In the courtyard of the Science Institution, Aldred and Sophie stood, while Louise and some of the other scientists looked on. Aldred had the silver-coloured teleport watch strapped to his wrist, and he and Sophie were carrying a small backpack each.
"I still don't think it's a good idea to let the girl go." A man in the crowd mumbled.
Louise, who was sitting a metre in front of him, turned to look at him. "Would you rather leave your family behind and go in her place?" she asked sweetly.
The man shook his head hurriedly.
Although not everyone seemed okay with it, after several hours of debate it had been decided that Aldred and Sophie would use the teleport watch to search for the expedition. Aldred because he'd done most of the work on the teleport watch and so was entitled to it, and Sophie because she had volunteered long before anyone else and was determined to go. Of course, everything would be monitored closely, and all precautions would be taken to ensure that both of them, and especially the very young teenager that Sophie was, would be safe.
Today was the day they were leaving.
To aid them in finding the spaceship, apart from the teleport watch, Sophie and Aldred had a virtual star map of all the planets that the expedition visited before it went missing, and the records of all the trips. The plan was that they would visit each planet on the records, starting at the beginning but then proceeding in a more direct order, ask around for any information on the ship (and collect scientific information on the planet along the way), and then move on, following any leads on the spaceships whereabouts.
Sophie was nervous as she stood there. Of course she was nervous, she was about to embark on a journey to the stars, something completely different to anything she'd done before. But at the same time she felt really hopeful. The chance that she would find her dad, coupled with the prospect of travelling around the universe with Aldred, who was a good friend of hers now, made Sophie feel just great.
She knew Louise was worried about her, but Sophie didn't want her to worry. Louise had become like a surrogate mother to her and she knew Louise saw her as a daughter. She had expressed her doubts about the trip to Sophie the night before.
"Sophie..." she had begun. "Are you really sure it's the right path for you to go on this trip? I mean, it will be very dangerous and I.... I don't want anything to happen to you."
"It'll be okay Louise." Sophie had tried to reassure her. "I'll have Aldred there to look after me. Plus I know how to handle myself, I'm not clueless."
"I know, Sophie." Louise replied. "And I know Aldred won't let you get hurt, but, well, I'm worried about the teleport watch. I mean no one has journeyed with a non-fixed teleport before in recorded history, apart from tests of course. Anything could happen during the teleportation, any kind of fault could turn up. We don't even know if there's any room for fault, since no one has done it before. Anything could happen to you."
"That's the exciting thing though Louise." Sophie had leaned forward and placed her hand on Louise's shoulder. "We get to do what nobody on Earth has done. It's going to be different, and unpredictable, but that's what makes it the ideal way to find the expedition. And that's why I have to go." She finished with a sad smile on her face.
Louise was still worried of course, but the two had embraced, and then Louise wished the young girl good luck, and Sophie knew that she meant it.
Sophie recalled this conversation with Louise as she and Aldred prepared to go, and looked for her in the crowd. Her eyes quickly found Louise, sitting in her wheelchair near the front, and gave her a small smile. Louise smiled back encouragingly and gave her a thumbs-up. Sophie grinned at this. For someone who wasn't young, Louise sure acted like it sometimes. Sophie felt really sorry that Louise was confined to that wheelchair for all her days, because she knew that it pained her to not be able to do everything she could with functioning legs. Louise had told Sophie that her legs had been injured during a fieldwork experiment almost ten years previously, and she'd been in the wheelchair ever since. Although her legs weren't entirely paralysed, Louise couldn't walk properly, and couldn't afford any medical intervention to try to fix it.
Sure, Sophie felt bad about leaving her, but she knew Louise wasn't helpless and could manage fine on her own.
After a while of people waiting and other people preparing for the send-off, it was time for Sophie and Aldred to leave. The scientist in charge of Aldred's department, Ronan Schofer, stepped forward.
"I thank you all today for turning up to one of this Science Institution's most important occasions." Mr Schofer began. "After many months of work on the particle transmitter device, widely known as a teleport watch, we are finally ready to send scientist Aldred and Louise's assistant Sophie on a journey across space, to find any trace of the lost science expedition Eridanus, which was launched by the Institution four years ago and went missing four years after. The Eridanus had over three hundred passengers aboard it, and the expedition's purpose was to explore other planets and gather scientific information on them." He then turned to face Sophie and Aldred. "We wish you both the best of luck in your mission, and we will be praying for your safe return."
"Thank you, sir." Aldred nodded in gratitude, as did Sophie.
"And now!" Mr Schofer said, moving aside and motioning to the pair. "You will begin your journey, by teleporting to the planet Neptune, which the Eridanus visited at the beginning of its excursion four years ago. Aldred, will you do the honours?"
Aldred nodded, and pressed few buttons on the teleport watch, on which they had already pre-set coordinates and was then ready to go. He then grabbed Sophie's hand, and she pressed the button that would make them teleport away.
"Goodbye." They both said, as the teleport watch glowed and they disappeared.
