Planet Alverst Part 2: Spaceship 5

By Doreen Bell

After Spaceship 4 suddenly took flight, leaving behind a mortally wounded president of the United States and millions of citizens on a fast-dying earth, NASA and the space center scrambled to find another spaceship. They found an old spaceship that had been retired after many missions.

In the meantime, the gangsters were still trying to find a way off earth. They kidnap a person they thought was a NASA guy and tried to beat instructions out of him on how to get on the ship. He decides to double-cross them with a hope to get on the ship himself, which is an adventure no one would want to have. Yes, Shanto the alien is back doing his best to sabotage their mission.

170

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9781685701017

Book preview

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Planet Alverst Part 2

Spaceship 5

Doreen Bell

ISBN 978-1-68570-100-0 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-68570-101-7 (digital)

Copyright © 2022 by Doreen Bell

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

List of Characters

Five Years Later

Eleven Years Ago on Earth

Spaceship 4 Leaves Suddenly from Earth

Plans for Spaceship 5

Onboard Spaceship 5

The Blastoff—Spaceship 5

Planet Alverst in Rearview Mirror?

Spaceship 5 Has Landed

Disaster aboard Spaceship 5

The Meadow

Trip across the Lake

The Friends Reveal Their Secret

Spying on Spaceship 5

Old Lovers Meet

Roadway To…?

Road from Base Camp to Spaceship 5

Trip One to Base Camp

Trip Two to Base Camp

Final Trip to Spaceship 5 and Back

About the Author

List of Characters

From part 1

Keve

Page

Philip

Dave

Greg

Peter

Linda

Arlene

Vice President Porter Stevens

Mystery characters

Shanto

Baurt

Caula

New characters in part 2

Paul

Troy

Franco

Steve

Freddie

Johnny

Ron

Mitch

Hugo

Mel

Arthur

Ben

Carmen

Juanita

Martha

1

Five Years Later

Page, Dave, Keve, and Linda were lying in a green meadow on a beautiful day. The sun was shining just enough to keep them warm but not too hot. They could hear the waterfall in the near distance. They were enjoying a few hours' break from everyday chores. This meadow was granted to a few people by the residents of Alverst that knew about it. The first lady and vice president knew of it. They didn't think either one had taken advantage of it.

After Spaceship 4 landed, there was much confusion as to who was supposed to be on board and who was not a legitimate passenger. After all the forms were turned in and checked against the manifest, then IDs were checked, and the vice president had an interview with each passenger, or couple as the case may be, he would then wait for an okay from his new friend of the planet. If they passed, he gave them a voucher to claim their belongings.

All passed, except for twenty-seven. Each of the twenty-seven was interview again in deep detail. All but one admitted to stealing boarding tickets either by fraud or outright theft. Of the twenty-seven, only one admitted to harming a passenger in order to get aboard. He would not admit to killing anyone. Several months later, he just disappeared. They looked for weeks but could find no clue as to what happened to him. It was finally decided he ran away, and it was a large planet with many unexplored areas. They thought he would show up sooner or later. But he didn't.

The first lady had been chosen to oversee anything that couldn't be handled by the residents themselves. She knew the laws of the United States and had a pretty good idea of what the president would have done had he been there.

The vice president would watch over things with the help of his planet friends. He had asked for one of the horses to be kept at the White House. They had decided to call it the White House out of respect for the president's death on earth.

The vice president and his wife lived in one of the apartments with the first lady in another in the White House. There were four apartments and several guest quarters.

The vice president, on many occasions, would ride the horse around, looking at things and talking to everyone. He almost always had at least one of his dogs with him.

Peter had made him a saddle almost entirely out of wood. The vice president was very proud of his saddle. He was always showing it off to anyone that would listen.

The two missing children were never found. It was decided, since the father had refused to make the trip, that he had somehow gotten the children off the ship before takeoff. At this time, there was no way to verify this. Communication with earth was nil. There was some speculation that one or more of the twenty-seven had helped him. This was never proven.

The missing husband was also never found. For whatever reason, he was not on the ship and there was no evidence he ever was.

After everyone was settled into their own apartment in the duplexes, there were many that were left vacant. In order to preserve them from the weather and wild critters, they were sealed and then coated with a preserving agent. They could be opened as needed.

