Flying Burger (9 page)

Chapter 8

After travelling in deep space for what seemed like eternity, star-ship BURGER123 approached Epsilon Eridani, a K2 red giant star.

“What a beautiful star. DATA, tell us about it,” Melissa said.

“Epsilon Eridani. Magnitude, 3 point 7. Spectral Type, K2. Distance from Sun, 10 point 5 light years. Has five planets revolving around it. We will be passing by the third innermost planet Mora,” DATA reported.

A short while passed before the star-ship approached planet Mora. When the star-ship sent out a sweeping communication signal to Mora, a reply came back. A masculine image was seen on Big Screen on command deck.

“Greetings. I am the head-master of The Moravian Institute of Space Science. Please identify yourself.”

“Greetings to you. I am Captain Baldwin, star-ship commander. We are from planet Earth and happen to be passing by your planet. We are on a deep-space exploratory mission.”

“In that case, I would like to invite your crew to our planet. We will be holding a ‘Power Astronomy Quiz’ in the late afternoon, at 15:30 hours. I welcome your crew to take part in this annual event. A grand prize awaits the champion team.”

“Thank you. We accept your invitation to participate in this quiz.”

"I will arrange for our Sky Shuttle to fetch your team members. We look forward to your arrival."

Not long after, an egg-shaped spacecraft approached Burger123.

"Calling star-ship commander, this is pilot from Mora, request permission to dock."

"This is Captain Baldwin. Permission granted."

Soon after, this spacecraft docked with BURGER123 by means of an extended tube. This white tube connected with the exit door of the decompression chamber outside BURGER123, and served as a passageway between the two spaceships. Captain Jessie, Mrs. Andersen and the children were already inside the decompression chamber waiting impatiently. Once the connection was completed, the exit door finally opened. Everyone walked quickly through the passageway and entered the Moravian spacecraft. Antonio was rather surprised to see a huge egg-shaped cabin.

"What a big egg!' Antonio laughed louldly.

An adult Moravian walked out from the pilot chamber and spoke to Mrs. Andersen and Captain Jessie in a masculine voice. He looked just like a huge teddy bear.

"I am the pilot. Welcome onboard. Have a safe and pleasant ride." He entered the pilot chamber once our space team entered this egg-shaped cabin and sat down on the sofa inside. The children stood up and went close to the window from where they could see outside. They saw the vast expanse of space and a gleaming planet below. At this instant, the shuttlecraft began its journey at a steady speed, much to the relief of Mrs. Andersen, who did not like super-speed transport. She carried herself in a manner befitting a lady of high social standing.

When our visitors descended on planet Mora, they quickly took in the sights and sounds. Many houses were painted in different colours and they looked like toy-houses made from Lego bricks. These houses were big enough for living in. Some of them were even built up till three storeys high. The traffic lights at the road juncture were equally comical. They were built with plastic poles and the traffic lights worked fine, directing the traffic with ease. Only a few cars and motor vehicles were on the road.

A tall Moravian walked up to Mrs. Andersen and introduced himself. He was followed by a group of young Moravians behind him. Adult Moravians looked just like grizzly bears. Hence, young Moravians looked like small cute teddy bears. Samuel and Antonio were very happy to see so many friends of the same age group as them. Both boys made friends with the young Moravians within a short time.

“Welcome to Mora. I am the head-master of The Moravian Institute of Space Science. These are my prefects.” The head-master pointed to those younger Moravians who followed behind him.

“Thank you. I am Mrs. Andersen and this is Captain Jessie. The rest are my students.” Mrs. Andersen introduced her group. The children each gave a short self-introduction. The head-master nodded his head at each introduction with a smile on his face.

“The ‘Power Astronomy Quiz' will be held shortly in our academy. Please follow me,” he said.

When the formalities were over, the head-master quickly hailed a flying cup from the road. This was the usual means of transport for the Moravians. The transport vehicle looked like a cup, except that this cup looked as big as a truck and with a sliding door. It could easily accommodate ten to fifteen persons. Everybody hopped onto this flying cup and off they flew to their destination, the city centre.

