George Brown and the Protector (15 page)

When they reached the car, George held back
in apprehension. Why did the protector want so bad for him to come
into the car? Was it a trap?

“What’s wrong?” said the protector again, who
had already hopped into the car on the passenger seat. There was
concern in his voice. “You don’t seem your normal self today.”

George shook his head as if to clear it from
a fog. He couldn’t let the protector know he suspected him, even if
that meant walking into danger. The Ziphon had said he could still
do something to help, and the Ziphon had seen the future. He simply
had to trust that everything would be all right, and act more
carefree and interested, like he had yesterday.

“Nothing’s wrong,” said George, opening the
car door. “Just my throat. I’ll be all right.”

George could feel the protector looking at
him curiously. Suddenly he realized that the flower must have eyes
somewhere, although he couldn’t see them. It was so bizarre to be
stared at by a flower that he laughed in spite of himself.

“What’s so funny?” asked the protector.

“Just that you were looking at me, and I
can’t tell where your eyes are,” said George.

The protector laughed too. “They’re well
hidden in Turubian flowers. Can you imagine if they weren’t? What a
sight that would be—a flower with big, staring eyes.” With another
laugh, the protector jumped off the edge of the passenger seat and
instantly changed in size, so that he now looked like a small weed
on the floor of the car. “Come on,” came a faint voice as the
flower walked toward the tiny door. “But don’t say anything until
you shrink, or you’ll split my eardrums.”

George followed silently, leaning forward
over the edge of the seat. Once again his stomach turned upside
down as he felt himself suddenly shrinking. Then he was on the
floor of the car, with Ant Number 4 towering to his left. The
protector had already disappeared through the door.

George ran to the door and peered inside. He
saw the protector, now returned to his normal, flabby self, taking
the cover off a globe of the earth.

“Let me show you what I found,” said the
protector. “It’s pretty amazing. Only the Grak would have come up
with a plan so bold.”

George came over and looked at the globe. It
looked quite ordinary, and seemed out of place surrounded by the
protector’s other specialized equipment.

“There’s nothing too exciting about this
globe,” said the protector with a sheepish grin. “I bought it at
Wal-Mart. But come over here and let me show you what gave me my
first clue about what the Grak are up to.”

George followed the protector over to the
View All. Emberly bounced up against his leg, and he smiled and
patted her. It seemed odd to think that yesterday she had been a
human girl, yet now she was a furry little fuzzball, acting similar
to a cat.

“Here it is,” said the protector, clicking
several buttons on what looked like a remote control. “It’s a
commercial I saw while watching the 6:00 o’clock news. Watch.”

Suddenly a view of space appeared on the
screen, and an announcer’s voice said, “Are you involved in the
interplanetary shipping of heated or chilled goods? Are you tired
of having to send your frozen or heated goods through Fozulia?
Would you like a more direct shipping route through sector 9? Well,
your lucky day has arrived! Momp Enterprises is proud to announce
the opening of a new frozen and heated transfer planet in sector 9!
It’s perfect for all your shipment needs!”

The space scene zoomed in on a planetary
system with nine planets, and highlighted the third planet with
flashing orange arrows.

“This new non-rotating planet in sector 9 is
almost exactly half way between Ningassa and Blutoric, and is a
perfect stopping point for shipment of your goods! Leave them there
for a day or half a century with no worries! They’ll be perfectly
chilled or heated according to your needs. Just think—no more 30
billion light year trip out of the way to Fuzolia! No more loss of
goods for lack of proper chilling or heating by careless space
freighters! Call Momp Enterprises and reserve your spot today!”

The screen went dead. The protector looked
triumphantly at George, who stared back with a blank look in his
eyes.

“Fascinating, isn’t it?” said the protector
knowingly. “Incredibly brazen to show as a commercial on the 6:00
o’clock news. But the Grak are always doing rash things like
that.”

“I don’t understand,” said George slowly.
“What does it mean?”

