The Discovery of Noodles

Solarship Log: DSS Gastronomy
Date: Rebotco 92, 9002
Crew Member: Pollo
Earth Date: October 29, 2009

My journey of a million, billion, trillion miles begins with a mysterious silver packet.

In my old life as a salvage agent for the DooF Planetary Preservation & Exploration Commission, I figured the closest I’d ever come to “exploration” was roaming my usual territory just below our planet’s intrasubsolar atmosphere. The most exciting things I found back then were run-of-the-mill radiodynamic rocks, empty Gloop bottles and the occasional newspaper scrap from a nearby planet.

Then, today, the most extraordinary object drifted into my supersalvage-catcher: a small, square packet marked as “noodles.” It seemed to be produced by a planet called Earth and was filled with thin spirals of an indeterminate whitish matter. The written directions were nonsensical, ordering the recipient to “cook” and “eat.”

I would have tossed the seemingly useless packet into our planet’s official recycling bin — except for one thing. There, amidst many terms I could not understand, was a word I knew as well as my own name. In fact, it WAS my own name: Pollo.

Somewhere far beyond Planet DooF’s galaxy, someone is trying to send me a message.

The journey begins.