Chapter 8: Free Tour

Junior did not want to go to any other strange worlds. The only other world he wanted to go to was Earth.

Then another person came by. Her name was Glynnis Johnny. She wore glasses and was holding a clipboard. She was the tour guide. When she saw Senior and Junior, she immediately asked them if they wanted a tour of the building. Junior reluctantly agreed. Senior did not want Junior to go with a stranger alone. He knew his son pretty well, and he may either get lost or wander around, so he went on the tour, too.

The first place they went to was the front desk. “These seats are for guests. On normal days there are only six seats, because there are never more than six visitors. By the time a seventh visitor comes, the first visitor is already on tour, hopefully.” Senior could tell Ms. Johnny enjoyed her job. Then they went to the Viewer Lab. Before she could explain anything, Junior pointed out that they’ve already been here. He said the same with the Postball field.

Then they went to the second floor by elevator. When they got to the top, they saw a kitchen.
“We know, we know, this is a kitchen,” remarked Junior. “Is there any room that shows us status on the Viewer Lab? Besides the Viewer Lab itself?”

“Well, there’s the Status Room,” said Glynnis. They went down a long hall of doors. Inside the last door on their left, there were several other doors. They went through the one closest to the window. There was a single computer in this room. It had a blue screen. “We still use the old models,” explained Ms. Johnny. “We haven’t upgraded to iMacs or anything yet.”

“But I noticed you do use laptops,” said Senior.

“Yeah. That’s the latest type of computer we have.”

“How does it work?” asked Junior.

Ms. Johnny typed: RUN “STATUS” Then a program popped up. There was a list of several planets, including Earth. The name of each planet had a different highlighter, depending on its signal. Earth was red. She typed EARTH_STATS, and the screen turned red. This is what was displayed:
EARTH

• SIGNAL STATUSES: GREAT (BLUE)
• GOOD (GREEN)
• EH / SO-SO (YELLOW)
• MINOR PROBLEM (ORANGE)
• MAJOR PROBLEM (RED)
• IRREPLACEABLE (FLASHING RED)

CURRENT STATUS: MAJOR PROBLEM

PROBLEM CAUSE: EARTH’S SIGNAL WAS FINE AT THE LAST CHECK. THE NEXT DAY, SOMETHING HAPPENED THAT DISTORTED THE CONTROLS AND DISTORTED THE SIGNAL AS WELL. THE EVENT THAT CAUSED THIS IS UNKNOWN.

“Well, that sort of helps. All we need to do is fix the controls and...oh, wait, the controls are on the camera, and the camera is on Earth. Never mind,” said Senior. “Unless, of course, there was some sort of...”

Then Mr. DaLoiff came running into the room. He looked ecstatic.

“I think we may have solved the problem!”

TO BE CONTINUED