The Legendaries

an emotional story themed in space

The Legendaries   

“Clear for launch!” The spacecraft blazing with excitement, the engine roaring with the black smoke and fumes pouring from its exhaust. The four audacious adventurers aboard, Preston Cunningham, Soars East, William Girdwood and Creek Greggson. These four were nicknamed the “Legendary Band”, with their high spirited souls and success on the most critical missions. But this time, after twenty three years, something is about to change. Allot. A catastrophe that would tear these four apart, something that will end some of their lives. And then The Shuttle shot through with deadly speed, aimed at ruthless universe.

“William, increase the velocity of the shuttle, please.”

Soars, the commander of the shuttle wandered aimlessly in the shuttle, addressing imperative commands and checking over the progress of their mission. William was second in command, following every word his commander let out his mouth.

“Preston, check the fuel for the capsule, that thing is more valuable than our lives.”

Preston was a very quiet man, a rookie to the Legendaries. He was quite stubborn at times to everyone excluding the commander. William was highly fond of him, the two becoming excellent acquaintances. William, on the other hand much rather preferred to be ‘friends.’ The intelligent Creek received no command, thus toying with the low gravity in the packed shuttle. Creek was autistic, for he was incredibly hard to communicate with. The only people Creek really talked with was Soars and his children, who were three thousand miles away from him. The spacecraft sped at over 4000 miles per hour, a speed no man can live without the proper protection. The shuttle was sixteen layers of steel, with complex compartments and engineering all hidden in a snow white layer of paint. USA - SHUTTLE 97 was printed in bold red across the frame. This tin can was used over three hundred times, with millions of tax dollars to repair and add renovation. It now contains 10 rooms, four sleep quarters, two exercise gyms, one large control room, observatory and a critical fuel check compartment. Food aboard isn’t what mom would cook for you. Freeze dried spinach and eggplant, recycled urine as water and with dried fruit. The mission was not one somebody would want to volunteer for-the mission was to rescue Crew. 41, at bay on planet KR21, a recently discovered moon like planet. This was not the part to fret, the part to fear are huge asteroid belts, and possible paths with black holes.

Black holes, a dark wonder of nature. Pulling everything within its view, no soul or object can escape its iron grasp. Nobody has ever experienced one in action, but isn’t daft enough to think these are a hoax. Three years ago a scientist picked up unknown signals, which suddenly shut down his systems. This was the year Black holes were believed to exist, making people believe that the system failure was caused by the extreme forces of gravity triggered by the Black hole. Asteroid belts are a safety hazard, a possible threat to the severe damage of the space module. Numerous shuttles have been teared apart and punctured causing fateful deaths to the people inside. “Commander, we have picked up some unusual signals on our radar, it’s malfunctioning.”

Captain Soars looked at William, who gave the comment. He pushed him aside and took a look at the radar himself. “It’s most likely broke, the Black hole Path is another seventeen thousand miles away from where we are. Creek! Get to it!” Creek grabbed a heavy, large toolbox and silently made his way to the radar. While he worked on its fixing, the rest of the crew went to the gym for daily basis of exercise. Without it, back on Earth would be impossible to move around on legs. Lack of gravity can also cause posture problems, including keeping a straight back. Creek showed up in the gym an hour later, joining his crew on exercise routines. “Done early, Greggson?” The captain addressed, with an emotionless look on his face. “Y-yes, sir, the radar is working perfectly fine.”

“Excellent, continue with your exercise.” Creek instead turned away and headed for the sleep quarters. He thought of his family and how much they meant to him. He, and the rest of the crew knew not all of them would make it back and see their families.  The next morning William and the captain disappeared into the captain's sleep quarters for a meeting. Preston and Creek ate their breakfast without fuss. “Pre-preston, do you think I’ll make it b-back to see my expression painted across his face. ‘I don’t know, lad, I hope so.” Creek went to the observatory room without an answer.

Suddenly, William and the captain came out from their meeting. “Friends, three days ago I received a message from the Ground CONTROL centre, they had given us a choice whether to abort the mission and send another crew up or for us to continue. I have given thought and agreed to continue. We cannot risk their lives and retreat like cowards, it would only make sense for us to rescue them and go back to Earth to see our beloved ones.” The rest of the crew were boosted with a new feeling, a feeling of hope that they will survive the Black hole belt. “Sir! Heading into asteroid belt!” Creek burst out from the observatory room, almost doing a flip in the air. “Preston! Get to the control room and steer around this thing!” Preston swam through the air and into the control room. A loud ‘BAM’ knocked everybody over. “ This is not good, not good at ALL!” The captain addressed Creek to get his gear and check for damage outside of the ship. “Cap’n, Greggson can die out there!” William knew Creek wasn’t going to come back inside once more. William pushed Creek aside, ignored the captain’s remarks and got to the equipment station. He put on his heavy suit and helmet, attached his oxygen tank and pulled open the latch to the exit vault. He then attached the cord to his belt, took a nervous breath and stepped into darkness lit with stars. William swam to the damaged spot of the module. Nothing was serious. Relief. Maybe he would make it back to see his children on Earth. “Captain, damage is not critical, the shuttle is fine.” The captain answered him though his microphone. “Very well William, report back inside.” As William began to return to the vault, a huge piece of space debris rocketed towards him. He tried to dodge it, but it smacked him directly and snapped him off from his cord. “William, are you alright?” No answer. William was dead. Gentle, friendly William who was willing to risk his life for another. Now he was gone. His body already floating away into the emptiness of space, dragging the broken cord with him. At least he won't live to feel the wrath of the Black hole. The rest of the crew could not find time for griefing, so they each said a prayer for William and continued with the rest of their lives. The atmosphere in the spacecraft was unsettling, a mix between grief from the loss of a friend and the lost of hope of survival. How would William’s family reactions be? “Where's daddy?” “Daddy, my angels, daddy is watching over you now, from far, far above.”

