Colonists-362 (part-2)

I wake up in the middle of my sleep.

“Wallace, where are you off to?” Dad questions half-eyed.

“Nowhere, dad,” I say as I excuse myself to the bathroom.

I look out of the bathroom window. Right there stands hawking on the red Martian sand ready to fly tomorrow in the competition. I have to; I just have to test it myself!

I consider myself a curious individual. Maybe I am using curiosity in the wrong way, I need certainty. I need the certainty that hawking would be able to attain light speed. 

It was completely dark inside our pod house. I sneak around to get the oxygen cylinders.

The cylinders tinker. I gaze aside to see dad, and he is fast asleep.

Phew, so dad isn’t going to wake up.

I wear my pressure suit and boots with the oxygen cylinder on my back.

My body is chilled even though the suit is heating me. I walk up to hawking which stands proudly with other contestants.

No one is around. Since the constitution is made, crime has been absent. Everyone is scared that they will be accused if they get out at night.

I designed Hawking to look like a bee, just a bee enhanced to the size of a department store, the ones they have on Earth.

Hawking opens with a whirring sound, the staircase comes out and I step inside my invention. 

I press the close button and sit down inside the clumsy deck. It is supposed to be a trial spaceship, so there are only three other chairs.

Okay, let’s do it!

The buttons are pushed in and it takes off as the gases are released producing a loud sound.

The lights of the pods start to come on. People come out of their houses and point towards Hawking.

This outcome isn't anticipated, it will surely disqualify me. Sigh. . .

Ah, and this also adds to my record. Good thing I am still under eighteen!

Now, that I am in it, let's travel somewhere.

I have always wanted to go to Jupiter, you see, massive structures are arousing. Plus, Jupiter is considered to be suspicious.

“Where do you want to head to, Wallace?” The built-in AI speaks up.

“Jupiter, it is.”

Hawking escapes Mars at a rapid speed. The seat belt keeps me down from flying. The asteroid belt is there in about 5 seconds. Wow, so Hawking is reaching faster-than-light speeds. What’s the point though? the disappointment comes.

Although, of course, children will study me as the man who created light speed, I think as I squeal in delight.

“Hawking, switch to manual drive,” I order the AI. The space around is so black, the asteroids are however reflecting sun-light, so I manage to pass-through. It is as if I am passing through these crystals embedded in a vacuum. 

I do not have my flying license yet, but I will get my license in a month or so on my eighteenth birthday. Hah, and that’s another violation that adds.

Once I pass the asteroid belt, I again speed up to light speed.

There it is, the largest planet with its red and white belts and zones. It is reflecting almost all the sunlight which falls upon it. I have broken a lot of rules today, but what matters more is that I have broken records today. I have traveled from Mars to Jupiter in 25 minutes. 

As soon as I reach the exosphere of Jupiter, Hawking is sucked in and I start to lose control. 

The thing they teach you most in school is to keep calm in space. 

“Hawking, please contact Mars-communicate 362.”

“Contact failed.” The robotic voice almost paralyzes me.

“Try the seven Earth-communicate stations!”

“Signal not found.” Yup, so that’s how God wants me to die, in the thick atmosphere of Jupiter, I will be buried forever.

“Hawking, please try again, or try to reach moon-base.” Great, so I will now seek help from our rival colonists.

“Signal not found. Wallace, we lost our engine-four!” the AI says in a high-pitch robotic voice.

So I have to save myself now, I try to gain control of Hawking as it is getting sucked in, the thick atmosphere slows down the process. “Keep sending signals!” 

“Wallace, we are about to reach the stratosphere.”

“Open parachutes,” I growl. The spaceship takes a huge jerk backward as the parachutes open. Now I will go down towards death even more slowly. The signals I sent still wouldn’t have reached them. 

This evil Jupiter doesn’t stop there though. “Wallace, we are getting out of electricity.”

“Oh, man! Detect lightning storms in a distance.”

“Lightning detected in 500 meters to left.”

I turn left; the parachutes are only slowing me down. There, I see the hundred-times-more-massive-than-Earth storm than Earth. The red storm with its lighting is a picture I will never forget. It is as if the clouds are partying like college students, the wild ones. The lighting is producing a sound that makes Hawking vibrate and jerk backward.

I will just go at the tip, take out the metallic tail of Hawking, get the electricity and come back. Even though it seems easy in my brain, my heart is thumping! The lighting is shaking off the space-ship due to which the parachutes are demolished and I start sinking again. The space-ship starts getting dim inside. 

I somehow manage to accelerate forward and fix the tail into position. A huge jerk and I almost hit the small computer in front of me, despite the tight seatbelt.

“Congrats Wallace, we acquired a lot of electricity.” Four petawatt the computer screen displays.

“Wow!” I shake my head and gulp, just imagining the awards I will get back on Mars.

I realize I am still sinking in as the Hawking beeps, “Reaching the troposphere.”

The atmosphere thickens even more, and I can see ammonia chloride and ice on the front window hitting Hawking. The pressure almost takes my life out of me. I lower the pressure in my pressure suit and enable the oxygen cylinder on my back. I also turned off the insulator and enabled the conductor. Man! No one said that Jupiter is warm.

I inhale the artificial oxygen from my backpack now as hawking’s power is to be used in acceleration and I even have to use less electricity while doing so! I make Hawking come in an inclined shape, the front now faces the troposphere, I can see a liquid surface a few kilometers down from the back window. I accelerate to light speed and Hawking pierces through this gaseous Jupiter. The front window is all-white for a few seconds as I pass through the zones of Jupiter. The escape velocity is attained in a few microseconds, but the magnetic field still makes it difficult.

I escape this giant and don’t even look back. I am so proud that Hawking was able to withstand such circumstances! 

My almost choked heart comes back to life, I take a rest break near Callisto. I sit at the medical desk and see Callisto through the window. Callisto shines brightly as my heart and body calm down. I inhale and put out my oxygen cylinder. 

“Congrats Wallace, your blood pressure is now lowered down to a hundred and twenty, although, do calm yourself more,” Hawking speaks up.

I just want to sit on this desk which is glued to hawking and not go up to the front deck. 

I go up to the bathroom and vomit in a bag. I have to keep the vomit from flying, so I even have to be cautious in that!

“Wallace, are you okay?” 

“Get me some water.” The robotic hand brings me water. I suck out the water from the small tip of the baby bottle.

I go up to the lockers near the bathroom and take out a laptop. I cautiously bring the laptop to the medical desks as I experience true weightlessness,

I attach the laptop so it doesn’t fly off. I attach myself too.

Once I start writing, I write forever.

When my thoughts are down, I draw a few sketches of Callisto on the laptop, just the way Galileo did. However, I am drawing on the laptop and with a far closer look.

Callisto looks so satisfying in the darkness, shining its gray body and sparking at points. Its imperfections, the craters, the mountains can be seen twinkling from up here. I bend my neck, still staring at Callisto. These experiences surely get you a lot of feelings and thoughts all at once, and usually, these go away when I write which was recommended by my counselor.

So God does not want me to die today. Suddenly, all of the Earthly interviews and prestige seems unimportant. What seems important is that we need to bring humanity to these locations of space, and we should control them. We should live throughout the solar system. And, I just made it easier with my light-speed creation. Ah, so that’s the whole point of it!

Now, what I am saying seems baseless. I think I have calmed down enough.

I head back to the deck and travel slowly through the vastness of space, piercing through the mineral-rich asteroids. There, it is the red ball.

“Hawking, I don’t think I am leaving Mars again,” I say to the AI.

“You wish.”