A Dilemma in Space

Nayeli Karunaekara

Age 10

A Dilemma in Space

The Darkest Night

Snow fell from the sky. The tiny flakes looked like stars in the pitch-black night sky. Perry looked up. The sky was a black mass, lacking the stars and the moon it usually displayed. Unease settled over him, but Perry shrugged it away. Perry glanced at his watch, which displayed the date (02-9-4037), the time (22:24), and the moon cycle for the night. There’s supposed to be a new moon tonight, Perry thought. Perry tried to believe himself, but some strange feeling stopped him. He trudged through the snow; his mind still on the abnormal sky.

As he neared his house, his footsteps became quicker in pace, and he broke out into a run once his house was in sight. Hopefully, when he got home, his mind would be cleared. Perry examined the street lamps, the only light that illuminated the houses around him, as he raced past them. They were old and dim, and they flickered as if they were talking to each other about why a sixteen-year old teenage boy was walking around in the cold at this time of night. When Perry reached his house, he knocked softly on the door, not wanting to wake up his little brother, Minro, in case he was asleep (which he most likely was, for he loved to sleep, and it was late at night). There was the faint swish of a curtain, and a split second later, the door opened. It was Papa. “Perry!” he shouted with joy. Papa cupped his hand over his mouth.

“Minro is sleeping,” he whispered.

“What took you so long?” Papa asked.

“Nothing, I just lost my way,” Perry responded.

“OK . . .” Papa murmured as if he didn’t believe Perry.

Wanting to get out of the conversation, Perry let out a fake yawn. “I’m very tired,” he lied. “I’d better go to bed.” He strode over to his room and opened the door as slowly as possible, not wanting to wake his younger brother. He silently shut the door behind him. The door creaked, but it was barely more than a whisper of a sound. Perry collapsed on the bed. He was so . . . tired? Drained? There wasn’t a word to describe it. Perry inspected the inky sky through the window as he laid in bed and slowly drifted off to sleep. 81

The Morning Filled With Darkness

BRRRING! BRRRING! Perry’s alarm rang. He lifted his head toward the window, expecting to see the sunlight that normally greeted him in the morning. Shielding his eyes, Perry braced himself for the piercing sunlight. Instead, he found the sky to be as dark as last night’s. It’s probably one of Minro’s little pranks. He smiled. He changed and went to Minro’s room. Minro was still in bed. Of course, Minro loves to sleep, Perry thought. But wouldn’t Papa have woken him up by now? Perry thought. I’ll check on Papa, Perry decided and then closed the door.

Perry walked quickly to Papa’s room, and he opened the door a bit too quickly so that the door creaked very loudly. Yes, their house wasn’t the best, but it was enough to live in. Papa was still in bed, and his snores were louder than Perry’s alarm. Papa usually woke up very early and was always strict about waking up at a proper time. Perry looked around the room. It was dark and the clear window curtains showed no sign of light. Papa also had no alarm clock . . . maybe he wakes up to sunlight! Perry thought excitedly, too excited to care about the dark sky. He rushed down the hallway not caring about how loud his footfalls were. He got a flashlight and raced back to Papa’s room. Perry clicked on the flashlight and shone it on Papa’s face. Papa bolted straight up and would have his head on the flashlight if Perry hadn’t jerked back in surprise.

“Have you woken Minro? Have you cleaned up your room? Have you . . .” The questions tumbled out of Papa’s mouth.

When Papa finally finished, his breath came out in big huffs and puffs, his face was red, and his usual neat brown hair was all frizzy. After a bit of huffing and puffing, Papa asked for the time. “It’s 8:46am,” Perry replied.

“WWWHHHAAATTT!!!!!” Papa screamed. “It’s so late! I’m supposed to wake up at 5:30!” Papa jerked out of bed and rushed to the bathroom and record-breakingly came out in about forty seconds.

“I’ll just wake Minro up,” Perry said awkwardly and tip-toed out of Papa’s room.

When Perry arrived in Minro’s room, he found Minro tossing and turning in his sleep. His stuffed animals were all over the floor. Perry silently walked over the creaky wooden floorboards to Minro’s bed and made little shhh shhh noises to calm him down. After a few minutes, Minro opened his eyes and groaned and then turned over and flopped onto the bed face-down. Then, he yawned and started to snore again.

“Arrgh!” Perry whispered, and then he shook Minro with all his might.

“Let me sleep,” Minro whined. Minro pulled his blanket over his head. If

Minro isn’t going to wake up . . . I’ll have to do it the sneaky way, Perry thought evilly. Perry was in luck. Minro had gotten a pancake-scented pancake stuffy for his birthday, and Minro loved pancakes. Perry got Minro’s pancake stuffy from Minro’s closet and brought it up to Minro’s nose. Minro’s nose twitched. It sniffed. And Minro shot out of bed heading to the bathroom. “Pancakes! Pancakes!” Minro shouted on the way. Perry quietly tip-toed away out of Minro’s room to avoid painfully damaging his ears because of Minro’s extremely loud yelling.

