As we return to our story, several hours have already passed; and we find Rhea asleep on the space scooter, arms wrapped tightly around her journal. When some turbulence shakes her into awakedness, she sees that she's about to crash into an asteroid! "Holy crap," She exclaims! Then, making some quick maneuvers, she just narrowly misses it. Feeling that it's unusual for an asteroid to be flying around in open space, she looks around and sees a lot more things that you wouldn't find there. Mostly other asteroids, and space debris, with planets and moons clear in the distance. "Damn," she muttered to herself, "after I get out of this asteroid field, I'll already be approaching a solar system." Realizing that she has drifted into the galaxy that Pete told her not to, she turns around to go back.

It is around that time when a Cruiser-class space vehicle drifts into view, from behind the outermost planet of the near-by solar system. A cruiser is a small ship that seats up to four people. Primarily, it's designed to be an affordable mode of space transportation. Though, for a longer journey, when you'd need to bring along more luggage, supplies, and provisions, it would be better to travel on a larger ship. With that in mind, cruisers weren't designed for intergalactic journeys. (Neither was Rhea's little Space-Scooter, for that matter.) This particular cruiser is piloted by Sergeant Gregorius Errol and Corporal Biff Gipson of Oberon's Superior Patrol Force (OSPF, for short). It is Rhea's bad luck, and obviously a series of rookie mistakes, that leave her and the small chest of (for all they know) ill-gotten booty in plain sight of the patrolling officers. So there she is: Young pirate in training, hovering dumbly on her scooter thing, eyes wide, like a deer in the headlights; pirate insignia loudly indicating that she is probably up to something illegal. And there they are: Two enforcers of law (natural predators to such an inexperienced tot), somewhat caught off guard, as they were just on a routine patrol in a highly uneventful area; long overdue for some real excitement, and hearts pounding at the thought of a high-speed chase.

To both sides, after the initial shock subsides, the next course of action is obvious, and the party to act first will gain a slight advantage. Rhea, knowing from a lifetime of lectures from Pete that things could go bad very quickly when confronted by Officers of the Law (and even worse when it is the OSPF), snaps quickly out of her daze and cranks up the speed on her little scooter. She knows it can't outrun a cruiser, but since she has a bit of a head start, she might be able to exit their jurisdiction, before they inevitably catch up. At which point, they should probably give up, since they can't prove that any crime took place inside their galaxy (especially since -really- nothing happened). Once Sgt. Errol sees the law-breaking scum make his/her move; he, too, presses hard on the accelerator.

And the chase is on. Rhea tries to put more distance between herself and the mean law guys by weaving through the areas of more tightly-packed asteroids; which would be more difficult to navigate by a larger vehicle, such as, say, a cruiser. Unfortunately, she didn't account for the fact that the space vehicle is equipped with some sort of headlight lasers, which reduce to space-dust, any rocks foolish enough to float into the OSPF's path. While Errol pilots the craft, Cpl. Gipson mans the lasers. His aim is fairly good, so they don't have to worry about having any collisions.

"Crap!" Rhea thinks to herself, "No one told me they could do that!" So she abandons her weaving plan, and makes a straight line for the edge of the galaxy.

By now, the officers are getting more worked up... Or at least Gregorius is, on account of a short temper. (Biff's usually the more easy-going of the pair.) So they switch on their sirens and Greg starts using the intercom to command the speeding pirate to "Halt, at once!" But Rhea ignores them, and continues onwards. Losing patience, and fearing the pirate will escape, he gives a hasty order, "Gipson, open fire!"

"Huh?!" Though inarticulate in his objections, Biff is understandably hesitant, for when firing on a small vessel such as a space scooter, it is very possible to injure the rider, by accident. And in space, even minor damage to the rider's space suit could be fatal. (One reason why scooters are not suggested for rougher journeys, and definitely not for combat.)

Impatient, Sgt. Errol reiterates the order, "Aim your lasers at that pirate's ridiculous transportation and FIRE!"

"But-"

"JUST DO IT!"

Not wishing to be insubordinate, Cpl. Gipson does as he's told; and aims carefully, hoping to disable the scooter, without harming the pirate. When he feels confident that he's got the best shot, he tunes out the sergeant's impatient shouting and fires on Rhea's little space scooter.

"Wah!" Rhea yelps, startled by the sudden impact of the laser hitting the back end of the scooter. It begins bucking, and she has to cling tightly to the handles, to not be thrown off. Then, there's an ominous sizzling sound, as a small display screen on the dash goes dark. Randomly pressing buttons doesn't bring it back online. "Crap," She thinks to herself, "They broke my guidance system! I'm not sure if I can find my way back to the ship, without it." Troubled thoughts are cut short, as the sound of the cruiser's siren draws closer. "I'll have to worry about that, later! For the time-being, I need to get away from these guys."

