The Quest of Roy Leon

By: Clay Showalter

    Roy Leon lived in the quiet town of Yad. His family made a living by farming and selling produce at the market. Roy would spend day after day basking in the sun and relaxing. That was until they started arriving.

    At first, there were only a few of them. But as the weeks rolled by, more and more men in uniforms showed up. Nobody knew who they were, or why they chose to come to Erp. Rumors started going around and people began to worry.

    Soon the men came to be called government officials, since they wore the royal seal on their chests. Chairman Drek of the Intergalactic Council assured people that the men were conducting a scientific survey. The public bought it, and that was pretty much that, although there were a few people that questioned Drek. Roy was one of them.

    One day, Roy realized that all the government officials that had arrived on Bollix first went to a hastily constructed building surrounded by guards and barbwire fences. There were signs declaring "Trespassers Will Be Shot," and other foreboding phrases. Roy wanted to set the facts straight. He planned to sneak into the building.

    Roy chose a moonless night to climb the fence and slip through a window. As he stepped down from the windowsill, he cringed as his flashlight fell out of his pocket and clanked loudly against the tile floor. He heard voices through the pitch-black hall. A flashlight clicked on, and flickered in his direction.

    He ran. He ran harder than he had ever run before. He could hear the sound of feet slapping against the tile floor behind him. He found a door and slid into the room. He groped for the light switch. He found it and flicked it on. A dim red glow illuminated maps and diagrams that covered the wall. He stared at the diagrams. There were illustrations of his planet and the orbiting space station. Except only the planet was in the correct position in the galaxy. It appeared that the space station was being towed through the galaxy by a Zorg battleship. Roy couldn’t believe his eyes. Drek was planning on taking the space station, which was vital to Erp’s survival.

    Roy studied the pictures of the machines. After taking history and economics, he knew that removing the space station would take away the planet’s food source, which could only be grown on the space station. Roy was missing something though. What was Drek planning to do with the space station? He didn’t hear the footsteps behind him until it was too late.

    When Roy regained consciousness, he found that he was lying face down on a hard tile floor. He slowly rolled over and discovered that he was alone in a small room. He sat up and checked for injuries. That was strange, he was completely unharmed. An escape plan was already in his mind. He had every thing he needed. As he continued to pace around the room, he noticed a small hole in the ceiling. He could hear the mechanical sound of something moving. He looked up. It was a camera watching him. He looked around the room for something to block it with so he could make his escape, but the room was completely empty. He thought for a moment and took off his sock and wedged it into the small hole in front of the camera. Immediately an alarm went off and a hidden door in the wall opened. Gas filled the room. Roy gasped for breath as everything went black.

    This time Roy woke up in a small, carpeted office. Someone dragged him to his feet. He was so dazed he could hardly stand up. He found that he was being carried. He squirmed and tried to get free, but the person’s grasp was too strong. All of a sudden he was outside. He turned over so he could see where he was being taken. A fence was looming up ahead, but his captor kept a straight course, and heaved Roy over the fence. Roy was rolling down a steep incline when his shirt caught on something. He was jerked to a halt. He was aching all over. When he stood up, he nearly passed out. He was less than three feet from the edge of a precipice. They had tried to kill him.

    Roy started his long trek back to the top of the hill. All he wanted to do was get home and rest. He had no idea how long it had been since he had last slept. As he approached the fence, he veered right to stay out of site. He had walked for almost an hour when the fence suddenly disappeared. He stealthily climbed over the hill and realized where he was. He was in Yeapaka, over forty miles from his house. He dug into his pocket and pulled out a handful of crumpled bills. Barely enough money to take the bus home. As he boarded the bus, Roy began to devise a plan.

    When he arrived home he checked his clock. Roy realized that he had been gone for more than a week.

    In a few weeks, Roy had organized several meetings and unveiled Drek’s plot. People were a little slow to figure it out, but after a lot of explaining they finally realized how serious the situation was. The village elders decided to send three brave men to stop Drek. The only problem was that nobody knew where he was, or where the machines he was going to use were. The elders decided to have a competition to decide who would go.

    The next day, there were posters all over town saying, "Become a Hero, and Save our Planet! All men wishing to try out meet in town hall at 5:00 tomorrow." The following evening, there were about 50 tough-looking men standing outside town hall. Volunteers registered each entrant. A few minutes before the competition was to begin, a young woman named Jennifer ran up to Roy and asked if she could compete. He didn’t know what to say. He consulted the town elders, and they decided that if she could win the competition, then she could go.

