Saving the Ship: Chapter 1

by Kalpana Mudambi, 11

A September 2024 Monthly Story Challenge Winner

Excerpt from “Journal of a Black Hole crew member” 

July 9, 3020

We are stranded on a mysterious island, where water remains, and need not be made from a machine. Our crew does not want a chance to let other organisms touch it. They are preventing, as they say, “Contamination”. I do not approve of their ways. And they wouldn’t be able to get others onto this island if they tried. For we are stranded here. Me and some others tried to escape, but it was no use.

In the present, year 3026. I read the last page again and again. I wonder if this journal is real. I did find it floating around in space. Will it take me, if I follow the map, to the legendary Black Hole ship? Is it real? Every child raised on the Void Dancer has heard of the ship which used to go on such adventures! We heard of the five (The one nicknamed Supernova was my personal favorite, because her nickname is like my name) who did the quests and the courage, who got betrayed but shone in the end. We knew of how they were on a ship called Galaxy Chaser, and… and…We heard of how they once mysteriously…disappeared! Could this be the clue everybody was waiting for? Or was this a trap, to lure us into a completely unknown area? I flip through the pages. It seemed, well, legitimate! I rush to the room with the spare “Lifeships.” Well, the earlier humans got the idea to do that, they made “lifeboats”. 

Well, anyway… I take my emergency backpack too. When I made it I put in lots of spare food and games, my space dust collection, and my pet robot.  I made it in private, without my parents or friends knowing. Well, all except… Um, it’s not good to think of the past. Still, I do miss Luna. I remember her asking, “Will you come with me, Nova?” (I’m Nova) before leaving on the lifeship. I should have gone with her, so we could be together. Nobody knows where she is now. Well, thanks to her, we have reinforced security in the (now locked) room that stores the life ships. Well, good for me that I’m great at making different voices. I take a low, deep voice, and say my dad’s name. I dart inside the unlocked room, pick my favorite life-ship. (The navy blue one flecked with aqua and white stars.) I climb in, pull my backpack with me, close the door, and… My parents rush into the room. “What? Who is in the-” I can’t hear the rest of my mom’s sentences. I’ve already flown out the air hatch. Not that there’s any air in space.

To be continued…