THE SPACE EXPLORER
Jimmy Philips and the Knot Civilization
By
Oz Tellez
Copyright 2012
The contents of this book, such as characters, places, names, etc. were created at random. Similarities to any such real life creation are purely coincidental.
Note from the Author
This book is intended for children between the ages of 7 and 12, but it could also be an adventure for the whole family to enjoy. With this book, I hope to promote science and engineering as career choices for future generations. So, I include elements of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, geology and astronomy. Remember, this is science fiction. It is likely that some concepts may not be entirely accurate, but were created for the sake of the story. There may be some unfamiliar terms in this book. So, I encourage the readers to look up the words to which they don’t know the meaning. Constructive feedback is appreciated.
Hidden Number: There is a number in this book that I would like the reader to figure out. Most of the numbers, not all, presented in this book are divisible by or divisors of that number. There are two prime numbers scattered in the book whose product is the number I am talking about. If you find it, email me at
[email protected] and I’ll give you kudos. Good luck!
Secret Question: What do you think the letters S.E. on the side of the space ship stand for? Hint: The answer is somewhere in this book.
Chapter 1
A Bad Landing
Millions of light years from earth, the fabric of space and time was stretched, creating the phenomenon known as a wormhole. After a brilliant flash of light, a spaceship emerged and the wormhole disappeared.
The ship was a small private vessel, intended for space exploration. It was named the “S.E. Dragonfly.” Inside the ship, there were two children sleeping peacefully within hibernation tubes – a boy and a girl. These sleeping tubes had a timer set, for the children to wake up. Their father was guiding the ship at the flight deck. From there, an alien planet could be seen out the window. It was within sixteen thousand kilometers away, so the planet looked like a gigantic purple marble. He set course for that planet and drove the ship to go over eight thousand kilometers an hour. His plan was to arrive within two hours.
The children remained asleep throughout the trip. The boy was 11-year old Jimmy Phillips and his sister was 7-year old Amy Phillips.
Their father was well-known space-research scientist of the 23rd century— Dr. Sean Phillips. As a family, the Phillips traveled the universe in search of Earth-like worlds that may contain life, so that we, human beings, may learn from them.
An hour and a half had passed and the S.E. Dragonfly was slowing down as it approached this strange new world. Dr. Philips had the ship’s computer scan the planet for a safe place to land. When a spot was located, he proceeded to enter the planet’s atmosphere. The ship’s spinning wings came to a halt on each side, so that the S.E. Dragonfly may enter without problems.
As it descended, the ship began to shake intensely. It struggled to stay even with the ground. When it came in contact with the surface, the ship skipped through a swampy area a few times before coming to a complete stop.
Dr. Philips sighed in relief. He was glad nobody got hurt and the ship suffered little damage. The S.E. Dragonfly’s computer checked the planet’s atmospheric conditions. After reading the conditions on the screen, Dr. Philips grabbed a blue space suit and stepped out of the ship to gather samples and data. It was part of his job. While he worked, a giant shadow loomed over him…
Meanwhile…
Inside the ship, the timer on the hibernation tubes went off and the children woke up. From inside the tubes, they dialed a sequence of buttons to open them.
“Dad?” Jimmy called.
“I’m going to brush my teeth.” said Amy.
“Ok.” Jimmy replied as he walked out of the hibernation chamber. He continued down the main corridor of the ship to reach the flight deck and called out. “Dad, what is this place? Daaad, you there?”
No one answered. The flight deck was empty. He glanced out the window and noticed the ship was partially buried in the swamp.
Amy came into the room minutes after and asked, “Where’s dad? I’m hungry.”
“He’s probably mapping the area. I’m sure he’ll be back soon.” Jimmy answered. “I’ll get us something to eat.”
Jimmy prepared some serial with milk for the both of them. After they had their short meal, they sat and waited for their dad to come back. They played games to keep from being bored. But over an hour had gone by, when they realized that their father had failed to return.
“You think that dad got lost, Jimmy?” Amy wondered with a sad look on her face.
“I don’t know.” Jimmy replied.
To their surprise, they hear a tapping sound coming from the windows outside the ship. “Look! It’s A.R!” Amy cried.
A.R. was an Arachno-Rover, a spider-like artificially-smart robot design to analyze and store knowledge of its surroundings. A.R. was crawling outside, trying to find a way inside the ship.
“We have to let him in.” Amy uttered anxiously.
“Wait! Remember what dad always says. We have to check conditions before going outside.” Jimmy walked over to the computer controls and pulled up a floating screen that displayed the atmospheric data.
“You know how to do that?” Amy wondered.
“Yeah, dad showed how to do it a few days ago.” Jimmy answered. “You see this list?” He said to Amy, pointing at a list on the right side of the screen. “These are the conditions of this planet compared with our planet. If it’s exactly like Earth, then we can go outside without suits.”
“Well, is it like Earth?” Amy asked.
“It says the atmospheric pressure is 21% lower than Earth’s on average.” Jimmy lectured.
“What does that mean?” She pondered.
“Remember what dad said once.” Jimmy added. “If the pressure is high we wear red suits and if it’s low we wear…”
“Blue Suits!” Jimmy and Amy excitedly exclaimed at the same time. They ran back to the storage where their astronaut suits were kept and put them on.
The children went out to find A.R. They saw the robot crawl from the flight deck window to the nose tip of the S.E. Dragonfly.
“A.R!” Jimmy shouted from the base of the ship. “Where is dad?”
“Retrieving Data…” A.R. responded with a systematic voice. “Sean Phillips was taken exactly 1-hour-7-minutes-42-seconds ago.”
“A.R! Come down from there!” Jimmy commanded.
“A.R! Who took dad? Amy demanded.
“One command ‘SLASH’ question at a time please…” the robot cried and jumped from the tip onto the stem of a local plant in the swamp. “Species: Un-known.”
“Where did they take him?” Jimmy steadily questioned.
“Direction: South-east.” A.R. stated.
“I hope dad is ok.” Amy lamented.
Jimmy glanced at his right wrist where the space suit has a multi-function device attached to it— including a compass. He gazed into the horizon to the southeast and assured her, “Don’t worry Amy… We’ll find him.”