Personal Log 2: Adrian Stevens, Entry 6

This story is just for fun. Any resemblance to the staff at the space center is intentional. Any resemblance to a real space center mission is your imagination.
Aleta Clegg
Space Center Educator / Digitarium Director

Personal Log 2: Adrian Stevens, Entry 6

Harken slammed her brush into the bucket of soapy water. “This is the thanks I get? That lying weasel. I should never have listened to Perry. She said he’d pay us well, that we’d be rich. We’d never have to take orders from anyone again. And here I am, scrubbing the deck with you two. And Perry is dead.” She wiped a tear from her face.

“Perry deserved to die. She was a traitor.” Turner slapped his brush on the floor, spattering the wall with soap bubbles.

“You know nothing!”

The guard at the end of the hall eyed us suspiciously.

“Scrub the floor or they might send us after Commander Perry.” I watched him as I scrubbed another deck plate. “We have to find a way out of here.”

“No Klingons to pick a fight with this time,” Turner whispered. “I wonder what they did with Evangeline and Vasha.”

An explosion rocked the ship. Lights turned red as alarms shrieked through the air. Our guard took off at a run. I threw my brush at the bucket.

“Looks like opportunity to me. Can you fly a shuttle?” I grabbed Harken’s shoulder.

“Don’t touch me!” She shoved my hand away.

“Turner and I can’t fly. We need you. Look, Harken, you help us escape, we won’t tell anyone about you and Perry and your smuggling in the Odyssey.”

“Adrian.” Turner tugged my arm. “Is the Odyssey still docked?”

“I don’t know.”

“We don’t need her. Delphi Protocol, Adrian.”

“It doesn’t work, Adam.”

“If we get Vasha and Evangeline. . .”

“Right. Have fun cleaning decks, Harken.” I scrambled to my feet. Turner and I ran down the hall.

“Idiots! They’re this way!” Harken called, careful not to shout too loud.

“You’re with us, then?” I tried to glare as I followed her through Caligula’s ship.

“I get you out of here, you keep your mouth shut. And we let Perry take the blame.” Harken slid to a stop at a corner.

The three of us peered around the edge.

Caligula paced the hall, his leather coat flaring around his ankles. “What do you mean they have escaped? Find them, you imbeciles!”

The guards scattered. We backed hastily from the hall. Boots pounded behind us. Red light painted the walls in flickering lights as the ship’s power systems cycled down.

“In here.” Turner slid open a door. Harken and I crowded behind him.

“Somebody’s quarters,” Harken muttered as we stumbled through the room in the dark.

The door to the hall opened again. “I do not want to hear of failure. Is that clear?” Caligula’s voice echoed from the hall.

Harken swore under her breath as she slid into a storage locker. Turner crammed himself into a closet. I crawled under the bed.

Caligula stomped into his room. “Lights!” The emergency light glowed, casting shadows through the cabin.

I lifted the edge of his blanket to peer out.

Caligula sighed as he unfastened his leather coat. I watched in horror as he revealed his skinny torso. White skin puckered around metal implants. Caligula removed his glasses. His eyes glowed red in the dim light.

I shoved my fist in my mouth. His slight weight settled on the mattress above me. I suddenly had to go to the bathroom.

The storage locker door silently opened. Harken slid behind the couch. She signaled me. I shook my head. Three of us against a cyborg? We didn’t stand a chance. She fixed me with a fierce glare.

Caligula’s quiet snoring filled the room. Turner edged from the closet. He gripped a phaser in one hand. Harken pointed at the bed. I flattened myself to the floor as he raised the weapon, wondering if I was going to survive the next few moments.

Then, Now and the Future

Hello Troops,
On this day, July 16, America launched Apollo 11. Men were walking on the moon the summer of my eleventh birthday.

Sheeeeeez..... What's happened? I was sure by the time I celebrated my 50th birthday American would have space stations, Moon and Mars bases.

In 1968 I paid $1.25 to see the epic science fiction movie 2000: A Space Odyssey at Rapid City, South Dakota's Elks Theater. It was the glory days of our nation's Space Program. My friends and I were sure the science fiction we saw in that movie would be science fact on January 1, 2000.

