Jupiter Journey Chp. 1
Ring Ring Ring! The phone alarm rang. Tim turned over and turned the alarm off. He was on a spaceship, Sailor, destined for Jupiter. He looked around. His crew mates Adam and Rick were still fast asleep. Picking up the newspaper he had carried all his journey, he studied it again. It was so soft and worn with the constant flipping of pages, he could hardly read the headline:
2222/ 6/ 1, Spaceship SAILOR heading for Jupiter! Destined to reach Jupiter at 2228/ 1/ 18 And under it were the words, Rick (captain), Adam, Tim.
Tim thought of his childhood, it had been hard times for his family. He thought of how hard he had worked just to be in this cabin, to be on this journey... Suddenly, Jupiter loomed out of the darkness, Its white rings were strewn with crimson, and it had that one red eye. For more than 5 years he had been on this space ship; now he had finally reached his destination.
Tim felt an expanding excitement in his heart. He could finally see his dream planet for real, and to research it! But his excitement was also shadowed by nervous fear. What if there were some miscalculations and they died?! What if the spaceship blew up? His mind was full of doubt, and fear. “Jeez! Adam! Tim! An asteroid!” Rick shouted. Tim turned and saw within the blink of an eye, an asteroid. Wham!! The asteroid hit!
Tim felt his head exploding with pain, it was like a dagger forced through his skull. He was slowly sliding into unconsciousness. “It’s all right!” Rick shouted through the wreckage. Tim’s brain was drawn back to reality. “We just need to fix the Ion boosters and everything will be fine, Come on!” Rick shouted again. Tim rushed into the changing room and put on his suit. He grabbed a chisel, his newspaper, and his phone and rushed outside. When he got out, he saw with a sudden panic that their spaceship was plummeting towards Jupiter. “What will happen?! Was it really OK if they fixed the boosters?” He thought desperately. He knew from training that Jupiter’s immense air pressure could crush you. If you weren’t crushed you would immediately get choked and frozen. If they fell in, they would certainly all be dead. They needed to fix the engine and try to escape Jupiter’s gravity fast. He joined his crew at the ion boosters, they were dented and the cable was broken. He knew the procedure from memory and soon the boosters were in full blast. He felt he was alleviated for the first time in years! They wouldn’t die!
The space ship was still sinking. Something was wrong- They were already too close to Jupiter to pull away. Jupiter was welcoming them back slowly but steadily. Thoughts raced through Tim's mind: If we want to live, we need to escape Jupiter's gravity. But how? The spaceship was too heavy to leave the gravitational pull. What if we disconnected the cabin and let it drop? It would make the spaceship much lighter. It would work! But the only way to disconnect the cabin would be to disconnect it by hand. I need to do something! Or we will all die!
In that instant Tim made up his mind. He was going to disconnect the cabin... Distantly, as if from afar, he heard Adam’s voice: “Mission control, we have a problem...”
Tim crawled over to the cabin rung by rung, step by step. How he had enjoyed living there.
He took out his chisel and struck at the connections securing the cabin. Wham! he drove the chisel into the connection. “Tim! What are you doing?” he heard Rick calling him. Wham! He drove the chisel into the connection again, this time it broke. Now Adam’s voice was also Audible: “don’t do it! Tim!” Tim had already made up his mind, he was going to save them- Adam and Rick. He worked his way to the second and last connection. This required a different kind of courage: he was calmly walking to his own death, not doing some life-threatening challenge. Yet he was satisfied that he could save his friends. Wham! Wham! The connection broke. The cabin and the ship split. Tim was alone, sprawled on the cabin, plummeting towards Jupiter. Adam and Rick were on the ship now light enough to escape Jupiter's gravity, sailing away... Tim sank ever and ever lower towards the enveloping fumes of Jupiter’s atmosphere- towards the “Red eye”. Tim smiled. He had died a hero...
By Leo Ji