The Painted Candle

In the far reaches of the universe, a place of mystery and beauty that few dare to explore, a small spaceship carrying two adventurers soared by at hyper speed. Captain Finnian, the courageous space photographer, and his trusty assistant Quixly were back out in the galaxies once again. After coming home to glory and fame from their first photo expedition, they soon felt the gnawing hunger for travel that all adventurers know too well, so they said goodbye to their friends and families and took off once again in search of places rarely seen and (thus far) never photographed.

In the command deck of the spaceship, Captain Finnian looked up from his navigation screen. “According to this we’re only three days away from the bright, colorful mass of energy we first saw in the telescopes.” He said to Quixly. “I can’t wait to get close enough to see what it is and take some detailed pictures of it.”

Quixly looked over from the mess of charts he had been studying and smiled excitedly. “Only three days out from the Painted Candle!? Wowza! Time sure flies by when you’re having fun!”

“Quixly, you’ve been memorizing maps of the stars for the last two weeks. Is that really fun for you?” Captain Finnian could never quite wrap his head around his quirky alien assistant. He would have gone crazy if all he did for two weeks straight was study star maps.

“Yes, it’s quite enjoyable.” Quixly responded, looking back down at his maps.

“Also, what did you call the mysterious lights that we’re traveling towards?” Captain Finnian asked.

“The Painted Candle! It’s a good name, don’t ya think? That’s exactly what it looked like in the telescope.”

“Hmm, that actually is a pretty good name.” Captain Finnian said, impressed. “Much better than your first idea of calling it Fleeborg Vomit.”

Quixly smiled sheepishly. “Yeah, I can see now how that might struggle to catch on amongst the academics. But, in my defense, it was quite accurate! Anyone who’s seen a fleeborg throw up would agree.”

Captain Finnian was about to continue the conversation on the details of fleeborg regurgitation when a warning symbol started flashing on his screen, along with a worrisome beeping.

“What’s that?” Quixly said, some anxiety in his voice.

“I’m not sure,” Captain Finnian responded, looking closer to interpret the warning. “It looks like…. OH CRAP!”

At that exact moment there was a large crashing sound at the bottom of the ship, and all the lights and screens went dark.

After a few moments of stunned silence, Quixly was the first to speak. “Are we going to die?”

Captain Finnian paused. “I don’t think so,” he eventually said. “If that was going to kill us, I think we’d already be dead. It sounded like it came from the maintenance room. I’ll go check it out.”

Quixly nodded, although it was impossible to see in the dark room. “Good idea, Captain. And I’ll stay up here where it’s nice and safe. I mean, to keep our things up here safe!”

“That sounds like a plan.” Captain Finnian responded. “Now help me find our emergency lanterns.”

They both felt around the room, trying to find their emergency light sources. Quixly, able to search quicker because of his four arms, soon found a couple battery powered lanterns and turned them on.

“Here you go, Captain!” He said, handing one over to Captain Finnian. “Good luck in the maintenance room!”

Captain Finnian took the lantern, nodded his thanks, and then left the room to figure out the source of the problems. From the brief warning before the crash, he guessed that they somehow ran into something small. There usually wasn’t much to run into in space, and their ship was designed with safety measures anyway. The hardened hull was strong enough to withstand the space dust and micro particles they inevitably flew through at hyper speed. And the sensors would catch anything big enough to cause damage, leading the auto drive to adjust their course to keep them safe. However, there were very rarely some tiny pieces of rock or ice in space that were big enough to cause damage at hyper speed and small enough to avoid the sensors until too late. Captain Finnian guessed that’s what they hit. He made a mental note to buy the newest upgrade for his ship’s sensors if they made it out of this situation alive.

In the maintenance room it looked like there had been an earthquake. He found a small bump near the bottom of the hard metal wall at the front end of the ship and assumed that’s where they got hit. Luckily it didn’t penetrate, or they would have been toast.

Most of the computers and equipment had been knocked around, but not seriously damaged. He easily propped computers and machines back up where they belonged and started to plug everything back in. He got the electricity back on first, and then most of their important systems, such as the steering mechanisms and hyper drive. Unfortunately, their navigation system was another problem.

The computer that powered their navigation was completely destroyed. It was impossible to know where they were located or what direction they were heading. The nearest solar system that had the technology to repair it was at least a week away at hyper speed, but he had no idea how they’d find their way there.

They also couldn’t call for help because the navigation system was the same system that tracked their location. Even with their best guess they couldn’t tell someone exactly where they were. It would be like asking them to look for a Kloboxian needle in a mountain of Pryblun wheat. A Kloboxian needle that was hurtling through the Pryblun wheat at an unknown speed in an unknown direction, to be more precise. He had no idea how much that collision impacted their trajectory.

After spending a few minutes alone in the maintenance room, Captain Finnian went back to the command deck to tell Quixly about their predicament.

Quixly cheered when Captain Finnian walked back into the room. “Yeehaw! Ya did it, Captain! Ya got the power back on! Well done! Now we can resume our course towards the Painted Candle!” He did a little happy dance, shrugging all four of his shoulders up and down while wiggling his antennae.

“Not so fast, Quixly.” The captain responded. “Everything is back online except for navigation. We’re lost, and I don’t know how to get to the painted candle from here, much less to an intergalactic market where we could get what we need to repair everything.”

