The Genetic Mixture

 While sitting at home one morning drinking his coffee and skimming through his morning newspaper, Dr. Kimble had an idea hit him. He was a brilliant scientist who had been working in genetics and experimenting with ways to cure most earthly diseases. He has not had much success lately but keeps trying harder each time after a failure.
     If you can imagine this five-foot-ten, thin man with curly dark brown hair who wore eyeglasses that were virtually invisible on his face, that would be Dr. Kimble. He graduated from MIT with honors in the field of genetics and has been a respected scientist among his peers.
     This one particular morning when an idea hit him, he sat really seeing it in his mind. He had been trying to find a cure through genetics for most common diseases, but what if the cure wasn't going to be in the genes one one animal itself? What if the cure would be found by incorporating the components from two different genes together to make a cure?
     This pondered in his mind all morning until he got to his laboratory. After situating himself and getting into his lab gear which consisted of his lab coat, safety goggles, and rubber gloves, he did a walk through of his lab investigating all of his experimental subjects. He had little white mice, black and gray rats, a few gray pigeons, and two chimpanzees named Tiberius and Sally. They were a cute couple who were mostly for companionship to the Dr. He also had a few rather large lizards, a couple of bullfrogs, and a cat named Genesis.
     Most of the Dr.'s experiments were on his mice, rats, and lizards. They seemed to be easier to experiment with although the pigeons and bullfrogs held their own with the serums given to them. Each trial to find a cure almost always failed or showed a little response in his specimens. It was rather disappointing time after time, but the good Dr. would not give up. With every failure, he would try harder on the next one.
     Sitting in his laboratory, he began drawing out diagrams of how he would go about splicing genes from two different specimens. At first, he tried drawing out the incorporation of mice and rats but soon figured that they were too close to a family to make a difference. Then, he began looking at his favorite bullfrog, Oliver and drew out the incorporation of his genetic material with one of his mice and it looked to be interesting.
     So, the doctor began his genetic manipulating and once he figured out exactly how to splice the two genes together he proceeded with his testing. Of course, this did not happen over night but he spent every waking moment studying the components of each specimen to the point of taking his work home with him to continue working on until he went to bed.
     He did this almost every night until he figured out how to put the components from each gene into each other combining it into one gene. It sounds confusing but he was able to splice them together and the only thing left was to run testing on different disease specimens. He started with the most common diseases which were cancers and began those trials.
     He tried a few test samples and nothing worked. He ran the tests several times and came up with the same results, nothing. He tried rearranging the gene material to see if it would work and still no change. As many times as he tried testing, he changed the sequences as well that many times. Fifty trials and still no or little change so it was back to the drawing board.
     He figured it was time to try another species of animal and with a process of elimination he kept the mice and mixed them with pigeon genes. Hours beyond hours the Dr. kept his hopes alive that he would soon find a cure for at least one disease. Specimen after specimen, still nothing, but his gut was telling him that he was close.
     One night, the good Dr. took ill and found that his breathing was becoming irregular so he called for his friend to take him to the hospital. After a thorough examination and many tests and labs, the doctors at the hospital came to the conclusion that Dr. Kimble, himself, had small cell lung cancer. The news was detrimental to the Dr. and it gave him a sense of urgency in completing his trials and obtaining a cure.
     Once he was released from the hospital, the Dr. found himself back in front of his drawing board. He stood there looking at all his calculations for many hours. Something struck him awkwardly as he stood as still as possible mesmerized by the numbers on the board. Then, it stuck its face out of the board and stared directly back at him.
     There was a calculation in front of him that he had not tried nor considered. It was the mixing of the chimpanzee and the lizard gene that shined upon him. With that, he turned and looked at Tiberius who reluctantly stared back at him as if he knew.
     He went to his board and began compiling all his data and redoing calculations before coming up with an experiment. He thought it strange at first to combine a chimpanzee with a lizard gene but it was worth a shot. When he finished with his calculations, he went ahead and drew his samples from his specimens and put them under the microscope to examine the architecture of both.
