The Space Phenomenon
In 2027, there lived a boy named Ethan. His life’s dream was to be an astronaut. He always had dreams of flying in space and doing important missions for his country. Also, Ethan was very ingenious, so all the children in his neighborhood, and even some adults, regularly went to him for help with all their problems. He had once built a nuclear reactor by himself, making all the materials and setting them up just by his amazing brain. Ethan had not used any instructions or purchased any of the parts. His reactor was more efficient than any nuclear reactor built before it. It gave the most energy with the least pollution. Ethan always liked to wear white, as that was the color of spacesuits. He was of average height, but his head was larger than that of most people’s. One day, he called his friend Bobby. “Do you want to sneak into the NASA base? It will be fun.” “What if we get caught?” asked Bobby. “We won’t, let’s just go” replied Ethan. So they snuck into the NASA space base. They dug a hole which led into the center of the base, bypassing all the defenses. Ethan had a high-tech camera which had internet anywhere, was pressure-proof, heatproof, chill-proof, waterproof, bite-proof, and foolproof. Just when they first glimpsed the training center, Ethan heard the sound of footsteps coming toward him. He jumped inside the rear of a nearby spacecraft and shut the door. His heart was thumping so loudly, he was sure the guards could hear him. “Ahhhhhhh!!!” screamed Bobby. “I knew we shouldn’t have come!”
The guard captain ran into their hiding place and grabbed them both by their necks. Ethan knew Tae Kwon Do, however, so he punched the guard in his stomach and left the guard knocked out. “Don’t be so foolish Bobby! Just stay quiet” said Ethan angrily. Then they jumped back in the spaceship. They heard a guard say, in an excited voice, “ prepare for takeoff. Everyone inside.” Then they heard the sound of a door lock. When Ethan and Bobby heard the guards leave, he tried to open the door at the rear of the spaceship. It refused to budge. That’s when Ethan realized that the spaceship he was in was about to be launched. With him in it. All he had wanted to do is to film the astronauts in the training room as they trained. Now he was in for something much bigger than he had expected. Ethan’s hands started to sweat. He started banging against the walls of the spaceship. Then Ethan remembered his dreams of flying in space, and his breathing slowed. He looked at Bobby. Bobby had fainted from fright and was lying motionless on the floor. Ethan knew he couldn’t help Bobby, so he started to look around the spacecraft. He saw that it was huge and he was in the back. The size of the spaceship amazed him. But what amazed him most was the weaponry. He saw laser guns, plasma cannons, acid guns, and cannons with names he hadn’t even heard of. Ethan thought that he was dreaming and pinched himself. It hurt. A big sign over the back door said, “United States Space Corps-Flagship-Armageddon.” Before Ethan could process all this, he heard a voice- “ready for launch. countdown. 10, 9, 8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1, launch.” Ethan felt sheer exhilaration when the ship’s mighty engines started to move the ship at supersonic speeds. “Finally,” thought Ethan, “I am living my dream.” He was slammed to the wall and pressed against it. After a time which felt like years, he could sit normally again. “Launch achieved. Your mission is to patrol, seek out enemies and annihilate them,” said a robotic voice. It was then that Ethan realized that there was something fishy going on. The United States was at war with something or someone, either aliens or another country, and hardly anyone on earth knew about it! Ethan was determined to find out the truth, so he started filming the sign, the weapons, out the window, and everything that was happening to him. He wouldn’t tell Bobby about this. He just hoped he could get home...alive.
While Ethan was gone in the spaceship, his mother had gotten home. “Where is Ethan?” she cried. His mother searched for him everywhere, but in the end she called the police and gave them a picture. The police investigated, and in the end found the guard who had been kicked. “That’s the person who snuck into the base and hit me. Two hundred years in solitude, I’d say!” said the guard angrily. The police was instructed to never let the secret of the space wars escape, so they told the mother that Ethan had committed suicide by jumping into fire. The only way they knew is because of security cameras, the police had told Ethan’s mother. But she didn’t believe them. She vowed to search the whole world for Ethan until she was either dead or had found him.
