8 Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Stars

Chapter 8 TWINKLE, TWINKLE, LITTLE STARS meep… "Button too fat," said Thudd. "Heat make stuff get bigger." A little waterfall of sweat dribbled off Andrew's chin. Andrew pushed the button harder, but it wouldn't budge. "What do we do now?" he asked, wiping his face with the sleeve of his damp pajamas. "My father has a way of fixing things," Judy said. She grabbed Andrew's slipper. Flack!

She tapped the Fast-Forward button and whacked the Worm-Drive button with the heel of her slipper. It went down! The Fast-Fins spun a web of rainbow-colored light around the Time-A-Tron. KRAZAAAAAAAAAAAAKKK! The Time-A-Tron shook with sound. "Super-duper pooper-scooper!" yelled Andrew. "We're going!" Andrew felt that stretchy feeling. He looked over at Judy. She was getting stringy. We're getting spaghetti-fied again! thought Andrew. bong… "Beginning Gravity Control!" said the Time-A-Tron. "Whew!" sighed Andrew. "That feels better. And I feel cooler!" BUH-BUH-BUH-ZNERKKK! The Time-A-Tron trembled. Then it got very still.

The rainbow lights were gone. Outside the Time-A-Tron, it was perfectly dark. bong… "Ah," sighed the Time-A-Tron. "We have more problems." "Not again!" said Judy. bong… "We do not have enough fuel to power the Worm-Drive. We will have to travel by Tachyon-Drive alone. "However, I do have a bit of good news for you. We have traveled three hundred thousand years past the Big Bang. The temperature outside has chilled to three thousand degrees. And you may take off your goggles." Andrew slipped off his goggles and peered outside into the blackness. "Is there anything out there?" asked Andrew. bong… "Only two kinds of atoms, the smallest ones—hydrogen and helium," said the Time-A- Tron. "Helium, shmelium!" said Judy. "We've got to get out of here!"

bong… "Yes, of course," said the Time-A- Tron. "Miss Judy, you will need to hold down the Fast-Forward button until we arrive at four million years ago." Judy smacked the Fast-Forward button and held it down. HNNNN… HNNNN… WOOHOOOOOOO! The Time-A-Tron wobbled dizzily and the spinning Fast-Fins threw off balls of bright green light. BLAFOOOOOM! bong… "Good work, Miss Judy," said the Time- A-Tron. "We are speeding through time again with the atoms of Montana. And since we are not traveling through a wormhole, you will be able to see the universe happen in fast motion. Watch carefully." Andrew searched the endless blackness hoping to see something—anything. After a while, the display flashed: 12 BILLION YEARS AGO.

"Oh look!" said Judy, pointing through the dome of the Time-A-Tron. It was an arc of twinkling light. meep… "First stars in our galaxy!" said Thudd. "Gravity pull gas molecules together. When molecules smoosh together, molecules get hot, hot, hot! Make star!"

bong… "Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is being born," said the Time-A-Tron. "It will be an enormous swirl made up of 200 billion stars. "The galaxy is so enormous, you can see just a bit of it from here," continued the Time-A-Tron. "But there is a way to see more."