Doorways to Everywhere (Tourist Trap Book 2)

Chapter 60

Dr. Octavius was ready to take a break from studying the doors and was more than happy to turn his attention to the problem of thrusters and warp drives. "Ah yes, I had a brief flirtation with space travel back in my boarding school days. I drew up some blueprints for a warp drive and even went so far as to build a prototype. Unfortunately, one of my classmates decided to pull a prank on me and attached it to a model rocket along with my final research paper for my genetic engineering class. I worked really hard on that thing. He launched them off the top of our dorm building in the middle of the night. I had a tracker built into it and last I heard it was somewhere in the middle of the Andromeda Galaxy. I never got around to building another one. I also failed that genetic engineering course. Anyway, I'm sure I could build you your missing components as long as I can find the proper materials. Do you mind if I have a look at your spacecraft?"

"Be my guest," Captain Torean said. "Come with me and I'll give you the grand tour."

Dr. Octavius noticed Zeke standing in the back of the room behind the crew of the Starswan. "Zeke! It's good to see you, son. I'm glad you're here. You can relieve Maurice from his duties in providing assistance to Lothar and Benjamin. He appears to be a bit winded after the all-nighter we just pulled."

"I'm okay," Maurice murmured from the corner of the room where he had collapsed.

"Sorry to disappoint you, Doc, but we've got some serious Lawn Chair Day celebrating to do," Max said. "Your boy's services are going to be required elsewhere."

"Maurice is doing a fine job," Lothar said. "Speaking of which, Maurice! I need you to bring me a laser pointer."

"Right away, sir," Maurice said as he pulled himself to his feet and went to fetch the requested item.

"I'd kind of like to see this spaceship," Benjamin said as he looked up from his work.

"Actually, now that you mention it, I kind of want to see it, too," Lothar said. "I suppose we can all take a break. Maurice! Scratch that request for the laser pointer. We're going on a field trip. Your services will not be required for a little while."

"Oh," Maurice said as his eyelids sagged. "In that case I think I'm going to have myself a little nap." He dropped to the floor right where he stood and began snoring.

"Now we need to find some lawn chairs," Max said. "Do you think we should see if Sarah wants to join us? Nah, never mind. She's kind of a buzzkill."

"Sarah's here?" Zeke said.

"She's back at the hotel last I checked," Max said. "And you're probably right. We should invite her. She might be fun if we can get her drunk."

"Milosh will join you," Milosh said. "Other Milosh is also already setting up lawn chairs back at the pool at the hotel. Will go up to Sarah's room and see if she wants to join us."

"Hey Sadie, you want to come hang out with us?" Zeke asked.

"Trey already asked me to go back to the ship with him," Sadie said. "Maybe we'll meet up with you later. What's this hotel you're talking about?"

"The Galloping Centipede Inn," Max said. "It's just a few blocks from here. You guys should all stop by and lounge in a lawn chair and have some drinks after you're done messing around on your spaceship."

"That does sound kind of fun," Captain Torean said. "We've been through a lot lately. We deserve a little bit of down time. Let's get started on repairing the ship and then we'll take the rest of the afternoon off."