This was the Space Station orbiting Earth. A fleet of PanAm Carriers transported you back and forth between the station and Earth.

A scene from the movie showing people in transit between the Space Station and the Moon.

This was the Space Station. Quite different from the one in orbit today in 2010.


What prevented the future we saw in 2000: A Space Odyssey from transpiring? The answer and its analysis would fill chapters. I guess you could say the present got in the way of the future.

My friends tell me that space exploration would explode if profit was involved. In other words, we must find a way to transform space travel from a money costly endeavour to a money making endeavour. I agree.


This picture comes from a web site advertising the areas where money could be made in space. It is possible. Space really is our last frontier. It is a place for young, new entrepreneurs (like you perhaps) seeking to make their fortune, and at the same time, expand mankind's knowledge of the universe itself.

So today, we remember the launch of Apollo 11 forty one years ago. In that same thought we congratulate the private companies at work today attemping to make the dream of 2000: A Space Odyssey real in your life time.

Mr. Williamson

The Rooftops of London and the Rooftops of Pleasant Grove

Hello Troops,
I saw Mary Poppins when it came out in the early 1960's. I loved the movie then and love it still.

Do you remember Bert singing Chim chim-in-ey, chim chim-in-ey Chim chim cher-oo? Here are two verses from the song.

I choose me bristles with pride, yes, I do

A broom for the shaft and a brush for the flute

Up where the smoke is all billered and curled

'Tween pavement and stars is the chimney sweep world

When there's 'ardly no day nor 'ardly no night

There's things 'alf in shadow and 'alfway in light

On the rooftops of London coo, what a sight!

Chim chim-in-ey, chim chim-in-ey

Chim chim cher-ee!

When you're with a sweep you're in glad company

Nowhere is there a more 'appier crew

Than them wot sings, "Chim chim cher-ee, chim cher-oo!"

On the rootops of London..

Chim chim cher-oo!

In the movie, Bert was a Chimney Sweep and a good friend of Mary. Now, you're wondering why I'm writing about a character from Mary Poppins. Well, Bert and I have something in common. We spend a part of our working days on rooftops. Bert enjoys birds eye views of London and I do the same for Pleasant Grove.

Every day I ascend Heaven's Ladder located in the 4th Grade Hallway Custodian's Closet and trek across the roof of Central Elementary to do one of the duties required of me as Space Center Director. Can you guess what that is? Am I......

1. Venturing to the rooftop to do astronomical observations?

2. Venturing to the rooftop to do astrological observations?

3. Venturing to the rooftop to signal extraterrestrials with one of our EverReady Flashlights?

4. Finding a good place to "End it All?"

5. Looking for the only place where I can find peace and quiet?

6. Resetting the rooftop air conditioner that cools the Gym?

If you said #6 then YOU ARE CORRECT!

Every day I open the gym doors to feel the exiting air and most days I find it isn't being cooled. The air conditioner has a mind of its own and needs to be switched off and on for the compressor to work correctly. We go through this every summer. We put in maintenance work orders, the problem gets fixed sometime in the Fall and then it reappears in the summer.

The air conditioner is located on the school's roof. To access the roof I unlock the Custodian's Closet, move the carpet shampooing machine and tread carefully up the worn yellow ladder leading to the rooftop.

I'm in a different world up there. I see the blue sky, trees, clouds and people going about their day to day business completely unaware of me peering down at them from behind an air conditioner.

I scale another ladder to the gym's roof, the highest point of the school. I switch the conditioner off and give it a minute or two to reset. That gives me time to take a walk around the gym's perimeter.

Today I had to check the Discovery Room's air conditioner. At 4:00 P.M. the room started heating up. The Air Conditioner wasn't cooling. While I was up on the roof I discovered the Utah Power and Light Auto Switcher displayed a red LCD light.

That meant the compressor was shut down automatically as part of the power company's program to conserve power and prevent black outs. The air conditioner came on while I was checking it out. That problem was solved.

Before descending I take a moment and enjoy the view.

I switch the gym conditioner on, descend the ladder, then reenter the school through the hatchway. Back I go into my underground world of space and simulations, locking the hatch above me.


So, Chim Chim Cher-ee and Cheerio.....

Mr. Williamson