Suddenly, Ethan heard a blaring alarm. He didn’t see anything out the windows, but he guessed the radar had spotted something. “Fire the cannons!” he heard. People rushed into the room and saw him. They were very surprised. “What-who-how- how did you get here?” the one in front said. While that was happening, everyone was distracted from the enemies, and out of the corner of his eye Ethan saw a plasma blast bang against the hull. Boom! “We’ll deal with you later” said the captain, running to the wheel. The ship sped away from the enemy, but an alarm was blaring saying, “Air escaping. Warning, warning.” There was space exactly in the part of the hull which was hit with a repair kit. The repair kit was only about a foot long, but contained extremely useful tools without which the ship could not be fixed. It had fallen in a part of the ship which had bent inward, creating a tiny crevice. “Grab it, or we’re doomed!” yelled the captain. The crew were yelling and screaming. They were jumping up and down and ripping their hair in a panic. Alarms started screaming loudly. The tension in the air was overwhelmingly dense. All of the crew tried to reach it, but failed. They were just too big to reach into the crevice. They refused to give up. However, the captain said wearily, “It’s no use. Ready the escape pod.” Ethan looked around desperately, thinking. He had just thought that everything was wonderful and he would have an amazing adventure. Ethan jumped up and down in despair. Now, his heart was thumping as fast as if it was running a marathon. Ethan asked the Captain if there was anything, absolutely anything they could do to prevent this from happening. Ethan thought he was dreaming. His head spinning, Ethan relinquished all common sense. He started running randomly in different directions. Chaos was everywhere. The Captain tried to get everyone back in order, but it was just too hard to make his voice heard. Fire erupted somewhere in the back of the spaceship. Finally, holding a loudspeaker, the Captain screamed “Get in the Escape Pod if you want to live!” He then said wearily, “Get in the escape pod, kid. Before it’s too late!” A rain of bullets bounced of the ship. Some windows broke. Alarms were blaring very loudly, even louder than before. But Ethan refused to abandon his dream. He knew that the only hope of the ship was the repair kit. It had very efficient tools which could fix even the most broken of ships. He ran to the crevice in which it was, his lungs gasping for air. Ethan’s vision was beginning to blur, and his head hurt as badly as if he was hit by a train. Muscles aching, he reached the crevice and squirmed his hand inside. An inch from the repair kit, his hand got stuck. “Noooooooooo!!!” Ethan screamed. “I was so close! Nooooooooooo!” He heard a blast of more plasma hitting the ship. From the windows, Ethan saw the enemy ships closing in fast, shooting all the time. The smell of smoke was in the air. The spaceship slowed to a stop. Suddenly, it shuddered and turned on its side. Ethan heard explosions. A bullet whizzed by him. He was about to die, thought Ethan. How could his life have gotten to this? All he had wanted was to film the astronauts in the space center. He had not even considered that he might die. Ethan had thought that at the worst he would be captured by guards, and maybe even put in jail. Ethan’s lungs were about to burst. Just when everything was fading and Ethan let go of all hope, surrendering to death, he was pushed from behind until he finally grabbed the repair kit, and with all his strength, slowly, without even fully realizing what he was doing, pulled it out. Ethan faded into oblivion without another thought.
Ethan woke up on a bed. “You saved us! What a relief. Now we thank you and you can be a part of the crew until the next time we land. Then you, and your friend who is in the hospital, will be free to go home.” said the captain excitedly. “Really? Thanks a lot!” said Ethan. “Is Bobby ok?” Ethan asked. “Don’t worry, he’ll be fine” replied the captain calmly. He was warmly accepted by the crew and was fed and received a bunk bed. The only thing he couldn’t do was go into the control room. “It is for your own good,” the captain had said.
Ethan was walking around the ship. He had been in the spacecraft for about three weeks, but Ethan was still learning new things. He walked over to the weapons room. He picked up an acid blaster and started examining it. Suddenly, the lieutenant came into the room. “Oh hi, how are you doing?” asked Ethan. “I just need to get something from here for repairs” replied the lieutenant awkwardly. Ethan turned away and continued inspecting weapons. Next Ethan went into the escape pod. “Wow, the technology is very cool here,” thought Ethan. At the end of the day, Ethan dreamt about all the technology coming alive and him talking to the gadgets with them talking back to him.
