Crash Landing by Zac Harrison

ship as soon as possible.”
    “At least I won’t have to look at your face any more,” John snapped back. “Though I’ll probably have nightmares about it for years.”
    “Maybe you should take your pals with you,” replied Mordant. “They’d fit in well among the lower life forms.”
    “Oh bravo, Master. Your wit is as sharp as a Gargon battleblade today,” intoned G-Vez.
    “Why don’t you just take Emmie’s advice and shut it for once, Talliver,” interrupted Kaal in a low growl. “Everyone was having a good time until you and your freaky droid showed up. It’s an adventure, you know.”
    An adventure ? John thought to himself. Was this what Lorem had meant when he said that Hyperspace High still had an adventure in store for him? As Mordant opened his mouth to reply, a wet-sounding voice bellowed, “ Siii -lence!” from the TravelTube. The doctor had arrived. Slapping two tentacles together, she quickly ordered the class to form a neat line.
    “Out of my way,” hissed Mordant, pushing students aside to get to the head of the queue.
    “Watch where you’re going,” snapped Queelin Temerate, as she was shoved backward by a tentacle in the chest.
    “I said silence , Temerate,” blubbered the teacher, as she slithered towards the shuttle’s door, “Ahh, Mordant, you’re first in line. It makes me very happy to see such a keen student.”
    Once her students finished jostling for the best seats, the doctor engaged the shuttle’s autopilot and ordered her pupils to take out their ThinScreens. “In your message boxes,” she said, “you will find an excellent article on Zirion Beta I wrote for Intergalactic Geographic Journal . We have a long flight ahead of us, so even the slower students will have time to read it.” She gave Emmie Tarz a meaningful glance.
    Quiet groans filled the shuttle as screens were switched on. John rolled his eyes as he read the first line of what looked like a very long essay: As many readers will know, I was recently awarded the prestigious Sarbola Prize for my groundbreaking work on volcanic planets...
    “Loves blowing her own trumpet, doesn’t she?” whispered Kaal in the next seat.
    “Still doesn’t know what the biggest continent on Earth is, though,” said Emmie, staring angrily at the back of Graal’s huge head. “Maybe John should get the Sarbola Prize.”
    Engine humming, the shuttle lifted off the deck and out through the hangar bay doors. Picking up speed, it swooped once around Hyperspace High and out into space. John tore his eyes away from the star-strewn view outside the window and tried to concentrate on Graal’s article. The “adventure” wasn’t starting too well, but he had to admit that the idea of seeing a whole planet of volcanoes erupting was pretty exciting. It would be another sight no other human would ever witness. Maybe Lorem was right , John thought to himself, pulling his knees up and resting the screen against them, This could still be an amazing adventure.
    The shuttle cruised through space, silent apart from the rustling of packed lunch bags, muffled snorts of laughter, and whispered conversations that Graal quickly silenced with a red-eyed glare. For four hours, John struggled through the article. A small part of him wondered why he was bothering when he would soon be back on Earth, trillions of miles away from Doctor Graal. She’ll probably give a quiz later , he reminded himself.
    “Approaching planet Zirion Beta. Orbit in two minutes,” the shuttle’s computer broke in eventually.
    “At last,” breathed Kaal, switching off his ThinScreen and tucking it in a bag at his feet. “I was about to actually die of boredom.”
    “I understood the first sentence. After that it might as well have been written in ancient Helvian,” complained Emmie.
    Doctor Graal squirmed her way to the front of the shuttle and pointed a tentacle to a small brown and orange ball ahead. “Zirion Beta,” she said with a burp. “By my