Her Royal Madness

Her Royal Madness Part 17

I woke up feeling completely refreshed. It's amazing what a good sleep can do. In the last 24 hours, my whole life had been thrown completely upside down. Well, technically, it had been a few days more than 24 hours, by Henry's account anyway, but since I had been asleep for most of that time, it felt like just one day. A few hours ago, all these changes had been overwhelming. Now I was excited about new opportunities for adventure. 

I jumped out of bed. "Let's get going everybody!" 

I looked around and saw that the boys had fallen asleep. I bounced over to them. 

"Hey get up sleepyheads!" I said as I shook Nicholas' shoulder and poked Martin in the ribs. 

"Huh? What's going' on?" Martin mumbled as Nicholas looked around confused. 

"Get up Silly! We're going explore a little. We're on a SPACESHIP!" How could they be so tired when it was so exciting? 

The boys slowly got up, stretching and yawning, Henry being the last. 

"Exploring?" Nicholas said. "That sounds great. Way better than being cooped up in this little room. Isn't that right Mash?" 

"Yeah that'd be pretty good. But maybe we could eat first. I'm a growing boy, remember." 

Nicholas replied with a grin, "Growing? I've seen trucks smaller than you. Just how much more growing are you planning on doing?" 

Martin was just about to answer when Henry spoke up. "Sorry Mash. If you wanna eat, you better check with her royal MADness to make sure it doesn't interfere with her important plans." 

"Oh, Henry. Don't be such a big old party-pooper! Let's go have some fun!" 

"Why whatever you say, your Madness. I'm SO sorry, your Madness. Whee! See, I'm having fun, your Madness." 

"Well good! That's a better attitude. Now Martin, what would you like to eat?" 

"I dunno, cheeseburgers I guess." 

"Okay! Cheeseburgers it is. Alvonis." 

"Yes dear?" 

"Can you make us some cheeseburgers?" 

"Of course Maddie. Right away." 

The burgers appeared instantly, accompanied by a big pile of fries and thick chocolate shakes. "Mmmm, Yummy! Thanks Alvonis." 

The food disappeared in no time. Nicholas got up first and walked over to where Juna had come in before. He stopped with a puzzled look on his face and said, "Umm, does anyone know how to get out of here? The door's gone." 

Martin replied, "Whaddaya mean Nick? It was right here. I think you just gotta push it like this." Nothing happened. Martin pushed harder, grunting this time. Still nothing. "Wait a minute. Didn't it slide up? Unnh. No. Or maybe to the side." That didn't work either. 

Nicholas was struggling to keep a straight face. "You knucklehead Mash. Why don't you just admit that you don't know?" 

"Well it's just... I almost had it. Maybe if I just... I know. How about if I just throw you through it? Head first so you won't hurt anything important." 

"Martin, Nicholas! Don't fight about it. It's simple. You just have ask. Alvonis, open the door please." The door slid open. 

Eagerly, I marched out the door to have my first look at a spaceship. 

Only to find that - well, if you've never been in a spaceship before, you'll have to trust me on this. A spaceship is not nearly as interesting as it sounds. It turns out we had just left the largest room on the whole ship. The corridor was a narrow passageway running up the length of the ship, with a little platform right in front of the door. You see, with the ship under power, "down" was towards the back and "up" was towards the nose. This was the most efficient set up, although with artificial gravity, "up" could be any direction. When we had been on the ground, the ship was laying on its side and down was towards one of the walls of the passageway. There were several little platforms along the passageway and a ladder built into the wall to climb from one level to the next. If we still had been on the ground, Henry would have been just able to stand straight, but Martin would have had to bend a bit. The platforms looked like they would retract into the wall - or would that be the floor? This doesn't make a whole lot of sense, does it? Don't worry, it's a lot more complicated to describe than it really is.