Starlight, Starbright

by Kristin Sweetland

(1985)

“There was a pleasing rhythm to the landscape—low hills, shallow valleys, woods and streams. Birds dart though the air. Gorgeous tropical flowers and luscious fruit grow in immense green houses. All is well ordered.

A number of kids are running and jumping in an open field. They’re doing acrobatics and they manage to fly unbelievably high in the air. They turn slowly, gracefully. It’s like a slow-motion ballet. They seem to defy the laws of gravity.

Looking up you can see a transparent domed roof. Beyond a million stars sparkle, and the mysterious universe seems to stretch on forever.

You are in a space colony.”

(from Roboforce Magazine, May 1985)

 

CHAPTER 1

One day in the year 2010 sometime in May, Jenna and Kara Patterson were sitting on a moon crater when suddenly they heard "beep, beep beep". The kids turned on their T.V. watches and heard a special announcement. "This morning a baby dino was born from a test tube," said the reporter. "Its description is not yet defined". No one knows exactly where the baby is being hidden.

" Wow", said Kara. "Can you imagine a baby dinosaur. It has been millions of years since the last one died". "Well that's so according to scientists but maybe it is not true", said Jenna.

When they got home Jenna's mother gave the girls some money to go to the store and buy some milk and bread and also a little treat for themselves.

At the store the girls got themselves a can of soda pop and some gum. The total of everything was $36.00. "My mother said that these would only have cost $5.00 when she was a little girl", said Jenna. When they got home they gave Jenna's mother the change and then went upstairs to play some music. They listened to crater rock, Martian pal, blastin' disaster and crater moon jam. Their dog, Disc Jock, came in to lie on the bed. He let out a short woof and then fell asleep.

 

CHAPTER 2

The next day at school their teacher talked about the baby dino all through science period and then all through English they had to write a story about the dinosaur born in the test tube. Jenna and Kara's story was four and one half pages long by recess. During recess they found a note blowing on the playground. It said , "Steal the dino and bring to to cell number three row three of our secret meeting place". They ran inside to show it to their teacher. She said, "It looks like the handy work of Sam, the poisonous thief".

"How do you know all this?" asked Jenna.

"Oh, I was a police officer when he was caught the first time, but he escaped. He always signs his letters with a diamond and skull and cross bones." "Those were the days," she said.

"Well another mystery," said Jenna.

 

CHAPTER 3

On the way home from school Jenna and Kara decided to slip outside the Dome for just a little while. They put on their oxygen masks and jet packs and headed in a direction that they had never been before. All of a sudden Kara slipped down a moon crater and was trying to hold on tight.

"Help" shouted Kara. "Help". Jenna bent down and tried to pull Kara up , but she fell in too. They started falling and were falling for about a minute. Luckily they were able to activate their jet packs just before they landed with a thud at the bottom of the crater.

Right in front of them was a small cave. The girls went in and what they saw was a large castle with petrified trees and footprints of horses dug into the ground. They went up to the castle. There were a whole bunch of bones and a pile of antiques and crumbled stones. When they went upstairs it was dark and creepy and they saw an old bed with a torn canopy. It looked as if no one had lived there for millions of years and that no one even knew it was there for a very long time. They knew that they had made a great discovery. The scientists would be rushing in second by second and so they decided to keep it a secret until someone else noticed. The next problem was how to get out. They crawled back out and activated their jet packs and carefully flew out of the crater.

 

CHAPTER 4

At the dinner table Jenna and Kara wanted to shout, "Hey there, we found an underground cavern", but they didn't. They had agreed that they wouldn't so they didn't. The next day after school they went down there again. This time when they were walking on the ground floor they fell down a hole and kerplunk. With a couple of ouches and ooh's and ah's they took time to look around them. There were four rows of cells with skeletons in them but at the third row they saw a man dressed in modern clothes and sleeping.

"Excuse me, Sir", said Kara, "What are you doing here?' "Oh, oh, ahh" said the man, "Who are you?"

"My name is Kara", said Kara "And this is Jenna".

"Who are you?" said Jenna. "And why are you tied to the wall?"

"I'm Sir George the 2nd and I'm being imprisoned by Sam, the poisonous thief because I am the inventor of the baby dinosaur and I won't tell him where I hid him" " The only way for me to get out of here is for you to find the key but I'm sure that you will never be able to find it so I may rot in here to my death".

"No you won't. We'll save you and we"ll find the key!" "Where is it?" they both shouted with enthusiasm. "Well, I don't know where the key is but I could....."

Before he had a chance to say another word they all heard the noise of stamping feet. Jenna and Kara quickly hid behind a pillar and they heard Sir George whisper that it was Sam, the poisonous thief. After hearing that the girls stayed extra quiet. They saw Sam and another man talking.

"Find the baby dino yet, m'boy?" said Sam.

"Not yet," said the filthy looking boy whose name was Grec.

"Oh well," said Sam, "we'll drive it out of him." They walked up to Sir George carrying a big whip and Sam said, " Come on tutti fruiti, tell us where you hid him so you won't get hurt."

Sir George pretended to wake up and see them. He cried out a loud "Oh". "Don't hurt me. Don't hurt me."

