My eighth grade English class has created a wonderful book. In it you will read many imaginative stories about maple in space. We have decided to take maple where no maple has gone before!

We created many strange stories. These stories were a lot of fun to write. We were eager to get started and let our imaginations soar! My story was about a family that had to move up to the planet Mars, and there was no way to make maple syrup all the way up there on Mars! A girl in the family did find a way to make maple syrup on Mars, but you'll have to read it to find out!

Some of the other stories we wrote took place on space stations that our Team 3 English classes created for the NASA Space Settlement Competition. The five space stations were named USCOE (United Space Colony of the Earth), New Terra, Orion, Moon Voyager, and Lunar United. Those stories can be found in our space settlement section.

We are pleased to give you the book that holds the wildest stories you will ever read. Enjoy!

Far away, in a nearby galaxy, the space shuttle Centurian had reached its orbital destination. Moments later the crew would be awakened from their cryogenic hibernation. It is the year 3080. It has been a millennium since the crew has seen the universe from inside their space shuttle. All communication has been broken from Earth's contact.

As the crew members stare at the new planet they're orbiting, they are caught in a moment of solemnity. They are retracing their thoughts of the memories that they had on earth.

As the crew put their thoughts together, the silence was broken by the captain's voice. "Well, I hope you have enjoyed your long cryogenic sleep. Although you may be glad that you can stare at this beautiful planet, I have some frightening and bad news."

"What is it, Captain?" asked Elena

"Well, we have lost most of our provisions and supplies. This means that I have to send down a crew to search for supplies and provisions. I am afraid to do this because we know so little about the planet and its atmosphere."

"Who are you going to send?" Brian asked

"I'm going to send down five people. Two volunteers please."

"I'll go." stated Brian. "I need to experience some different environment, as well as add to my science degree."

"I guess I could use the experience, too, so I'll go." Jake stated.

"Thank you, volunteers! The rest of you will be randomly chosen by me. Elena, you will go as the group's navigation director. Skyler, you'll be in charge of planet to ship communication for the group. Alex, you will be in charge of the group. You are to remember that you will think of the safety of the group before anything else. You have two hours to get ready. Meet me in the docking area when you're ready. All right the rest of you will be divided up on this ship. I want three people in the cockpit with me, Derek, Julie, and Brett. As for you and your wife Sarah, I want you to do some visual checks on the condition of the ship. Got that, Jaime, make sure to check in every once in a while.

"All right, Dad, I understand," Jaime said in a sarcastic voice.

"Captain," Julie stated, "I've done a life scan on the planet, and I have found that half of the planet is desolate while the other half is lush in plant life. I've especially found that there seems to be a large maple forest. This could lead us to the food we need as well as an abundance of supplies. Of course, the syrup would be a treat to have on our food, too!"

"All right, crew, we now have a mission name. 'Search for Maple' shall be followed through. Everyone report to your stations and prepare for touchdown of the crew. Terra 2 crew, you will land in the center of the luscious wildlife section of the planet and will be sent coordinates to the Maple Forest. Good luck!"

As the Terra 2 crew touched down on the planet, the coordinates and the communication broke off. The crew was lost with not even a glimpse of where they might be. Just as their hopes fell, a voice boomed over them. "Maple lies within you. Only you can find her."

"Did anyone else hear that, or was it just me?" Jake asked.

"I heard it, too!" Elena declared.

"I think we all heard it!" Brian said. That voice was the hope I was looking for. I can get the communication back, but the coordinates are lost. The atmosphere is okay for us without suits on. Skyler has also found the direction in which to travel to reach the forest. Let's Go!!

As the nights passed, Alex couldn't stop looking at the night sky. The moon that encircled the planet was a fiery red that looked as if it were a wildflower coming into bloom. The moon seemed so close to the planet. The sky wasn't the only thing that Alex was thinking about, though. He longed for the sight of the moon from the Earth and the starry nights that he saw from his telescope.

As the days went by, the members of the expedition started to lose their hope. They kept the space crew up to date on all the information and the crew did the same. The crew heard the booming voice again as they saw an ominous glow. It was what looked like an angel white glow that contained a glimpse of a figure. The figure was the one mentioned in the eerie voice. The "her" was Maple, the princess of the planet.

The princess explained the story of the planet. Although the princess could not speak, she used telepathy and visual images to communicate. She explained that one half of the once totally luscious planet had been hit by a large meteorite and been destroyed, while the other half stayed as it was. When another meteor had a course for the other side of the planet, Maple had able to stop it and put it in an orbit around the planet. It then became the bright red moon that was now there. The trees were the only things that were able to save the people on the other hemisphere by giving them the gift of life.

When Maple finished, she granted the shuttle colony Centurian food, water, and the right to tap her maple trees for the one thing that explorers had been searching for for over three millennia--the fountain of youth! The crew promised that no one would ever find out about this secret. Even though the promise was made, more would soon find out. It could never be kept a secret. But that is another story.

On the day of March 16, 2246, two young men were summoned by the government of the Orion space colony. Their names were Bobby Butterman and John Jacobson. They were Lumber Jacks. The government wanted them to tap sugar maple trees on the immense bio-domes on the planet Mars.

They had one week until they had to go. Their wives were very worried that they wouldn't come back home safely. When they were packing to leave, their wives asked them not to leave but the men said that they had to because the pay was very good. They were getting 400 criptoids per week just to go and an extra 50 criptoids if they brought back 5 gallons of maple syrup.

On the day they left, Bobby was told that he had to pilot a space craft to Mars in order to tap the maple trees that were in the bio-domes on the planet. When they entered one of the huge domes, they walked into the woods and encountered an unidentified animal. The animal wanted some food, so Bobby let him have some ravioli his wife had packed for him. He gobbled them up so fast that Bobby and John thought that they had to run away so they wouldn't get eaten. Then Bobby and John went on their way to tap the maple trees.

