The Transportation Emerald

Victor’s face was pale. His hands were sweaty. He was hiding under the Brooklyn Bridge with his younger brother John, seeking shelter from the storm that was brewing over New York City. They had been on Victor’s sailboat nearing the bridge when it started to drizzle. The light rain turned into a torrential downpour. 

“Victor, I want to go home, where we’re safe,” John whimpered.

“John, we must be vehement at scary times like this,” Victor replied.  

Victor tensed hearing footsteps behind him. He turned around and saw a peculiar animal stalking through the sand. It looked unusual, though; it looked like a Velociraptor. Victor thought dinosaurs went extinct millions of years ago.  

“Victor, let’s follow it!” John whispered. “We could become famous for finding a new species!” 

They followed the human-sized dinosaur. It instantly stopped walking, as if it had sensed someone near it.

At that moment, a portal opened in front of the dinosaur! The Velociraptor went through the portal, with the kids following it. Little did they know where they were going. 

Victor and John landed in a jungle, thick with trees and vines. It was dark as sunlight couldn’t pierce the canopy above. 

The kids gasped when the portal behind them disappeared. Hearing them, the dinosaur turned around and saw them. Victor and John screamed and ran, the Velociraptor charging at them so quickly that its legs were a near blur, and it looked like it was traveling in the air at the speed of light. 

Only two minutes had passed, and John’s face was sweaty. “I’m tired,” he panted. 

John was slowing down. “Hurry!” Victor yelled. The Velociraptor was gaining on them - when it tripped over a rock! John ducked, and it flew over his head. Victor and John skidded to a stop just before falling over the edge of a deep waterfall. The Velociraptor plummeted and hit the water with a splash as it drifted away. Victor and John backed up. 

  They were safe, they thought. That was until they heard a roar from a distance. Footsteps thudded towards them. A huge dinosaur appeared in front of them. It roared as loud as thunder. Oh nooooo! Victor thought. 

“It’s a T-rex!” Victor shouted. The T-rex charged at them. The kids dodged quickly. “John,” Victor said, “I’m going to count down from three and we’re going to jump over the waterfall.” 

John exclaimed. “Are you out of your mind?!!” 

 “It’s the only way to escape the T-rex,” John said. “3,2,1, jump!” 

The kids ran and jumped from the cliff. They hurtled through the air and landed on the water with a splash. The T-rex stomped away as the kids floated downstream, relieved they had escaped death for the second time. 

The boys swam to a boulder on shore and rested. That was when John noticed something shimmering under the rock.

Overcome by curiosity, Victor and John slammed their bodies on the boulder as hard as they could, pushing it into the water. 

John lifted the object up. “It’s a shiny emerald. And it has a label on it that is faint.”  The label was covered by dust, and it smelled acrid.  John blew thin air on the label and tilted it in every angle to try to read. Ultimately, his eyes were able to capture the mysterious fainted words.  It said ‘The Transportation Emerald’ on it.  Immediately, he slipped it in his back pocket hoping he could find a good use for it.  

Unexpectedly, a mysterious man with a black T-shirt and black pants emerged. “Have you seen a shiny green emerald? It’s the Transportation Emerald and I’m looking for it,” the man said in an unfriendly voice.

The boys stared at each other for what felt like an eternity. Victor said, “Who are you?” 

I’m Ted and I’m looking for the Transportation Emerald,” the man repeated.   

“You’re a human, like us?” Victor questioned. “How did you get here?”

“Well, yes, you’re obviously not from here. People and dinosaurs live in harmony here. In fact, people can communicate with dinosaurs with their minds. Humans and dinosaurs have been working together to find the Transportation Emerald, which is made out of a rare emerald stone and can help you travel from one galaxy to another. To transport elsewhere, while holding it, you have to imagine where you want to go, and you’ll be there in no time.” When he gazed at John’s hands, he realized John was holding the Emerald.

“The emerald!” He lunged, trying to steal it from them, but before he could, the brothers held hands, imagined their sailboat under the Brooklyn Bridge, and in a flash, they were back in New York next to his boat, the Transportation Emerald in their hands.      

It wasn’t raining anymore, and there was no thunder or lightning. It was dark. “We should go home now,” Victor said. They stepped on the boat and rode back home.

When they got back to their house, they told their mom, who was a scientist working for NASA, that they had found a special emerald that could transport someone to any galaxy or dimension and how to travel from one galaxy to another. 

