The Mission | Teen Ink

The Mission

January 12, 2024
By Mckinney, Frisco, Texas
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Mckinney, Frisco, Texas
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Author's note:

Our names are Advik Karthikeyan, Viraaj Wadhawan, and Sarvesh Darade we wrote this book for our GT ILA class and now we want to publish it so the whole world can see it.

Humanity has a problem. We are running out of water, and people all over the world are dying due to the wars that are fought over water. But humanity has hope. An advanced AI system was created by 100 of the planet’s top Scientists, headed by Leo Schweinsteiger. The AI, known as H.L.H.(humanity’s last hope), has selected 8 out of the 1 billion people that met the requirements. These nine are known as the elites, and are on a mission to Europa to check if the conditions are suitable for colonization. They were ready after five years of training at a top-secret military base. Humanity watched as their last hope blasted off into space on a mission, The Mission. The journey would be rigorous, but the reward would be better than anything humanity has ever accomplished. With humanity’s fate in their hands, failure was not an option.

Alvarez woke up at 2:30 in the morning. He was an expert doctor, trained at the medical school at Harvard, the best university in the world(in medical training). Alvarez saw what happened to people who didn’t get enough water. They would lose their voice, they would have cracked skin, and they would just faint on the streets. Alvarez tried to treat them, but it rarely worked. He would just watch them die of thirst. He soon found out about the Europa expedition to get water. He instantly wanted to try it out. He quit his well-paying job to go on the Europa expedition to gather water for those in need. Alvarez went to his medical office to fix the machine Kyle broke. It was a bullet remover, which could find out who shot a bullet, and fixing it would take approximately 1 hour, so he better get working. Soon, after he was halfway done, he went to get some food and water from the kitchen. “Oh, we have a resource that many on Earth don’t have,” Alvarez thought sadly. He got some chicken rolls and went back to his work. Soon, a voice echoed behind him. “Hello Alvarez, I’ve got a special treat for you,” It said. “Chk Chk Chk!” Alvarez fell to the ground. Then everything went black.

Alice was famous around the world because of how she solved global warming, which was an issue that lasted for over 70 years. She figured out how to clean the harmful gas in the air and convert it into oxygen. She made numerous discoveries about the environment and nature over the years. This made her the best candidate for the biologist slot on the expedition. She was also an environmentalist always fighting against climate change. She also founded the World Environmental Society to help clean the environment. While she was exploring the Galapagos islands she found a new species of pig and named it Hamper Pig, after the cofounder of the W.E.S. (World Environmental Society) Hamper P. Its scientific name was Hampeleus Pigulious. Alice fondly remembered her time on Earth, while she was gardening in the greenhouse. Suddenly she heard a voice shout, “HEY ALICE, do we still have any of that vegan pasta stuff that you made!” “Well FIRST of all Leo it's sustainably sourced, vegan, plant-based chicken gnocchi,” yelled Alice “AND second of all no we don’t have any you ate all of it, I don’t know how you’re still so skinny!” yelled Alice again. “It’s not my fault,” muttered Leo “I was hungry.” “Anyways,” said Leo, “do we have anything else to eat, I’m starving.” Just then Alice and Leo both heard a voice scream “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA EVERYONE COME HERE QUICK!” They both rushed to the medical office where they found David “Guys look at this!” David said. Both of them quickly rushed to David’s side “Oh my god, is that Alvarez!?” said Alice. “How did this happen!?”  David shouted “Judging by the wound it was intentional, someone did this,” said Leo with a determined look on his face, “we have to find the killer.” The three woke up everyone aboard the ship and told them what had happened

