Danger Magellan's Invasion of Earth

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

The next day, Raquel decided to see for herself how exactly the engine of the Eclipse worked. "That's an awful idea," I told her as she put on a spacesuit. "The radiation could be dangerous."

"Danger told me that the spacesuits protected against radiation, and I'll only be in there for a few minutes," Raquel said. "I'll be fine, Nora."

"Can I at least go with you?" I asked. "It will be safer if you don't go alone."

"That's fine," Raquel said. She handed me a spacesuit, and I put it on. Raquel then opened a door leading into the service compartment. As she swung the door open, I noticed a sign that said "Warning: Prolonged Exposure to Atomic Power Is Known To Be Harmful To Most Living Organisms. Do Not Enter!" in multiple languages.

The service compartment, as it turned out, wasn't terribly exciting. It was nothing more than a network of tubes and metal containers, but Raquel was fascinated by them. "It's like a miniature nuclear reactor," she said.

"I'm pretty sure it is a miniature nuclear reactor," I said.

Raquel wandered throughout the service compartment and marveled at the reactor. She also found some of wires that connected to the dashboard at the front of the spaceship and various other technological items that she found interesting.

Although Raquel was dazzled by the service compartment, I was bored after only a few minutes. "Can we go back now?" I asked her.

"Not yet," Raquel said. "I still haven't found the generator."

"Is that necessary?" I asked.

"Yes!" Raquel said. "I want to see how it works."

I stood next to the door while Raquel continued to run around in the service compartment. I was just about ready to fall asleep when I spotted something moving.

It's definitely too small to be Raquel, I thought. There was some rustling under the cooling tower, so I peeked under there. However, there was nothing underneath there. I told myself that I had imagined it and continued to wait for Raquel.

All of a sudden, I spotted movement again. This time, I got a better view. It appeared to be a small, humanoid creature with bright green skin. I had to be hallucinating. There was no way that such a being could have made it onto the Eclipse without any of us noticing.

Despite my belief that the creature was nothing more than a hallucination, I had to investigate. I looked under the condenser, and sure enough, a girl that I recognized was under there. She was wearing a tie-dyed tunic, and she had green skin and black hair tied back in a braid. "What are you doing here?" I asked.

The girl said something in Bluespeech, but without Blaze to translate, I couldn't understand what she was saying. "Do you speak English?" I asked.

The girl shook her head, leaving me unsure of what to do next. "Raquel!" I exclaimed.

Raquel came over to me quickly. "What is it, Nora?" she asked. She then noticed the green-skinned girl. "How did she get here?"

"I don't know," I said. "I think she got onto the ship when we left Mars, but I don't know how she did that without any of us noticing her."

"I don't know how she would have done that either," Raquel said. "It's kind of impressive, actually."

"What do we do now?" I asked.

"We should bring her out of service compartment first," Raquel said. "Danger will know what to do with her."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" I asked. "What if tries to kill her or something?"