Flying Burger (18 page)

Chapter 14

After a roller-coaster ride through the black hole, Cygnus X-1, BURGER123 finally came to a stop. It landed on hard ground. Fortunately, the impact was minimal and nobody was hurt. Looking out of the cockpit window, it was an unbelievable scene! Brightness was all over the place, so much so that shadow could not find a foothold. From the far distance, a soft melody of a stringed instrument came floating by. It was pleasing to the ears and everyone could not help wanting to dance were it not for the safety belts holding them back. Once the safety belts were released, Nikita and Melissa sprang to their feet and began to dance. Looking at the way Melissa danced made everyone nearly burst with laughter. On the other hand, Chen Wei could not help admiring Nikita. She was slim, graceful and exude feminine charm. With her shoulder-length black hair tied up neatly and let loose behind her head, he thought she was most beautiful. He swallowed hard and his adam’s apple bobbed up and down in his neck.

Just at this time, Antonio happened to look out of the cockpit window.

“Look! A pink elephant. It’s waving it’s trunk at me,” Antonio exclaimed.

“There’s a blue gorilla over there,” Melissa yelled.

“Hey, there’s a purple goat here,” Samuel yelled.

“Oh my goodness! Am I seeing things? I believe I see a jellyfish walking on two legs,” Mrs. Andersen said.

“Mrs. Andersen, it is staring at you with two big eyes!” Antonio pointed out to her.

“I think I'm going to faint,” the mature lady said.

Suddenly, a young-looking beautiful girl appeared before everybody’s eyes. She was blond, with a pair of sparkling blue eyes and the sweetest smile imaginable. She was flapping her wings, waving her hand and making some hand signals. She looked like a friendly creature. Chen Wei tore his eyes from Nikita and looked at this angel-like creature with utmost fascination. Nikita felt a pang of jealousy in her heart when she saw Chen Wei gazing admiringly at another creature. She had this sudden impulse to slap that alien beauty. Later when she thought about this, she was quite puzzled as to why she was feeling this way.

“DATA, damage report,” Captain Baldwin ordered.

“All systems operational. Ship’s exterior ten percent crushed by extreme gravity. Self-repair procedures activated. Estimated time to complete, thirty minutes.”

“I want an update report later,” Captain Baldwin ordered.

“Alert. Alert. My data-bank security has been breached,” DATA alerted.

A short while passed before a sweet voice was heard on deck. It came from the beautiful angel-like creature as was evident from its lip movements and exaggerated hand signals.

“Howdy! Earthlings. I am Shela from Aborea.”

Everyone giggled at this funny greeting.

“Greetings to you. I am Captain Baldwin, star-ship commander. Do tell us more about this place.”

“I am sorry for breaking into your computer data-bank. This is the only way to learn about and communicate with you,” Shela explained.

“I see,” Captain Baldwin smiled.

“Aborea is a land of peace and harmony. Every Aborean has the power of molecular re-arrangement and the right to assume any shape he desires, although the most popular choice is humanoid. I believe you must have seen some extraordinary shapes. Oh, that is Bimbo the pink elephant. She wants to be friend with all of you!”

"Meh, meh, meh," the purple goat made a din.

"Oh, that is Manny the purple goat. He wants to be your friend too," Shela said.

At this moment, the blue gorilla decided to make its voice heard by thumping its powerful chest with its hands. It raised its hands for a while and then continued thumping its chest.

"Oh, I almost forgot. That is Navy the blue gorilla. He's dying to know you."

“We come here by accident. Could you help us to return to where we came from?” Captain Baldwin asked.

“Don’t worry, I need to check my time-table as to when the next white hole will be approaching. Once it arrives, you will be able to return to where you came from. We call them white holes here. Aborea is a rotating flat plain with no boundary. These white holes come and go all the time. We have not had any visitors for a long time, you must stay and explore our land and let me show my hospitality. You will have a wonderful time, I assure you.”

