George’s father stood gazing out the window disapprovingly.   “I still think we might have been better off waiting in space.  How are we going to get off this planet with a damaged ship?”

“That is a problem,” agreed the Protector.  “But we wouldn’t have been any better off in space.  Not many ships come this way.  We can send out a distress signal just as well from down here as we could up there.  And at least here, we’ll be able to replenish our food supply, and get fresh water.  The supplies in the ship wouldn’t have lasted very long up in space.”

“But what about the ship?” repeated George’s father.  “Do you think you can fix it?  And if you can’t, where does that leave us?”

“I don’t know if I can fix it,” replied the Protector.  “I can only try …”  His voice trailed off.  They were all thinking the same thing.  If the engine couldn’t be fixed, they could end up being stranded on this planet for a very long time.

“Well,” said the Protector after a moment.  “I suppose we should go out and have a look around.”

“Do we have to?” said Emberly, still munching on a carrot.  “Why don’t we just stay in here where it’s safe.  It looks big out there.”

“To a flibbet, I’m sure it does,” said the Protector with a smile.  “You can stay here Emberly, and eat everything you find in the kitchen.  We’ll be back soon.”

George’s father was leaning over the star chart that told about L91.  Unfortunately, all of the information was written in a strange language.

“Is the atmosphere safe?” his father said worriedly. 

“The ship’s instruments show that it’s very similar to earth, although slightly richer in oxygen.  That’s probably because of all the dense forests and plant life covering the planet.”

“How about dangerous animals?” asked his father.  “Or even dangerous plants.  Are there any?”

“Not according to the notes of the last three-day exploration expedition.”  The Protector looked closely at the star chart.  “That was five years ago.”

“A lot could have changed in that much time,” said his father.  He paced back and forth again.  Then he stopped and looked pointedly at the Protector.  “Does this ship have any weapons?”

“I just now found some more cans of the obedience spray in the emergency supply room,” replied the Protector.  “And I also found some simple, low power echo guns.  They should work well on any creature we find on this planet.”

“Echo guns?” repeated George curiously. 

“Come here, and I’ll show you,” said the Protector, leading the way down the hall.  “An echo gun uses sound as a weapon.  It shoots an exceptionally loud noise at your enemy, which continues to echo over and over in his ears, even though you only hear it once.  It’s very effective at scaring off animals.”

They had arrived at the emergency supply room.  Not surprisingly, it was also decorated in fluffy cushions and fuzzy softness.  The Protector pulled three silver objects from a cabinet.  They looked more like TV remote controls than guns.

He handed one to George.  “The yellow button is the firing mechanism,” he said simply.  He then held one out to George’s father.  Surprisingly, he waved it away. 

“I shouldn’t be needing one, if you and George have one,” he said off-handedly.  “We’ll all be staying close together when we go out, I’m sure.”

The Protector looked at him curiously.  “Well, at least take one of these obedience spray cans then,” he said, pulling one off a shelf and holding it out to George’s father.

“No, thanks,” said his father.  “I’ll meet you guys up front.  I just want to look through the window again, and make sure nothing’s out there.”  He disappeared down the hall.

“Strange,” said the Protector, looking after him curiously.  “He seemed so nervous before.  He’s the one who asked for weapons!  Does your father dislike guns?”

“He’s never owned a gun,” said George simply.  “But I never knew him to dislike them, particularly.  It is funny how he doesn’t seem to want to take one, even though he’s worried about our safety.  That’s not like him.”

“Well, we know it’s not fear of enemies,” said the Protector.  “Not after the way we saw him attack that Grak.  No …” he paused, deep in thought.  “Perhaps, his time with the Grak has affected him in ways we aren’t aware of.  We’d better watch out for him.”  George silently pocketed the echo gun, and took one of the obedience spray cans as well.

Back at the control panel, they found George’s father carefully scanning the trees at the edge of the clearing.  “There doesn’t appear to be anything out there,” he said.  He looked grim, but determined.  “I guess we’d better go out and see what’s there.”

“We’ll just have a quick look around, close to the ship,” said the Protector.  “At night, we’ll obviously stay in here and lock things up.”  He led the way over to the outer hatch and pushed a button.  There was a loud click, and slowly the panel swung outward.  A set of steps retracted out of the ship and onto the ground while a gush of fresh, rich air reached up to them.

Cautiously, the Protector led the way out of the ship, his echo gun in hand.  At the foot of the steps, they paused to look at their surroundings.

“Wow!” said George happily, taking a deep breath of the thick air.  “It smells wonderful out here!”  After his weeks of captivity and time in space, it was heavenly to be in an apparently normal place again.