    As the men prepared to complete the three-mile long obstacle course, Roy decided that he wanted to try it. He squeezed in and made his way near the front of the pack just as the starting whistle sounded. All 50 people ran to the first obstacle: a hastily constructed 30-foot wall. The men (and woman) gripped the small prongs protruding from the wall, and carefully scaled it. Only about 30 people made it over, Jennifer and Roy were just two of them.

    The next obstacle was an antigravity field. Contestants had to hold on to hoops anchored in the ground, while their feet were being pulled into the air. Each person had to wear a harness so they didn’t float off into space in case they lost their grip. Only twenty-three people made it across.

    The final obstacle was a series of planks and poles that constantly shifted. It was suspended between two buildings. The remaining contestants threw themselves at the challenge. In about three hours, there were only six people clinging to the boards. One more contestant gave up and used his harness to get to the ground. As the remaining five inched along, a gust blew up and knocked off another. Four people left. A large crowd had already gathered around the podium where the three winners would be announced. Roy could see the end of the course up ahead as he struggled to keep his balance. He was almost there when Jennifer squeezed by him. He was frustrated at himself. He couldn’t loose to a girl. But even as he increased his pace, she still kept a few yards in front of him. He slowly began to catch up to her. The wind had increased to a howl. He was almost even with her, when he lost his balance. He felt himself falling, he knew his harness would catch him, but he wouldn’t win the competition. Roy quickly clawed at a pole. There he was, hanging about 50 feet in the air. He had never liked heights. He was loosing his grip, when over the edge appeared Jennifer. She leaned down and helped him back onto the board. Before he knew it, she was making her way to the end of the course. It was too late. She had beaten him.

Roy knew that he had still made it in the top three and got to go along, but to be beaten by a girl, now that was something else. Even worse, he couldn’t have come in second without her help. He was so demoralized that he didn’t even enjoy the award ceremony, where Jennifer, Ted and he were each given a ship to find Drek.

Roy was feeling a little better about what had happened, when the five-minute warning alarm went off. It was almost time to board the ship. As Roy stepped outside, he could have sworn that the whole town was there to bid the three farewell. When the village elders summoned Roy, he knew that Yad wasn’t the richest town, but after he saw the rust crumbling off the ship he was supposed to ride in, he realized how little money was available for town emergencies. The village elders briefed each one of them separately on the plan. Roy was to fly to planet Pungy, which was the second largest database in the universe. There was sure to be information on Drek there.

Roy waved goodbye to the cheering crowd. He stepped inside the small ship. He was planning on relaxing since the ship was already programmed to take him to his destination. As he sat back awaiting takeoff, a crackly voice blared from his radio. He adjusted it and realized that it was his companions. They had just taken off. He punched a few numbers into the control panel, and the ship prepared for takeoff. He sat back and relaxed. Three hours and he would be on Pungy.

As the ship blasted off, he slipped his headphones on and took a nap. He didn’t hear his radio, or the alarm going off.

Roy awoke with a start. Lights on his control panel were blinking. A message was flashing across a small screen: SHIP OFF COURSE… SHIP OFF COURSE… Roy pulled up a map on a different screen. He was over 800 miles off course. How could that have happened, he wondered. The autopilot was still on. He put the ship on manual and steered it on the right course. He tried to radio the other two ships, but there was only static.

He remembered what he had learned in flight class: remain calm, analyze the problem and correct it. He studied map after map, but he couldn’t figure out what had thrown him off course. He gave up and concentrated on steering the ship.

A few hours later, the ship touched down on Pungy. As Roy stepped out, a tall man in a uniform greeted him. They shook hands, and the man explained that someone from Yad had sent him a letter explaining everything that had been going on, and that he wished to help. Roy allowed himself to be led into a small hut. The man, named Jacob, showed Roy over to a large computer. It was directly hooked up to the database. There were numerous bits of information all over the screen. Jacob admitted that he couldn’t find a single bit of information on Drek’s plans for the space station.

Jacob did pull up a live image of Drek’s mansion. Sentries were patrolling the outer wall. Each one of them was carrying a Moonraker Deluxe laser. The only entrance was a heavily guarded electronic gate. Roy knew that there was no way for him to get to Drek that way. After a few more hours of searching, they struck gold, a video of Drek addressing the Inter-galactic Council.

In the background were pictures of machinery. Drek was standing at a podium speaking to the council members. His speech began, "Welcome. I am chairman Drek of the inter-galactic council. I’m sure most of you know me. Today I have brought the plans to build the ultimate planet." Drek went on explaining that he was going to use an already existing planet and turn it into a theme world. "Thus creating a immense profit for the intergalactic council." There was a standing ovation.