Captain Carl was a former commander of the U.S. Navy, he enlisted into the cause to make his name in the military. He was the captain of the S.S. Glory Hog, the greatest ship in the history of the USA This led to him becoming a commander, possibly the greatest the U.S. ever had. The president of America, seeing his leadership skills wanted him to be captain of the first mission to colonize the Moon, the ship was called the Neo-Apollo. He graciously accepted the mission, and when asked he said he did it for the people and not for the glory or fame. When he heard about the mission to Europa he signed up to be one of the candidates. He was chosen because of his experience as commander of the navy and captain of the first colonization mission to the moon. He was voted as the leader by the other eight elites. “Hey, Captain Carl,” David said, with a solemn look on his face “Alvarez was found dead in his office, it appears that someone on this ship murdered him!" "What! How did that happen, I thought everyone on this ship would never do that!" Captain Carl responded, "I want to see the crime scene!" Captain Carl and David went to Alvarez's medical office and inspected the scene. The head of the victim was all bloody and had bullet holes in it. It didn’t even look like a human. His wounds were so severe that you couldn’t even make out his face. "It seems like Alvarez was shot in the head several times,"   Leo said. "Where was Kyle, he was in a fight with Alvarez the day before the murder," Captain Carl said, "And what's even more suspicious is that the machine Kyle broke was the bullet machine, where you can analyze who shot the bullet." " Kyle is the one who murdered Alvarez, cause he was in the bathroom near the medical office," Carl said, "But I don't know why he would do that, he is scared of killing people." said Leo “There’s no reason for Kyle to kill Alvarez and he broke the machine on accident” "I'll go check on Kyle," David said, "Let's disperse."Haha those IDIOTS, they don't know who the real murderer is, they will just blame Kyle. The real murderer is me, Captain Carl, I want all the glory all for me.

Kyle got a flashback of his military base, his best friend dying right in front of him, the innocent civilians and children being murdered in cold blood, he wanted to get away from this cruel world. Whenever people asked him why he wanted to go on this mission even though he hated being in the sky or space, he would say “I just want to see what space is like.” But the real reason was that he wanted to get away from the cruel world that has people who would kill children over water. He used to live in St. Louis, the most dangerous city in the US. He had faced enough deaths to care less about them. Right now, his home city is in ruins, destroyed by the huge crime rate and massacres over water and land. He lost everything there, including his mom and dad. With such a depressing life and no loved ones, alive-he couldn’t care less about anything else in his life. Working as the US Space Force’s top mechanic, his experience and expertise made him one of the elites. "Look! Alvarez died!" David said as he came to Kyle. "Oh, how sad," Kyle said sarcastically. "How could you say such a thing?" David said, astounded. "I have been in an air force base when it was bombed, I saw too many people killed to care about deaths anymore," Kyle said bluntly. "You are such a bad person, Kyle," David said, "No wonder Captain Carl suspected you as the murderer." Kyle was very angry, he could be mean to people, but he was NEVER a murderer. "Then go tell Captain Carl to shut his trap tight!" Kyle said in a harsh tone. "Well it seems like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed," David muttered silently. "WHAT DID YOU SAY!?" Kyle exclaimed. " N-n-nothing," David said. "That's what I thought," Kyle said. So Captain Carl thought that I was the murderer. I would never end someone's life topic is just traumatizing. Kyle thought of the dead kids by the well. Did they think that I, out of all people, would murder someone? Captain Carl knows that I would never kill anyone. He is playing some kind of trick on the crew. Fortunately, I have some of my own.