Perry’s head hurt because of Minro’s highly unnecessary yelling. “I’ll take a walk,” Perry decided and headed out of the house. When he went outside, Perry could barely see a thing because the sky was so dark. What is going on? Perry wondered worriedly. He looked up at the sky and saw flashing red and yellow lights. The lights were dim, so if you wanted to see them, you would have to squint your eyes very hard.

Hello Totally Friendly Aliens

The flashing lights seemed to come closer, and in a flash, Perry found himself tied up in ropes and caged in a metal cell. Outside of the cell were some cool-looking panels. There were windows so big that you could probably see every star in sight.

A few minutes later, while Perry was examining the room, a soft ding sounded, and a door, very similar to the ones on elevators, opened. Out came an odd muscular white creature with big, angry-looking, black compound eyes. The creature held a sharp-looking trident in his hand, and Perry did not want to encounter that. “Oba saha obē vargayā apē pŗthiviyaţa kara æti dē gæna oba dannē kumakda!?

“Huh?” Perry replied nervously. The creature eyed Perry suspiciously. Then, the creature pulled out a small metal gadget and brought it up to Perry’s face. “What is this?” Perry asked while backing away from the gadget. The creature pressed tiny buttons with its frog-like hands.

“Han̆dunāgat bhāŞāva: iŋgrīsi,” the gadget said in a robotic voice.

“Oba saha obē vargayā apē pŗthiviyaţa kara æti dē gæna oba dannē kumakda?” the creature said into the gadget. Then, the creature placed the gadget in Perry’s hands. Perry’s hands looked very small compared to the creature’s enormous hands.

Perry stared at the gadget and was startled when a robotic voice asked, “What do you know about what you and your species have done to our planet?”

Perry replied, “Nothing!” Perry stammered. “Uh, a definitely friendly

alien, can you err . . . um . . . release me?” Perry’s voice shook. The totally not friendly-looking alien took the gadget out of Perry’s hands. For the brief moment that their hands touched Perry could feel a slimy texture, similar to the slime of a snail. Perry’s stomach lurched. The alien’s slime made him lose his appetite. He thought he would have fainted if it weren’t for the robotic voice translating what Perry had said.

The Black Whatsit

The alien nodded and opened Perry’s door with a golden key embedded in sapphires, opals, and diamonds. Perry stared longingly at the key. It looked so precious, so beautiful. Perry shook his head. He needed to get out of here. He started to run. He didn’t know where he was running. He just looked for an exit. Finally! Perry’s mind raced. A door! He opened the door and . . .

The alien who had got him out of his cage stood there red and angry. The alien’s whole body was covered in a flaming red . . . Perry tried to run away, but it was too late. Perry was yanked inside of the room the alien was in. The alien’s nostrils flared. The creature grabbed Perry’s wrist very tightly; so tightly that Perry thought his hand would go numb. With his other hand, the alien grabbed the gadget and spoke into it, “Apaţa obaţa ridavīmaţa avaśya næta.” The alien put the gadget in Perry’s arms.

“We need your help, we don’t want to hurt you,” the gadget translated.

“Oh, I didn’t know, but could you maybe release my hand, if you don’t mind?” spoke Perry. “How can I help?” Perry asked nervously. Perry handed the gadget over to the alien, and the gadget translated what he had said into the alien’s language. The alien whispered into the gadget and then gave it to Perry.

The gadget translated to him, “Your species have been sending space junk to our planet, Antinos. Space junk has crashed into our planet, and your species has to help us, or else the Gyunus will stay and eventually, after about three days, everyone on the planet dies,” the alien said, pointing to the black covering around Earth.

Perry’s eyes widened in alarm. He thought of Minro and Papa, his kind neighbor Ms. Firkins, and everyone else he knew. “OK,” he said into the gadget. “I will lead you to the RSI (Rocket and Space Institution); they’ll see to the problem,” Perry said, trying to sound confident.

Going to Earth

“Api sannaddhava paemiţiya yutuda?”

“Should we come armed?” the gadget translated in its spine-chilling robotic voice. Perry thought for a bit. Yes and no. If these aliens brought weapons, they would be seen as a threat, though unarmed, they would be weak and unsafe. Suddenly, a thought struck Perry: They should bring weapons, but the RSI should not be able to see them! Perry spoke his idea into the gadget very quickly. The alien looked at him as if he was crazy.

“Mama sevala sahita neme.”

“I’m not slimy,” the gadget translated. Personally, Perry thought the alien was slimy, but he didn’t mention that.

“I didn’t say that,” replied Perry.

“Mama eka kiw we naha,” the gadget translated back to the alien. The alien squinted.

“Etakoţa oyā monavada manussayō kivvē?”

“Then what did you say, human?” the gadget translated in its expressionless voice.

“You need to bring weapons, but the RSI can’t see them. Also, the name’s Perry, alien,” Perry said.

The alien smirked at the end of the translation. “Hari, namat ran hamudāvē sar rantuş saha ridī senpatiyā . . . api rāmlulupanlā, ættaţa,” the alien replied.