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“That’s the rich oxygen I told you about,” said the Protector. 

George stood at the foot of the ramp, drinking it all in.  The sunshine felt marvelous on his shoulders.  There was a gentle breeze that rustled some nearby bushes, and he could hear the soft buzzing of an insect nearby.  It all seemed so familiar and welcome that George had a hard time believing they were on a strange planet, far from earth.

George’s father had stayed back, and was standing in the shadow of the ramp.  He was looking around uneasily.

“Come on,” said the Protector, waving them forward.  George followed him across the clearing they had landed in.  It was over 100 feet wide in a circular shape, with mostly low grass for a covering.  But around all the edges were large and stately trees, and beneath them they could see a thick undergrowth of bushes.

Looking back, George was surprised to see that his father was still in the shadow of the ramp.  Was something wrong?

Just then, a shadow came over the entire clearing.  Looking up, George saw that one of the numerous clouds he had seen from space had temporarily covered L91’s sun.  His father stepped quickly out from under the ramp, and came over to them. 

“It is quite a beautiful place,” he said, looking all around.  “It’s hard to believe there are no inhabitants, other than plants.”

“Just a few little furry animals, according to the last explorer report,” said the Protector.  He led the way across the clearing, and into the undergrowth of the trees.

“It looks like we have some sort of berries here,” said the Protector, pointing to a bush laden with plump, reddish fruit of some kind.  “I’ll take some back and test them in the ship to see if they’re edible.”  He plucked some of the fruit, and put it in his pocket.  George pulled off one of the berries, which felt soft and gushy in his hands.  It didn’t have much smell, but squirted a reddish juice on his fingers.

“Let’s take a look around, a little farther in,” said the Protector, leading the way into the thick undergrowth.  There were fern-like plants and bushes in such abundance that it was hard to find a way in.  There didn’t seem to be any trails.

Moving cautiously and slowly, the Protector pushed through the undergrowth and farther into the forest.  George followed, keeping his eyes on the ground and the leaves.  From his walks in the woods back in California, he had learned to keep an eye out for spiders and other annoying little insects that might brush onto him.  What type of insects might there be here?

“Here’s another kind of berry,” called the Protector from in front of them.  Looking up, George saw a bush laden with bunches of a bluish-green fruit of some kind.  The Protector picked a few off, and put them in his pocket as well.

They kept on heading into the forest.  In no time they had lost sight of the ship.  “One could get lost here, very easily,” said the Protector.  “There are no landmarks.  We’d better not go any farther in.”  He looked back the way they had come.  “We left a trail, of sorts, of bent branches and so on, so we’ll be o.k. to find our way back.  But just the same, we’d better make it a hard and fast rule that no one goes into the forest alone, and when they do, they need to leave a trail behind them, to follow back.”

“I agree,” said George’s father.  He was standing in the shade of a tall tree, his feet seemingly cut off by the brush at its base.

They headed back, and in no time saw the ship through the green foliage.  In spite of all the problems they still had, of damage to the ship and the Grak being after them, George felt exhilarated at being in the woods.  Maybe it was just the rich oxygen like the Protector had said, or maybe it was something more.  Whatever it was, George liked it. 

There were still clouds casting shadows in the clearing as they walked across the meadow to the ship.  “I’ll test these berries out right away,” said the Protector as he stepped up the ramp.  “If they’re o.k., we can quickly get some more and have a berry feast.”

“Anything would be better than the teddy bear food,” said George hopefully.  He hesitated at the foot of the ramp.  It felt so refreshing and alive here, he didn’t really want to go back into the fluffy ship.  It reminded him too much of the teddy bear creatures that had held him captive. 

“Coming up, George?” asked his father, as he passed George and headed up the ramp.

“In a minute,” he responded.  He looked around again at the lush greenery surrounding the clearing and took a deep breath of the crisp, wonderful air.

Beautiful as it was however, George hoped they wouldn’t be here long.  He yearned to be home, and to see the joy on his mother’s face when his father entered the house.  He was even looking forward to seeing his sister Janet.  He grinned, ruefully.  Now that was a bad case of homesickness!

Slowly he went up the ramp.  A nagging fear tugged at the back of his mind.  How long would it be before he saw home again?  How much time would pass before he would hear the unpleasant jangle of his cell phone, as his mother called again—a sound he now longed to hear?  How long before he could do something normal, like stroll into a grocery store with his mother?

Or, was this place, lovely as it was, going to be their new home, forever?