MEDALLION: “This is Medallion here. Now that you’re at the next visit site, Chance, Lagrange, and I will visit the Arctic skies to monitor the Earth’s Magnetic North Pole.”
CAPTAIN ECHO: “Roger that. Glad to see our saucer, Thunder, back to science missions. Hope we don’t need to fight again for a while.”
UNION: “Science before a battle is true. But the Agagan hordes now know we are here and we will need to be prepared. Eli says that our second saucer is almost ready!”
ELI: “Yes. The 5D printing of the saucer is almost finished. Earth forces have not detected the construction site in the Superstition Mountain area. Well, let’s get back to today’s mission . . . ?”
UNION: “Hello, trusted Earth friends! I’m Dr. Union with my fellow Earthnaut colleagues Sneak, Eli, Captain Echo, and my girlfriend Oceana!”
SNEAK: “This is our very first excursion into Mr. Ben’s new home state of Arizona, and the first place we’re stopping is something related to space, an explosive event shall we say!”
SNEAK: “From Space, a massive ball of flame streaks through Earth’s upper atmosphere!!!”
SNEAK: “And moments later . . . BOOM! A large explosion in Northeast Arizona.”
SNEAK: “Once the dust clears, a massive meteor crater exists. A VERY large one too.”
ELI: “This Meteor Crater is also known as the Barringer Crater, named after Daniel Barringer who was a geologist that proved this site was a meteor strike. To scientists like us Earthnauts, it’s called Barringer, but to everyone else, it’s known as The Meteor Crater.
SNEAK: “My intelligence activities confirm that the Crater is 37 miles east of Flagstaff and 18 miles west of Winslow in the northern Arizona desert of the United States. It is about 3,900 ft (1,200 m) in diameter, some 560 ft (170 m) deep, and is surrounded by a rim that rises 148 ft (45 m) above the surrounding plains. The center of the crater is filled with 690–790 ft (210–240 m) of rubble lying above crater bedrock!”
UNION: “The meteorite that formed the crater was a nickel-iron rock that was 160 feet (50 meters) across, or wider than a Human airliner jet’s wings! For a large rock to make a massive blast like this, it was traveling at 29,000 mph and struck with the force of a 10 megaton nuclear explosion! The force was about 10 megatons, the power of the first United States hydrogen bomb called Ivy Mike!”
ECHO (second from the right): “Yes, but that’s a fraction of the power of one of our Engedian saucers like the Thunder! Good for destroying asteroids threatening populating planets like Earth, or stopping those Agagan jerks near Israel last year!“
OCEANA (tall female in white): “That was great! Anyway, we are now in front of a test capsule for the Human space flight program called Apollo.”
UNION (middle on the front of the Apollo capsule): “Yes, my Girlfriend! Human astronauts from Mr. Ben’s Earth country America brought astronauts here to train for missions to their only orbiting Moon called Luna! The Crater was meant to simulate similar craters on the Moon.”
ECHO: “As Union mentioned earlier, the meteorite that formed this crater was made up of a nickel-iron alloy, similar to the fragment seen next to me. It is very heavy in Earth’s gravity, and you can imagine the power of the blast when it hit Earth!”
UNION: “At the Meteor Crater, there is a fantastic Human visitor center, talking all about the Crater and how it was formed. There are many pictures, diagrams, and informative displays to help you learn more.”
OCEANA: “My boyfriend is right! The displays confirm what he said earlier about the speed, impact, and effects nearby.”
UNION: “The destruction caused by the meteorite went beyond just the crater rim. There was a tremendous shockwave that projected for miles from the impact site that was capable of leveling trees, buildings and tossing anything loose for long distances. Meteorites can come from the Solar System’s asteroid belt, debris from massive planetary strikes elsewhere in space, fragments of comets, and others.”
SNEAK: “Meteorites can strike many places around the world. This shows the story of one that struck a house in Alabama and crashed through. There are some stories of people being injured by meteorites once in a great while.”
