In November 2022, Clubhouse challenged kids to finish Prayti and Babka’s story. You bombarded us with nearly 200 exciting endings. Here are some of our favorites.
The Story So Far…
Prayti’s right arm mimicked the robotic claw that extended from the little spaceship.
“Getting closer, closer,” she whispered. Just one chunk of priceless black phosphorus could pay for a trip to Earth!
The claw buried into the asteroid’s powdery surface. As the rock exploded into dust, Prayti engaged the reverse thrusters.
Suddenly, a foot kicked her in the back. Prayti spun around. “What do you want, Babka?!”
Her little brother had gotten tangled in the oxygen cords. Prayti uncoiled the lines so he could stand.
“Did you get it?” Babka asked eagerly.
Prayti swiveled back to the controls. “Nothing,” she sighed.
Prayti docked the ship back at the mining station, which resembled a giant Ferris wheel.
“Find a new babysitter,” Prayti grumbled to her parents. “I’m sick of watching Babka. He’s so useless.”
“You do not love family because they are useful,” her father said. “You love them because they’re yours.”
Prayti went to apologize. Babka was playing Bubble Blasters with Gao. The boys pinballed around the holo-zone, blasting blue spheres and dodging sticky red ones.
“I’m sorry I yelled at you, thambi,” Prayti said. “You mean more to me than any dusty, old asteroid.”
As she watched Babka and Gao play, Prayti got an idea.
She called for a Class One meetup of all the kids on the station. After making a plan, they set off in four extractor ships. Gao took charge, since the other kids listened to him.
Their ships pushed one asteroid into another, forming a huge rock that pulled smaller asteroids into its orbit.
“It’s just like Bubble Blasters!” Prayti said. “Why chase after one when we can check them all?”
Pilber launched a mineral probe. “Phosphate content positive.”
Hiro laughed. “We hit the jackpot!”
“Uh, team? We may have a problem,” Pilber reported. “The asteroid is getting so big, it’s pulling us in.”
“Fire reverse thrusters,” Gao ordered.
The ships tried to retreat, but they couldn’t escape the asteroid’s gravity.
“We’re gonna crash!” Hiro yelled.
“Do we have blasters?” Babka asked.
“Negative,” Gao replied. “These are mining ships, not combat vessels.”
“Besides,” Pilber added, “if we destroy the asteroid, we’ll lose the black phosphorus.”
“Forget the money!” Hiro yelled. “That asteroid’s going to crush everything in its path. Our ships, our parents—worst of all, us!”
“Maybe we could smash it with our robot arms,” Babka suggested.
“Or somehow tether our ships together to increase thrusting power,” Pilber said.
Prayti stared at the viewscreen, trying hard to breathe. She wished her parents were there with them.
“What do we do?” Babka asked…
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High Impact
“There is nothing we can do,” Prayti said.
“We’re going to crash!” Babka yelled.
“Oh no!!!” they screamed. “Aaaaaaahh . . .”
Blam! Boom!
Simon H., 9, Virginia
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Smashtastic!
They thought for a moment.
“I know what to do!” Prayti said. “What if we group the robotic arms into a giant fist? Then we could smash the asteroid and still save some of it.”
“She’s right,” Babka said.
There was silence. “It’s your choice, Gao,” Pilber said.
“Let’s do it,” Gao said, “but Prayti’s going to work the arms.”
Prayti nodded her head in agreement. They activated the arms, and Prayti took her place.
You can do this, she thought.
She made a big fist, took a deep breath and smash! The asteroid fell to pieces.
“Yes!” they all cheered.
“Did you grab any black phosphorus?” Babka asked excitedly.
“No,” Prayti told him. “Let’s go home.”
They pointed their thrusters toward the cloud of dust and blasted back to the space station.
Bobby A., New York
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Saved by the Explosion
“Oh, no!” Gao said. “How will we do this?”
“We can’t,” Prayti said.
“What?!” everyone cried in unison.
“We can’t,” she said again, “but God can. Whatever happens, God will always be in control. If we pray and ask Him for help, maybe He will save us.”
“No! We can still do it!” Hiro said. “If only one of us pulls away, maybe they can get help.”
“I’m guessing you want to go first,” Babka asked, “so you can save yourself!”
“Yeah!” Pilber cried. “You don’t care about us, only yourself!”
“We need to stop fighting,” Prayti said. “It’s getting us nowhere.”
“Aaaaahhh!” they all yelled as the ships got pulled even closer to the asteroid.
“We need to pray!” Prayti said. “Psalm 9:9 says, ‘The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.’ And we sure are in trouble.”
“God, please help us! We need you!” Babka said.
Suddenly, Gao’s engine started to spark and his ship started to shake.
“Mayday!” he cried. “Someone help!”
Pilber, who was closest, flew sideways to get to him. After he attached to Gao’s ship, Pilber opened his door and let him in.
Not a moment too soon, the sparks from the ship landed on the asteroid and it started to sizzle.
“Oh, no!” Pilber yelled. “Black phosphorus is extremely flammable!”
