Trip To The Moon (Bedtime Story)

Captain EJ has a special superpower...his incredible voice! In this episode: You and Captain EJ are called in for an urgent e-Moon-gency, and things are flickering out of control—literally! The moon is acting up, Melodybee’s flowers aren’t blooming, and Mr. Honeybee’s satellites are glitching. With everyone buzzing in his ear and even Roger throwing secret satellites into the mix, Captain EJ must figure out if it’s a possible alien invasion or just a lunar light show gone wild—all before the moon goes completely dark!

Voices by: Captain EJ and Amanda Fobbos

Transcript

EJ 9-1-1,

Captain speaking.

Mr.

Honeybee here.

This is an emergency mission of epic proportions.

It will take us to the moon and back,

And we'll be in two parts.

Settle in for part one,

Now.

Captain EJ,

Please hurry.

It's an e-moon-gency.

Melody Bee,

Is that you?

Do you mean emergency?

No,

I mean e-moon-emergency.

Okay,

Tell me what's going on with a little more detail.

The moon is having an emergency?

Captain EJ,

I just don't know how much more plain I can make it.

The moon is acting strange,

Like really strange.

It's flickering.

I think maybe an alien is throwing some kind of disco or something up there.

That sounds kind of fun.

I'd go to an alien disco.

I wonder what kind of music they play.

Something electronic,

Or maybe it'd be some kind of green noise.

Melody Bee,

Did you know there are all kinds of colors of noise?

Mr.

Honeybee was telling me about the color spectrum of noise this week,

And green or brown is the best for sleep.

But maybe for a disco,

You'd want red noise,

Or— Captain!

The color is red because it's an emergency!

Please go check on the moon.

I garden by the moon cycles,

And none of my nighttime blossoms are blooming.

That means something's interfering with the moonlight,

And that means— Please help,

Captain EJ!

Of course,

Of course,

Melody Bee.

I don't know how to help the moon in an emergency,

But we'll figure it out.

Somehow.

We're on it.

Transfer— Oh,

That's weird.

Dispatch is calling us?

Melody Bee,

Please hold.

I cannot hold.

This is an urgent emergency.

Captain!

Okay,

Okay.

What's going on tonight?

Mr.

Honeybee,

You do realize you're calling the emergency line?

I was just going to transfer a call to you.

Something's going on with— The moon!

That's why I'm calling.

Something is going on with the Earth's satellite.

Not one of my satellites.

I mean,

The moon.

Yes!

That's what— There have been a series of orbs darting out from the moon.

I mean,

Not just blinding my high-definition telescope,

But they're also throwing off my satellites.

We use those satellites for all kinds of prototypes.

These kinds of moon flares are just strange.

I've never seen an anomaly like this.

What do you see,

Melody Bee?

I don't have any data.

I just have nocturnal blooms that are keeled over from disturbed moonlight.

My harvest was non-existent.

Oh,

My goodness.

It's okay,

Melody Bee.

We'll figure this out together.

We always do.

I've sent an alert to Hero 2.

What could be wrong?

I have to explain what's going on to these sad,

Droopy blossoms.

Wait.

We're in the same house,

Melody Bee.

I'll just show you.

Come to the garage.

Oh.

Uh-huh.

Of course.

Wait,

Guys.

I'm still on the line.

I think Mr.

Honeybee's data is a good place to start.

Are you serious?

There's another call coming in,

And it seems to be coming from the same house?

Let me guess.

Mrs.

Honeybee?

Wow.

You're very good at your job,

Captain EJ.

How did you know?

Just an educated guess.

My dear,

Is that you?

Mr.

Honeybee?

What are you doing on EJ's emergency line?

Are you okay?

Yes,

We're fine.

Not all of us are fine,

Mrs.

Honeybee.

These nocturnal blossoms are suffering.

The moon is in distress.

That's actually why I was calling.

I usually get all my story writing done very quickly on the full moon.

It's so inspiring to me.

But this one doesn't seem as powerful.

I don't know if it's just me or just— Wait,

Someone else is calling?

From a block number?

EJ-911,

Captain's— Captain,

Hear me.

This is top secret.

I repeat,

Top secret.

There is a serious emergency on our hands.

I don't know what's going on,

And please do not repeat this to anyone.

Especially Mrs.

And Mr.

Honeybee.

Or Melody Bee.

She just goes right back to Mrs.

Honeybee.

They're connected at the hip.