When Bobby and John found the trees, they also found a lot more of the animal that they had fed earlier. Now there were a lot more of them, each with their own characteristics. Most of them were large with orange teeth. Their fur was blood red with some dark brownish black spots on their natural fur from the food they were fighting over. Their eyes were yellow-green, like the eyes of an evil cat.

Just then one of them looked up from their meal that seemed to be the carcass of a doe. It wasn't very recognizable with its insides pouring from its abdomen. He screeched to all of the others. They jumped and looked at Bobby and John, all of their yellow-green piercing eyes staring at them. All of a sudden one of them bellowed out a dreadful screech, and Bobby drew his weapon. He aimed it at the one who had bellowed.

"No," yelled the animal.

Bobby dropped his weapon.

"What are you?" John asked of the animal. This was definitely not one of the approved species that had been brought to populate the dome.

The animal answered back, "A Purple Mammoth Green Eater, and by the way what did you feed me earlier?"

Bobby answered, "Ravioli. I'll give you some more if you help us."

John asked the Purple Mammoth Green Eater if he and the rest of his kind would help tap the maple trees that they were sent to tap for the maple syrup. Maple syrup was in a shortage in the space colony of Orion.

The Purple Mammoth Green Eater gladly obliged and helped Bobby and John tap the maple trees. While Bobby and John waited for the maple sugar to flow, they stayed with the clan of the Purple Mammoth Green Eaters, who had secretly migrated to the Martian dome because their planet had been destroyed. The Lumber Jacks stayed for three weeks.

After John and Bobby had collected the 500 gallons of maple sugar, they said good-bye to the Purple Mammoth Green Eaters and got into the space craft. They rode back to the space colony of Orion. When they got there, the people were all waiting for them and had many gifts for them. There was a huge party at the ice rink on the main deck of the colony.

They were paid a week after they got back. The check was for 1,350 criptoids. Bobby and John were known as the heroes of the colony from then on. They never revealed the whereabouts of their new friends.

In an unknown galaxy far into space there is a planet full of maple syrup known as Syrup Falls. Everything is flowing syrup: lakes, streams, rivers, and waterfalls. There is only one kind of plant, the "maple plant." The towns are made of maple trees and all the foods is covered with or tastes like maple syrup. The government is called the Maple Branches: Leaf 1, Leaf 2, and Leaf 3. It is a democratic government.

In the middle of Syrup Falls there is a giant grove of maple trees that are tapped annually. The people must pay for their own tree and every person must have one, even the small children and babies.

The beings on Syrup Falls are called Syrupees. The Syrupees have enemies called the Sappees.

The Sappees have been building up an army and are planning to attack the Syrupees and then take over their side of the galaxy, according to our space spies.

Just now the Syrupees' space defense system has spotted a large group of attack planes coming towards Syrup Falls. They sent out an alarm to all the Syrupees living in Syrup Falls. The Syrupees sent out their attack planes and they took down a few of the Sappees but did not stop them. The Sappees bombed a few cities and then flew back. The Sappees continued to do the same for the next few days. Then they came in one large group and landed. They took over the first few cities and then they began to disappear.

It took the Syrupees a while, but they figured out why they began to disappear. They couldn't survive without sap for more than one day, but that is why they started to invade Syrup Falls to get sap from the maple trees. The Syrup Falls security sent out troops to keep the Sappees from getting to the maple trees to revive themselves. The battle was a struggle at first, but as time went on and they became weaker, the Syrupees began to win the fight. After the battle the Syrupees had a large celebration thinking that they had defeated the evil Sappees. It was a calm and happy mood in Syrup Falls for the next week or two. But in hearing of the defeat, the other Sappees were planning another attack on Syrup Falls, and this time they were sure that they would not lose.

They sent out their troops in a large group, about two times as large. Syrup Falls also was building up a large army in case of another attack. When the Sappees attacked, the Syrupees were good and ready. They had built a giant bio-dome to cover and protect the maple trees. Their military had taken down about three planes that had tried to attack but did not succeed. Then they started to become overconfident, and the army started to fall apart. The Sappees were getting away very easily. Then one of the planes flew by, hitting the bio-dome and shattering it.

Then something got into the Syrupees and they started to defend Syrup Falls harder and better than ever and they defeated the Sappees for good.

Akura went to the planet Jeverilon in the space ship "Maple." It took him seven weeks to get there, but the adventures would be worth it. As he was nearing the planet, he saw in his telescope a maple tree. This maple tree looked bigger than any maple tree he had ever seen. He thought that he would want to see that first.

Akura finally reached the planet and was talking to some townspeople when he brought up a discussion about the huge maple tree. However, the people didn't now anything about it. He was going to buy supplies to go look for the maple tree, but an old man stopped him. Akura, a well known scientist, knew the old man knew about the maple tree. The old man told him that the maple tree had special powers, and the townspeople had been told not tell anything about the tree to outsiders.

When Akura went to look for the maple tree, he saw a bird. It was so beautiful he went up to it. The big bird spread its wings and knocked Akura to the ground. As Akura got up it was flying away. Akura thought it was a sign that he was either going the right way or that the bird was making him go the wrong way to trick him. The day past and Akura was getting tired and took camp by the big bird. The next day Akura named the bird Syrup. It took three days to get to the maple tree. When Akura got there, the bird flew away into the sun. The maple tree looked like a cartoon that he once saw. Akura tapped the maple tree and in one day it gave 200 gallons of sap. It was amazing. After he made syrup out of the sap, he brought it to town. The townspeople thanked him and had a huge breakfast.