     They seemed to be almost close in structure but he took and broke down the compounds to get the gene from each. Once he had the gene from each sample, he then proceeded to break the genetic material down into components. He stood there when he finished and was amazed by what he was looking at. This could be his cure for cancer.
     Before he began rearranging things, he took a small break for something to eat and drink. His favorite lunch was a peanut butter sandwich and a mellow yellow. He thoroughly enjoyed them and it was always satisfying. He would sit and eat in his rose colored armchair staring at his black chalkboard where he wrote all of his calculations as if it were a lunch and a movie. His obsession was his search for a cure and he felt that he was not good enough of a scientist if he could not find it.
     After eating his lunch, back to his experiments he went. He began switching genetic material between the genes of these two particular specimens. Once he was satisfied with his mixture, he started experimenting with his samples by injecting it into Petrie dishes that contained a few minute cancer cells. He gave it some time to work before looking at them through his microscope.
     It had been about two hours when the Dr. decided to look at his samples to check their status. When he focused his eyes on looking through his microscope he noticed that his concoction was, in fact, attacking and killing the cancer cells. Feeling overjoyed, the Dr. added some of his creation to a few dishes with live human cells to be sure that the mixture would not kill human cells as well.
     A few hours later, he looked through the microscope again to see that none of the live cells were killed. He had accomplished the first stage in his experiments and was very pleased. He then started testing his concoction with other cancer and disease cells. He was finding that his concoction was actually killing most of his disease samples. Could he have found the cure he had been searching for all these years?
     It was several hours of looking and noting his results before he decided to go to bed for the night. He was happy about his findings and felt that he deserved a good night's rest. He put everything away and took great care in putting away his test samples. Then he said his goodnights to all of his animal friends and companions before turning off the lights to his lab.
     The next morning, the doctor got up and headed for his kitchen where he made himself a quick cup of instant coffee while the real coffee was brewing. He took his coffee to the kitchen table where he placed it before heading to his front door to grab his morning paper. He had such a pep in his step as he has never slept better. He accomplished greatness the night before and was excited to get back to work, but not before he had his morning coffee and newspaper.
     He took his paper back into the kitchen and sat at the kitchen table where his coffee was waiting and began skimming through pages of the paper while he sipped his coffee. There was such a huge smile on his face this morning. It seems as if nothing could get him down today. He very much looked forward to getting back to work on his experiments, so he drank his first cup of coffee while reading his paper before grabbing a second cup for the ride to the laboratory.
     Dr. Kimble grabbed hs keys and headed out the door to his car. He unlocked the door and got inside setting his cup of coffee in the cup holder. He reached back and grabbed the seatbelt pulling it across him and buckling it in. Then, he put his keys into the ignition to start the car. When he was ready and situated to go, he backed up out of his driveway and drove down the street still smiling.
     All the way to the laboratory he hummed, smiled at other drivers and even sang a few tunes while driving. Once he got to the laboratory, he went inside and said good morning to all of his animals and companions. He put his research files on his desk and made his way to the closet to pull out food for his friends.
     All of his animals got very excited to see him go to the closet because they knew he was getting their food. As he dug around in the closet, you could hear the chimpanzees yelling at him to hurry. The doctor came out from the closet with handfuls of food for his animals. He went around placing a food dish in each cage smiling as he watched his friends eat their food.
     Once everyone was fed, the doctor made his way back to his desk where his research files lay. He took off his jacket and exchanged it for his laboratory gear before sitting down. He opened his files and began going over his notes taking notice to his experiments from the day before. He was so proud of his accomplishment yesterday that he was ready to return to his experiments today.
     He went over to his small refrigerator to pull his samples from the day before. He took them over to the lab table and began rechecking everything to confirm his findings from yesterday. He viewed under the microscope of the genes attacking the disease cells and everything was looking pretty good. The genetic mixture had eradicated all of the diseased cells on one dish, and when he looked at the live human cells, they were untouched by the genes.
