Episode 6: The Book of a Thousand Worlds
Emil and Tom looked at the warning carved into the asteroid — "DO NOT DIG HERE!!!" — and then they looked at each other. And they both grinned the very same grin.
"You know what this means," said Emil.
"It means," said Tom, wriggling with excitement, "there's definitely something buried here!"
Without another moment's hesitation, the two friends pulled on their space suits once more — round helmets, padded gloves, sturdy little boots. They each checked the other's helmet twice, just to be safe, and then hurried to the airlock. With a soft hiss, the door opened, and out into space they floated.
Holding hands so they wouldn't drift apart, Emil and Tom pushed off from the cozy red tomato-ship and sailed toward the great asteroid. Closer and closer they drifted, the carved warning growing larger and larger before them. The stars wheeled silently all around. And then — gently, gently — their boots touched down on the rough grey surface, and they stood at last upon the asteroid itself.
Emil had brought a sturdy shovel, and now he set right to work. He dug, and dug, and dug. Tom helped too, scooping the loose rock aside as it floated up in the low gravity. Down through the dusty stone they tunneled — half a meter, then one meter, then a meter and a half. It was hard work, and Emil's arms began to ache.
"Are you sure there's anything down here?" Tom puffed.
"The sign said not to dig," Emil panted, "so I'm quite sure—"
CLONK!
The shovel struck something hard.
Both friends froze. Then they dropped to their knees and began brushing the rock away with their gloved hands, faster and faster, until — there it was. Buried about two meters down, solid and square and waiting, was a big box.
"We found it!" Tom squealed. "We actually found it!"
Together they heaved and tugged, and slowly, with a groan, they lifted the heavy box up out of the hole and set it down upon the surface of the asteroid. They brushed off the last of the dust — and there, written across the lid in big bold letters, were three more words:
"DO NOT OPEN!!!" Emil and Tom looked at the warning. Then they looked at each other. And, of course, they both grinned again.
"First it said don't dig," Tom giggled. "Now it says don't open. Whoever buried this really didn't want anyone finding out what's inside."
"Which only makes me want to find out more," laughed Emil. "Come on — let's take it back to the ship. We'll open it where it's warm and safe."
So the two friends lifted the heavy box between them and carried it slowly, carefully, back across the stars toward the cozy red tomato-ship. It was a struggle — the box was big and they were small — but together they managed it. Through the airlock they went, the door sealing shut behind them with a comforting hiss, and they set the box down gently on the cabin floor.
At last they pulled off their helmets and wriggled out of their space suits, cheeks flushed and hearts pounding. The box sat before them, mysterious and silent.
"Ready?" asked Emil, resting his hands on the lid.
"Ready," breathed Tom.
And together, they opened the box.
The lid creaked back — and the two friends leaned in eagerly, holding their breath, certain of what they would find. Gold, surely! Glittering heaps of golden coins. Or jewels — rubies and emeralds and sparkling diamonds. Or some priceless ancient artifact, costly beyond measure. After two warnings and a two-meter dig at the edge of the galaxy, it had to be a fabulous treasure.
But when they looked inside...
It was a book.
Just one single, enormous book. No gold. No jewels. No glittering riches at all. Only a great big book, bound in worn old leather, its pages thick and yellowed with age.
For a moment, Emil and Tom simply stared, not trusting their eyes.
"A... a book?" said Tom. "We dug all that way... for a book?"
But Emil was already lifting it out, ever so carefully, for he could see at once that this was no ordinary book. It was ancient — far older, perhaps, than even the pirate's map. And it was heavy, packed with hundreds and hundreds of crackling pages.
"It's not just any book," Emil murmured, his disappointment melting away into wonder. "Look, Tom. It's a journal. A traveler's notebook — all the notes and stories from someone's journeys."
They opened the great book across the floor and began, gently, to turn its delicate pages. And what they saw took their breath away.
The book was filled, from cover to cover, with the most marvelous things — drawings of strange and distant worlds, careful maps, and pages and pages of handwritten stories. Whoever had written it had clearly traveled across the entire galaxy, visiting world after world after world, and writing down everything they saw.
But there was one curious thing. Nowhere in all those hundreds of pages was there a name. The traveler had never written down who they were. There were pictures and stories aplenty — but of the mysterious traveler themselves, not a single clue.
"Who were they?" Tom wondered, his eyes huge.
"I don't know," said Emil softly. "But look at all the places they went."
Together they turned the pages, and one wonder after another unfolded before them. There was a Water-Planet, an entire world made of nothing but shimmering blue oceans, with cities floating on the waves. There was a Planet of Metal, gleaming silver from pole to pole, its mountains made of polished steel. There was a Planet of Robots, where clanking mechanical creatures lived in great glittering machine-cities. And on, and on, and on — page after page of astonishing places, each one stranger and more wonderful than the last.
Emil's eyes sparkled brighter with every page they turned. At last he could hold it in no longer.
"Tom!" he burst out. "Do you realize what this is? This is a whole galaxy of adventures, all written down for us! Every one of these planets is a place we could actually go!" He looked up, beaming. "Why don't we pick one — any one — and fly there, and see if it's still just as the traveler described? See if these worlds are really still out there?"
Tom's worm-face split into the widest grin yet. "Yes!" he cried. "Oh, yes, let's! Let's pick a page — any page — completely at random, and go wherever it lands!"
So that is exactly what they did. Emil carefully carried the great heavy book to the pilot seats, and he and Tom settled in side by side. Tom closed his eyes, and Emil let the ancient pages flutter and fall — fwip, fwip, fwip — until they stopped, all on their own, at a single page.
The two friends leaned in to read where fate had landed them.
It was a small planet, the book said — not so very far away at all. A curious little world with a curious little name.
"Quirx," Emil read aloud, and the word seemed to tingle with promise. "Our next destination... is a planet called Quirx."
He set the course. The navigation screen lit up with a fresh glowing line. And out in the starry dark, the cozy red tomato-ship turned its nose toward a small, faraway world that no one had visited in a very, very long time — two brave friends aboard, an ancient book of wonders open on their laps, and a thousand new adventures waiting to be found.
The journey was only just beginning.
The End — for now...