Flying Burger (10 page)

Antonio and everyone else could not help laughing.

The train dashed up the next slope before it lost momentum and began to reverse. It travelled back and forth for a while before it finally came to a halt at the bottom of the U-shape valley on the other side of the hill. The train-master went to search for spare batteries and finally found five new batteries in a locked cupboard. He quickly changed the batteries and the train carried on with its journey to the Moravian Institute. The lights flickered back and forth on the choo-choo train and the horn sounded "choo choo choo" .

"Choo choo choo," Samuel said happily.

"Choo choo choo," Antonio also followed.

In a short while, the choo-choo train stopped in front of a magnificent building. The building architecture consisted of a gigantic sphere supported by three slanted pyramids at the base, all made up of the same greyish-white material. A spectacular sign in front of the building read, 'Moravian Institute of Space Science'. The headmaster led this group of visitors into the academy compound.

Once Antonio and Samuel entered the gate of the institute, they saw rows and rows of flying young Moravians landing in a big pool of water. The water was pink! The headmaster told our guests, that this was the aquatic centre. Many Moravians were swimming happily in another big pool nearby. Antonio and Samuel were attracted by this interesting show and Antonio wanted to go and take a look. The two little fellows ran into the aquatic centre as fast as their little legs could carry them. Mrs. Andersen also entered the aquatic centre and stood next to Antonio. In the centre of a big pool stood a long mechanical swing. They saw many youngsters getting on this swing. Once everybody was up on the swing, the operator pressed a button by the side of the wall. This swing began to move back and forth. Before long, it was reaching incredible heights. Many of the Moravians on this swing started to jump off the swing, to land in the pink water! It was most exciting!

"I wanna try the flying swing!" Antonio almost yelled. His adventurous spirit was ignited at this moment and he was dying to go on the swing.

"Errh, I wanna try the swing, errh, errhhh.." Antonio grabbed hold of Mrs. Andersen's hand and shook his body and stamped his feet.

"No way! No. Don't even think about it! If anything were to happen to you, your mother will scold me," Mrs. Andersen defended her decision. Antonio tried to play rough, but Mrs. Andersen grabbed him and carried him in her arms. Before he knew what happend, he received a tight slap on his buttock! He kept quiet henceforth with a pout on his face.

At the main door to the school building, a small band of five young Moravians was playing to welcome our guests. They were hitting on the xylophone, making a melodious tune. Our group of visitors made their way into the academy hall where more aliens were gathered. There was a total of five rows of competitor seats, arranged in single file facing the front. A big screen was erected on the front of the hall. The headmaster directed Chen Wei and the rest of the kids to one of the empty row of seats at the far left. The rest of the seats were already taken up by alien beings. Behind the hall sat an audience anticipating a competitive round of astronomy quiz. Many anxious parents were also waiting to cheer their kids on in this quiz.

The Moravian headmaster walked to the front of the hall and addressed the audience.

"Dear creatures of the galaxy, we are gathered here today to take part in our annual astronomy quiz. This time round, we have added an additional component, project section, which evaluates each team's overall aptitude in astronomy. Let me brief you on the point system, each correct answer will score ten points and a wrong answer will minus five points from the team's total score. The maximum score for the project section is twenty points. The team with the highest score will be the winner and will be awarded a grand prize - Moravian Visual Encyclopaedia of Astronomy. Now, I will hand you over to our Mentor."

"First, let me introduce the competing teams from the various star systems. Team one, Metrozoid from Ross 154. Team two, chimpanzees from Altair. Team three, Moravians from Epsilon Eridani. Team four, tiger cubs from Arcturus. Team five, Earthlings from planet Earth. Let’s clap our appendages, and welcome our contestants. Let the quiz begin, " said the Mentor.

The Metrozoid was a robot with a round metallic head, funny looking eyes and a rectangular mouth. On it's head stood an antenna with a few circular rings. It had a short neck attached to a white cylindrical body. Two powerful pincers were attached to its robot arms. Every now and then, it would move its head and survey the surroundings with utmost attention.

"All contestants have to wear the Language Translator Device in order to give an answer in the universal language understood by all creatures. Press the buzzer first before you make an attempt to answer,” the Mentor instructed.

“Are we ready? Question one, what is the average age of our universe?"

"13 billion solar years," Chen Wei answered.

"Correct. Question two, state one theory for the formation of our universe."

"Big Bang Theory," Metrozoid responded.

