened an old, large book.., repeated some strange and unusual words.., and soon found himself and the others dressed in fresh clothing.
Two of the young women prepared a breakfast for the crew. The other young woman and the young man headed up to the main deck. They checked with the robot for a status report of anything that might have happened during their period of rest.
“Negative,” replied Rob.
“That was certainly concise and right to the point,” I smiled. Melissa had her arm over my shoulder as I leaned on the control board next to Rob.
“Have your sensors figured out where or when we are?” she asked.
“Affirmative.” There was a long pause as we waited for Rob to explain further.
“Well?” I said, impatiently.
“We are located somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, west of Gibraltar.”
“What year?” Melissa asked.
“My sensors have yet to ascertain that information.”
“They’ve had ten hours to ascertain,” I said, “what’s the problem?”
“We are not within sensor range of any civilization. My sensors scan for electrical impulses and sound waves from different cultures and then evaluate them. There are none.”
“We were headed forward through time, won’t we?” asked Cleo, stretching his legs as he awoke.
“Unknown. While we did enter the correct Time Tornado that would take us forward to the future, I am presently unable to determine where we did indeed end up. We may have been thrown completely askew of the time continuum after the fall through the earth and our flight out the top.”
“Are you picking up anything at all?” asked Melissa.
“Pisces.”
“The zodiac sign?” asked Cindy, coming up the lift to join us.
“I think he means ‘fish’,” laughed Melissa.
“Oh,” said a puzzled Cindy, “breakfast’s ready.”
“Good,” I said, “I’m starved.”
“You said it,” added a now awake Woba Womba.
“Rob, as long as there’s no one down there that can see us, take the ship in for a closer look. Maybe the clouds are interfering with your sensors.”
“Negative. Sensors functioning properly.”
“Just do it,” I said, pressing the button on the lift.
“Affirmative,” stated Rob, as we disappeared below deck.
Lisa and Cindy had synthesized some eggs and delicious smelling bacon. There was fresh squeezed orange juice and my favorite morning beverage: the magic elixir of life—coffee. Thinking back, it must have been about two days since I had had a cup; which was probably a world’s record for me.
“I have a sensor reading,” came Rob’s voice over the intercom speaker.
“We’re on are way up,” I said, grabbing a piece of toast and heading for the lift.
Arriving at the control panel, I looked out the viewscreen just as the sun began to rise in the east. It was reflecting off the deep, blue sea—a brilliant sight.
The girls were quick to join me and we all gazed in awe. It was quite a sight; the sun, slipping silently out of the dark void of night, illuminating the sky with morning.
“What kind of sensor reading,” I asked, finally.
“A single electronic frequency that appears to be aimed directly at us.”
“Like a scan?” asked Melissa.
“Affirmative. We are being scanned.”
“From where?” I asked.
“It is coming from the ocean.”
“Some kind of Pisces?” asked Cindy, smiling proudly.
“Negative. Frequency is of an electronic nature. It is not biological.”
“Can you isolate the exact location of the scan?” I asked, sitting down at the controls.
“Affirmative. Electronic frequency is emanating out of the sea at a bearing of 262.”
“Let’s increase our altitude and see if the scan follows us,” I suggested.
“Affirmative,” stated Rob, pushing the appropriate lever, “Warning! A second frequency is being detected.”
“Elaborate,” I instructed.
“It is an electromagnetic force. It is keeping us from increasing our altitude.”
“A tractor beam?” asked Melissa.
“Not again,” moaned Lisa, “can’t alien forces just leave us alone?”
“Electromagnetic force is increasing. Altitude is decreasing,” reported Rob.
“Full power to the engines,” I said.
“Affirmative.” Rob pushed the lever up to the maximum position. The engines increased their loud hum and we felt the Starship Jupiter attempt to pull away from the new force that was holding on to us.
“Engines are reaching a temperature level that is undesirable,” stated Rob.
“You mean they’re overheating,” said Lisa.
“Affirmative.”
“All right, just give them enough power to keep us from going into the ocean.”
“Negative. Time to oceanic entry: 12.9 minutes.”
“I hope this baby’s waterproof,” said Cindy.
“That’s not the problem,” said Melissa, “it probably is waterproof, but it probably won’t be able to withstand any sort of deep water pressure.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“There is no pressure in outer space. It, therefore, probably wasn’t designed to.”
“Time to oceanic entry: 12.4 minutes.”
“Now what?” asked Cindy.
“What about that pretty rainbow thing that we used during the Kowdoon in the Magic Lands?” asked Woba.
“Pretty rainbow thing?” I asked.
“He is referring to the Encapsulated Life Support Pod,” explained Rob.
“Of course,” said Cleo, “the Els‑pod will work this time.”
“How do you expect me to put an Els‑pod around the space ship?” I asked, “I have to run around you guys at high speed to activate the spell.”
“You can still fly, can’t you?” reminded Lisa.
“Oh, no,” I started, “I’m not going to fly around a space ship that’s plunging into the ocean at a 20 degree angle.”
“Then we all die,” stated Melissa, matter-of-factly. There was a pause. Woba came over sheepishly to me; his little square eyes looked sad.
“I don’t want to die,” he sniffed.
“All right, where’s that spell,” I said, rapidly leafing through “The Spell Book of Androganine.”
“Goody! The pretty rainbow thing,” smiled Woba.
“You can do it,” Melissa said, kissing me on the cheek.