All Sophie could see was blackness, and she felt her chest compressing for a moment and then she found herself standing in a completely different place. It had worked! They'd known it would, but still, it was nice to know that their first official journey had gone perfectly so far. Excitement coursed through her as she dropped Aldred's hand and looked around. They were in the hallway of a spaceport on Neptune, facing a window that looked out on the planet surface. It was a fantastically beautiful sight. Off to the left could be seen Neptunus, the main city established on Neptune, covered in gleaming buildings complete with an unoriginal name. But the real wonder was the uninhabited area. It looked a lot like the Moon's surface, but bluer; it was rocky and space loomed above it, dotted with other planets and stars, especially the sun. A spaceship could be seen overhead lowering itself towards the spaceport.
"Come on, Sophie." Aldred said, nudging her.
Sophie managed to tear her eyes away from the window and nodded. The two then headed down a few hallways, and found themselves in the gigantic docking bay of the spaceport. There were spaceships of all shapes and sizes in there, some being tended by groups of engineers, others just sitting there. The roof of the docking bay, high above their heads, was opening to allow the ship Sophie had seen at the window access. Sophie noticed the solid-access force field that appeared in place of the roof, keeping in the air yet still letting the ship through. Sophie watched excitedly as it landed. This journey was proving to be the most exciting of her life. Looking at the people milling about the docking bay, Sophie noticed that while most were humans, a considerable amount were aliens. Sophie could barely contain her glee as she stared at them while she and Aldred crossed to the exit, where there were booths with official looking people in, blocking others from leaving. Sophie and Aldred approached one booth with a tired looking woman wearing glassed inside it.
"Hello." Aldred said brightly, grinning at the woman.
"Yeah, hi." The woman said wearily, resting her touch-pen on the electronic Notepad in front of her. "What planet did you come from?"
"Earth." Aldred replied briskly.
"Alright." The woman wrote it down. "Mode of transportation?"
"Teleport." Sophie told her, as Aldred held up his wrist with the teleport watch on it.
"Mm hm. Papers?" the woman continued.
"Oh." Aldred shoved his hand in his pocket, felt around and pulled out the papers they'd brought from the Science Institution, to prove they were licensed for space travel. He handed the papers to the woman, who scanned them on the machine next to her.
"These all seem to be in order." She said, handing them back to Aldred. "Is it just you and the girl then?"
"Yes it is." Aldred replied.
"Alright then, go through." The woman pressed a button and the exit gate opened.
"Erm, before we go, could you tell me where we could find the records of previous landings at the spaceport?" Aldred asked quickly.
"Uh, give me a moment." The woman pulled a handheld device out of her pocket and quickly typed into it.
"If you go to the Space corps head office in Neptunus, they can tell you anything you need." The woman quickly wrote down the address and handed it to Aldred. "Have a nice day." She added in a bored voice.
"Thank you." Aldred said as he and Sophie moved out the gate.
They headed to the exit of the building, and boarded a hover bus to Neptunus using Earth credits they'd brought with them. Ten minutes later they were at the address the woman had given them, standing outside of the Neptune Space Corps Head Office.
"It's not really a good name is it?" Sophie commented. "I mean, I probably wouldn't have figured out to come here if you hadn't asked that lady."
"What, would you have gone to Space Burgers instead?" Aldred joked, pointing to a fast food store across the street.
He and Sophie both laughed, before entering the building in front of them. They found themselves in a reception, with a desk and a door leading to the rest of the rooms in the building.
"Hello, how may I help you?" the secretary at the desk asked them.
"Yes, hello." Aldred replied, as he and Sophie approached the desk. "We were told to come here for information on previous arrivals at the spaceport. Is it possible we could read your records on a ship called the Eridanus? It would have visited this planet about four years ago."
"Alright, I'll see what I can do." The secretary got on the phone and called someone elsewhere in the building.
Five minutes later a man in a tie came through the door beside the desk, holding a digital file.
"Are you the ones who asked about the Eridanus?" he addressed Sophie and Aldred.
"Yes we are." Sophie said.
"May I see your credentials?" the man asked.
"Of course." Aldred pulled the papers from before out of his pocket and handed them to the man, who quickly read over them.
"Alright come with me and you can read the file." The man said.
Sophie and Aldred followed him through the door towards his office, where they sat down and read through the file.
It was very basic. It had information about the ship, its date of arrival, the amount of people on it, its next destination, etcetera. After reading the file thoroughly and checking it with their notes they handed it back to the man and thanked him for his help.
They then left the building.
For the rest of their time on Neptune, they explored the city, undertaking simple tests and taking notes on Neptune to return to Earth later. When they had collected sufficient info they took a hover bus back to the space port.
"Well, we've completed our research on this planet." Aldred said as they walked through the docking bay. "But it's probably not always going to be this easy."
"So far, so good though." Sophie smiled up at him, as he was a good bit taller than her.
"Onwards then?" he asked her, holding out his arm for her.
"Definitely." Sophie replied, holding onto his arm as he pressed the button on the teleport watch. They disappeared immediately, on their way to the next planet, and their next adventure.