I wouldn't even tell Cadet or Harold.

Dogs have their own way of spreading the word.

Anyways.

Wait,

Roger,

There are— Captain,

Silence!

This is crucial.

I need to talk quickly.

They're probably looking for me right now.

I'm hiding in my cubby.

Okay.

I may have a secret satellite for secret stuff.

I sent it to the moon,

But the moon is going haywire.

Please don't tell Mr.

Honeybee about this.

He can be so bureaucratic with prototype testing regulations.

Blah,

Blah,

Blah,

Blah,

Blah,

Blah,

Blah.

We need to get to the moon,

Brother.

And fast.

Roger,

He's on the line.

He as in Mr.

?

Yeah.

Oh,

Oh,

Oh,

Never mind.

April fools.

Cancel emergency.

Thanks.

Gotta go.

Bye.

Roger Robot,

You need to tell me when you sent off prototype.

Mrs.

Honeybee,

It's just dreadful.

Blossoms are starving for moonlight.

Maybe we can write a story about this.

Aw,

Melody Bee.

That's a great way to process sadness.

For Honeybees and for Blossom.

Yes,

Let's do that.

Bring up some of the Blossoms.

Maybe if we put them under the moon nightlight in my writing room,

They'll feel like they're getting moonlight.

Okay,

I'm on my way up.

It's not just bureaucracy.

It's important considerations.

Such a cute nightlight.

Everyone,

Hello?

You're still on the line.

Are you serious?

Hero,

Just meet me at the garage ASAP.

Apparently we're on moon patrol tonight.

Bring your space suit,

I guess,

Just in case.

All right,

Transferring to.

.

.

Oh,

No dispatch.

We'll transfer ourselves to the command center.

EJ.

Captain EJ and Hero to the rescue.

Let's begin.

Together,

You and Captain EJ walk up to the familiar,

Inconspicuous garage that we know contains untold technological achievement but doesn't look in any way like it does.

We knock like we usually do.

And there's no response.

We try again.

And still nothing.

Harold is the only one who hears us,

But no one inside hears him.

With a wordless glance between you two,

Both you and Captain EJ are convinced that everyone,

Mrs.

And Mr.

Honeybee,

Melody Bee,

And Roger,

Are all still bickering amongst themselves.

Captain EJ shouts out once again and tries ringing the doorbell,

But even he knows it's moot.

No one inside is paying attention.

All have been swept up into this emergency situation that the two of us are standing outside trying to solve.

As if sharing a mind,

We both look up to the moon on cue to see for ourselves what all the fuss is about.

It appears as if the moon is flickering.

What on Earth could cause that?

Maybe the cause isn't on Earth.

Maybe.

.

.

But before I could launch into a brainstorm of what could possibly cause this phenomena,

You point out a way forward that just so happens to be inside the closed garage.

We look inside to see all of Mr.

Honeybee's tools strewn about the command center and can see that Roger Robot is trying to roll himself out of the mess his accidental confession got him into.

He zooms back and forth in and out of the garage,

Trying to evade Mr.

Honeybee's prying questions about his top-secret satellite.

But on our tippy-toes,

What we also can see through the little windows that line the top of this automatic garage door is that Mr.

Honeybee clearly learned nothing from all the many times we've broken in to play with.

.

.

I mean,

Test his prototypes.

After one particularly fun break-in,

You broke down and let Mr.

Honeybee in on all the shenanigans going on under his nose.

You made the many vulnerabilities very clear when you explained all the ways thieves and best friends alike could get into the garage and access all of his prototypes.

You point out,

Rightly,

That he hasn't secured the automatic opener tonight,

Though you warrant him to.

There is a long red cord dangling from the opener with a red plastic handle at the end.

You told him to remove that handle or trim the cord so we couldn't gain entry with nothing more than a bent-out-of-shape wire hanger.

But there that cord and its bright red handle hang like a bullseye.

All we have to do is get something slim and long enough to catch the cord and pull that little plastic handle to release the emergency opener.

Luckily,

Mrs.

Honeybee and Melodybee keep this front yard lush,

Full of trees and bushes which are full of twigs.

We braid a few of those together to create a hook,

And I give you a boost.

While on my shoulders,

You easily look in through the windows to maneuver the makeshift hook and catch the little red handle.

Just like that,

We can simply open it manually without using any of the technology in this garage.

Now,

To assess the emergency like only we can,

Just like any other emergency situation,

We need to calm everyone down first.

