for a long time and listened, but the building was silent. She could not see very far down the hallway, so she looked for a light switch. When she finally found one, the whole place seemed to come alive. Bright lights came on above her and small beeps and whirring noises seemed to come from every direction. At the end of the hallway was a very large room which made up most of the building. In the center of the room were three large round platforms. Atop two of the platforms sat small, round spaceships, similar to ones she’d seen in the books from the basement. The third platform had nothing on it. The third spaceship was missing. Ayita quickly realized: the missing spaceship was the orb in the sky which her family had seen not so long ago. But who was flying it? And where did they go?
Upon a quick survey of the building, it was clear that this place had not been abandoned. It appeared to be well kept, and while there was a thin layer of dust atop a few things, most of the room looked quite clean. A chill went down Ayita’s spine as she wondered if someone else were here now, watching her. But as she stood still and silent, she reassured herself that anyone else in the building would have likely made themselves known by now in some fashion.
Ayita approached the two spaceships. Beside each platform was a computer which came to life when she touched the screen. From the computers she learned that one of the spaceships was fully charged, and the other was only 35% charged. The computers also each gave a log of where the spaceships had been. There were many location names which she did not recognize and then two which she did recognize: Zozeis and Earth. The most recent log for each spaceship of course was their landing on Zozeis where they were now docked and charging. Earth was only mentioned a few times, but the other planet names were listed many times. Ayita scrolled through each log of places and was amazed at how many trips had been taken. Then she went to the computer beside the empty platform and checked its most recent departure. Whoever had flown it last was headed for a planet called Adonia.
Ayita looked over the spaceships, but she couldn’t figure out how to get inside. She decided to see what was in the other rooms of the building, hopeful that she would find instructions or a user manual of some sort.
The first room she came to was a small bathroom with a toilet, sink, and shower. The next room appeared to be a sort of one-room apartment. There were kitchen appliances and counter space along the far left wall, and a bed, dresser and small couch along the right. In the center of the room was an oval table with two chairs, and there were two doors side by side along the wall across from her. The first door led to a small room containing a washer and dryer, and the second door led to a closet full of clothes. On one side were men’s slacks and shirts, and on the other side were women’s dresses, blouses, and a few pairs of pants. Ayita wondered about the people who lived here and what their lives were like.
The third and final room looked like a very simple office. There was a single computer with a large flat screen seated atop a long brown desk. When Ayita touched the keyboard, the screen came on, and what it displayed absolutely shocked and amazed her. The screen was split up into six squares and each square showed a different part of the community where she lived. It was still dark out, so the pictures were slightly unclear, but Ayita could make out the image of the school building and several other locations she recognized. After about a minute, all the images changed and she had a view of six other places around town. Ayita moved the mouse again and a white arrow came on the screen. The next time the pictures changed, Ayita’s home was showing in one of them. Ayita moved the mouse to click on the image of her home. Then she gasped. The images changed to show the inside of her house, and it
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