One Amazing Trip To Garzon
Chapter 8: The Unexpected Visitors

The next morning all of them woke up at what was probably around noon. Jason and Tyler looked out one of the windows to see the stars. When they looked off in the distance they could see what looked like planets far away. Even though they were traveling so fast it was weird for them as they looked out the window and it appeared as if they were barely going. They realized that it was because space was so vast that when they looked at the stars they were still thousands of miles away.

“Do you guys want to learn how to fly this thing today?” asked Carlyle.

“Yeah, that would be really cool,” said both Jason and Tyler simultaneously.

Never in either one of their wildest dreams would they believe that they were going to fly a spaceship and now they were getting ready to do just that. They all went to the control panel to learn how to fly. As soon as they walked inside they noticed another door to the left that was blocked off.

“What is in that room?” asked Jason.

“You guys should never have to worry about that room there. That room is loaded with weapons inside of it in case of an emergency. Don’t worry though, I have never heard about anyone from the planet Garzon actually having to use them,” said Carlyle.

Both Jason and Tyler were curious to see just what kind of weapons were inside the room. The door appeared to be heavily locked and they were quite sure that Carlyle wasn’t going to let them know where the key was and let them go inside.

“Alright, flying this thing is pretty easy, you guys should learn how to by the end of the day. All you really need to know is that this button is here, as he pointed to a large green button, will make the spaceship get up to top speed. You will also need to push the throttle all the way up. Also there is a joystick to steer in case anything gets in your way or you get turned around and start going in the other direction. Now the spaceship is smart enough to start heading in the direction to move out of the way of incoming objects, but it’s better to be safe than sorry plus the joystick is fun to use, just make sure you don’t hit anything. There is also an arrow here that has been sent towards your planet Earth. The arrow shows the direction that you need to go in order to get back home. When it is in auto-pilot it automatically goes in that direction, but in order to fly it yourself and take it up to top speed, you will have to control it and make sure that you are going in the right direction. It is very important so that we aren’t on this thing any longer than we have to be.”

There were probably fifty buttons on the control panel but there was only a few that they would need to use. Most of the other buttons and controls were for getting up off the ground or for landing so they wouldn’t have to worry about those buttons for quite some time.

“I will fly it first so that you guys can watch me and really get the hang of it and then we will just go in a rotation,” said Carlyle. “Who would like to go next after me?”

“I will,” said Jason very enthusiastically.

“Alright then, we will just switch off every eight hours or so and we will go in the same rotation. If there are any problems that you guys have and I am asleep, don’t hesitate to wake me up and tell me what is wrong. I will stay awake for your guys’ first time flying it to really make sure you know what you are doing,” said Carlyle.

Tyler didn’t really mind that Jason wanted to go next so badly because he knew that there would be plenty of chances for himself to fly.

Carlyle pushed in the green button and got up to speed as Jason and Tyler anxiously watched. They watched him fly it with ease always following the arrow without getting off track. Every now and then there would be something like a meteor coming at them and the joystick would automatically jolt to one side to begin getting out of the way and then Carlyle would easily move the joystick over a little bit more to get past it and continue.

“Okay, I have been flying it for quite some time, it is your turn Jason,” as Carlyle put it back to auto-pilot mode as he stood up and let Jason sit down in the large comfortable seat.

As soon as Jason sat down in the chair he felt like a real pilot. He pushed the green button to get up to speed and felt like he was in total control which he was. It was really cool to be flying a spaceship. Jason figured that it was programmed to make it a lot easier to fly this than an actual plane because there was no way he could learn how to fly a plane back on Earth in only a couple of hours.

Jason had a blast being at the helm of flying and he seemed to do just as good as Carlyle had as he easily moved in and out of the way of incoming meteors. In what had seemed like no time at all for Jason, it had quickly been about three hours since he had started flying and now it was Tyler’s turn. In the back of Jason’s mind he was starting to wonder if he should try and become a pilot when he got back to Earth. He had always been a little afraid of heights before but it seemed like he would really enjoy this job.

