[No Name]

Mommy, look at that one!" That was my seven year-old sister, Alex. She had recently taken up stargazing and meteor-watching, just like me. What a copycat she was. I'd been stargazing, studying stars and dreaming about Space for ages. Well, if you can consider thirteen years to be ages.

"Yes dear, now hush. George is trying to concentrate on the shooting stars. He's going to do a project for his class." That was my mom, and even if she was about thirty-five years older than me, I still thought that she was the most beautiful woman that I'd had the pleasure to know. No wonder my dad had fallen in love with her. Ahhh. Dad. I wish he were here. He was a great astronaut, that is, before mission control lost contact with his ship which was headed for Mars. My parents got married about fifteen years
ago. And then, five months after their second anniversary, a new life form entered the gentle atmosphere of Earth,me. My parents met at a space agency somewhere in North America. They were both training under the same program. A program that prepared them for the harsh conditions of Outer-Space. Unfortunately for my mom, she didn't quite qualify. But my dad aced everything. The decisions were made, my dad was going to be part of a crew of ten astronauts, five women and five men, that were going to take a trip to the Moon. That was going to be dad's first trip to Space.

The mission went surprisingly well. Not a single mechanical malfunction, and all their tasks went smoothly. My dad even had enough time to go and explore part of the Moon. On the way back to the ship, he stumbled over a rock. He got back up, turned around to look at what he had tripped over, and discovered a stone that was soon to be my mother's wedding ring. The day that my dad got back from Space, he asked my mom to marry him. She said yes, of course. And four months later, the knots were tied. My dad went back into space every three years. But he still managed to spend an incredible amount of time with my mom.

The last mission that my dad was chosen for was going to be the first spaceship to go to Mars; and also his last trip in a spaceship. Unfortunately. All the preparations were made and everything double-checked to see if they were still in working order. And then, the ship was launched. The lift-off was perfect. And everything else too. Except until they were a day away from reaching Mars. The only thing that was strange was that there was total silence from the ship; no cries of surprise and no sounds whatsoever for two hours before contact was confirmed to be lost. And that doesn't usually happen. Usually, was happens is, the crew report that something strange is happening to the ship, then the speakers become fuzzy, then contact is lost. Not complete silence, like in my dad's case. had always dreamed that the scientists at mission control would be able to make contact again. But, that just wasn't to be. Surprisingly, I didn't cry. I had a feeling in my head that he would be back, which my mom thought was crazy.

Now, back to the present. As you may have guessed earlier,I'm thirteen years old. I'm a rather average person by the looks of it. But inside, I surpass the boundaries of imagination. I'm a really smart person. My mom said that I was just the same as my dad, maybe smarter. The only abnormal thing about my physical self was that my whole body looked like the skin was pulled a little too tightly against my bones. 'Just like your dad my mom said. I didn't really think about the difference between my skin and other teenagers' skin. And it didn't bother me either.

Anyways, while I was trying to stargaze with my sister around, the Earth was going through an asteroid belt. Well, it was really just debris left from a comet that passed by a long time ago, but it just sounded better to call it an asteroid belt. I was amazed at the amount of meteors that were burning up in our atmosphere this year. Several times, I could have sworn that some of the meteors looked like ships that were landing secretly on Earth from Space. But, that probably just came from having a wild imagination. I turned to my mom.

"I'm ready to go now. "I've had enough for tonight."

"You sure?" asked my mom.

"Positive. I can barely keep my eyes open."

"Ok." She turned around to tell Alex that we were going toleave.

"Alex! Come here this instant before you slip and fall down that cliff!" My mom marched away from me to where my sister stood staring down at the road two hundred feet below. If my mom told me that she used to be an army sergeant, I would believe her. She had such an authoritative air about her that no one opposed her.

When we arrived at home, it was getting on to midnight. I dragged my feet lazily up the stairs after saying goodnight to my mom and sister. Then I reached my room! I opened the door, trudged to my dresser, removed my day clothes, and fell in to my bed. I fell asleep almost immediately.

When I awoke the next morning, it was almost ten-thirty. I went downstairs and discovered a note on the fridge door. "Don't be late for school. Love Mom." I knew she was joking because it was summer holidays. I crumpled the note and put it in the garbage. Then I went to the fridge to get some milk to drink for breakfast. I poured some of the milk clumsily in to a bowl of cereal. Just when the spoon was about to reach my mouth, the phone rang.

