The year was 2051, and by that time space traveling was an average thing. So often used, in fact, that children went in space, to the moon, just for everyday amusement. It was for this reason that the four teenagers, James, Rob, Mark and Anthony (Tony for short) decided to take a trip out to see the planetary alignment from the moon. And it was also for this reason that they didn’t expect anything to go wrong with their ship. Well, it did.

James, Rob, Mark and Tony, all 16 and anxious for their first unsupervised trip to the moon, prepared all their equipment carefully. They had their suites, air tanks, computers connected to Earth’s main database, and extra tanks in their ship. They departed from Earth, more precisely, Cedar Springs, MI, at 13:00 hours, and were to return at 19:00 hours. The boys were ecstatic to have six hours to their enjoyment on the moon.

“Do you think we’ll find anything of interest?” asked James as they suited up. It was almost 3:00, the time they were supposed to leave.

“I don’t know. It’s not like this is the first time we’ve been in space, so why should it be any different? We’ve never found anything before, I don’t think we’ll find anything this time, either,” said Mark, ever the down pull of the group. He rechecked the engines and computer system of the ship, the Destiny, once again. Everything was in order. As he shut the door to the main computer system, he didn’t notice the pipe containing the engine oil start to leak.

“Everything’s set, Mark?” asked James. The other boy nodded. Not only was the almost pessimistic one of the group, but he was also the scientific genius of the four of them.

“We’ll have no trouble with this trip, so let’s get going.”

The others in the ship nodded and finished their suits. Once done, Mark made his way to the nose of the ship, putting on the ear piece and turning on the computer to reach the station.

“Main systems go, this is the Destiny calling in. All systems ready to go. Is the take off clear?” Mark called into the mouth piece with professionalism none of the others possessed.

“All systems are locked and loaded. Your communication systems are working fine?”

“As fine as ever, Chief.”

“All right. Exit is clear to go in ten, nine, eight, seven, six....” The commander in charge of the Destiny’s take off counted down. The engines of the slender space ship started, vibrating comfortably around the boys.

“This is going to be sweet,” said Rob as he put on his seat belt. The others mirrored his actions just as the flashing red numbers 3, 2, 1, appeared on the screen.

“Safe flight boys,” called the commander as Mark steered them out of the station. “We’ll see you in 06:00 hours.”

A chorus of “Right!”s followed his call, and with the ease of a trained pilot, Mark penetrated the gravitational barrier around the planet Earth and let them go into space.

“Hang on, guys,” Tony said with a smile. “This is going to be the ride of our lives.”

The descent onto the moon was as smooth as possible, and Mark, still the responsible one, pulled on the ear piece as the engines shut off.

“Destiny calling to Main System. Main System, do you copy?”

All that responded was a load of fizz. Mark tapped the ear piece, switching a lever on the panel and turning the power off and on again. “Destiny to Main System. Main System, do you read me?” The fuzziness continued. Mark shot a worried glance to James, whose father was one of the commanding officers at the station.

“Don’t worry. I’m sure everything is fine,” he said with a reassuring smile. Mark smiled back, but he still wasn’t too sure.

“Well, while we’re here, how about we grab some snacks and go do what we came here for? I think we landed just in time to see the show,” Tony injected. He was always the carefree one of the group, never a worry in the world showed on his face. James nodded and Rob replied with a “Absolutely” of his own.

While the three other boys climbed to the back of the ship to take out their food and drinks, settling in front of the window the watch the alignment, Mark couldn’t ignore the feeling in his gut that told him that something was wrong. It just seemed . . . . too coincidental that at the moment of the alignment, something strange should happen to them. ‘I’m sure it is just coincidence,’ he thought, shrugging it off. But as he turned to the back of the ship, he could have sworn that he heard faint scraping coming from outside of the ship. It was soon followed by an animalistic growl.

“That settles it,” Mark said abruptly, gaining the attention of the other three.

“What settles what?” asked Tony, his mouth full of chips. Mark turned around and stared at them.

“Didn’t you hear that sound?” he asked in disbelief. How could they have not heard it? It was as loud as an elephant’s roar.