One day, the lieutenant said that he could cook for the day. He started throwing beef and sausages around the cabin. “Catch it, eat it!” the lieutenant said. Ethan was walking by the kitchen. He rushed in and smacked the lieutenant. “Cook away, but I can do better!” “Oh yeah, well let’s have a contest.” “Deal.” So each of them cooked fish soup. Then the officer, smiling, poured some white powder into the fish soup he was preparing. Ethan ran to the other crew and said, “the lieutenant has put some white powder into the soup!” The crew all started laughing. “That was just salt, you dummy, ahahahaha.” “Oh, ok.” “Well, too much salt is bad so I will win the contest.” The crew tried Ethan’s fish soup, and agreed that it was a goody. “We rate it 8 out of 10 points.” Then they tried the lieutenant’s soup, and fell down unconscious. “See, it was so good that they fainted from its goodness” said the lieutenant. “Muahahaha!“ the lieutenant roared. Try it yourself.” “No thanks” said Ethan. “I’m not hungry.” And Ethan went to his room, suspicious. His cheerful mood was gone. From his room, he watched the lieutenant. “Mwahahahaha,” laughed the now lieutenant general. He tied up the whole crew and started getting something from his pocket. Ethan, meanwhile, had jumped into the kitchen. “I caught you in the act, so give up!” said Ethan. His hands were sweating and he was shaking as he said that. The officer got a pistol from his pocket, with the words absolute zero-pistol. “You will freeze-literally” said the lieutenant general. He started shooting balls of absolute zero at Ethan. Ethan dodged, and they hit one of the engines, which froze instantly. “Hahahaha. This is most amusing” yelled the lieutenant general. The lieutenant general ran suddenly at Ethan and pushed him against the wall. The lieutenant general pointed the gun at Ethan’s head, while holding Ethan’s throat with his hand. “So. The end has come. You are just a puny, insignificant little boy, after all. Prepare to die!” “Ethan closed his eyes. He knew there was nothing he could do. The lieutenant’s words stung him, but he knew that it was true that he was just a ten year old boy, with no super strength or anything like that. Just then, Ethan heard a slam and a loud scuffle. He opened his eyes. Bobby had come to the rescue. He had hit the lieutenant on the back of the head, which made him be knocked out cold. “Thank you so much!” Ethan told Bobby. “Now let’s go to the control room, quickly.”
So Ethan and Bobby went into the control room and saw a map which showed Mars and the Moon. On the moon, U.S.A. Territory was written, and there were some military garrison names. On Mars, Russian Federation Territory was written, and there were no garrisons labeled. Then, Ethan realized that the space wars between Russia and the U.S. were far from over. He saw on the radar that more than twenty enemy ships were approaching fast. He looked out the window and saw the flag of the ship in front- three stripes, the top stripe white, the middle stripe blue, and the bottom stripe red. Ethan pressed the red button which said do not press except in an emergency, in a panic. The spaceship’s engines went on warp speed and an enormous missile shot out, which hit one of the enemy spaceships and decimated it instantly. However, the engines were almost all frozen over, so the spacecraft Ethan was in was unable to escape the enemy. Laser beams hit the ship in many places, and Ethan knew that the situation was desperate. He and Bobby loaded all the crew that was tied up, who were still unconscious from the powder, in the escape pod and untied them. Then they themselves went into the escape pod and pressed the escape button. The escape pod was blasted back to earth at a huge speed. During the ride back, while still in space, Ethan shared the videos he took in space on the internet with his extremely high-tech camera. Soon, almost everyone with internet knew about the space wars. The escape pod landed somewhere in an ocean, and by that time the had crew woke up. Ethan knew that his life would never be the same again. His journey was far from over. Will Ethan be rescued? And even if he is, what will the government think of him and Bobby and do to them after they gave away its secret? But whatever happens next is sure to be full of mystery and adventure.
