Giant leap
4560 Words
“So we should be there in about eight days,” John made some calculations.
“Wait eight days, what?” Simon didn`t like the sound of that.
“Yeah well I`ve got to go and stretch after those eight hours, Peter you have the com,” said Benedict as he yawned and left the bridge.
“Uh…same as well,” John left as well.
“Simon prepare us something good for dinner or breakfast I`m not sure what time of day it is.”
“Sure thing captain,” replied Simon. Dave was murmuring some words whilst walking through the white well polished and well-lit corridors of the ship as he made some calculations in his head.
“Hey dude I crunched the numbers, I think we can make this thing go faster something like an overclock,” he walked inside Zack`s office or workspace if you prefer as Zack only looked at him and nodded his head which he seemed to agree.
“Yeah but we should ask Houston first, but look at it it`s just beautiful,” the core indeed was terrific it was a glowing green ball that was floating inside of a chamber that was made out of lead.
A couple of hours later in Benedict`s room, there was a loud bang as his forehead turned red.
“Oh my, I'm so sorry,” Raven apologized right away as she was checking his health when he all of a sudden straightened up and hit his head on the device Raven was holding.
“Okay its fine don`t worry about it,” he put on his glasses.
“I`m sorry but I have to check your health status,” she kept scanning him.
“So anything new?” asked Benedict immediately after he arrived at the bridge.
“Yes me and Zack… we overclocked the core,” Dave spun the chair toward Benedict.
“Meaning?” Benedict was confused.
“Meaning that instead of eight we will travel four days,” explained Viktor.
“Since we traveled for twenty-four hours we have three days left,” added Sarah.
“Oh and I guess we have to apologize that we didn`t go through you on this, but we thought that if they allow us from Houston it would be enough,” Dave sort of apologized to him.
“No, but wouldn`t that overheat the core?”
“Khan said it`s fine so…” answered Zack over the radio.
“It`s all right I was sleeping anyways, besides not every decision has to involve me,” said Benedict.
“You mean sort of life and death decision?” Peter asked.
“Let`s just hope that never happens, but yes something like that and I want you to remember this if you think you are making the right decision, then you don`t have to go through me,” said Benedict as everybody present on the bridge listened to him carefully and just nodded. “Captain I`ve prepared your favorite steak with French fries,” Simon called out to everybody in the kitchen to eat.
“f**k yeah! alright everybody in the kitchen,” Benedict was happy to hear that the first meal on a space ship would be his favorite one.
The sight was beautiful all of them young sitting and eating and laughing, but little do they know in two days that was all going to change.
Two days later.
“We are near to the first planet,” announced John.
“All right maintain escape velocity so we don`t get pulled by its gravity,” ordered Benedict, Star Fury was getting closer to the planet which looked just as same from the satellite images. Benedict immediately made the plan in his head as to how they are going to approach this and it was as follows: Him, Zack, and Sarah would go down on the planet with one shuttle and Viktor, Simon and Raven would go in another shuttle.
“Captain is there a reason why all of us don`t go down?” asked Peter.
“There is, especially you, I need you to stay here act as a captain, after all, there`s a reason you are the first officer,” said Benedict. “And if something is to happen to us…”
“Don`t say that,” Peter interrupted him.
“If something is to happen to us then I would be dragging you all with me,” he finished.
“I understand,” said Peter and sat down on the captain’s chair, he is now the one that gives orders whilst the captain is gone.
After five minutes the shuttle`s landed on the surface as the doors opened releasing steam, Benedict was the first one to step out.
“All right this is a small step for a man, but a giant leap for humanity, did I get that right?” he laughed as Dave confirmed.
“Armstrong hates you now,” laughed John. As soon as he stepped out Zack started scanning around when he surprisingly removed his visor.
“It`s oxygen,” he assured the rest as they removed their visors as well. The desert was looking like a normal desert with the plains of brown sand and the horizons full with nothing more but more desert it felt like they never left Earth as if they were on Sahara instead now there was an oasis as Simon looked left and right and strayed away from the others.
“Hey guys I found some spices here!!!” he yelled as Raven walked toward him.
“We are standing on fertile land,” explained Zack.
“Yeah so..?” asked Sarah.
“We are standing on Earth two-point o,” Zack was happy to discover that there are more planets like Earth. They unloaded the rover from one of the shuttles by orders of Khan so they could analyze the planet from back home and get more thorough readings of the planet as they placed it on the surface and Zack activated it so it started digging to study the composition.
“It's one hundred percent organic perhaps we can eat it,” said Raven as she was scanning the spices Simon found.
