The results were in! I made it! Out of the twenty candidates, they chose me! The UESD (United Earth Space Division) had a project to go out into space into another solar system and see what it was like on a hospitable planet for humans. I signed up to get into training. They chose one hundred at first, then narrowed it down to fifty, then twenty, then to the three who would go on the mission.
Ten years ago the UESD had received a signal from a planet far from our solar system, twenty-two light years away. They studied the planet and saw that it looked similar to Earth and they thought that it might be an alien race contacting us. They immediately started preparing; the ship, the supplies, and the people. Now that ten years have passed, we were nearly ready. I had gone through all the training, and I was prepared for anything that could happen on the trip. Now all that I have to do is to say goodbye to my family, to my home, to this planet, and to everything. They never said that this trip wasn’t going to be easy, but they never said that it wouldn’t be worth it. By the time I had got back from the flight there, the couple of years we would spend on the planet, and the flight back, most people that I care about would be dead or dying.
Today was the day. Today we were leaving. I got up at 5:00 AM with the rest of my family and got everything ready that I needed to take with me. My mother hugs me tightly and cries into my shoulder. My father embraces me and tells me that he is proud of me. “It’s going to be okay, I may not see you again, but you will know that what I have done is for the good of humanity.” I say as I walk out the door. The car was already waiting for me in front of my house and I got in. The automated program speaks a few words and drives off to the launch site.
I qualified in every part of the testing for what the UESD wanted. I have the leadership skills, the engineering skills, the survival skills, the space scenario skills, and whatever else they trained me for; I was ready for it.
The car gets to the building and I get out. Walking in to the UESD headquarters, the security guards let me in “Good luck!” I thanked them. I walked in to the main room and they were all waiting for me, nearly the entire high up staff of personnel of the UESD were there. I was the first one there. I shake hands with some of my instructors from the training and with the leader of the UESD. Suddenly, I got hugged from behind. “Are you ready for this Jake?” a voice whispers into my ear.
“Hey Ted! I’m as ready as I can be, how about you?” I ask, but he didn’t have time to respond as a girl screams from across the room.
“Jake, Ted! You both made it!” Jessica came bounding over towards us. Ted and Jessica were the two other candidates who made it, and I’m glad they were. All three of us quickly became friends during training and stuck together the whole time.
Soon enough it was time to get into our uniforms and get on the ship. We walked into the locker rooms and they had three separate areas for each of us. I opened my locker and inside was a white and blue tight fitting suit, the white was the same for everyone, but the colors signified different positions and jobs, blue is for the leader, who is me. Red is for the engineer, who is Jessica. Yellow is for the doctor, who is Ted. I slipped into my suit, and it was the perfect fit. I walked out into the hallway and waited for the other two.
Once they got done changing, they came up behind me and we walked out to the ship. The ship wasn’t very big, as it was only for three people, but it was still about the size of a house. It was sleek and black, and it just looked fast enough to take us to a planet that was twenty-two years away. The ship’s door opened in the back, and as I get on, I wave to the cameras that were broadcasting this live.
We strap in to the seats at the front of the ship “Are you ready?” I asked. They both look at me and nod. I press a button and the ship tilts towards the sky. My hand hovers above the launch button for a second, then I slowly put my hand down and the ship blasts into the sky.
Once we were out of the Earth’s atmosphere, I unstrap myself and walked to my quarters, as do Ted and Jess. The ship had artificial gravity and we were able to move as we pleased. When I get into my room, I look at the other two and we share a quick group hug and walk into our rooms. My bed in front of me opens and I crawled inside. The top closes and I am stuck inside until we made it to the planet. “Entering cryogenic-sleep.” Said a robotic voice. I closed my eyes and everything went blank.
