SALT FLATS - UTAH - AKA THE BADLANDS

The helicopter’s engine roared and the blades whirled as it flt forward on its mission. Flying over the vast, flat expanse of the Badlands. After a few minutes of flying the pilot saw his destination ahead. Small specks of buildings were on the horizon and growing bigger.

Soon the pilot made his first pass over of Appaloosa, an old western town that was abandoned long ago and was now a ghost town. Rusted tin roofs, broken windows and tumble weeds were all that was left. Seeing some more modern buildings, such as a massive warehouse the pilot angled his craft toward them and slowly began his descent to land.

With the chopper safely down, its for passengers jumped out and started making their way toward the warehouse. Spike, Turner and Clover looked around a bit as they walked while Cross kept his eyes forward. As they neared the warehouse doors they saw them open and the head of someone poke out.

They were to far away to make out details but soon the opened the doors wider and the person started to walked toward them. Spike saw that he was a guy, much older than him, maybe in his fifties, his skin was light grey with his hair mostly white with streaks of ash grey in it. As he got closer they could see he had a slightly unkempt beard on his face.

They stopped about two yards away from each other and Clover pulled out a cigarette.

“Hello Star.” She greeted with fake pleasure before lighting her cigarette. Spike saw Starswirl's intelligent, bright blue eyes narrow slightly behind his circular glasses before he chuckled in slight confusion.

“Why the hell aren’t you dead yet?” He asked, with a smile. Clover took a drag from her cigarette before giving a him an ‘are your serious’ look. Starswirl just shrugged in response.

“Okay, this way.” He said and motioned them to follow before walking back to the warehouse. Spike looked at Clover in confusion.

“Well, that went better than I expected.” She said in slight surprise before making to follow. Turner and Spike jogged to catch up to Cross who was walking beside Star.

“Dr. Starswirl, I see you know Dr. Clever.” He said slightly sarcastic. Star nodded his head as they walked.

“Yeah, twenty years ago she stole my research. After that we-we kind of lost touch.” He said with a smile but, like he was talking about the good old days but the sarcasm was so thick a baseball bat could have cut it.

“Research that was equally mine.” Clover pipped in trying to not make herself sound like a villain.

“That’s funny, I don’t remember a check from any of the patents.” Start said twisting his head around to give Clover that ‘smarter than you’ smirk she had always found annoying when she worked with him. Clover sighed heavily and just shook her head. Same old Star.

“All right, Star. Twenty years in the desert makes you a prophet and a martyr.” She said as Star lead them all around back.

“Look, we’re here about your legendary ship.” She said getting Star to stop, turn and look at her. His eyes trying to see if she was serious. She never flinched away from his gaze. Star got nods of confirmation from the rest of them as well. So he just shrugged.

“All right, I’ll show you what I’ve done.”

After about ten minutes of walking group of four found themselves out next to a large rock face with Starswirl setting up something. Star had explained that the ship he was designing would be able to go through the crust of the earth digging like a earthworm because of the boring mechanism he had designed. He was getting it ready for a demonstration.

Pulling the canvas off of the large machine with barrels on the front similar to a gatling gun, Star made his last few checks.getting behind the control stand he explained what this was and what it would do.

“This is the prototype of the boring mechanism here.” He said motioning toward the machine getting nods of understanding. Clover however wasn’t very impressed.

“Boring mechanism is right.” She mumbled to herself as Star continued

“Okay, I’m combining high-frequency pulse lasers with resonance tube ultrasonics.” He explained flipping a few switches to get the batteries warmed up.

“If you’ve ever seen ultrasonic waves break up a kidney stone on the discovery channel, it’s the same deal.” he said as the machine started to hum to life.

“You can put your helmets on now.” Star said absentmindedly making the four put the hard hat/earmuff/welding goggle combination on as quickly as they could. As they scrambled to get them on Star started the machine.

“Firing.” He called out as the tubes started to spin. Faster and faster they spun till the dull whine they had been producing turned into a high pitched scream that made Spike glad they had the earmuffs. Green light from the pulse lasers glowed inside the tubes as they spun making it look like a solid ring of green

Star pointed toward the rock face with a smile as he hit a button and all hell broke loose. The air in front of the machine distorted slightly in a tight, funnel shape and started carving a perfect circle into the rock. Throwing up a large dust cloud.

“WOO-OOH!!!” Star whooped as his invention had knocked his guest and his old partner Clover on their butts. Laughing at their shocked faces he let the machine go for a few more seconds before shutting it down. The distortion faded as the barrels slowed their spin. And the whine disappeared.

