Children's Control

08-06-2030

When I wake up, Ellen just comes in. She tells me she has to sleep. Meanwhile, I'm taken right out of my cell, into a large van. I'm blindfolded and put under by Alice, who drives me to a large space laboratory. I only realize it's a space laboratory when I wake up, and Alice removes my blindfold. I'm taken into a breakfast room, where I'm given one tin can of raw beans. Afterwards, Alice also gives me some other foods to test out, as they are designed to be taken into space. I really like some of them, but others I dislike so much, I almost have to vomit. However, other adults are allowed to have other tastes than me, and each other.

Then, I'm taken into one of the rooms of what soon becomes an airship-spacecraft hybrid, which seems almost ready to be launched at a newly discovered planet. The children want to train me and the other adults for the new environment we're going to be in when this thing takes off into space. We have to get used to the controls of the space-plane, and also to living in zero gravity. The children seem everywhere, and always ready to give us a good slap or worse if we make any mistakes.

Eventually, I'm taken out, and the children force me to remove several plates, in order to have a look inside. I have to know about the different parts of the vehicle, and how to repair certain parts from the outside. In addition, I have to remove several protection sleeves from the inlets and outlets, and have a look at their condition. Whenever anything seems wrong, according to a photo given, I have to clean it or sometimes even do small reparations. Then, I have to check the interior, according to some more photos. The children already found their place, and when I have a look there, their rooms still seem much larger than what I will get for sleeping room.

Alice then takes me out and into a large chamber,which is then sealed for me to be sterilised. The reason for that, is that there might be an unknown life-form on the new planet, and the children don't want to take diseases with them that may potentially harm these unknown creatures on the new planet. Then, the children do this to many other adults, one by one. Eventually, everyone is put back in their rooms in the spacecraft, as we have to get used to living in such small spaces. I get out of my room, and have a look where Izzy is on-board. It seems like all rooms are only given two numbers, each indicating who lives there. However, there're never any names next to them.

I go right back to my room. When I get there, Ellen is right next to me. I talk to her about my first time I'm going to leave Earth's orbit, and go to a completely new planet, that no adult knows about. It hasn't even be observed by anyone, until the children started a war against all adults. It thus seems like this is not just any discovery, but an important place for the children. But no adult knows why the children want to go there. I don't even know how the planet will be. All I get is some papers, which show the communication between the two species, translated in a language I never learned.

Alice comes in to give me a glass of water. I notice it weighs two times as much as before, and put it to one side. Alice tells me she turned on the artificial gravity system, just as a test. Then, about half an hour later, my glass of water weighs exactly as much as it weighs normally. I do feel like I'm pulled together a little bit, but the feeling does go away just minutes later. Alice comes to tell me I have to stay in the spacecraft tonight, because it's now made ready to launch from the base.

I then get out of my room to get a little bit of food, but Alice comes across me and pushes me right back in my room. Once there, she puts a lock on my bed and whips me several tomes on my back, to then pull on the elastics around me and let them go by themselves, causing me to jump back in my 'sleeping position'. This feels like being shot out of a cannon. There is literally nothing else to compare the violence with, that the children not only use on me, but also on all other adults.

Then, I'm taken to the control centre, right at the front of the spacecraft. The children tell me which button has which purpose. I point to some buttons with a red ring, and ask what they do. The children tell me all of these buttons control the Faster-Than-Light propulsion system. All I'm told about this system is that it has to use special 'tracks' to achieve very high seeds, up to 30C*, but it can go as fast as 3C anywhere else. However, I'm not told exactly what each button does.

The spacecraft is then put into a 'Test Drive Mode', and I can push any button I want, so I do. It feels like I'm really controlling the spacecraft, but really, it isn't even moving at all. I'm told this really is only for the children to check out if the controls do exactly what they need to do, as if any parts are broken,that's really taken into the simulation. They also tell me they used it some time to learn to control the FTL drive. Alice takes right back into my room, where I'm then secured to my sleeping position.

*C=speed of light.