"Correct. Question three, name the quantum of electromagnetic energy and also state its characteristics."

"Photon. It is a particle with zero mass, no electric charge and has indefinitely long lifetime," Nikita answered.

"Absolutely correct. Question four, name the galaxy in which our star is located."

"Milky Way Galaxy," Chimpanzee gave an answer.

"Correct. Question five, what is the diameter of Milky Way Galaxy?"

"100,000 light years," Metrozoid pressed the buzzer immediately and gave the answer before anyone could even had time to think.

"Correct. Question six, how many known globular clusters are there in the Milky Way Galaxy?"

"140," Tiger cub team was not to be outdone.

"Correct. Question seven, what is the composition of the cosmos?"

"77% hydrogen, 23% helium and 0.000,000,1 % lithium," The Moravian team managed to give a response before others could.

"Correct. Question eight, name the four fundamental forces controlling the universe."

"1. Gravity. 2. Electromagnetism. 3. Weak force governing how stars shine. 4. Strong force binding the nuclei in atoms." Chen Wei displayed his profound knowledge of astronomy. Nikita found herself admiring this young man beside her more and more.

"Excellent. Question nine, how many galaxies were found in the Hubble Deep Field?"

"3000 galaxies," Metrozoid fought back with a vengeance.

"Right. The last question, how many galaxies were found in the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field?"

"10000 galaxies," the Moravian team refused to give up without a fight.

"Correct. Now, let us take a look at the score of each team. Metrozoids have scored thirty points, chimpanzees, ten points, Moravians, twenty points, tiger cubs, ten points and Earthlings, thirty points. Metrozoids and Earthlings have both scored thirty points. The next round of quiz will determine the overall winner. Each team will have twenty minutes to complete this section. A panel of judges will award the points and its decision is final. Here's the project title, Design an Effective Weapon System for a Star-ship. The time starts now." The Mentor brought all teams to the next round of Quiz.

At the signal to start, each team went to work using the writing utilities available and discussing with each other in their native tongues. Suddenly, a chorus of mixed frequencies could be heard, ranging from low to ultra-high notes. Our terrestrial team members also worked hard, with Nikita doing the writing and the rest contributing ideas. Chen Wei talked most of the time with Melissa interjecting at odd instances. At this moment, Samuel took out a gigantic pencil from his utility pouch. It was more than thirty centimetres long and needed an adult hand to hold it firmly! Antonio, Chen Wei, Nikita and Melissa laughed loudly when they saw this pencil.

“Samuel, stop playing the fool! Be serious,” Chen Wei chided him.

Samuel kept his big pencil and took out a proper pencil from his pouch. Together with Antonio, the two little fellows began to draw the kind of weapons that they thought were powerful and deadly. Twenty minutes flew by quickly. The Mentor gave the signal to stop all writing. He instructed each team to submit their work to the panel of judges in an orderly fashion.

Silence prevailed in the hall.

"While we are waiting for the results of the quiz, I’ll call upon our famous Moravian Acrobatic Troupe to perform for us. Let’s clap our appendages!" The Mentor applauded loudly. Everybody followed. A group of humanoid with bear heads walked onto the stage, dressed in acrobatic outfits.

A special spotlight was attached to the ceiling of this stage. Suddenly, this spotlight was switched on with a loud ‘click’. In front of the stage, the wall was painted green. Six concentric circles of yellow lights were projected on the green wall in front. Techno music flooded the background. All at once, those yellow lights in odd-numbered circles began to revolve in a clockwise direction, while the lights in the even-numbered circles revolved in an anti-clockwise direction. The audience was treated to a spectacular acrobatic performance by the Moravian troupe against a captivating backdrop.

Halfway through the performance, the yellow lights stopped moving. Out of a sudden, these lights began to move outwards from the centre. As they moved towards the outer realm, they also got bigger. It gave the person looking at it the effect of moving rapidly through space filled with yellow balloons! This acrobatic performance lasted for nearly twenty minutes. The applause from the audience was resounding.

"Dear fellow creatures, I have the results of the quiz in my hands," the Mentor announced.

 Everybody held his breath.

"Third in position, we have the Metrozoid." Everybody applauded as the Metrozoid stomped to the front to collect its certificate and medal.

"The runner-up team, we have the Moravians." Everybody applauded again as the Moravian team leader went to the front to collect their certificates and medals.

