*KLESIA MOON PRIME TIME*
"That's it Eliza," Leon said. "Now, when you steer manually around asteroids, you always have to assume they are inhabited and therefore go around. No matter how small the rocks may look, you never know what might live inside."
"Careful…a little to the right," added Yarn, the worst kind of backseat driver.
The boy had been asleep for quite some time and imagined he was dreaming. Due to the tiring adventures on earth and because long space ventures bored him to death, Izzian Klowosky rarely stayed awake long enough to see the Famien Constellation.
Izzian rubbed his eyes in disbelief as the girl known as Eliza Allready, earthling, was perched at Leon's console, apparently steering the ship.
"Am I still asleep?" Izzian asked no one in particular.
He rubbed the final bit of sleepy from his eyes and refocused. Sure enough, Eliza remained in her position sitting at the console, steering Leon through a field of asteroids.
Scratching his head in disbelief, he came to the realization that the vision truly was a girl and not a mirage. As he removed his hand from his tangled hair, Izzian yanked out one old discarded Popsicle stick. Only one person in the universe would place a used, sticky Popsicle stick in his hair, and she had been steering the ship.
A loud voice seemingly erupted out of thin air, startling the boy. "No, Mr. Klowosky. You are not still sleeping and it's high time you were awake. We have a mission to complete, remember?"
Izzian looked toward the direction of the loud voice and noted Hulla Baloo speaking into the microphonic device. He covered his ears as the little Fester Tail continued speaking, cursing Leon for inventing the annoying sound amplifier.
"We are in the Klesian Quadrant and only an hour or so from your Al203 Telescope. Please, take a shower, brush your teeth and join us. Again, I stress the fact that you need a shower young man," Hulla reiterated, covering his wee nose in disgust.
"Please stop yelling," Izzian mumbled.
Hulla Baloo's earsplitting voice only added to his already forming headache. Izzian wondered if he belonged in the mental hospital. Everyone was acting perfectly normal about Eliza sitting at the front console, steering the ship.
Izzian approached the cockpit of the ship and spoke, "You're here?"
"Yes, of course. What did you expect?" Eliza replied.
She and Thilillian looked at one another and rolled their eyes. He wondered when the two girls had gotten so chummy; apparently it had occurred as he slept the entire way from earth.
He was still groggy, his thoughts jumbled and uncertain. Izzian decided a shower might clear his head. At the least, a blast of water might help him comprehend why Eliza was driving a SpacePod bound for Klesia Moon Prime.
Hulla's small-sized insinuations had also made him largely self-conscious. Izzian sniffed his armpits and suppressed a gag.
He quickly showered and grabbed a ripe apriguavo, greeting his old pals as he passed each one. Mrs. Jesset hugged the boy immediately, nearly collapsing his rib cage. Enot and Gala each grabbed a hand and walked him back to Leon's cabin area.
Thilillian kept her distance, offering only a formal handshake. Apparently, Thil had realized all of her kisses were seriously annoying her new friend Eliza.
Eliza stood, handing over control of the ship to Yarn. She pulled Izzian in for a close hug. "I missed you, turd," she said, squeezing him even tighter.
Izzian turned green with embarrassment and said, "Me too, Glotfish."
"That's more like it," Eliza said as she inspected the green sheen of his skin.
She did a twirl, similar to the twirl she performed back on earth while wearing her sinister clown costume. With joy, Eliza said, "You see? I'm not human looking anymore. I'm transforming to Klesian. I got a big old shot in my arm, and now my skin is turning green like yours, Izzy! Paksha would be so jealous. I've already Freemailed a picture to him."
"You tricked me, though. Why couldn't you just tell me you were shape shifting and travelling to Klesia Moon Prime?"
Eliza only giggled and said, "Where's the fun in that?"
"Nice," was all Izzian could manage to say.
He was easily confused, by females in particular, and was too grumpy to argue with Eliza. He had lied by keeping so many secrets from the girl for so long; Izzian supposed he deserved to be deceived, tit for tat.
He wanted to tell the earth girl that green skin suited her; she was beautiful as a Klesian, but he was afraid. Eliza would probably laugh away his compliment and say, "Duh," or thump him on the noggin. Plus, the time had come for Mrs. Jesset to leave. All attention needed to be on the large Firithian woman.
The group gathered around Mrs. Jesset. All biceps and triceps helped her into the shuttle that Leon and Hulla had recently resized in order to accommodate the huge woman. Even though several beings stood around the woman, fussing over this and that, Able Mabel stood at least four and half feet taller than any.
"This is it," Enot handed the woman his reprogramming notes for the Al203. "Are you sure you're familiar with these formulas?"
"Gleestix, Enot. I even memorized them as I slept, thanks to that SleepMemory Injector/Projector device Mr. Baloo invented. I don't even need your notes. I know your equations better than you," Mrs. Able Mabel Jesset said, chastising the young scientist.
"Don't feel bad, Mrs. Jesset," Izzian interjected. "Enot is…obsessive compulsive. Before our voyage to earth, he must have checked my seat straps at least a thousand times. Seriously, I had to tell the man to stop and strap himself in, or else he'd be floating around, banging his head on the ceiling when we launched. I kind of wanted to see that, actually."