Boom!
The ships were forced back as the mega-asteroid exploded. The shrapnel floated everywhere! Black dust covered the viewscreen and clogged the giant hand’s joints.
“It exploded!” Hiro cried. “We lost all our resources!”
“Yeah, but we’re alive,” Babka said. “I think that’s a win!”
“Let’s go home,” Prayti sighed. “I wish that we had some black phosphorus. It would be so nice to go on vacation.”
“Look!” Pilber exclaimed. “Big chunks of phosphorus are landing on Saturn’s rings! Let’s collect it.”
By the time they were done, they had enough phosphorus to fill two robot hands.
“I guess God really does answer prayers,” Hiro exclaimed.
“He really does,” Prayti said, smiling.
Cora L., 12, Wisconsin
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Try, Try Again
“Let’s quickly smash it with our robot arms!” Prayti answered.
Together, they easily smashed the expanding asteroid, disintegrating it into dust.
“Whew! That was a close one!” Gao said. “Thank You, God, for protecting us.”
Pilber added, “And please give us wisdom to know what to do next.”
The kids stared at the debris.
“We could push the asteroids together again, like we just did earlier,” Babka suggested. “However, before it gets too large, we could stop. That way, we don’t get sucked in by its gravitational pull.”
Hiro added, “Yes! Then we could collect the black phosphorus safely.”
Everyone liked this plan, especially Pilber, who declared, “I love it!”
The kids pushed the asteroids back together. The rocks collided into each other, creating a sizeable clump.
“That’s good! Everyone stop,” Hiro called.
Next, they worked alongside one another to collect the priceless black phosphorus.
All the kids learned that each person had different talents God had given them. They learned that unity and teamwork are good things that help make work go faster and better.
The children and their families not only traveled to Earth, but were even able to live there for the rest of their lives!
Isaiah S., 9, North Carolina
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The Big Push
Prayti thought back to when she had studied black phosphorus in school. It was more valuable than gold, heat-resistant and highly magnetized.
“Black phosphorus is like a giant magnet,” she said. “All magnets have poles, so if we activate our ships’ electromagnets, we might be pushed away from the asteroid.”
“Or we might be sucked into the asteroid,” Pilber said reluctantly.
Prayti checked her computer readings. “The south pole of the asteroid is pointing toward us,” she said. “Our magnets are positioned so it should work!”
“If we don’t do something, we’re going to crash anyway!” Hiro said. “Let’s try it!”
Prayti closed her eyes and said, “On three. One, two, three!”
They all activated their magnets and were blasted out of the asteroid’s orbit.
“We’re alive!” Babka cheered. “Good thinking, Prayti!”
Everyone cheered! They had made it.
Prayti quickly deployed collector bots to gather the phosphorus. Then they went home to tell their parents and start packing for Earth.
Nella L., Nevada
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Escape Plan
Hiro’s right! Prayti realized. This thing will crush us and our families. She wracked her brain, desperate for a solution, as they hurtled toward the asteroid. Then it clicked.
“Gao! Pilber is right,” she said. “If we can tether our ships together with our robotic arms, we should have enough thrust to break free from the asteroid’s gravitational field.”
“That’s what I said,” Pilber muttered.
Understanding the urgency of the situation, the team worked as quickly as possible. Soon all the ships were securely tethered. But the asteroid was approaching fast.
“On my count,” Gao’s voice sounded tense. “Three, two, one. Fire thrusters now!”
The combined force of the ships’ thrusters tore them away from the asteroid’s gravity.
Prayti sighed with relief, that quickly turned to horror as the ship’s warning system blared. Thruster malfunction. Thruster malfunction. Thruster malfunction.
“Prayti,” Babka called, his voice laced with panic. “I’m losing control of the ship.”
The ship jerked and started spinning. Prayti was thrown across the cabin and slammed against the far wall. Babka managed to grab hold of the control panel but was helpless to do anything as the ship picked up speed and spun faster and faster.
Suddenly the ship jerked to a stop. Prayti was thrown again, hitting the floor with a thud that knocked the wind out of her. Gasping, she stood up slowly and looked out the window to see what they had hit.
To her surprise and relief, she realized that Gao had detached from the others and grabbed their ship with his robotic arm just before impact.
Gao’s voice came through her earpiece. “Prayti, are you and Babka all right?”
“Yeah, we’re a little shaken up, but we’ll be OK.”
“What happened?” Gao questioned.
“Thruster malfunction, we lost control of the ship.”
“The rest of the team is headed back to base,” Gao said. “We should follow them.”
“What about the asteroid?” Prayti asked.
“Look for yourself.”
Prayti and Babka turned to look at where the asteroid had been. It had collided with another large asteroid. The two asteroids destroyed each other. All that remained was a cloud of dust and debris. Prayti sucked in a breath.
“That could have been us.”
“I know,” her brother replied. “God protected us.”
As Gao towed them back to base, Prayti offered up a silent prayer. God, thank You for protecting us. I realize now what a dangerous situation we were in.
Leah J., 13, Maryland
