Maisie had everything she could possibly want at paradise farm, fresh grass, clean air and lots of friends. She even a human to wash her feet!
But she would still often wonder what life was like outside of the farm. So, when a bus turned up to the farm going to the national space centre, she didn’t hesitate to sneak on…
After a long, and cramped bus journey Maisie finally arrived at the National Space Centre, it was a lot quieter than she had expected, maybe it was everyone’s day off?
She walked around the centre, looking at all manner of things, from rocks from outer space, to shuttle schematics and diagrams. She even had a look at a control room!
“Wow, so many buttons. Best not touch them though!” Maisie thought to herself, amazed by everything she was seeing.
In the distance she could see a huge, shiny space shuttle and she couldn’t help herself, before she knew it she was bounding towards it with all the excitement of a cow who was about to have her back scratched for the first time. As she approached the red shuttle, she was amazed at the flickering lights, the shine on the three circular windows and the enormity of it. She just had to see inside…
She walked through the automatic doors of the shuttle and she was in, she couldn’t believe it. Maisie from Paradise Farm, on a real life space ship!
“And we’ll be lifting off in 5 minutes, could all personnel report to their stations.” A voice echoed around the entire centre. Maisie took little notice of the voice, after all, she wasn’t a who the announcement was for… That was until she saw someone run onto the shuttle she was in, dressed in a white, bubbly space suit, pushing various buttons as he travelled through the shuttle.
“Maybe I best get out of here” Maisie thought as she turned around to leave.
THUD.
Maisie opened her eyes, everything came into focus and she could feel a bump on her head. She stood up and continued her walk towards the exit.
“Hold on!” She exclaimed as she looked out of the window.
To her disbelief, Maisie was looking at Earth…
“What was that” A voice came from another room. Maisie could hear footsteps getting closer and closer.
“You shouldn’t be here?!” The astronaut said, pointing at Maisie. Maisie began explaining that she didn’t mean to be on board the ship, that she had tried to leave but must have hit her head and passed out before lift off. The astronaut was really kind and understanding.
“Lucky for you, I have a spare helmet. It’s going to be a while before we head back home, you’re welcome to join me on my expedition – I’m only collecting natural samples from the planet Moro, or you can wait on the shuttle.”
Maisie didn’t need asking twice, “Pass me the helmet!” She couldn’t help but shout with excitement.
The pair landed on planet Moro. It was very dusty and grey, a rock-like place with no sign of any other life form anywhere, much to Maisie’s disappointment.
“I’m David by the way” said the astronaut as he stepped off the shuttle.
Maisie followed David as roamed the rocky planet, collecting various samples of stones and placing them into special boxes, so that they could be taken home and studied back on Earth. Big ones, little ones, shiny ones, it didn’t matter, David and Maisie collected as much as they could.
After walking for a while they came to what looked like a pool of water, except this water was a bright, glowing pink. Maisie was completely mesmerised by how peaceful the water looked. She walked towards the pool, as she got closer she noticed it had the most beautiful aroma.
“I wish we had this on the farm” she said to herself. She couldn’t help but feel a sense of complete relaxation as she approached the pool. She decided to step into the water, David was busy collecting rocks and looking for signs of other living creatures. Maisie laid back, allowing the water to cover her so that only her head was showing. She looked out into the distance and could see Earth, the Moon, and even managed to get a glimpse of a star as it shot through the black void of space. Maisie grabbed a cup and filled it with the water from the pool, she just had to show it to the girls back on the farm when she got back.
“Maise? Maisie?!” Maisie heard David shouting her name, she quickly got out of the water and made her way back to where she last saw David, but he was gone!
Maisie looked at the ground and thankfully saw some footprints that had to belong to David, so she followed them.
“HELP” Maisie heard David shouting from a distance, Maisie picked up the pace and started running as she followed the boot shaped footprints. the footsteps ended and as she looked up she couldn’t believe what she was seeing…
David was in the air!
Maisie looked down the thick, slimy tentacles that were keeping David suspended, they were green with red spots and seemed to be coming from a nearby rock.
“Maisie, please help me, it’s getting tighter!” David shouted.
Maisie edged closer to the tentacles, trying to understand what they were and how she could help, but careful not to become entangled herself. She moved down the tentacles and towards the rock they seemed to be coming from. Maisie was shocked to see that rock the tentacles were coming from, was no rock at all…
Maisie had gotten close enough to see that what she thought was a rock, was actually a sleeping alien! The snoozing, tentacle controlling rocky creature had big blue eyes and a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth.
She looked back at David, still suspended above the ground and knew that she had to do something, but what?
“They’re… Getting… Tighter” David exclaimed, Maisie could hear that he was now struggling to speak. That’s when it came to her… The water!
Maisie took her cup filled with the pink water and poured it into the mouth of the sleeping alien, drop by drop the grip it had on David began to relax. After half a cup had been poured Maisie heard a thud as David hit the ground. He was free again!
“Thanks Maisie, you really are a life saver. I think we best head off now though” Maisie nodded in agreement and the pair made their way back to the space shuttle so they could get back home.
A few hours had passed and Maisie was back on the Farm, David had been nice enough to drop her back after they landed back on Earth.
One of the other girls from the farm came up to Maisie.
“And where have you been, we’ve been looking for you all day!” Deborah asked.
“Oh erm, you know, just around” Maisie said with a smile and trotted off.
