Characteristic
Cost
END
Cost
5
3
9
23
Cost
9
Cost
10
3
9
3
3
9
3
0
7
[Notes: Staff includes Dr. Mike Bowman, Josiah Gold, Pix'l, Troff, Yvonne Ridley-Swank, Lloyd Baumler, Mister Toad, Minnie, and Daisy.]
19
3
3
1
2
3
1
1
3
3
5
15
10
20
10
15
1
1
1
1
1
10
The contraption began making noises that only a dying machine could make. Clunks, sputters, and screeches resounded through the room in a cacaphony of mechanical sounds. Dr. Mike Bowman rushed from the bench where he was recording readings from the monitors, but it was too late. Smoke was already wafting from the machine carrying the smell of burnt rubber and heated metal. Oil was dripping from the test truss onto the lab bench and began making its way to the floor. He pulled the plug, although it probably changed little as the machine was no longer functional.
Then the phone rang. As he talked into the receiver, Mike let out an exasperated, "Hello...."
"Mike...." It was Harry Kruger, Mike's roommate from college and now an engineer at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. "Mike, there's something going on in space that you probably don't know about. We're really busy here, so I need to ask you a big favor."
"Go ahead Harry," Mike said. He looked at his project and jotted some final notes down as he listened.
"Well, this is hush-hush right now. There's been an accident in space. The Space Shuttle Atlantis was on a technology transfer mission with the Tiaec'i research base, Progress Station, before its orbit decays to the point where it becomes a meteorite. Two payload specialists were killed, two others injured.
"Anyway, here's the problem. We have a little girl. Her father was one of the specialists who were killed. Her mother is an engineer on the ground and is flying to Houston where the shuttle will be landing in a few hours. The girl is still here. We're not sure what to do just yet. She's a darling little girl, but is very depressed. I thought that it might do her good to visit an amusement park and thought of you. Could you take her on some of the rides and things? Just for today or tomorrow, if possible. Everybody at the Cape just loves her to a fault and it's really, really causing problems here--the whole crew was down enough just from the incident--and this sad little girl...." Harry pleaded. "Please, I hope it's not imposing on your schedule too much."
Mike looked at the smoking contraption in front of him. "No, actually, I think I could use a little break from my work," he said. "Okay." Often little breaks seemed to bring about revelations and fresh thoughts. So Mike figured that it would be a good distraction and maybe help out a little kid.
An hour later, a NASA van pulled up at the gates of his company's flagship park. Harry Kruger stepped out and helped the little girl with downcast wide eyes over to Mike was driving. Harry said haltingly while reading a notepad, "Pix'l--Dr. Bowman luat tocli xot. Umm... Umm... Oxal luati, Dr. Bowman."
"Lohi, Dr. Bowman," the sad little girl replied.
"Her name is Pix'l Ta'Myx. Sorry, Mike, she only knows Tiaec'i." Harry patted his former roommate on the back and went back into the van.
Not knowing what else to do, Mike led Pix'l through the entrance gate and down Main Street, pointing out some of the brightly colored shops and characters walking around. He pointed out the statue of the company's founder and its chief mascot, hand in hand, rambling a little to her about who they were and what they meant. Then he led her through the park's castle into the fantasy section of the park. A few minutes later, he helped the alien girl onto a boat as they embarked on the happiest attraction that he could think of.
Brightly colored dolls from regions all around the world danced and sang an infectious, joyful song about unity, ultimately repeating its choruses in their own languages.
Finally the little boat came to a stop and Mike Bowman helped the little girl out. He cocked an eyebrow when Pix'l said, in perfect English, "Thank you, Dr. Bowman. I enjoyed that trip."
"Why... You are very welcome, Miss Ta'Myx," the puzzled imagineer replied.
Unsure of the alien child's sensitivities, he was about to stammer a question, but before he could, the girl asked, again in perfect English, "Dr. Bowman... Why didn't any of the dollies sing in Tiaec'i?"
"I don't know, Pix'l. But we'll have to remedy that, won't we?" The imagineer smiled as he made a startling deduction. As they talked to each other about the ride, Mike walked with the girl to his favorite part of the park, the section based on a dream of tomorrow.
The next day, Mike Bowman cancelled his appointments and took the alien girl to another of the company's Orlando theme parks, this one divided between a forward-looking scientific element and a showcase of world cultures. As the man and child walked through the park, Mike smiled smugly as his deduction proved correct. At each of the park's international pavilions, Pix'l spoke to the personnel in the appropriate language, perfectly, if accented. The Tiaec'i orphan was an uberhuman with a gift for languages. In that short trip through the attraction with the dolls, she had learned the languages just from hearing the song sung by the animatronics dolls.
After augmenting Pix'l's favorite attraction with some new animatronics dolls who sang in Tiaec'i, Dr. Bowman took the girl under his wing, never regretting the day that he met this charming and interesting little girl. When he became Doctor Tomorrow, the youthful Pix'l became his administrative assistant, loyal to a fault and cheering him up in difficult times. She continues in that capacity for the team based in Hero City.
Created by Neil Ma
Pix'l is one among ten Tiaec'i on Earth. She, her parents, and the others were aboard Progress Station when an asteroid crashed into it. The crew struggled to fix the damaged research facility, but the damage was too extensive and the supplies were running low. Out of desperation, the chief scientist activated one of the projects, a wormhole device, out of the hope that the scientists could program it to jump the station into orbit around At'isi. Instead, Progress Station was transported to another galaxy, in orbit around the moon of a planet known to its inhabitants as Earth.
The Tiaec'i research station was rescued by an experimental interplanetary craft jointly made by NASA, the ESA, RSA, and JAXA. After brief mechanical fixes made by the joint crew and the two engineers of Progress Station led by Harry Kruger, it was towed into high orbit around Earth.
The Tiaec'i were transported by space shuttle to the Kennedy Space Center and then whisked away to S.A.G.E.s Area 51 headquarters. After three months of discussion and interview, the four Earth space agencies "purchased" Progress Station from the Tiaec'i crew. For the most part, the crew of the alien research base scattered, each finding work at one of the Earth space agencies. Pix'l's parents stayed with NASA until her father perished during the accident.
Quote About Her: "Her cheerful spirit can brighten a lightless room."--Dr. Mike Bowman, Doctor Tomorrow I
Pix'l is a minor uber with a talent for understanding languages. While not part of the team in combat, she carries a team communicator in case someone needs something translated or needs her to take care of a bureaucratic problem.
Roughly 24 years of age, Pix'l is still the size of a human pre-teen, but is in fact a full grown Tiaec'i adult just having emerged from adolescence. As such, she wears girls' clothes since they fit her well. When working as a tour guide, she wears a standard uniform. As Dr. Bowman's administrative assistant, she likes to wear a T-shirt that says the team's name in the front and has a comic-styled drawing of the team in the back. Of course she wears different colored T-shirts on different days, with matching shorts and sneakers.
Art by Ben Langdon