The next day the people were doing weird things. The old man had told him the maple tree was magical, but Akura hadn't believed him. Akura was feeling fine. The syrup didn't affect him at all, but he didn't know why. As the townspeople were making weird looking gestures, Akura found the old man putting something in the syrup. Akura stopped him. Akura asked what he was putting in the syrup. The old man said that he was really the bird Akura had seen in the woods, and he was just trying to protect the syrup from over production. The old man was putting a secret ingredient into the syrup and that made the people go crazy temporarily and forget their enjoyment of maple syrup. When they ate the regular syrup, they were just fine but the maple tree only took one tap a year. If it was tapped more than once, it would die. That is why the bird protected the maple tree.

by Pat and Bob

I stayed the night at Jim's house last night. We played video games all day long on the Sony Playstation he got for Christmas. Jim is a video game freak. All he ever does is play video games. I like video games a lot, too, but not as much as Jim does.

We decided to give the Playstation a rest for awhile because we had been playing games on it for about three hours now. Then we decided to go to Burger King for lunch. We stopped at my house to get some of my Sega games for his Sega video game system after we ate.

When we got there, my parents were out shopping. Since I am an only child old enough to take care of myself, my parents can do lots of things together. Last summer my parents went on a safari in South Africa. They shipped me off to Jim's house for three weeks during the summer.

Instead of just leaving my house after we got the games, I found an old movie I used to watch when I was a kid. It was Aliens From Another Time. When I was a kid, this movie was so scary that I wouldn't go to sleep for a couple of days. But now I think it's kind of stupid. Jim didn't have to be home until seven o'clock. So we sat down and watched the movie.

After the movie, I was laughing so hard that it wasn't funny. How could I ever think it was scary. Jim, on the other hand, was shaking. He had to have been terrified. I got up and shut off the v.c.r. It was six thirty. Jim and I were getting ready to leave and go to his house. I looked out the window and saw it was starting to get dark out.

We stepped out to go to the car when all of a sudden, I saw a streak of light in the sky. I shuddered and looked over at Jim. He was staring at the streak of light, which was now closer than ever. We could now see the form of the object which was creating the light. It was an saucer shaped aircraft.

I started to shake a little and took a couple of steps back. Jim did the same. The unknown craft was now about one hundred yards away from the house. There were green and blue lights.

That's when I started started to run. Jim saw me and started to run with me into the house. When we got into to house, we heard a big bang. We hid behind the sofa.

The door shattered, and a short, stocky humanoid-looking thing walked through the door. It had to be an alien. It had a gun thing in its hand, probably a ray gun.

It walked over to us and said in a weird voice, "Get up and come with me!"

We did, and it made us show it where to find maple sap for the fuel in its spaceship. That's the kind of "gas" the space craft took, maple syrup. The spaceship had run out of gas. We saw from the computer screen, that the alien had run an internet search for the words, "maple sap and syrup." The computer had come up with the web site for the Marathon Maple Festival. Since we live in Marathon, the alien assumed we would be able to help him. Luckily for us, the alien had very fast equipment and converted the sap quickly and left.

Now when I watch alien movies, I don't start laughing about how silly they are any more.

by Jay and Ryan

Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Carissa, who lived on Earth the Second with her family. She had a robotic dog named FeeFee, who was her best friend.

Earth the Second was a peaceful planet with lush wildlife and plants stretched throughout the world. And in the middle of everything was a giant maple tree. The tree stood above all.

One day Carissa was out with her friend FeeFee, walking through the beautiful forest to visit the giant maple to gather some sap to make maple sugar. As they walked along, they discovered something was amiss.

FeeFee's ears stood on end and her eyes narrowed. "I believe something is amiss, Carissa."

Carissa looked at the robotic dog and set her head sideways. "What do you mean, FeeFee? What could be wrong on such a fine morning! I could just sing---."

"No! No singing, no dancing, we have to find out what's wrong." FeeFee said.

Carissa began to dance and sing, her hoarse voice shaking the forest. All the animals moaned and ran from the horrifying sound. "Stop singing, Carissa!"

But she was persistent and continued. And FeeFee's head exploded with a big bang.

"Carissa! That's the second time you made me blow a fuse! Now I have to get a new head! You fool! You're going to pay for it this time; it's coming out of your pocket!"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you liked it when I sang. Oh thank you for forgiving me! I knew you would understand! OH, I love you FeeFee!"

They continued to walk through the woods, the headless dog and the singing blonde, until they came across the pit where the giant maple once stood.

(Gasp) "Oh, no, It's gone! This must be bad!"

FeeFee looked around to see if anyone was around. The dog looked up to see if the thief was hiding still. And he saw a space ship,one FeeFee had never seen before.

"Oh no! Look, Aliens have taken our tree! Sing!"

"But---."

"Just sing! It will make their ship crash!"

"So now you're saying my singing is bad! Well! I'm not going to sing for you ever again, you meany!" Carissa crossed her arms stubbornly.

"Just sing, would you?!"

"Okay!" And Carissa sang, and the ship blew up in mid air, sending it plummeting to the earth below.

The headless dog ran over to the wreckage and handcuffed the two aliens who were trying to steal their colony's pride and joy.

"Okay, we're undercover police force. You are under arrest for being illegal aliens and for stealing the maple tree. You have the right to remain silent until you are proven guilty, which won't be very hard."

And the day was saved yet again by the Earth the Second Police Force.

Once on a far away planet called Chonga-Wonga there was a lonely gallon of Maple syrup named Sappy, who wanted to make something of himself. So one day he was hobbling down the slippy slurpy syrup trail when he stumbled upon a little half-pint of syrup. He was just kicking stones and mumbling to himself, "Man, I wish I was a gallon."

"What's wrong," Sappy said.

"I'm running away," the little half-pint said.

"Now why would you want to do a silly thing like that?" said Sappy.

"I want to be something like a gallon," said the little half-pint.

"Well, I want to become something better, too. We could go together," he said.

"By the way, what's your name little half-pint?"

"It's, uh I don't know. I don't think I have one," said the half-pint.

"Well, I'll just call you, hmmm, Timmy. How about that?" he said.

"Okay," he said. "I like that name."

So Sappy and Timmy went on their way down the slippy-slurpy syrup trail. All of a sudden, they ran into a huge waffle. They tried to get around him, but they couldn't.

The golden colored waffle said, "Mmmm, you look good. Come with me to my waffle house."