Maxwell is in charge of the logistics of the operations for the journey. He was the founder of the largest supplying company in the world Maxwell Co. He soon became the richest man in the world due to his business tactics. Growing up he saw the poverty around him and he lived in Los Angeles, California. He lived in a nice apartment but when he went into the city he saw homeless people living in tents begging for food. It was at that moment that he decided he was going to be the richest man in the world and use his money to help people, to help these people. Eventually, after pure hard work, dedication, and loans he created the most successful company in the world. His company is responsible for eradicating homelessness in over 25 third-world countries. Being one of the smartest and richest people in the world he was easily selected as the logistics manager for the trip. He wanted to do it to better not just humanity but all of planet Earth. “We need a detective to solve this mystery! How could two of our most valuable people die within a week? Let’s vote for who should be the detective,” “Let’s start the voting!” Alice said, “I vote for Leo!” “Yeah! Isn’t Leo the smartest person in the world? He could solve this mystery!” David said. Everyone, except for Captain Carl, voted Leo, Captain Carl voted David-weird. Leo voted me as his assistant because I am the smartest person after him. “Howdy partner,” Leo said, “Let's get to solving this case, so when did Alvarez leave his room for his office?” “Approximately 2:30 a.m., sir,” Maxwell said. “And who was awake during the hours that Alvarez was at the medical office?” Leo said. “Kyle was in the adjacent bathroom during that time and Alice was busy on the farm,” Maxwell said. “That doesn’t give us any clues about how Alvarez died,” Leo sighed. “Wait, detective, we got a letter from the murderer. It says, " Don’t try to interfere, or David will be next," Maxwell said, “We got to keep an eye on David. You stay here and report the things that happened during the day to earth command Leo.” “Okay, I will report this to Earth command, you go check on David,” Leo said. So I did, I went to David with the news of the stunning letter from the murderer. It was typed, so we couldn’t find out who wrote it. I found David talking to Alice on the farm. “David! Look at this letter! Someone Is targeting you!” He read the letter and grew fearful. “Where should I go? Should I just stay in the cockpit so no one could target me? “No, don’t do that. Have at least 1 crewmate that we trust to watch you at all times,” Maxwell said. “Yeah! Captain Carl is a solid option!” David said. “Alice, who do you think is the most trustworthy crewmate?” Maxwell said. “Well, Kyle is probably the murderer, so you could go with anyone,” Alice said while harvesting the carrots. “I guess we could go with Captain Carl,” Maxwell said. We needed to find out who the murderer was, and fast because if we didn’t, David could die.

David was walking to the cockpit to drive the ship while Captain Carl was resting. David was a very successful spaceship pilot, being the first person to land on Mars and the only spaceship pilot to dodge a comet with one hand on the wheel. These made him a very good candidate to help pilot the ship on the expedition. He wanted to join this expedition because he wanted to hone his spaceship piloting skills pilot had ever driven as far as Europa before. He came from a family that had a stable income, they could afford for him to go to spaceship piloting training school in Texas. He eventually made it to being a pilot and it was very fun for him to drive a spaceship, after 20 years of experience, he could handle anything that space had to throw at him. David smiled at this as he drove the ship. "So, are all the meteors on the starboard side of the ship destroyed?" said Captain Carl. "The meteors have all been taken down by Marley," David said. "I don't know what got into Kyle, talking bad about me and losing his temper. This isn't how Kyle normally speaks," Captain Carl said, "Kyle is usually chill and he goes with the flow, but now, he's acting like we offended him somehow, or, guessed right.” “Hey Captain, what did you think of the letter that threatened the crew?” David asked. “Well, I think that is something that Kyle would do, because of how angry he is right now. It is probably because we suspected him as the murderer. It is, but Leo stops me saying that we don’t have any real evidence of him committing the murder, and they say he is the smartest person in the world,” Captain Carl says. “I mean, Leo does have a point because we didn’t see Alvarez getting murdered, but it is probably Kyle anyway,” David said. “David, people might say that you are too innocent or naive, but I think that you are even smarter than Leo,” Captain Carl said. David was happy. Captain Carl was the only person who saw him as more than innocent or naive. Most of the time David did not know stuff, but Captain Carl was the only one who saw him as a capable person, not just an innocent person who didn’t know anything. “Aww, thanks Captain,” David said. “Don’t worry, I will take care of the murderer that wants to kill you, you don’t have to worry about anything. Now let’s put the ship on autopilot and go get some sleep,” Captain Carl said. “Sounds good to me,” David said. So the bedtime alarm went off and everyone went to sleep.