“Guys?” said Sarah.
“Yeah?” asked Viktor.
“Do sand deserts have mountains?” she asked as she was staring at a big dark brownish wall that seemed to be moving toward them.
“No Sarah that`s ridiculo…” said Benedict as he looked at the direction Sarah was looking into.
“What the f**k is that? DAVE!?” panicked Zack.
“Ah…guys you are going to have to get out of there ASAP!!!” Dave yelled at them over the radio, as everybody was confused and looked at each other with fear in their eyes. “It`s a sandstorm or something,” he continued, but nobody took him seriously until John confirmed.
The sandstorm got to them fast but they managed to cover their faces with anything they were able to find because the visors cracked from the small pebbles and the glass shards flew directly into their faces that inflicted them with small wounds. They managed to get through and got to the shuttle`s but the sandstorm`s strong wind managed to push the first shuttle on the ground, luckily the second shuttle lifted off.
“Captain we can come back to you,” said Viktor.
“Negative!!! Get out of here!!!” Benedict refused the helping hand Viktor offered to him he just could not bring himself to jeopardize anyone. After ten minutes the storm settled and the three of them left the inverted shuttle, for a miracle only Sarah was upset whilst Benedict and Zack used the moment to light a cigarette or two.
“Guess that explains why life hasn`t developed here,” said Zack as he moved around the damaged shuttle.
“What are we going to do now!!?” ”We need to get out of here!!!” Sarah was stressed.
“They will come and get us,” Benedict tried to comfort Sarah.
“But…” she didn`t finish her sentence.
“Just please let me finish my cigarette in peace, thank you,” he inhaled from the cigarette and sat down on the sand as he admired the setting sun and perhaps after everything that`s been going on, from school and problems at home he finally found peace it felt like he could stay here forever and leave everything behind. “It`s a bad idea,” he thought to himself. “There are spices, the ground is fertile, I could grow something, build a shelter,” he already made the plans, but reality struck him immediately as he threw the cigarette butt on the ground and the ground itself started shaking and tearing apart.
“What the f**k!?” Sarah panicked as all of them stood up.
“Nobody move!” yelled Zack as they froze where they were standing, he pulled out a device from his bosom and activated it, he pointed it to the ground and starred at the small screen of the device. “Is the rover still digging?” he asked.
“Yes,” Benedict turned toward it.
“Okay…” he gulped down. “Slowly we need to shut it off,” he looked at them. “Sarah you seem light enough to move up to it and turn it off,” he explained.
“Zack what the f**k is going on?” she was losing her patience.
“We landed on a f*****g hole underground and us coming here made things worse,” he explained.
“You mean a shuttle can`t land and get us out of here?” asked Benedict.
“If we threw a feather everything could to hell no to mention adding another person or a shuttle.”
“What do we do then?” Benedict asked again.
“Sarah slowly shut down the rover…” she started moving toward it as Zack explained to her what she has to do and eventually they shut the drill.
“Okay,” Zack took a step forward and it seemed the planet wasn`t about to collapse on them.
“Are we good?”
“Not yet, they still can`t land to get us.”
“So what do we do?” asked Sarah.
“See that ledge over there?” he pointed toward a canyon that was pretty wide and had an upward ledge on the cliff so they could use it as a ramp.
“It seems that on the other side of that the ground is firm,” as he looked at the rover.
“You don`t seriously…” Benedict looked at him.
“A giant leap,” Zack looked at him as he smiled.
“f**k me!” Benedict just walked away toward the shuttle.
“Can`t they just throw us ropes from the ship and lift us?” asked Sarah.
“Can`t risk it, Star Fury would have to get closer to the surface and can`t risk those vibrations from the ship.”
“f**k me,” Benedict repeated as he looked at Zack. “Could this thing even go that fast?” he looked at the rover.
“Guess not, but something else could,” he looked at the thrusters from the shuttle.
“So guys just to pitch in here,” Peter talked to them through the radio. “We are hearing your conversation and up here we are like Damn they should do Evel Knievel the s**t out of that canyon,” said Peter as everybody yelled in the background.
“Not helping!” Sarah was annoyed.
“All right then,” Benedict walked toward the shuttle and pulled out the tool-box as Zack helped him with removing the thrusters from the shuttle whilst Sarah siphoned the fuel from the shuttle into a canister that they will then transfer to the rover.
After a couple of hours, they were done with connecting the thrusters to the rover.
“Just to clarify,” Zack looked at them. “The engine from the rover isn`t designed for this kind of thing.”