Timmy and Sappy went to the waffle's house to find out what the waffle wanted them for so badly. Once they were there, they realized that other cans of syrup were lying empty around the kitchen. Apparently, the waffle was some kind of fiend. The two saw that the back door was open, so they ran as fast as they could to get out of the house. They were unstoppable! They ran and ran for what seemed like miles until Sappy noticed they were lost. Timmy said he was scared that the waffle would come and get him, so they decided to camp in the maple forest. They got settled down when all of a sudden, they heard a noise coming from the bushes. Timmy thought it was the waffle, so he jumped into Sappy's arms, but Sappy said that it was probably only a harmless pop fart. Relieved, Timmy jumped down, and they made a fire and went to sleep.

The next morning Sappy awoke to notice that Timmy was not there. He started yelling, "Timmy, Timmy," but Timmy was not to be seen anywhere. Very worried, Sappy went looking for him. He walked for about a half a mile when he suddenly came upon another gallon of syrup. He said, " Hi, I'm Sappy."

The other gallon said, "Yeah, I know. I'm Timmy. Remember me?"

"Now how could that be? You were just a little half-pint last night!" stated Sappy.

"I know. Last night I realized that it was wrong and dangerous to run away. I also understood that I can make something of myself without running away. I returned home after you fell asleep. I woke up this morning. I guess by realizing I was wrong, I grew up, so to speak," said the grown up Tim.

"I hoped that is what would happen. I just figured I'd tag along to make sure nothing happened to you while you were learning that lesson."

Sappy and Tim remained good friends and had safe, happy lives.

The year was 3025. I am Captain Rogers. I'm the captain of the Starship Anaconda, and we were on course to the planet Maple to answer a distress call.

"Captain, we are entering the Maple System," said Mr. Arms.

"Okay," I said. "Mr. Marks, go down out of warp and put the ship in a high orbit around the planet Maple."

"Yes, sir," said Mr. Marks. So we slowed down and orbited the planet.

"Mrs. Hawkins, is there any life down there?" I asked.

"Yes, there is on the southern part," she said.

"All right, Jim, transport down to the planet six security officers. When they had transported down, they looked around.

"It is so quiet," said Tim.

"Yes, you are right," said Jim.

Then something moved in the bushes and scared the men, but it was only a rabbit running away from something. The something was what they would have to worry about.

"What is it?" said John.

"I don't know," said Mark. So they went ahead not knowing the danger in front of them. After awhile they stopped for a bit, but as soon as they did, two of the security officers disappeared.

"Hey, where are Mark and Tom?" said Jim.

"Let's get out of here," said Matt.

"Okay," answered Jim.

The planet was green and luscious like the Earth before mankind started to destroy it. Maple is untouched by man except for the research station.

"Sir, we are near the research station," said John.

"Okay," said Jim, "let's get inside the the station, and then I will contact the captain."

So the they did. "Away team calling the Anaconda, come in Anaconda."

"We read you loud and clear," I said.

"We lost Mark and Tom," said Jim.

"Is everybody else okay?" I said.

"Yes, everyone is okay," Jim said.

"Okay, in the morning, go look for Mark and Tom. If they are okay, have then beamed aboard," I said.

"Okay," Jim replied. So in the morning the away team went out to find Mark and Tom. But when they found them, they were covered with maple syrup.

"Away team to Anaconda: we found them. They were covered with some kind of syrup. Beam them aboard," said Jim. So they were beamed aboard and taken straight to sick bay.

"What happened to you down there?" I asked Tom.

"I don't know. The last thing I remember is standing in front of a bush and then nothing else," said Tom.

"Okay," I said, "if you remember anything at all, tell me-- just call."

"Okay," said Tom.

On the planet there was more trouble. The creature was trying to catch the other people who were down there. They were trying to just run away from it.

"Let's go. Come on; here it comes," said Matt.

"Try calling the ship," said John.

"I'll try," said Jim. "Away team to the Anaconda, come in Anaconda."

"This is the Anaconda. Go ahead, away team," said Mrs. Hawkins.

"Get us out of here," said Jim.

"Okay," said Mrs. Hawkins, "five to beam up." They were beamed aboard, and Jim gave a complete report. Then we sent down another away team to catch the creature. After ten tries they finally caught the the creature, and after many tests we finally figured out what it was. We named it the Maple Monster because its skin sweated a substance something like maple syrup. Then we returned the monster to the planet and left it there to live its life out the way it wanted to.

The Captain's Little Maple Tree is a planet of tasty treats. There you get all the maple syrup, sugar, candy, and trees you will ever need. To get there, you have to load onto a spaceship, but only the bad children can go, the bad children you wish you could get rid of by the snap of your fingers. Well, that can happen. The attraction of this planet is its maple syrup, sugar, and candy. But then you wonder: why do the bad get to go and not the good? This planet seems like it has everything you want, but what the bad children don't know is that they will not like the effects the food can have on them.

The space ship left on April 22nd, the cost of the trip nothing at all. April 22nd had arrived and all the naughty children waited in line with the taste of all that delicious food on their minds. They loaded up.

"3-2-1 and off we go! We're on our way to a planet where you get all the maple syrup, sugar, candy, and trees you will ever need," the captain said with a funny look in his eye. "We will arrive in ten hours."

The children waited a little impatiently to arrive at this wonderful place. To pass the time they were looking at the planets as they went by. They all looked wonderful, but then they got a far glimpse of the beautiful maple tree planet. They finally arrived, kids after kids pushing and shoving to be the first ones out. Then they touched the ground. Then you would think: what about no gravity? They will float away! But this is a special place. For every section of the planet there where the delicious sweets that you desire and your choice of the trees.

Of course, I was one of the bad children, but all I thought about was the maple candy. So I ran up to the maple candy section, I went to grab some candy when someone jumped up in front of me.

He mumbled and said, "You'd better watch out what you eat. You just might regret it."