“Oh wow, that was so fun,” said Jason. “I don’t think I will mind it too much that we will be on this thing for so long since we will be taking more turns flying this. That was a blast, well you’re up,” as he looked towards Tyler as happy as he had been for a long time.

Tyler on the other hand was almost the exact opposite of Jason as he was very nervous about flying. He was a lot more afraid of heights than his brother and the thought of him actually flying the plane and knowing that it was their only means of transportation put a lot of pressure on him.

He slowly pushed the throttle up and pushed the green button. Both Carlyle and Jason quickly noticed how nervous Tyler looked as his hands were shaking as he gripped the joystick. A couple of hours went by and he seemed to be doing a pretty good job. Then he took his eye away from what was in front of him for a second and when he looked up he saw a meteor heading for them. The joystick moved suddenly by itself but since they were at top speed it wouldn’t totally get out of the way so it would be up to Tyler to move it out of the meteor’s way completely.

“Look out,” said Jason who thought for sure that Tyler was going to hit the meteor.

It got closer and closer to the ship before Carlyle decided to grab hold of the joystick while Tyler was trying to pull it and yanked it as hard as he could to the left to avoid the meteor.

“I am not so sure that I can do this,” said Tyler. “I mean I have only been on it for a couple of hours, I’m not sure that I’ll be able to not hit anything after awhile.”

“You have to make sure that you are paying attention the whole time,” said Carlyle. “You especially will have to make sure that your eyes are looking ahead the whole time and you are looking out for any obstacles. We really need you to do this because we will be able to get to your house a lot faster. It would be too difficult for Jason and I to fly for like twelve hours and then switch. I know that you look really nervous but it was only your first time. Believe me, by the time that you get home you will have plenty of experience behind you. I myself did the exact same thing the first time flying.”

“So what would have happened if I would of hit the meteor?” asked Tyler. “We would have been dead wouldn’t we?”

“I hate for you to put it in those terms, but yes that is what probably would have happened. The spaceship most likely would have disintegrated,” answered Carlyle.

That only made Tyler a lot more nervous than he already was. He was worried that one mistake would kill them all. Tyler did a fine job as Carlyle let him fly it for a couple more hours, but he was still very nervous afterwards and didn’t love the idea of himself having to fly it eight hours every day until they got home.

The days seemed to pass into weeks which then seemed to pass into months. It had now been six months since they first boarded on the plane and the time had flown by with them taking turns flying. Whenever they weren’t flying they mostly just watched one of the hundreds of movies that were on the plane. Carlyle had pretty good movies. They were filled with tons of action and the visual effects in the movies were amazing. There was one scene featuring two people fighting on snowboard looking things thousands of feet in the air ending with one of them being knocked down and rolling down a huge mountain of snow that created an avalanche as the guy continued to roll down. When Jason wasn’t flying he mostly slept because it made time go by quicker.

Tyler was now starting to get a little more confidence when it came to flying, but out of the three he was still the weakest and whenever he got near an object he still panicked. One time he even grazed the side of the plane with a meteor but it didn’t cause any significant damage. In fact he had now turned thirteen, as his birthday was a few weeks ago. Jason’s birthday wasn’t for a couple more months so he was still fifteen. Both Jason and Tyler thought about home and their parents daily and were just wondering what to expect when they got home. They also couldn’t wait to get home to see their dog Jessie running around the yard and all of their friends from school. It felt weird for them because they knew that their friends were all back in school now and they wondered if they had given up hope on them.

As it was Carlyle’s turn to fly the plane Tyler asked Jason a question.

“Do you think everyone back home has forgotten about and moved on with their lives?”

“No there is no way. I know that they have been searching for us for a long time. There is no evidence of us being gone for good if you know what I mean so I highly doubt that they have forgotten about us.”