We've seen lots of disturbances on our emergency missions,

But none more frazzled than this house is currently.

Even when we're inside the garage,

They don't notice us.

We try to wave to get their attention,

But their eyes have shut off,

And they only see their frenzy.

Instead,

We take a practical approach.

I hang up the phone Mr.

Honeybee called in on,

And you take to Roger's cubby and hang up that phone.

We make our way inside and upstairs,

Past all of them unaware,

And hang up the phone Mrs.

Honeybee called on,

And finally end in the garden to hang up that phone Melodybee called on that hangs up on the glass wall of her greenhouse.

From here,

Out in the peace and quiet of the garden,

We get our first uninterrupted look at what's going on with an equally curious Harold by your side.

You pet the soft white fur of his fluffy ears and look up at the expanse of sky above the Honeybee house.

There are a cluster of telescopes out here that it seems everyone inside has been using to aid their panic.

We put our eyes up to them to see what we can see.

Again,

It appears the moon is flickering silver,

And when it does,

Impossibly bright flares flash into the telescope and cause us to jump back away from one telescope after another.

None of them work.

All technology seems to be affected by this mysterious flickering phenomenon.

We even try to engage various features of the Battle Buzz helmet to no avail.

Nothing is working,

And we can only do so much this far away from the problem.

That's when we decide quietly to ourselves that we truly have no choice but to go directly to the source.

We're going to the moon,

Hero.

We open the back door and the frenzy returns,

Muffling our attempts at getting their attention.

Hey,

Everyone,

We gotta go.

Hello?

Listen to me.

I need your help.

Hey.

.

.

That's better.

We have to go to the moon.

Can you be ready in five?

Are you sure that's necessary?

Captain,

Captain,

Captain,

Tell me straight.

Do you think there are aliens out there?

I can't even imagine what I'd say to an extraterrestrial life.

Real-life ETs.

Your guess is as good as mine,

Roger.

But,

Yeah,

Sure,

Why not?

Let's call it an alien invasion.

We're going to the moon.

While Mrs.

Honeybee packs up all the stuff we'll need for our trip,

Including plenty of astronaut food and aptly named moon cheese,

Melody Bee sets out coordinated spacesuits for all of us,

Plus one extra,

Just in case we happen upon a friend out there.

We assure her that if the aliens are out there,

They probably already have their own spacesuits,

But she cannot be swayed.

Our suits,

Of course,

Come with an adaptive Battle Buzz helmet,

Should our specific set of skills be needed.

With the latest software update for our trusty helmet,

It no longer matters where we're wearing our gear.

It will ensure homeostasis is maintained through a painstakingly exact life support protocol.

With suits on,

Extras packed,

And snacks secured,

We meet out in the driveway just as Roger Robot finishes up his shine.

Roger knows no bounds when it comes to helping his friends,

And if that means changing his shape,

His size,

His function,

So be it.

For this particular mission,

He will be just the robot rocket ship we need.

We all climb inside and pick our seats next to a circular window.

For now,

When we look out,

We see a sleepy,

Unsuspecting neighborhood,

But in a blink,

We'll see nothing but stars.

Bring your hands out in front of you like you're about to clap,

And take a slow,

Deep breath in through your nose as we prepare to launch.

Rub your hands together to feel the intense heat of the rocket's engines as your chest lifts,

Ready for takeoff.

Then,

Rest your warm hands on your heart,

One on top of the other,

And slowly breathe all the way out through your mouth.

As we launch up into the twinkling sky,

Breathe every last bit of air out and hold your breath out at the bottom.

Feel the emptiness of your exhale like the emptiness of outer space as we leave our atmosphere.

Let your body feel as heavy as possible.

Not only are you supported by your surroundings,

You are weightless inside this spaceship,

Encapsulated by twinkling stars.

Your attention is glued out the window,

Watching and studying the moon as it gets closer and closer,

But it's becoming increasingly difficult to stay in one place looking out your window.

Your weightlessness floats you upward to the roof of this robot rocket,

And it takes most of your strength to anchor yourself back down next to the window.

The puffy fingers of your spacesuit slip and slide from your anchor,

And instead,

You find a way to tether yourself with an extra strap that hangs off your suit for what seems to be this exact purpose.

Now,

You're able to stare at the moon and you're in good company doing so.

Everyone is staring at the moon,

Silently.

