Chapter One: Stories to Tell

Chapter One: Stories to Tell

 

 "Five-hundred years ago, in the year 2250, the ship Advance 1 left Earth in search of a new planet for human inhabitance."

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Our captain, Zeke was standing in front of the IronLock window. More accurately, pacing.

       "It's been 61 days! We were supposed to reach Mercury ages ago! Triangulate our position, Lieutenant!"

        "Our radar shows that we are in........... the same grid square we were in.... three days ago."

     Zeke shook his head, moving his dark hair to reveal bright blue eyes that reminded me of the ocean. "But that's impossible! Check it again Shiloh!"

    Shiloh stared at the screen. He searched with his eyes, one brown, one green,  shaking his head, his blonde hair bouncing off his forehead, while his thin hands scratched at his narrow, pointed nose. 

         "It says the same, Captain."

        "Impossible! Unless...no....it can't be...."

        "What?"

        "The only theory, and I stress it's only a theory, a physical impossibility, it only happens in books, but maybe, we've fallen into a black hole."

        "What if you're just assuming the worst again sir? Remember the day before lift-off?"

        "I know, I thought this mission shouldn't go, just because I broke a mirror, but something about this doesn't feel right."

            I heard a strange noise in the background.

        "Maybe you're both right," I said, breaking into the conversation, trying to appeal to both their arrogant natures. They continued to bicker.

They had been butting heads ever since we left from Shanghai at the new training center. 'Oh, we shouldn't do this, we should do that.' 'No we should do this.' Back and forth, back and forth like a clock pendulum, getting us nowhere, doing nothing important. Not to sound cocky, but Bax and I did everything, even Zeke and Shiloh's jobs occasionally.

    We had only recently begun space travel. We heard that once upon a time, people had been able to visit other planets and people. We all knew, that story was just a tale designed by mothers, to get their children to sleep.

       Shiloh paused in mid-word.  "Do you hear that?"

        Zeke listened, and looked puzzled. "Hear what?"

        I heard it too. "That...whistling?"

        Bax listened, cocking his head to the side. "It sounds like... ."

       Shiloh cut him off. "I know. Who would be whistling that old song?"

        Zeke promptly and as usual, assumed the worst. " Do you think.. that old story could.....be true? Think about it, hypothetically speaking, the last time humans had contact with others in space would have been over two hundred years ago. The astronauts would have known the song."

    The loud speaker crackled to life.

        "Well done, Commander Barber, you figured it out."

    We all looked over at Bax, who was frantically trying to fix it, furiously shaking his head. He slammed down his headphones. We all looked at each other in shock. We had never seen Bax give up when it came to computers. He was THE best, literally. It had been proven time and again.

        "We have you caught in our magnetic pull, eventually you will be forced to dock. What a pity, the first astronauts to make alien contact in over two hundred years, and you will all be forgotten, maybe not right away, but, in time. Some inquisitive soul will ask, 'What happened to the Advance 1?' 'Who?' the others will say. I give you five minutes or less before forced dock. See you soon!"

    The video screen at the back of the room flashed and a huge clock appeared, counting down the seconds until our certain death.

        Zeke was the first to recover from the shock. "Bax, any idea what happened?"

        "They must have hacked our systems, Sir. It's the only way they could have gotten in."

    The back screen flickered and switched to a message that read 'Well done, Bax.', and then resumed its countdown.

        "Sir, " I piped up, twirling the end of my pigtail, "they said they had us in their magnetic pull."

        "Yes, we all know that. Your point is?"

     Sometimes it was hard being the only girl on the crew, and the youngest.

        "Our ship has a magnetic pull too, so if we reverse our pole, we should be able to break the pull, because the pole will be the same as theirs."

        "I see. DO IT!"

    The screen flashed again, but this time came up with a LiveTalk alert. I took the pointer and clicked 'Open'. On screen there appeared an alien. At least it wasn't human.