Here come's another story by Dhruv. This he has completed on 28-July-2020, still wondering the way he picked the story line when the theme was presented to him. He continues to type the story with the flow as if he's typing ABC.... His characters are from United States and it happens there, although we never know how it feels to be in the United States. But you know, imagination does not have any boundary and that's how the trip to outer space takes us. Hope you would enjoy the story, the way I enjoyed.

When it comes to me for proof reading, I do the proof reading to my abilities and have not asked him to correct any of his writings as the thought process and imagination is not mine. I prefer to read and not a arduous critic & have no impact on his imagination.  Ok, it's time for me to take you into the trip to outer space. Have a safe, fabulous, fantastic journey!!!

A TRIP TO OUTER SPACE – -BY DHRUV

“Aah!” I gasped to breathe. Someone or something cut off my oxygen tank. I struggled to suck in air more ferociously as I saw that something. An alien. It had some kind of mandibles and was pink in colour with fly-like eyes. It surveyed me and headed in my direction. It seemed to know I was weak. I slowly closed my eyes as I gave up and waited. 

Nearby, Bill rushed in my direction as I dropped to the ground. How did I get to this point? Well, I hope I can survive that long to tell you.

1 month before…

“Come on. Let’s go that way.” said Bill. I disagreed with him reading the sign on the board. “No people allowed.”

“Please??”

“Fine.”

Where were we? In Area 51, Nevada. Yes, that area where people say aliens spotted, US Military only allowed and all that stuff. But, as for me, I don’t believe in aliens. I didn’t know how harshly my belief in them would be recorrected.

We climbed the extraordinary tall fence and proceeded into the area. It was filled with dead grass and other stuff. We proceeded further into it.

“Aw man, this place is a disappointment. I say, why don’t we come here at night? We’ll stay here until then.” Bill said.

“No, but—”

My talk was interrupted by a look, a Bill-kind of look, the one where I-knew-I-was-right was strongly exhibited.

“Fine!”

So, we set camp there for the night. Time passed as we saw nothing, not even a slight movement. It soon became 3 pm. We were getting ready to leave when we saw it. A bright light illuminated the area as something oval-y landed.

“An UFO” I realized.

That meant…

“I told you aliens existed.” whispered Bill.

“Zorbnac Glorporu.” said an unfamiliar voice.

“What?”

“Translating…Language detected – English. Converting…Put your hands in the air.” the translator of the alien said in a dramatic voice.

We did so. The alien pointed the laser like thing towards our backs. “Move.”

“Hutesds. Retrte Hutesds.” beeped a thing inside the UFO.

“A warning? What? Oh wait, I’m in English.”

He went inside the UFO to check it out.

“Ok, we don’t have much time Bill, we need a plan.” I mumbled.

“Say sorry?”

“No.”

The alien turned towards us.

“Run!” Bill screamed.

I didn’t budge. You see, I was busy looking at something else, a woman with a sci-fi looking gun behind the alien. He didn’t seem to be aware of this. She shot it.

“Have to investigate him. Of course, it didn’t snub the light out of him. It’s a Miescher 41.” she said. “Now what about you guys?” she menacingly added.

“Uh…We…Uh”

“Come with me.”

We followed her. I gave a last glance at the alien. It stirred.

“Uh, mam?”

“No. Just follow me.”

The alien headed towards her, who was last in the line.

“But…”

“No buts. Just come.”

I had no other choice. I snatched the gun from her and turned towards the alien, only to see it waiting. It sent a blow to me that left me in a heap on the ground.

“Ow.” I moaned.

“Aah!” she screamed as the alien headed closer.

I painfully got up and did what was right. I grasped the gun and shot the alien. It groaned and fell down, knocked out.

“Thanks.” she said, brushing some dirt off her coat.

“You know what, maybe you two are useful, after all.” She pointed to a part of the fence.

“Your 2nd test. Shoot that. If you are normal, you can’t see it.”

“What is there?” Bill asked. Even I couldn’t see it at first.

I concentrated more. And there, I saw it. A miniature telephone with a button – Press Me. It seemed 2 km away.

“Yes, it is around 2 km away.” she said, as if reading my thoughts.

I went for the chance and shot it. It hit the target with 100 percent accuracy.

“Wow!” she said, obviously impressed. “You both are selected. You,” she said pointing at me.

“Jack.” I interrupted.

“Yeah, Jack, you are selected for your shooting skills. Bill, you for your running skills.”

Saying this, she took out another gun, loaded it and shot us.” It seemed like a tranquilizer dart.

