Home Planet // Joshler

Part 2

Tyler took the Trans-glider down to the Laboratory to have it more closely analyzed. Tyler's good friend ran the Lab and he had an amazing tracking ability, one that Tyler only hoped could be of use right now.

He scanned his eye in the pad next to the door and it opened.

"Patrick! Where are you?!" Tyler called enthusiastically.

He heard a thump and then a crash. Patrick popped his head out from under a table.

"Sir! Hi how are you? Um is there anything I can do for you sir?" Patrick got out quickly and then stood up brushing off his coat and adjusting his black framed glasses.

"Patrick I told you, call me Tyler. We're friends." Tyler chuckled and pulled the memory chip from the pocket in his floral garment making his way over to where Patrick stood, now rubbing his head.

"I received a message today from someone I haven't spoken to in a very long time and...well I need you to tell me where it came from..specifically what planet." Tyler explained.

Patrick pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose and scratched at the back of his neck.
"Tyler I haven't tracked in a long time I don't know if I'll be able to do it accurately."

"Well couldn't you at least try? This is really important to me Patrick. Please?" Tyler pleaded holding out the chip.

Patrick chewed at his lip and looked at Tyler for a while then slowly took the chip.

"Okay I can try." He walked through the Lab and Tyler followed closely knowing it was easy to get lost among all the machines and tables and other lab supplies. He had made that mistake as a child playing hide and seek with Josh.

He followed Patrick to a small room conjoined with the main Lab and closed the door. There was a chair in the center of the room and a small machine with electrodes. He sat down and attached the electrodes to either side of his forehead and proceeded to insert the chip into the port behind his ear.

"Tyler if anything goes wrong take the electrodes off to save the information okay?" Patrick told him taking off his glasses. Tyler stood directly in front of him now.

"O-okay. Are you sure this is safe? You don't have to do it if-"

"It's safe. I just have to focus." Patrick closed his eyes for a moment and then they snapped open. All the color was gone and his eyes had glassed over completely white.

It was silent except for the beeping of the machine in the corner.

"This message came from really far away. I-I'm not sure how it even made it here but- oh...." Patrick trailed off.

"What? What is it?" Tyler scanned Patrick's empty eyes.

"Shh. I've almost got it." He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply and when he let it out he opened his eyes again and this time the red had come back.

He stood up and ripped the electrodes off and ran out into the main Lab.

"I've got it! I've seen that galaxy before!" Patrick made his way through the Lab ducking under tubes and dodging tables full of glass test tubes. He finally sat at the Portable Viewer and inserted the chip that was in his port into the Portable Viewer.

"I broke down the message to find who had sent it and I was given a small bit of what looks like a map." Patrick typed furiously on the keyboard as Tyler leaned over his shoulder.

"What are you saying? A map?" Tyler questioned.

"Whoever sent this to you wanted you to find them. Look! There! Right there!" Patrick pointed to a small ellipse shape on the screen.

"What is it?" Tyler squinted at the shape on the screen.

Patrick enlarged the picture and now Tyler could see the burning ball of gas in the center of multiple planets all in orbit.

"There is a word they use for it, the inhabitants, but it makes no sense. It must be in a different language. It's the solar system that message came from. It's called the Milky Way?"

"So wait you're saying that that message came from one of the planets in this solar system?" Tyler asked.

"Yeah but the problem is I don't know which planet. That's the part I couldn't reach. Whoever sent this message though knew exactly how to get the perfect piece of this map because without that I never would have been able to track down its origins." Patrick stared at the screen.

Tyler smirked to himself. Josh was no dummy. He wanted a way to communicate with him. Talk to him. Tell him he was going to find him.

Tyler extended his hand to shake Patrick's.
"Thank you Patrick. For helping me with this." He returned the gesture.

"Tyler are you leaving? Is that what this is about?"

"There is someone who needs me out there Patrick and I need him. I have to find him. Don't worry all will be taken care of when I leave." Tyler gave a reassuring smile before saying thank you once again and exiting the Laboratory.

He took the Trans-glider to the lowest level. It was the ship hangar. Part of his training as a young man was learning how to fly a ship. Any ship in the universe. You name it he could fly it.

Tyler weaved in and out of ships until he spotted his favorite. The one he had learned on and the fastest one in the hangar. The SC-365, or what Tyler liked to call it, The Melee. (May-lay)

It was a decent sized vessel and it had always gotten him where he was supposed to go. He boarded the ship and began switching on all the controls. He strapped himself in and flipped the engine switch. The ship roared to life and Tyler smiled. In just a few weeks time he would get to see Josh.

What did he look like now? What abilities did he have? Most importantly how was he fitting in on another planet? Surely everyone on the planet had green skin and big beady eyes.

Tyler pondered this as he steered the ship out of the hangar and prepared for warp speed.