(by the way, I am Cody, Jimmy’s son and I’m 10)
I plan the day I die
chapter 1
Hi, my name is Tom Smith. I’m 24 years old and an astronaut. I have brown hair and green eyes. It is October 6, 2071. Today is a historic day in the science world. Scientist have just made a spaceship that can go the speed of light. It’s called, a SkyZoomer.
I got the news on my Barrier tablet. A Barrier tablet is technically a chip built into your forearm. Yes, this makes me a little bit Cyborg, but nowadays everyone over the age of 18 has one, so no one is really considered a cyborg. The Barrier tablet is connected to your mind so when you want to activate it, it just activates. Once activated a hologram screen will appear and everything in the hologram screen is like an iPhone.
On my Barrier tablet I went to the news app, like I do every morning, and read an article:
“SkyZoomer”
NASA just finished their newest spacesship and its called a ‘SkyZoomer’. After learning the knowledge of the speed of light they started making this ship 5 years ago. NASA has decided to take this ship on a mission to Sagitarious Ax (SGR Ax). Sagitarius Ax is in the center of the Milky Way galaxy. The mission SGR Ax will be an orbit around it. This is a hypothesis that the orbit for the astronaut will go faster than on Earth, which means the astronaut will time travel. Two astronauts will go on this mission. The list of available astronauts will be ‘Kevin Woodbush. Bill Applestump. Leo Whitesheet. Tom Smith. Bob Sherman. James Wire’ NASA will ask these astronauts in order. The first two to accept will go on the mission to SGR Ax. Lift off will be in October.
Beep..Beep…Beep. I opened my Barrier tablet. It was ‘incoming call’ from NASA. I answered the call. “Hello” I said, and a black haired man with a beard appeared. “Do you want to go on the SkyZoomer mission?” “Of Course!,” I said.
“I’m elated to go on this mission” I said. “You should,” said the man on the Barrier tablet hologram screen. He said, “On October 11, we will review the plans with you and Kevin. You should know that there is a high chance you’ll die. But if you succeed you will be extremely famous”
“What about Bill Applestump and Leo Whitesheet?” I asked. “They declined” said the tablet, “Bill is just recovering from heart surgery and Tom thought it was to big of a risk.” “Ok,” I said, and hung up the hologram screen.
That night I couldn’t sleep. Yes I’m a great astronaut and yes I know how to do all the controls, but the man in the hologram said it was a very dangerous mission. But I haven’t been in a rocket for years! Maybe I have forgot how to deal with major problems that come up?!
The next day I called a taxi and got in. (In the future we have flying cars) I told the driver to take me to NASA headquarters in Washington D.C. It takes five hours to go to Washington D.C. from Seattle where I live. We flew over the Space Needle monument. Nine years ago a flying car flew into the Space Needle and it burned to the ground. We also flew over Century Link field, where the Seahawks won Super Bowl IIIVZ, the most recent Super Bowl. They are still considered the best team in the NFL. The New England Patriots are considered the worst team. Though it’s hard to believe the Seattle Sounders are the second best team in the MLS, behind LA Galaxy. And the Mariners are still the worst team in the MLB.
Soon we got to headquarters. I met the man I saw in the hologram screen yesterday, and beside him was a skinny man with black hair and green eyes. It was Kevin.
“Hello, I’m the guy you talked to yesterday on your hologram screen, my name is Brian” At least that’s what he said but it sounded more like “Hello, My name is Brian with an ‘i’. the guy that’s going to get you killed. Also, am I invited to your funeral. Good Luck!”
“This is Kevin” Brian said, “your partner. Kevin this is Tom. Ok, now lets go look at the ship” They walked down halls and halls and halls and…you get the picture. Then they walked out of a door that led them outside. Then for the first time I saw the first SkyZoomer ever invented. It looked a lot like a plane but it was 90 feet long. It was all black and had “SkyZoomer” imprinted on either side. And it had wings. It probally had something to do with the speed of light. At the exact same time Kevin and I said, “this is Amazing!”
Brian said, “You know the controls. They are very simple. You have an on/off switch and a steering wheel.” I didn’t really know why people thought it was so hard in the early 2000s with all the buttons and switches. Brian said “lift off will be tomorrow at 1330 hours. Remember, you have a 98% chance of dying once you get into orbit. You’ll need to use this timer and stay in orbit for exactly 5 minutes, and then stop orbiting” and handed the timer to Kevin. It was blue and had buttons to set the timer. It was set to 5 minutes.
“When you come back to Earth, you are predicted to be in 2096, 25 years in the future. Are you ready?” Brian asked.
“Yes” I said, and Kevin just nodded his head. “Get a good night’s sleep, you have a big day tomorrow” Brian said. Once in my bed in my hotel I kept thinking about the mission. What if we get lost in space? I kept wondering about it, and soon I drifted off the sleep…
The next morning we got in a SkyZoomer, got strapped in the seat belt and waited for the count down. My copilot was an astronaut named Kevin.
“10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1………………Blast Off!”
Good bye Cruel World. Hello Cruel Space!
chapter 2
Think of getting smashed by a big hammer. Now think of that pain 100 times more painful and you’ll know what it feels like to get launched up in space. Once we got out of the atmosphere I said to Kevin, “are you ready to go the speed of light?” “No!” Kevin said. “Well get ready!” I said as I pushed the button that said “SOL” (speed-of-light). And now it felt like getting smashed by a hammer plus 1000 times!
(…to be continued…)
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