Mae's Galactic Quest

The Ballem Museum was an odd place. It all started with the name, a word that couldn't have possibly been the original title. The Ballem Museum, or the MM for short, stood about as tall as one of their homes. It was made of a strange material that shimmered and glistened in the light. The roof was painted black and had strange patterns on it that looked like strange symbols and letters from another language.

Mae had never gone inside before. Her father told her it was a place for adults only and that if she ever went inside she'd be in big trouble. But Mae had overheard Jax talking to his friend who worked there, and he had mentioned something about how the museum needed more money because they were going to redo their floors.

"Once they're done, they'll be like glass and you'll be able to see any dust particles," said his friend at work. "The floor will look so clean you can't even tell if it's dirty."

Jax seemed interested by this. "That sounds cool," he said, "I wonder if I could get some samples?"

His friend had laughed at him for being silly, but in truth Jax wasn't joking at all; dust samples would be great for testing!

That night when Mae was doing her homework, her father came home from work early. He looked upset.

"Mae, we need to talk," he said quietly as he sat down beside her on the couch. She stopped working on her math problems and stared up at him with big eyes. That never meant anything good.

"You know that I'm a security guard at the MM," he began slowly, "at least, I used to be until today." Mae nodded meekly; she knew what this meant already.

"I don't want to scare you but... someone stole something incredibly valuable from inside the museum." His voice faltered at this last sentence and Mae felt tears springing up behind her eyes; it wasn't just something valuable, it was something incredibly valuable! "They were looking for fingerprints but they didn't find any," he continued after a moment of silence, "and they asked me if I saw anything suspicious." He paused again and took a deep breath before continuing gravely: "I told them where I saw you."