15 Coco’s Cosmic Adventure

Once upon a time there was a young cobalt atom who lived deep within the mines and went by the name of Coco. Coco never knew what she wanted to be when she grew up. But all of her other cobalt friends knew exactly what they wanted to be. Cody wanted to be a famous painter, he loved adding hues of blue to everything he could get his hands on. Cassie wanted to be a doctor and help against the spread of scary diseases. Even her friend Claude knew that he wanted to make engines for jets.

One night Coco laid awake and wondered why she didn’t feel like all the other atoms she knew, they had their whole lives planned out. As she laid awake, she noticed something in the distance. It was fast and sparkled, it shot across the sky quicker than she could even comprehend. Quickly, Coco climbed on top of a pile of nearby coal and peered into the night sky. She was amazed, she had never seen anything like it before. The stars were shining brighter than ever and then she saw it. Another star shot across the night sky, and that’s the moment when Coco knew she wanted to go to space.

The next morning Coco ran around and told everyone what she saw and how she wanted to go to space. At first no one knew what to say, they all just stared at each other. “But aren’t we only able to do what we’re made for?” asked Cody “Maybe,” Coco started to explain “but, what if there’s others like me, other cobalt elements who like space? Shouldn’t I at least try and find out what’s out there?” And with that the other cobalt atoms decided that Coco was right and they decided to help her go to space.

One by one the atoms used all their force to move metal in order to help Coco make her spaceship. They spent weeks constructing the perfect ship for her voyage. Claude helped make the engines, and Cassie even made her a list of all the disease causing things she should avoid. The ship was finally done, it was large and silver and sparkled so brightly that no one could ever miss it. Coco was getting ready to board the ship on her long journey to find out what’s in space, but Cody ran up before she left. “Wait! It needs one last thing!” Cody yelled as he caught up to Coco. Cody pulled out a paint bucket and brush and in large blue lettering wrote ‘The Cobalt Cruiser’. And with that Coco said goodbye to her friends and set off for space.

Once Coco was in space she was surrounded by a field of stars. Off in the distance she saw what looked to be a field of shooting stars. Coco got closer but once she got close enough to see what was really going on it was too late –  they were asteroids! Coco swerved left and right, tugging her spaceship the best she could through the crowd of asteroids. She had some close calls, but luckily she was able to get away without any damage to the Cobalt Cruiser. After Coco tumbled out of the asteroids she was met with what looked like a small blue meteorite.

A giant shadowy figure emerged from a glowing crack in the meteorite. Slowly, Coco looked up, trembling with fear for her life. The figure started to rise from the ground, pulling himself up when all the sudden he screamed. Coco backed away carefully, she had only heard stories about creatures like this before. She knew what would happen next… “uuuggghhh” groaned the menacing figure as he shook and started to move his hand behind him. Coco couldn’t help but to just stare, paralyzed but remembering every detail she heard about space goblins when she was little. Space goblins are rare, but were known for devouring small atoms who wandered too far off, who were too rowdy and caused too much trouble. Before she could think about what to do next the goblin faced her directly.

“Come here!” yelled the goblin, “It’s urgent! I pulled my back and I need some help standing up.”

Coco’s fear quickly went away when she realized this space goblin was just a dad. He stood only a few feet above her, one hand on his hip, the other holding a cup of coffee. “Well don’t just stand there, I said I needed help” repeated the goblin. Coco went to help him straighten his back, being careful not to spill his coffee. “My bad, I thought you were one of my own… you know you look awfully like the space cobalts, where did you say you were from?”

Coco went on to explain her epic space mission and how she was trying to find her place in the world, and that’s when the space goblin revealed he was actually the father of all of the space cobalt atoms and she looked identical to them. He promised he’d bring her to their home meteorite so she could meet them as long as she agreed to visit them. Coco promised to visit, and they flew over to the meteorite in her spaceship.

Carefully she approached the meteorite and was met with a wonderful surprise. It was full of the fellow cobalt atoms! They were all playing together and were very excited to see another atom like them.  At once Coco realized this is why she wanted to go to space, that space wasn’t a strange interest for her to have, it was part of who she was. Coco was delighted and raced back home to tell her friends about her discovery. And ever since then Coco knew what she wanted to be and spent every day after that exploring the wondrous world of space exploration and visiting the  space goblin dad and his cobalt kids.

Fun Facts:

• Cobalt is named after goblins!
• Cobalt glass was found in the tomb of Ting Tutankhamen, who ruled from 1361-1352 BC
• Cobalt is highly magnetic and forms alloys with other metals that can withstand high temperatures.