Chapter 1: The Signal

In a solar system about 10 light years away from Earth, there was a planet bursting with life. Its name was Sprigg. In many ways, it was very similar to Earth: people that looked like us, English, breathable oxygen, etc. It can be very easy to confuse Earth with Sprigg. However, there was one difference.

Sprigg had unlimited access to view life on other worlds.

If you wanted to view another world without leaving Sprigg, first you would have to go into a big building. Then you would have to get permission from the manager, Mr. DaLoiff. He would then guide you to one of many large TV screens hanging on the wall. In front of each TV screen there were two white cylinders, each a different height. The shorter one would have a blue design on it, and the other would have a red swirl. Mr. DaLoiff would then turn on the TV screen, check the signal, and you could move the invisible camera around. However, you would have to make sure the camera did not touch anything, because if it did, whatever it touched would be brought into Sprigg! The only way to bring it back was to push down on each of the white cylinders until they were equal height (some people find it easier to stand on them, putting one foot on each cylinder). You would then throw the object at the screen, and it will pass through the screen and go back into its own world. If you wanted to go into the screen yourself, you would have to jump.

Around the middle of each year, Mr. DaLoiff would open the building to the public and check the signal for each world. On that day, and that day only, you can view any of the TV screens without permission.

In the middle of one year, Mr. DaLoiff was checking the signal for each of the TV screens. He discovered something was wrong, and he announced it to the entire building over the sound system:

“Something is wrong with the signal for planet Earth.”

Several people came to the building to see what was wrong. Eventually Mr. DaLoiff figured out the people just wanted to see the static, but one person, his assistant, Mrs. Hyken, was more interested on the actual problem.

“Could you be more specific?” she asked Mr. DaLoiff. “What do you mean by ‘something is wrong?’”

“Well,” Mr. DaLoiff answered, “we cannot see anything happening on Earth. If the malfunctioning camera collides with anything, they will still be brought to this building, but they will not be able to go back.”

“How dreadful!” Mrs. Hyken cried.

“Don’t worry, I’ll see what I can do.”

“How can you do that?” Mrs. Hyken asked. “I thought you had to be on that world to fix the signal.”

“Oh, yeah. Drat! The only chance we have of fixing the signal is if someone on that world would fix the signal. But what on Sprigg are the chances of that?!” he shouted.

“About 6,602,224,175 to one.”

“Uh, it was a rhetorical question, Mrs. Hyken.”

“Oh, okay. But we can’t communicate between this world and another when the signal is broken. What are we going to do?!”

TO BE CONTINUED