Brilliant Man/Vir Clarissimus (Latin)

Chapter 6 Journey to the Center of the Earth

After many months of unending travel, the tiny, celestial physique of Pluto was beginning to build. Its iron, icy exterior – a diameter best compared with Earth's Moon – shed its outer-space skin as they approached.

However, despite this progress, Ozwald had a problem on his hands. There was a need to restock supplies, so again they tampered with their godly planet neighbors. With Saturn as the next nearest globe, they ignorantly entered themselves into this cesspool of electrical currents. The rapid shift in atmosphere and electronics would disrupt the wire and radio components of their fuel tanks, instantly shutting them off during their exit.

Ozwald realized this with a pang, then entered a small panic. Though this mistake wouldn't show itself until months down the line, say any other of their fuel tanks tapped out of power; this meant full-mission volatility. "Damn!" he cursed, slamming on any buttons he found appealing to wreck as Spirit drew from the road. No more parking. It was likely Zed could beat them.

~

Space's stars flooded Ozwald's view as he joined Alicia in an all-out battle-cry. With the malfunction in their vehicle fuel tanks, one in their same situation may question the longevity of any future progress; however, had they not set off for Pluto a biennial ago? From Martians, they had become Joves; had become Saturanians; had become Americanans, and now – Spirit an asteroid of Tombaugh – were Plutonites, irregardless of the hardships faced. From conscious, they were now acoustic; from focused, they had become spatial; and from moving, they were completely inert, a small toy puppeteered by the gloved, magic hands of the Universe; its sleeves drowned in delicious wizardry.

Fiction was being written into this scientific night. Entering Pluto was a fairy-tale; it was like diving into a strange pool of fructose rain. It howled, rained, and pounded with many sorts of sugars. Sugary stars, candied planets, and gumdrop suns. It was like Nature itself had regarded them with a warm tip of its magician's hat.

Ozwald steadily brought Spirit near Pluto's inner-most, cadaverous surface. The dwarf was arctic cold and had a terrain likened to Arizona. One might think time dragged, but rather it paced itself. Their catalyst was triggered in just a day but it'd taken two years to travel the way here. To unravel everything about Pluto, they must exercise patience.

Alicia never fell short of wonder while tuning to the peaceful music of 'Gymnopédie No.1' in the background. This entrance doubled also as an electric finale to Space. Jupiter's spot thundered, boomed, and pounded the walls of its confines, calling for Neptune; Saturn's atmosphere burned and charged, an electric conflagration. Ironically, this was a wasted energy, as it took rather than gave.

Now they had done it! Reaching infinity, studying its unrealness, the Martians had conquered the world.

~

Their entrance began as an icy, spatial assemblage of clouds in the atmosphere. As they descended, trash structures covered the sprawling, purple-violet landscape.

When Spirit crashed, two subjects came hurling out its speeding blur, lost in the Plutonite veldt. On every side were hundreds of miles and every acre at least four dunes. They were composed of human products: recycling, rubbish, and compost.

Ozwald leapt up from the floor, quickly noticing its likeness to a desert. Mechanics, however, replaced wildebeests, so when their limbs and bolts broke, these parts served as currency for this trash and recycling world; everything was sponsored by their own waste.

Ozwald breathed, fogging up his helmet visor. His original insecurity with unfamiliar or puzzling worlds had been eradicated in school, where instead of trigonometry, he was taught confidence, team-bonding, and philosophy. Feeling slighted by this, he'd always dedicated one hour towards studying either astrophysics or food safety. This was instrumental in his becoming an artifici-flavorist.