Then, she eyes a particular switch on the scooter's right handle. It has two positions: "Normal" and "Hyper." It is currently switched to "Normal." When switched on, the scooter will engage "Hyper-Drive." Rhea can't explain how it works very well, but apparently it makes things go really super fast. She has always been advised not to use it, unsupervised; because, even -with- the guidance system, it takes a lot of skill to control. And no one is even sure why a craft as flimsy as this one would even be equipped with such a feature. In a space scooter's case, when using Hyper-Drive, steering is almost completely out of the question, so you would need to be facing towards the exact coordinates, before flipping the switch. A rookie, like Rhea, could end up very far off course, after using it. With the guidance system disabled, there's no telling where she'll end up. As a side-note, using Hyper-Drive inside inhabited space is dangerous, and therefore illegal... Not that a pirate would worry about that.

As she contemplates using it, anyway; the OSPF Cruiser continues to shorten the space between them, and fires another laser at the little scooter. This time, damaging the left wing, and almost throwing Rhea off of the scooter. "Crap crap crap!" She yells, as panic sets in, "I don't have any choice, I'll have to use it!" And with that, she flips the forbidden switch and bolts off at hyper speed, towards pretty much random co-ordinates.

"The pirate just switched to Hyper-drive" Biff reported, as if it wasn't already obvious.

Greg slams a fist down on the cruiser's steering wheel, in frustration, "YOU CAN'T DO THAT HERE!"

"Well, that guy did it. Shall we pursue him?" Cpl. Gipson asks, awaiting further orders.

"It's no use," Sgt. Errol sighs disappointed, "We don't have authorization to use hyper-drive... And the pirate's probably not in our jurisdiction, anymore. He could be anywhere by now."

So the reluctant officers return to their routine patrol around the lonely edge of the solar system. Of course, there's no more thrilling chases, for the rest of the day.

Meanwhile, on a faraway planet called Earth, at a little place called Bob's Diner, a teenaged part-timer exits the back door. He is Arthur Kardon, currently grumbling to himself, while dragging a full garbage bin out to the dumpster, set an annoyingly far distance from the diner. The diner is in a rural area outside the city where he and a few of his coworkers attend a special high school for students interested in the arts, but that is a separate story, altogether.

Suddenly, out of the corner of an eye, he catches a faint glimmer in the sky. Turning to look, he then notices a speck, quickly growing larger; until he realizes that something is flying- no *falling* rapidly towards the diner. Could it be a meteor that failed to completely burn up in the atmosphere? Before he has a chance to think of running back inside to warn the boss; the object crashes out of the sky, narrowly avoiding the diner, and landing in the grassy area between it and the dumpster. Sliding after impact, and leaving a deep rut of turned earth in its wake, it finally stops a few yards away from Kardon.

After the dust begins to settle, he gets his first look at the object, which oddly appears to be a vehicle of some sort; like a scooter, with a seat and handle bars, but without wheels. And he gets the impression that there's something sort of wing or fin-like attacked to it; but it's pretty beaten up, after its fall, and still obscured in parts by a dark smoke, so it's hard to be sure what it is- or used to be.

Just then, the rubble of the mysterious thing shifts, and from under it crawls out a person (or an alien?), wearing a dented helmet and a badly charred (but in tact) pressure suit. He immediately decides that this must be some sort of "space dude." The suit, clearly a thin but durable space suit, must have protected him while entering the atmosphere and perhaps even during the crash. It must be way higher tech than anything on this planet. So cool. While he ponders these things, the alien (or person?) doesn't yet take notice of him.

"Yo, Kardon! What was that crashy noise?" Emerging from the diner, coworker (and friend) Dagobert runs over to his side, and sees the scene for himself.

"Oh hey Dag... A space dude fell from the sky," he replies, without taking his eyes off the wreckage.

As they both just stand there and watch, unsure of what to do (ask the space dude if he's okay, go get the boss, call the police, etc); the otherworldly stranger stands up and pulls off his helmet... and two long stiff pigtails spring out. Taking note of the long eyelashes and fair skin, they now realize that the space dude was a girl! Rhea Corona, to be exact, though these gawking teenagers won't learn who she is until later. As she turns, Kardon notices a bruised and bleeding spot on her jaw, where the helmet had been dented. "Hey! Are you alright," he call out to her, as he cautiously approaches he and the smoking ruins of her space conveyance.