Four months later the spacecraft was nearing the planet with the marooned crew. And also the Black hole belt. The crew was researching large scales maps on the paths towards planet KR21 to prevent running head-first into a monster. “Here, Preston and Mr. Greggson, is one of the paths towards KR21. This path is likely to include more space debris, to heavily damage or even perish us and the ship. This path here, 300 light years from that one is a path that is unknown, so I do not have a cue on its danger or safety. The other path, the last one is the one we should fear. The Black hole belt.” The captain then held a vote to go through the middle path. The crew voted calmly-’yes.’ One month later they reached the path. The shuttle boosted velocity and entered the path. The path was such as its own little universe, with darkness and small, unknown stars and planets. This way seemed like the best choice. From the distance a blinding light lit up the tiny universe. ‘What the heck was that?” “A supernova. That things going to become a Black hole, we gotta speed things up” They had no choice but to continue, and hope they will not near the horizon of the hole. KR21 was close enough now to land on, for captain Soars landed the capsule gently, a task needed of six years of learning. Preston stayed aboard whilst Soars and Creek dressed in pressure suits and helmets equipped with a 3 hour oxygen tank. The mission was at its hardest. They had 2 hours to find the other crew, and another half hour to return to the capsule. This was just part of it. The Black hole was growing. If they are twenty minutes late, the Black hole will cause their gruesome fates to occur. The 2 stepped out of the capsule, and attached five hundred metre long cords, then stepped off for the search. KR21 was moonlike, with city-sized craters and grey and brown sand. It took only an hour to find the threatened crew. Except they were all dead. The captain and Creek stared down at the corpses. Disappointment met them. All this way for nothing. Creek breathed heavily and thought how they came this way for nothing. They came this way to rescue people who no longer existed. This seemed like a joke. William was dead, and he thought what he did was beneficial. He was wrong. “Preston, mission failure.” Preston didn’t need further explanation for what had happened. “CAPTAIN, THE BLACK HOLE HAS RESIZED! IT’S MASSIVE!” The captain looked behind his shoulder and saw an oversized, purple and black spinning object. The thing was pulling other planets in with its gravity, as if it were a straw pulling liquid from a glass. “CREEK, RUN BACK TO THE SHUTTLE!” Creek took off and leapt back to the capsule, and got in. Captain Soars knew this would be the end of his career, and his life, if he didn’t make it back in time. There was approximately 10 minutes left before the Black hole was large enough to devour planet-KR21. He space walked to the capsule. “Twenty metres to the capsule”, he thought silently. Ten. Five. Last jump. As he was about to meet the ground, he landed into a deep, large crater. It was impossible to escape this crater. It was fifteen metres deep.A familiar voice came on the captain’s microphone. “Captain, stay put, we are going to get the cable to get you out.” “No, Preston, there’s not much time. I have had my share of success, it’s now your turn to have a slice of the pie.” The crew looked down at their leader, and saluted him. Captain Soars returned the action and closed his eyes. “Tell my family, tell them I didn’t make it. Nothing but that.”

“I-I understand captain, may the Lord reward you greatly for your bravery.” The capsule took off, and the last sight Creek and Preston saw of captain Soars was him disintegrating and taken in with the planet by the Black hole. KR21 was like melting ice-cream, being sucked in by the Black hole, with one edge being pulled in, slowly dwarfing the planet. The sand sped towards it from the hole’s gravitational force, and the craters cracking and impossibly stretched. Everything then slowed down, as if time was also being devoured. It slowed so much eventually the actions of the Black hole froze in time. “Creek, we are going to perish also if you this machine doesn’t go faster!” Creek increased the speed to the max and headed out of the path. Two years later the shuttle returned to its homeland battered and bruised. As people around the globe waited for the Legendaries to come out in full uniform, a proud look on their faces, the remaining crew put brakes to the shuttle and stepped out, weary and crestfallen. This image sent shock to the whole world, with only two members of the crew stepping out from the shuttle with depressed looking faces. The next day news reporters and camera crews swarmed NASA, demanding information on the mission. Preston had died the following day, from an unknown sickness and mostly depression. Creek once again saw his family, his glowing children and wife. He embraced them warmly and told his children of the adventures. He did not tell them of the deaths of his crew members, or the Black hole. He would more than love to forget these horrors and continue with his life. Three years later when NASA offered him to take the position as captain, he refused. All he wanted was to live a normal life, and live to see his grandchildren. He did not want to remember anything, anything about his days as an astronaut.

Author's Note

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