The funny thing about it was the man looked like he was made of maple candy. He looked tasty, so I took a bite of his maple shirt and went on tasting the other delicious maple candy. What I did not know was the effects of the food I ate. I had had enough of the maple candy, so I moved on to the maple syrup. There was a glassy pond of maple syrup. Without thinking, I jumped in it. I swallowed enough to give me a belly ache, so I got out.

The man that looked like the maple candy said again, "You'd better watch what you eat you might not like the effects of it.

I've never been one to pay attention to adults, so I ignored him and moved on to the maple sugar. It tasted so delicious. I kept on eating until I felt my hands harden, and then I couldn't move my body anymore. I got scared, and the maple candy man popped up and said, "I warned you. Now you have to pay the price."

In that second every child that had eaten the maple candy turned into a tree. Now if you think back to the beginning of the story, remember when the captain said you would get all the maple candy, sugar, syrup, and maple trees you will ever need. Well, we got all the candy we needed, and the captain got all the trees he needed.

One day the star ship Acer was in the Deciduous Galaxy. Capt. Pillycardo , the captain of the ship , was in the mess hall.

"Sir, we have a ship on our radar," said the commander.

"I'll be right there," the captain replied. On the way to the control room, the captain felt the whole ship shake. He realized that something was wrong, so he dashed to the control room.

"What happened?" said the captain.

The commander replied, "The ship fired at us !

The captain ordered, "Return fire."

" All weapons are down. They are going to dock with us," said the commander.

"Battle stations code red. Seal the docking door." But he was too late. The enemy started to ooze through the doors. When some of the ooze got through the doors, it took the shape of a being. This liquid being looked familiar to the captain. Then he remembered. It was sap.

"Fire at it." The crew then took their laser guns and started to fire at the sap. When the lasers hit the sap, it started to boil. When the sap stopped boiling, it was maple syrup.

When all the sap had turned into maple syrup, the cook came and said,"Hey, I'm out of maple syrup." The cook took the maple syrup, and made pancakes!

It was a nice, hot, artificial summer day on the space colony, Agricola, a colony set up to preserve traditional farming which had been wiped out on Earth by international conglomerates. Clydon was spending the week at his Aunt Mary and Uncle Mark's farm house.

Uncle Mark had a list of chores ready for Clydon as soon as he was up in the morning. The first chore was to make his bed that he slept on that night. "That easy!" he thought to himself. After he did that he glanced at the paper and the next thing was to feed the animals. He got all ready. He put on some old rugged clothes and his farm boots and went outside. He started by feeding the chickens. When he went to get the feed, he saw a huge, fat rat that made him jump. He went into the barn, after he finished feeding the chickens and got a bucket full of grain and fed it to the pigs. He looked around, looking for any more animals. After looking, he saw two horses in the field, so he went and grabbed four apples and walked up to them and fed them each two apples.

After he had gotten done with feeding the animals, Clydon read the list and it said to milk the cows. He got the milking bucket and stool. He sat down on the stool and put the bucket underneath the cow named Betsy and started to milk. He thought he was imagining things after a few minutes of milking because the cow was giving out maple syrup instead of milk. He laughed to himself but figured he should finish "milking" Betsy. The last thing on the list was to relax, but he couldn't "relax" after seeing Betsy gave him maple syrup. He went inside the house and waited for his aunt and uncle to come home from going shopping and doing some other errands.

He waited for about an hour for his aunt and uncle, but he still could not get over that cow. He went back outside and started to milk Betsy, the same cow, to get some more maple syrup. While he was doing that, his aunt and uncle pulled up in the driveway. Clydon didn't hear them walking up to him, since he was hard at work "milking." His uncle walked up to him and tapped Clydon on the shoulder, and it scared him. Clydon quickly stood up with astonishment and said, "Uncle Mark, look what happened when I "milked" Betsy!" Uncle Mark was astonished, too, as well as Aunt Mary. Uncle Mark told Clydon to keep "milking," so they could take the maple syrup to the Maple Festival in New Marathon and maybe sell the syrup.

After Clydon was done with milking Betsy, they sealed the syrup up into eleven huge containers and put them in the truck. They all hopped into the truck and rushed to New Marathon. They talked to the person that was in charge of the Maple Festival. She was very pleased to see them in the first place but when they told her about Betsy the cow she almost fainted in mid air. Mutations from living in space must have caused the change. But who in a place called New Marathon would ever complain about having a new source of maple syrup!

This is a story about a small tree that had a small effect on a small planet that is smaller then the moon but bigger then Utah. This all happened about 15 years from now in a galaxy bigger than ours by about three planets. It has three non-inhabitable planets four planets that are completely water, two planets that are all plant life but it is not plant life like any we know, and two planets are like ours but they have almost perfect peace and harmony where the worst disease you can get is strep through.

The planet that this story takes place on is a green planet filled with many inhabitants like hobbits, wizards, dragons, elves, fairies, pixies, sprites, dwarfs, trolls, and other related creatures. We join them early spring when they were nearing the date when Astrolf, an old sprite, who was an inventor. was going to visit the planet where he could find a rare plant and bring it back to the planet to repopulate the species. Many people think he is a bit crazy but most of them support him.(But many people do not think that he will get off the ground.)

"Hey, Axil, hand me the glue "called Astrolf.

"Where is it ?"answered Axil, Astrolf's nephew and assistant."How long do you think it will take for you to finish ?"

"Oh, I think it will be done by supper."

"Here's the glue. How are you going to get it into space?"

"Drako will throw me out into space and from there I will be powered by the maple sap engine that you helped me make."

"But I didn't help you build any engine, and I didn't know that we needed maple sap for fuel!"

"You mean I don't have an engine ?!"

"Nope, not unless you built one without me."

"Well that means another late night for us because the sap has to be fresh so my by products will be syrup and water instead of burnt syrup. I want the sap to be fresh so the syrup will taste good when I get back."

"Well you'll need more than syrup to get you there. Do you have any food packed?"