Roy asked Jacob to pause it and zoom in on the plans in the background. There were the blueprints of the planet. And there, orbiting above it was the Bollix space station. Roy couldn’t believe it. Drek was going to kill off an entire planet just to make some money.

Roy had Jacob give him the coordinates of where Drek was last seen. He was last seen on Planet Argon, only a few thousand miles from where he was. Roy thanked him as he climbed into his ship. He punched in the coordinates, and relaxed.

A few hours later, Roy was circling Argon. As he brought the ship into the atmosphere, he noticed that there were red and blue lights on the landing strip. He pulled out a book and looked up the signals. The lights were there to tell people not to land. Roy wondered what could be going on. He brought his ship closer and saw that the runway was full of holes and crumbling. Roy knew he couldn’t land there, so he searched for an alternative landing. He brought the ship down in a large field. As he stepped out of the ship and stretched, he could see people running over the edge of the valley and heading towards him.

They were shouting something. Roy waited until they got closer and waved to them. Immediately they stopped and pulled out weapons. They advanced, and one of them, a tall, dark-haired man walked up to him. Some one came up behind him and grabbed his wrists. Roy protested, but quickly stopped when he realized he was looking down the barrel of a Moonraker Laser. They tied his wrists and carried him over the hill. They seemed to be heading for a large building a few miles away.

The man carrying Roy halted outside one of the large doors. He put his hand into a scanner, and the door opened. It was dark inside. Roy was carried a little ways farther into the building, and then dropped on the floor. The people left. Roy lay on the cement floor as his eyes became accustomed to the dark. When he rolled over, he realized that he was not alone in the small room. There were two huddled figures in the corner. He walked over to them. They turned around. Roy couldn’t believe it! It was Ted and Jennifer.

They told him that they had been trapped there for three days. There was a window in the small cell, but it was 14 feet off of the ground. Ted suggested that they stand on each other’s shoulders. With three people, they could reach the window. Roy was possibly stronger than Ted, so he stood on the ground and helped Ted onto his shoulders. Then he hoisted Jennifer up and Ted helped her stand on his shoulders. Roy strained under the weight, as Jennifer studied the six horizontal bars over the window. They were made of wood, but incredibly strong. She didn’t have any matches, but Ted always carried flint and tinder around. He handed it up. Jennifer looked at the tinder. There wasn’t enough to start a fire hot enough to burn the bars off.

Jennifer climbed down, and Ted followed. They searched around the cell, but there wasn’t anything that would burn. Then Jennifer came up with an idea. Socks. They would start a small fire and burn their socks, which should make it hot enough to burn the wood. They waited until nightfall to climb back up again. Jennifer took out some flint and tinder and started a small fire. Then she set the socks over the smoldering tinder. She blew on it softly, until the sock caught on fire. She moved it closer to the bars. She added the five other socks and soon had a fire large enough to destroy the bars.

When the fire died down, all that remained on the windowsill were ashes. Jennifer climbed out the window and helped Ted. There was only one problem with their escape. They didn’t know how to get Roy out the window. He couldn’t jump high enough to reach Ted or Jennifer. After a few minutes of thinking, Ted agreed to hang through the window with Jennifer holding his heals and grab Roy’s hand when he jumps. After five or six tries, Roy jumped high enough for Ted to grab him. Jennifer braced herself and pulled them both through the small window. They were free.

The three jail breakers headed to Roy’s ship. They were hoping it still worked. It was almost dawn when they came upon the ship. It looked fine. They loaded in and brainstormed what to do next. Ted wanted to land the ship on another part of the planet and continue looking for Drek. Jennifer wanted to head back home and report to the village elders. Roy wanted to go back to Pungy and talk to Jacob. They decided to solve it the scientific way: rock, paper, and scissors. Best two out of three. Ted won, and the three agreed that it was fair.

When the ship landed near a large city a few hundred miles away, it looked like a different planet. Huge skyscrapers lined the horizon. Billboards with flashing advertisements were everywhere. Fancy hover-cars were zooming around. As the three stepped out of the ship, a small robot flew up and handed each one of them a flyer. It read, "Buy Buzz Cola, the best in this galaxy!" Roy crumbled up the piece of paper and dropped it on the ground. Immediately a robot hovered over and sucked up the piece of paper. It then rose up to eye level on Roy and said, " Don’t litter our galaxy!" and zoomed away. Jennifer and Ted were just as shocked as Roy: almost a completely automated society.

Roy didn’t even know where to begin looking for Drek. The three of them decided to begin with the nearest building. They walked into the lobby of a seemingly normal building. There wasn’t anybody at the front desk. They walked over and rang the bell that was sitting on the counter. Immediately a large, surprisingly human robot rolled into the room. Instead of speaking, a screen lit up on the robot’s mid-section. Ted realized that they wouldn’t get any helpful information in this building.

