The Galactic Enforcers

By Michelle Muse

Captain's Log:

Ultomis: It's been seven Jupiter days since my team and I left the planet the locals call 'Earth'. We have received word from Headquarters that an Assault Growth Worm is causing problems near the Sniper Space Port and as the Galactic Enforcers it's our job to stop it. My teammates Tini and Synaptak are at the bridge looking for any signs of it. Well, Tini looking for the worm; knowing Synaptak he's probably watching Tini…again.

It's 10368 p.m. Jupiter Time.

Log out:

Warning! Warning! Lower storage vault has been attacked! Warning! The security system screamed throughout the ship as Ultomis was thrown out of his computer chair and on to the floor.

"Um Ultomis…we found it." Synaptak voice was heard over the intercom. Ultomis groaned as he quickly got up and returned to his teammates on the bridge. The large window located in the front of the bridge showed the ship's attacker. The blind brownish colored Assault Growth Worm was 178 times bigger than a common earth worm and three times bigger than a common Assault Growth Worm.

"It's huge." Tini muttered to herself.

"Well size isn't an issue; we're the Galactic Enforcers and no matter how big or small. It's our job to stop it." Ultomis said taking a seat at the captain's chair.

"He sounds like a Merlin Officer." Synaptak whispered to Tini, who in returned giggled.

"I heard that! Tini put me on speaker." The ten foot tall, four armed women got up, pushed in the coordinates, and nodded to her captain.

"You're online." Ultomis stood up and spoke into the microphone.

"Assault Growth Worm, We are the Galactic Enforcers and you are terrorizing a public space port. You're presence is not allowed here. You should surrender or you will be-" Whish, the sound of the ship losing power as everything goes dark. "Oh great what'd I touch this time?"

"You didn't touch anything; we shut down." Synaptak said. Another whishing sound and the lights returned.

"Back up power's been activated." Tini said from one of the computers, "We lost our back engines."

"How? The worm was in front of us." Ultomis stated. The two were so preoccupied with the computers they didn't noticed Synaptak floating next to the front window. The octopus looking brain-being looked completely out of reality.

"Synaptak are you okay?" Tini asked

"Turn on the front lights." He said. Tini flipped the yellow switch that controlled the lights, reveling a brownish hanging ball, just outside the window.

"Oh crap!" Ultomis muttered

"Please tell me that's not what I think that is?" Tini asked

"Are you thinking it's a uvula?" Synaptak asked stupidly.

"Synaptak remember that talk we had about rhetorical questions?" Ultomis said.

"Its teeth must have crashed our back engines, which caused the black out." Synaptak said ignoring the comment. Tini swallowed harder.

"You mean it ate our ship and now we're going to be eaten alive?"

"Is that another rhetorical question?" Synaptak asked getting unnecessary glares from his teammates. "Um…I mean no not necessary, we've already been received from the mouth and it's already mechanically breaking us down. Plus you add the saliva from the salivary glands filled with amylases trying to break us down into disaccharides because it thinks we're starch, so if you think about it, by the time we get to the stomach we'll already be dead. So technically we won't be eaten a..." Synaptak trailed off as he noticed the glares got worse. "That was another rhetorical question wasn't it?" The ship began to shake violently as the crew members were thrashed about.

"What's happening?" Tini cried.

"I think the epiglottis is closing." Synaptak said holding the wall for support, even with the ability to levitate he was still tossed around.

"What?"

"It's a piece of skin that closes over the Trachea to prevent food from going into the lungs. The worm is swallowing." Ultomis was thrown out of his chair and on to the floor again, landing on his head.

"How do you stop it?" asked Ultomis as the turbulence got worse.

"Shoot at the uvula; it'll make the worm regurgitate." Synaptak had to shout over the rattling of the machines.

"We can't, the ship has limited power. We only have enough for oxygen and-" Tini was jerked onto the floor. An earsplitting grunt from the worm meant only one thing the worm had swallowed. Everything went dark again as everything went quiet and the turbulence stopped. Groaning, Ultomis raised up off the ground with a spitting headache.

"Is everybody okay?" He asked the darkness. When the back power came back on Tini and Synaptak were found sitting next to the wall holding onto each other protectively. Tini looked up at Synaptak and blushed.

"I'm okay." She said not really noticing Ultomis was there.

"Me too."

"Would you two stay focused? You had all of Galactic High to stare at each other." Ultomis said returning to his seat. Tini's usually red face became even redder as she got up and took her place behind a computer. "Now Synaptak, where in the Nalitic System are we?"

"Well, if my calculations are correct, we are in the worm's esophagus." Tini and Ultomis just looked at each other confused. "It's a tube that leads food from the mouth to the stomach." Synaptak said

"So now what?" Tini asked.