     He now knew that he was on to something big. He pulled out more dishes and began checking all of them before he went into an asthmatic spell because of cancer in his lungs. It took him a minute to gain his composure and after the attack, he felt like he had been beaten up. Then, the idea hit him. Instead of injecting his genes into his animals, he would use himself as a test subject.
     He took a syringe full of his genetic mixture and went over to his table where he sat down. He laid the syringe on the table and reached for a tourniquet. He took off his lab coat and began rolling up the sleeve on his left arm. He took the tourniquet and wrapped it tightly around his upper arm and then started thumping on the veins in his arm.
     Dr. Kimble then took the syringe and stuck it inside his arm releasing the genetic mixture inside his vein. He pulled out the syringe just in time before his arm clenched up from pain and the mixture making its way through his bloodstream. He quickly grabbed his arm waiting for the effects to subside. After a few minutes, the pain went away but he began feeling nausea.
     He sat there in that chair for quite a few minutes to wait for the results to kick in. Before he knew it, the doctor woke up and raised his head off of the table. He had no knowledge of what happened but soon he was able to move around and then reached for another syringe to draw a blood sample with. He stuck the syringe into his vein and pulled the stopper drawing some blood from his arm.
     He quickly took the syringe and placed a sample of his blood onto a microscope slide and placed it under the microscope. When he focused his eyes on looking through the microscope he noticed that the genetic material was replicating at a faster than normal speed and it was attacking the cancer cells in his blood and leaving his healthy cells alone. He watched in amazement as every cancer cell in his blood was being destroyed.
     He made notes on the progress but soon felt the effects of a nonhuman gene in his body. He began feeling weird and having unusual and strange thoughts. At that point, he didn't care about the effects he was feeling because he now had a cure for cancer and if everything went well he could not wait to share it with the world.
     He dabbled a few for a few hours while checking his blood samples every couple of hours. Everything still progressed nicely and he was pleased with his results. Eventually, he made it to the point where he began feeling not like himself. He began picking at his skin and head like he had bugs on him and the occasional craving for flies.
     After the twenty-four-hour mark came and he checked to see the results, the cancer cells were gone from his blood. There were only healthy living cells inside him. With this information, he made an appointment with his doctor to get a second opinion. His only fear was hiding his bug cravings from his doctor or they would lock him away in a mental asylum.
     The next day he went to see his doctor for that second opinion, and after waiting a few hours for the results of his lab work, the doctor informed him that miraculously his body was rid of cancer. He jumped for joy and began thinking about who he could take his cure to.
     He went home to rest and found himself under the weather. He could not figure out why he felt so ill. He took a shower, put on his pajamas and climbed into bed for a healthy night's sleep. Little did he know that his body was changing and that was the reason for his feeling ill.
     Dr. Kimble slept through the night and when he woke up he found it difficult to focus his eyes. The sunlight beaming in through his bedroom window made it hard to open his eyes fully. When he got up from the bed and made it to the bathroom, he looked into the mirror and what he saw staring back at him was frightening.
     Standing there staring into the mirror he saw what look to be lizard eyes. The genetic material he injected himself with was changing the structure of his physical body. He also noticed that he was growing more hair all over his body. He was growing hair in places he never had hair before. He was now at his wits end as to what was happening to him but he knew that he could not allow the public to see him this way.
     Dr. Kimble was now having to isolate himself from the world because of his obsession with finding a cure for terminal diseases. He soon invented a pair of glasses that would cover and shield his eyes from the public and sunlight. He ordered razors through the mail which came on a regular basis as he had to shave his hair almost on an every other day schedule.
     After a few weeks of his transformation, his skin became reptilian with hair. His whole body was changing on a daily basis. He still found time for his work which was moved to his home in a spare bedroom. He continued his work for many years after that trying to correct the abnormal effects of the genetic mixture and eventually corrected it and had a solid cure with minor side effects which was secretly mailed to certain large pharmaceutical companies.
