Finding Home

Chapter One: A New World

I open my eyes, expecting to see the familiar white ceiling of my room but I don't see anything. There was just darkness. I reach for my comforter to cover my arms from the cold draft that was coming in, but it wasn't there. I could only feel my warm pajama pants and the leather mattress I was sleeping on.

I stopped, my eyes stared wide into the darkness. I don't sleep on a leather mattress.

"OUCH!" I cry and rub my head after I had hit it on something as I sat up. what could I have hit my head on? I don't sleep on a bunkbed and there's nothing hanging above my bed. There is no way that I am in my room anymore. Where could I be? I reach above my head and I feel metal. Why is there metal? I search around me, hoping to find something. There's a key pad beside me so I start pressing random buttons, praying that I press the right one. whichever one that may be.

Suddenly, a light turns on, momentarily blinding me. I blink a few times, adjusting my eyes to the bright light. looking around, I suddenly realize that I know where I am but it couldn't be possible. They hadn't been finished. right? I think back to when I had last seen it. It was only a couple days ago. I had been wandering around the scientific research base where I live with my father and I came across a room that I hadn't seen before. There were a bunch of these round objects, no more than twenty, and they looked like they were only big enough to fit one average sized person. But they hadn't been finished yet. I remember seeing the electrical panels and wires and some were still needing to be assembled.

I had many questions racing through my mind. Why am I in this mysterious pod? Where am I? Why am i
here? How did I even get here? I searched the key pad for a button that would open the pod but I couldn't find one, so I started searching the rest of the interior for a latch, or really just anything that would be useful. There wasn't much in the pod, so it didn't take me long to find the small latch for the little door. It wasn't even that hidden so I don't know why I didn't see it sooner. I slowly pulled on the latch, hoping that it would open. I was getting kind of claustrophobic in the small space.

"Yes!" I exclaimed, the door did in fact open. I pushed it out, hoping to see something familiar. "Great" I whispered under my breath in defeat. I didn't have a clue where I was. I knew I was in a forest but where that was, I had no idea. none of the plants looked liked those on the Island in Hawaii where the research base is. Where could I be?

I sat there puzzled and trying to push back the panic that was slowly starting to settle in. How did I get here? Maybe it's a prank. Maybe they put me in a finished pod and sent me to a forest somewhere. But as a joke? who would do that? I decided that the first thing I should do is figure out where I even am. The only problem was, I didn't know how to do that. I turn back to the pod and start searching the keypad for any sign of a map or at least coordinates. Maybe I could even find a way to communicate with someone at the base. I just needed to find a way back home.

I ran my fingers alone the buttons, saying their purpose out loud as I searched "Volume. lights. language. keyboard. Ha! Yes!" I exclaimed and pressed the button I had found. "Communication."

"No signal found" suddenly blasted through the pod in a computerized voice from some unseen speakers.

"Great, now I have no way to contact home. I guess I'd better look for a map of some sort." I continued to search the buttons till I found one with what looked like a small picture of a globe. "Maybe I can finally figure out where I am." I pressed the button and crossed my fingers and whispered under my breath "please work. please work."

I jumped as a holographic screen suddenly lit up on the wall in front of me. It showed a map of the universe. I had never seen a holographic screen before. I had never even known that the technology even existed. I thought it was only possible in movies. So how was this technology in the pod from my base? Am I dreaming? I pinched myself just to make sure. "nope. I'm not dreaming." I didn't completely rule out dreaming though because it just doesn't seem like this could ever happen in real life.

I poked the swirl that represented the Milky Way on the map, hoping that it would just zoom in and luckily it did. "Good, I won't have to spend too much time figuring out how to use this map." After pressing on the planet Earth, I turned the globe that appeared with my finger, searching for the tiny islands of Hawaii. "Ha! There it it." I zoomed in for a closer view of the islands but I didn't see a marker or anything that told me that I was there so I moved over to the states. After finding nothing there, I searched the other countries. "Nothing."

I slumped against the back wall in defeat. "Where could I be?" I had assumed that there would be a small dot or something that would show my exact location, but there was nothing. "How could that be?" I searched the map again. Maybe I had just missed something.

"Still nothing."

I stared at the map, willing something to pop up and tell me "This is where you are." But that didn't happen because of course things never go the way you want them to. While I searched the map for something useful I found some buttons in the corner of the map that I hadn't even notice before.

"How did I miss this?" I pressed the button that had an arrow on it. I didn't know what that would do but I figured it was worth a shot. suddenly the map zoomed out showing the entire Milky Way and then zoomed back in but this time, into a different solar system. Still nothing. I decided that since I had nothing better to do, why not search all known solar systems to see if maybe, just maybe, I could find something useful.

I searched and searched for what seemed like hours but I couldn't tell because there seemed to be no source of time with all the technology that surrounded me. I eventually found my location. "How did I get here?" I questioned. I had found a blue flashing diamond located on a small planet, relatively close to its sun but not too close that it couldn't be inhabited. I figured that this was where I was,  but how did I get here? This planet is millions of miles from earth. No one has invented technology to transport a human being this far from earth. Right?

I sit there, bewildered at the situation I somehow found myself in. How could this happen? what am I supposed to do now? I can't possibly get home, not without the right technology.