"Well there should be a-" The ship jerked forward as the Galactic Enforcers were pushed down the tube. "-wave of contractions that pushes us down to the stomach." Synaptak finished.

"Synaptak?" Tini asked trying not to fall forward. "I thought you said we'd be dead before we got to the stomach."

"Well the ship is not a starch, so it didn't break down like food does." The trip down to the worm's esophagus was very bumpy, but ended very quickly as they approached a row of stringed like fibers.

"What are these things?" Tini asked

"I believe they are fibers, which means we're at the lower esophageal sphincter, the fibers closes so the worm doesn't regurgitate its meals."

"But that means next is the stop is…" Tini didn't need to finish her sentence when the fibers of the lower esophageal sphincter reflex enough to let the ship fall into the stomach of the giant worm. They fell into a j-shaped opening and the ship was being mixed into a yellow disgusting smelling liquid.

"Welcome to the stomach where, if we were protein, we'd be digested and then moved to the small intestine." Synaptak said

"It smells terrible in here." Ultomis said covering his face even though he didn't have a nose.

"That's probably the gastric juices, they help with digestion. Mucous, chief, and parietal cells put together make gastric juices that have digestive enzymes in them like pepsin, which is used to breakdown protein into peptides. And than there's the inactive precursor to pepsin, formed in cells of the mucous membrane of the stomach and converted to pepsin by autocatalysis in the presence of hydrochloric acid. In addition, hydrochloric acid creates suitable environment for the enzymes and assists in the digestion."

"Um Synaptak? Aren't we protein if we weren't in this ship?" Tini asked

"Yes that's why I don't recommend going outside."

"What about the ship, won't it be digested too?" Ultomis asked.

"Not if we get out of here before the digestion begins."

"How do we do that?" Tini asked looking out the window.

"By speeding up the process, we go through the pyloric sphincter." Synaptak said trying in new coordinates into the computers.

"What that, the p-pyloric sphincter?" Ultomis asked.

"Technically it's a muscle, but it's also a valve that controls gastric emptying. After the stomach the rest of the food has to go somewhere." Synaptak said.

"How do you know all this stuff?" Ultomis asked

"Well, while you were spending your time in Galactic High staring at girls, I took seven extra classes after school to increase my intelligence." Tini giggled as the two boy glared at each other. The ship began to quiver again as they moved closer to the pyloric sphincter. Tini trembled to the ground again; her arms and legs were getting minor cuts and bruises from all the turbulence.

"Synaptak make it stop." Tini said holding on to the ship wall again.

"Hold on Tini we're almost there." Synaptak said as the passed the pyloric canal into the small intestine. They jerked to a stop just outside the pyloric sphincter, then slowly moved forward down the small intestine. Synaptak floated over to Tini and helped her up. "Are you okay?" he asked her.

"Yes I'm fine!" Ultomis said annoyed, getting up off the floor and readjusting his cape.

"Yes thank you." Tini whispered as her returned to the computers.

"I've had just about enough of this mission. Synaptak get us out of this overgrown bird food." Ultomis said sitting in the captain's chair again.

"Well this must be the small intestine, it receives secretions from the liver and pancreas, absorbs the food that was just digested, and will lead us straight to the large intestine."

"What kind of secretions?" Tini asked

"Well the pancreas secrets digestive juices called pancreatic juice that's full of enzymes like lipase, proteolytic enzyme, and nucleases."

"Are those dangerous to us?" Ultomis asked

"Well lipase enzymes break down fats, proteolytic enzymes break down protein, and nucleases break down nucleic acid molecules into nucleotides, so I believe not." Synaptak said looking out the window to the reddish pink outside world.

"Is there anything else we need to know before…anything else happens?" Ultomis asked

"Well the liver helps with metabolism for the digestion process which won't hurt us; it also removes toxic substances from blood and secretes bile."

"What's that? That bile stuff." Tini asked

"Well, bile salts aide digestive enzyme, they break fat globules into smaller droplets this process is called Emulsification, but since we're not that either, we should be fine." Synaptak said looking out the window again. "Oh we're in the jejunum."

"Whoa wait, what's that?" Ultomis asked sitting up straight.

"It's the second part of the small intestine, there are three. The duodenum, then the jejunum, and lastly the ileum. We're in the jejunum."

"And this is good because…" Ultomis asked

"It just means we're almost out of here." Synaptak said. They continued to travel down the small intestine, Synaptak occasionally pointing out organs with facts about each of them. Ultomis stopped listening after they passed the gallbladder and Synaptak chatted on about how it stores all the extra bile the liver makes. Tini on the other hand was very fascinated she kept asking questions even when she knew some of the answers.

"What's the small intestine do anyway?" Tini asked

"Well the small intestine has digestive enzymes called peptidases, sucrase, maltase, lactase, and intestinal lipase, they also help with digestion."