     Dr. Kimble knew it was too late for him but he could still finish his work and save many lives. His cure was successful all across the world and it was about four years after it's mailing that Dr. Kimble died from severe side effects of his mixture. No one will ever know where the cure came from or who found it, but he went to his grave with the satisfaction of his accomplishments.
        

A Parent So Far Away

     It's the year twenty fifty-five when the space transport Eros was making it's routine trip to a nearby planet Cliffordius deep within the Siberian Galaxy. It is approximately forty-seven billion light years from what was known as Earth. Eros was carrying a cargo of needed supplies to the planet Cliffordius where humans have set up a base camp with a diplomatic agreement with the Cliffordians. They are a native species with no knowledge of basic survival from a human's perspective. We have been sharing our knowledge with them in exchange for being able to erect a space dock for travelers.We have agreed on specific rules of diplomacy and basically what each species can and cannot do. One of the major rules were no interplanetary relationships between species. It has been enforced since our agreement back in twenty forty-seven and the penalty for breaking this rule was exiled to an isolated planet two galaxies away from each other, and that any offspring would be destroyed at the moment of birth.
     Let me back up some and catch you up to speed. Earth was going downhill fast with humans depleting its natural resources daily. No one could come up with a plan to sustain the Earth or its natural resources, so a plan was to find another planet that would sustain human life where we could begin over again with the knowledge of how not to deplete its resources and new ways of using solar power. The Siberian Galaxy has one of the hottest suns, even incinerates hotter than that of Earth's sun. Humans have traveled around galaxies looking for new places to colonize before the demise of Earth. We have been able to establish colonies on Mars, Jupiter, Ceres, and a few planets in nearby galaxies to Earth.
     When we discovered Cliffordius, it had an atmosphere quite like that of the Earth but was much richer in Nitrogen than Oxygen. We landed our shuttle and began exploring while wearing suits to make up the difference in Nitrogen-Oxygen ratio. The planet was in no way barren, on the contrary, it was lush with green scenery, mountainous areas, and very exotic plants and flowers we had never seen before. We don't know what it was, but maybe these trees and foliage flourished more off of Nitrogen and less on Oxygen. We continued our exploration of the planet until we came upon its inhabitants which were very welcoming to strangers.
     They were humanoid in shape but had no body hair and were very easy to the eyes. Instead of having natural skin tones like humans, their skin tone stayed in the ranges of lavenders and bubblegum colors of pink. Their eyes were a bit larger and more apart than our own. They did not have a nose but instead it was two nostril holes planted in the middle of their faces. They had no lips but had a mouth. We have four fingers and a thumb, whereas they have only three fingers and what seems to be a thumb. We were not aware of any genitalia and found it to be difficult to determine which was female from male. It did take some time to remember how to tell them apart, but eventually, we did.
     They showed us around and took us back to where they lived. Communication was difficult at first, but our scientists invented a language translator just like we use on other planets. The Cliffordians were a gracious host and we traveled back and forth discovering more area and resources that this new planet had developed. Everywhere we explored and ran tests, the soil was rich with nitrogen and we found alien creatures which would be added to our collection of bugs. As far as I was concerned this planet flourished with life. Granted it didn't have the same animals you would find on earth but these creatures were similar to our own.
     Our department heads met with the ruler of Cliffordius and everyone came to an agreement which was put in place. Being that their natural resources were rich, we showed them how to plow the ground and plant seeds that would harvest their own type of food to sustain life. We built condensers to create water and moisture from their own atmosphere to also assist with their gardening. We weren't sure if they bathed or what their grooming habits were, so we didn't touch that subject. In exchange for helping them, they gave us free access to their planet and some of its resources.
     We found these inhabitants to be very kind and forth giving in nature and saw no threat of confrontation or brutality. We seemed to coexist well together and humans also became their defenders against other harmful alien species. We learned their language and they learned to speak ours so communication was becoming very profitable for both of us. We set up base camps and colonies that were supplied with oxygen regenerators so that we could move about without suits. All of our housing or pods were interconnected so we could freely move around.