Marley was a famous astronomer in the Miami area. She studied space but was particularly interested in life on other planets. Marly had a complicated life. But because of their parents' focus on education, She and her siblings became multi-millionaires. She wanted to help restabilize humanity and stop the pointless wars over water. She was chosen because of her expertise in space and her ability to keep calm no matter what, making her the perfect disaster manager. She hoped to find a way to help her people by participating in the mission. Having lost her 2 kids and husband she was ready to sacrifice anything for the goal. She went to Captain Carl’s room on the ship to talk with him. Marley recently fell in love with Captain Carl two weeks into the mission, well, she attracted Captain Carl first. He was strong, good-looking, and confident. She liked that type of person. Marley was waiting outside the door when Captain Carl went out the door. "Captain Carl, do you want to get a drink?" Marley said. "Okay, let's go to the dining hall," he said.  They both head to the dining hall and get some wine. Marley knows a secret about Captain Carl. Captain Carl was the one who killed Alvarez. She saw him sneak into Alvarez’s office in the night. She didn’t know how to tell Captain Carl. “Captain Carl, I have something to say to you,” Marley said. “What is it?” Captain Carl asked. “ I know that you killed Alvarez that night,” Marley said. Captain Carl had a weird look on his face when she said that. But then, his eyebrow gave Marley the hint. Captain Carl was surprised. “How did you know?” Captain Carl said, stunned. “I saw you kill Alvarez with a club when I was walking to the kitchen, but I promise to keep it a secret,” Marley said. “Okay, I know you will keep this a secret,” Captain Carl said, but very suspiciously. He went to Marley's ear and whispered something into her ear. "I know you can keep secrets," Captain Carl whispered to Marley, "But there is one thing, I need to make sure you don't blurt out the secret." Suddenly, she saw a knife swinging towards her. It moved at very fast speeds. It was too fast for Marley to react. “NO!” She said, but it was too late. She was dead. 

Leo is known to be the smartest person on the planet, Leo used to be a scientist who discovered how to colonize the moon. A genius from humble beginnings; He lived in a modest apartment with three siblings, but studied throughout his childhood he became a genius from nothing. With a whopping 263 IQ, he was the perfect fit for the communicator role and could realistically perform any task on the ship. He was always interested in the stars and wondered what was out there. He played a key role in the colonization of the Moon. He joined the Europa expedition because he knew how it felt to be poor and have a lack of water around. He saw those people on the streets, in their houses, fainting from dehydration. Even he had some fits like that during the time he was poor. So he knew what those people were facing. That is why he tried out for the expedition. "Help! The murderer got to Marley!" David said. "Is yapping about people's deaths all you do on this ship?" Kyle said. "Hey, partner, do you think that Kyle got to Marley?" Maxwell said. "No, I don't think it's Kyle, because I haven't found any evidence of Kyle leaving his room during the night," Leo said. "Have you checked if anyone left their rooms to go to the kitchen?" Leo said. "Of course I have, that was the first thing I did!" Maxwell said. Leo thought for a while. If no one left their rooms to go to the kitchen, then how did the body end up in the kitchen? "Tell me who came out of their rooms to check on something somewhere else in the spaceship?" Leo said."Well, Captain Carl was driving the ship, Kyle was fixing the solar panels outside the spaceship, and Marley, who went to the kitchen and as you know, was murdered," Maxwell said. "Wait, at what time did Captain Carl go drive the ship?" Leo said. "1:15 am," Maxwell responded. "Wait, didn't the ship log say that the ship would go on autopilot after midnight?" Leo said. "Wait, that is true!" Maxwell said. Both of them raced to the cockpit where they found Captain Carl- holding David at gunpoint.

