Anton Razavi scribbled down notes on his WC while his teacher’s, Ms. Debenham’s, hologram rattled about how Wrist Computers (WCs) had developed over time. His disheveled black hair was in deep contrast with his bright hazel eyes, which were currently filled with nerdy enthusiasm. He was what one would call a ‘dedicated nerd,’ with the big round Harry Potter glasses and the energy of a restless puppy wanting to go out for a run.
“As you know, the first WC was invented on 3rd June 2021 by one of our most successful amateur inventors, Victor Hardy,” Ms. Debenham’s hologram said haughtily. The real Ms. Debenham was at her home, probably sitting in a heated room while her hologram taught at school. “It’s such a pity Victor was lost in space… Edward!” She snapped at green-haired Edward Johnson, Anton’s best friend, and the most anti-nerd person he had ever met.
Edward merely glanced at the teacher, his attention occupied in building a miniature model of the Eiffel Tower out of magnetic pens.
“EDWARD!” Ms. Debenham screamed, storming over to his desk and attempting to snatch the tower from his hands. But as a hologram, her hand just passed through the creation.
“What were you doing during the class?” the words were literally spat out of her translucent mouth.
“I was constructing a replica of the Eiffel Tower. Wasn’t that obvious from the shape? Hmm, maybe I should work on the colour…” Edward muttered thoughtfully. He suddenly jerked forward. “Miss, your face has turned very red! Or maybe I can just see the red board behind you; it’s a little hard to make out.”
The entire class roared with laughter. Even Anton struggled to hide his smile. The only person not smiling was Ms. Debenham, whose face had indeed turned a shade of light crimson.
“DETENTION!” she screamed, her bony arms waving up in the air. “FOR ALL OF YOU! AND A WHOLE WEEK FOR YOU!” She pointed at Edward. This put a stop to all of them laughing and giggling. The kids groaned. Detention meant polishing and oiling all of the two hundred robots in the school, even though there was a machine to do that.
Anton stared out of the glass window as a satisfied Ms. Debenham resumed her class. His attention wasn’t on WCs anymore. He gazed longingly at the open ground inside the Particle Barrier of the school, which looked especially inviting after a long day of sitting inside a spacious but still stuffy classroom. Anton had a secret – he had a nasty case of claustrophobia.
As the class finally got over, all the kids reluctantly rose and trudged to the RRC (Robot Recharging Centre). Anton and Edward were walking side by side at the end of the line when Edward suddenly stopped. “I have a problem,” he said. Anton gave him a funny look. “What, should I mix up some sugar and water and give you the solution?”
His friend rolled his eyes. “Bad joke, dude. But seriously, I do have a problem. The huge project Ms. Debenham gave is just too big to do in one day, and I have Virtual Football classes to attend to today.”
“Oh, I’ll do it for you!” Anton said brightly. “I’ve learnt about this already, and I can easily do two…” His voice trailed off. “What is that?”
Both the boys turned towards the glass wall, losing sight of their classmates. A small, red-coloured object was hurtling towards the earth just outside the Particle Barrier. It landed was a muffled thud, and dust completely engulfed it, blocking the boys’ view.
“It’s probably just a meteor,” Edward said, sounding disappointed. “Meteors are so last century. Come on, we have detention to suffer.”
But Anton refused to take his eyes off the object. “It’s not a meteor, silly. Our satellites in the mesosphere would have detected it ages ago. Maybe it’s a space ship!” Anton’s body shook with excitement. “We’ve got to check it out! This might just be the invention of the decade!”
“Yay, we’re ditching detention,” Edward cheered as Anton dragged him to the Teleporter. “Wow, you must be very determined if you’re willing to teleport there.” Anton shrugged, even though his stomach squirmed at the idea. “It’s the fastest way to get there.”
They pressed a few buttons and stepped on one of the wide circular discs that could teleport them to anywhere. “To the mysterious thing that landed outside our school’s Barrier!” Anton yelled.
The world immediately turned lopsided. Anton squeezed his eyes shut as his brain felt like it had been splashed with ice-cold water. After endless seconds of the horrible sensation, the two finally toppled on the hard ground, a few meters away from the Barrier.
“Is it just me, or is illegal teleporting much more fun than regular teleporting?” Edward asked, not looking fazed at all. Anton’s reply was a painful groan as he clutched his stomach. “Remind me to hack into the Main System and lower the Particle Barrier next time to use our jet packs to fly there,” he said, the last word turning into another painful groan.
Edward got up and looked around. “It really is a space ship,” he noted. Indeed, the object was actually an enormous red ship, with a shape that looked like a mixture of a trapezium, a rhombus, and a scalene triangle. The boys were a little disappointed because if this was how all the alien ships looked, space would become a lot less cool.