“Why are we starting to slow down, what’s going on?” asked Tyler as he pondered why there was a sudden decrease in the speed of the plane.

“I have no idea,” said Jason who was wondering the same thing.

A minute later Carlyle burst from the cockpit door.

“I think they might be alive, there still might be some hope.”

“Who might be alive?” asked Jason, although as soon after he asked the question he knew who Carlyle was talking about.

“My wife and daughter, they still might be alive. I have been thinking about it since we have arrived on the plane and haven’t been able to figure it out but I think there is still a good chance that they are. Do you guys remember when I had that brief conversation with Captain Zirg right before we left?” asked Carlyle.

“I don’t because I wasn’t able to move during that time,” said Jason. “I was in another world, well I was in another world on the planet Garzon and then another world because I was unconscious at the time.”

“We get what you are trying to say Jason,” said Tyler. “I do remember you speaking to him shortly but I couldn’t understand what was being said because you guys were talking in your language.”

“Well anyways I have been thinking about that conversation ever since we took off and have no idea why I haven’t come up with anything to this point. The first thing that he said was he had been expecting me for awhile. I asked him what he was talking about and then he replied “I know that you will be back again, you have to come back.” I then asked him once again what in the hell he was talking about but he didn’t say a word after and that is when he took off. So I’ve thought about it and think that he may have kidnapped my family.”

“Are you sure, why would he kidnap your wife and daughter?” asked Jason. “No offense, but that seems a little strange to me.”

“No it doesn’t seem as crazy as you think and I will tell you why. I was the best worker that he had ever seen. Since the day I left production has been so much slower. Although he hates me, he knows that without me they can’t build some of the spaceships that I could. Some flying devices are much more complicated to duplicate than your plane and without me we can never land on some of the other planets. What I have finally come up with is that he kidnapped my family in order to try and get me to work there again. I believe that he is holding them hostage.”

It sounded a little crazy to Jason and Tyler but it did seem too make a little bit of sense though.

“So what are you going to do now because it seems like you have a choice to make,” said Jason.

“What are you talking about?” asked Carlyle.

“As much as I want to get home, I know that you probably want to see your family and you could easily turn this spaceship around and get your family back. You have been so nice to use helping us like this, but I know how much you have missed your family just as much as we miss ours. I’m sorry but I don’t want to be the reason that you never see your family again as you try and help two kids from a different planet.”

Tyler couldn’t believe what Jason had just said. He now gave Carlyle a perfect opportunity to head back home and then they would be stuck on the planet Garzon forever.

“What are you doing?” whispered Tyler. “Do you never want to get back home or something?”

“I’m sorry, but guilt was starting to kick in and I really don’t want to be responsible for ruining someone’s life especially after that person was trying to help us. It just wouldn’t feel right when we finally get back home,” whispered Jason.

“Well now we might never make it back home,” Tyler whispered back.

“That was a really nice thing you just said. I already made a commitment to take you guys back home and that is what I am going to do. Plus if we turn around it will still take another six months in your time to make it back to Garzon. Don’t worry about my family because I know that they are going to be fine. Captain Zirg knows that I took this spaceship so he is going to wait for me to return no matter how long it takes. Captain Zirg knows that I will return to the planet Garzon so everything should be fine. When we make it back to your planet I will be able to make a portal and then I will be home a couple of minutes later. On top for everything else a couple of years for people on your planet seems like a really long time, but for us it really isn’t,” said Carlyle who was a little moved by how sincere Jason had been.

It was nice to see that Carlyle had something to look forward to, something to hope for and something to live for. He was just hoping that his prediction was correct and they were still alive. He knew that the consequences of probably having to work for Captain Zirg were high, but if he got to see his family again he didn’t care.

“I am getting tired of being on this thing, I just wish we were back home already, it’s taking forever,” said Tyler.

“We still have a little ways until we get there,” said Carlyle.