     The Eros was bringing more supplies and parts that were needed to expand our colony so that more research could be done. We were learning much from these inhabitants and it was an honor to provide them with new skills. A few of their so-called science people followed our guys around and stood over them while they worked. It was more of being curious as they watched for long hours as our scientists ran test after test. They showed so much enthusiasm when projects blew up or didn't react the was they should have.
     We have transported approximately four hundred and twenty-three people to Cliffordius to colonize the planet. The Cliffordians were great in number and were perceived to not be a threat in any manner. We have lived amongst each other for approximately eight Earth years and seemed to be doing well. Everyone has been obeying the few rules that were set in place until one of our female scientists, Rebecca, had grown fond of one Cliffordian inhabitant. They were being noticed around each other quite a bit and acted a bit strange when approached by another scientist. It was common to see both of our species intermingling with each other, but these two were acting like they were doing more than mingling. When you saw one there was the other and vice versa. As long as there were no complaints or anyone speaking of their actions being more intimate, I say leave them alone. We were learning from each other and promoting a good coexisting life with one another.
     One day, as a group of us were heading to one of the science labs, we noticed these two being a little more comfortable with each other. As we walked into the room, the Cliffordian was rubbing Rebecca's shoulders and she was grinning from ear to ear until she noticed us there and sort of sprinted away from him as if they weren't doing anything wrong. I had my concerns but kept them to myself for now. A little shoulder rubbing wasn't anything to run to command about. I let it go, until one day Rebecca came running to me and wanting to speak to me privately. I was the one everyone trusted with confidentiality and their dirty little secrets.
     We headed for my quarters where we could speak informally with each other. When I asked her what the problem was, all Rebecca said was that she needed to be transferred off of this planet to somewhere else. It took a bit of prying for her to tell me what was going on and of course she was my friend. Rebecca finally broke down and told me she had broken one of the major rules and when I asked which one, the look on her face was enough to tell me which of the rules she had broken.
     She broke down crying collapsing in my arms as she started blubbering about her relationship with her Cliffordian counterpart. I knew something was up between them but they never let on it was this serious. Rebecca told me in confidence that she had been in relations with the Cliffordian for about seven months and now she is trapped because she ran a test on herself and she is now pregnant with a Cliffordian child. My jaw dropped to the floor as she told me how it happened and I even panicked a bit at first before getting grips on things and informing her not to worry I would handle things.
     I left Rebecca in the hallway after telling her to go back to work and let me see what I could do. I began looking at all the travel vouchers and logs seeing where I could possibly send her where there would be no repercussion of her actions. Rebecca was carrying a new life inside her and who knows what will be birthed from her womb. I finally found a transport that was heading back to what used to be Earth which is now just a lifeless planet with a few basic essentials for survival. Most of the Earth's inhabitants have already been transported to other planets for colonization and only a small number refused to leave their home. I got Rebecca a seat on the transport and thought everyone would be okay until the commanding officer asked me why she was heading back to Earth without his approval? I tried to come up with a good excuse which didn't go over so well and the commander took her name off of the list and sent me back to my duties.
     I was at a loss of ideas and quickly reported back to Rebecca with what news I had of an Earth transport leaving in the morning. I informed her that I had put her name on the list but the commander had taken it off due to non-approval. She decided to break down again crying and becoming hysterical because she was in fear of her child being destroyed. She also didn't want to be sent into exile for her rule-breaking, so I told her the only thing she could and that was to sneak onto the transport right after they do cargo check. Rebecca stopped and looked at me with some hope in her eyes and agreed that would be best for both of them.
     The next morning, in Earth time, Rebecca was nonchalantly walking around the transport dock acting like she was checking things and when she saw it clear to sneak aboard the Earth transport, she did. Rebecca hid behind a couple of large cargo crates and remained there until the transport made a safe landing on Earth. During the trip, she noticed her belly was getting a little bigger and sat there talking to her unborn child while rubbing her belly bump. It was a long trip so her unborn child kept her company.