It is only then that she notices the two bystanders and becomes visibly startled. "Stay away from me!" she yells, while pulling out the ray gun she had in her pack. It makes a high-pitched sound, as it charges and prepares to fire.

Surprised, Kardon puts his hands up in front of himself, to show he's unarmed, and exclaims "WOAH, calm down, we're not gonna hurt you!"

"LIES," She yells, aiming her gun at him, "You must be with the OSPF... In disguise! or something."

Dagobert remains a few feet behind him, calmly observing the spectacle. Also casually taking notice of any other goings on, behind the diner.

"I don't even know what OSPF stands for!" Kardon says, starting to think the crazy space girl might not be completely sane.

Then Dagobert points to Rhea and says "Look out behind you."

"Hmph, as if I'd actually fall for that," she says, lowering the gun for a moment, "as soon as I turn my back, you's take the chance to attack me."

"No seriously," Dag says, pointing higher.

Just then, someone seizes Rhea from behind. It is a short older man, dressed as a ninja, with a long white beard dangling out from under a black mask covering his mouth. "A customer!" He yells, holding rhea's arm and tugging her towards the diner. "Welcome, welcome!" He is Bob, owner of Bob's Diner, and head of pastries.

Startled and confused, she allows herself to be led inside.

Rhea is sat down at a booth, and shown a menu, from which she orders a diet milkshake (called a "Bobshake" at the diner). After a bit of explaining, on her part and theirs, Rhea understands that she crashed on the property of a diner on a small backwater planet, galaxies away from anyone who's ever heard of space pirates or "Oberon's Superior Patrol Force." When Dagobert brought up the fact that Oberon is the name of a moon orbiting a near-by planet, it was quickly brushed off as coincidence.

Since her space suit got damaged, she changes clothes in the restroom. "Good thing I thought to bring a spare outfit in my bag," she mumbles to herself, while applying a band-aid to the cut on her jaw. Then she promptly marches back outside, towards her landing spot. "Welp, time to go!"

"To where?" Kardon asks, confused, as he and Dagobert follow her out.

"Back to my comrades," she says, turning and pointing towards the sky, "...IN SPACE!"

"And... How do you plan on getting there?" Dagobert says, holding up the head of the space scooter by the only remaining handlebar, revealing that it is no longer attached to the rest of the vehicle. As severed wires dangle and spark, and bits of the casing continues to crumble off, he continues, "Your ride is in... less than mint condition."

Rhea stares at the wreckage of her transport in shocked disbelief, and falls to her knees dejectedly as realization hits, "......I'm stranded here."

Kardon exchanges a look with Dagobert, as if to ask 'how did she not notice earlier???' Then, as Rhea starts to tear up he goes over to attempt calming her down. "Hey, don't worry! Dag's pretty good with mechanical stuff like this, maybe he can fix it."

She sniffles and looks at Dag hopefully, as he reluctantly walks over, but then he says, "Kardon, do you think I'm magic," he pauses for a moment, but before anyone answers, he continues, "because that's what it's going to take to fix that piece of garbage. Magic."

"So you can't fix it?"

Lowering his eyebrows, and frowning, Dagobert turns to go back into the diner.

"Wait!" Kardon calls after him, "what about that thing, then?"

Dag stops, tensing his shoulders and cursing under his breath, and mumbling, I knew he would suggest that next. I should have escaped sooner. Then he turns back and says, "It isn't finished, yet!"

Kardon almost looks like he'd drop the subject, then remembers "But, last time you said all the essential parts were done, and it was just the extra unnecessary parts that needed finishing."

"What thing are you guys talking about?" Asks Rhea, now highly curious.

"Dag built a spaceship!"

"Whaaaat?? That droopy-eyed kid built a spaceship? All by himself? It's not real, though, right? It's just an imaginary spaceship built out of cardboard or something, right?"

"No, it's real, I've seen it! He might let you borrow it, to go back to space."

"haha, no way no way. I can't trust my life to something a teenager made on a whim. If it actually managed to get off the ground, how do I know whether it could handle leaving the planet, or that it won't explode, or that--"

"That's enough!" Dagobert interrupts, "My pride has been wounded. It's real, perfectly safe, and totally awesome. Come see for yourself!"

Just as they were about to skip off to Dag's house; they spot the boss, Bob, peering out the diner's back door, and realize that they are still on the clock. So they decide to reconvene, after the boys' shift is over. Meanwhile, Rhea sits in a corner, drinking more milkshakes, and watching the waitresses and busboys bustling around, and the customers come and go.