Chen Wei, Antonio and Samuel had made many friends with the younger Moravians and they were talking and laughing happily. Captain Jessie wondered what were they talking about. Mrs. Andersen noticed that Nikita was rather quiet and kept looking in Chen Wei's direction from time to time. She was quite surprised at this discovery and guessed that Nikita must have taken a fancy to Chen Wei. Chen Wei on the other hand, was totally unaware of what was going on. Mrs. Andersen's eyes met Melissa's, the latter gave her a mischievous grin!

The flying cup travelled for a short distance before it arrived at its destination. At the city centre, there was a choo-choo train-stop. Everyone alighted from the flying cup. Our crew members were amused to see two plastic trains waiting patiently there. The head-master explained that one railway line ran in the north-south direction while the other railway line ran in the east-west direction. Nikita looked at the travel signboard, which read, “Railway 1 - Moravian Institute (N), Cool Arcade (S), Railway 2 - Sakura Mall (W), Orchid Park (E).”

The head-master ushered everyone up an empty choo-choo train on railway 1, headed for the Moravian Institute of Space Science. Each train was made of hardened plastic, painted brown, had a small chimney and a horn at the front. A horizontal row of multi-coloured lights ran along the middle of all the train compartments on both sides. Each train had on average about ten compartments. Each choo-choo train compartment can only sit one adult passenger. Hence, after discussing with the head-master, it was decided that Captain Jessie and Mrs. Andersen were to sit at the last two compartments while the head-master was to sit in front. This was done in order that all the kids were under adult supervision. The children and young Moravians quickly occupied the remaining empty seats in between. Nikita happened to sit behind Chen Wei. She was thrilled! She could see Chen Wei’s back, and his short porcupine hair clearly. Melissa sat behind Nikita. Samuel and Antonio sat in front with the Moravians.

Chen Wei, Samuel and Antonio were fascinated by so many youngsters on the streets. They were also fascinated by the train they were travelling on, especially the swivel-chairs they were sitting on, which could rotate 360 degrees! These chairs gave them the freedom to face any direction they wanted. Although Chen Wei had almost grown into a young adult, he was still young at heart. He asked his Moravian friend many questions regarding this strange planet. Samuel and Antonio talked and laughed with the young companions they were travelling with.

Chen Wei took out a box of candy which he had brought along. He shared it with the Moravians. The Moravians also shared their fluffly, cotton candies with the Earthlings. These cotton candies looked like big cotton balls and came in colours of red, white, yellow, green and pink! Chen Wei held five sticks of different coloured cotton candies with both of his hands. He turned around facing Nikita and passed some of these candies to the rear of the train to Mrs. Andersen, Captain Jessie and Melissa. Nikita helped in this process. Finally Chen Wei had two sticks of cotton candies left, a red candy in his left hand and a white candy in his right hand.

“Which candy do you want?” Chen Wei asked Nikita. He smiled widely at her displaying a set of sparkling white teeth. He looked at her with his dark, intelligent eyes.

 “I’ll have the red candy, thank you,” she replied.

A short while elapsed.

The choo-choo train gave a loud whistle, signalling it was about to begin on its journey. The two rows of multi-coloured lights began flashing back and forth from one end of the train to the other. The train-master started the engine and sounded the horn, making the 'choo-choo' sound. The choo-choo train took off carrying with it a trainload of excited passengers. It travelled happily along the plastic railway at a moderate speed. Along the way, all the passengers could see many Moravian kids blowing soap bubbles and chasing each other around the city area. Before reaching the first station, Big Playground, the choo-choo train slowed down and started playing a tune,

'London bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down,

London bridge is falling down, my fair lady.

Build it up with iron bars, iron bars, iron bars,

build it up with iron bars, my fair lady.'

Antonio and Samuel were very excited when they heard this familiar tune. Wide smiles were seen on their faces.

Inside this Big Playground, many Moravians were having a good time enjoying themselves at the different theme parks. Our passengers had a fleeting glimpse of a huge, colourful toy-aeroplane attached to a long metal rod, which carried many Moravians inside. This toy-aeroplane was whisking its passengers around in the sky at break-neck speed. Many bear grunts could be heard. The choo-choo train continued on its journey after stopping only for a short while at Big Playground. The lights flickered back and forth on the choo-choo train and the horn sounded "choo choo choo".