     Once Rebecca felt the transport landing at the space dock on Earth she was very careful as to not be seen while exiting the cargo area. She grabbed her things and headed out of the space dock area and wandered around while feeling her child kicking and moving about inside her. She needed to find somewhere to settle until her child's birth which wasn't too far off. Every day her belly seemed to get bigger so labor was eminent. She found an abandoned house on the outskirts of town that looked promising and secluded.
     Rebecca went inside and found the place to be kept well cleaned and there were still pieces of furniture and household items left in good condition. This was a good place to have her child so she made it a home for her and this alien child she was carrying. Later, after setting things up she needed to go out and find food and water to sustain the two of them. She wandered about and ventured into a couple different stores finding and gathering food and bottles of water. She used an old shopping cart to push everything back to the house she made her home. She stocked the cabinets with dry goods and placed the water inside the refrigerator, which at this point there was no power but keeping it safe inside and out of view.
     Tired from her shopping, Rebecca went over to the old sofa and laid back to relax when out of nowhere she had this very sharp pain in her stomach. The longer she sat there the more intense they became until she knew for a fact she was in labor. She managed to get up off the sofa and headed for the bedroom where she had prepared everything for the delivery of her child. She had scissors, water, towels, and everything she needed to make the delivery as easy as possible.
     Once she laid back on the bed and got comfortable the pains grew until Rebecca had the notion to push. She pushed what seemed to be several times until she heard the strong cry of her child resting on the bed below her. She sat up, reached for her child, and nestled it close to her chest wrapped in a towel. Rebecca held it for a few minutes while she rested before laying the child back on the bed and cutting the umbilical cord. She took the water and cleaned her newborn child and then began looking the child over for any deformities.
    Rebecca noticed her child's skin color was a little on the pink side and that she had no hair. When checking her hands she noticed that the child had three fingers and a thumb. Her feet and toes were that of a human and that her eyes were like her fathers. The child took most of her characteristics from her father and Rebecca named her Siberia for the galaxy her father lives in and where they fell in love.
     She would not forget her lost love and had dreams of him almost every night since she left Cliffordius. Looking into her child's face Rebecca could see her long lost love. She still felt his closeness even though they were billions of light years away from each other. She only wished that he could see his child and hold her in his arms. How was she supposed to tell her child who her father was and that she would never see him? It was just Rebecca and her child alone in the world.
     As the years went by and Siberia grew in age she still asked her mother about her father and it tore Rebecca apart having to hide him from her. One day Rebecca finally broke down and told her daughter about her father and where he lived and explained why Siberia would never see him. It broke both of their hearts and every night since then Siberia would go outside to a starlit sky looking upwards and speaking to her father as if he could hear her. Siberia hoped her voice would reach her father light years away.


 

The Planet Transporter

     Doctor Hershey is a very successful scientist who is renown throughout the planet Earth. Oh, I am Trevor Hollingsworth his most faithful assistant. I have studied at the most prestigious colleges and Doctor Hershey took me under his wing about four years ago. I have learned a lot from the doctor and have been very impressed with his recent work. After the economy failed and the whole planet went to turmoil, the good doctor has since made some very impressive inventions. With me his faithful assistant running around gathering whatever is needed, I sit back and watch for hours as Doctor Hershey constructs and then demolishes everything he invents several times before getting it to perfection.
     Now I will briefly describe Doctor Hershey but never judge a doctor by his looks. Most of the inventors were also not much to look at either but who cares what they look like, it's their mind that we should admire. Now Doctor Hershey is somewhat of a short dumpy looking man with salt and pepper hair which is very receded, green eyes with black framed glasses, and always wearing a white lab coat. His shoes are always polished and his hands are riddled with arthritis and wrinkles. He has this mad scientist like laugh which I have to snicker every time I hear him. His wife died many years ago and since then he has been hiding in his work to cope with the pain.
