Living Among the Stars

     “The only reason why I’m using Earth terminology and Earth names in this Short Story is because it’s supposed to be about the Earth, but it’s not about the Earth. That’s why I will be using Earth terminology and Earth names for this Short Story.” SpaceFaction says aloud as he reads it from his laptop.

Living Among the Stars

A Short Story

Written By

SpaceFaction

     An explosion destroys part of a small space shuttle. This is seen by a group of children dressed in spacesuits looking out a window overlooking this space shuttle. One of these kids is Kelly, who is thirteen. “You want us to leave this planet in that,” Kelly says after she points at what remains of this space shuttle.

     “This has happened before, and it will happen again,” says an adult standing behind these children. The children turn to face this adult. “Some adults don’t think this is a solution to our overpopulation problems, among other problems our planet is facing.”

     “It’s not only the adults who feel this way,” says Mitch, who is sixteen. “A lot of us don’t want us to go into space to find another planet to call home.”

     The adult there can see what remains of this space shuttle between some of these children. “We haven’t forced any of you to leave our home planet. It has all been on a volunteer basis. If you don’t want to do this, you don’t have to do it. We won’t force you to do anything that you don’t want to do.”

##

     “Is there anyone else who doesn’t want to leave our planet anymore?” The adult from the observation room overlooking the damaged space shuttle stands in front of a group of about a hundred children sitting behind several rows of five oblong tables.

     No one else raises their hand or stands up. “Good, let’s continue with our preparations to leave our planet. The space shuttle that has been damaged will be repaired and ready to launch on time. We have tripled our security so that this won’t happen again.”

     “We have a little bit more testing to do before we launch in six days,” continues this adult. “Does anyone else have any more questions before we start doing this technical testing?”

     A female, Roberta, around ten, stands up. “I have a question. Why can’t we live in one of the Space stations that surround our planet.”

     “Before we came up with this solution to send our children into space to find a new planet to call home for our overpopulation problem, we thought about populating these Space Station instead. We decided against it because it wouldn’t solve our overpopulation problem, let alone the other problems that our planet has.”

##

     Ten children, including Kelly, Mitch, and Roberta, step out of an elevator onto the bridge of a spacecraft. Five children take their places at their positions when they are working on the bridge of this spacecraft. The other five children stand behind these five children.

     The same adult helping to train them steps out of the elevator after them. The ten children start looking at this adult. “You are the first ten kids who will remain awake while the rest of you are in suspended animation.”

     “You will be in control of this spacecraft for one month.” Continues this adult. “Each month, another group of ten children will be in control of this spacecraft.”

     “Because your parents have similar jobs, we are sure you can handle the jobs you have been assigned to on this spacecraft.” This adult walks around this bridge while he continues talking to these ten kids.

     This adult stops walking around this bridge. “You won’t be doing this alone. This spaceship is automated. It can handle almost any problems that may come up. You also have some androids and robots that can help you if you need them.”

##

     Only the five children sitting at their workstations are on the bridge right now. The other five are no longer there. They are in their workstations elsewhere on this spaceship. Their adult trainer is no longer there either. Walter and Susan, both sixteen, are sitting in the center of this bridge. They are the co-captains this month.

     Walter and Susan look at each other. It’s Walter who speaks first. He addresses everyone on the bridge, but he especially speaks to Bradley. “Takes us away from here slowly. We have a lot of space stations and satellites to maneuver around.”

     “I don’t need to do anything,” says Bradley. “Our automated spacecraft is taking us way from here. All I need to do is push a few buttons to get it started.”

     Everyone on the bridge watches the large viewscreen in front of them as their spacecraft leaves their home planet and heads into space to look for a new planet to live on. “We have been told that most of our time this month, we will be doing nothing. We’re only here because we are humans. Our spacecraft, the androids, and the robots can handle everything else.”197

##

     The ten children are eating in the eating area of their spacecraft when their spacecraft starts shaking violently. These ten children start falling to the floor, their food flying everywhere, and some of this food falls on them. They also start hearing some banging against the side of their spacecraft.

     While the others struggle to stay on their feet to get to the corridor and their positions on this spacecraft, Walter and Susan head for the nearest large wall monitor. Susan pats the screen to turn it on. Both Walter and Susan speak at the same time. “What’s happening? Or what is hitting us?”

     An android appears on this wall monitor. “We drifted into some asteroids. We’ve been trying to get our spacecraft out of these asteroids, but we haven’t done it yet. I don’t think we can get away from them.”

     “What are you trying to tell us?” Susan asks. “Are you telling us that our spaceship is about to be destroyed?”

     Before this android can answer Susan’s question, Walter and Susan start running toward the nearest entrance. “We will also be on the bridge in a few minutes. If you can’t get us away from these asteroids, we will. That’s why we are here.”