“Here, let me show you,” said the protector,
as he pushed more buttons on the remote. The zoomed image of the
third planet reappeared on the screen.

“Do you see that solar system and the
highlighted planet?” said the protector.

“Sure,” said George.

“That’s earth!" said the Protector in
triumph. "The Grak are advertising your earth as an interplanetary
storage planet, for frozen or heated goods!”

CHAPTER 21: Cold Storage

George looked at
the protector uncomprehendingly.

“Don’t you see?” said the protector
excitedly. “The commercial said that this new storage planet is
‘non-rotating!’ But your earth is rotating like crazy! You go
through one complete rotation every 24 hours! As long as earth is
rotating it’s no good to store frozen goods except at the north and
south poles. But that’s too small of an area for large storage. And
there’s nowhere on earth in its present condition to store a large
amount of heated goods. But if you could somehow stop the earth's
rotation, the side of the earth exposed to the sun would quickly
rise in temperature to well over 400°, while temperatures on the
other side—a side that would no longer see the sun at all—would
plummet so far below freezing that it would be perfect for frozen
storage!”

“You mean,” said George incredulously, “the
Grak are planning to stop earth’s rotation? In order to turn it
into a big hot and cold storage place?”

“Exactly like a warehouse,” replied the
protector affirmatively. “Of course, they won’t completely stop the
rotation, since the earth still circles the sun once a year, and
they have to keep it in the same position relative to the sun at
all times. In other words, the part of earth facing the sun must
continue to face the sun all year long. So earth’s rotation will be
slowed so that it rotates only once on its axis every year, instead
of once a day like it does now. Only in that way will the side
facing the sun continue facing that way at all time.”

“And that’s why the Ziphon said the earth
would turn to fire and ice unless the Grak were stopped!” said
George excitedly.

“Exactly!” said the protector.

“But how could the Grak stop the earth’s
rotation?” asked George, his suspicions of the Protector
temporarily forgotten. “Wouldn’t that take a tremendous amount of
energy?”

“It would,” replied the protector, leading
George over to the Wal-Mart globe again. “But energy in such large
amounts is not unheard of in other parts of the galaxy, although so
much power probably seems impossible to you earthlings. Of course,
having the energy is not enough. As an initial matter, before you
use the energy to stop the rotation, you have to have a way to
harness and control the energy, and grab onto the earth with it.
That’s where the fallen stars come in.”

“See here?” said the protector, pointing to
the part of California on the globe where George lived. “This is
where we are now, and this is where your fallen star is. Almost
exactly 1/3 of the way around the globe to the west is Xhenxou,
China, where Jiu Na lives and where another fallen star is
located.”

George saw that it was true. The distance
from his home to Xhenxhou, China did look to be about 1/3 of the
way around the earth.

“Now, if we keep going from there another 1/3
of the way around the earth, or if we go 1/3 of the way around the
earth to the east from your home in California, we come to
Portugal, where I think a third fallen star must have landed. That
would make three grabbing or hooking points to latch onto the
earth, each of which is about the same distance from each other.
That’s why we have to go to Portugal, to confirm that my suspicions
are correct.”

George looked at the globe for a minute.
Portugal was indeed another 1/3 of the way around the globe. “But
how do the fallen stars grab onto the earth?” he asked. “Aren’t
they just like rocks, sitting on its surface?”

“No,” said the protector, beaming proudly.
“After I saw the news report last night and then discovered this on
the globe, I went out again to the fallen star, even though it was
dark. I did some underground measurements and found to my amazement
that a root has grown out of the fallen star and already has
penetrated hundreds of miles straight into the earth! Actually
there are multiple roots that have split in all directions,
thousands of them, and they continue to grow at an incredible rate.
I don’t know how in the world they are growing, but they are. I
suspect the same type of root system is growing beneath the fallen
stars in China and Portugal as well. Once the root growth is
complete, the fallen stars will form a perfect anchor. A beam of
energy from the Grak’s spaceship directly north of the earth will
grab the hooks on all three fallen stars and hold the earth in
place. This will apparently stop the earth’s rotation.”