As Edward took a step forward, Anton jumped up and grabbed his arm. “Wait!” It took him a few deep breaths to recover from the head rush. “There might be lasers or some other defence technique. Let me scan it first.” He opened his WC and punched a few buttons, taking a scan of the entire ship.
“This is… odd,” Anton said, his hazel eyes clouding in confusion. “This is definitely a human ship, but at the same time, the tech seems foreign. The technology is so brilliant and advanced, I doubt a human could have come up with it. The cosmic radiations have been hidden so ingeniously that – “
“Yeah, yeah, whatever! Have you detected any defence mechanisms yet?” Edward interrupted. Anton muttered something under his breath as he pushed more buttons on the screen. “Weapons identified and deactivated. There were lasers, which makes no sense. It almost seems like this ship was made by both humans and aliens.”
The two buys cautiously approached the ship. Sure enough, there were camouflaged holes in the corner that looked like they could shoot deadly lasers or dangerous weapons.
Edward eyed the door disapprovingly. “Who still uses doors with handles anymore when there are self-sufficient walls that can open and close by themselves?” he grumbled as he placed his palm on the metal door. “How do you open this thing anyway?”
“We learnt it in Modern History last year,” Anton said as he peered at the handle through his glasses. He grasped the handle and tried pulling it up. Nothing happened. Three more tries resulted in the same. In frustration, he slammed his fist on the handle, which bent easily. “Okay, try pushing,” Anton said to Edward. The latter threw himself on the door, which burst open with a creaking noise. Unfortunately, Edward lost his balance and fell face-first on the solid ground.
“Ouch,” he mumbled as Anton sucked in his breath. “Oh wow,” were the only words that came out of his mouth. The ship’s inside was much more spectacular than the outside, complete with the alien look and the endless rows of buttons with runes written on it. But what was really jarring about it was that everything was in red.
“Is it empty?” Edward asked, rubbing his nose as he looked around. They must have been in the control room as there was a giant screen showing their school’s Particle Barrier.
Anton was eagerly scrutinizing the Control Panel. “Can you believe it, Edward? We’re actually in an alien ship!”
Edward coughed behind him. “I wouldn’t call it completely alien.”
“What do you mean?” Anton glanced to his left to find Edward backed into a corner, a terrified expression on his pale face. He met Anton’s gaze and shook his head. It hadn’t been him who had spoken.
Anton slowly turned around and let out a small scream. A strange man was staring at him from the doorway. He had thick brown hair and blue eyes that had a crazy glint in them. He was wearing a puffy white suit and held a large round helmet, which made him look slightly less intimidating. When he spoke, his voice sounded gruff and raspy but was filled with delight.
“Humans!” he bellowed, pulling both Edward and Anton into a crushing hug. “How I’ve missed seeing normal people!”
“Let… us… go!” Edward yelled, twisting out of his grasp and yanking Anton with him. The man beamed, and Anton suddenly felt a flicker of recognition. Then it struck him.
“You’re – you’re Victor Hardy!” he whispered. “I’ve seen pictures of you. But that’s not possible! You got lost in space thirty years ago!” All the signs of happiness drained out of Victor’s face. He suddenly looked ten years older, although he couldn’t have been more than twenty-five.
“Lost in space? Thirty years?” he repeated, sitting down on one of the chairs. “But I’ve been chasing after extraterrestrial aliens for only a month. Unless… No! That can’t be. No. No. No!” He unexpectedly broke down into loud sobs. Edward and Anton looked at each other, uncertainly. Then Edward slowly sat down next to Victor and patted his shoulder.
They gave him one minute to grasp the situation, and then Anton unleashed his questions. Once Victor had shakily answered them, he confirmed, “So you think the time difference between where you went and Earth affected your voyage immensely, resulting in the thirty-year gap between your departure and arrival?”
Victor nodded. But Edward had a different question. “You mentioned that you missed seeing normal humans. Does that mean what I think I mean?”
Victor’s face brightened. “That’s right!” he said, clapping his hands in glee. “Come on out, guys! They’re safe!” A few seconds passed, and nothing happened. Then a door which definitely had not been there earlier burst open, and the world’s weirdest looking creatures walked inside.
They were just a foot high, with red skin that looked like it was sticking to their bones. They had big watery eyes and huge floppy ears that drooped over their bony shoulders. They all were wearing tight black suits and pointed boots. But the most striking thing about them was their voice.
“Greetings, Children of the Earth. We are the Atomions,” one of them said in a high nasal voice that sounded like it had been dipped in sugar. There must have been at least fifty of them in the room, and all of them were bowing at Anton and Edward.
It was then when Anton realized how crowded the room had become. And the walls were getting smaller and smaller with every passing second. He backed away from everyone, and his back slammed against the wall. Breathing became a lot harder. Sweat trickled down his back, sending icy chills all over his body.
