Flying Burger (4 page)

Many students were disappointed and some even cried on the spot. As a result, many tissue papers were thrown on the floor when the students went away. The cleaner was quite angry with those students who littered, making her job more difficult. As the cleaner swept away the litter, she thought to herself, “why can’t they throw the tissue papers into the bin just next to the notice-board?” She shook her head, unable to understand youngsters nowadays.

Mrs. Andersen stepped into her class and everybody stopped what they were doing – throwing paper aeroplanes into the air – and rushed back to their seats. Her eyes searched for the class monitor and found him.

“Thomas, what is happening here?” Mrs. Andersen asked.

“They were practising the perverted form of the ancient art of paper-folding,” came the reply.

“While they are at it, I want another ten paper dinosaurs from each one of them. Thomas, give me the names of these paper-folding experts, so that I can count the number of dinosaurs I should get later,” Mrs. Andersen ordered.

"Right away madam."

Many “Oh shucks!” could be heard.

A small laughter came from the back of the classroom.

Chapter 3

Two weeks later.

In the ‘Perfect Fit’ tailor-shop which was situated inside the academy, Mrs. Andersen was checking to see that all her students had arrived. Everyone came on time to try out their new space uniforms. This tailor-shop was renowned far and wide for its school uniform design, the likes of which our current school uniforms paled in comparison. The tailor brought out all the space uniforms which Mrs. Andersen had ordered one week ago. These uniforms were put into individual boxes tied nicely with a red ribbon. The owner’s name was printed in bold and pasted securely on the cover of each box. Everybody was anxious to get his uniform and put it on.

A short while passed before the owner of the shoe-shop next door walked into this tailor-shop. He was grinning broadly and put down the six boxes which he carried. His face was flushed and he panted with this laborious task. He told Mrs. Andersen and the kids to try on the shoes. He left after that.

Before long, our space crew trooped out of the changing rooms. Mrs. Andersen, Chen Wei, Nikita, Melissa, Samuel and little Antonio. It was a dazzling team! Mrs. Andersen looked just like a mother guarding her kids. They were dressed in their impeccable space uniforms, which were made of the finest textiles and had the most unique design. It consisted of a white cotton, collared, long-sleeve undershirt and a V-neck, one-piece dark-blue satin body suit. Two stiff, yellow bars lined the shoulder region on this dark-blue body suit. Each bar carried the Metametica Space Academy insignia. This body suit covered the wearer’s arms from the shoulder up to ten centimetres below the elbow. The rest of the white cotton undershirt was exposed, a stark contrast, both in terms of colour and textiles. A black leather belt, together with a pair of black leather shoes completed the uniform, making the wearer stand out on all occasions.

Chen Wei looked so dashing that Nikita was a bit afraid to look at him for long. She did not want to appear rude and spoil his first impression of her. Although Nikita was also a pretty young lady, but at that moment she just did not bother to admire herself in the body-length mirrors placed outside the changing rooms.

Antonio and Samuel were laughing away at their own reflections in the mirror, apparently satisfied with their nice uniforms. Mrs. Andersen and Melissa were seriously looking at their reflections in the mirrors, hoping to find some faults in their uniforms for the tailor to correct. They took a long time but eventually could not find a single fault. The uniforms fit them perfectly! Chen Wei was not very particular about such things. All he wanted was that the uniform felt comfortable when worn. He looked dashing in whatever clothes he wore.

At this point in time, a few curious heads turned in the direction of this tailor-shop. Some of these faculty students even entered the shop to admire Chen Wei. They were female students and slowly the number grew until the shop was so crowded that there was no more standing room available. The tailor advised all the students to wait outside the shop but it was no use, there were just too many of them. When the news spread that The Hunk was trying out his new uniform, more students flocked here. It did not help as this happened to be the lunch-time break, many students skipped meals in order to admire The Hunk.

In the end, all our space crew members had to contact their loved ones to fetch them from this tailor-shop. Chen Wei’s butler, Mr. Lin, Mr. Andersen came in their Luxury Gliders, the equivalent of modern day luxury cars. Samuel and Antonio took a free ride back to their hostels with Mrs. Andersen. Melissa followed Nikita in her Luxury Mercs Glider.

One week later, Mrs. Andersen and the kids were supposed to gather at the space shuttlecraft launch-pad. As everyone turned up on the appointed time, Mrs. Andersen noticed that Antonio had not arrived. She was a bit worried. She waited with an air of expectancy. A short while passed before little Antonio appeared dragging his cute little lugguage bag behind him and wore his cute little blue Nike cap the other way round. He was half-running and half-afraid that he had missed the flight. Antonio was extremely excited as this was going to be his first time travelling on a spaceship. He tossed and turned in bed the night before and hardly slept a wink, waiting for this moment, the moment to step inside a spaceship. It would be one small step for a little boy, but one big step for little Antonio.