Even Roger Robot,

Who is giddy as he glides through the universe,

Is silent with anticipation.

Will he see his first alien?

The extraterrestrial life he's only read about in research rabbit holes and machine dreamed about?

The thought alone propels him faster like the fuel it is,

And you feel a sudden jolt as the bottom drops from your belly,

And you're hurled even more swiftly through the electromagnetic vacuum of outer space.

The flickers become more prominent and appear to turn on and off,

As if someone is using several satellite-sized flashlights to inspect Earth for something hidden.

Captain E.

J.

Has an idea.

All technology has failed except for the Battle Buzz helmet.

This extraordinary machine has stood up to the test of whatever is causing this ecological techno-glitch.

You catch on,

Even before he says anything,

And the others watch in suspense,

Darting their glances between you two and the mysterious moon like they're watching a tennis match.

Captain E.

J.

Initiates several test sequences to analyze the heat signatures of his entire visual field.

While he's doing that,

You begin to wonder about the silvery sheen that the phantom flickers bestowed upon Earth.

Why silver?

Within your own Battle Buzz helmet,

You used a built-in spectrophotometer to measure the reflectivity of whatever is causing this.

And also,

For good measure,

You also analyzed the behavior of light that shines on it.

We know it's flickering to our eyes,

But what does it do when it's under the spotlight?

Before you and Captain E.

J.

Can assess the results of these tests,

Mr.

Honeybee shows you both a real-time radar screen of one of the satellites that powers all of his prototypes.

He shows you historical data that looks like a steady heartbeat of transmission,

Thin lines rising and falling in perfect symmetry.

Then he scrolls over to tonight to something that came in just seconds ago as you both initiated your analysis,

A huge spike in electromagnetic radiation that nearly electrified the satellite.

You can practically see the smoke emanating through the screen and out both of Mr.

Honeybee's ears.

He's worried,

And he's never worried.

This makes both you and Captain E.

J.

Even more determined to figure this out,

Once and for all.

The results are in and ready to be interpreted.

With one mind,

You and Captain E.

J.

Read over the readings while Mr.

Honeybee frantically tries to back up all the data to servers that are not behaving properly,

Without the assistance of his right-hand robot,

Who is currently hurtling through space as a rocket.

Mrs.

Honeybee and Melody Bee keep one eye conducting visual assessments of the e-moongency and the other making sure Roger Robot doesn't overheat.

Roger is in a nearly hyperventilating,

Excitable state.

He's traveling faster than the speed of light towards the possibility of meeting an alien,

Which troubles the docket of light tests you've conducted,

But even still.

.

.

You can clearly see that there is something on the moon which is both absorbing an inordinate amount of light as well as reflecting it.

Silver reflects 95% of the visible light spectrum,

Which gives it its sheen.

But what's absorbing the light,

And so much of it?

Translucent objects refract light waves and absorb some light.

Some opaque objects are known to absorb this amount of light and convert it into thermal energy.

Something like that could account for those sorts of results.

But what is translucent,

Opaque,

And reflective all at the same time?

When suddenly,

A burst of light,

The likes of which you've never experienced,

Floods all the windows of the robot rocket.

As if tidal waves of light have crashed over each of us in the rocket,

We all shield our eyes from the brightness.

All except for Roger Robot,

Who cannot look away.

He stares wide-eyed and mesmerized without blinking.

His systems fail immediately upon impact,

And you can feel the velocity trickle down to a purposeless float-mid mission.

Roger,

Is everything okay?

What was that?

Captain,

He might not be able to hear you.

Roger,

Did you look directly into the light?

Are you able to reboot?

Roger,

Roger,

Snap out of it.

Your systems have been overridden.

You're not making sense.

Hiro and I can climb out and check on the engine.

If you can guide us,

Mr.

H.

Roger,

We're going to reboot your engines.

The colors,

There are colors everywhere.

I'm in color.

Yeah,

Everything's down.

We have to do a manual reboot.

When the doors open,

We're greeted face-to-face with an otherworldly hue of green light projecting against a backdrop of twinkling stars and pitch-black nothingness.

We float out the door,

Tethering ourselves to anchors along the way to the rocket's engines.

In Roger's hypnotized state,

He means this reboot like humans need to unplug.

That's ironic.

Anyways,

This will be refreshing to him.

As we reboot Roger Robot,

Take a slow,

Deep breath in through your nose.