“So what`s gonna happen?” asked Benedict.
“Best case scenario we make the jump without any problems, worst case…” he stopped.
“What?” Benedict placed his hands on his half.
“The engine blows up and we with it too.”
“Oh… no that`s just swell now, isn`t it?” Sarah was getting even more annoyed.
“Do we have any other choice?” asked Benedict.
“Not really, no,” smiled Zack.
“Let`s do it then,” Benedict clapped his hands as Zack took a pen and paper and calculated the projectile motion and what speed they will need to gain to make the jump, whilst the crew from above launched a drone with a camera so they could watch these daredevils make the first stunt on an alien planet, not that they wanted to, but what other choice do they have.
They removed some things from the rover to make it easier and placed some chairs on it as they also strapped themselves and Zack handed the remote to Sarah so that she could control the rover.
“Are you ready?” she asked as Zack and Benedict lifted their thumbs, Sarah started the engine and as expected, it roared because of the modifications that Zack did to it.
“Go! Go! Go!” he gave the signal as Sarah pressed the button on the remote and the rover picked up speed instantly pushing them back on their chairs. The ground shook and tore itself apart as the rover was cutting through it. Benedict looked behind and saw how everything behind them was collapsing underground like a sinkhole. They raced with nature as Zack activated one of the thrusters and the rover sped up even more.
“Yeaaaaah!!!” he screamed as he couldn`t close his mouth because his lips were torn apart by the wind resistance.
“ZACK!” yelled Benedict.
“WHAT!?”
“THE ENGINE IS ON FIRE!” he panicked.
“WHAT!?”
“THE ENGINE IS ON FIRE…”
“OH s**t…” Zack detached himself from the seat belts and together with Benedict removed the first thruster because it was already empty.
“We need to jump faster before it blows up!” warned Sarah as Zack activated the second thruster and the rover sped up again as a big flame erupted from the engine.
“Woah!” screamed Benedict, as the rover jumped from the ledge and flew in the air as the ground behind them was swallowed underground, and the trail of fire from the engine followed behind them. The crew on the ship watched excitedly as they had their hands stroking their foreheads and their eyes and mouths wide opened with disbelief as the rover was halfway across the canyon.
The rover touched the ground on the other side of the canyon as the three of them unbuckled themselves and jumped from the rover as they rolled on the ground. The rover kept going with the speed it still had but then it blew up as it flew in the air and fell again rolling on the ground completely in flames.
“YEAAAH!!!” at the Star Fury everybody screamed and threw whatever they had in their hands it was a real mess high-fiving and hugging as if they just graduated.
“FUUUCK!” screamed Sarah, she couldn`t believe they barely made it.
“f**k yeah, am I right!?” Zack looked at Benedict as he had his hand in the air waiting for a high five.
“Let`s just get off this stupid planet,” Benedict walked past him and completely ignored him. Viktor piloted a shuttle and got down to the planet as he picked them up, they silently walked into the shuttle and strapped themselves as they remained quiet to the Star Fury.
When they got to the ship Alexander and Raven instantly ran to check for their health status.
“Shouldn`t we be in quarantine or something?” asked Benedict.
“That won`t be necessary we tested our self`s there are no bacteria,” answered Raven.
“So you got stuck on a planet what was it like?” Alexander was teasing with them.
“Trust me you don`t want to know,” replied Zack. Benedict was tired so much so that he launched himself on the chair.
“Alright warp us to the next planet” he ordered.
“Yes captain,” John pushed the lever as Benedict stood up and contacted Khan telling him that the first part was successful and that a planet was waiting for the human race.
“They found a planet,” Khan told Adam.
“Good, so then we can proceed with the plans?” he asked.
“What about the governors?” asked Khan as he paced around his office and sat down on the chair.
“Screw them…” Adam leaned on the table.
“We could get in serious trouble, not only we will lose our jobs but they might as well use as, as lab rats,” warned Khan.
“We cannot prolong this, that disease is not prolonging it, we need to get off this planet,” Adam pointed upward to the sky. “First we save the valuable contributes to this civilization then we save who we can, we must build as many ships as possible.”
“And do you think IASA`s budget just grows on trees?”
“I will pitch in, I have some money from the Nobel prize.”
“It`s not enough.”
“What if we go viral? First, tell the rich so they can help us?”
“No, they will just be focused to save their own lives.”
“So good… It would be better than saving nobody, besides the news from the doctors are not good, they are nowhere near finding a cure, this bloody thing is like AIDS it just gets inside your DNA and only mutates other cells except it kills faster than AIDS,” Adam explained to Khan.