ECHO: “Meteorites are often made of different elements, but many are found to contain iron alloys making them heavy. Their mass combined with their forward force can make for dangerous strikes if they do not burn up in Earth’s atmosphere first, or our Engedian Star Force does not destroy the much bigger ones of course!”
UNION: “Oh! Look here! I can look at these various rocks under this low-power microscope. In this case, it’s shattercones which are a type of meteorite rock. I’ll have to tell Medallion about this when he and our IFS Thunder saucer get back from monitoring Earth’s North Pole! He is a passionate geologist and would like to try this out!”
ELI: “Well, we’re almost done here. But last but not least is a mild simulator of what it was like to be near this area when the Meteor struck. I’m watching a video of it come flying in and striking. It looks just like an Earth Nuclear Weapon explosion too (and is just as powerful). I cannot imagine the number of poor Humans and animals that would be harmed by such an event. We need to make sure our Earthnaut saucers IFS Thunder and IFS Noble are ready for defense and research!”
UNION (far right): “Well there you have it! The Meteor Crater is certainly a sight to see . . . Human or Engedian (the Earthnaut race)!”
SNEAK (the short one, second from the left): “Very true, Best Friend! I hope more Humans come to see the natural wonders on their World more often.”
OCEANA (the tall female): “I agree, big brother Sneak! So Echo, shall we get going?”
ECHO (third from the left): “That isn’t a bad idea. The IFS Thunder reported that some Human police and helicopters are moving toward this location. I think someone spotted it as it flew over the San Francisco Peaks so they might be in ‘scary aliens are here‘ mode again.”
ELI (on the left): “I just got a hold of Mr. Ben. He’s been driving to Arizona from Colorado and said he can arrive, pick us up, and get us out of here before anyone suspicious sees us.”
MR. BEN (calling from his car): “Hi guys! I heard on the radio about the authorities spotting the IFS Thunder. I’m just pulling in the Crater’s parking lot, and I have the door open. Get over here now, and we can get away!”
UNION: “Yes, Mr. Ben! We’re coming now! We will not waste time!”
ELI: “I promise you, things will be much easier for us and for Mr. Ben’s family once we have our second saucer to help!”
The Earthnauts two saucers. The IFS Thunder and the new IFS Noble (a story coming soon!) 🙂
For the Great Galactic Space Gimmick, we’re the Earthnauts Echo, Eli, Sneak, Oceana, and Union (with some help from Gimmick Commander, Mr. Ben of course)!
Epilogue: All of the Earthnauts made it to the car and they, along with Mr. Ben, successfully eluded the Earth authorities and made it to Phoenix. The others in the IFS Thunder also flew in safely while the new IFS Noble continues to be drone-constructed in the AZ desert mountains! ?
THIS CONCLUDES THE EARTHNAUT’S FIRST BOOK, THE EARTHNAUTS FROM SPACE. GET READY FOR THEIR SECOND BOOK, THE EARTHNAUT COLONY!!!
Book 2 of the Earthnaut Journals STARTS by Clicking Here, THE EARTHNAUT COLONY.
RERUN! – Click HERE for the previous Earthnauts Story!
WHO ARE THE EARTHNAUTS? – Click HERE to see how it all began in their First Book, The Earthnauts from Space!!!
© Ben Faltinowski and The Great Galactic Space Gimmick, 2019. Authorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Ben Faltinowski and The Great Galactic Space Gimmick with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
(DISCLAIMER: The following are disclaimers:
- The alien characters depicted in this and all other Earthnaut stories are fictional, and any real alien with similar names, similar appearance, or similar home planet is highly coincidental.
- The aliens and some photos used for The Earthnauts stories are used in honor and parody of various works of science-fiction and alien themed literature and media.
- All toys used in this and all other Earthnaut stories, used to depict the aliens [whether stuffed or not] are purchased and owned by author Ben Faltinowski. Any/all of the character origins and their personal belief systems presented in these stories belong strictly to the alien characters owned by Mr. Faltinowski and do not necessarily represent the origin or purposes of the toy makers.
- No financial or other royalties were collected for this story, as it was a volunteer effort.
- For all these reasons, it is believed that these constitute legal fair-use.)