"What's the difference?" Ultomis asked not really paying attention to him.

"Peptidases spilt peptides into amino acids which make protein. Sucrase, maltase, and lactase are double sugars into simple sugars glucose. And finally intestinal lipase splits fats into fatty acids and glycerol." Synaptak said.

"That is amazing." Tini said smiling.

"Oh you don't care." Ultomis sarcastically. The ship gained speed as it was moved down the small intestine, jerking it's passengers again as all three of them crashed into the floor.

"Now what?" Ultomis said angrily.

"I believe this is peristalsis, it's a wave-like motion that helps force the contents of organs along the length." Synaptak said holding tight to anything he could.

"Where is it pushing us to?" Tini screamed over the noise that's blaring in her ears. Synaptak grabbed her hand and pulled her closer to him.

"The ileocecal valve, it joins the small and lager intestine together." Synaptak said. The ship kept shaking violently as the three Enforcers waited for the turbulence to stop. There was one last huge jerk that through Tini and Synaptak across the ship's bridge and then things started to settle down.

"Who's dead?" Ultomis asked standing up a little wary. Tini looked around, the ship was being torn away and who knows how much longer it would be, before the ship couldn't take it anymore. Synaptak moaned his head was now killing him. After making sure Tini was okay he floated to the window and looked outside.

"We're in the large intestine." He announced.

"Great another death trap. Who comes up with these names?" Ultomis mumbled.

"Well actually-"

"Rhetorical question." Tini and Ultomis said in unison. Synaptak looked confused. What was the point of asking a question if you didn't want it to be answered.

"What the difference between a small intestine and a large one?" Tini asked.

"The large intestine is bigger of course and it has more parts, but it mostly absorbs water and electrolytes. It also forms and stores feces. This is the last organ we'll be in."

"Oh well good…wait then how are we going to get out?" Ultomis asked.

"I just told you."

"You mean we're getting out through it's sh-"

"The scientific word is feces and yes it's the only way to leave the digestive system safely. The ship doesn't have enough power to do anything else." Synaptak said calmly.

"Eww." Was the only thing, Tini could say at the moment. Ultomis took a deep breath.

"Okay so where do we go from?"

"Well the large intestine has four parts, the cecum, the colon, the rectum, and the anal canal. We started at the cecum then we move to the four colons. The ascending colon begins at the cecum and travel upward against the posterior abdominal wall to a point just inferior to the liver." Synaptak said

"Kind of like what we're doing now?" Tini asked

"What?" The ship tipped upward dramatically, Tini would have fallen into the back door if Synaptak didn't lift her up with telekinesis.

"Synaptak?"

"Once we turn left-" they turned sharply and the ship was facing the way it's supposed to, but the jerk was so unexpected that Synaptak almost dropped Tini. "And now we're at the transverse colon, it's the longest so we'll be here for a while."

"Well it's better than what we've been through." Ultomis said checking for damages while Synaptak was still holding Tini.

"Um Synaptak? You can put me down now." Tini whispered. If Synaptak could blush he would have. He gently put her on the floor, trying to avoid eye-contact. Tini simply giggled and joined her captain at the computer. Synaptak mentally scolded himself for looking like an idiot in front of her. The trip down the transverse colon was boring, a few bumps here and there, but other then that, uneventful. As they approached the spleen, the path goes abruptly downward and becomes the descending colon, which Synaptak happily pointed out. As they continued to the brim of the pelvis, the descending colon made an S-shaped curve.

"This is the sigmoid colon, next stop the rectum."

"And then?" Tini asked

"We head out the anal canal and are pushed through the anus as feces. It will be a very uncomfortable ride." Synaptak said not bothering to sugarcoat it. The ship started to shake again. "Speaking of which." The three darted to find something strong to hold onto. The turbulence increased as the ship passed the rectum and continued onto the anal canal. The canal folded into a series of six to eight longitudinal anal columns, at the distal end, the canal opened to the outside world where they were released into the deep dark space. Synaptak was the first to notice the ship stopped shaking; he looked out the window to see the Sniper Space Port a few hours away.

"Look the space port, we're okay." Synaptak said looking around. Tini was holding her head on the floor and Ultimos was taking a seat in the captain's chair. Synaptak helped Tini up

"I feel disgusting. I'm going to take a bath." she said. Synaptak smiled and he escorted her to her room. Meanwhile Ultimos made a few calls to Headquarters.

"Ultimos to HQ, come in."

"Oh Captain Ultimos, we just got your ship's report, it says you got the worm leaving with a stomach ache." Said the recording robot on the other side of the computer screen. "For future missions, I'm suppose to ask how you did that."

"Well, while you are sending another ship to take us home, I'd be happy to tell you, but you might want to sit down it's a lot to digest."

The End.