While Tyler was totally fed up with being on the spaceship to this point Jason wanted to get home just as badly as him but he really enjoyed it and was always looking forward to his next turn to fly. He really seemed to take an interest in being a pilot.

They mostly missed an actual meal of food. While the all-day nutritional energy pills had flavor and tasted fairy good overall, they just wanted an actual meal.

Once again the days started to turn into months and another year had passed by. It had been a total of a year and a half since they were on the spaceship now which meant that they were always going at full speed and in just a couple of months or so they would be home. Tyler was up to the age of fourteen now and Jason was up to sixteen. By the time they get home Jason will have turned seventeen and Tyler would remain at fourteen since it was his birthday just a few weeks ago.

Tyler was really starting to get bored with the spaceship and was tired of doing the same thing over and over. He had been interested in what kind of weapons were behind the locked door for over a year now and really just wanted to take a peek at what was hiding in it. The fact that Carlyle wouldn’t let them go into the room and had never let them only made Tyler more curious of exactly what was inside. He knew that there were weapons inside but he didn’t know what they were or just how powerful they were. Tyler would finally get his perfect opportunity to see just what was behind the door today.

“Alright, it has been another eight hours so it looks like it is your turn to fly,” said Jason as he looked at his brother. “I think I am going to go ahead and get some sleep, I am pretty tired.”

Carlyle had already fallen asleep a couple of hours ago and now with Jason falling asleep he would have a good chance to look for the keys. He flew the plane at full speed until he realized that Jason had totally fallen asleep and then he switched it back to auto-pilot. He quickly began searching the plane for the keys to the door. After searching for them for what was probably an hour he found them. They were in one of Carlyle’s front pockets of one of his pair of shorts. There were plenty of clothes on the plane for them since normally five or so people took off together and Carlyle probably had twenty pairs of shorts that he wore but Tyler had now finally found the keys.

He quickly headed towards the secret door while being as quiet as possible making sure that no one would wake up.

He stepped up to the door leading to the secret room and he thought to himself, “Now to reveal what is behind the door.”

He anxiously put the key into the keyhole and turned it. He opened it as quietly as humanly possible and took a step inside. The room was dark so he quickly reached for a light. He hit the light switch and it revealed what was in the room. It was another control panel like the one used to fly the plane except this one was different. Instead of it controlling a plane it controlled weapons. There were a ton of high-tech weapons inside the room. There was also a cool looking screen that showed just how far away other space vehicles were. Never on their trip home had they seen one but Carlyle had mentioned earlier that they were moving too fast to really notice but every once in awhile another spaceship would be nearby. There were so many buttons that activated a weapon sealed on the bottom of the spaceship. There were a ton of powerful missiles and something that looked like a ball of light. Each weapon was sealed off in glass but Tyler realized that if he pushed the corresponding button then the weapon would shoot off into space. Tyler looked on the screen that was displayed and noticed that the nearest spaceship was two hundred and seventy thousand miles away. Judging by how fast they were going he figured that the other spaceship was relatively close to them. Tyler looked out the window and noticed the spaceship was heading straight towards a meteor. Since it was on auto-pilot the spaceship would get out of the way of the meteor, there was only one problem Tyler knew what it was. Whenever the spaceship would get near a really large meteor it would swerve swiftly to avoid hitting it and would throw the passengers around a little bit. Normally they came to a large meteor once every month but normally someone was flying the plane and could get away from the meteor a little bit smoother. Unfortunately Tyler was in the weapons room and when the plane went to miss the meteor it threw Tyler up off the ground and he landed on the control panel hitting several buttons. Two of those being a missile launch button and a light-ball button that was now heading for the other spaceship.

The swerving of the plane violently woke up Carlyle and Jason.

Tyler could hear Jason screaming as Carlyle and him were walking towards the cockpit.

“You have to make sure that you are paying attention to get out of the way of a meteor before you nearly hit it,” said Jason who yelled making sure Tyler could hear.

