journey to the unknown: the hero within us: Book One

Chapter one: The Call from Beyond

     It all started when the climatic conditions of earth began to change rapidly. And man had to find a new home for themselves.
     In the depths of the vast space, a spaceship, which was the size of a football stadium, moved at a speed that exceeds that of light. It had a label on it's sides, "PROJECT S.B.019.
    Going into the space ship, the main commander of the space ship stood on deck/control center of the space ship. He talks to the rest of the pilots flying the space ship and crews saying, "we are coming up on the one hundred and twenty fourth planet we have come in contact with, since this our journey for the past ten years began."
    The commander, commander Mark, who was a young American man, then gives orders to his seconds in command, who were captain Amanda, Captain Derrick and Captain John. He orders Captain Derrick, who was a young Russian man to prepare the soldiers to deploy, to check out the planet. He also orders captain Amanda, who was a young female American lady, to prepare the science crews on the ship to take the readings on the upcoming planet. Meanwhile, as captain Derrick and captain Amanda walks out of the room, captain John meets them on their way  out as he was about to enter the control center.
     A young lady and a young man were by his left and right respectively. Now, captain John was a black man from Africa.
     Interestingly, everyone on the space ship were either in their late twenties or early thirties.
     The young man by captain John, a young man from Africa, Delta Nigeria in particular, whose name was Stanley White, was quite knowledgeable when it comes to operating the space ship and so, commander Mark orders him to take over the main control of the spaceship as the guy who was in that seat gets up immediately, for Stanley to take over.
     As Stanley took control of the spaceship, he and the rest of the pilots were able to bring the spaceship to a stop right over the planet they were coming up on.
     Commander Mark then orders Silvester, a science genius who was also amongst them in the control center to take a long range scan of the planet, as Silvester who was already on it and therefore says, "I'm already on it sir." After the long range scan of the planet, they found out that the planet had a vast range of life forms found on it. Unlike any other planet they have ever come across. This planet did not just have abundant amount of plant life, but also a vast variety of living organisms, likened to those of earth.
     In the spaceship, in the locker room of the soldiers, those who were to deploy to the planet, about eighteen of them, wore their uniforms and armed themselves with robotic body armours, from head to toe.
   As the crews on the spaceship moved from one end to the other, a soft and warm inspirational song plays over the volume and a voice narrates the past events of earth. The voice begins by saying, "it all started in the year 2070 when the climatic conditions of earth became too harsh for man to live in. Some parts of earth became too hot and at the same time, other parts became too cold. By 2085, Africa became a desert like land with no plant life, as it became too hot for anyone to dwell in. Antarctic was a forgotten continent and at this same time, the earth had lost seventy percent of it's land surface to the sea. People all over the world had to go to the United States and Europe for refuge mostly, cause these were some of the parts of the world that still had food and shelter for mankind. It was then that all world leaders came together for a single goal, which was the survival of mankind. They brought together all the best scientists and engineers from all over the world to work on a project in space called "PROJECT E.02," formally known as earth two. After seven years they finally completed the project, working non-stop for the entire seven years. After this, they decided to carry on another project called "PROJECT S.B.019," which is formally known as PROJECT SPACE BALL. This was a spaceship that could break the speed limit barrier, as it could travel literally, millions of times faster than the speed of light.  This they achieved due to the vanishing device invented by a Nigerian scientist named Adewole O. Shadare. He himself was also able to build this device due to the teleportation device built by an American genius called Charles Freeman. The two projects were all completed by the year 2100 and the PROJECT S.B.019 was launched into the cosmos with an aim of finding a new home for man. No one knew if the PROJECT S.B.019 would ever return back to earth and so, they made sure to send only teenagers who were capable of surviving on their own. Families and friends of the young men and women greeted their children farewell before they departed. NASA also found a planet far away which they suspected to have some kind of life on it and they set the coordinates of the Project S.B.019 to that planet, which was in a far away galaxy."
     Coming back to the spaceship, at the control center as they all in the room were glad that they had found a planet that was similar to earth, Stanley used the opportunity and snuck out of the room and headed to his room and found William who was narrating the events and watching the documentation of the events on his computer system, putting on a headset. Stanley walked towards him and took off the headset and tells him it was time, cause William was a pilot who is supposed to fly one of the aircrafts that were to deploy to the planet.
    After Stanley had told him that, they were preparing to deploy for the planet, he and Stanley went to the deployment center.
     Back on deck, commander Mark asked Silvester to check for signs of intelligent life on the planet and found non. Then the commander gives captain Derrick and captain Amanda orders to deploy.