“Hear what?”

Mark shook his head. “There was a scraping sound from outside the ship, right against the door. I thought I might have just imagined it, but the growl I heard afterwards was definitely not my imagination. I think we’d better check it out.”

He pulled on his helmet and looked at the others, waiting for them to do the same.

“Well . . . you see, Mark . . .” began Rob.

“Let me guess,” Mark interrupted. “You guys came up here, relying on the assumption that everything was going to be fine and we could just sit back in comfort, watching the show.” The others nodded guiltily. Mark sighed. Why did he ever hang out with these guys? “All right,” he continued. “But I’m going out there. I don’t want to have to call the station and say that something happened and we need help. If there’s a problem, I’m going to fix it while I still can.” Reluctantly, James and Rob stood up, grabbing their helmets.

“Aw, come on, guys, you aren’t going to let a little scratching noises get to you,” said Tony from his spot on the floor.

Rob turned to him and said, “I know I really wanted to watch this show, but I care more about getting home safely than watching a light show, especially when I can see another one, and just as cool, in a few months. If there’s something out there,I want to see what it is, and what’s happening to our ship.” His speech convinced Tony.

“Something out there?” he said excitedly. “Hey, who’s leaving me out? I want to be in on whatever’s out there, scary and vicious, or cute and cuddly. Look out, creature, whatever you may be, for here comes Tony and his loyal sidekicks!”

“‘Loyal sidekicks?’” Rob asked incredulously. Tony grinned lopsidedly and the others just laughed. As they put on their helmets and secured the ship, they walked out with anxiety in their stomachs and images of glory and fame in their heads for finding out a life force in space.

But in leaving, they missed the call from the Main Station. The voice of the Commander came over the speaker phone, but it was too late for the boys to hear it.

“Destiny, Destiny, do you copy? Do you copy? There is an unidentified life force near your ship. We advise that you not do anything until officials get there. Please, I repeat, don’t do anything. And under no circumstances are you to leave the ship. The maintenance has just informed me that your ship has a leaky engine fluid pipe, and thus, the system if messed up. If you leave the ship, it will not let you back in. I repeat, it will not let you back in. Destiny, Destiny, do you copy? Hello?” The line went blank, and the news of the events reached nonexistent ears. Little did the boys know the danger they would be placing themselves in.

“Mark, are you sure you saw something?” Rob asked as they trudged on even father away from their ship. Though there was low gravity on the moon, walking through it for what seemed to be hours could get annoying pretty fast.

“I told you,” said Mark, getting irritated. His tone was brinking snarky was he shot back, “I didn’t see anything, I heard it. And yes, I 100 positive. I heard those scratchings, and I’d know that growl like the back of my hand if I heard it again.” A low growl sounded from behind them.

“Like that one?” James asked shakily. With a gulp, Mark nodded and turned around slowly, the others imitating his moves. With a very reluctant eye, they sought out the creature to make the noise, but found none.

“What’s going on?” asked Tony nervously.

Mark shook his head that he didn’t know, but said, “Now none of you can deny that we heard something. We all heard it that time. But what was it?”

“You’re the space expert! You tell us!” shouted Tony frantically. While he was the most carefree of the group, he was also the most cowardly. In the rush of the moment, being stuck outside on the moon with a creature growling sinisterly was not a very appealing event for him, and he was quick to blame someone, as long as it wasn’t himself.

“I never said I was a space expert, Anthony!” He knew that Tony hated to be called by his first name, but, being deliberately spiteful, he used it. “You know as well as anyone else does that records of a life force in space, much less on the moon, are scarce. No one has seen an alien up close, and so far, this is the closest we’ve come to seeing one. It’ll be history in the making.”

“Well that’s wonderful, but some of us here happen to like our lives. I personally don’t want to have it eaten by a life force that no one knows about. And since it probably will eat us, no one ever will know about it!” Tony shouted back. The growl came from right behind him this time, and, shutting up immediately, Tony turned around to face the creature of the space.

