Miror Terram

Chapter 1

Hey. This is my first story here on Wattpad. I wrote it for my 8th grade English class and I want to record it somewhere before it is deleted on my school Google account. It's done, but I might publish one chapter every few days. There are a total of five fairly long chapters. Here's the first one! 

I just got the cover from Pinterest. The story is 100% mine.

Chapter 1

Shift, red button, thrusters. Alyssa frantically pushed buttons to no avail. A robotic voice blared over the loudspeakers, "Disengaging thrusters in 3..2..1.."

The ship shuddered and stopped working. Outside the small window, she could see the blank expanse of her immediate future. It was evidently too late. The ship had crossed into the event horizon. The ship was moving quickly, too quickly in order to even breathe. Alyssa was pushed against the back of her seat, hoping beyond hope that this would end quickly.

Two hours earlier

"Lyssa! I've got exciting news!" Lorna hurried in. "We got accepted into the program! You know, the one I was telling you about!" Alyssa blearily sat up in the small sleeping pod, narrowly missing hitting her head on the roof.

"What program? Don't tell me you want me to go into Earthen History. Unless it's an inter-galactic explorer, I'm not interested."

"Don't say that. You know, Earthen History really is interesting. All those wars and countries and people." Her voice trailed off wistfully. She snapped back into focus. "Anyway, as I was saying, I found the perfect assignment for the two of us. You would know, if you hadn't fallen asleep when I was talking about it. I signed us up and we were accepted!"

"Lorna... Are you saying what I think you're saying? You signed me up for my assignment? My job for the rest of my life?"

Lorna stood firm. "Yes. I am your older sister and I know what's best for you. I thought you were just going to let them assign you to a job, as you've procrastinated to this point. We've been accepted into an geography position all the way back on Earth! Our job is going to be examining patterns in the world to see what used to be there."

"I told you! I wanted to go to colonies, find new planets and explore! Not be stuck in a dead-end job on Earth of all places!"

"Seriously, Alyssa. I really thought you would grow up out of that infatuation. It's impossible for you to do that. I thought you would be excited for a chance to get off this rock called Proserpine. Can't you imagine the trees? The grass? Even the sky?" She paused and looked wistfully at the ceiling. "Now tell me you don't want that."

"No. Get away from me. Go now." Alyssa pushed her sister out of her cramped pod to her protests. The world grew red. She faintly remembered Lorna telling her to get ready. Blindly she got dressed and stumbled out of the room into the long hallway. Lorna was waiting for her. Before she could say a word, Alyssa turned and marched down the hallway. In doing so, she tripped over something white. Promptly she fell face first on the floor. The last thing she could remember was Lorna leaning over her with a worried look on her face.

"'Lyssa... Alyssa! I'm going......."

---------

The world spun. There was no sign of Lorna as Alyssa blearily sat up. She looked around for sign of the white thing she had tripped over. She would have to lodge a safety complaint as per the policy of the colony. That was funny. There was no sign of it. She stood up wincing, as her ribs cried out in complaint. Alyssa rubbed them, when she saw a white fluffy thing turn a corner. Alyssa started chasing after it. If someone had let their pet go free, they would be in big trouble. As she neared it, she could make out the shape of the animal. But oddly, it seemed to be on its hind legs.

While running, she only faintly registered that they were getting close to the docking port. A ship was taking off at 0700 hours to go to the newly-founded mission on Juno, a first for Proserpine. Barely recognizing the familiar sounds, she sprinted through the docking zone, still in hot pursuit of the animal. As Alyssa ran, people cried out in surprise as she hurdled past them. She saw some of her childhood friends in the hurried zone, saying goodbye to the people on the mission. The animal, however did not go unnoticed, and many people tried and failed to catch it. With one final leap of strength the creature bounded into the spaceship. Alyssa slowed down; she couldn't do anything now. Taking in her atmosphere, she looked around to see the shocked faces of the humans.

"Well?" one man said, "Aren't you going to go in and get it?" He nudged her toward the still-open doors of the spacecraft.

"Oh! I'm sorry. The animal isn't mine; I was just trying to catch it," Alyssa replied.

"Do you think I care who's animal it is? Just go get it off the ship," the man gruffly said, nudging her again, not as gently. Alyssa swallowed a lump and moved toward the doors.

---------

That was at 0630. Now at 0755, she was going to die. The rabbit, as she had discovered, had hopped into the control room and proceeded to jump on the control panel, hitting the autonomous takeoff and navigation system. She quite loudly cursed the person who ever would make such a thing. Her hands danced over the control panel in hopes of triggering something that would send them back to Proserpine, but it proved impossible. Having never piloted a ship before, she could only wait. Unfortunately, that meant she was helpless. All of a sudden, the ship had started to speed up in one particular direction, quickly increasing in speed. That was the first sign she was doomed.

Though Alyssa didn't know how to pilot a ship, she did know the signs of what would happen if you fell into a black hole. Years ago she had become interested in one of the ancient scientists, Albert Einstein, and his pursuits of black hole research. She had rushed to the window, in hopes of seeing something that could deny her unsettling theory. Outside the window, she could only see a wide expanse of stars, calm and bright as ever leaning in one direction. She stroked the rabbit, still staring out the window. That was when alarms started screaming. A loud alarm with a computerized voice started counting down.

"Alert. Alert. GCCO detected. Approaching event horizon." With a jolt, Alyssa jumped up. "GCCO detected. Approaching event horizon." The ship was drenched in red light. Alyssa ran to the control panel and frantically tried to do something to stop her from certain death. She only recognized two controls; the thruster and the control stick. She started attacking the stick in a pure frenzy, eventually turning the Albus Lepus temporarily. Before it could move back, she pounded the thruster. With a heart-stopping jolt, her only hope went down the drains. "Entered event horizon," the computer announced. "Expected entry of the GCCO in 10 seconds."