"The champion team, we have the Earthlings." Everybody applauded loudly as Chen Wei and Nikita went to the front to collect the certificates, medals and the grand prize - Visual Astronomy Encyclopaedia. This encyclopaedia, in the shape of a crystal ball was cased inside a transparent box. Nikita held the certificates and medals while Chen Wei lifted up high the encyclopaedia with both of his hands. A thunderous applause followed.

Onboard BURGER123, everyone was talking about the quiz and viewing the astronomy encyclopaedia excitedly.

"Well done kids, I am proud of you," Mrs. Andersen praised her students.

Back in the privacy of their sleeping quarters, the two girls were once again talking about their dream idols.

"I wonder what is he doing now?" Nikita was curious.

"Need me to find out for you?" Melissa teased.

"No! I'm just wondering, that's all," came the reply.

"I wonder what is he doing now?" Melissa suddenly asked.

"Who?"

"Oh, you know who I'm talking about."

"You mean Zorak, the Fontasian?"

"Yep."

"Need me to find out for you?" Nikita's turn to tease her friend.

"No! I'm just wondering, that's all," came the reply.

Both girls laughed helplessly.

Chapter 9

Planet Goron was the fifth innermost planet in the Pollux star-system. This planet was twice as big as Earth and its average surface temperature was ten degree Celsius below Earth’s average surface temperature, being further away from Pollux than Earth is from the sun. Goronites lived mostly near the equator of the planet, as it was warmer there.

Goronites were humanoids and they were a strictly monogamous society. Each Goronite would take only one life-partner in his lifetime. Goronite had yellow hair, brown skin and red eyes. Inside a big castle on Goron, a baby alien was born admist much commotion. The father-alien waited impatiently outside the delivery room. When the medical doctor walked out of the door, he shook his head at father-alien.

“I am sorry. I have done my best. Say your last words to your life-partner. Hurry!” said the medical doctor.

Father-alien dashed inside the delivery room in three steps and was beside his life-partner in seconds. Looking down at his life-partner who had just given birth to a healthy baby alien, the father-alien felt extremely sad. His life-partner looked up at him and smiled. Her face was pale and she seemed to be gasping for air.

“Take good care of Veah…will… promise me?” she nearly ran out of breath.

No response.

“I remember the time when we first met. By the Lucenda river..”

“You fell into the river after you saw me…”

Mother-alien closed her eyes, smiled and breathed her last.

Father-alien kept quiet and his eyes were filled with tears. He held his life-partner’s hands and weeped. The newborn baby was crying loudly by the bedside.

A week had passed since the grand funeral was held for mother-alien. A Goron nobleman was sitting by the Lucenda river gazing into the distance. He wore a red headband. He was deep in thoughts. Veah's father, Caros, sat quietly by himself, recollecting the past. It was here, by the Lucenda river, that Caros first met his life-partner. At that time, Caros was on his way to meet a business partner when he caught sight of a lovely damsel dressed in a rough cotton dress. This damsel was none other than Veah's deceased mother. She looked at Caros and smiled. This smile captured Caros's heart instantly. Caros lost his mind totally at that moment and was not careful to fell right into the river! From that time onwards, a romantic courtship began and ended in a pompous, extravagant wedding.

As Caros thought about his tender, first kiss with his beloved under a tree, tears formed in his eyes. As he thought about how he rained hot, passionate kisses on his beloved during their nuptial night, he was sobbing his heart out. Her tender, loving care while he was sick in bed stole his heart completely. Caros looked up into the sky and thought he saw his beloved smiling down at him. A deep choking sound came from his throat. He shouted out long and loud, releasing days of pent-up grief. An echo could be heard far away in the mountain valley. Isis stood some distance away and witnessed this sad scene. She was the nanny employed to look after Veah.

Caros was very unhappy with Veah as he thought that his son had caused the death of his beloved. Hence, he did not bother much with Veah, leaving the child-raising responsibility to Isis and the many servants in his house. He took to drinking and did not bother about other things anymore, including his family business. His Renada Goron wine was the most sought-after alcoholic drink in the whole of Goron. His family was one of the wealthiest in the whole of Goron.

Nine years later.

Late into the night, Veah sat by his tiny table reading an old worn-out book which his friend lent him. It was a Goron alphabet book. The faint candle light on his table flickered unsteadily. He had started the day fetching water from a nearby hill, making a total of three trips. The cattle in the barnyard had to be fed twice daily. He had to take care of the three meals now that there was not a single servant left in the house. All of them had left after Veah’s father could not afford to pay them anymore. Veah chopped all the firewood during the afternoon, when he found spare time in between cleaning the many bedrooms in the house. Looking at the Goron alphabets in his book, Veah thought the alphabets seemed to be dancing, his eyelids weighed heavy.

