Danger Magellan's Invasion of Earth

Chapter 21

Chapter 21

"Eclipse to Ground Control," Danger said in Green Basic, attempting to lower his voice as he spoke into the radio. "We are about to land at the Penrhyn City Spaceport. Are we clear?"

A few minutes later, we received a response, which Blaze translated for us. "Ground Control to Eclipse," a masculine-sounding voice said. "You are clear to land."

All of us fastened our harnesses as Danger realigned the spaceship. Once we were ready, the ship dropped down towards the surface of Gwydion. Danger pressed a few buttons to slow the ship's speed as we headed into Penrhyn City. Within a few minutes, I could see the blinking lights of Gwydion's largest city. Unlike Moerjing, Penrhyn City appeared to be surrounded by suburban sprawl as opposed to desert. There were definitely buildings outside of the city.

"Ground Control to Eclipse," I heard. "What is your SRN?"

"What's that?" Danger said.

The man at ground control sighed. "Spaceship Registration Number," he said. "It can be found on the left side of the ship. Do I have to explain everything to you kids?"

"I'm not a kid," Danger said. He unbuckled his harness and floated towards the left side of the ship. "Nora, your Hamilton poster is covering the SRN."

"You can take it down for now, but you have to put it back up," I insisted.

Danger rolled his eyes and tore down the Hamilton poster. Then, he told the spaceship's SRN to ground control.

"May I ask for the pilot's name?" the ground control man asked.

"Captain Mercury Magellan," Danger said.

"Who's that?" Arthur asked.

"Shut up, Arthur," Danger whispered.

"Do you have any passengers, Captain Magellan?"

"Three Earthlings and one Martian," Danger responded.

"I will have to investigate your violation of the Treaty of Polochika after landing," the ground control man said. He paused for a moment and then said, "I just did a search on your SRN. The Eclipse has been reported as stolen by the Penrhyn Zone Navy. Do you have an explanation for this, Captain Magellan?"

"I'm not sure why that is," Danger said, trying even harder to deepen his voice.

"According to the search, the PZS Eclipse was retired from naval use six months ago, and it was stolen two months after that," the ground control man noted.

"I don't know why it was decommissioned or stolen," Danger said. "The ship is in perfect working order, and it is still in use by the Penrhyn Zone Navy. I wouldn't be captaining the ship otherwise."

"I will need to investigate this after landing," the ground control official said. "It may be a glitch in the system, but my data pad tends to be pretty accurate. It's the latest version. Can you believe that it's smaller than a brick? I didn't think that was possible."

"No, that's crazy," Danger said. "Eclipse to Ground Control. Where should we land?"

"Landing Pad #5," the ground control official said.

Danger briefly glanced out the window and then gripped the controls. We were close to the spaceport by this point, and although we were nearly out of fuel, we could still make it to the landing pad. Even more impressively, Danger hadn't messed up his landing yet. If we were lucky, this would be the first landing where we wouldn't crash.

Danger continued to lower the ship into the spaceport. "It looks kind of like Denver's airport," Arthur observed. "I wonder if this one is an Illuminati base too."