The traveling flea circus

Mr. Werlington frowns. The show has ended. The circus is quiet. There is no activity. All three rings have fallen silent. He watches the ringmaster’s office hoping to see any activity. Nothing.

He leans back in his chair and rubs his eyes. He has been very busy. Furthermore, it was difficult to concentrate with all the unexpected happenings. Returning his gaze to the table before him, he squints his eyes and peers closely into the circus.

The entire circus is quiet. Not only has he missed the trapeze magic but also the closing act. That was his favorite part of the circus. The ringmaster would have all three rings performing at the same time! What excitement! Mr. Werlington never knew which act to watch, so he tried to watch them all, at the same time!

The Traveling

Then the last whistle sounded, and the ringmaster would close the show. At the last moment, when all would take the final bow, the feelings were always exciting and bittersweet. By the time the show ended Mr. Werlington was almost always in a trance.

On this strange day, he has missed the whole show. He had not missed a show, since he took the flea circus, all those years ago. Furthermore he had even changed all his own scheduling to match that of the circus. In this way he did not have to worry about missing shows.

He had never missed a show. Not one. With this in mind, he tries to think of what would be best. He really had wanted to see one final show before the stasis event. Obviously, after that there would no longer be any shows.

However, this was not his concern at the present. There was still time before departure. He had to find a way to call the circus into another performance, before they left this world. After stasis, there could only be research.

Flea Circus

It was regrettable that the traveling process was so hostile for live cargo. This certainly wasn’t the full resource capabilities of the colony. However, this system was for emergencies. Nothing had any chance when handled so hastily. He pushes back from the table, and decides to take a break.

The last thing he can allow at this time, is a delay. It is important to depart at the correct time. Furthermore, the colony was already expecting him in the outer orbits of this solar system. There was no altering course at this point.

It is troubling that after all this time the project must be terminated so hastily. However there have been remarkable results already. The research was invaluable and they had almost a century’s worth of data from this project. The loss wasn’t catastrophic.

Furthermore, he is certain there will be more expeditions to this world. It has many attributes that are still untapped. [Continue reading]