After a short discussion with Captain Baldwin, Mrs. Andersen and the children decided to accept the invitation to tour Aborea! The children were excited tremendously, especially Antonio, who loved to meet aliens. Captain Baldwin decided to remain in the spaceship but assigned his wife to follow Mrs. Andersen’s group, to take care of their emergency medical needs. The whole group gathered outside the decompression chamber. When the door opened slowly, everyone entered the decompression chamber. Inside this chamber, the air pressure was equalised with the external air pressure. It took a mere three minutes for this process to complete, after which the external door opened and the group ventured outside into Aborean territory. Not far from where they were, they could see a mushroom-shaped house. Shela stood outside the door. This golden mushroom house had a golden door and two windows as well as a transparent mushroom cap. Mrs. Andersen led this group towards the direction of the house. Soon, they were standing close to Shela.

“Howdy!” Shela was overly excited and could not control her flapping wings. As a result, she kept flying and landing on her feet. Chen Wei was fascinated while Nikita was getting a bit jealous.

“Howdy to you. I am Captain Jessie, medical doctor and this is Mrs. Andersen,” Captain Jessie introduced. The children each took turns to introduce themselves. Mrs. Andersen smiled.

“Let me show you around my house. Do make yourself comfortable,” Shela said.

When Shela opened the door to the mushroom house, they were greeted by a blinding golden light! When they entered the house, everyone stared in disbelief! Everything was made of gold. Golden chairs, table, sofa, bed and kitchen appliances. Even the toilet bowl was made of gold!

“You seem to have plenty of gold around here,” Captain Jessie remarked.

“Oh yes, gold is very common here, there is a river of gold just behind this house. It originated from the volcano range, Cognos, situated some distance away from here. We use gold to make all our furniture and appliances.”

When Shela brought the group up to the roof-top, they were greeted with a chorus of “Tokiki”, “Conana”, “Tokiki”, “Conana”. Antonio was most curious as he quickly looked around the room to find out who was making the noise. He saw a pair of parrots perched on a bird-stand at one corner of the room. They had bodies of red feathers and wings mixed with red, blue and yellow. Shela fed them some strawberry cubes to stop them from calling each other.

“They are so colourful. Are those their names?” Samuel asked.

“Yes. They have been calling each other by their names since birth,” Shela said.

“Ooooo, they are so cute. Which one is Conana and which one is Tokiki?” Antonio was beside himself with curiousity.

“They are twins. Many times even I get confused which is which.”

Looking out of the unusual house, a wide panoramic view of Aborea presented itself. There were mushroom houses all over the place, all with transparent mushroom caps. This mushroom cap was made of tempered glass strengthened with silicon. Each house was surrounded by patches of red. Aboreans loved to eat strawberries and hence planted strawberries around their houses.

“You must be hungry. Let me treat all of you to our delicious strawberry set meal.” Having said that, Shela took a basket of strawberries and emptied it into a sort of funny looking kitchen appliance and pressed some buttons by its side. The machine went to work and very shortly produced eight complete set meals. The food items came rolling out by means of a conveyor belt and by order of appetizer, main course, side dish, desserts and strawberry fruit punch. Everybody collected their food using a big tray and settled down to a sumptuous meal. There was the appetizer, mesh strawberry, main course, ‘Strawberry Delight’ which was an assortment of strawberry cup-cakes, side-dish, strawberry salad and desserts, strawberry pudding.

Looking out from where they were seated, not far away, many Aboreans were gathered around a fountain. They seemed quite excited. Shela told them that the Fountain of Youth was the most exciting place for Aboreans. It was here that aging Aboreans got a chance to become young again.

“Oh my, I would love to go there, could we?” Mrs. Andersen asked excitedly.

“Of course. But, let me check the time when the next white hole would appear,” Shela said.

Having said that, she stepped on a remote button on the floor and a big map of this unknown universe appeared on the floor. She pointed at one of the symbols and then another and made some mental calculations.

“White hole Kitora will be here tomorrow at 12:00 hours. I will help you to return to your universe. You have that much time to explore Aborea. It should be enough,” Shela informed.

The group of visitors and Shela left the mushroom house and made their way to the Fountain of Youth. Along the way, they met some old Aboreans who had difficulties walking and young energetic Aboreans walking away from the fountain. It was a stark contrast. Mrs. Andersen seemed to be walking faster than usual. Captain Jessie was also fighting to be the first person to reach this fountain. Such was the power of youth and rejuvenation! When they reached the fountain, they found that the water was sparkling clear and there were many gold cups lying around the edge.