My breath comes in ragged gasps. “Where am I?” I open my eyes and bright light fills the pod that I am in. The door to my bed opens up and I cautiously crawl out. “Captain Jake, you are the first to be awoken, we are two days from our destination.” A computer generated voice says. All of my memories come flooding back to me as I stumble around my room trying to find the door. I made it to the door and it opens, I follow the hallway to the main area of the ship and opened the fridge, the only thing that I could think about was food. I pull out a packet of spaghetti and put it in the microwave. I sat at the table and rubbed my eyes to try and wake myself up. The microwave dinged and I get up to get my meal. I scarfed it down and felt better after I had my first meal in twenty-two years.
“Captain Jake, protocol states that it is time to wake the other crewmates, is that okay with you?” The computer asked.
“Yes that’s fine” I reply as I made my way to the deck. The door opened and the darkness of space looked back at me through the window. We were going too fast to see anything clearly though, but all I saw was the blue of stars and the black of nothingness.
I heard feet thumping and turned around just in time to see Jess burst through the doors and scream “We’re almost there! I’m so excited!”
“I couldn’t tell.” I said sarcastically.  She looked out the window in amazement as Ted slowly stumbled through the door and ask, “Can I go back into cryo-sleep now?” I ignored his question and told both of them to go get something to eat. Jess ran out and Ted sighed and walked to the main area.
The two days passed by slowly with all of us excited, even Ted, although he wouldn’t admit it. In the last half day, I could feel the ship slowing down, and I knew that we were almost there. The ship would automatically shoot anything dangerous in our path into small pieces in order for us to get there safely. Soon enough the ship had slowed down enough that I could see the planet we were going to land on tomorrow. The ship had stopped in order to do some tests and it sent a few probes out to test the atmosphere and to take a quick look at the general fauna to see if it would be too dangerous for us. Thirty minutes after the pods went down, the computers on the ship told us that the planet’s atmosphere was very similar to Earth’s and was breathable without any sort of mask.
The planet looked very much like Earth, but it had an entire continent that was brown, almost as though it was just a huge desert, which it probably was. I am so excited to go down tomorrow and be the first human to set foot upon this planet.
That night I had to take a pill in order to get to sleep because I knew that I wouldn’t be able to otherwise. As I drifted to sleep, I saw my father saying that he was proud of me, and I fell asleep with a smile on my face.
The computer woke me up and I ran to the main area to eat something quick and waited for the rest of the crew. They walked in and I made them eat something, and then we headed towards the deck.
“Would you like to land?” The computer asked. I looked at my crewmates and said
“Yes.” The ship zoomed off towards the planet and we broke through the atmosphere. The ship slowed down and scanned the landscape for any sort of flat landscape to land on. The ship found a prairie about a kilometer away and we flew in and landed.
I went to the back of the ship and we all picked up backpacks and some weapons, only for safety, and I opened the door.
The air rushed into the ship and it was the first real air that I had breathed in a long time. It smelt a lot like flowers and just outside in general. I looked at my crewmates and they motioned me to take the first step. “One small step for man…” I said. My foot landed softly on the ground and I took a few steps. I looked back with a smile and motioned for them to come. Jess ran around like a child and Ted just looked at the surroundings. There were lots of greens and browns, similar to Earth, yet there were lots of colors that you had never seen naturally on Earth as much. Some trees were purple and blue, and some were even pink. There were yellows and reds, just this field felt like a rainbow alone, I couldn’t wait to see more of the planet.
The wildlife! It was real! There were tons of living animals everywhere. There were six-legged ones, two-legged ones, eight-legged ones! There were insects buzzing around, but they didn’t look like flies or mosquitos, more like dragon flies. I looked towards a nearby forest and saw a tall green creature looking at us, but it didn’t look like it wanted to hurt us, and when I looked at it, it made me feel calm. I motioned towards the others and pointed at it. I could tell that they felt the same feelings that I had felt when I looked at it. I started to walk towards it and they followed close behind. I stopped about twenty feet in front of it and stared into its eyes. “Humans,” it said. “We have been waiting a long time to finally meet you. We have been watching and waiting. Now that you have made it here, we have so much to show you, please come.” It turned around and began to walk into the forest.
I looked at my crewmates “Well… let’s go.” I said. We walked into the forest.