There had been several babies born since the landing of Spaceship 4. Betty and Manuel had had twin girls. Jim and Mary had a baby boy. A boy and two girls were born to the passengers of Spaceship 4.

The animals were all doing well and multiplying. They would soon have to build move barns and pens. The chickens were doing great. They were getting plenty of eggs for everyone, with an occasional chicken for dinner. After the ducks and geese had put up many fusses and tried to tear up their coops, they had removed the cover and let them free to fly. They were afraid they wouldn't come back, but first, the ducks came back to their pond and stayed. The geese came back at times to make their nest and hatch their eggs, and then they were gone again.

The farm and garden areas had been enlarged. Some residents had even made garden in their backyards. Everyone was getting plenty of fresh vegetables.

The only animals they were having problems with were the hogs. They didn't like to be penned, and they kept rooting out the fences and just leaving. Some would come back to eat. Others had to be rounded up and brought back. Twice, they found sows that had had a litter of piglets. The litters were not with their mothers. Guards had to watch the sows to see where they went. Soon, the piglets were found and brought back. Since they had cement left, they dug a ditch around their pens and sank fence posts and wire so they couldn't root up the fence.

They had found an abundance of seeds on Spaceship 4. In that batch of seeds were peach, apple, apricot, orange, and grapefruit seeds, with special instructions for growing them and for just how each grew. There was laughter at that, as some said they would not live long enough to see any fruit on some of them. That did not stop them from planting the seeds. There was one thing that became apparent in the years following: things seemed to grow faster and larger here on Alverst.

Phil and Arlene were in the command center with George, talking about what could have happened on earth after Spaceship 4 took off. They hadn't heard anything from earth since the transmission that the president was dead. Even though they couldn't really understand the message at the time but put it together after the first lady told them he was dead.

They had discussed trying to go back. Spaceship 1 was in good condition and would be able to make the trip, but if earth was gone or couldn't be landed on, they didn't think the ship would be able to make a return trip. There were some parts of spaceships 2 and 4 that they could use, but they just couldn't bring themselves to really do it. They really didn't want to go back to that life.

The life here on Alverst was really good. They were sitting in the office on Spaceship 1. June came over and sat down next to George.

Betty came in and asked, Have you seen Page or Linda? They said they would babysit the twins whenever I need them, and I could sure use a break.

June said, Betty, I can babysit for a couple hours or so if you want me to.

You do realize they are almost two-year-old twins. They are into everything. I can hardly keep up with them.

George said, I would be glad to go with June and help if you want me to.

Betty said, You don't know how much I would appreciate it. Manuel and I would like to take the bikes out for an hour or so. I get lots of exercise every day, but not the right kind. Could you come over around two?

June said, Yes, that's good for us.

After Betty left, George said to Betty, Don't go getting any ideas.

Betty laughed and punched him on the shoulder and said, Where is Page anyway? Is she at the meadow again?

Arlene replied, Yes. She and Keve and a couple of other went over.

George added, She is spending a lot of time over there. Is she with anyone in particular? She just seems so lonely sometimes.

Phil said, Sometimes, I see her with tears, and she always says it's nothing. I don't think she ever got over that guy she was engaged to for dumping her like that. I don't think she will ever completely trust another man again, at least with her heart. I think that's the reason she wasn't here to help June today. I think it is one of her bad days.

Betty said, I wish there was some way to help her, but since there aren't any new guys coming and she doesn't trust anyone here, there just isn't much we can do.

George said, I guess we just have to be her friends when she needs someone.

Betty said, I would just like to go back to earth and strangle that guy.

Phil said, I think each of us would like to go back for one reason or another. I know I would like to see just what happened after we left.

George said, As good as we have it here, I do get homesick at times, as I am sure the others do also.

2

Eleven Years Ago on Earth

Steve and Freddie had just tied the gag in Paul's mouth again. Freddie said, If he's not going to tell us anything, we should just get rid of him.

Steve said, "We can't. We need him. He's the only one we have that knew anything about running Spaceship 4."

"I keep telling you, Spaceship 4 is in lockdown and we don't have anyone who knows how to unlock it."

But you told me this guy knew all that stuff.

