Atlas and the Dino Ship

Once upon a time, a long time ago, there was a big boy named Atlas. Atlas was a space explorer from the planet Chronoporia in the faraway galaxy called the Eridanus cluster, about 85 light years from Earth. Atlas loved to visit other planets in his solar system to learn about their geography and history. The planet closest to Chonoporia, which he was not allowed to visit too often for fear of rotting his teeth, was a fluffy planet made entirely of edible clouds very similar to cotton candy. The next planet after that was a dry rocky planet with so many tall peaks it looked like a porcupine. The planet after that was full of tunnels that had been eaten away by bacteria so it looked like a round ball of swiss cheese, and if you chose the right tunnel you could travel from one end of the planet clear to the other side.

Atlas’s only wish was that he could travel to planets and galaxies beyond the Eridanus cluster, but this was impossible because even traveling at the speed of light, it would take him millions of years to get to those galaxies. His summer school holiday was only eight weeks, so if he traveled any more than four light weeks away he would never have time to get back before the first week of school which everyone knows is the most important because that is when you meet your teacher, find out your desk, and get the books you will be using that year. Of all of the galaxies in the universe Atlas most especially wanted to visit the Milky Way, where he knew that there was a yellow dwarf sun orbited by eight planets - Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Astronomers on Atlas’s planet of Chronoporia believed that the third planet in that solar system, Earth, was similar to Chronoporia and would have a special set of materials known as the building blocks of life - the materials that any planet would need in order for plants and animals to grow: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur. But Earth was 150 million light years from Chonoporia, so Atlas knew that he would never be able to go. As much as he enjoyed exploring the cool planets closer to his own home, he always felt a sense of longing when he would look at the Milky Way through his telescope. 

On Atlas’s 8th birthday, after he had blown out his candles and made his usual wish to be able to explore the far reaches of the universe and had opened his present (a new rocket booster for his spaceship), his mother asked him to sit with her in the living room and said she had one more special present for him that she had been saving for a long time. 

Atlas was one in a long line of space travelers - his father, his grandmother, his great grandfather, his great, great grandfather back for 30 generations had all been space travelers and had been renown for the incredible discoveries they had made and the information they learned about faraway planets. Atlas’s mother explained that there was a secret to their success - an infinity stone that allowed them to travel across vast expanses of space and even hundreds of millions of light years away without losing any time at home. By tracing an infinity shape - like a sideways number 8 - into the flat surface of the stone while embarking on a space journey, space explorers in this family were also able to travel back in time so that they could arrive at their destination instantly but it would appear as it had the the number of years ago that it was light years from Chonoporia. So for example if Atlas wanted to travel to a planet ten light years away, he could rub the stone and he would arrive at the planet has it had been ten years ago. He could travel to earth instantly, but the Earth he would find would appear as Earth had 150 million years ago. Now that he was eight, it was time for the special stone to pass to Atlas. The special stone had been passed down through so many generations and used by so many travelers that their thumbs had worn a groove in the stone in the shape of the infinity symbol and all Atlas would have to do was trace in that groove with his thumb. He could not wait to try it. 

Atlas’s mother warned him that if he traveled to a time before there were spaceships, his space ship might look different. Once, she said, Atlas’s father had traveled to a faraway planet that had been covered with giant trees and his spaceship had taken the form of just such a tree. To get in, he had had to climb several hundred feet up the side of the tree and go in through a door that looked like a big knot in the wood. Another time the spaceship had taken the form of a particularly shiny puddle. But as long as Atlas could find the space ship and get in, he would just have to rub the special rock and you would be returned to Chronoporia and his own time. 

Atlas was eager to go on his adventure into deep space, so his mom packed him a lunch and gave him a kiss and he went out to his spaceship with the special stone. He set his ship heading for Earth, closed his eyes and rubbed the special stone. He felt his body jolt back and seem to freefall, and through his closed eyelids he seemed to see millions of stars rushing by like tiny flashes. Then he felt a great heaviness and a stillness and opened his eyes. He was in a lush forest filled with ferns and buzzing insects. Overhead a pterodactyl flew, and in a valley just below him a family of stegosauruses were munching placidly on green moss. In the distance, steam billowed from a volcanic mountain. 

Atlas went for a walk to explore and learn more about Earth. He marveled at the plants and animals he saw and especially at some very large footprints with big claw marks. He hoped he would not meet the scary dinosaur that had made that footprint. In a forest, he saw big gentle dinosaurs with great long necks reaching up to eat tender leaf shoots from the tops of trees. He found a leaf to feed to one of these dinosaurs and in gratitude the dinosaur lowered its head for Atlas to climb on, then lifted him impossibly high into the sky above the tree tops. From there Atlas could see far across this land. He saw blue oceans whose waves crashed upon sandy beaches, vast expanses of valley and forest, rocky peaks and a great crevasse where the land was beginning to split. Atlas knew from his studies of geography on his own planet that these cracks were from the shifting of tectonic plates and that over millions and millions of years this crack would continue to grow as the plates would shift, forming and reforming new continents. He wondered what Earth would look like in his time, and whether there would ever he people like him. Would there ever be a little boy on this planet who also loved space travel and who longed to learn more about the universe?

As the sun began to set on Earth Atlas could feel a chill coming and decided it was time to start looking for his spaceship. He was brave, but he did not want to be on a strange planet at night. His mom had told him that his spaceship would not look the same if space ships and their materials had not yet been invested on the planet he visited, but if it did not look like a space ship how would he recognize it? He pulled the special stone from his pocket and held it as he began to look. Could the spaceship be a tree like his mother had told him about? None of the trees around felt like a spaceship to him. A rock? The rocks also did not feel like spaceships, and besides there was no way inside. After a while Atlas came around a bend in his path and saw a great big dinosaur that stood on two legs and had tiny arms and a great big mouth with big teeth. He thought he should feel scared but somehow he didn’t. Something just felt familiar about this dinosaur. Even though they looked nothing alike, somehow the dinosaur reminded Atlas of his spaceship. Is this what it felt like to recognize his spaceship when it had taken on another form? Atlas approached the dinosaur and although it appeared like it must be a meat eating dinosaur it looked at him with a friendly recognition that did not seem scary at all. Atlas went up to the dinosaur and touched its leg. It was not cold metal like his spaceship, but again it still felt familiar. The dinosaur lowered its head to Atlas and he gave it a pat on its great large nose which the dinosaur seemed to like. Atlas thought back to what his mother had said about finding his spaceship. There was supposed to be a door, but where was the door here? Atlas could not see anything. Then, as though reading his mind, the dinosaur opened its great big mouth and Atlas knew - this was his spaceship! With a final look around at this incredible world and all its creatures, Atlas carefully ducked his head and entered the dinosaur’s mouth. As it closed he rubbed his stone in the special way and thought of his home. He felt again the falling sensation and saw the stars shooting by like flashes behind his eyelids, then the slowing and the stillness. He opened his eyes and found himself in his own backyard with his own trusty spaceship, looking just as it had the day he left. 

Atlas shook his head and thought. “Wow, no one is ever going to believe what I’ve just seen!” He slept very deeply that night and his dreams were filled with visions of earth, of dinosaurs, space travel and all the fantastical shapes he imagined his space ship might take in the many worlds he planned to visit next. A whole world of new possibilities had just opened up to him, and he could not wait to keep exploring.