They left the building and walked along the sidewalk looking for tourist information. They passed shop after shop. Neon lights flashed in the windows. Odd-looking robots rolled around in front of the shops advertising sales. One shop was selling expensive holographic televisions. Roy had always wanted one. He talked Ted and Jennifer into going into the shop to talk to the owner. Roy just wanted to watch the holographic images walk across the floor. As they walked into the dark shop, a holographic image popped up in front of them. It was all of the sales for the day. Roy walked around the shop looking at all of the televisions. Each one was on a different station. News, weather, comedies… wait a minute! A message was flashing across one of the images. It said, "Don’t miss Drek’s speech about a new theme planet at 4:15 in the City Hall! Its open for the public to express their ideas and opinions." Roy rushed over to Ted and Jennifer. "We have to find where City Hall is! We only have an hour!" With that, they rushed out of the shop. All they had to do was to find someone who knew where City Hall might be.

They asked person after person, but they all were tourists. They went into shops only to be met by robots. Finally, they found a police officer. He told them where City Hall was, along with the closest bus stop. They still had twenty minutes left when the arrived outside the large, fancy building with gold lettering across the front. Roy and Jennifer had already devised a plan. All they needed was a public computer and a printer.

As the three companions sat together in the large auditorium, people began coming in. Roy, Ted and Jennifer went over the plan. Roy gave each of them a booklet he had printed off the computer a few minutes before. The three sat in separate places in the auditorium.

The auditorium was almost full when Drek approached the podium. The crowd clapped politely. Drek began talking about the new theme world and how its profits would benefit everybody in the same galaxy. A screen behind him showed the planet and the space station that Drek was going to steal from Roy’s home planet, Erp. Drek lied to the audience, "Scientists will be building a space station that will allow humans to live on or visit the planet." Roy stood up and left the auditorium. He wanted to find the computer that was projecting the images behind Drek. He walked up the stairs and found a small room with a computer hooked up to the same projector as the one in the auditorium. Roy could see people walking up to the stage and taking the microphone and asking questions. Ted and Jennifer were waiting for the signal from Roy. Roy gave thumbs up, and Ted approached the stage.

The person before him handed him the microphone. Ted began, "I would like you all to know where the space station that is going to be used for the theme world is coming from." Immediately Drek picked up his microphone and said, " Now, I am truly sorry, but we are out of time for today, please come to my…" Ted cut in, "Drek is going to steal the space station from a planet most of you haven’t even heard of." With that, Roy pulled up information on the computer about the space station, and projected it onto the large screen in the auditorium. People gasped, as Ted continued, "The space station is vital to our planet. Without it, the inhabitants of Erp will starve, since the space station was the planets only source of food. Erp is an economically poor country, so most of the inhabitants cannot afford to leave the planet." Ted stepped off of the stage and calmly sat down.

People were murmuring and muttering things to each other. Roy continued pulling up stuff on the space station and projecting it onto the screen. Drek rose out of his chair and picked up his microphone. "Obviously this man is insane. You should not listen to his nonsense." Someone in the audience yelled, "Is it true? Are you really going to kill off an entire planet just for a profit!" There were murmurs of agreement from the crowd. Roy was looking for the video of Drek addressing the Inter-galactic council.

Drek was looking more and more uneasy. He was sweating. People in the crowd weren’t convinced yet. Roy almost shouted out with joy. There it was. Drek talking to the Inter-galactic council. He quickly projected it onto the screen. Every one became quiet as they watched. After the video speech was over, Drek stood up. "Now, now, now, I can explain." Someone in the audience threw something at him. Drek turned around and headed for the rear entrance.

People swarmed after him. Drek’s security guards were waiting outside. The crowd overwhelmed them. Drek was making his way towards his fancy ship. He made it inside before the crowd got to the ship. He realized that he had left the keys in his jacket, which was inside. He sat helplessly in his ship as people beat on his ship. They were breaking windows and trying to flip it over.

The police arrived a few minutes later and got control of the crowd. There were twelve different news stations there. Drek’s plot spread all over the galaxy. People were enraged. Drek wasn’t put in jail or anything, but the Inter-galactic counsel refused to let him build the theme world.

The three heroes went back to their home planet Erp. The whole population of Erp greeted them. There was much rejoicing and partying. Roy, Jennifer and Ted went down as heroes. Ted wrote a book about his experiences, and Jennifer was asked to join the Inter-galactic council. Roy refused all offers from magazines, corporations, and movies and spent the rest of his days quietly at home.