On the next day, Veah left his house early to buy breakfast. The landlord came knocking on the door. Veah’s father answered the door.

“When are you going to pay up? Three months’ rent is overdue. If you don’t pay up by tomorrow, I will chase you out of my property!” the landlord warned and left. Veah’s father was worried that he could not pay the rent. He started to think about how to raise thirty Goron dollars, for that was the total amount of the overdue rent.

Veah was walking along the dusty road clutching a small packet of brown bread under his arms. He had bought it cheaply from the cattle-feed vendor. This type of bread was meant for feeding cattle and was made from mouldy flour. Veah was going to eat this bread for his breakfast!

As he neared a bend of the dusty road, he saw a Goron nobleman walking along with his son, holding his son’s hand. Goron noblemen generally wore a strip of red headscarf around their heads, a sign of their noble heritage, while the common folk dispensed with such formality. At this instant, the little Goron was not careful to step into a depression on the road and hurt himself. The nobleman bent down quickly to attend to his son, wiping away the blood on his son’s foot and using his headscarf to bandage up the wound. Afraid his son would catch a cold from the strong wind blowing at that moment, the nobleman took off his outer garment to cover his son. He lifted up his son and carried him in his arms and walked away into the distance. This act of fatherly love left a deep impression on Veah. Dust particles got into Veah's eyes and some tears formed naturally.

As Veah walked further on, he met Isis, his former nanny. Isis was carrying a basket with food bought from the market. When Isis saw Veah, she did not recognise him at first. Veah called out to Isis, only then did she recognise his voice. She was shocked to see Veah in such a state of neglect. She was even more shocked when she learnt that Veah was going to eat animal feed for breakfast. Isis had great difficulty controlling her tears! She quickly took some food from her basket and gave it to Veah, telling him to eat these instead. Isis also took out an old photograph of Veah's mother and gave it to him.

"This is your mother, keep it well," said Isis.

Veah looked at this photograph for a while and gazing up at Isis, nodded his head. He kept this photograph in his pocket. Veah walked hurriedly home as he was afraid his father might scold him for loitering outside. Isis was already in tears as she watched Veah disappeared round the corner of the sandy road. Just when he stepped into his house, his father called out to him from the bedroom.

"Where have you been?"

"To buy bread."

"Forget the bread! We are running late. Follow me."

His father walked out of the bedroom, already dressed in street clothes. He took a few more steps and was out of the door. Veah dumped the mouldy bread and food on the table and ran after his father. He tried hard to keep up with his father's pace. Veah was stumbling along the uneven road and his stomach was one big vacuum. He was having trouble keeping up with his father, who was walking ahead at a fast pace. Only now and then did his father turned back to look at him, hurrying him along. A cold wind started to blow at this moment. Leaves rustled on trees by the roadside. It was nearing the end of the summer season, going on to autumn. The Goron climate resembled terrestrial climate to a large degree. The sky was overcast. Rain was expected any moment now. The cold wind bit into Veah’s skin and he shivered.

Veah had not eaten a proper meal for many days and he was panting as he hurried to catch up with his father. Dressed in a shabby outfit and having walked for more than five kilometres, his tears were beginning to form in his eyes. When he reached a particular bend of the dusty road, he was not careful to step into a small depression and fell into the roadside drain. He picked himself up and sat by the roadside, looking down at his feet. One of his feet was bleeding badly. His father turned around, looked at him, scolded him for being slow, and carried on his way. The touching scene of the nobleman who bandaged up his son’s wound and carried him in his arms flashed through Veah’s mind and he could not stop his tears streaming down his face. Veah quickly brushed away the blood on his foot and the tears from his eyes using his bare hands, leaving a bloodied mess on his face. He had no time to clean himself and stumbled after his father.

Not long after, father and son arrived at a run-down building. It was a two-storey, gloomy-looking building, which had green mosses growing all over on its wall. Veah could smell the bad odour coming from the interior of this building. Once they stepped inside this building, he saw many dark shapes moving about. It was dim inside. Once his eyes adjusted to the surroundings, he could see better. These dark shapes were ugly aliens moving from one slave-trader to another. He had entered a slave-market, trading in young aliens! These young aliens were either orphans or abandoned by their parents. They were too young to fend for themselves and had no one to depend on. Some of them were sold to unscrupulous traders by their parents for meagre returns. Looking at them each with a price-tag hanging on their necks, their eyes with no spirit, their faces with no emotion, Veah trembled with fear.