"Hello. George here."

"Hi. Is your mother home George?

"No I'm sorry. I think that she's out shopping with my sister."

"Oh. Sorry to bother you. I'll phone back later."

"Okay," I replied.

After the mysterious caller had hung up, my brain started to work again. "I wonder who that was?" I said to myself. "No bother, they'll phone back later"

After I finished my cereal, I went to the TV to see what was going on in the world. Strangely, the screen was all staticky. I went outside to see if the antenna was still hooked up. When I looked up at the top of the house, I gapped at the sight that I saw. There was a five foot long black thing protruding from the top of the house

I went to the garage, and there I found a ladder that I thought was sufficiently long enough. I brought it outside, leaned it against my house, and climbed up. When I reached the top of my house, I nearly fell off the ladder in shock. There wasn't only one five-foot long black thing on my roof, there was three! I quickly scrambled to where the first one was, and looked at it thoroughly. After about twenty minutes of inspecting the black things on my roof, I decided that I was going to have to bring them into the house for a closer inspection.

After about an hour of using some pulleys left over from many years ago, the long black things were sitting on the floor in my room. I estimated that each weighed about thirty pounds. I got a cloth and a pail of water from the kitchen, brought them upstairs, and started to wash the long black things. It took me half an hour to get them to a dull gleam. Then I got a microscope and started to go over all their parts. While I was inspecting them, I decided that I'd start calling them pods. In movies and books, pods were used to put people and things in them, then they were shot off from the main ship in Space, and would hopefully land somewhere safe.

Then I discovered something amazing. I found a crack that lead from what I thought was the front of the pods to the back. I jogged down the stairs, went to my dad's old tool room, and got a number of various of tools, most of which could be used to pry something open. I sprinted upstairs full of adrenaline and excited as anything, and went into my room. I sat down on the chair near one of the pods, got a chisel out of the assortment of tools I had brought up, and started working away at the pods. I had no idea how much time passed until the front doorbell rang. I reluctantly went down the stairs and opened the door. I nearly jumped out of my skin! There was a policeman with a stern look in his face; standing in my doorway.

When he saw me, he put a different expression on his face.

"We're sorry," he said in a gruff voice. "But did you perchance see three long black things near here?"

"Ummm. No. I'm sorry, but I haven't."

"Sorry to have bothered you. G'day to you young sir." And with that, he left. I stood at the door wondering how he would have known about the pods. I dismissed the nagging feeling at the back of my mind, and went back upstairs. I plumped down on to the chair near the pods, took up the chisel, and started the delicate work of separating the top of the pod from the bottom. I looked up at the alarm clock on my messy desk, it was almost three o'clock.

"In about two and a half hours," I said to myself, "my mom and sister will be back. I have until then." I worked away at the first pod for another twenty minutes before the chisel wedged deeply into the pod and a hissing sound came from it. The top of the pod started to open slowly. When it was completely open, a light clicked on inside the pod. It looked exactly like a mini house. And there was a little man, about four inches tall, staring wonderingly up at me.

"Would you be so kind as to push the growing-ray?" He said in an annoyed voice. "I don't like being this short."

"Wh..What?"

"The growing-ray! Do I need to spell it out for you?! It's that little green button at the side there. Yes, that's the one."

After I pushed the "Growing-Ray" button, the man stepped out of the pod and started to get taller! I just stood there and gaped at him.

"What's the matter with you? You look as if you've never seen anything like this before!"

"Ahhh. Well, ummm. I mean, I haven't."

"What! You mean to tell me that you've never seen this before?!"

"No, I'm sorry." I started to get my voice back to it's normal level.

"Well don't just stand there staring at me, aren't you going to say 'Hello', or 'Welcome to Earth'? It's rather rude not to"

"I'm sorry," I was still dumbfounded at seeing a man be four inches tall, then suddenly, grow to be almost a foot and a half taller than me. "I'm just surprised. Hello and welcome to Earth."

"Thank-you very much. Where's Phil?"

"Phil? Who's he"

"Argh! Do you not know anything?! He's in one of the other three pods."

"Other three pods? I only found the three you see here. I didn't find four."

"Shoot! His computer must have had it's flight plan changed by accident when it entered your accursed planet's atmosphere."

"Excuse me? But you just insulted my home."