As the other two talked Carlyle quickly noticed that something was different. He could tell that the plane had been slowed down to auto-pilot so he started to run to the control panel to see what happened.

“What in the hell did you do?!” asked an angry Carlyle as he saw Tyler lying down in the weapons room. How did you get in there? There was a reason that I had hid the key from you guys so something wouldn’t happen, I just hope that you are alright. You have to be careful in here because if you touch something then we could be in serious trouble.”

Jason and Carlyle were unaware that Tyler had accidentally sent out two shots heading towards another spaceship.

The three of them looked out the window and noticed something coming up on them quickly.

“What in the world is that?” asked Carlyle. “It appears as if it’s moving too fast to be another spaceship. That is kind of weird to see one so close to us. Never in my life have I seen another spaceship flying by, it is kind of cool seeing it.”

“No it isn’t,” said Tyler.

“What do you mean?” asked Jason. “Here we are feeling like the only people alive out in space all alone and now we see somebody else, I would say that is pretty cool.”

“It isn’t cool because I may have hit them or came close to hitting them with a couple of missiles. I am really sorry, I was only curious to see what was in here and when we got near the meteor I was thrown onto the control panel and hit several buttons at the same time. I am really sorry.”

“This isn’t going to be fun. I told you to stay out of the room, why couldn’t you just trust me. I gave you one rule on this spaceship and that was to stay clear of here and you didn’t listen. Here get out of the way please, I’ve got a lot of work to do” said a very disappointed Carlyle who sat at the control desk and turned that plane around so that it was heading towards the incoming spaceship.

Tyler felt horrible just thinking about how disappointed Carlyle was. He should have listened and stayed clear of the room but he never expected going into the room would cause all this. He knew there would probably be some pretty high-tech weapons in the room but all he wanted to do was just take a look. Now there was a spaceship heading straight towards them. All three of them waited anxiously trying to anticipate what the other spaceship was going to do.

“Is there any way that we can communicate with them and tell them that it was an accident?” asked Tyler.

“There is a radio on board but it is of no use because they don’t speak our language.”

“You were able to learn our language after we spoke it, maybe they are able to do the same,” said Jason.

“No, our planet is the only one I’m aware of that is advanced enough to learn other languages just from hearing a few sentences. It wasn’t easy, we practiced for hundreds of years coming up with new technology to be able to do it and perfect it,” answered Carlyle. “This looks like it could be a fight to the death. It is going to be the fight in the sky.”

The spaceship had reached their plane and was now in view for them to see. It slowed up a bit and as soon as it did it sent a missile straight towards their plane. Carlyle moved out of the way just in time as the missile narrowly missed their spaceship.

“Can’t we just try and outrun them, this thing can go pretty fast?” asked Tyler.

“There is no way that we would be able to outrun them, the people on Garzon are the best at learning other languages but other planets are the best at building faster spaceships. That is one reason Captain Zirg wants me working, he thinks I will be able to build the fasted spaceship known to all mankind,” answered Carlyle who fired a shot at the spaceship that missed by a wide margin.

“The other spaceship is too fast, there is no way we will be able to hit something moving so rapidly,” said Jason.

“If I can hit their spaceship just one time with a missile it will slow them down and it will give us a huge advantage, it is also nice that their spaceship is so much larger than ours, we are going to be a harder target to hit because our plane is so skinny, I am glad that people on your planet fly such small aircrafts while most planets fly huge circular ones.”

As soon as Carlyle finished his sentence all three of them were sent flying against the wall as their plane had been hit by a missile.

“That hurt,” said Jason who took his hand off his head and could see his hand covered with blood.

“Okay that does it,” said Carlyle. “I didn’t want to play dirty but if that is how they’re going to play then I will to. I am going to need someone’s help.”

Jason was hurt too badly so Tyler volunteered to help since he had only scraped his leg a little bit after he was thrown into the wall. After all that had happened Tyler definitely wanted to do his part.

