My First Journey Into Space

Write a space adventure story that features a visit to an alien marketplace.

My First Journey Into Space

The year is 3020 and I am writing this log to record my first journey into space. I had applied for this trip over the past few years but I had been knocked back. I was turned down by the selection board because I was deemed too valuable at Mission Control because of my technical expertise. I was one of the team of flight dynamics officers who communicated with the astronauts and for too long I checked their coordinates, planned their manoeuvres and plotted the trajectories of their flights, dealt with the emergencies, put them back on track and wished it was the other way round. Who remembers the team on the ground? Who acknowledges them?

The first time I saw a clip of John F. Kennedy’s speech which he delivered at Rice University, Houston, I was mesmerised. He said, ‘We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard’. And of course, I was inspired by Neil Armstrong’s iconic words when he stepped on the moon, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”.

I was inspired by and I became obsessed with space travel and I could not envision a career outside NASA. Luckily I was offered a post at Mission Control because of my outstanding qualifications in physics, mathematics and computer science. As well as that I was able to convince the panel that I had highly evolved critical thinking skills and the ability to work in stressful situations. You need to be able to keep your cool if there is a hitch in take-off and re-entering the earth’s orbit, not to mention the many complications which can emerge during the trip.

I bided my time and at last my application to become a member of the flight team was accepted. I was not actually being taken on as an astronaut but as a flight dynamic officer who would be part of the mission in space rather than at mission control. This was a new post and it was created because this mission was going further into space and it would be a longer trip and it was deemed prudent to have a technical expert on board. I was excited about the upcoming trip. We were heading to Enceladus, Saturn’s moon. We already had a station there and the brief of our mission was to get an update on the progress of the mining project that had begun a few years ago. NASA’s scientists were optimistic that Enceladus would yield a rich quantity of quartz, opal, topaz and many precious gems. However, the station had seemed to be encountering some kind of problems in rolling out the project and to date had been reluctant to communicate what exactly these difficulties were and how they were being resolved. And nothing had been heard from the station in six months. Some people speculated that the crew had gone native just like the Kurtz character in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, who amasses huge quantities of ivory and sets himself up as a God. Others speculated that the crew had some kind of breakdown like the other Kurtz in the movie Apocalypse Now. Was Enceladus the ‘heart of darkness’?

I was put through a tough training regime and I was glad I had kept very fit for it was a gruelling schedule. At last we were strapped into the capsule and I felt quite emotional when we were blasted into space. It was a bit like a rocket going off at Halloween, only on a larger scale. The countdown, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and the magic words, ‘lift off’ felt like a blessing to guide us on our skyward journey.

Enceladus is around 746 miles away from earth and we would have to stop at a few space stations on the way in order to refuel and to pick up supplies. The journey used to take two years but now owing to advanced technology we would be there in six months. During the trip, we played movies, video games, read books (yes, we still have books) and taking photographs. At last I was able to get great shots of Saturn and I tweeted them to earth. I was never going to be the first man on the moon like Neil Armstrong but I would be the first man to have these amazing shots and I looked forward to my tweets being retweeted. People on earth would know the name Ben Carpenter and I would be a celebrity.

There were three members, in the team. Our Captain was Dave Rice and the two astronauts were Mia Scott and Mike Chavez. We all got to know each really, because of the confinement and the length of the journey.

When we arrived on Enceladus, our Captain, said:

“Okay team, we will head to the station right away. You will have the rest of the evening to explore the base but I want to meet with the base crew first.” When we got to the Base we were surprised to see that it seemed to be in darkness. As we crept closer, we saw that it had been all boarded up.

The Captain seemed worried. He said we would have to find out what happened and he added, “We needed think the worst, but clearly something strange is going on. I want a volunteer to come with me to find out what is going on.” I volunteered, even though I was fearful.

As we crept around the planet, we saw lights and a lot of people who seemed to be attending some sort of outdoor market. We were surprised to see that there were stalls which seemed to be stocked with weapons, vehicle parts, hyper drives and turbine engines. But that wasn’t the biggest surprise. At first we thought the traders and buyers were humans but as we crept closer, we realised that they were some kind of aliens. I had read about the prospect of alien forms in other planets but I never really believed it was actually possible. Now, I was confronted by their actual existence. It was like a scene from the Star Wars movie, The Phantom Menace, and the traders reminded me of Watto, the junk dealer from Mos Espa. I was half expecting to see the film director, George Lucas asking for a re-take of the scene.

The Captain said, “Can you believe it? Aliens and an alien market place. I think we should get back to the craft and get out of here as quickly as possible before we are detected.”

So this ends my log of my first journey into space. I was glad to be heading back to earth and of course I would not be in any hurry to return to Enceladus.