“One cup of water will make you younger by ten years,” Shela said.

“I also want to drink!” Antonio begged. He dreaded to be left out of anything fun and exciting.

Chen Wei could not help suppressing a smile. Nikita saw his left dimple and was thankful she was not an ice-cube, else she would melt. Antonio had his special winning ways, he was innocent, chubby, cuddly and had big dreamy eyes. Chen Wei was the only son of a media magnate and often wished he had a younger brother to play with.

“Oh no, you will turn into a baby. I suggest that Mrs. Andersen and Captain Jessie drink one cup each. The children do not drink at all,” Shela advised.

“I think I will drink half a cup. I don’t want the Captain to get a shock,” Captain Jessie said giggling at the same time. She was twenty nine years old and the thought of herself getting younger by ten years amused her very much. She thought it best to try half a cup and not be too greedy.

After drinking from the fountain, Mrs. Andersen felt more refreshed and alive. She saw her hair turning back to its original colour, brownish yellow. Her skin felt taut and the muscle aches disappeared. All her other aches also disappeared and her vision improved greatly. It was amazing! Captain Jessie too felt the same way, although she drank half a cup from the Fountain of Youth. She was many years younger than Mrs. Andersen. Both women admired their own reflections in the fountain and seemed to be lost for a while. All the Aboreans present there were doing exactly the same thing - admiring their own reflections in the fountain.

“The effects are amazing! Could I collect some water for scientific analyses?” Captain Jessie was curious.

“This water evaporates too fast. I have tried to bring it back to my house, but was unable to do so,” Shela informed.

“The water from this fountain contains many rare vitamins, which reverse the aging process. Many rare elements are also found in the water which are critical for cell regeneration and repair,” Shela explained.

“Mmmm…fantastic. This is so much better than my avocado face mask,” Mrs. Andersen looked at her reflection and grinned with great satisfaction. She felt alive all of a sudden and danced a traditional folk dance right there beside the fountain.

Shela brought the group to the next destination, Rainbow Park, situated at the foot of Cognos. They arrived in a short while with Shela flying most of the way and a younger Captain Jessie and Mrs. Andersen leading the children.

One could see a big rainbow above Cognos Volcano. At the foot of this volcano sat a huge natural lake with willows growing along its edge. Gentle winds swayed the willows. Birds chirped merrily in the air. Strawberries grew all over the place. A distinctive strawberry fragrance came from a cluster of mushroom houses nearby. A tall column of concentric circular platforms stood nearby. At the entrance to the park stood a gigantic, semi-circular, rainbow coloured arch.

“This is our famous Rainbow Park, the one and only in the entire universe! That’s the Rainbow Watch Tower beside the Rainbow Lodge, where the fragrance is coming from. Are you guys hungry?” Shela asked.

As the group made their way into this extraordinary vacation resort, they saw a few Aboreans relaxing on easy-chairs underneath the willows, by the side of the lake. They were sipping some fruit juices and gazing at the beautiful scenery before them.

Shela led the group to the Rainbow Watch Tower. There were two Aboreans sitting on a bench next to the tower, a butterfly-shaped creature and a dragonfly-shaped creature. Both of them were arguing who was the more popular choice for air-lifting Aboreans up the watch tower.

“I am more beautiful than you, look at my big, colourful wings,” the Butterfly boasted.

“I am more steady than you when I fly. People prefer safety more than beauty,” the Dragonfly argued.

“Let’s ask our visitors,” the Butterfly challenged.

“Oh sure, I am not afraid of you.”

The Dragonfly asked Shela using a strange Aborean tongue who was the more popular choice. When Mrs. Andersen, Captain Jessie and the kids made their choices known, it was the adults who chose dragonfly and the kids who chose butterfly.

“See, I told you, I am more popular!” the Butterfly said proudly.

“Since there are five children here and there’s only one butterfly, I will transform into a butterfly to help bring you guys up there.” Having said these words, Shela immediately transformed her body into a butterfly-shaped creature. Her wings became bigger, more beautiful and colourful. Her body transformed into thorax and abdomen of a butterfly. Her head remained the same as before but with an addition of two feelers! Chen Wei stared in shock!