     To give you a brief description of myself, I am a lot taller than Doctor Hershey by about a foot. I always wear khaki's with my rainbow suspenders, black dress shoes, and my white lab coat is entirely too small for me. I have short, clean cut but well parted brown hair, my eyes are brown, I am thin like a twig, and I have freckles on my face and other certain parts of my body I will not name. An assistant has to have some dignity about himself. Anyway, back to the story.
     Doctor Hershey has a brilliant mind with an ego to go along with it. I have seen him go days and even weeks without food or sleep depending on the invention he is working on. There is this one invention he is almost finished with and looks to be promising but hasn't been tested yet. There are two oval shaped discs that light up when turned on. I'm not quite sure what they do as of yet but I know the doctor has been working on this project for months now. He has separated the two disc shaped objects and I hear him mumbling while he works on them. His chalk board is full of formula's and he is constantly checking the board for any mistakes or recalculating. I am very interested to know what he is working on and can hardly wait to see the rials go forward.
     Well, I came in this morning to work and Doctor Hershey met me at the door grabbing me with a huge bear hug swinging me around and laughing like the mad scientist. When I asked him what was going on, he said that he has perfected it and his invention is ready for it's first trial run. I immediately became very happy for him and went to put my non fitting lad coat on. Once I walked into his lab there were the disc shaped objects across the room from each other. I was ready to see what exactly they did being that it took him months to get it to trials.
     The doctor handed me a pair of black goggles that he said would shield my eyes from the lights that were going to flash. I hurriedly put them on and sat in a nearby chair with anticipation. Doctor Hershey put on his goggles and proceeded to get a white rat from it's cage. I watched as he injected a tranquilizer into the rat so it would remain still and calm during the experiment. Once the rat was asleep, the doctor carefully picked it up and carried it over to one of the disc shaped objects. He placed it gently down on it and moved away. The rat just laid there sleeping while the doctor went over to his computer and punched in some codes.
     Once the codes were in the disc shaped object began lighting up and making this whirling noise. It seemed to be picking up speed as the whirling noise began changing tones. That's when it happened. The rat seemed to lift off of the object and started spinning around before disappearing into thin air. I sat with amazement wondering what happened to the rat. About fifteen minutes later, that little white rat showed back up on the other disc shaped object at the other end of the room still fast asleep. I didn't know what to think about a disappearing rat and once I took off the goggles, I looked at Doctor Hershey a little dumbfounded.
     He walked over to the rat and gently picked it up and placing it back into its cage before coming over to me and shaking my hand. I could tell how happy and accomplished he was and then he began telling me of his invention. I was astounded by his invention of teleportation, but that has already been invented I told him. He shook his head and laughed like that mad scientist before explaining to me that yes teleportation has been invented but not on a scale that he has taken it too. I was then again dumbfounded by his explanation. He informed me that he would need to do a few more trials before using human trials.
     I had just about fallen out of my chair when he noted that he will be doing human trials soon. When I asked him what the invention was called, he just said that if everything goes right he will inform me of its name. Okay I was now more interested in what this invention was to do or how it would be great among a world that has fallen to turmoil. I sat there quietly while the doctor went back to his board and looked at some more formula's making some corrections and doing some recalculating. He hollered over to me to take some notes for him where I reached into my lab coat and brought out my pen and pad. I let him know I was ready and then he began calling off items that he wanted me to acquire. It looked like a grocery list but were usable items and not food.
     I noticed one of the items on the list was a space suit and began scratching my head as I pondered about it. After the doctor gave me his list I proceeded to walk out the door in hopes to find everything he needed. I was gone for about three hours before arriving back at the doctors lab with his items in tow. He was again performing another trial run but this time with a cat. I watched as it went from one disc to the other unharmed. I was still pretty much in awe at this invention and knew the doctor was up to something so amazing. After giving him his list items I informed him of an appointment I had to get too so he released me for the day and told me to be back first thing in the morning sharp. I bid him a farewell and left to get to my appointment.