“So it`s that scary?”
“Yes,” Adam answered dramaz*tically. “People, even whole families are beginning to disappear.”
“There`s this guy aboard the Star Fury… Simon, his girlfriend whom he loved very much was taken by the plague, even her family, she just disappeared,” said Khan.
“How do you know?” asked Adam.
“I`ve looked into the files thoroughly, made me realize how bad it is, you know what? Why don`t we wait for them to return and we will make a decision afterward.”
“Okay, just tell them to hurry up, because whatever this thing is… it`s not merciful,” Adam walked out of the office.
Two days later the atmosphere in the ship was quiet as the ship which moved through the vortex made the calming alienish sounds.
“So can I get the spices?” Simon leaned on the open door frame and crossed his arms as he threw a flirty glance at Raven who was working in the laboratory of the ship.
“No,” replied Raven shortly.
“Wait…no? Why?” Simon was disappointed.
“I`m not finished testing on them yet, so if you could get Alexander from the gym to help me this could go faster,” she explained.
“Okay… and then, will I get them?” he asked again.
“No,” Raven surprised him.
“Okay at this point you are just using me to do your work,” laughed Simon.
“I am not,” said Raven as she turned toward Simon. “I just told you I did all kinds of experiments on them, and obviously, I will not allow you to put them in our food.”
“I… forgot about that,” Simon gazed at the roof being all confused.
“Fine I`ll just ask Benedict to return us to the planet and grab some more, after all, he will listen to me I`m his best friend,” said Simon as he walked out of the laboratory.
“Simon I just heard all of that and we will not be returning to the planet,” said Benedict over the radio. “And Raven you need to turn off the radio, whenever you are not using it,” Benedict told her.
“Oh…sorry that`s what the green light was all this time,” she smiled as she turned off the radio.
“Cheers mate” Dave grabbed a sandwich which Simon made for him. “I mean come on what`s the big gig here?” Dave asked him.
“What do you mean?” Simon had no idea what he was talking about.
“How do you make these sandwiches so good?” he asked him.
“Oh…hahaha,” Simon looked at Dave. “Come closer I`ll tell you,” Dave got close to Simon. “If you can throw a good word for me to Benedict to grab more of those spices, I`ll tell you,” Simon whispered to him.
“Oh…you cheeky bastard,” laughed Dave. “Alright I`ll see what I can do,” he walked out of the kitchen whilst biting off from the sandwich.
“Guys you have to try this sandwich that Simon made,” said Dave as he walked on the bridge.
“Can it Dave, I know he is manipulating you so I will take him back to the planet,” said Benedict who was sitting on the chair.
“It`s true though the sandwiches are good,” said Peter who sat on his desk.
“Well, I guess I`ll go grab one myself,” Benedict stood up.
“By the way…” Peter turned toward Dave. “Your station has been beeping in strange ways,” Peter told him.
“Oh yeah it`s been doing that for a while now,” John also remembered, as Dave rushed to the monitors and dropped the sandwich from his hands.
“What`s wrong?” asked Benedict as Dave`s monitor`s started ticking like crazy now.
“Guys there`s a black hole like right IN FRONT OF US!!!” Peter instantly checked his tablet.
“He is right!!!” as the black hole pulled them instantly. The feeling was as if you shot a bullet and pull it with a strong enough magnet. Alexander who was in the gym saw as all the exercising equipment flew to the right, Dave was pushed into his monitors and Peter was pushed in the opposite side, Benedict flew in front of John`s desk as John went over his desk, The two pilots flew into the big window. Two minutes later Alexander showed up in bruises and blood.
“Okay, what just happened!!!?” he was pissed off as Dave sprang up and held his head which had a big wound on his forehead.
“The uh…black hole must have pulled us out of the vortex,” Benedict tried to explain. “Any damage to the ship?” continued Benedict.
“No this is a strong thing, Zack?” replied Peter.
“Bombs and the core are fine that was a close call though,” reported Zack.
“Wait what do you mean it pulled us?” asked Alexander who was very livid.
“Well, I don`t know either it has hands and just grabbed us or perhaps it`s a big one with a strong enough gravitational pull,” proposed Dave.
“Dave seriously?” Benedict looked at him.
“So is everybody fine?” asked Raven as she entered the bridge.
“I`m a bit dizzy,” Dave was holding his wound.
“Sit down you need stitches,” Raven ordered him.
“Okay, so the kitchen is a mess what happened guys?” Simon`s face was all white probably from the flour.