The space shuttlecraft stood on top of a launchpad. It had the shape of a big brown moth, with two big, right-angled triangular wings spread horizontally. There were also two metallic feelers sticking out horizontally from the front of the spacecraft.

“Chen Wei, you will drive this space shuttlecraft with Nikita as your co-pilot, any problem?” Mrs. Andersen asked. She decided to let them drive the space shuttlecraft since both of them were the most senior among her students.

“No.”

“Good. We are depending on you.”

Everyone deposited their travel-bags into the luggage compartment behind. The group boarded the space shuttlecraft with Chen Wei and Nikita occupying the pilot and co-pilot seat respectively. Melissa and Samuel occupied the middle row. Mrs. Andersen and Antonio sat at the last row. The hangar door opened slowly.

“Everybody, fasten your seat-belts.” Chen Wei pressed the ignition button on his navigation console. The power system was activated. Fuel exhaust began ejecting from the exhaust pipes behind. The space shuttlecraft began to gather momentum.

 “Take off!” Chen Wei said. Off the space shuttlecraft took to the air and out of the hangar door in a jiffy. When it shot out into the open air, it increased its angle of elevation and was rapidly gaining altitude. Chen Wei was busy manipulating the navigation controls. Looking out through the cockpit window, one could see the swift change in colour from navy blue to white and navy blue and then darkness as this space shuttlecraft ventured out into space.

“Shuttle speed, 100,000 kilometres per hour. Exit Earth’s gravitational field in three minutes. Nikita, compute impulse and kinetic energy increase,” Chen Wei ordered.

Nikita was too absorbed in her own thoughts to hear his commands. Melissa nudged her from behind, sensing her delayed response. Nikita quickly recomposed herself and using the mathematical hologram in front of her console, she computed the navigation parameters. Chen Wei grabbed the answer module and plug it into his own navigation control system. Technology at this stage of development was highly modular and used holograms as the user-interface. Hence, two holograms stood in front of the pilot and co-pilot navigation consoles. Chen Wei and Nikita had to execute multiple ‘grab and plug’ actions on their navigation consoles. These actions required concentration and speed.

Chen Wei needed another set of parametric equations to be solved and ordered his co-pilot to do so. Nikita was once again lost in her own thoughts. She found herself admiring more and more of the pilot seated on her right. His handsome face, dark eyebrows, intelligent eyes, chiselled nose and masculine voice fit her dream idol perfectly! Melissa nudged her again from behind. Nikita computed the required parameters quickly. Chen Wei took the answer module and plug it into his own navigation module.

“Decelerating. Exit Earth’s gravitational field in one minute. Nikita, compute impulse, kinetic energy changes, equation of Earth’s orbit and the equation of tangent to Earth’s orbit at co-ordinates (7, 3, 2),” Chen Wei ordered.

No response from Nikita.

“Nikita, compute solutions to these three parametric equations. Quick, I need the time factor.” Hearing no response from Nikita, Chen Wei computed the solutions himself.

“Nikita, are you all right?” Chen Wei gave her a concerned look.

“Yes,” Nikita answered softly and lowered her head slightly, unwilling to betray her emotions.

Outside the cockpit windows, everybody could see the space-station in the distance. It loomed into sight as the shuttlecraft approached it. This space-station was built in the form of a sphere with diameter four hundred kilometres. This sphere appeared to be superimposed on a pentagonal-star plane at its equator. Hence, overall, it looked like a spherical structure with five triangles jutting out at its equator.

“Mission Control. This is pilot of space shuttle SH770. Request permission to land. Over,” Chen Wei said.

“Permission granted. Launch-pad 321 vacant,” came the reply.

Communication was established with mission control inside this space-station. The main-door to the docking pool, on the dome, opened slowly and Chen Wei drove the space shuttlecraft into the docking pool. He headed for launch-pad 321.

A short while elapsed.

“Touch down,” Chen Wei informed. He opened all the doors of the space shuttlecraft for everyone to exit. After retrieving their bags from the luggage compartment, the group climbed down slowly from the launch-pad.

A tall man in uniform approached them followed by a woman close behind. He extended his right hand towards Mrs. Andersen, and said “nice to meet you, I am Captain Baldwin and this is Captain Jessie, my wife.” Mrs. Andersen shook hands with both of them and in turn introduced her students to the couple.