George stared at the globe, not knowing what
to say. The plan seemed too far fetched and incredible to believe.
Could the protector be telling the truth? But how could that be,
since he clearly had to be the person George least suspected? What
was this all about, anyway?

Finally, George said slowly, “So after its
rotation stops, the earth will be too hot or cold for people to
live on, depending on which side they’re on?”

“Actually,” responded the protector, “nothing
will survive long enough to be destroyed by the heat or cold. When
the beam of energy grabs onto the fallen stars and the rotation is
stopped, the force of arrested movement will be so powerful that
everything on the surface of the earth will be destroyed within
hours. There will be terrible earthquakes and land slides, such as
this earth has never seen. Nothing will be able to withstand the
sudden stop in rotation. I know it sounds odd, but everything on
your planet is accustomed to the earth’s constant movement of
rotation. Everything will be thrown into total chaos when it
stops.”

The horror of the plan made George’s skin
crawl. Could this be true? Was the protector revealing the actual
plan of the Grak? It did seem to fit with what the Ziphon had said
about the earth being in danger of fire and ice. But why had the
protector told all this to George, since he was apparently in
league with the Grak? Was this the whole truth, or only part of the
story? And even if it were all true, what could he and Jiu Na and
some unknown person in Portugal do to stop it? Indeed, what could
anyone do?

As if reading his thoughts, the protector
said, “I’ve already notified the intergalactic police of what I
suspect the Grak are up to. They’re on there way here now with a
search warrant to go through the Grak ship you and Jiu Na saw in
space above the earth.”

“The intergalactic police?” said George in
surprise. “You mean there’s a police force out there in space?”

The protector laughed. “There sure is, and
they’re very effective. But like your police, they can’t do
anything until they have all their proof and evidence gathered, and
finding such evidence is uncertain since the Grak are good at
hiding things. The main evidence they will be looking for are
energy turbines strong enough to grab onto the earth, since the
power and energy the Grak need to carry out their plain will
require a huge power source that can’t easily be hidden. It
probably wouldn’t be too hard for them to hide your father and Jiu
Na’s father somewhere, but hiding those turbines will be
impossible.”

“Then they should be discovered!” said
George. “The police will stop them!”

“Maybe, and maybe not,” replied the
protector. “Like I said, finding the evidence is only the first
step. Then they have to present the evidence through the court
system. It will probably take weeks or months for this to happen,
even with good evidence of wrongdoing. If the Grak succeed at
dragging out this process until this planet is destroyed, then of
course the evidence will be meaningless since the destruction of
earth will be all the proof that anybody needs—but that will be too
late to save your people. And even then, with unbeatable proof of
wrongdoing, the whole issue will move into political debates in the
senate, which could last years until it is resolved. Indeed, that’s
exactly what has happened with Emberly’s planet where everyone was
destroyed.”

“You’re kidding!” exclaimed George in
amazement. “How could anyone let this happen without doing
something about it?”

“Because of fear of the Grak,” replied the
protector. “The Grak wanted Emberly’s planet as a spaceport—a
glorified space vehicle parking lot, if you will. Before anyone
knew what they were up to they had turned every inhabitant on the
planet to stone, except Emberly. The planet is still untouched
while debates and investigations go on and on in the senate. But
everyone suspects that in the end, the government will cave in and
let the Grak have the planet, in spite of the horror of what they
did to get it.”

“Of course, the real goal of the Grak is not
just to build a spaceport on Emberly’s planet, or to turn earth
into a storage planet,” continued the protector. "By themselves,
these are minor trade issues. But they know that if they come to
control enough of the important economic planets and trade routes
in the universe, they will become economically unbeatable. With all
the power that money brings, they can then try to take over
political control and obtain total domination. That’s their real,
long range plan.”