Miners of the Moons
Chapter 1 — Terbb’s death
The Merry Doe soared through space as Yiddet, the pilot looked out the window onto the star-lit planet of Ganoap. “Are you sure this is the right planet?” asked Polsiak. “Gaza said it was a desert planet like Quaisloap”
Talons, who was the captain of the space miners, walked out of the bunk room. “Thats only the other side of the planet, did you expect to be mining in sand? It would be poor mining in desert area”
Gaza sat up and pointed too a place that looked as if it had been made to fit the Merry Doe on it “Thats the place” He said. Gaza was a nad that they had brought on the ship as a guide, though he was quite suspicious and Terbb couldn’t help looking at him every few minutes.
They landed on the hard, rocky surface in a stone still valley of hard mining rock that spread for miles across the desolate, landscape.
Gaza brought them into a rounded, small, mined cave that they had landed by. They each took a headlamp for the journey downward into the black emptiness. The Merry Doe could have fit into the cave but Gaza insisted that it didn’t come, so Yiddet stayed with the Merry Doe while the miners ambled down into the blackness. Talons, Polisiak, and Terbb followed Gaza through the cave for what seemed like an hour, though it was really about twenty minutes. Terbb spotted a diamond on the wall of the cave. He turned to Gaza but Gaza was gone.
“Wheres Gaza?” He asked Talons. Talons looked up “He was right there” “I always knew he was suspicious” said Polisiak. Suddenly, everyone stopped, and they had a good reason. They heard Gaza laughing. The three turned around, quick as lightning to find out why. Polisiak saw what he had expected…but far worse.
Gaza had come up behind them with an army of nads and in his right hand, was a gun. He grinned, and then pulled the trigger. The bullet whizzed past Polisiak’s ear like a dart and echoed all throughout the cave.
“This does not look good” said Talons as another berried itself permanently into the wall behind Terbb. It was so shocking to Terbb that he jumped back but never touched the ground before being caught in the strong arms of Yiddet. “Get in!” he shouted. Polisiak found himself scrambling onto the firm floors of the Merry Doe and before any of the nads knew what was happening, Yiddet was flying out on the Merry Doe. Two seconds after, they were safe away from the planet. Everyone heard a thundering explosion and after that, there was nothing left of the planet but suffocating nads and a heap of grey dust floating in what used to be the planet of Ganoap.
“How did you find us?” Asked Talons to Yiddet. “Well” started Yiddet “Your head-lamp was on but theres also a camera attached so if the camera is on, in this ship, I can see everything that is going on” Talons lifted one eyebrow. “But how did you know where we were?” “Oh, I had some help” said Yiddet holding up Gaza’s old dusty map and a key. “You stole those?” asked Talons. Yiddet shrugged. “We’ll yah, when we were on our way here I saw Gaza pull up his sleeve and talk into what looked like his watch. I couldn’t help being suspicious, so when he stepped out of the ship, I just gave him little pic-pocket” Talons’s smile faded. “You got to tell people things” said Talons “You’re part of a team, your not a Lone Warrior”
Yiddet nodded then looked out of his window but what he saw wasn’t the black skies of space…it was an ocean! He hadn’t looked at where he was going and had steered into the atmosphere of Cloap! He gave one last yell but that yell faded under the dark, blue seas of Cloap. For a moment every-thing was a blur. Terbb saw two shining eyes, a huge body and vermilion colored mouth. It was a Snarl Shark! It was bigger than the Merry Doe and hungrier! But before it started on it’s midday munch, the Merry Doe jerked upward!
Everyone breathed in a sigh of relief but that sigh never came out. For that second like a stage-play monster emerging from the water rose the starting outline of the shark!
“What!” shouted Polisiak. “How would a Snarl Shark dream of coming higher than eighty bints under the surface, how is it not dying?” Snarl sharks were known to need water pressure to survive but if the team had looked closer, they’d have noticed something diffent. “That is is no Snarl” started Talons. “It’s a Magvo Mortem-Whale!” Terbb stood stationary, frozen of fear but at last he found his courage and did a braver thing than any of them had ever done. He leaped up into the monster’s mouth jabbing upward through it’s head. Once, twice, thrice, and at last, like a woodpecker plunging it’s beak into a tree, the blade shot up through it’s head as a shower of blood came poring down and a stressed bleat came from the monster’s bloody mouth! But as the magvo gave it’s last breath and shut it’s mouth, Terbb was trapped. With Terbb in its mouth it plunged into the water as Terbb suffocated under the surf and after that violent moment, he was never seen again.
Talons dropped to his knees while the others stared commiserating into the grey sea watching the blood rise to the surface. Yiddet scooped it up in his palm and locked it into his fist. He looked down as he broke the silence. “It’s over” he said sadly as his eyebrows dropped. “And not one of you lifted a gun!” he yelled. “It was vitally imperative that he was saved but he wasn’t! You just stared at him and watched him…him” His head sunk back down as he sighed.
