The time machine hurtled through space, the stars visible through the window above the control desk as one bright, dazzling blur. The planets were colored specks on the horizon before they soon zipped past as well, joining the vivid ensemble of lights. It had been moving for what seemed like hours, sending Midnight flying from one side of it to the next, finally forcing her to sink her claws into the red padded chair at the control desk as a last desperate attempt to keep still.

 

This was not worth it, Midnight thought unhappily. Nowhere in my plan does it involve me getting tossed into walls. I wish this stupid time machine would just STOP!

 

She looked out the window, hoping for some interesting sights to take her mind off of all the moving. In the distance, she saw a huge, uneven pocket of darkness rapidly getting closer to her. The time machine was soaring straight towards it!

 

Her eyes widened and she began to panic, looking around for some type of steering wheel, or… arrow buttons, or something that could move the time machine away from whatever scary-looking thing was in front of it. Seeing nothing at all to use, she scratched the chair in terror.

 

What?! Why is there nothing to use to steer this pile of junk?!

 

Desperately, she searched the control panel for any sort of helpful buttons, but there were none. Not knowing what else to do, she ducked down, shut her eyes and prepared for the worst.

 

The machine entered the dark patch, flooding the whole ship with complete darkness. It flew along in uneventful silence for a few moments, then suddenly everything was filled with a purple ultra-violet light. There were holes visible on the edges of the machine’s path. The time machine abruptly turned towards the fifth one it came to and went inside. The machine was flooded with blinding light and then landed with a thump. Midnight opened her eyes at the thump, surprised she hadn’t died. She looked out the window at the clearly earth-style landscape and breathed a sigh of relief that she was finally on the ground.

 

The hatch on the side of the large silver machine opened with a hiss. Silently and stealthily, Midnight climbed out onto the rough dried grass. She shook out her fur, stretched, and looked at the landscape around her. The sun was just beginning to come up, and shed rays of orange light on everything she saw. There was a small house in the distance, and a few fluffy sheep grazing nearby, munching on the few pieces of green left on the ground. Even though it was early morning, the dry July heat was still very present; strong enough that she could smell it in the air. She started to walk toward the new sights when, behind her, the hatch of the time machine closed with a bang. The machine gave a defeated sigh, shuddered, and shut down.

 

Midnight turned, startled. It was sitting in a rather dejected looking heap on the ground, smoke rising from it. Uh oh! She thought, worriedly. That’s not good. That was my ride home! It’s not like I want to stay here forever!

 

She started to walk back over to the time machine to take a look at the damage when she heard a loud whirring noise above her head. Looking up, she saw a huge dark circular object--- And it was coming right towards her! Her eyes widened, and she ran as fast as she could across the field to hide behind some nearby shrubs. She peered around the leaves as the huge thing hurtled towards the earth at an astonishing speed, and then crash-landed to the ground with a loud crack, leaving a deep impact in the earth. Parts of the object broke apart with the crash and scattered close by.

 

Midnight shuddered, afraid. What crazy time did I land in? Things falling from the sky…

 

The crashed object was in the shape of a large disk, upraised at the top. It was silver, but the light from the setting sun made it look a yellowish-orange. There were two broken red lights on the front of it, flickering on and off; they looked like eyes. As she watched, what appeared to be a door opened to the right of them. A grayish figure stumbled out. It straightened, and looked at her with bright yellow eyes. She trembled and began to back away, when she heard the figure speak.

 

“Don’t be afraid.”