"Choo choo choo," Samuel said happily. He was good at imitating the sound.

"Choo choo choo," Antonio also followed.

Mrs. Andersen sat behind Antonio, and the little fellow always wanted to stand up whenever the train sounded the horn. Mrs. Andersen had a hard time keeping Antonio seated. Somehow the 'choo-choo' sound had a magical effect on Antonio.

There was a red button by the side of each train compartment. Antonio was feeling bored and out of curiosity, he pressed once on the red button in his compartment. A series of loud sound, 'oink, oink, oink' flooded the train and could be heard by everyone, including the train-master.

'Don't press the emergency button for fun!' the train master yelled back.

Antonio grinned innocently and stuck out his tongue.

Travelling on the plastic train to Moravian Institute of Space Science, Nikita could see many young Moravians on the streets. Some were cycling, others were dashing from one place to another on roller-blades, yet others used power gliders. Very few adult Moravians were on the streets. Nikita was puzzled. Melissa was deep in thoughts as she took in the sights and sound.

Suddenly, Samuel saw an adult Moravian trying to steal honey from a beehive hanging from a tree, some distance away. This was a short, funny-looking tree with branches and leaves arranged like a fan. A big beehive hung on one of the branches. While this Moravian was about to leave after having eaten his fill of honey, a big bee as big as a terrestrial cat, flew out from nowhere. It tried to chase this Moravian away. However the Moravian was too big, and the bee was nearly knocked down by its opponent's paws. This bee made a loud, buzzing sound and before long, more bees came and joined in the fight. The Moravian quickly turned and ran for its life. It finally ended up in a pond! Only then, did the bees flew away.

"Hahaha," Samuel laughed heartily, pointing his finger at the Moravian in the pond.

"What is so funny?" Antonio asked curiously, looking in the direction Samuel was pointing.

"See that bear head above the water, so cute! It tried to steal honey and was chased into the pond by bees."

Antonio turned his head in another direction and saw one young Moravian pulling a caterpillar truck by a string attached to the caterpillar head. This truck had a long body which looked like a fat caterpillar. It could make a series of funny noises, “click clack, click clack, click clack,” to attract attention.

“Look, a caterpillar truck!” Antonio said excitedly.

At the next stop, Toy House station, the choo-choo train played the second tune.

'Old maid Dona had a farm,
eee ai eee ai o,
and a quack quack here,
and a quack quack there,
here quack, there quack,
everywhere quack quack quack.
Old maid Dona had a farm,
eee ai eee ai o.’

Antonio laughed out loud. He was so excited by this tune.

The choo-choo train stopped at Toy House station. Here, one could find many plastic houses painted with different colours. A grand-looking house, Miranda Villa, stood near this train stop. It was a double-storey villa made entirely of hardened plastic. It was painted yellow, red and green in different combinations. Surrounding the villa, there was a large area of grassland where many types of wild-berries and shrubs grew on it. A gentle breeze was blowing at this time. Fresh sweet scent of flowers drifted through the air and greeted our passengers. Nikita could also smell the sweet fragance of the woods, not only that, she could detect the faint masculine smell from Chen Wei seated in front of her. She was intoxicated!

Before reaching the final destination, the choo-choo train began to slow down, and finally came to a halt. The train-master yelled from the front that there was no more battery power!

"Could everyone get down and help to push this train?" the train-master begged.

Looking at the not so gentle slope up the hill, Mrs. Andersen asked, "oh my goodness. You mean I have to push this train up that slope?"

“Sorry about that,” the train-master yelled from the front.

The train-master remained in the train. He urged everyone to come down and push the choo-choo train. Actually, this train was not too big and did not look quite heavy either, as it was made of plastic. Everyone huffed and puffed and pushed this train up the slope and over to the other side. However, the slope at the other side of the hill was also quite steep. This choo-choo train rushed down-slope at breakneck speed, the train-master waved both his bear paws frantically out of the window, one bear paw on either side of the train!

"Ahhh!" yelled the train-master.