"Yes, of course, enough for me and my co-pilot for about a week."

"Who is your co-pilot?"

"Well, I was hoping you would go with me because you already know how this thing works, and I'll need some one to help me load the plants onto the ship."

"Wow! You want me to go with you? I am so excited I never thought that I would get to go any where exciting like that !"

Later that night after supper, when the ship was finished, Astrolf went to the shed where the syrup was kept. When he opened the door much to his surprise and dismay, the sap had all been boiled into syrup and put into jugs.

"What happened here?" exclaimed Astrolf. "I leave my sap for one day and when I get back, it is all boiled into syrup and bottled up! Who did this?"

"It was me, you blubbering old cow! Your little wife who works her fingers to the bone just so you can ignore her,"said Geraldine, Astrolf's wife.

"Oh please don't start that again," begged Astrolf. "I know I should have told you but I was so involved in the ship. I must have forgotten. The plant is not really endangered anyway. I just wanted something to do and to be remembered by. Well, I'll go tell Axil that we're not going. Maybe some day I'll go, but since we have all this syrup, we might as well have a pancake breakfast,"

Well, they had that pancake breakfast. Everyone loved it so much that from that year on the same day they had a pancake breakfast. Astrolf never did go to another planet, but he was always remembered for his great maple syrup.

Once upon a time on a planet in a galaxy far away, people had to eat their pancakes dry and flavorless. Somebody had to do something about this problem. Many people tried many different methods to solve this problem. They tried sugar water and powdered sugar, but nothing seemed to taste right.

However, there was a breakthrough one day. It was about 10 o'clock when it was discovered by a lumber jack named Talben. When he was cutting a maple tree, he found a sappy liquid oozing out of the tree. He had never seen this liquid before, but he decided to taste it. Talben said it tasted like water with a delicious hint of sugar. He tried some different methods, and he found out if you pounded a spout into the tree, this was a good way to produce this liquid.

After Talben had collected enough sap, he tried to find a way to separate the water from the sugar. Then he remembered when his father, Mabon, told him that once he had been stranded on a desert island in the ocean. Mabon was dying of dehydration, so he had to boil the salt water to evaporate the salt in order to have pure water.

He thought, "Maybe if I boil the liquid, it will evaporate the water, and I will have the sugary part left. I will call this maple sugar and it will be used on pancakes."

From that time, Talben was respected and appreciated by everyone on his planet for this discovery.

by Joe and Dustin

Once upon a time, on a far away orbital space colony in 2771, there was a species called the Beachens. The Beachens were the only race of its kind in this whole solar system who knew how to make maple candy! The Beachens were forced into space in 2599 and become the official maple candy makers of their galactic sector by raising small maple trees in their vast bio-lab. Their original planet had broken apart due to a gigantic nuclear missile that had been fired at them accidentally.

One day Sandy Beachen was pouring the water into the maple candy machine, when it broke. The whole Beachen community blamed poor Sandy! But she swore that she didn't touch the thing, and so began the case of the broken machine!

The Beachens acted quickly. They called in the official ABC{or FBI as we know them} and they searched the room for any evidence. But after searching for 3 hours, they couldn't find a clue, so the ABC told Prime Minister Myrtle to call a mechanic and punish Sandy accordingly. Sandy was outraged!

"Why won't you believe me?" Sandy asked.

Prime Minister Myrtle replied, "We will if you can prove yourself. Then, just as Prime Minister Myrtle was about to fire Sandy, the mechanic finished and out of the machine came a new candy! Prime Minister Myrtle tasted the new candy and loved it so much that she gave Sandy a promotion. Sandy is now Co-Prime Minister.

When Prime Minister Myrtle asked Sandy how she made this, she didn't know herself. The truth came out two weeks later! Rocky Beachen { the water boy} mixed up the water and the maple, putting them in the opposite ducts. So the maple went to Sandy and the water went to the kitchen. When sandy boiled the maple and left it for a while it turned into MAPLE SUGAR and after a while got too hard to go through the machine, it got stuck and that was how the mystery had begun!

Once upon a time on a far away galaxy on the planet Maple, there was a little girl who wanted something sweet on her pancake breakfast. One night when she was sleeping, she heard something outside her window. When she looked outside, she saw three little green people. They told her for only one kiss a piece on the cheek, they would leave something sweet for her breakfast, so she did.

She went to sleep. While she was sleeping, she had a dream. In her dream, she was eating her pancake breakfast, but this time it was different! There was a sweet taste to it. She looked down and saw some brownish thick stuff on top of her pancakes. She thought to herself, this is the stuff I've always wanted!!

The next morning when the girl woke up and saw the sun coming through her window, she got up and ran as fast as she could to the kitchen. When she got to the kitchen, she couldn't believe what she saw. There was a glorious breakfast awaiting. There were three pancakes, eggs, toast and best of all, there was some thick brown stuff on her pancakes.

She sat down to eat. While she was eating, the three little green people appeared.

"It's called Martian maple syrup," one of the little green people said. "And we ask that you spread the word. Then a box appeared in front of the little girl.

"What's this?" she asked. "It's more Martian maple products. Spread them around."

"I will," said the little girl proudly.

"Well, we have to get going."

The little girl thanked them and kissed them good by!!

By: Amanda and Jessica

One day there was a man named Joe. On this day the weather was nice. The sun was shining, and the birds were singing.

He was out in the woods tapping maple trees. He had a bucket with him so he could hold all of the maple syrup. While he was putting some of the maple syrup in the bucket he heard a sound . He went to where the sound was coming form. There was a big ship. The ship was huge.The ship was silver. There were two doors. He started for the ship.

The doors started to open. A strange little thing started to come out. It was about five feet tall. He had antennae coming out of his head. His eyes where bigger than human eyes. It was an alien! The alien started to walked toward Joe. The alien was speaking "alien talk." The alien didn't move his mouth when he talked. The alien was wondering what Joe was doing. The alien started to talk to Joe. The alien started to ask him some questions.