“This time, don’t forget Phase IV,” reminded Cleo.
“What’s Phase IV?” I asked.
“The end of the spell,” said Cleo.
“It’s a three phased spell,” I said.
“Time to oceanic entry: 10.2 minutes.”
“No, it isn’t,” explained Cleo, “it’s four phases. Phase IV is the part of the spell that places you inside the Els‑pod. If you remember the last time you did the spell, you were separated from us because you didn’t repeat Phase IV.”
“Cleo, I only have three phases to this spell. There is no Phase IV,” I said, turning the page.
“Of course there is,” replied Cleo, coming over to look at the book, “let me see that; Phase II, Phase III...turn the page...I think you turned two pages at once.”
“I only turned one page. There is no Phase IV,” I said.
“Boys, this is no time for bickering,” snapped Lisa.
“Time to oceanic entry: 9.6 minutes,” reported Rob.
“I don’t have time to worry about Phase IV,” I started, “don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”
“How?” asked Lisa, “you’ll be left outside the ship as we plunge into the ocean.”
“I’ll connect a lifeline to the outside hook. As soon as the Els‑pod is complete, I’ll grab hold and put myself in a Multi‑Purpose Protection Field.”
“That should worked,” mused Cleo.
“Melissa, would you write down the spell for me?” I continued, “I won’t be able use Spell Book out there.”
“Larry,” began Melissa, writing down the spell, “be careful.”
“Prrrrr!” stated Little Neptune.
“What is it?” asked Cleo. The two began conversing in some sort of equine language.
“What’s he saying?” asked Cindy.
“He wants to go along with Larry. He said that since he can also fly, he can be of assistance just in case you can’t grab hold of the lifeline in time.”
“Thank you, Little Neptune, but I’ve done this before.”
“Neeeee!”
“He said,” began Cleo, translating once again, “that if you got hurt, there would be no way that we could get out to help you.”
“All of that from one ‘neeeee’?” asked Cindy.
“He does have a point there,” agreed Lisa.
“Time to oceanic entry: 7.1 minutes,” reported Rob.
“Take him along,” urged Melissa.
“All right, come on.., just stay clear of the ship as I begin the spell,” I instructed. Little Neptune nodded his head in understanding.
“Wish us luck,” I said, hitting the button on the wall. The door to the little air lock slid open. “Rob, kill the engines, as soon as I give you the signal.”
“Affirmative.”
I grabbed a lifeline out of the locker and Little Neptune and I stepped into the air lock. After nodding my readiness to the others, they hit the button again, shutting the door. I took a deep breath and opened the outer door.
Little Neptune flew out of the air lock and hovered about 25-feet away. I hooked the lifeline onto one of the external hooks and—letting it hang there for later use—I flew out into the sky to begin the spell for the Encapsulated Life Support Pod (or “Els-pod” for short).
I immediately felt the tractor beam begin to pull me downward toward the ocean. Using all of my strength, I flew out of the beam and circled around to the back of the Starship Jupiter. The tractor made it very difficult for me to fly, so I had to make sure I stayed out of the beam’s way.
Peering into the rear porthole, I motioned to Cindy for Rob to shut down the engines. As I heard their hum die down, the ship increased its descent toward the ocean, so I quickly began the Els-pod spell.
The first thing I had to do was to fly around the spaceship horizontally at high speed. This wasn’t very easy to do since the Starship Jupiter was now heading toward the surface of the ocean at a faster speed. I repeated Phase I:
“Frogtos, Erecktos, Vernoch, Dreb!”
As I said this, there appeared a swirl of colors behind me as I flew around the ship. It looked like a rainbow coming from me. With every revolution I made, the rainbow got brighter and beneath it, an invisible, hard shell was beginning to form.
As before, I discovered that this spell was a very powerful one. Taking total control of my body as I wove its magic around the others, I found that the tractor beam now didn’t seem to have any effect on me.
My body continued around the ship; self propelled by the spell. I was barely visible to others as the spell increased my flight speed well passed the 100 mph mark. All I could see turned into a blur. I held on tight to the slip of paper as I read Phase II of the spell:
“Risack, Grompos, Xluivln, Elevatra!”
This time my body was propelled vertically around the Starship Jupiter. My rainbow wake covered it over and under. This too hardened into a protective shell.
There was one more portion of the spell to read and then I’d be finished. The space ship was now being tugged more rapidly toward the ocean surface. The tractor beam must have increased in intensity, but it remained completely unnoticed by me as I repeated Phase III of the spell:
“Yoctob, Wondros, Coliptis.”
This phase completed the spell and normally served two purposes: in addition to finishing off the spell, it also places little seats in the Els‑pod for everyone to sit on. Since these seats weren’t necessary, the only effect it had was to release me from its grip. I tried to grab for the lifeline, but I had no strength left to maneuver my way toward it. I looked up just in time to watch the Starship Jupiter plunge into the ocean.
As was the case last the time I used this spell, my body came to an abrupt halt upon finishing Phase III of the spell. I dropped, lifeless, into the ocean. I was physically drained, sickeningly dizzy and now soaking wet—bobbing up and down in the ocean, alone and cold.
Just prior to passing out from my exhaustion, I thought I heard what sounded like Little Neptune dive into the ocean behind me. The last thing I remember feeling was the little crimson winged horse coming up from underneath me and flying out of the ocean; my body lying limp across his back.
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