"Captain Carl! You are under arrest for the murders of Marley and Alvarez!" Maxwell said. Captain Carl was astounded. He probably didn't think that we would solve the mystery. Not to brag, but I am considered the smartest person on earth, and he didn't think I would solve it. Captain Carl pushed the gun into David’s head and said "Don't move! If you do, David gets shot on the spot!" He pointed his gun at David's ear. "Captain, what is happening? Why are you pointing a gun at my head?" David said. Bro, did he seriously not understand that Captain Carl was the murderer that was going to kill him? I mean, I knew that David was innocent and naive, but I didn’t know it would come to this extent. "Who figured it out?" Captain Carl said. "I did," Leo said. "Of course! Of course, the brainiac would be the one to figure it out!" Captain Carl said. "I have a remote explosive inserted into both of you, so move one step and I will blow your heads off!" "What can we do!?" Maxwell said. "Don't worry, I have just the plan," Leo said with a determined look on his face. Suddenly, a tranquilizer dart flew past them into the body of Captain Carl. Behind Maxwell and Leo was Kyle, who was holding the tranquilizer, smirking. Captain Carl dropped his gun and the remote as he began to lose consciousness. "Kyle, I will get you one day for that!" he said. "Well, I guess that won't be today," Kyle said suavely. "Wait-but-but-how?" Maxwell said. "I have known Kyle for over 15 years now, and I knew how much he hated people getting killed," Leo said, " When Kyle was first suspected, I knew something was off. I asked Kyle who suspected him first, and he said Captain Carl. So I told him to make a machine where when I press a button, it would send Kyle a signal to go after Captain Carl. We planned a whole attack to go on after I pressed the button. And here we are, triumphant over the murderer." "Yeah, that was a heck of a plan that you put there," Kyle said. "What should we do with him?" Maxwell said. "Let's ask him why he wanted to kill all of us in the first place," Leo said. "Right. So Captain Carl, why did you want to kill all of us?" Maxwell said. "To get all the glory, of course, I wanted to be the only person to land on Europa and get the water from there, "Captain Carl said. “What should we do with him?” Kyle said.“Could we toss him out into space like in among us?” Alice suggested. “Captain Carl was voted out… Captain Carl… was the imposter HAHA” added Max “You mean that really old retro video game from the 2020s?” said David “No, let's do something better, he wanted to be on Europa right, so let's leave him stranded on Europa…alone,” Kyle said. So they dropped Captain Carl in a remote area of Europa and went to gather the water. (From Europa)

Captain Carl was wandering around the moon of Europa, muttering to himself. “Why did those stupid people have to be so smart!?” he said. It was all because of my assistant Leo that led to me being kicked out and stranded on Europa. The only thing I have to drink is water and the only thing I have to eat are my ration packets. I just wanted to get all the glory, why was that so hard for the crew to understand? I don’t care, I'm about to run out of food anyway I guess I’ll starve to death all alone. But then, Captain Carl sees some ancient ruins up ahead. “Woah, wait what is this?” Captain Carl said, surprised, “ Let's go find out what is in here.” Captain Carl went all around the ruins and didn’t find any food, just old, rusty buildings in the ancient city. But then, he searched this one building and saw something amazing, a TV that was working. “ How did this civilization know how to make a TV?” Captain Carl thought to himself. He saw a tape hidden beneath the wires. “And there is a cool tape to watch for entertainment!” he said happily. He inserted the tape into the TV and watched the film. “ Hello, this is Ronald and we want to tell you about this civilization. What you are standing in is the capital city of the original human civilization. Aliens are attacking our civilization. We don’t know how to stop them. They are wiping out millions of our people! Some of us had to flee to maintain human civilization. So the rest of us fled on ships to the planet that we had found suitable for human life. Most of us have been shot down by the alien civilization, but a handful of humans have made it to Earth with all their ships broken down and they all got concussions from a blast that almost hit them. We were once a very sophisticated civilization, with flying cars and a spaceship network across the Milky Way. But it appears like we will have to start over on earth. We put up a good fight, but it appears as though this is the end of the mighty human civilization. It appears that some aliens are storming through this building, so I will have to put down my speaker. FOR HUMANS!” That was the end of the tape. Captain Carl was astounded. “Human civilization started from here!?” Captain Carl said. “That is right,” an alien-operated AI said from behind him. “WOAH!” Captain Carl said, scared. “Don’t be so scared, I will give you a quick and easy death,” The alien AI said. Captain Carl was shot with a blaster and killed. “Hey come here said the alien controls, we have an issue,” The Super Weapon started saying, “ There’s more,”



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