     They deployed to the planet on their small aircrafts as William took the lead, being the pilot of the leading aircraft. Getting to the ground level, they saw the beauty of the planet as the environment was adorned with beautiful flowers and trees of lovely colours. The planet also had hills and water falls.
     The soldiers came out first as they touched ground, securing the perimeter, four soldiers then deployed four drones in the air. Captain Amanda then commanded the scientists to be brought out to take the readings of the planet and as they came out, the leader of the science team, Lucy by name, was more than amazed at the splendid sight of the planet. The planet was quite breathtaking in beauty, nothing we know could be compared to it.
     Lucy and her team then took the readings of the planet and found out that the air contents of that planet and earth were similar and almost identical, only the presence of an unknown element made it defer. She tells this to the captains on ground as those in the spaceship above the sky were also receiving transmission from the ground, hearing and seeing everything going-on on the ground.
     Right there, captain Derrick asked if it was possible for man to survive on that planet, seeing the difference was only one unknown element in the air. Lucy tells him it might be just an element, but that could be a huge difference, but that there is also a chance they could breathe the air. That was when a soldier decided to take off his oxygen mask to find out if they could breathe the air or not.
     Taking off his mask everyone was scared a bit, especially Lucy, as she shouted that he should put on his mask back. But after the soldier took at least four deep breaths and yet nothing odd occurred, everyone was relieved and happy. Captain Derrick also told commander Mark not to worry as the commander told him not to endanger the life of any soldier.
     Back on the spaceship, Silvester picked up a weak signal coming from the depths of space. He told this to the commander and the commander told him to track the signal, but he couldn't easily track it, because the signal was faint and too weak.
     Commander Mark then asked for Stanley as Stanley wasn't in the room. He then ordered a female crew to go and fetch Stanley.
     Back on the planet, the soldier who took off his oxygen mask, after a while, could not breathe properly and began to cough and got dizzy and passed out. Lucy immediately shouted and asked for them to wear him his oxygen mask.
     Back on the spaceship, Stanley had a recall of when he was back on earth, of the day his father told him to go on the journey with the rest of the crew, saying the earth had no future again.
     The scene was in space, in the Project E.02, the president of the United States addressed all who were present and assured all of a new tomorrow. All world leaders and rulers were present and all high ranking officers.
     Stanley's immediate father, Mr. White, told his son to make the right decision and go on the journey. Mr. White told Stanley of how he once made him to make the right decision in the past. Afterwards, Mr. White walked into the meeting room in the Project E.02 and presented all that were to board the space ship. A sum of five hundred and forty persons were to board the space ship, consisting of scientists, doctors, engineers and soldiers. Everyone who were selected for the mission were blacks and whites, from every parts of the world. They were also to go with all kinds of living things, for their preservation and protection from extinction, cause they were not sure of what might become of the planet in the nearest future.
     Immediately, Stanley heard a knock at the door and it was the young lady sent by the commander. As she opens the door, she saw Stanley who was kneeling on the floor and resting on his bed, praying to God for them to see a world where mankind can live on safely again.
     On their way to the control center, she asks him if God heard his prayer and he says yes. She then says, if God heard you and He really exists, why would He let them leave earth and why didn't He protect earth against destruction? Stanley says God has His reasons for everything and some of them, even though He explains it to us, we wouldn't understand and that is why He doesn't tell us most of the things He does.
     Getting to the control center, commander Mark instructed Silvester to show Stanley the signal and asked Stanley if he could track it and Stanley said he would try his best. Stanley tried and was able to lock unto the transmission signal and they were all glad he did.
     Commander Mark then called out to captain Derrick to return back to the spaceship immediately. While on the planet, the science team took three samples of specimens for research purpose and as they were about leaving the planet, Lucy being one of the last persons to enter the aircrafts, saw a frog-like organism and took it for study. Captain Derrick then pinned a pole-like device into the group that had the United State's flag on it's top. He then pressed a button on it and the device started beeping blue light. They all then got into the aircrafts and left after the soldiers had retrieved the drones.
     Getting to the spaceship, in the deploy center, the commander and captain John were there to receive them back onboard. Lucy was excited to have found a planet that had features close to that of earth. She rushed forward to give the reports of the planet and to her surprise, he told her to see him on that matter later and that she should make sure the soldier who passed out, be properly attended to. He then called together the captains along with Stanley and went straight to the control center.
     On getting there, commander Mark told captain Derrick and captain Amanda of their recent discovery while they were on the planet. After knowing the subject at hand, they decided to head towards the origin of the signal.
     Stanley took the central stage of the control of the spaceship and with the help of all the other pilots, were able to get to the location from which the signal came from. Stanley also instructed them to jam all transmission signals on their space ship, not to attract any unwanted attention.