“I’M SORRY!” he yelled, knocking Edward and Victor down as he fought towards the door. The Atomions scrambled away from him, frightened of him. Anton ran out of the door and took big gulps of fresh air. His racing heart slammed against his chest as he clutched his damp head.
“Anton!” Edward and Victor stumbled towards him. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah… I’m fine,” Anton said, feeling his heart slow down. “I have claustrophobia, okay? And… I’m sorry I never told you earlier.” Saying it aloud made him feel a lot better.
Edward rubbed his back. “No, it’s okay, Anton. You don’t have to apologize.” “Aww, you both remind me of my best friend, Thomas!” Victor said happily. Then he seemed to realize that his best friend was probably fifty right now, and the smile vanished from his face.
Then suddenly, a screeching sound filled the air. The three of them turned around to find the space ship taking off. “ATTENTION!” an Atomion screamed, and his voice sounded even more high pitched on a megaphone. “THE BLACK HAIRED ONE HAS BEEN PROVEN TO BE DANGEROUS! THAT CHILD OF THE EARTH HAS ATTACKED US!” He paused for a second as if waiting for them to counter. But Anton and Edward were too speechless to speak. Victor was shaking his head and waving his arms.
“FIRE THE ION CANNON ON THEIR PARTICLE BARRIER!” the Atomion screeched. The ship adjusted its aim and prepared to fire.
“Ion cannon? That thing can destroy the entire school if fired multiple times!” Anton yelled, recovering from his shock. “We’ve got to do something!” But the Atomions had already fired on the Barrier, which shuddered dangerously.
“I’ve got an idea!” Victor yelled over the commotion and pointed at Anton. “Give me your jet pack!” “What? No way!” Anton protectively wrapped his arms around his jet pack. Victor glared at him. “Do you want to save your school or not? One more hit and the Barrier will fall, leaving every human and robot vulnerable!”
Anton halfheartedly handed over his jet pack to Victor, who put it on. “Okay, when I give you the signal, wave this diamond in the air” He handed Anton a fake diamond from his suit and flew towards the ship. “Wait! What’s the signal?” Edward cried after him, but Victor was too busy opening a panel and twisting wires. The vessel was aiming for another hit on the Particle Barrier.
Suddenly, the end of the ship exploded. Victor flew around here and there, unable to control the jet pack. “Umm, Anton?” Edward nudged his friend. “I think that’s the signal!”
Anton waved the artificial diamond in the air, yelling for the Atomions’ attention. When a few long seconds passed, Edward asked, “Is something supposed to happen?”
Anton shrugged, just when the door of the ship opened, and an Atomion jumped down. He landed in front of the boys and gawked at the diamond in Anton’s hand. Then he snatched it from Anton’s hand with a crazy grin and flew back into the ship. A few minutes later, an ear-piercing voice said, “ATTENTION! THE BLACK-HAIRED CHILD OF THE EARTH HAD FRIGHTENED US, SO WE STOLE HIS STONE FROM HIM! WE HAVE QUENCHED OUR REVENGE!”
Both Anton’s and Edward’s jaws dropped. “What just happened?” Edward asked, his blue eyes wide. They both yelped as someone crashed behind them. “Ouch!” Victor’s voice said groaning. He had crashed into an E-Waste bin. “Did they take the diamond?” he asked.
Another announcement drowned out Anton’s reply. “THRUSTERS AT FULL SPEED! TO OUR HOME GALAXY! GOODBYE, SCARY CHILDREN OF EARTH!” And with that, the ship opened a wormhole and disappeared with the speed of the light.
“Okay, quick question,” Edward said to Victor. “How did you know they would take the diamond? Well, the fake diamond.” Victor grinned. “I’ve lived with them for a month. I learnt a few things about the Atomions, like how they like to steal shiny jewels and run away after robbing the person or alien.”
“But why did you explode the end of the ship?” Anton asked, confused. Victor looked expectantly at them. “It was the signal. Obviously.” He walked towards the school while Edward and Anton stared after him.
After half an hour of walking, they finally reached the school building where a huge crowd was waiting. “VICTOR?” Ms. Debenham screamed, running over to them, her face filled with joy and confusion. “Hey, sis!” he said, trying to hug her. “Never mind, I’ll see you physically at home!”
“SIS?” Both Anton and Edward asked, shocked.
“Oh yes, guys, this is my sister, Venessa Debenham. Venessa, these are my new friends Anton and Edward!”
Ms. Debenham’s hologram stared at them, a smile on her face. “I know these two, Victor. They are my students, who just earned themselves a year of detention. Now let’s go celebrate your arrival!”
Both of the boys sighed. Some things will just never change.