Captain ChickenFish and the Wonky Wormholes

By Lindsay Hocking

A boy from a planet on the other side of the universe, whose highly advanced inhabitants create and use wormholes to travel around in space, is accidentally transported to Earth when his wormhole generator malfunctions.

He is befriended by Katie and her friends, Kelvin, Molly and Sam, who help him try to fix the problem with his device and return home in time for his birthday dinner.

In the process they find themselves using wormholes to jump back and forth in time and space, confronting wild goats in the Himalayas, meeting leopards in Tanzania and collecting some special dust from a crater on the moon in 1972.

Will he make it back home in time, and what is to be made of the strange mystery about him that they discover when a wonky wormhole takes them to an amusement park ten years into the future?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lindsay Hocking
• Release date: Feb 10, 2016
• ISBN: 9780994537300

Lindsay Hocking

Lindsay Hocking is a freelance advertising copywriter and film/video producer/director, based in Melbourne, Australia, and has worked on some of the world's biggest brands for many advertising agencies in several countries.He is also a published board-game and jigsaw puzzle inventor, and has created and released an App called "RollaBalls" for Apple mobile devices.He plans to develop the Captain ChickenFish concept into a series of exciting, contemporary sci-fi adventure books for children.So keep your eyes open for these, to discover what lies behind the mystery that surfaced at MirrorLand in Chapter 8 of "Captain ChickenFish and the Wonky Wormholes."

Book preview

Captain ChickenFish

and the Wonky Wormholes

By Lindsay T. Hocking

This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016 by Lindsay T. Hocking

E-Book Edition February 2016

ISBN-13: 978-0-9945373-0-0

All rights reserved.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment. If you wish to share this book with others, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without the express written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a review of the book.

Cover Design by Stan Jarin

For Nicole, Leigh,

Declan (the original Captain ChickenFish)

and Thelma.

Contents:

Chapter 1: Crashing to Earth

Chapter 2: Captain ChickenFish

Chapter 3: Planning to Steal Time

Chapter 4: Wonky Wormholes

Chapter 5: To the Future Past

Chapter 6: To Tanzania

Chapter 7: Leopards and Tanzanite

Chapter 8: The MirrorLand Mystery

Chapter 9: The Worm Anchor

Chapter 10: A Successful Test

Chapter 11: On the Moon

Chapter 12: Helium-3

Chapter 13: Recharging the WormBlazr

Chapter 14: Heading for Home

Chapter 1

Crashing to Earth

The wormhole was bucking, swirling and bouncing around like some wild creature, and Kapt'An was struggling to try and bring it under control. Worlds, star systems and even entire galaxies flew past as he sped along in the crazy tube, not knowing where he might end up.

He was hurtling through space at close to the speed of light and straight toward a huge, gassy nebula that had vast tendrils made from thousands of planets, reaching out into space. Oh, dear, he thought, This is gonna be close!

This was the first jump he'd made with his new WormBlazr, the birthday present his parents had given him only hours before, and at this rate, with his wormhole totally out of control and hurling him across the vastness of the universe, it didn't look like he was going to make it home for dinner.

Something had gone mighty wrong with this highly-prized wormhole generator, and instead of just making a tiny two light-year jump to show his new toy to his friends on Fandangalor, here he was about to be consumed by a nebula that had a black hole at its heart!

He twisted rings on the device and tapped its buttons, but nothing seemed to make any difference and the crazy wormhole continued creating an uncontrolled, snaking path across the universe.

It seemed like the only choice he had left was to re-boot the WormBlazr, but this was always a risky thing to do, because the collapsing wormhole could leave him stranded, who knows where?

While Kapt'An battled for control out in the dark reaches of space, down on Earth Katie Kinnane was riding her brand new bicycle across the neighborhood, to show this wonderful birthday present to her best friend, Kelvin.

The day was sunny and warm, and Katie hummed her favorite song as she wobbled her way along a bicycle path and into the local park.

The new bike was much bigger and faster than her old one, and for the first time she had a range of gears to try and master, and it was taking her some time to get used to them.

She rounded the bend at the top of a hill and started down the winding path, clicking her way through the strange gears and picking up speed, but was momentarily distracted by a flock of birds noisily taking flight from a tree to her left and she changed gears the wrong way, causing her bike's chain to fly off and tangle in the rear wheel.

The wheel locked instantly and she skidded back and forth as she fought to bring the bike under control. Whooooahh! she yelled, as she and the bike plunged off the path.

She crashed into a garden bed, scattering flowers all over the place, and just as she came to a halt and stumbled to her feet there was a blinding flash, and a bright ball of yellow light swept down from the sky and exploded with a loud Whooomph! in the garden close by, knocking her backward into the plants again.

Katie was stunned for a moment, and her ears were ringing from the explosion as she sat up, shook her head and looked across to where it had occurred.

She blinked her eyes as she saw a head pop up from within the next flowerbed. But this was no ordinary head, as it was wearing a strange kind of helmet, with a dark visor at the front and what seemed to be a large, red, rooster-like comb on top.

Kapt'An also shook his head and looked back at Katie. He had arrived on Earth.

Uh, hello, said Katie, Who are you?

Kzzaapkkkzznnnn, replied Kapt'An, as his universal translator worked hard to understand what Katie was saying, and to figure out how to make a reply in English.

Katie could see that he was struggling to reply, so she said, Hello, my name is Katie, as she tapped on her chest, smiled and nodded.

This time, Kapt'An understood what she meant, and replied, Kaaay, teee! with a big grin appearing below his dark visor. He pointed at her and said, Yerw awww Kaaay Teee, ummm, yes?

Yes, said Katie as she climbed to her feet, dusting off bits of flowers and dust from her dress as she did. Yes, my name is Katie, not Kay Tee, just Katie, and who are you?

Kapt'An climbed to his feet too, revealing that, as well as his visor and the red, rooster-like comb on his head, he wore a tight-fitting, bright yellow top and leggings, with green gloves and boots that looked a bit like they were made from fish scales with small fins attached.

On the outside of his yellow top and leggings were what seemed to be a pair of bright red swimming briefs, and a red cape that ended in feather-like segments flowed down his back.

To Katie, he looked like he'd just stepped out of a superhero comic book.

He said, Sawry I gawt yaw name wrorng, but my translawter has not cawm acraws yaw lanworge befaw.

Katie laughed and said, You mean that your translator hasn't come across my language before. Well, it's called 'English' and it can be hard to work out for the first time.

Ah, thanks to you, replied Kapt'An with an even bigger grin, That's given the translayytor something to work with, and now I think we can communicate prerrperly. My name is Kapt'An, or at least that's the closest it will translate into your English.

He looked around him and asked, Can you please tell me where I am?

You're on Earth, replied Katie.

Earth? said Kapt'An, looking up and around, Where is Earth?

Right here. This is Earth and you're on it.

And what's that star up there? asked Kapt'An, pointing at the sun as he made some adjustments to his visor, Which nebula or cluster is it in?

I'm not sure about that, answered Katie, But it's called the sun and it's at the centre of our solar system, which has eight planets going around it and Earth is the third planet out from the sun.

She leaned a bit closer to Kapt'An and tried to peer through the darkness of his visor to see his eyes. I guess you're not from around here, she said.

Kapt'An leaned back a little and said, Certainly not. I live on Fyligrale, which I think might be a long way from here, judging by the lack of navigational information my mind machine can find about this place.

Your mind machine? asked Katie, What's your 'mind machine'?

Ah, let me see, answered Kapt'An, "How do I translate that idea into your language?

"Hmmm, it's a