6 The Ship

Six. The ship. HARRIS AND ZEKE SLIPPED OUT the back door and into the backyard. The entire yard was surrounded by trees so no neighbors could see in. Harris looked all around. "Um, I don't see a spaceship, Zeke," he said.

"There it is," Zeke said, pointing at a small metal shed sitting in the far corner of the yard. "What?" Harris asked. "You keep a super high-tech, galaxy-spanning spaceship that brought you here from Tragas in that rusty, old, piece-of-junk shed?"

"Um, not exactly," Zeke replied. "Actually, that rusty, old, piece-of-junk shed is the spaceship." Harris stared at Zeke, confused. Then he laughed. "And here I thought aliens had better technology!" "Watch," said Zeke. He pulled the cosmic imager out of his pocket and changed a few settings. Then he pressed a button on the device.

Harris's jaw dropped open in amazement. The rusty, old shed started rumbling and glowing bright green. Harris heard metal creaking and watched as the walls of the shed dropped open, spun around, and started to re-form. The green light grew so bright that Harris had to shield his eyes from it.

When the light faded, a tall and gleaming silver spaceship sat in the spot where the shed had been. "That is our ship," Zeke said. "The shed was a disguise." "Wow!" said Harris, amazed. "Can we go inside?" he asked eagerly. Zeke looked around nervously. "Um... our parents should be gone for a while, so, come on!"

Zeke pressed another button on his cosmic imager. A door on the side of the ship slid open, and a ladder came down. The two boys climbed up and slipped inside. Harris was amazed by what he saw. He had read hundreds of comic books and seen many movies about aliens and spaceships, but now here he was, standing inside a real one.