Doing a little jig and hosting a wide smirk on his face, Star danced his way over to the group who were getting to their feet and spitting out the dust that had gotten into their mouths. They pulled off their helmets and quickly walked over to the rock face. They stared in awe of the massive hole that that went completely through the rock and they could see the mountains in the distance on the other side.

Spike reached out and touched the stone carefully his kind trying to comprehend what he had just seen.

“Okay, I’m officially impressed.” Spike said. Clover was in shock and a little jealous. Star had manages to get one over her yet again. They heard Star walking up to them and turned to see he had a big grin on his dusty face.

“So, alright. You’ve made some progress with the engine, we’ll grant you.” Clover said grudgingly.

“Have you begun to think about a shell?” She asked her feelings conflicted. Hope that he had and the wish that he hadn’t.

Star had lead them inside to a small corner of the warehouse that had been set up. A large concrete block had been set on a pedestal with a purplish metal box sitting on top of it. Star was standing behind it hold the cover to the box while one of his workers held a small pet mouse.

“Okay this is Alex.” Star said with a smile as he picked up the mouse and showed it to the group getting a small chuckle from Spike. Star carefully placed Alex into the purple box and put the lid back on. He gestured to the set up he had.

“Okay, here we have a steel reinforced concrete block, and in back of that we have a two inch steel plate.” he stated getting nods. He jogged to the side of a smaller version of the engine he’d shown them earlier and started powering it up after a few seconds he announced its firing and the same distortion centered on the box

It didn’t take long for the concrete block to be vaporized and then a few seconds after a circular hole with with the box shape the only part not cut out melted away, part of the wall soon after that. Star powered down the smaller device and made his was over to the box.

All eyes were locked onto it as he took the lid off and pulled out a completely healthy and intact Alex the mouse. Spike and Turner could only stare in shock.

“Voila!” Star said in a whispered tone. Spike laughed and ran his hands through his hair as it set itn.

“That’s…” He started but couldn’t finish. Turner had no such problem.

“That’s Impossible.” He said in awe. Even Clover was amazed. The three scientists started bombaring Star with questions and he lead them over to his work space. Picking up a model of the materials molecule he explained.

“I combined the crystals in a tungsten-titanium matrix, at super cool temperatures and that’s what did the trick.” He said with a smile and a shrug. Cross was over the moon with this development.

“The applications for this are just…” He shook his head with a smile. Things were finally starting to look up.

“What do you call this material?” Turner asked as he examined the box. Star snorted in amusement.

“Well it’s real name has thirty seven syllables.” He said with a small laugh getting a few chuckles from the group.

“I call it Unobtainium.” He said. Spike just grinned.

“Unobtanium?” He asked at the irony of the name, since if you didn’t know how to make it it was unobtainable for you. Star nodded and lead them to the more open part of the warehouse that he used for making his prototypes.

“The unobtanium, will take the heat and the pressure and transform it to energy, which in turn, reinforces the shell of the ship, you see.” He explained as he showed them the different designs that he’s come up with.

“So the hotter and deeper she gets, the stronger she gets… theoretically.” He admitted. He tried to shoo a pigeon off of a object covered in a tarp but it wouldn’t move. He pulled it off and made the bird fly to the ground.

“This is Johnson, don’t mind him.” Star said pointing to the bird. Spike just smiled at the brilliant but somewhat eccentric scientist and inventor.

“This is the prototype for the cockpit here.” He said gesturing to the steel frame work he’d uncovered and started going on about different things but was pulled back on topic by Turner.

“Excuse me, Dr. Starswirl, when do you think the ship will be operational?” Turner asked. Star’s face scrunched as he ran though the numbers in his head.

“When I get my fabrication method perfected...twelve… ten year, ten years.” He estimated. Cross knew they couldn’t wait that long.

“What would it take to get it done in three months?” Cross asked with spike just behind him waiting for Star’s answer. Star thought they were trying to make a joke so he laughed a bit before answering.

“Fifteen billion dollars, I…” He laughed as he just made up an estimate number. He noticed his non laughing guests and he started to feel slightly worried. Reality slapped him in the face when Cross spoke.

“Will you take a check?” He ask with a perfectly straight face. Star just looked back and forth between their faces in shock.

“Why don’t you use a credit card? You get miles.” Spike chimed in with a smirk making Cross’s lips twitch as he suppressed a smirk of his own. Star had a feeling things were going to get really crazy. He had no idea how right he was.

Author's Note

What's gonna happen next? wait and seeeeeee.