Later, at Dagobert's house, he lifts up the garage door, and pulls away a tarp to reveals an odd little spacecraft about the size of a car, with enough room to seat about four people. "For some reason, my school has some really weird homework assignments, like 'build a small, fully functional spaceship.'"

"Dag and I go to different schools, by the way." Kardon added.

Dagobert continues mumbling to no one in particular, "It turned out okay for my team, because I just happened to have been doing a lot of independent study on the subject; but I think that a lot of my classmates won't be able to do it. Anyway, it turns out that the teacher is crazy and got arrested or institutionalized or something and all classes have been canceled for a while; and my parents are probably going to enroll me in Kardon's artsy school soon, so I doubt I'll ever need to take this thing in to be graded. But that's good for the random space girl, I guess? She can take it back to her crew and plunder asteroids for booty or whatever space pirates do."

"It's shaped like a fish." Rhea says, at last. And truly, it is shaped like a fish, orange, with fins on the sides and back, and a round dome on top.

Dagobert sighs, like one who has heard the same critique repeatedly. "Yes, I shaped my spaceship like a goldfish, no I don't have a reason. I just felt like it. But don't worry, it flies properly and looks normal on the inside. You want it or not??"

"Yes, please let me borrow it! I'll bring it back, some day."

"Don't bother about that, just take it and go." Grumbles Dagobert, as he presses a button to open the dome.

"Yay!" Rhea climbs into the front seat, and examines the buttons and controls for a moment. Then she furrows her brow and looks harder at them. "............ I have no idea how to start this thing."

Dag sighs, "There's no instruction manual, since I thought the controls were pretty straight-forward and I didn't think anyone else from another planet would ever need to fly it." So he starts point to buttons and toggles and things and quickly explaining what each thing does.

"This is too complicated! My awesome space scooter worked with just a few simple controls. Why does this thing need so many??"

Getting a bad feeling, Dagobert asks, "H-have you never piloted anything bigger than that scooter?"

"Nope." She replies, simply.

"Then I don't think you'll be able to fly this... without dying."

"Ehhh?? Noooo, then how will I get back home?" Depressed again, about being stranded, Rhea hugs her knees to her chest and resumes sniffling.

After a moment of silence, Kardon perks up, again, "Hey why don't you fly it, Dag! You built it after all, and you've taken it on test flights. If anyone can pilot this spacefish all the way back to the pirate ship, it's you!"

Rhea cheers up again, and climbs out of the fish to also ask, "Oh, will you please fly it for me?"

"I don't really want to..." Dagobert starts to say, then, seeing them both making puppy-dog eyes, he sighs, "but I don't really have a choice, I guess. Fine. I'll be your stupid space taxi."

"Yaaay!" Rhea cheers.

And Kardon says "It seems like fun, so I'm coming too!"

"What about school?"

"My grades are good, so it won't matter if I miss a few days, and Spring Break starts soon, so it'll be fine."

So While Kardon calls his parents to vaguely say that he's 'going with some friends on a trip for spring break,' Dagobert quickly scribbles out a note to leave for his mom.

When Kardon bring up the issue of how they will find their way to Rhea's crew's ship, Dagobert reveals that he took the navigational device off of the scooter. Even though it's broken, he should still be able to get the data off of it, using his computer. With that, he is able to enter the Enceladus' coordinates into the Fish's own navigational system. Then, without packing anything other than some snacks (Dagobert claims that the ship is built in such a way that spacesuits are unnecessary), they push the Spacefish out of the garage and up to a specially designed ramp, hop in, and Dag starts the ship. Closing the dome, checking that all systems are online, pushing buttons and flipping toggles, and mumbling the start-up procedure to himself. Then he pulls back a lever and the Fish rumbles to life, and starts rolling along the ramp, speeding up as it goes. Once it reaches the end of the ramp, it shoots upwards, into the sky, until it is but a glimmer among the clouds.

And with that, Rhea returns to space, with two unexpected traveling companions. As they go onward, she pulls out her journal to revise the essay she wrote earlier and muses to herself, "I get the feeling that I'm forgetting something... But since I can't remember, it must not be important!"

Back on Earth, the owner of Bob's Diner is hefting the last of Rhea's space junk into the dumpster, grumbling that Kardon or Dagobert shouldn't have just left it littering the yard. He wonders briefly about the wooden chest, found among the rubble; but since she didn't take it with her, it must not be anything valuable. So in the dumpster it went, along with everything else. Then he goes back into his Diner, with no idea that the boys won't be coming into work the next day, or for a while after that.