Focus all your systems on the coolness of each particle of oxygen coming in through your nose and infusing each and every one of your cells.

Then slowly breathe all the way out through your mouth.

And feel the invigoration of a fresh power cycle breath as we follow the last few instructions from Mr.

Honeybee for this reboot.

I have no random access memory for the last several minutes.

I need something.

What do I need?

Think,

Roger,

Think.

Roger that,

Roger.

We need solar filters.

Solar filters?

Yes.

We need to filter some of the light to be able to stare at this phenomenon without blinding ourselves in unconsciousness.

Solar filters.

How do I make solar filters?

Hi,

Roger.

Would these solar filters go over our eyes?

Precisely,

Mr.

Honeybee.

Get on board.

We need to think that our face is,

Oh,

Oh,

Darkened a little bit.

Light enough to wear,

But sturdy enough for solar filtration.

Roger.

That sounds a lot like.

.

.

And,

And,

And,

They need to have some sort of way of offsetting the light.

Darkened in some way.

Small and nimble.

Are you getting this down,

Mr.

Honeybee?

Yep.

Every word.

I think we'll be able to do this rather easily.

Techno,

Techno.

These are going to be cutting edge.

Be packed for all of us.

She even has extra huge sunglasses for you.

With our new solar filter glasses on,

We can now look directly at the brilliant light that casts a green hue when it dims.

Every so often it will shine to ultimate brilliance,

Then dim back down.

It cycles through this like we do with breath in a rhythm.

We float around the ship trying to get the best vantage point of the moon.

When we're just about to the top of the ship,

Where Roger reluctantly dons his star-shaped sunglasses,

We hear Mr.

Honeybee come in through the Battle Bus helmet.

Did you see the coordinates?

Are there coordinates in space?

According to the Battle Bus helmet,

We're oriented toward 39.

9-ish degrees north,

75.

1-ish degrees west.

We see what you're seeing,

Mr.

H.

That looks like a UFO.

A what?

Roger Robot's systems are intact,

But his emotion is high,

Containing too much giddiness for his mechanisms to process.

He instantly and accidentally transforms into a glitter bomb that explodes like fireworks in the stillness of outer space.

He bounces around as a bright blue glittery shooting star closer and more convinced than ever that he will soon be face-to-face with a real-life extraterrestrial.

We try to contain his excitement,

But like a pinball,

He maneuvers out of our forceless grasp in zero gravity.

I'm gonna meet an alien.

An alien.

A real alien.

Just imagine untold intelligence contained in the melding of those minds.

Roger,

You can't go anywhere without us.

A robot and an alien.

A friendship made of the cosmos.

We will take over the world.

No,

No.

Thinking too small,

Silly robot.

The universe.

What are we supposed to do while you're doing that?

Just float here?

That's your business.

I have aliens to encounter.

Be out of zoom.

Bye-bye.

Roger transforms into a magnetic rover that can rove through the vacuum of outer space,

And just before he does,

Captain EJ ejects a minuscule magnet from his Battle Bus helmet's built-in toolkit and holds it up in his palm,

Trying to magnetize Roger's metal back into shape.

Floating in outer space,

You eject your magnet as well and double the magnetic force,

But nothing is able to slow Roger Robot down.

He's like a robot dog after an alien bone,

And there's nothing to do but wait.

We watch him get smaller and smaller as he approaches the UFO.

Through our highly filtered glasses,

We can see Roger Robot form into a flurry of shapes.

He's so excitable that he cannot keep his form stable.

What is he seeing over there?

The light isn't blinding,

But it's brilliant.

It blurs everything around,

And from here,

It appears as if Roger Robot disappears into a ball of light more intense than the sun,

Coming from the moon.

The last thing we see before Roger disappears is him excitedly transform into a bouquet of balloons.

Well,

He must be happy about whatever he's found.

Is he celebrating with those balloons?

Yeah,

That's something he learned on his own.

I didn't program that.

This is kind of nice.

I'm okay with floating for a while.

Me too.

Can you go upside down like this?

Oh,

Yeah,

And in circles.

That's it for part one of our adventure.

Keep your Battle Buzz handy for part two.

E.

J.

That concludes our adventure.

I can't wait to see you again.

Captain E.

J.

,

Over and out.

Reviews

Amazing med I was just stargazing and it was amazing and it reminded me of this story
Kai

Would love to be on that spaceship! Lulled to sleep many times, thank you!🙏🏼❤️