"If you don't want to get hurt you better tell us and no more fooling around," said Sam.

To get them off his back Sir George said that he had shipped the baby dino back to earth and that he should be in the Moscow Institute of Science by now.

"Great work, m'boy," grunted Sam. Let's get our preperations made and we'll leave for earth tomorrow on the 1:45 shuttle. Then he and the filthy boy left.

CHAPTER 5

The girls came out of their hiding spot and over to Sir George, and said "Wow, you sure tricked them, but what are you going to do if they come back?"

"I don't know," sighed Sir George.

"I' ve got a bobby pin and detectives in movies unlock doors with bobby pins."

"It might work," said Kara doubtfully, "It's worth a try."

Jenna stuck her bobby pin in the lock and fiddled around, and then, presto, it opened. She did the same with the handcuffs and at last Sir George was free. The girls and Sir George left the cell.

Sir George looked intently at the two girls and then said "Do you think that the three of us can save the baby Dino. I can't go to the police because I don't want too much publicity and I have a hunch that there is an informer in the police department. You go home and have a good nights sleep and I'll call you in the morning with the plan."

"We'd love to help," they both shouted together. "I'll double up jet packs with Sir George so we can get out of here," said Kara.

Z
O
O
M

--up they went.

 

CHAPTER 6

Kara and Jenna were so excited that they had trouble going to sleep. They were woken up in the morning by the videophone ringing. It was Sir George. He told them to meet him at the spaceport at 1:30. The girls left a note for their parents telling them not to worry and them took a bus to the spaceport after first stopping at McSpacam's for astro nuggets and moon beam fries.

At the spaceport the girls learned that Sir George had his own space shuttle. They stayed hidden behind pillars as much as possible until they saw Sam and the dirty boy, Grec, who were buying tickets for the Sun Beam Shuttle, the most famous space ship of them all. Then the girls and Sir George hopped into his shuttle and took off after them. Jenna and Kara had never been in a space ship before but they had always dreamed of riding in one and of seeing earth.

Inside the space ship it was warm and quite squishy. There were a whole bunch of buttons and flashing lights surounding them. Sir George was fiddling with the radar hoping to spot Sam and Grec. Sir George's space ship was named the Asteroid Split and it was a beautiful ship.

Gradually they saw the earth coming up. "I never knew it was so beautiful," said Kara softly. It's all green and blue with white at each end," said Jenna.

"It is nice isn't it," said Sir George with a smile.

In about an hour they landed at the Moscow Space Port. They quickly climbed down from their ship and looked around for Sam and Grec. They saw them at the other end of the terminal and cautiously followed them to the Moscow Institute of Science. When they finally got there everyone crowded around them and started to ask Sir George questions, but they did not answer and got quickly away as they had their minds on Sam the poisonous thief. Suddenly they spotted Sam at the information desk. Sir George ran and hid behind a desk and waited. Meanwhile the girls were gathering information from Sam. They heard Sam say, "Hmm, mam, I was told that the baby dino was being kept here."

"Yeah", said Grec, "It's true."

"Where did you hear that nonsense," said the lady at the desk.

"Sir George, the second told us," said Sam turning red. "He said that we could take a look at it".

"Well, I'm sorry but it just isn't here."

Sam looked like he was going to blow his top. "Aoooooo," yelled Sam. "He lied. He lied. Aoooo!"

All of a sudden Sam spotted Sir George who had come out from behind the chair. George was in for it. He ran and Sam ran after him. The chase was on.

"You lied. You lied," yelled Sam. "You'll be sorry." Sam pulled out his stun gun and pulled the trigger. Sir George ducked and the dart sailed past him and hit a fat lady in a Hawaiin shirt and rainbow coloured pants. She started crying "Help! Oh! Oh!"

"Oh, no more darts," cried a distant voice.

Kara and Jenna ran to call an ambulance for the lady while Sir George took off after Sam and Grec.

The ambulance soon arrived and the driver promised them that the lady would be fine in a few hours. So, the girls set off to find Sir George. They finally found him about a half an hour later sitting outside the Moscow Institue of Science looking gloomy. "The police caught him, but so much for no publicity," sighed Sir George.

"Could we see the baby dino?" asked Jenna hopefully.

"Sure, come upstairs and see."

They went upstairs to the safe room and George unlocked the safe door. They walked inside and their they saw a small creature with sparkly blue eyes and pale green skin with red dabs all over it. The girls were overjoyed to see the baby dinosaur and stared at it like an owl who has just spotted a white mouse running along a rocky dirt road in the sunset. "Maybe some other day Sir George will invent a way to go anywhere he wants by pressing a button," thought Jenna. The girls were proud of Sir George and so were many other people. George was the neatest scientist in all of the grassy sparkly rocky UNIVERSE!

And to this day George still gets a lot of respect from many important people.

 

EPILOGUE

When the girls got home they explained everything to their parents and they got to visit the dino whenever they wanted. And to this day, Jenna, age 79 and Kara, age 77, still activate their jet packs and go down to see the old castle that no one knows about. They still remember their adventure in the year 2010, sometime in May about seventy years before.

 

THE END

 

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