Journey To Kappen
On the morning of November 21st 2004 I woke up to the sound of a phone ringing. I quickly scrambled out of bed to answer the phone. It was the United Nations and they wanted me to go on a mission to Kappen.
“You will need to gather natural resources to save our dying planet earth’’ said the man.
“Our planet is dying?’’ I asked.
‘‘Yes and it’s because of too much pollution’’ the man answered.
“Why have I been chosen’’ I asked.
“You have been chosen because the United Nations want some kids from room 205 of Greenway School. Meet me at the N. A. S. A. Space launch site and come prepared’’ the man said. Then he hung up.
The next day I packed my suitcases and headed for the N. A. S. A. space launch site. When I arrived I realized other people had also been chosen and they were Elizabeth, Tina, and Kim. The man told me that this would be my crew for the mission. He said they already had built the ship and it was ready to go but we had to be trained. I would be the Captain therefore I would drive the ship. Elizabeth would be the Navigator, so she would tell me where to go. Tina would be the Co Capitan so she would help me and if something should happen to me she would know how to steer the ship. And last, but not least Kim would be the assistant and she would make sure everything was working ok. We already knew each other so we didn’t have to introduce ourselves.
The training began the very same day and it was pretty easy. It was mostly the basic stuff like learning how to move around in zero gravity. Then moved onto the medium stuff and so on. This lasted about a week or so, but we managed to complete each test carefully. Finally came the day when we would be launched into space and I was so nervous but I knew that Earth was depending on us. The trainers soon loaded our ship with supplies and food that we would need.
Then it was time for us to go, we were allowed one phone call to say goodbye to our families. Then we walked to the ship, climbed up the ladder and walked down the final hallway. We had to suit up before we got in. We were now in the ship and we were fastened in and soon the countdown started 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 launch. I couldn’t believe that I was going into space it was so exciting. Just watching Earth grow farther and farther away made me feel important. We were in space now and the scenery was so astonishing. I took some time just to gaze upon the space around us and then Elizabeth quickly told me the direction and we headed for Kappen.
The day was pretty dull, everything going ok and that went on for a whole month. When I looked at the calendar I couldn’t believe it had been a whole month, it seemed so short.
“Only one more month’’ I said to Tina but she didn’t say anything, she just nodded. The next morning I realized we didn’t have that much food left, so I asked ‘‘who has been eating lots of food because we were supposed to have enough food for the whole trip’’. Nobody answered. Then I paged the United Nations to see why we had very little food left.
“But that’s impossible,’’ he said. Then he realized his mistake, apologized and soon told me that they accidentally didn’t pack enough food and they told me we would have to ration the food.
“Why do things like this always happen to me, am I bad luck or something?’’ I said. Then I told Tina, Elizabeth, and Kim the news and they weren’t too pleased. That same night I caught Elizabeth trying to sneak some food, but she knew we were only allowed a certain amount and she already had hers. So I sent her back to her navigation place and we continued on our way to kappen. The next day I went to the food storage place and what I saw was unimaginable. THERE WAS NO FOOD LEFT! I knew exactly who ate the food and I stormed straight to her. “Elizabeth I told you not to eat more food than your share,’’ I said.
“I didn’t eat the food,’’ she said. I believed her.
“Who ate the food then?’’ I asked.
“I don’t know,’’ she said angrily.
Then I went to Kim and asked her if she knew anything about the food and she didn’t, I got the same thing from Tina. I was so stupid I never thought of this, it was so obvious now that I remember. I ate the food when I was hungry yesterday night and I was so tired I didn’t even realize that I did. I know this because I wasn’t hungry when I got up this morning. But just to be safe I didn’t tell them that I did it, instead I just pretended that I didn’t know. A few weeks later………………
We were dying of hunger, then I happened to look out the window and I spotted
Something microscopic far ahead in space and as we drew closer it grew enormous. Soon I realized it was Kappen and I was so excited I jumped up and down. I went to tell Tina and she said I was crazy or hyper or something. The moment I stepped out of the ship I knew what Kappen would be like, I could tell because there was no pollution or anything like that. It was just so peaceful and simple. But then everyone stormed out of the ship trying to go find food and they knocked me over. Then I ran after them because I was hungry too and we came to a garden and started eating. We ate and the food was delicious, besides the food on the ship wasn’t that good, in fact it was gross. We ate until we were full and then we went to gather natural resources. We split up and everyone had to get something. I was in charge of gathering water, Elizabeth was in charge of collecting rock samples, Tina was in charge of making notes on the things she saw, and Kim was in charge of getting plants to take back to earth.
We enjoyed our visit on Kappen and we thought it was a good place to live. We all met up again in a field, we wanted to build little houses to stay in for our month on Kappen. We were finished all four houses in time to see the sunset. I personally don’t know why we needed four houses; it was Kim’s idea. The next morning I woke up at 8:43, I knew the time because I still had my watch on from Earth. The next day we had breakfast in the garden and the food seemed even more delicious. We sort of started a little village. In the afternoon we went to explore on Kappen, we followed a trail, went up a hill, then around a lake. Then we went back and on our way we got lost. Then we found the trail again and we made our way back to our village. Two months later………………
We left our village and slowly walked down the trail, gathering food as we went. I was sad to leave Kappen because I thought it was the perfect place to live. You had endless amounts of food, freshwater, and things to do. It was just so peaceful and calming that I wanted to live there forever. I quickly filled my basket with food and then another and another. The trail that led to the ship was very long, but we eventually got there. When we got there I took one last look then I tucked my head into the ship. The next thing I knew I was driving the ship farther and farther away from Kappen. The next morning we enjoyed the food we got from Kappen for breakfast. After breakfast we watched Kappen get smaller and we did this until we couldn’t see it anymore. All of a sudden our radar started flashing and I knew something was wrong. Then the alarm sounded, I knew the only thing that would be that size was another ship. We fired a missile at them and blew off a part of their ship. They fired their missile and I quickly dodged it. They fired another missile and it hit us and made the door start sealing off. It was everyone for themselves when we evacuated into a different part of the ship and we ejected the damaged part from the ship and quickly got away from the enemies. I turned my head for one second to see the rest of our ship blow up and shatter debris in one smoky cloud.
Four and a half months later………………
I saw something and it looked like Earth. Tina said it was Earth. It took a week to get really close and another week to get even closer. We are really close now and we were going through the atmosphere. We are going to land soon and I am really excited. We successfully landed on Earth and it was good to be home. We all got out of the ship and handed the natural resources over to the United Nations. Then we were honored in a ceremony dedicated to our bravery and us. The United Nations presented a gold medal to each of us. Then we got to see our families and go home.
The next morning we wrote a report about Kappen it read, “Kappen is a good place to live on because it’s much like Earth, but less polluted and more peaceful. I would rather move there than live here, but if Earth is saved then I would be happy here. The atmosphere is clean and there are no harmful chemicals in it, and we can breathe. There are lots of different types of plants and animals and there are quite a few lakes. I would say that Kappen is safe to live on if Earth shall die’’.
The End
By Stephanie