“We all feel the same” said Talons “But it’s know use…” “Look!” shouted Polisiak. He pointed strait as an arrow to a black object moving in the water. “Another magvo!?!” shouted Yiddet his eyes glaring as if they were in the process of popping out of their sockets.
“Not a magvo you crazy, it’s a ship! We’re saved!” “We would have been save without a ship” chuckled Yiddet. He pressed a button no one had seen before and pulled back the gear.
The Merry Doe shot across the water like arrow from a bow. “How’d you do that?” Talons asked as he hugged the seat to not go flying. “Oh I made some quick adjustments while you guys were mining with Gaza” Talons frowned. “You said you were watching the screen” He said “Yah, I was” snorted Yiddet. “How can you watch two things at the same time?” said Talons. Yiddet laughed. “We have two eyes lunatic!” Polisiak pointed again but this time he pointed at something much more exciting than a ship. ”Land!” he shouted We’re saved” “You’ve said that small sentence to many times today” said Yiddet. “Next time, only point” There was a ferocious sound as the Merry Doe hit the dry ground. Dirt and Water spit out all over the trees and the crew stepped out into a forest. “The ship is useless” sputtered Yiddet. “Lets all go” The others agreed on this and helped Yiddet out. Yiddet who was cold and felt like he was abandoning his home, stepped out of the Merry Doe.
Talons, Polisiak and Yiddet got there luggage and started there journey through the forest. It was much less pleasant than they had thought it would be with out a stop or two. But Talons insisted so they trudged on through the damp, cold, silvan wood. There spirits were lifted every time a ship flew by giving evidence that they were getting closer to a village.
Birds sang and the memory of Terbb went through there minds again and with it, the guilt of standing and watching him leave. Talons remembered the moment that Terbb had sunk into the ocean. Yiddet also was ashamed to remember that he hadn’t even thought about reaching to his waist to help. Feeling culpable, they all tried to excuse the thought from their minds.
At last they heard voices and stepped out of the forest into a great desert city. They were in Ambula.
Polisiak stood astounded at the change of weather. “Come on Polisiak” called Talons. We need a ship repair quick as possible” Polisiak hopped over and they started walking.
The sand glared up at their eyes and made them squint at the light. They hated passing so many shops without stopping for shade. After about half an hour Talons spotted a ship repair. “Blick’s Ships, Repair and Buy” read Talons. “This is the place we need” He said, so they walked inside. A brown-headed man with an aquiline nose stood in the doorway building a motel. “Do you repair ships” asked Talons. “We need a repair” The man looked up with a face that resembled a culinary, pilot. “Bought or made?” He questioned in an disconsolate tone.
“Made” said Talons nudging Yiddet. “By this astute genius here” Yiddet smiled. “We call it the Merry Doe” He announced. “Altitude?” said the man. “Eighty-six bints high and one hundred-fifty-two long” (1 bints = 11 inches)
The man spoke again. “That will be one hundred-seventy gibbouts” he said. “One hundred-seventy?” sputtered Talons. This place might be the most expensive in Ambula” “It was a nad” the ship repairer started. “He came in and demanded a ship for eleven gibbouts and when I refused to change the price, he stole ninety gibbouts along with the ship he wanted for thirty less than is was suppose to be, and my parents, Snolam and Fillia, and was gone in a flash. He goes by Krad Knighth but my father, who used to be a miner on Ganoap, said that his real name was Gaza”
“GAZA!” shouted the three miners. “That selfish, sly, obese, tobacco brained, patronizing, odious, arrogant, idiotic, hideous, malicious, imperious, stultifying, pugnacious, culpable, porcine-nosed, sour-faced, canine, delirious, verbose, puerile, defiant ass!!!” yelled Talons. He is the one we’re after” The man flipped the shop sign to “closed”. “I fix your ship for free” he said. “Where is it” “Down by the water across the forest” said Polisiak. The man opened the back door and answered. “Follow me” They walked out the door and into a helicopter that the man called the Moblio Timer. They rose off the ground and twirled away towards the shining sea.
How’d you come to be after Gaza (a. k. a. Krad Knighth)” questioned Blick, which the man was called. “Well” said Polisiak. “He’s kind’a after us” he began. “We really just make a living off taking gold from extraterrestrial planets and selling what we get. The only planets proper for mining on are and inhabited planets so we have to steel sort of. But a few weeks ago a nad called Gaza pretended to help us by showing us a different planet to mine on called Ganoap which I never studied about in documentary astronomy geometry school. But then once we went in to a cave, it turned out to have been a sly trick! Luckily, Talons had his safety camera on so Yiddet was able to save us. (But it took exploding half the planet) And after they all knew just as much about each other as they needed to, they were gliding away in the repaired Merry Doe as speedily as if it wanted to scrape the twinkling sunset.