At first, she didn’t believe them, but a short trip to the Eiffel Tower was all the proof she needed. 

They asked her if she could show it to NASA tomorrow and recruit their top scientists to learn more about distant worlds. Their mom agreed. The boys went to bed, excited and wondering if NASA would accept their offer.

The next morning, their mom went to NASA and delivered them the emerald and its capabilities, and they embraced the idea.

She told the kids, “One astronaut tried going to Mars with it, and when he came back, he reported that it worked! He said he saw a red barren land, and he was standing next to the Olympus Mons. For every expedition, you and a group of astronauts will travel somewhere new and learn about it. When you come back, you will share your facts with NASA’s top scientists, who will write a book about it and publish it so that people can read it and learn, too. Three days from now, you guys will be going to Mars. There’s not much time to train you, so follow what the astronauts do.”  

  Glee covered the boy’s faces. “Wow, I’m thrilled!!!” Victor and John shouted in unison. 

  Three days later, Victor and John were suited up at NASA with other astronauts.  Proudly, John held the emerald in his hands. Five other people were there, too. 

  One of the five people said, “We’re going to count down from three.” 

“Three, two, one,” another one said. Holding hands, the astronauts imagined Mars, and they disappeared in a flash. 

The astronauts landed on red, barren, rocky land. Astonishment covered all of their faces. They felt lighter due to less gravity. Victor breathed, “We’re the first people to stand on Mars. I can’t believe it.” 

“Let’s start walking and observe this planet,” one of the astronauts, Bob, said. They trudged through the land. Everything around them, even the sky was red. The ground beneath them was sand-like dirt, crunching as the crew walked. John glanced at Victor, who looked haggard.

The astronauts had been walking for what felt like hours when John heard noises that seemed to come from nearby. “Guys…I think there’s another life form close to us,” he said. 

They followed the noise until they came to a halt. In front of them was a crater that probably was nearly as humongous as Mars. It dumbfounded the astronauts that there was life in this crater. Green dragons flew around all over the place, and below them, giant bears, about the size of the 30-foot dragons, were chasing smaller, unfamiliar creatures. Trees and bushes of all shapes and sizes dotted the landscape, making the crater look almost entirely green. There was a huge ocean in the crater, too; home to marine animals that jumped up from the ocean playfully.

The crew was confused by how this place wasn’t seen in telescopes or on satellite imagery. But as the sky grew darker, a red version of the Northern lights appeared in the middle of the sky. It became obvious that these lights were shielding the ground. The satellites weren’t able to see through the lights, so it gave the impression that it was just ground. However, the astronauts still didn’t understand why these lights were invisible in the daytime. It appeared that at nighttime, the lights were visible so that the animals could find their way around.   

The crew decided to jump into the place for a closer look. Thin strips of gold and dark blue ran across the dragons’ faces. The giant bears had red fur even thicker than a polar bear, and it was probably an adaptation to survive against the cold climate. Up close, the smaller animals looked much different than they had anticipated. They were like short orange people but they each had eight eyes. Silver tigers ran across the crater, jumping on top of the giant bears and nipping at them. There seemed to be only a few dozen kinds of trees and plants - fir trees, spruce trees, grape vines, and more. Amongst the marine life, green whales, sharks, and turtles popped up from the ocean. Mars and Earth seemed very different but alike at the same time.

The astronauts walked through the crater, but the same animals and trees popped up in every direction. Soon the astronauts decided to go back home. The astronauts held hands, with Victor holding the emerald and imagining NASA, they were transported to Earth in a millisecond. 

The crew was standing outside, the same place where they were transported. The five people who had counted down and 4 other workers were there, too. One of the workers said, “We are NASA’s top scientists. Follow us into our lab and tell us the information about Mars that you’ve gained.” As the astronauts told them about the crater, animals, ocean, and trees, the scientists jotted down notes. After it was over, the kids’ mom picked them up and drove them home. A few days later, All You Need to Know About Mars, which was written by the scientists, was published. 

Fast forward two years later, when the astronauts discovered more planets, including IceValley, FireAir, Element Mountain, Poseidon, and FlappyWorld. Fast forward even more, and millions of galaxies were discovered. Fifteen years later, 99 billion galaxies were discovered.   

By this time, Victor and John were celebrities. They became the greatest explorers of all time. People wanted their autograph everywhere they went. New businesses named themselves after Victor and John. A historical statue of Victor and John stood as big as the Statue of Liberty. Victor and John were the ones that changed Earth forever.