Chapter 5: Callisto’s Home

The door was large, round at the top with a square base. It opened  on its own as soon as it recognized Callisto’s image, and they all stepped inside. ​

Callisto's mom and dad were not home yet. "Mom and dad are out shopping," Callisto let the girls know. “Let's go to the balcony and have some Kokol."

As they stepped out to the balcony to have some Kokol, which tasted incredibly refreshing, Callisto went on to explain:
"Mom and dad are at the Space Market shopping for outfits and space gear for our family trip to the Magenta Mountains. Every year we make that trip and enjoy the festivities at the biggest event on the planet. The festival is called KHALIBRA and it celebrates the Starlight Kingdom's eight planets (Khaliku, Haliku, Astikar, Lastikar, Istima, Bistima, Ryla, and Aryla). Each planet has a sister planet-Haliku’s  sister planet is Khaliku. The sister planets rotate in orbits that cross each other at some point and are very similar. Almost everyone from the eight planets joins in these festivities. It takes 2 months to prepare for the 2 week festival, which happens on a different planet each year. This year it will be on Astikar- the red planet. Astikar is a bit warmer and has three suns and a lot of desert, so we need more cooling gear. Mom and dad went shopping for some."

"When did this celebration start?" Myrna asked.

"It started ten years ago," explained Callisto. "It is a celebration of unity among our solar system. A long time ago, we all lived in peace and everyone was happy. Our planets flourished and so did life on them. Every single one of them. But then the people of Ryla and Aryla started to develop advanced technology, just like people are doing on Earth right now. They started to manufacture and use this nice technology. They were able to teleport, build fast rockets, tall buildings, and big cities. They even started to share it with other planets."

"Sounds like they were smart!" Xymna interjected. 

"In manufacturing, yes they were smart. Then unexpected things started to happen," answered Callisto. "The animal life on their plant started to get sick and die off. Their plants did not grow as  big and healthy like before. They also started running out of materials to build their technology."

"What did they do next?" Myrna asked anxiously. 

They started traveling to other planets to mine for materials. The inhabitants of those planets, including Haliku, did not like that and demanded they stop immediately. Other planets like Istima  and Bistima, needed the technology to survive. It was a tense time. Ryla, Aryla, Istima, and Bistima wanted more technology. Khaliku, Haliku, Astikar, and Lastikar valued their animals and plants and wanted them to stop polluting and manufacturing. We liked our nature and wanted to take care of it," continued Callisto.

"I hope they were able to solve their problem before too much damage was done" Myrna said. 

"The Haliku leaders called on the leaders of all the planets to meet on Haliku to solve the problem. They wanted everyone to be happy but also to protect our planets. Surprisingly, Ryla and Aryla leaders agreed and convinced the others to also come. Their planets were in bad shape. Xmoke covered their trees and animals. Half of their planets no longer had plants or animals after only a few years. They wanted to save their planets before it was too late!" Callisto continued. 

Xymna interjected with a sense of urgency, "We are getting Xmoke on Earth now too!! That's why you couldn't communicate with me. We must do something about it too! Tell us what we should do, please!"  

"I can tell you what we did at Starlight Kingdom to solve the problem,and maybe it will help your planet. Instead of mining Ixhar and burning it for energy, the leaders of Starlight used the energy from our two suns. They used the Ixhar to store and release the sun’s energy. This way we could keep using the Ixhar we had, rather than burning it to create energy. It took them awhile to figure this out, but now our planets are cleaner.  We also sent volunteers to help clean up the mess on Ryla and Aryla. It took us 5 years to clean up the planets! All the planets get along and are co-existing in harmony now. That is why we have decided to celebrate our success every year with the KHALIBRA festival!"

Myrna and Xymana had a look of relief on their faces. They were both so happy to discover a solution to help save planet Earth from Xmoke. They now knew what they had to do- to stop the pollution on their own planet. It was awesome to know they could fix the problem AND still be able to use the new technology to enhance life on Earth.  ​

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