Chapter XXIV: Into the Cave and Beyond! ~J.C.

As soon as I entered the cave one thing came to mind. Disorganization. Odds and ends were piled up all over the cave some of it appeared I could be used for some4thing but most of it looked like junk. “Umm…Can I help you?” stated a voice. I turned around to be face to beak with none other than the Prof. Bluebird everyone was telling me about. “Actually I was thinking we could help out each other” I replied. “ I heard you were trying to build something to get us off this doomed rock. And by the way, my names J.C.”. “Well” started the Prof., “I don’t have much to build anything with. For starters I have some toaster ovens, motherboards, fuses, and some office supplies. Not anything you can build an escape vehicle with.” As the Prof. went on to describe the whole inventory of everything in the cave to me I noticed a small container the same color of my armor with a number four printed on the side. I walked over to it and yanked it free from the surrounding junk to get a closer look at it. Interrupting the Profs detailed description of everything in his cave I asked, “where in the world did you find this?” “Oh! I found that container in a crater outside when I was getting some fresh air. Except I haven’t figured out how to open it yet.” Responded the Prof. After explaining how I got onto this planet and how all my gear was scattered Professor Bluebird was more than happy to give me my container back as long as I helped him find components to use for the construction of his escape vehicle. “So are we going to start moving?’ I asked. “ We have plenty of ground to cover if were ever going to get off this planet.” “Yes,” answered the Prof. “you go ahead outside I’ll be with you in a moment. I just need to pack up a few things”
        As soon as I exited the cave/lab of Prof Bluebird the indicator light in the corner of my targeting screen started blinking telling me I had an incoming call. As soon as I accepted the call an excited voice exclaimed “commander J.C. this is lieutenant Scotty reporting a fortunate turn in events!” “And what is this turn of events Scotty?” I asked. “Sir we have discovered a wormhole that should spit us out way ahead of schedule! We have changed courses and now we are heading straight towards it.” “Ok. This is a very good change in our plans. How much should this shortcut take off of your flight time?” I questioned. “ We should be able to rendezvous in 2 weeks! The wormhole will cut off more than 11 months of cruising through space. We should be arriving at the wormhole in a few moments. I’ll send you our coordinates so you can track us with your long-range scanner. This is Scotty, over and out.” After the call was closed I focused on the now star filled sky and switched to a telescopic mode. I then zoomed in and focused as far as they would go on the coordinates sent to me. After a few seconds of waiting I saw a small flash and a small golden dot appear in the distance. “I guess they got through safely,” I said to myself switching back to normal viewing mode. “Now to check out that container.” I picked it up and looked for a way to open it. Finding a small removable metal plate on the side I pried it up to reveal a keypad. Punching in the password that I use to protect most of my high tech stuff the container gave off a little bleep and opened. Inside was a small metal cylinder and a piece of paper. It read “part #4 the acceleration chamber. This is one of the 5 parts needed to assemble the Rad particle acceleration cannon.” “Well that was easy,” I thought to myself. “ 2 parts down 3 to go and no one has a clue what I’m building. I quickly stored the new part in my containment cube and waited for the Prof to come out.
        Some time later the prof came out of his lab toting a bag of something. He didn’t tell me what it was so I didn’t bother to ask. As we started walking away from the cave Professor Bluebird thought to himself, “what could J.C. possibly do with that container that I couldn’t have done? I don’t know what it was used for or what was in it but I intend to find out”