####

     No one else is on the bridge of their spacecraft except for Walter and Susan. Everyone else is on other parts of this spacecraft. Walter and Susan are in contact with the other eight kids via the large viewscreen there. “How bad is our spacecraft?” Walter asks.

     The other eight kids awake on this spacecraft say the same thing but in different ways. They say it’s not as bad as it looks. These eight kids also say it shouldn’t be too hard to fix. Some don’t know how long it will take. Walter and Susan know one other thing. They can’t leave there until everything is fixed.

     It only takes a few hours before Walter and Susan start getting reports that one kid has fixed their spacecraft after another. “It shouldn’t be too much longer before we can leave here,” says Susan.

     “The sooner we leave here, the better,” says Walter. “I don’t like just sitting here. Who knows who may show up? We don’t have too many weapons to protect ourselves if someone shows up who doesn’t like us for one reason or another. How many weapons do we have?”

##

     Everyone is on the bridge who is supposed to be there, but they are in contact with everyone else. They are getting updates on what is happening there. After all, they have started looking for a new place to live, but so far, they haven’t found one.

     They have seen about a hundred planets so far, but none of them have been suitable for humans. Some of them have been close, but not that close. Of course, they have been seeing these planets from a distance. Hopefully, when they get closer to these planets, they may find some are suitable for humans.

     Suddenly, the alarms and flashing lights start flickering around the bridge of their spacecraft. Susan looks at Roberta. “Turn off this alarm and lights.”

     Susan turns to Vivian, age fifteen, who is sitting at Exterior Monitoring. “Why are this alarm and lights going off? Have we found a suitable planet for us to live?”

     “I don’t know yet,” says Vivian. “I’m still checking out the planet in front of us. So far, I can’t tell if it’s suitable for humans or not.”

     “How soon will we know if this planet is suitable for us?” Walter asks.

##

     Their spacecraft goes into orbit around a possible suitable planet for them. “Launch the probes,” says Walter.

     Vivian launches several probes at different places on the planet below them. “We should know all about this planet in a few hours.”

     All everyone else on the bridge can do is wait for Vivian to finish probing this planet. It doesn’t take too long before she starts getting feedback from these probes. The smile on her face says she like what she is seeing so far. “It’s looking good. At least it is on this side of this planet.”

     “If the rest of the planet is like this side, we have found our new home planet.” Vivian starts looking at her computer again.

     “We may have a problem with this planet,” says Vivian. “It may not be suitable for us after all.”

     Vivian never takes her eyes off her computer. “It’s only a small portion of this planet that we may be able to live on, and I don’t think we can hold a million children in this part alone.”

     “The rest of this planet is toxic to humans,” continues Vivian. “We couldn’t live on this planet more than a year and that’s if we are lucky.”

##

     Suddenly, the flashing lights and alarms start happening again. After these lights and alarms are turned off, Susan looks at Vivian. “Have you found another possible suitable planet for us to live on?”

     “I think I have,” says Vivian. "We probably won’t be living there, though.”

     “Why can’t we live there?” Susan asks. “Is it suitable for us or not?”

     Vivian never takes her eyes off her computer. “It looks like it’s suitable for us, but we probably can’t live there. It’s already populated, and I don’t think they want us there.”

     Susan looks at the planet on their viewscreen. “Why do you think this?”

     “Because I’m in contact with them. I still don’t know what they are saying yet, but the way they are saying it makes it sound like they are mad about something, and they have pointed several of their satellites at us. That’s why I don’t think they want us there.”

     “Can you learn their language?” Walter asks.

     Vivian finally takes her eyes off her company. She looks at Charles, age fourteen, who is sitting behind Communications. “I can probably do it, but not as fast as Charles can.”

##

     “How many weapons do we have on this spacecraft?” Walter asks. “Are they powerful enough to stop the weapons that are coming our way right now?”

     “We only have about a hundred torpedoes,” says Vivian. “These torpedoes are powerful, but I don’t think they are powerful enough to stop the weapons from this planet. I think it’s best if we try to get away from these weapons.”

     Walter and Susan look at each other and nod their heads once. “I think Vivian is right,” says Walter. “We need to leave this planet before it’s too late.”

     Before anyone else can say anything, Walter taps a few buttons on the arm of his chair. Everyone looks up at their viewscreen and watches as their spacecraft moves away from this planet. The weapons they are trying to avoid are getting close to them. They may not get away from there before these weapons destroy them.

     It’s not long before these weapons catch up to them, but instead of destroying them, they fly right past them. They explode not too far away from them, but it’s far enough. “Maybe this isn’t the planet for us,” says Walter. “We will find one sooner or later.”

Word Count = 1977