“Guys we`ve got a bigger problem to worry about right now!” warned Viktor as he pointed to the black hole which was pulling them in certain death. “Oh and Dave I think your theory was right” he added because the black hole was indeed massive the Star Fury was a grain of rice compared to it.
“Turn this ship around come on people!!!, before we get pulled in the event horizon!!” ordered Benedict.
“Thruster`s at full,” reported Viktor.
“Flaps are ready and set,” added Sarah.
“Full speed, come on!!!” yelled Benedict.
“Full speed going up captain,” confirmed John as he managed to get the ship to ninety degrees and then inverted it to the left now that the thrusters faced the black hole.
“We are set to go and rotating,” he pulled the lever but the alienish sounds were nowhere to be heard.
“Where`s the vortex?” asked Simon.
“Why aren`t we moving? Zack?” asked the captain.
“The core is working fine captain,” replied Zack, Peter approached Benedict as he was holding the tablet.
“The pull of the hole is too strong captain, we`re caught by it.”
“What are we going to do?” Benedict panicked.
“f**k I don`t want to turn in a spaghetti,” Simon panicked even more.
“We`ll figure something out,” Peter comforted them.
“Ah… for f**k`s sake, you found two planets and you can`t figure out how to evade a simple black hole!!” Raven yelled at Benedict.
“f**k I just can`t I’m out of ideas,” Benedict rubbed his hands on his face and widened his eyes in disbelief that all of this is happening to them.
“WHAT!!?” Raven and Benedict yelled at the same time.
“Stop arguing and hear me out,” Zack took a short break. “The rockets should create propulsion even though they are shot in space right? Like In Star Trek?”
“Hmm... they should,” replied Benedict he took time to think. “That`s it!!!, Zack you are a f*****g genius!!!” Zack immediately pressed a bunch of buttons on a panel and the ship automatically loaded up the rockets. “All loaded up captain.”
“All right John as soon as Peter detonates those rockets you warp us out of here,” Benedict explained.
“Got it, captain,” replied John.
“We`ve only got one shot at this let`s make it count,” warned Raven.
“NOW!!!” Peter instantly clicked on the tablet, the rockets exploded between the ship and the black hole pushing the ship away from the hole as John immediately pulled the lever as the ship started rotating and the vortex materialized and the alienish sounds started. Until they died out and the vortex closed in front of their eyes.
“Oh…fuck,” gulped Benedict as he turned to the rest of the crew and saw as they held their hands together and closed their eyes awaiting their demise this time Benedict too joined them, blackness… deaf silent blackness, and then whiteness…as white as the eye could handle.
“Oh…what do you know, there is heaven after all,” Simon was happy.
“Simon open your eyes you f*****g i***t,” said Benedict who was staring at the window.
“So they are real,” said Zack as he watched out the window from his office admiring the white hole. Cheers and laughter echoed in the ship Viktor and Simon even cursed on the hole as Raven apologized for yelling at Benedict.
“It`s all right we all panicked, let`s just hope so it never happens again,” he replied.
“Yeah I just could not stand the sight of you panicking, you are a captain swift decisions are expected from you,” Raven advised him as Zack and Alexander entered the bridge. “There`s the legend!!!” yelled Benedict and shook hands with Zack who was still shocked as to what happened to them and starred out of the big window for a while, as Raven saw Alexander all wounded she panicked and yelled at him for not taking care of himself and patched him up as well.
A couple of hours passed and the Star Fury stayed motionless at a reasonable distance because the white hole pushed the ship as far as her range is. “Crew…” Benedict stood on the bridge as everybody was down the stairs where Sarah`s and Viktor`s stations were. “I am sure that you are aware that we have to survey one more planet, however, we don`t…” he stopped and looked at everybody.
“What do you mean?” Sarah asked him.
“I believe that you are shocked to the fact about the black hole and other stuff and it`s understandable that you don`t wish to go further,” explained the captain.
“The white hole was top of the iceberg, I want to see more,” said Zack as he walked up and stood by the captain.
“I did say this is a rare opportunity and bloody well I am not missing it,” said Viktor as he also stood next to Benedict.
“But wait, what about the time, I mean the black hole must off slowed time for us,” said Dave as Benedict did not understand.
“Ah…I wouldn`t worry about it too much,” said Simon who literally did not understand the seriousness of the situation.
“I was hesitant at first about all of this, but with and little work and a bit of luck we can prevail,” encouraged Peter.
“What the hell,” Sarah also stood close to Benedict and the others.
“Next stop the second planet… or bust,” announced John as he told the pilots to commandeer the ship toward the second planet.
- Writer