The group chuckled, but Enot continued checking and rechecking the shuttle's systems, choosing to ignore Izzian's insult. Although he and Enot had become friends in a sense, it was apparent to Izzian that Enot was still seriously lacking a sense of humor. Ever the scientist, Enot finished checking the system statistics, choosing Mabel's safety over throwing his own joke into the mix.
"Well, everything checks out A-Okay. Mrs. Jesset, I thank you for your unbelievable sacrifice," Enot said, his voice wavering. He stepped towards the Firithian and formally shook her hand.
Mabel then pulled Enot into a debilitating hug and said, "You are a splendid man, Enot…Klowosky," she stammered, realizing she had no idea of Enot's true last name.
"His real name is Enot Lewga, Mrs. Jesset. I'm sure we'll have plenty of time to get to know each other better once Klesia is back to normal," Gala said, hugging the Firithian's gargantuan leg.
Mrs. Jesset strapped herself into the shuttle, smacking Enot's hands away as he struggled to check and recheck the straps. Enot found himself mushed between Mabel and the shuttle's front viewport as a final thank you for his zealous efforts.
When he realized the fix he was in, Enot calmly requested assistance. "I'm stuck. Please pull me out, carefully."
They all grabbed an arm or a leg and yanked Enot from the shuttle, laughing at the absurdity of the situation. Even Enot chuckled at least once, having been the butt of yet another joke.
The atmosphere grew somber as each realized they may never see Mrs. Jesset again. The plan was finally coming to fruition.
Acknowledging that the mood had grown entirely too dismal, Mrs. Jesset smiled cheerfully. "See you soon…losers. Peace," she added, adopting the cutting vernacular of Izzian and his friends.
The shuttle doors quickly whooshed to a close, leaving the rest of the group staring at a blank spot, already missing the Firithian they had grown to love.
Lil' Leon, the shuttle, withdrew from the wall. Big Leon quickly sealed himself around every gap and hole to prevent the rest of his passengers from being sucked out into space. Since he was a thoughtful ship, he formed a viewport in the wall where the shuttle used to sit, so Mabel's friends could watch the departure.
The shuttle hovered outside the viewport for a moment and Mrs. Jesset waved goodbye. Suddenly, she zoomed away so spe
edily, neither human nor alien eyes could follow. The group stood before the empty viewport searching for a clue that the shuttle had even existed in the first place. Nothing remained except the empty blackness of space.
"Paksha would have loved this," Izzian said wistfully, wondering if his old friend was still on restriction. Eliza agreed.
"Mrs. Jesset is a hero," she added, with her nose pressed against the window.
Under Leon's guidance, Mrs. Able Mabel Jesset was flying toward the planet, nearing her landing ramp at Comet Central Station; destination Klesia Moon Prime; objective, un-shrink the Klesian population.
Everything happened so quickly once Able Mabel zoomed away that Izzian barely had a chance to worry. Somehow he found the time. He worried about his ortnots and the rest of his people. He anxiously awaited the punishment that would surely arise from his role in the breaking of the telescope, along with everyone shrinking. Lastly, but no less importantly, he was terribly afraid for Mrs. Jesset. She might disappear too, thanks to his tiresome meddling that afternoon in the lab on Klesia Moon Prime.
He vowed to remain the mature, thoughtful person he had become since his arrival on earth. Izzian hoped that Ojolian, his real father, wouldn't find a reason to ground him. His worries soon melted away as he considered his new group of friends. They had stuck together and completed the impossible.
He suddenly didn't care if his dad was angry. Izzian knew he may not be a hero like Mrs. Jesset. He knew it hadn't been him, but Eliza's nerves of steel and a rogue Slunt Notte that had taught Lucas and Link a lesson in the woods of Sudden Bluff. He knew he'd had little influence on Thil's discoveries and Enot's equations for reprogramming the Al203 Telescope. And he was positive that without the guidance of Laddie, Yarn and the Fester Tails, he would have been stuck on earth for a long time.
But he also knew that he had done his part, and without him, the group wouldn't be the same. He was needed, and that gave him courage; courage to face anyone on Klesia, courage to stand up for his friends and courage to have a better relationship with his father.
"Maybe being a good person is enough," he whispered aloud, realizing that a Compassionate Citizen of the Universe was a valuable commodity in most situations.
"Izzian, where are you? Stop daydreaming about invading earth and shooting at ants with laser beams. Come help," Eliza barked.
She held his hand and pulled him away from the empty vision of space, towards the kitchen where tea was being prepared.
"And I happen to agree," Eliza said with sincerity, tightening her grip of his hand, "that being a good person is quite enough."
Izzian quickly pulled his hand away, certain it would be covered in some type of sticky goo. It wasn't. His heart soared when he realized Eliza had just wanted to hold his hand. Either that or she simply needed his help in the kitchen. He would never understand the girl, he realized yet again, wishing he had some Preytell abilities of his own.
"Here, hold this," Eliza barked again, forcing an object into his hand. It was a rectangular tea cup filled with a gooey liquid, perched atop a jagged, malformed saucer.
Slurping away on the gross beverage that Yarn called tea, Izzian solemnly vowed to always remember that no matter what life might throw his way, he would always be needed. That was something.
"I am needed," he said quietly to himself. "Even if it's only to pretend this atrocious tea is the best thing I've ever tasted."
***