Ben Blazze and Heimdall's Orb

Chapter 16: The Horned Trilinguodon

Professor Rogeria returned after 20 minutes. He was visibly concerned, but also evasive when Sam asked him about the elevator problem. Soon after, the bell saved the teacher, and the boy had to settle on his curiosity.

The next period would be Astrobiology, with Professor Stanley Ficus. Ben and his friends went to his classroom and found a notice on the digital panel: the class would take place in the alien biospheres.

"Cool!" celebrated Kaleb. "You'll love this, Ben."

Ben and Sweetflower followed their friends outside the building. There, behind the edifice, was a forest, crossed by a paved path. They followed it until reaching a vast grassy field.

Professor Ficus waited for the class at the edge of the forest. He was standing beside a small metal kiosk, as high as his waist, supporting a holopanel. The kids approached, and Ben noted that the Bulboric teacher was wearing a utility belt with several pouches, pockets, and cases all over its length – including a gun holster. At his feet, lied a plastic container.

He waited for the whole class to arrive and started speaking:

"Good afternoon, 7th grade. Today we'll study the behavior of an impressive beast: the Horned Trilinguodon. I think the best way to clearly state the ferocity of this animal is to say that it is from the same planet as Professor Phaliari. Oh, and they are terrified of it over there." To that, the class exclaimed several oooooh's, and some discreet whispers on the likes of "we are screwed."

"That's right: be worried," he said, smiling and squeezing one corner of his mouth. "It is very fierce and deadly, but it's also absolutely blind and deaf. This beast only perceives the world through the other primitive senses: touch, taste, and, especially, smell. So, disguising our odor is essential. But it's not enough: it's also crucial to remain calm. This animal can feel even subtle air shifts on his skin.

"We are going to disguise our smell in the most efficient known way," he continued, "which is eating Surströmming. For those who don't know, the Surströming is a fish we brought from planet Eoforwic B's Eternal-Stench Swamps. This species accidentally escaped and multiplied in northern Europe. It ended up becoming a popular delicacy among humans, especially in Sweden." Upon saying that, he started taking tin cans out of the plastic box and handing them out, one for each student.

"Interestingly enough," he continued, "the Trilinguodon's olfactory receptors simply ignore the nastier smells. We believe that it happens to avoid that such noxious odors would overwhelm the beast's hypersensitive systems."

"So Shadecat won't need to eat the fish? Unfair!" Anna Julia said loud enough for Eduardo and a few around to hear it. It took a couple of seconds for the Giovinnian boy to understand her joke and be mad about it. That made it even funnier for Ben and his friends, of course. Eduardo was fuming about the comment and subsequent giggles, but there was nothing he could do about it at that time.

"In just a few minutes after eating this," Professor Ficus continued, unaware of the girl's jest, "an odor imperceptible to ourselves will exhale through our pores. That will render us undetectable by the Trilinguodon."

Then, the Professor manipulated some controls on the holopanel. The lawn in the background slowly opened in the middle, revealing an enormous trapdoor, about the size of 10 football fields. A platform emerged from inside. On top of it was a huge black dome made of Unobtainium. They couldn't see inside it.

"I see we have new students," Professor Ficus said, looking at Ben and Sweetflower. "As I've already explained to your classmates, here at ASIMOV, we have several alien biospheres like that one. They are stored down there until we invoke them through this control panel here.