Short Story: The Blue Planet

Paul was walking up and down the corridors of his space station. He was certain he had forgotten something, but he couldn’t remember what.

            “Are you sure I remembered everything?”

He asked his assistant a short woman with thick glasses. She didn’t really need the glasses. She only wore them because she thought they made her look more intellectual.

“Yes, I am positive.” She said struggling to keep up with him. “Everything is in place. You’ve got more than enough oxygen, the engine is filled to the brim and the team has made sure that the ship is flight-worthy about ten times now. No, there can’t be anything that you could have forgotten.”

Paul sighed

            “How long before the tourists arrive,” he said

His assistant checked her watch

            “In about five minutes.”

“Well, then we’ll just have to forget about whatever I forgot.”

 He said and walked towards the space station's entrance.

 

 

The tourist bus arrived just as he exited the space station. It was a black bus with a lot of small white dots on it so that the pattern on looked like the night sky. On one side of the bus, was write

 

The Blue Planet

 

In big blue letters and next to it there was a picture of a blue and green planet. People from all over the galaxy came to view the remarkable Blue Planet. Because of this Paul was used to seeing strange people, but today's bunch was the strangest by far. The first to exit the bus was a tall man with one big eye in the middle of his forehead and no nose, then there came something that looked like a walking flower, then a man with two heads, and then a family of small fat creatures. Paul couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw the dwarves exiting the bus. He had only seen pictures of them before. No, it couldn’t be. His father had told him tales about them, but he never thought he would meet any. They were grumpians. Known to be the grumpiest people in the universe.

“Well here goes,” he told his assistant.

Paul walked up to the people and said

“Welcome to The Blue Planet.”

               “Are we on the blue planet then.” the man with the one big eye asked

               “No you daft idiot.” one of the grumpians said.

“Yes, we aren’t on the blue planet yet. If you’d just follow me I’ll lead you to the spaceship with which I’ll take you there.”

He then led them through the space station towards the landing area. Then he led them into the spaceship. This spaceship and the space station have been in Paul’s family for generations. To tell you the truth that day was the spaceship's one hundredth birthday. That day precisely a hundred years ago this business was founded by Paul’s great-grandfather, but this was not what Paul was forgetting. In fact, he was planning to throw an enormous party the minute he came back. No, It was something else he was forgetting. If he only could remember what it was.

“Sorry about the spaceship. It’s an old-fashioned model so it would take us a while to get there, but in the meantime you pick a seat” He pointed at the seats “and in a few minutes we would take off.”

               “And exactly how long would it take this relic to get there.” One of the grumpiens grumbled.

               “About half an hour,” Paul said.

            “What! Half an hour.” The grumpien shouted, “Why are you wasting my time like this.”

               “Calm down sir. The planet is fourty light-years away and this is a very old ship.”

“This planet be bloody worth the trouble or I want my money back.” He shouted pointing a finger at Paul's face.”

“Don’t wory, when you see the planet you would want to pay me extra,” Paul said as calm as ever.

“I seriously doubt it.” The grumpian said and went to take his seat.

“Trust me you would he said” as he turned around

 

This trip was the hardest trip Paul had ever done by far. He had spent the last half hour listening to the grumpians complaining and he was getting sick of it, but luckily for him, he was seeing a little blue dot on the horizon. He made an announcement.

“We are almost at the planet. In a few minutes, you will be seeing the most beautiful thing you have ever set your eyes on, but unfortunately, the planet is classified as being barbaric so we will have to land on its moon.”

“What!” One of the grumpiens bellowed “We’ve come all this way and we aren’t even going to land on the bloody planet. Now I really want my money back.”

At that moment the man with the two heads who was sitting in front of the grumpien turned around and glared at him.

            “I’ve had it with your complaining.” He said

            “Well ok then.” Paul said “You’ll have to excuse me for a while so I can land the ship”

He walked back into the cockpit and about two minutes later the ship landed on the moon. If only he could remember what he had forgotten. Maybe he forgot to bring enough gas masks. He then opened the drawer under his control panel and saw that he had more than enough gas masks. Maybe he didn’t forget anything. He then picked all the gas masks up and walked into the passenger area. The minute he entered he noted that something was wrong: the grumpians weren’t complaining anymore. They were all staring at the two-headed man sitting in the front row. He then made a mental note to thank him later on. Paul then held the gasmasks

“Because of the fact that the moon has no atmosphere you will have to wear these to be able to breathe.” He said.

“Do I really…”The nearest grumpian began, but then he saw the two-headed man staring at him and then he stopped himself.

After he handed the gasmasks out to everybody he went to the front of the room and said

            “OK, everybody ready to go. Any questions?”

               “Yes, I have a problem.” The walking flower said “I don’t breathe Oxygen. I breathe carbon dioxide.”

“O, I see,” Paul said “Well you just press this small button at the side of the gasmask he said.” And pointed at a small button on the gasmask he was holding in his hand.

               “Any more questions?” He said

The man with the one eye then said

            “Yes, I have one. What is breath?”

“Well it’s something you do with your nose…” he began, but then he saw the man’s noseless face and said, “You don’t breathe don’t you.”

“Of course, I don’t breathe. I don’t even know what breathing is.”

“Well then you won’t be needing this,” he said and took the man's gasmask away.

“Any other questions?” He said.

He then waited for a while and when no one responded he put his gasmask on and said

“Well then let’s be off.”

Then he opened the spaceship door and climbed out of it. When he was outside he saw the blue planet hanging in space in front of him. No matter how many times he saw this it always seemed to amaze him. He saw that the rest of the people were equally amazed by this site. Even the grumpians were staring at the planet in amazement.

“Well, there you have it.” Paul said once everyone was on the spaceship “The Blue Planet.”

“You remember saying that we would want to pay extra once we saw the planet.” A nearby grumpian said

“Yes way, you still want a refund,” Paul said lifting his eyebrow

“Er, no. I wanted to pay you extra.” He said and took about five times the price of what he had to pay out of his pocket.

Paul was just about to accept the money when a white spaceship landed next to him. Then the spaceship opened a door and out of the door a man climbed saying

            “One small step for man one giant leap for…”

Then he saw Paul and the tourists and fainted.

            “O so that’s what I had forgotten,”  Paul said.