The Continuing Adventures of Virox the Maralite

Note: I was once again given a creative essay assignment in English. This time, we were given 7 beginning lines of famous books to choose from. We could choose a start and then continue our story from there. I chose the one that came from the introduction of 'The Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy', by Douglas Adams. The worksheet didn't tell you which books the quotes came from, but I knew where my choice came from as I'd read the book! (It's a hilarious book and a must-read for any sci-fi lover.) Anyway, the very first line is therefore not mine, but the rest of the story is. I decided to write a sequel to 'Of Maralites and Men' so here it is!

Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy, lies a small, unregarded, yellow sun. Around this sun are many small, unregarded planets, although they vary in colour. Virox, the very lost Maralite (and for those of you who don't know what a Maralite is, it's a small, pink, squid-like creature with wings), was looking for a planet or moon which had a refueling station for his ship.

When we last saw our hero, he was speeding away from the planet Earth after mistaking a restaurant in Roswell for an Alien Landing Station. Now he was terribly lost, terribly low on fuel and terribly hungry. Eventually, he found one of these small, unregarded planets to have a Station, so he brought his ship into a dock. As he neared the blue and pink planet, he heard a voice come over his radio.

"Thank you for choosing to dock at our humble planet. Please note that salt and hair dryers are strictly forbidden on this planet."

Virox had been to enough strange planets, so he was not at all surprised at this warning. He landed his ship.

When he stepped out, he discovered the population of this planet to be blue slugs and very large ones at that. One of them offered to refuel his ship so he left him/her/both to it and went into the cafe to get something to eat. When he came out ten minutes later, he was shocked and dismayed to see his ship was gone.

"What? Hey! Where's my ship gone?!" he yelled to a passing slug. Unfortunately, they all looked the same and this slug was obviously the wrong one as it oozed away slowly looking rather hurt. Virox slapped a tentacle across his forehead and sighed. His third eye caught sight of a building marked 'Mayor's Office' and he decided to go and complain.

After waiting in a short queue, he finally met the mayor who turned out to be the fattest, slimiest slug of them all.

"Where's my ship?" Virox demanded. "I docked at your harbor and now it's gone!"

The mayor blinked, aimed a stalked eye at the window and pointed to a building outside.

"We drag all unregistered ships behind that mental asylum."

Virox stared at him incredulously.

"Why?"

The mayor shrugged.

"Don't know. Crazy, isn't it?" after which he broke into hysterical laughter. Virox made his way to the mental asylum.

***

"Welcome to the Mental Asylum. We hope you will enjoy your stay," an electronic door hummed as Virox walked in.

"I'm certainly not staying," Virox mumbled.

Inside, a nurse oozed towards him, but she was taking so long that he walked up to her.

"Where's the back door?" he asked anxiously.

"Down the hallway, take your first right and then continue to the end," she answered breathlessly.

Virox hurried down the hallway. He passed many cells with insane slugs. It must be difficult, he thought, to tell if a slug is insane. They didn't seem to be doing much and whatever mad thing it was they were doing, it was taking them an awfully long time to do it. He eventually escaped the white-walled confines of the Asylum (which glittered with the occasional silver trail) and walked out into the blinding sunshine. There were many slugs moving about outside, all carrying umbrellas so as not to dry out.

Virox spotted his ship in the distance and gasped in horror.

"My ship! Oh goodness! What? No, why are they painting it!"

His once silver and black ship was now a luminous pink. He let out a long, Maralite wail, which is difficult to describe as it's so high-pitched it's beyond our capacity to hear. After he was done, he hurried towards his ship.

When he arrived he found there to be many slugs on, around and underneath his ship.

"Has this ship been refueled?" he asked indignantly.

One of the slugs attempted to nod.

"Good, then move away and let me through!" he cried.

The slugs remained still.

"How do we know it's yours?" they asked.

Virox had lost his patience.

"It IS mine, now move!!"

The slugs refused to move or if they were moving it wasn't noticeable. He therefore took out a packet of salt he'd had in his pocket from his last take-away and waved it threateningly. They moved a lot faster and before long, he was inside his ship. He left the planet with haste and activated his computer.

With a weary sigh he asked, "Computer! How far's the nearest planet with intelligent life?"

"250 light years away."

He let out another long sigh and took out his jacket.

"Anything I should know about this planet?"

"I'm afraid I've very little information on it," the computer responded. "But I've heard they execute politicians who lie," it piped up.

Virox sank into his chair wearily and set course for this planet.

"Whatever," he muttered and flew towards his next destination.