Challenges: SciFi Short Stories

WWN

— "Everything alright, Cari? You look shocked."

— "It's this small blue planet Captain, the one we're approaching. The readings I get are weird. And..." says Cari troubled, hitting the keyboards with its hundreds of tentacles until thousands of floating screens materialize inside the spaceship.

The Captain protruding eyes bounce independently from one screen to another while the skin on his face cringes and wrings in an astonished and cheerful way. His tentacles swirl from the thrill as he lets out a shout of satisfaction, "Finally! All these expedition were not in vain! Goodbye documentaries of dead planets, dusty asteroids and deadly black oversized suckers! Goodbye stupid space-weathercasts where I could die on universe's whim!"

Cari is still rumbling on the keyboards while spaceship's antennas change their direction like a sea urchin aiming bull's eye on a target with all its spines. Layers of sounds slowly flood the cockpit, each one bring sparks of joy visible on the glossy eel-like bottom of the two sidekicks.

The more they dig, the more they find. This planet is never short of entertainment. There is enough to please every civilization in the universe, all kind of taste for any kind of species.

A cold sweat trickles down from Captain's twin brains as he calmly addresses to Cari:

— "Nothing... Nobody must know of this world! Its coordinates must be protected or all the Networks of the universe will gorge on it like disgusting worm-like star-eaters. Cari! Immediately tamper all of our activities in this sector!"

— "Alright, Captain!" answers Cari, blazing on the keyboards, ready to win the keyboard typing championship.

— "We will come back in a few cycles, with cloaking and scrambler satellites, long range high-definition recorders, communication relays, state of the art encryption to... Produces our own show: Blue Planet, or Blue World?"

— "Blue World? Sounds cool! But the way these inhabitants are trashing the place, it won't stay blue for long.", replies Cari with sarcasm.

— "What! They are destroying their own home... That's weird... Oh! My Genius never fails to surprise me.", sings out the Captain gently patting its twin brains with its tentacles. "This is it! The show will be named Weird World, and our channel will be Weird World Network!"

"WWN! WWN! ", shout childishly Cari and the Captain, slapping their tentacles together, in their spaceship flooded by sounds, around bunch of dead metal satellites, inside a sector that still as today remains labelled as "Nothing of interest" in the galactic archive.