The gadget translated: “OK, also the name is Sir Ranthush of the Golden Army and Commander of Silver . . . and we are Ramlulupans, not just aliens, for a fact.” The alien smirked. Ranthush had a pretty good sense of humor, Perry thought, smiling back. Now to the RSI. Perry was a mix of emotions, scared, excited, happy, and who knows what.

The RSI

Ranthush, the other Ramlulupans, and Perry gathered the weapons: pens that could transform into swords, invisible swords, and shields and a bunch of random gadgets that Perry couldn’t name. Perry stood in awe. There were so many weapons. Maybe too many, Perry thought, feeling queasy. Perry shook the thought away suddenly feeling a tinge of anger at his fellow humans. To them, it seemed as if they cared about their well being more than others. This realization suddenly hit Perry, like getting poked in the stomach with a blunt stick. Perry wondered if his fellow humans knew what they were doing to the Ramlulupans.

A selection of Ramlulupans and Perry went on an odd-looking rocket. It looked somewhat like a car with wings and a pointy front. They were destined to land in the RSI parking lot, but instead they crash-landed a centimeter from the entrance and stopped, at least for a second, and skidded, and the rocket-car crashed right through the door. Perry’s cheeks flushed. He ducked down hoping no one would see him. The door next to his seat opened and Ranthush beckoned Perry out of his seat. Perry shrunk back and shook his head, “No,” signaling to Ranthush that he did not want to go. Ranthush narrowed his bug-like eyes at Perry. Perry felt a chill down his spine. “Fine,” Perry whined. He slowly scooched to the door and got out.

Aashvi, Umaiza, and Hritvi

The inside of the RSI building was breathtaking. The ceiling looked exactly like the stars at night, and there was a huge desk for the seven RSI council members. “Hello,” the head counselor said in a cold voice. The head counselor dismissed the other counselors except for two other counselors. “Āyubōvan,” the head counselor said. “Ranthush,” she added. And then the RSI head counselor and the other two counselors turned into Ramlulupans, except these Ramlulupans were splotched with many different colors, unlike the usual pale white Ramlulupans.

“Aashvi, Umaiza, Hrtivi? Eka oyada?” Ranthush asked and narrowed his eyes.

“Ou,” the head counselor replied. Who are these Ramlulupans? Perry wondered. Ranthush whispered something to the Ramlulupan next to him and then Ranthush quickly walked over to Perry. Ranthush led Perry to the rocket car thing and hustled him inside without saying anything. Ranthush brought out the translating gadget.

“Oyā dannawada ara Ramlulupan tundenā. Hon̆dayi, ovun pæraţi purāvŗttayakin pæmiņi aya saha ovungē napura mama anumāna karami. Ebævin ovunţa balatala æta, saha mm, Ramlulupanvarun atpat kara gænīmaţa utsāha karayi, ebævin ov, ov,” Ranthush spoke into the gadget.

“You know those three Ramlulupans there? Well, um, they’re from an old legend, and they’re evil I guess. They have powers, and um, they are trying to take over the Ramlulupans, so um, yeah,” the gadget translated to Perry. Ranthush sounded scared. And he NEVER sounded scared. “Ovungē nam aashvi, umaiza saha hrtivi,” Ranthush said.

“Their names are Aashvi, Umaiza, and Hrtivi,” the gadget translated to Perry.

“Inna,” Ranthush said.

“Stay here,” the gadget translated once more. Perry nodded. He definitely did NOT want to be in a random fight with random Ramlulupans.

Fixing Everything (I Guess)

Finally, after what seemed like hours of waiting in a rocket car. A Ramulupan came to Perry and beckoned him out. Perry and the other Ramlulupans went inside the RSI. It was a mess. The desk was broken. Aashvi, Umaiza, and Hrtivi were nowhere to be found. Perry definitely did not want to know what happened to them either. The four other council members stood near a broken desk with shocked expressions.

They started to clean up the mess, and when they were done, it was almost spotless. ALMOST. The Ramlulupans and the other four counselors discussed what they would do about the situation. Perry, of course, had to wait. Outside. With absolutely NOTHING to do. He thought about his family. When the door opened, Perry jumped to his feet. Perry felt so . . . tiny in front of everyone. Everyone seemed calm. “Need a ride home?” asked one of the counselors. Perry nodded, too shy to speak.

During the ride, the counselor told Perry about how Aashvi, Umaiza, and Hrtivi had created an orbit leak. “We are going to design a rocket to seal the leak,” the counselor said, “The Ramlulupans were to remove the mysterious black covering with a promise to seal the leak.”

Finally, Perry arrived at his house. He knocked on the door. There was the faint swish of a curtain, and in a second, the door opened. Papa stood at the doorstep and embraced Perry tightly. Suddenly, Minro appeared too, his cheeks red. “Where are my pancakes?” Minro whined. Perry chuckled.

“No pancakes for you until you start getting up at a proper time,” Perry said, imitating Papa’s voice.

The End