5)

"What does this one do?" Jake pointed at random to one of the myriad buttons on one of the consoles.

The whole ship was enormous. It lay hidden in thick fern, over ninety per cent of it buried under ground. The internal power systems, still partly operational, pumped in fresh air and provided some dim lights. The bridge they were now exploring was vast, even though seriously damaged.

"Don't touch anything," Taark reminded in a tired voice. Jake was too preoccupied with all those wonders around him to really pay attention. All the buttons and levers and monitors and… hammocks?

"You sleep in those?" Anita pointed at an old, tangled hammock hanging loosely from one of the walls."Not any more," Taark sighed and twisted his head trying to keep both children in his field of sight. Just in case. "We moved out to the surface a long time ago. Now we live in a camp in the forest." He finally gave up and only watched Jake carefully. For some reason he felt he could trust Anita not to destroy anything. At least not immediately.

The girl looked around and started exploring herself. She looked at the floor and carefully maneuvered around some scattered pieces of debris. Jake had just jumped over it earlier, hurrying to what looked like a helm station at the front of the bridge.

"It must have been quite a crash," she sighed, taking in all the damage. One of the walls just opened to a mass of torn conduits and smashed equipment. It was burnt and bent outwards at the edges, as if from a powerful explosion.

"Are you certain you can't repair any of this?" She asked, and knew the answer before she heard it. Even with her 7-year-old mind she realized that no amount of time would be sufficient to the task. To repair the ship, they would need an army of highly qualified engineers and a dozen warehouses of tools and equipment.

Taark was just about to say something to that effect but instead he jumped swiftly forward and pushed Jake away from the console he'd just activated. A loud beep echoed through the crippled ship.

"I… I'm sorry," the boy muttered, disoriented. "I never touched anything!"

Taark whistled softly and pushed some buttons. The beep stopped.

"That's okay," he said finally, turning back to the boy. "I don't suppose it's working anyway. You just turned an old alarm on."

"What sort of alarm?" Jake still felt guilty but curiosity was stronger.

"It informs the crew that an emergency beacon has been activated. As I said, I don't suppose it's operational. But please, be more careful…"

"I will," Jake promised quickly, already busy looking over a next workstation. This one looked like navigation.

Taark shook his head.

"I think you've seen enough here."

Jake opened his mouth to protest but Taark just looked at him firmly. The boy had had no idea that this… furry toy could be so strong – willed.

"There's nothing more of interest here, on the bridge," the 'toy' continued. "Come on, I'll show you something else."

* * *

"We're approaching the Pouli system, Commander," Kreen reported.

"On screen."

After a few months of constant repairs they had eventually managed to get the ship more or less operational. Morrus was finally beginning to believe their mission was going to be successful after all.

"Any signs of activity within the system?" He asked his tactical officer at the sensors.

"Scanning now," the officer replied, busy with the controls. After a while he added. "No traffic, sir."

Morrus acknowledged with a short nod. He was just turning around to give another order when all the hell broke lose.

The ship yanked. A deafening roar sounded throughout the bridge. The aft section hoisted suddenly. Everyone fell on the floor.

"What…?" The helmsman never finished. A beam fell down and crushed his back in an instant. A console exploded behind Morrus' back. Then another. He crawled under the monitor.

"Kreen!" He screamed. No answer. And another explosion. He looked behind. There was no aft section any longer. Just a pile of burning pieces. One more explosion, further away. The sound of emergency bulk heads closing somewhere. Then silence. Disturbing silence.

"Kreen?" Morrus repeated softly.

* * *

The children stood in awe. They had just entered a huge, empty room. Then, Taark manipulated some controls and suddenly they were no more in the room. They were on an alien planet!

"Wow!" It was the only thing Jake could think of at the moment.

They were standing in the middle of… somewhere, white sand at their feet instead of a tarnished carpet they say just a second ago.

"What… what's that?" Anita asked, out of breath.

"It's a holo image of my home town," Taark smiled, encouragingly. Come on, I'll show you my house.

The three of them started walking slowly. It was a cool, sunny afternoon. The sun looked a little bigger and brighter than their own but didn't seem to give more heat. Light breeze brought strange smells. The children stayed behind Taark, looking around.

The town was nothing like they'd ever seen before. The buildings were twice as tall as the highest skyscrapers on their own world. There were no streets, no cars and no people.

"Is it always so empty here?" Anita ventured. Taark whistled softly. It was his way of laughing.

"Look up," he said. She did. And she stopped right where she was. Above their heads there was a labyrinth of chutes, intersecting each other on many levels, leading in virtually every direction.

"Can we slide one of these?" Jake's eyes were wide open with excitement.

"Of course," Taark smiled. How else could we get to my house?

* * *

"How are you feeling, Commander?"

Morrus opened his eyes slowly. He didn't remember closing them.

"What happened?" He wanted to ask but he couldn't get his voice right. He only squeaked incoherently.

"Easy," the doctor said. "You're still in shock but you're going to recover."

Morrus wanted to ask about the rest of his crew but suddenly the ceiling above him started floating away. Everything around him grew darker and he lost consciousness again.