“I will help you, what do you need?’ asked Tyler. “Oh my goodness are you okay, I think your ankle is broken,” as he looked at Carlyle and watched him struggle to get up.

“There is no time to worry about a small injury right now, this is very important. On this spaceship there is a very dangerous weapon that was created for a situation like this. I am not sure if they have it so we better use it before they can. It is called a seeker planter. It will seek the nearest target and plant itself to that target and will explode after a few seconds. The only problem that its explosion has a large radius and if we are anywhere near it then it could blow our spaceship up as well. Also, if I mess up controlling it to their spaceship, then there is a possibility that it could turn around and head towards the next object which would be our spaceship. What I need you to do is turn the spaceship around as soon as I shoot it and get us as far away as possible, okay. You have the most important job and that is leading us away from here to safety.”

“Okay, I put us into this mess and I will help us get out of it,” said Tyler who was determined not to let them down.

As Tyler sat down getting ready to fly the plane away he heard Carlyle say, “Get ready Tyler, this is going to be crazy.”

Carlyle pushed down the button that sent out the seeker planter and Tyler saw it shoot out the plane and head towards the other spaceship. Tyler immediately turned the plane around and started heading in the opposite direction as fast as possible. Although they had now turned around they could still see the bomb heading towards the spacecraft because the weapons room was located on one of the wings of the plane and had a clear view of space. The windows would seal off automatically when no one was occupying the room. Carlyle was trying to replace the spaceship as he controlled it towards that direction but then what he feared the most had come true. On the radar they could both see that the other spaceship had just turned it up a notch and was flying away from the bomb at extraordinary speed, way quicker than their spaceship could go and much faster than the bomb could go. As soon as the bomb reached its final velocity, it was now as if it was being bounced off a wall and they could see on screen that it was now heading for their spaceship.

“What do we do now?” asked Tyler whose heart was racing frantically.

“Were going to die aren’t we, I am so nervous I can’t breathe,” said Jason who was now standing up looking at the radar and seeing the bomb heading in their direction while his forehead was cut pretty badly.

Carlyle was trying as fast as he could to think of a plan but nothing was coming to him.

All three of them were trying to replace a way to live through this.

“I have a plan,” said Tyler as he started to turn the spaceship back around so that they were now facing the bomb.

“Your plan is to let us watch the bomb hit and kill us, are you an idiot,” asked Jason.

“After I tried so hard to help you guys get back home, you are just going to give up on everything,” asked Carlyle who was now thinking about his family and how they might still be alive but wouldn’t’ be able to see them again since Tyler had turned the spaceship back around towards the bomb.

“You know I would never want us to die,” said Tyler. “Carlyle, start sending every missile and every light ball or whatever that thing is towards the bomb and blow it up before it reaches us.”

Carlyle was firing out every weapon that was on the plane towards the bomb. They could see the bomb heading for them off in the distance but before it got too close to them the light ball surrounded itself around the bomb, stopped it completely dead in its tracks, and then a missile came flying towards the bomb a few seconds later and the three of them watched fireworks in the sky as the bomb exploded sending out an array of light.

“Whoa, what just happened?” asked Tyler.

“Well that thing that you called a light ball traps itself around the target making it immovable so it then becomes an easy target to hit with a missile,” answered Carlyle.

“Hey you guys, I am truly sorry about getting you guys into this mess, I never meant for this to happen,” said Tyler.

“I was very upset with you, but hey at least you were the one that came up with the plan to save our lives,” said Carlyle. “It looks like you are going to have a pretty large scar,” as he looked over at Jason.

“It doesn’t matter though, I heard someone say there is no time to worry about a small injury right now. I am just thankful that we are on our way home,” said Jason.

“There is a little bit of bad news though,” said Carlyle. “It appears that the missile that grazed our spaceship damaged our throttle maximum speed which will set us back a couple more months on getting to your home.”

“As long as we get home, that doesn’t bother me at all,” answered Tyler.

“I couldn’t agree more,” said Jason.