“Oh.” Quixly replied, abruptly ending his happy dance. They both stood in silence for a minute while contemplating the gravity of their situation (ironic, with them being in outer space). Looking out the window, Quixly suddenly had an idea.

“We can navigate with the stars!” he said excitedly. “I’ve been studying them in depth for weeks! I can get us to the Painted Candle, and then to safety!” The happy dance continued.

“I had the same thought earlier,” Captain Finnian said, “but that’s so imprecise. It would take a miracle to head in the right direction, not to mention stopping the ship before crashing into something or soaring far past our destination.”

Quixly rolled his eyes, which was especially effective with three eyes. “Captain sir, this is what I’m good at! I can be precise! Give me a shot at it, I’m sure I’ll find the way!”

Captain Finnian knew quite well that Quixly was very intelligent, although goofy at times. He also wasn’t the most confident alien, so the fact that he stood up for himself and argued that he could do it accurately was really saying something. Captain Finnian decided to give him a chance.

“Alright Quixly, I trust you. Do your thing, and let me know how I can help.”

“Yahooie!” Quixly yelled, then rushed to grab his maps and some measuring tools. “If you could slow down the ship to zero velocity that would be grand. And then just sit back and watch, Captain. This is what I’ve been training for!”

Captain Finnian did what was asked, and then sat back to watch. He was more than impressed. Quixly held up his maps to the window, took notes, held up measuring tools, logged information into his screen, turned the ship around to get the full picture, and did several other things that Captain Finnian didn’t quite understand.

Quixly wasn’t talking to Captain Finnian, but he was muttering his thoughts loud enough for the captain to hear most of it. “Ok, we know the Painted Candle is at coordinates 2870.0113x, 45301.9174y, 80139.351z. The nearest solar system is H39-Q73-KLP6, which was at an 83.749203 degree angle from the Painted Candle on our original course. It’s now looking closer to…” he held up a measuring tool to the window, “83.748891 degrees. Let me compare how that measures to the neighboring stars…”

Captain Finnian had always known that his assistant had a head for numbers, but this was beyond amazing. He didn’t realize that Quixly had memorized so much information from their initial course, which was helping them get back to it. It was also impressive to see how well he knew all the different star formations and galaxies, including their distance and angle relationships to each other. Captain Finnian could see hundreds of thousands of stars out the window at any time. And that was just in one direction, they were sitting in the middle of a nearly infinite three-dimensional map. While he could name some of the major star formations, most of it was just a pretty sight for him, not little lights of directional information.

It took Quixly about two hours to do all his calculations and to double check it all, but once he was finished, he was confident in his work. “Alrighty, Captain! It’s done! I’ve plotted our course from here to the Painted Candle in the auto drive, and then from there to the nearest star system where we can get our navigation stuff up and running again. Although I don’t know if I really want to fix it, because this was fun!”

“Quixly, that was incredible” Captain Finnian replied. “Thank you so much. You literally just saved our lives.” After pausing for a moment to let that fact sink in for both of them, he continued. “Well! Should we go check out the Painted Candle?”

“Yes sir!” Quixly said with a smile. “Hi-dee ho let’s go!” With that Captain Finnian put the ship into hyper drive, and off they went.

Three days later their ship stopped next to one of the most amazing space formations they had ever seen. It looked like a dying star that was only dying on one side. That side lifted up similar to a candle flame. The fire and energies and gasses coming from it all radiated with different colors, giving the scene a spectacular look. They stayed there for two days taking it all in and taking many pictures too.

At the end of the second day, Captain Finnian turned towards his green assistant. “What do you say, Quixly, should we head over to that nearby star system and get our ship fixed?”

“Yes sir!” Quixly responded enthusiastically. “The coordinates are already logged into the auto drive. I’m ready when you are!”

Captain Finnian nodded. “Thank you, Quixly. However, before we depart, there’s something I need to tell you. After this trip, I no longer want you to be my assistant.”

Quixly’s face dropped. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Wasn’t Captain Finnian grateful for the work he did? Maybe he had accidentally messed something up and the captain was mad? Or maybe the captain blamed him for the original collision three days ago? All those thoughts and several others passed through his head in an instant, but before he could voice any of them, Captain Finnian continued.

“You are far too smart and far too important to be my assistant anymore. And quite truthfully, you’re far too good of a friend as well. Quixly, I want to promote you to be my partner. From now on, I want us to share command of this ship, as an equal team. What do you say?”

Quixly’s worries immediately turned to surprise, and then to gratitude. “Wowza, sir! Wowza! Do you mean it?”

“Yes, I do.” Captain Finnian said. “My only regret is not doing it sooner. So, do you accept?”

“Absolutely! Wowza! Me, a co-captain of a ship! Thank you, Captain! Thank you!”

“You’re welcome, Captain Quixly. Now, let’s get to that star system! Not only do we need to repair our ship, but I hear they have some delicious Chulaplugg stew, perfect for a celebration.”

With his eyes watering from gratitude and his mouth watering from the mention of Chulaplugg stew, Quixly took his first action as co-captain and put the ship into hyper drive. “Hi-dee ho let’s go!”