It was huge. Monstrous. It was . . . a bear. Almost. It looked like a bear, but it wasn’t quite. For instance, it had huge floppy ears that came down to its shoulders, and hair as thick as a field of wheat, as well as the same color. Its eyes were orange, gazing at each of them in its turn. Its lips were pulled back to reveal pearly white - gums? The four boys looked at each other curiously, then back to the animal. Tony even went so far as to smile. But as the creature growled again, its jaw widened, and they saw rows and rows of spiky teeth, each sharp as they looked.

“Umm . . . guys, we have a problem,” said James from the back of the group.

“Yeah, no kidding,” said Mark.

“No, I mean, in case you guys haven’t noticed, we’re running kind of low on air. In about, oh, say, five minutes? We’ll be out of air.”

“Wait a sec,” said Tony, turning to face the group. He had his back to the bear like alien, and it didn’t seem to like that very much. “You mean to tell me that we have an alien on our backs, we’re stuck on the moon until 9:00 when the landing bay is opened to us, and we’re running out of air?”

“Unless we can get back inside the ship in about-” James checked his watch- “four minutes, yes, we have a very big problem.”

That did it for Tony. Usually the one with the cool reserve, he almost screamed had the bear alien not growled right next to his ear. After that, he was too scared to scream. “Help,” he squeaked before running off. The others had no choice but to follow, and the bear gave chase. However, four teenage boys on the moon with no gravity trying to outrun an alien who appeared to not need air on its own home planet was not an ideal concept. The boys ran as fast as they could towards the ship (which wasn’t very fast) but still didn’t make it in time. As they stumbled and bounced their way to the space craft known as the Destiny, they felt as if it was their destiny to die here on the moon, eaten by a giant bear alien with no one knowing what they did or found. As the bear alien caught up with them, he was about to reach out one of his paws and strike down one of the boys, when a bright light from above them blinded him temporarily. They all looked up and saw another space craft, the words “Shining Commandeer” stood out in its golden paint.

“It’s the Chief Commander!” shouted Tony, resulting in yet another growl from the bear. He quickly stopped his celebration.

“How did he know we needed help?” Mark asked. But at that moment, a rope was released to the boys down below, and they anxiously climbed up.

“Just in time, too,” panted James. When Rob asked why, he responded with, “Our air tanks just ran out.” All of the boys gave a big sigh of relief as they walked up the steps to meet the Chief Commander, also James’ father.

“Boys!” he said jovially as he met them. “I hope I find you well? Nothing’s damaged or anything? No one’s hurt?”

“No, Sir,” said Mark. “Although we did have some trouble with the ship’s communication devices.”

“Ah, then that means that you had already left by the time we had sent you the warning message.”

“Warning message?” Mark questioned. The Commander smiled and nodded.

“Yes, at the last second before the whole ship shut down, we managed to get a warning message in to you. As it turns out, you were better off out there than you would have been inside your ship. Your ship shut off all air supply as well, so you would have suffocated in a matter of minutes. You guys gave a spectacular performance.” The group grinned at each other and Tony stood up proudly.

“I was the one who lead the group, Sir.” Mark and Rob laughed while James moved over to him and punched his arm.

“In your dreams, you were,” he said. “Sir, what’s going on with the alien bear thing? Are we going to capture it?” The Commander nodded.

“We have to. We can’t let a thing like that run around the planet, now can we? It’ll be bad for business if people start coming up and don’t return because they were eaten by a bear alien. Yes, we have to take him back. Would you guys do the honor of naming the city for the research?”

“Cedar Springs, MI,” Mark answered for them.

“Ah, I thought as much. Yes, since you boys found him, you will be in charge of keeping an eye on the research done for him. I hope you have fun.” The Commander looked out the window and smiled. “It seems as if we’re just in time for the light show.”

While the five of them watched the planets align, casting a beautiful shining flood of lights for each passing inch the sun revealed of the planets, the Director of the ship steered them back to Earth, Cedar Springs, MI, where the boys would resume their daily lives, having decided not to tell anyone of their adventures.

END STORY!!!!