     The very next morning, I arrived at the lab with the anticipation of another trial run. When I walked into the room the doctor was no where to be found. I looked around the room and noticed that one of the disc shaped objects were gone as well. I started to worry that someone or something has taken the doctor. I hastened around the lab looking for any signs of a struggle when I heard this whirling noise coming from the only disc shaped object left. As I turned around something was happening above the object. I felt my inside start to shake thinking something went terribly wrong with the doctor.
     All of a sudden, there he was standing on the disc shaped object wearing the space outfit I gathered for him yesterday. He reappeared and stepped off of it like some moon man before taking his head gear off. I was so pleased to see him and he met me with excitement. I asked him what happened and he told me that he had been performing trials all night and that he was ready for human trials. I hesitated before asking him why did he become the human trial. He informed me he had been planning to be the first human trial in his experiment. I did look at him with skepticism when he answered.
     Then Doctor Hershey began telling me of the results of his human trial. He was so exited to tell me the name of his invention which was "the planet transporter".  I hesitated to ask but did so anyway, questioning him of why such a name. He responded with the events that took place during his human trial. This whole time he was constructing an invention that would allow people to teleport to another planet. Yes, with the world being in shambles we did in fact have space ships that took people to other planets which were very expensive as well as time consuming. The doctor wanted to make it much more realistic to travel with it being more cost efficient and with less travel time.
     When I asked him where he went or visited, he replied with to Mars since it was the closest planet for a trial run in the event something should have gone wrong. He noted that he encoded the specs for the location and took the other disc shaped object with him to leave as a doorway for space travel. Now that he proved it to be a success he wanted me to step onto the object with the space suit and go visit the colonized planet of Mars. I really hesitated at the thought of disappearing and reappearing on another planet. Doctor Hershey started putting the suit on me while I kept stating why I shouldn't go, but that made no difference to him.
     Once suited up, he assisted me with stepping onto the transporter. Before he went over to the computer to engage the machine he gave me the instructions on how to get back. Worried that something might go wrong I grasped a hold of reality while Doctor Hershey got the transporter initiated. Before I could get a word out of my mouth he hit the transport button to which I started feeling dizzy but was still standing still, so I thought. I felt like air floating around and I knew I wasn't on Earth anymore by the wonderful sights of stars and satellites that lined the Earth. I saw myself being shot through space as if from a slingshot. Things moved very quickly and the urge to throw up was gone. I saw the red planet as I drew closer to it. The only thought in my mind was how was I going to land when flying so fast. I began to feel nervous and scared that I wouldn't make it. All of a sudden I was on the planet and standing on the disc shaped transporter. I was amazed that Doctor Hershey's invention worked. There I was standing on this transporter and overlooking the colonies of the inhabitants of Mars. It was a thrilling moment and I felt like I wanted to jump out of that suit and my skin too.
     I stepped off of the transporter and viewed with wonder the desolate red sanded planet. I marveled at the colonies who were producing food and tapping into the planets natural resources as a way to survive. It was such a spectacular scene almost unreal. I remembered the instructions from the doctor on how to get back, so I got back onto the transporter and headed for home. On the way back shooting through space I could feel the warmth of the sun on my face and I even became a spectator of a nearby comet shooting by before seeing the colorful planet of Earth. She looked so amazing from the view I had and before I knew it, I was standing there in front of Doctor Hershey.
     I removed the head gear to listen to the mad scientist laugh before asking me of what I saw or felt. I explained to him the effects of traveling and what I saw on Mars, and even of the shooting comet. He ran over to his lab table and started making notes. I listened to the rumblings of a scientist who soon went back over to his chalk board and started making plans to create more planet transporters. He looked over at me and told me how he plans to have a transporter on every single planet to use for his experimenting of other worlds. I acknowledged how enthralled I was by his invention and that he was a success. I look forward to exploring these other worlds with him and hopeful that through his experimenting we will be able to colonize other worlds.

The End