Two Worlds (Written by a 10-year-old author, 62,000 words, 72 chapters)

Chapter 7: The Alpha 201 lifts off

Stacy was beating up a computer.

Sometimes she thought that the control center had way too many computers. They blocked her way when she was in a hurry. Monitors on the floor tripped her at almost every step. Breaking one could create more space, but she almost never had that much steam to vent. Her fingers moved over a keyboard rapidly. The control center was empty for the moment, the elves on lunch break. She was trying to create a last minute weapon to save her friends and her people. So far, she wasn't having much luck.

Why couldn't things work out the way Stacy wanted it to be? She wished that she could just magically create something that could save the world. Unfortunately, things like that didn't come easily.

Those stupid dwarves had bypassed every single weapon the elves had at the moment. Their army had plowed through their army like a scissor on tissue paper. Now millions of elfin lives depended on Stacy and her knowledge. But technology could only go so far.

Stacy tried her last idea: to combine all the weapons into one super weapon. A notice on the computer told her that the weapons could not be put together, due to lack of dwarf DNA. She swore. "Dang it!" They had sent the penguin back to Earth just a day before. Stacy banged her fist on the laptop and it started to smoke. "Oh ... no, no, NO!" Stacy stomped her foot on the ground and yanked her USB out of the computer before it could be destroyed. Stacy stuffed the stick in her pocket.

She started to pace the room, passing laptops and bumping chairs. "What do I do? There's got to be something I can do," Stacy muttered. Her voice faltered as a crazy thought popped into her mind. "Oh ..."

The spaceship. She hadn't used it for decades (in fact, she hadn't used it at all), but there was a slim chance it could still fly. It was also big enough to hold at least fifty assorted weapons. Stacy loaded all the weaponry she could find in the control room onto a large cart and started to drag it to the garage where the plane was kept. To her, the plan was perfect! But it was a plane for two people: one to fly it, and one to handle the weapons inside. She could fly the spaceship, but she decided to handle the weaponry. Now all she needed was a pilot ...

Behind Stacy, a metal box appeared in the transport chute.

***

Lily squatted in the container, wondering where she was going. She hadn't entered a destination in advance, so the place where she ended up was random. Would she go back to Earth? Forget it! Would she pop up in the middle of the dwarf army? Most likely. The box door slid open and Lily climbed out, dreading the worst.

***

Stacy was so surprised not to see a dwarf coming out of the transport container she nearly fainted in relief. She was even happier to see Lily safe. "Lily!" she said. "Help me with this!" Lily stepped forward and took hold of the cart handle. "What are all these weapons for?" she asked. "Spaceship," Stacy said. Lily blinked. "Excuse me?" Stacy explained to her about the plane and what she was about to do. Lily said, "No offense, Stacy, but what chance do we have that the spaceship can still fly?" "It's the best chance we've got," Stacy said. "This idea is absolutely bonkers," Lily warned. "I know," she replied, pushing open the garage door.

The spaceship nearly took Lily's breath away.

The whole thing was designed for combat. She could tell from the sleekness of the plane. The words Alpha 201 gleamed in gold on one side. "This is the Alpha 201," Stacy said proudly. "I built it all by myself." With that, she dragged the cart to the plane and opened a hatch on the bottom. Carefully loading the weapons in the plane, Stacy gestured for Lily to get in.

Lily entered through the place where countless weapons were stored and walked to the cockpit. The door creaked behind her as Stacy shut the compartment. "Who's flying the spaceship?" Lily asked. "You are," Stacy said. "What?" Stacy joined Lily in the cockpit. "I'm the only person who knows how to operate every single one of the weapons," she said. Lily strapped herself into the pilot's seat as Stacy opened the garage door with the touch of a button and gave her instructions. "Listen," she said. "That lever makes the aircraft fly up and down -" Lily yanked the handle back and the spaceship shot up, knocking her to the ground. Luckily, the ceiling was high.

Stacy peeled herself off the floor. "That hurt," she groaned. "Anyway, that lever makes the aircraft go forward and backward. Don't pull it too hard or-" The spaceship lurched forward. They were now at least two hundred feet away from the garage. "Careful!" Stacy yelled. "Last instruction: the joystick makes the aircraft turn left or right." Lily wiggled the joystick gently and the spaceship twisted to the right. "Actually ..." Stacy said. "Maybe I should fly this thing."

Stacy guided the plane to the nearest dwarf group, which was just outside the western tower. Lily grabbed a grenade gun and opened a window. "Hey!" she yelled. "Catch this, you stupid dwarves!" A touch-activated bomb shot out of the gun barrel and a dwarf instinctively caught it.

KABOOM! The grenade exploded in a plume of fire. The plane was gone before the smoke cleared. "Great!" Stacy said. "One group of dwarves down, only about a gazillion more to go!"

***

Jake despised dwarves.

Because of those danged little people, his face had been slammed into the dirt twice and trampled into the dust. He could drop kick every single one of them, but unfortunately, he didn't know where they were. Groaning, Jake sat up and wiped the dirt off his face. His head ached and he was bruised all over the place. There was no sign of Tara. Jake stood up and managed to stagger to the western wall, where he could find help. He turned a corner and nearly bumped into a dwarf.

Jake froze and inched back around the corner. Luckily, the group of dwarves had their backs turned, gaping up at the sky as a spaceship came into view. Jake looked up in amazement. Was that Stacy in the cockpit? As he watched, a window on the side popped open and Lily's head poked out. "Hey!" she yelled. "Catch this, you stupid dwarves!" She pointed a gun through the window and fired a grenade. A dwarf caught it. "Crap!" Jake muttered. The bomb exploded in a massive fireball as he dove for cover.

Coughing, Jake climbed to his feet. The spaceship had disappeared. Jake waved the smoke away from his face. All the dwarves were flat on the ground unconscious, except for one, who was stumbling dizzily around and calling for help. Jake stepped forward and punched him in the face. The dwarf collapsed, joining his comrades on the ground. Jake, satisfied with his work, jogged to the tower door.