The the alien went back to his ship. The ship started to take off. Some of the lights on the bottom of the ship started to glow. Joe was sucked up into the ship. Joe was sucked up so fast that he was knocked out.

When he woke up, there were five aliens looking at him. The were a lot shorter than the other alien. Then the leader alien came out. He must have been the leader, he was the tallest one. The alien started to ask Joe some questions. They took him out of the glass room that they held Joe in. The ship was huge. They walked for ever. His arm started to hurt. He looked at the bucket that had the maple syrup in it. When they were walking, Joe saw a tiny emergency space vehicle. They kept walking. Then he started to think about the vehicle. Joe looked at the bucket. He got an idea. Joe looked around for something to ask the aliens to distract them. Joe asked, "What's that over there?" The alien started to tell Joe, but Joe was gone.

Then he took off for the vehicle. The aliens chased him. He was getting close. The aliens were getting closer. Joe tried to get into the vehicle. They were too close. Joe looked at the bucket. Then when the aliens were in the right spot, Joe threw the maple syrup at the aliens. The aliens couldn't move. Joe took off on the vehicle. But what Joe didn't know was that there was an alien sitting on top of the vehicle, and that is how we think that the aliens came to this world.

Far off in another galaxy, far from Earth, there was a war going on over a special resource. In this galaxy, the special resource being fought for was maple syrup. Maple syrup was as precious to them as oil is to Earthlings. It was used in vehicles and things needed to survive.

This war had been going on for a few years now. The war was between the Scuttonians and Goshilonians. The ruler of the planet Skittle was King Scuttle. The planet of Goshil was ruled by King Twinky. The Goshilonians had been wanting to take over planet Skittle for some time, and now was their chance. The Goshilonians were ten times more powerful than the Scuttonians. King Scuttle feared that they would be taken over. They needed help.

"How much longer is it going to take to get to Earth," asked Kocanoos.

"Don't worry, we'll be there soon," replied Luchion. The two Scuttonians had been traveling for a few weeks. They were on a secret mission. A mission to Earth. A mission that could save planet Skittle. Earth was unaware of the Scuttonians. As usual, Earth scientists are looking out there telescopes into space.

"Holy cow! Look at this," exclaimed Ralph. Looking out the telescope, Henry said, "What is that?" Both scientists were stunned.

"Oh, no!" exclaimed Ralph. "It's coming right for us." Then all of a sudden the Scuttonian space craft crashed into the two scientists' laboratory.

"Hello! We come in peace," replied Kocanoos.

"Yes, we need your help to defend our planet," replied Luchion.

"Wait a minute. You need our help?" asked Ralph

"Yes!" exclaimed Luchion. "Our planet is being attacked by the Goshilonians. We heard that Earth was the closest planet that could help us. We also heard that you had really good military equipment."

Henry replied, "I suppose we could help you, but why are the Goshilonians attacking your planet?"

"They are attacking our planet for our maple syrup," explained Kocanoos. "Maple syrup is the resource we use for transportation in our vehicles, but the gluttonous King Twinky of planet Goshil wants to eat it all up."

"I see what you mean," said Henry. "Sure we'd be glad to help. Ralph, get on the phone and call all of our astronauts and get some of the best weapons that we've got."

"Yes, Henry. Right away," replied Ralph.

After all of the phone calls and getting the weapons, they set off for Skittle. When they were almost there, something suddenly happened. They heard a big BOOM.

"What was that?' asked Luchion.

"I think we've been hit," said Ralph.

"Hold on, everybody, we are going to crash!" yelled Kocanoos. The space shuttle dove towards the ground, tossing and turning. The space shuttle came to a halt. Then for some odd reason, it started to go backwards. The Goshilonians had a magnet and were pulling the spacecraft towards them.

"Oh, no. We're in their magnetic pull. What are we going to do?" asked Henry. Then all of a sudden, they heard firing. They looked out the window, and the Scuttonians were shooting at the magnet.

"Thank heavens!" replied Luchion. The magnet released, and the spacecraft floated down to the planet Skittle. It came to a stop, and the Scuttonians surrounded the vehicle.

"Thank heavens you're back," stated King Scuttle.

"Yes, sir," replied Kocanoos, "we brought the Earthlings as you asked, your Highness."

"Yes, and thank you for your journey," said King Scuttle.

"We heard that you needed our help," said Ralph, "We brought men and weapons."

"Thank you," said Scuttle "and yes we urgently need your help. We should get ready for battle. Follow me!"

The Earth soldiers followed the King to the Scuttonian military base. They checked over the weapons from Earth. The Scuttonians were amazed at how the Earth bombs worked. They had never seen an explosion like this before, and now they thought that they were going to win the war for sure. The war would go on much longer than they thought and it would be fought harder also. At that exact time, they didn't know it, but they were being spied on by the Goshilonians. The Goshilonians were taking notes on every weapon that the Earthlings brought.

"We are going to attack tonight," said King Twinky, "only because my wife is going to make pancakes tomorrow." The Goshilonians as well as the Scuttonians were preparing for battle. Yet the Scuttonians didn't know that the Goshilonians were going to attack that evening.

King Twinky was sitting on his throne sleeping. He was having a dream that he was going to eat all of the maple syrup from Skittle on his pancakes. Then he was waken up by the war general. "We are ready to march," replied the general.

"Okay then," replied Twinky. "Let's move out."

The Goshilonians moved out. They climbed in their space crafts and were flying for the planet Skittle.

One of the Earthlings was keeping watch that night for the Scuttonians. He was looking out his telescope and spotted the approaching the Goshilonians. He yelled out, "The Goshilonians are coming! The Goshilonians are coming!"

All of the troops got ready in a hurry. They were standing in ranks as the Goshilonians space crafts reached their planet. The Goshilonians climbed out of the space crafts.

"Charge!" yelled King Twinky. The Goshilonians and the Scuttonians ran at each other. They collided. The Scuttonians were over powered so they retreated.