"Home? This isn't your real home!"

"Yes it is. I have been living here for all my life!"

"You may have been born here, but it's not your home planet. I'll tell you everything once we get these other two pods open."

"How do you do that?" I asked the strange man.

"The same way you opened mine!" He replied.

"I spent quite a while going through all the cracks in this pod with a chisel. It will take me at least two more hours to open those two." I indicated the other two pods lying firmly closed on the floor of my room.

"Don't you know how to open a pod?"

"No sorry. How?"

"Nevermind, just watch me." The strange man (Which was the name that I had given him until I could get the opportunity to ask his real name) strode over to the pod nearest where he was standing. He lightly taped it twice, turned it over, and gave it a firm hit. It made the same hissing sound that the first pod made, but the interior was slightly different. The walls had different things hanging off of them, and there was food strewn all over the place. There was another little man inside it too, but he was lying in the small bed that was in the pod, and snoring uproariously for one his size.

"Wake up Phil! We've arrived!" He gently shook the little man in the bed. The man called Phil who was inside the pod, suddenly started to move around. He got out of bed, and for the first time, he seemed to notice the intent eyes that were on him and also the sunshine.

"Hey Bob. How are you? Boy, am I ever glad that the zero gravity is done with for the moment." I took a mental note that the first man that I had found was named Bob.

"I'm fine. A little tired, but otherwise fine. How about you? How did your trip go?"

"Good. At least I think that it was." Phil looked at the food all over the floor of the pod. "Darn that confounded fridge. It always has to open up while there's a ton of turbulence. One of these days, I'm gonna buy me a new one! With a lock!"

"That's all right, we can do that later. Ready to come back to full size?" Asked Bob.

"Definitely. My bones are starting to feel strange from being this small for so long."

Bob pushed the same type of buttonthat I had pushed for him earlier. Phil stepped out of the pod. After he finished growing to what I thought was his full height, he turned to me with a big grin on his face.

"Finally I get to meet the son of the great Arthur!" He stepped up to me and bowed. I remembered that that was my dad's name with a shock that my face mirrored.

"You look as if you've seen a ghost George."

He was right, I realized. I felt the colour coming back to my pasty white face.

"You... You knew my dad?" I managed to sputter that much out.

"Knew him my boy? Know is the correct tense."

"You mean he's still alive?!" I gasped.

"Alive, well, and strategizing. Why, I thought that you knew that."

"I thought that he was dead! Mission control lost contact with his ship more than two and a half years ago!" I was still shocked as anything.

"You mean those bunch of buffoons who call themselves scientists?" Phil snorted. "They wouldn't understand the difference between a Solar Galactic Googleplex and a Solar Universal Tripoplex if their lives depended on it!"

"Galactic Googleplexes are for members of that galaxy only that uses solar energy. Universal Googleplexes are for all races of the universe and it also uses solar energy," I said in an impatient voice. Then I realized exactly what it was that I had said. I looked at them in horror and asked them, "How in Orions's Belt did I know that?!"

"Because it's in your genes and your Arikian blood," sighed Bob. "And being near some people who were recently in Arik triggered your Arikian instincts. And we were born with the ability to know infinite things about Space without even having had to learn them."

"Are you serious? I mean, that I'm not from Earth, but originally from Arik?"

"Absolutely George," Phil said with an amused smile.

"Anyways," Bob interrupted, "I think that we have more important matters to take care of at the moment. Such as, finding the fourth pod and opening this first one of the three George found. So I suggest that we start now."

Bob strode over to where the third pod lay patiently and went through the same routine as he had for Phil's pod. By the time it was fully opened, there were three pairs of intent eyes staring at the inside. I nearly toppled over backwards at what I saw in the pod! For inside the pod lay a beutiful new space-suit with a booklet atop of it probably explaining what the book could do, something that resembled a communicator from Star-Trek, and a brief-case with me name written in big green letters on it! As well as a couple small things lining the sides if the pod.

"Well, don't just stand there staring at the newest space-suit in all the universe, try it on!" said Phil and Bob in unison. I gladly took the space-suit, or rather MY space-suit, and put it on. It was the most glorious feeling that rushed through me when the space-suit was all done up. It felt like a part of me, not as if it were a piece of clothing. I realized I had my eyes closed savouring the sensation of my new space-suit, and opened them. I looked down in surprise; the suit was gone!