"Hurry up, come here," his father called out to him. Veah staggered his way towards his father and stood behind him. His father was talking to a slave-trader and trying to bargain for a good price to have him sold! Finally a deal was struck and the slave-trader took out a price-tag and hung it around Veah's neck. His father took the money, put it into his pocket and walked away hurriedly without even turning his head back to look. Veah stretched out his hand towards his father and opened his mouth to call after him but no sound came forth. Long after his father left, before he was able to utter some sound, then he gave out a heart-wrenching sob, and his tears started streaming down his face.

A roaring, lion-face buyer was at the next stall, looking over a trembling, young alien. This lion-face monster kept pinching the young alien's arms and body to feel the muscles. It was thinking of buying a beast of burden to help with the manual work on its vegetable farm. After paying the money to the slave-trader, this lion-face monster dragged the young feeble alien away. Before going away, it turned its head and looked at Veah. It lifted its head and roared, typical of the Big Cats. Veah was frightened out of his wits. He quickly turned his head away. His heart nearly leapt with joy when he saw his father coming towards him. Tears started to well in his eyes again.

"You have only given me forty Goron dollars! We agreed on fifty! Look," his father opened his palm displaying some currencies, confronting the slave-trader. He stared at the slave-trader who stared in return at the money in his hands, making a quick mental count. The slave-trader quickly gave him more money. After pocketing the money, Veah's father walked away without looking back, just like before. Veah trembled with deep anger. He turned his head away and refused to look at his father's departing form. His heart broke into a thousand pieces!

At this moment, a loud explosion was heard and the whole building shook violently. Big cracks started to appear on the floor and some of the walls began to tumble. Everyone was hysterical and ran to the nearest exit to get out of the building. Veah rushed to the exit on his left and ran for his life. It was a mass exodus of aliens from the building. Every living creature fought to be the first to get out of this crumbling building. Veah followed the crowd and finally ran out of the building before the entire structure began to collapse.

At one corner of the building, a fire started to burn. It quickly spread to other parts of the building. A wall tumbled down and buried a few aliens. Cries for help were heard. Screams followed. One young alien was too shocked to move and simply sat on the ground and cried. It appeared to be a young female alien judging from her crying. On his way out of the collapsing building, Veah came across this alien and scooped her up in his arms and carried her along. After running down the last flight of stairs via the emergency exit, Veah ran out safely onto the main road. He looked around him and spotted a pile of big boulders near a deserted building. Panting heavily, he picked his way up the gradual slope lined with many small pebbles towards this pile of boulders. He hid behind it, put down the young alien and sat down to catch his breath. He was exhausted from this ordeal. This shabbily dressed young alien looked up at Veah with teary eyes. She had stopped crying and kept stroking Veah’s arms. Feeling pity for her, Veah hugged her close and patted her back.

When Veah raised his head to look at the sky, he was stunned beyond words! He saw three gigantic robots wreaking massive damages everywhere by firing their photon beams. Two of these robots each had a photon gun attached to its right arm. The third robot, which looked like a massive scorpion, was firing photon beams from its tail. Many nearby buildings crumbled under this onslaught of firepower. Children were fleeing for their lives. Adults flew off in their space shuttlecrafts.

Suddenly, he thought he heard his father calling him.

"Veah! Veah! Where are you?"

He ran out quickly from where he was hiding and picked his way towards the direction where his father's voice came from. The air was filled with dust and vision was bad. Slowly, his father's voice sounded nearer and louder. Only a few steps more, Veah thought, and he would be able to find his father. Just at this moment, the scorpion swept its tail around and knocked against a building, breaking down several walls and sending rubbles flying all over. Veah looked up and saw a big chunk of rock crashing down on him! Terror was written all over his face. When he thought his head would be squashed to meat pulp by the falling rock, suddenly, a big shadow covered his body. It was his father!

It was the first time his father hugged him, and they saw each other eye to eye. His father smiled weakly at him. Veah could see some blood oozing out from the corner of his father's mouth. Time ticked by slowly. His father gradually closed his eyes and appeared to be in extreme pain, before spitting out a copious amount of blue blood onto the ground. He released his hold on his son and lay on the ground unconscious. Veah clutched at his father and cried and cried, until he was hoarse, until no more sound came from his mouth.