"They are too powerful for us," replied Jennatt, one of the soldiers."

The Goshilonians were celebrating that they had won. King Twinky had thought they had won, but when he had turned to look at the Scuttonians, something hit him in the head. It was a maple ball. He was knocked out.

"We surrender," cried the Goshilonians. "How can we fight without a leader?"

King Scuttle yelled out, "We will let you go if you promise to leave us alone."

King Twinky, who had regained consciousness, sat up and cried, "All we wanted was some maple syrup for my pancakes tomorrow."

"If that's all you wanted it for, then why didn't ask us for it?" asked King Scuttle.

"I was afraid that you wouldn't give us any," Twinky replied.

"I know what we can do," said King Scuttle. "Let's all have a big pancake breakfast tomorrow. The Goshilonians and the Scuttonians." Both of the sides agreed, and they had the biggest pancake breakfast in the whole universe. (Of course, the pancakes were supplied by Mrs. Twinky.)

One day Tim, Brian, and I, Peter, were flying in our high tech space ship with really high tech machines inside. It was named the T.B.P. after us. We were in our space ship one day and we were going up into space because Brian keeps saying we are going to find an unknown planet, but I keep telling him we are never going to find an unknown planet. However, five minutes later, the high tech radar and substance analysis system started to beep. When I went over to look at it, something came up on the screen. It read, "Unknown planet straight ahead: Description: 1. Filled with tons of maple syrup. 2. Little men and woman called pancake people. 3. Very beautiful land with trees and ??? maple streams. 4. The queen's name is Mrs. Butterworth.

The next day we planned to land on this very strange planet. We were approaching the planet and we began to see what a wonderful planet this was. It was just like Earth in a way because you did not have to worry about wearing any special suit to wear so you could breathe. They also had a nice little run way so we could land.

When we landed, all the little pancake shaped men and women were very scared at first because they did not know what we wanted. However, we said our famous phrase, "We come in peace." Then they understood because our automatic translator registered, "Welcome."

The next day when we were all done sleeping, we asked the little people if we could go and explore a little. They said it was fine as long as we were back in five hours. So we were off by ourselves for five hours. On our journey we did not go that far because we did not want to get lost. On the journey we saw a maple river just like the high tech radar system said there was. We also saw tons of maple trees and beautiful flowers just coming up out of the ground.

The third day we were there, we asked the maple people why everyone was scrambling around. They said, "We have a big Maple Festival coming up and we are trying to get everything together." We asked if we could help with any thing and they said sure.

They said, "You can go get us some maple syrup from our wonderful stream. They sent us with a wonderful helper. The helper showed us around so the next tour we took we would not get lost. When we arrived back at the village, the people were very grateful for what we did for them and invited us to their Maple Festival. That evening we went out exploring a little more, and we saw a palace and all these waffle shaped men and women, and they were chanting, "Mrs. Butterworth." We decided to go over there and see what was going on.

When we arrived at the waffle palace, the waffle shaped people said that their queen Mrs. Butterworth was getting ready to go to the maple festival. I was talking to Tim and Brian, and I said, " Boy it must be a very big thing for them."

When we returned to the village they said to us,"You'd better get some sleep for tomorrow. It's our big maple festival."

Finally the day of the big festival came. We all woke up to the wonderful smell of maple syrup. We went outside to see a whole bunch of little pancake and waffle shaped men and women. We started to go see all the wonderful things on display. The first thing we did was to eat pancakes and fresh syrup. Then we moved on and looked at books written by some eighth graders that went to school in that village. We read some of the stories, and then we moved on to see Mrs. Butterworth. She was very nice and told us she was very happy we came.

"You helped us a lot in setting up this festival," Mrs. Butterworth explained. "Yes just carrying those buckets of maple syrup back helped us a lot. That was just the amount of maple syrup we needed."

"Oh," said Tim, "Then I guess we were a really big help."

Finally we told the people that we had to go. They wanted us to stay and not tell about the planet. We told them we would keep the secret.

Just before we took off, they gave us ten gallons of maple syrup for the help we gave to them. As we blasted off, I was talking to Tim and Brian. I said , "That is just like our maple festival in Marathon." As we looked back we saw the pancake and waffle shaped people waving to us in our final good-bye.

by Peter and Brian

In the year 2354 after a year long world war complete with giant bombs and trench warfare, the people on Earth were resting comfortably in a state of peace. The planet Earth, itself, however, was not in the state of peace. The rivers were no longer flowing with variations of the color blue or green; the water was now neon colors. The water was now mostly neon because in Europe the war leaders favorite type of bomb was a very toxic one that exuded neon colors. It had crashed into the United States and with nature's most malicious elements, the red neon coloring had slid off the bombs and into various helpless bodies of water. The earth, in short, was like an amazingly large Easter basket which had fallen victim to the sun's rays.

As I was saying, the people on Earth were peaceful, until three teenagers came out of their bedrooms with the dull taste of boredom on the tips of their tongues. Coincidentally, the three teenagers, Munky, Spike, and Jezebel were all sneaking through the bushes of their local assemblyman's house, each cradling home made jelly bean bombs. Positioned at each of the house's exits, ready to throw the jelly bean bombs, all three of the teens were individually apprehended by annoyed police officers.

Jezebel, spoke first. "Isn't it a coincidence we were all going to do the exact same thing at the exact same time?"

Monky spoke next, "Yea, I agree, Spike. I totally agree. Is your name really Monky?"

Jezebel couldn't conduct small talk then. She couldn't even talk. She was busy worrying about their consequences.

Two weeks after attempting to bean bomb their local assemblyman's house and facing a rather stern judge, the three teenagers found themselves doing community service in the joy and splendor that is the harvesting of maple trees.

For many weeks under the keen eye of local farmers, the three teens became familiar with the trees and the smell of boiling sap. In a world so changed by the destruction of war there remained old values and traditions.