Freddie said, And I keep telling you, he's not talking. But from what I understand, it has to be done from inside the ship, and if you haven't noticed, we are outside.

Why didn't we just stay inside then?

Steve, you are such a dummy! Remember six armed guards forced us off the ship and you just turned like a little puppy with your tail between your legs and left the ship?

Oh, and you were going to take them all out. I don't know why I have to keep putting you straight. What are we going to do now?

Why don't you just shut up and let me think? Fred finally said, "Look over there. That looks like cargo marked for Spaceship 4. Do you think we could hide in it until we get aboard? Come on. Let's find a hiding place on one of the pallets."

But don't they store cargo in the hole or something? I don't think there is any air in it.

We will get out of the hole before they seal it. That shouldn't be a big problem. There's only two guards, and one seems to have a bad leg.

Steve said, Okay, but why are you bringing the dummy?

Just do what I tell you and be quiet.

3

Spaceship 4 Leaves Suddenly from Earth

Steve and Freddie were sitting inside that hot cargo pallet for nearly an hour, then they heard a noise that just didn't seem right. Freddie looked out and let out a couple of strong words.

Steve said, What is wrong? I thought we were supposed to watch our language?

Freddie said, even with stronger words, The ship just took off.

It can't. Look at all this cargo that needs to go with them.

Well. I guess they don't need it that bad. I guess we have to find Johnny and see what the plan is now.

Steve replied, I thought they were going to hold the president hostage.

I think something has gone wrong. We need to go find out.

What are we going to do with the dummy? We can't drag him around everywhere.

We will just have to put him back in the cell at the hideout. Make sure you leave him food and water. Don't bind his hands. Just put the chains back on his leg. We don't want him to die, just in case we still need him.

As they walked out, Johnny drove up. They could tell he was really upset. Not wanting to set him off, they remained quiet.

He finally said, Of all the dumb things to do, I can't believe they could try to pull off such a trick. Stupid! Stupid!

Steve finally asked, What happened? I thought you were taking the president hostage.

Johnny said, "So did I. Those stupid, no-good guys went into the White House and walked down the halls like they owned it and walked right into the Oval Office and demanded the president come with them. He evidently pushed his panic button, and when they demanded he get up, he did with his guns blazing. When the guards came in, all my men were dead and the president was mortally wounded. He lived long enough to get the vice president, his wife, and the first lady onboard Spaceship 4 and had them lift off immediately."

"So none of our people got on 4?" Freddie asked.

I don't know for sure, but I think some did. There were some that had gotten tickets one way or another, Johnny replied.

When do you think we will know something? Can they turn the ship around and pick us up? Steve asked.

Freddie said, Johnny, don't even answer him. Everyone knows you can't turn a spaceship around.

Steve said, Then we are completely screwed. We are just stuck here.

Johnny said, If you use that kind of language again, you will be going in the cell with your buddy.

Steve said, He's not my buddy.

Johnny said, Then don't act like him. Have you gotten anything out of him?

Freddie said, No. I know you must have some other plan. You always have a backup plan.

Johnny replied, "We have already used the backup plan, but I think I have another. We will just have to get ourselves on Spaceship 5."

Freddie replied, But I thought they said there wasn't going to be a five.

Johnny said, "I know, but when so many missed 4, they hurriedly put another ship up and started trying to get it ready to go. They may not make it, but I have three guys with the two techs that are working on plans to get it off the ground. But I need someone to get on board with our guy back there and hide until everything is in place."

Freddie asked, Do you want us to try to get on board?

Johnny was sounding a bit miffed by them when he said, No. I want you to try and fail as usual.

Steve said, Wait a minute! What have we done wrong?

Johnny asked, "What have you done right? I want you to take—what is his name? Oh, I think it's Paul. I want you to take Paul and get on that ship, and I don't want you to make a move until I tell you. Do you understand?"

Steve said, When will they have the ship on the pad?

Freddie yelled, Where have you been? He just said it is already there!

Paul had been listening to this entire exchange, which sounded like he might have another chance. He started trying to come up with a plan. He knew more about spaceships and how to fly them than these dummies.

4

Plans for Spaceship 5

Johnny was beginning to think things might turn around for him. He went to meet the rest of his friends. There, he told Ron to go meet with Freddie and Steve and get on that ship.