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[Story] [Science]
Encounters on Planet
Oobleck
"Ca-dooooosh!" It was the 21st century and
our spaceship had just landed on Planet Oobleck. We
had finally made it. We felt like George W. Bush
when he beat Al Gore in the presidential election.
We checked to make sure everything was functioning
okay. Some of the plants that we had brought for
oxygen had been knocked over when we blasted
through the Earth's atmosphere but other than that
everything seemed to be in order. Now it was time
for the moment we had all been waiting for.
We read each other's mind as we all raced
towards the one window simultaneously. My brother
was first, I was second and my dad, friend and
grandparents followed us. My mom was last because
she was the pilot and had already seen the planet
and its different features. As I looked through the
window I saw was a magical land. It was like what I
had read about in elementary school, aliens,
planets that are only one color, etc. The planet
was different shades of green and so were the
creatures. They were moving busily about acting as
if nothing unusual had happened. My first guess was
that spaceships come and go a lot so they were used
to them landing and taking off, but then again
there had been no reports of people finding a new
planet. Had NASA been keeping it a secret all these
years? I doubt it.
It was twilight so we put on warm clothes and
went out to explore the planet. We left the
spaceship burners on because if they were turned
off the ocean might turn back into a liquid and the
spaceship would sink. We went outside and stepped
on to the mushy, cold ground. The air was so cold
that I could see my breath when I exhaled and my
nostrils filled with the icy air as inhaled through
my nose.
As we started walking towards the busy crowd,
I noticed my brother was gone. I told my mom but
she said not to worry. She had seen the planet
while flying the spaceship and it was small with
only one forest. The rest of the planet was ocean,
open fields and neighborhoods. Besides, I think my
brother could handle himself.
When we approached the crowd of creatures,
they came up and they tried to talk to us. They
sounded like a bunch of crickets. They all looked
alike; green, plump, about 3 ft. in height. I think
the girls were the ones with long hair and the boys
had short hair. Where I am from girls are mostly
known for having long hair, I thought their planet
would be the same.
The natives of the planet Oobleck started to
point towards something. My eyes followed the path
led by their green fingers. I couldn't believe my
eyes. There was my brother covered in a green
paint.
"What are you doing? Why are you covered in
green paint?" I asked him.
"Come, the oobleckians would appreciate it
very much if we were all green," he replied calmly,
acting as if he knew everything.
"What is a oobleckian? Did you make that up?"
my mom asked him.
"That is what the creatures are. Oobleckian.
I did not make it up!" he replied.
I asked him how he knew all this and he said
it was because he could communicate with them
telepathically. I thought that was pretty cool even
though it seemed like he was lying. So we were all
painted green. It was a special type of so it
didn't get hard when it dried. After we had
finished painting ourselves we were very tired.
They let us sleep in what looked like a
teepee.
The next morning we woke up to the smell of
something good. There in front of us was a tray. On
the tray were six cups filled with a green, warm,
delicious smelling liquid. There were also many
different colored pills. We tried the pills and
found out that each one was food squished in to
that little cylinder container. They all tasted
really good.
After we were done eating, we went outside
and my brother said twelve of the oobleckians
wanted to see our spaceship. We took them to it and
it looked like it had been abandoned. When we had
left it, the lights and the burners were on. Now,
no lights were on and the burners had "burnt out".
My dad went up to the door and said it wouldn't
open. So, he kicked down the door. Then one by one
we walked in.
"The power is out. I didn't know how much
fuel it would take up or how fast it would be used
up. I knew I should have checked. Oh well, no sense
worrying about the fact that there is no fuel.
Let's find a way to get some more fuel," my mom
said trying to be encouraging.
It was doing very little good to our shocked
faces. I didn't know what to think. I knew my mom
was right and we should ignore the fact that we
have no fuel. We should concentrate on finding some
more fuel.
We went back to the village and we started
looking for things that could be used to make a new
fuel. It was pretty hard because we didn't know
what anything was. My grandfather used to work at
the gas factories so he had a pretty good idea of
what made a good fuel. But he had trouble because
he didn't know what anything was either.
That's when my brother came up with a
brilliant idea. We could take one of the
oobleckians and they could tell us what everything
was. My brother could be the translator. Boy, does
my brother love the fact that he can communicate
with them. Why him? Why not me? Well anyway that
was a pretty good idea so the next day my brother
would ask one of them.
The next day my brother asked a boy named
Gasgab if he would come with us. Gasgab accepted
the offer without any hesitation. So we set off
into the forest, Gasgab told my brother what
everything was and my brother would tell us. There
was many neat different plants, but none that would
make a good fuel. Actually, there was nothing that
could even make a fuel. I think that was because
they only grow what they need. They don't need fuel
since they don't drive cars because their planet is
so small. The days on their planet are rather short
so it got dark really fast. We went back to the
village knowing different recipes and things but
nothing on how to make a fuel.
We woke up the next morning to the sound of a
dropped pot. We went outside and the oobleckians
were throwing different plants and things in to a
huge pot. One of the smaller pots had dropped on
the ground and that was what woke us up. The
tallest of them all was stirring it. We all knew at
once. They were trying to make a new fuel for us.
We must have said thank you a thousand times but
they couldn't understand what we were saying. They
could only understand my brother. I think they knew
we were saying "thank you" because we were jumping
up and down hugging them. After that was all done
we asked them if they wanted any help. They said it
wouldn't be necessary and they just wanted us to
relax. So left to explore the planet.
Almost 30% of the planet was ocean. No fish
or anything lived in it because it was pretty
impossible to even move in the oobleck. The ocean
was really cool. The ocean is the opposite of
quicksand. If you try to push your hand down to the
bottom really fast you will have to use a lot of
pressure. The slower you try to push your hand down
the easier it is.
Like I said before, the days are very short
so we went back to the village at twilight. The
oobleckians were not at the village and then just
as we were about to go and look for them in the
forest, we saw a huge light shoot out in to the
sky. It was coming from where our spaceship was. We
ran to the spaceship and what I saw made my eyes
nearly pop out of my head. They had done it! The
lights and the burners were on and the door was put
back in place. Tears filled my mother's eyes as we
ran up to our heroes. We hugged them and my brother
told them it was time for us to go. We were missed
very much back on Earth. We did promise to come
back though. As a going away present, I gave them
my jacket. We also gave them our plants. We weren't
sure if they would survive on the planet but it was
the only interesting thing that we could find. Then
we got aboard our spaceship and flew back to Earth.
We would never forget our new friends. They were
probably the best friends I ever had even if I
couldn't communicate with them.
[Animation]
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