Captain Baldwin led the group to the spaceship hangar. He put his palm on the biometric sensor beside the main door of the hangar and a series of lights flickered on the panel accompanied by a soft melody. Slowly, the door slided open and everyone’s jaw nearly dropped and stared wide-eyed at the spaceship in front of them.

“It’s a burger!” Antonio said. He was feeling very hungry for he had woke up late this morning, skipped his breakfast and rushed to catch this space flight.

“No! It’s a flying burger,” Samuel said.

“It’s a big flying burger,” Melissa said.

“It’s a flying big burger,” Nikita said.

“No! It’s a big flying big burger,” Chen Wei said.

“Mrs. Andersen, who’s correct?” Antonio asked with a smile on his face.

“Oh my goodness! I’m getting a headache,” Mrs. Andersen stared in shock at the spaceship in front of her. The spaceship in front of everyone looked like a big burger, except that it was puffed up many, many times. It was painted light brown at the top and bottom and in between, layers of green, orange and dark brown with patches of white!

“Let me explain. This is a spaceship capable of travelling from galaxy to galaxy. It uses the latest technology of warp drive to accomplish this. It can reach ultra-warp speed in a matter of seconds. Travelling to the end of the Universe is not an impossibility.” Captain Baldwin was very proud to introduce this marvellous spaceship and to be its commander.

“So nice, can fly here fly there,” Antonio was very happy.

“Antonio, you should say, ‘It is so exciting to fly from one galaxy to another’, is that understood?” Mrs. Andersen corrected him. The little fellow nodded his head vigorously.

As the group walked closer to the spaceship and reached its main door, Captain Baldwin placed his palm on another biometric sensor. The door opened obediently and everybody walked in, except Antonio, who dashed past everyone trying to be the first person to get inside. As the Captain led the group into the command deck, Chen Wei was amazed by the lack of computer consoles in there. He saw chairs, desks and many panels of flickering lights on the walls all round the command deck but he could not find the controls.

“Captain, where are all the computer consoles, I mean the controls for navigation, communication, weapon, life-support and …?” Chen Wei asked.

“Be patient, young man. This spaceship is very special and possesses powerful capabilities. Its daily operation is run by a master-computer.”

“DATA, tell us more,” Captain Baldwin ordered.

The master-computer interface, DATA, is a hologram of a stunning beauty, standing right in the centre of the command deck. She resembled Miss Italy, the runner-up to the Miss Universe 1987 beauty pageant.

“This spaceship belongs to the BURGER series model number 123. It’s warp engine is an advanced prototype developed from Alcubierre’s Drive. This latest prototype works on the principle of contracting space in front and expanding space at the back of a spaceship. This enables it to break warp speed of 400 light-years per hour, which is the critical bottleneck for inter-stellar travel. The propulsion engine has a hydrogen ignitor to generate a large magnetic field to capture the limitless supply of hydrogen atoms in space. These hydrogen atoms are then channelled into a thermonuclear reactor to bring about nuclear fusion. The heat generated will break up matter into quarks and anti-quarks. Alcubierre’s equation was manipulated to produce more anti-quarks than quarks. The anti-quarks, having negative mass are then expelled in high-volume at the back of the spaceship, thus expanding space behind it. Low-volume quarks produced at the front, will contract space thus moving the spaceship forward many times faster than the speed of light. This spacecraft can reach ultra-warp speed and maintain it indefinitely,” DATA elaborated.

“Excuse my interruption, is this something like a leaf being pushed along by a ripple in a still pond? I mean the leaf is the spaceship and the distortion of space creates the ripple,” Chen Wei drew a crude analogy.

“Affirmative. The weapon system is the most powerful using revolutionary technology. It has a defence shield, an anti-gravity shield and a radiation shield. The navigation system uses artificial intelligence algorithm to map its travel co-ordinates and runs on auto-pilot mode,” DATA reported.

“Amazing. I did not know they could do that,” Chen Wei expressed his admiration.

“All right DATA, that’s enough for now,” Captain Baldwin ordered.

Turning to Mrs. Andersen, he said, “I believe the kids are tired.” Mrs. Andersen smiled knowingly at him. She was tired out herself, she always did, when she had to listen to all these technological explanations. She thought to herself, “just tell me where are the buttons, and when to push which buttons, simple as that. No need for all this technology stuff. Put me to sleep.” Just at this moment, true to her thoughts, she yawned right in front of the Captain!

"Excuse me, I'm sorry. Technology is not my cup of tea." She apologised and yawned again!