“Sorry, but no one can know about the secret headquarters, except an agent, of course. Your third test awaits. If not, I have this forget-lipstick-taser.”

Hearing this not so comforting words, I blacked out.

“Huh?”

“Hey, where are we?”

“NASA headquarters.”

“You mean, we are in Washington DC. That’s real far from Nevada.”

“Yes, now for your final test. You know what, you saved me. Leave this final test. You are recruited.”

“But NASA is—”

“Oh, some people give NASA- National Astronautics and something because we study space? Seriously, that’s lame. Our actual form is National American Secret Agency. We study space because of the aliens lurking in it.”

“Aliens?”

“Like the one you saw.”

“Oh.”

“What about Bill?”

“He is already recruited.”

“How did we get here? I mean—I am an agent, right?”

“You go to Tailoring Ricky, get inside, go to Staff Only and then open the cupboard. Shuffle around the dresses until no staff is there. Then go inside the cupboard and speak, “I am 2-9-0-8-2-3-6. That’s your code. Everyone has a different code. Once you say this, a button will appear. Press that and you will be sucked inside from a tube under your feet. And, you arrive. See, it’s simple.”

“Whoa! That’s cool.” I exclaimed.

“Totally.”

“Now, go on to the mission hub and check whether they have a mission in store for you. Bill is in the next room.

Take him too.”

I got up from my seat and headed in the next room, where I saw Bill playing Space Pirates with a robot.

“Hey, finally. Hi Jack. What took you so long. Come on let’s go to the mission hub.”

We proceeded, taking aid of the signs. That’s when we heard an announcement.

“Jack and Bill are requested to come to the Board of Directors room.”

So, we headed there, unaware of the big mission we were to be handed over.

We knocked on the door and pushed it.

“Ahem, we have some news for you. You have a mission. We have found 7 aliens who we think pose a danger to Earth. So, we need you two to go and investigate them. Thus, best of luck.” You will be taken by our driver who you already know.”

“Hey, it’s the woman who I saved.” I exclaimed.

“So, what you waiting for? Shuttle up. By the way, my name is Kyle, not the-woman-you-saved.”

And so, before we knew it, we were being launched into space. Our spacecraft jerked a bit from time to time. Earth’s magnetic field, as they say in books, is strong.

“Space junk!” Kyle screamed.

We somehow avoided them all.

First, we all felt nauseating. But then we got adjusted and the view was incredible.

To pass the time (a spacecraft only travels at around 8km/hr), we told FACTS about Earth and space.

• When we look into the night sky, we actually look back in time! The stars that we see during night are actually very far from Earth and so we are actually seeing how they looked in the past by maybe around 25 years.

• We are all made of stardust since every element found on Earth (including us) comprises of stardust. 

• The Earth was once purple. All credit to some ancient microorganisms.

• Right now, we are travelling thorough space at a mind-boggling speed of 66,000 miles/hr. It’s surprising our bodies can’t feel anything.

• What’s so great in a minute? In a minute, 6000 lightning flashes hit the Earth, one is 5 times as hot as the Sun. That means 100 times a second.

• Earthquakes can produce gold. Many elements, such as gold, are located below the Earth’s surface.

• You might be spinning at 1,000 miles/hr depending on your location.

• Cosmic dust. Ah! The magical mention of it gets you stirred. But chances are, on your way to school, you’ve already inhaled it. That’s because 60 tons of cosmic dust falls to Earth every day.

• The oceans hold $771 trillion of gold in them.

• We don’t know who named the Earth “Earth.” Earth is the only planet that wasn't named after a Greek or Roman god or goddess.

And so, we ended our facts session. Obviously, we didn’t know a lot of facts. I wanted to continue. But we had a mission and space didn’t show its deadly side until now. Soon, we reached the point where the farthest pic of Earth was taken by Voyager 1.6 billion km away.

Days passed on until….

“Hey, look at that.” Bill screamed. It was a planet, a beautiful one at that.

“That’s the planet where these species were spotted. And now my job is over. I just got to drive you to here. Bye.” said Kyle in a calm voice.

“Wait, you can’t leave us here like— Aah!”We landed with a thump on this planet. We started exploring it when we encountered the alien.

This is my life story probably. I think it ends with, “The alien got me.”

“Hey, he’s waking.”

I stirred slowly.

“Hey, I’m alive. Again. And I’m inside my oxygen tank.”

“The alien meant no harm. NASA guys conformed.”

“Ok, I got scared. But, wait, then why did he cut off my oxygen tank?”

“He thought it was something you’re carrying. He repaired it too.”

“O-ok.”

“So, job done. The alien doesn’t want to attack Earth.” I radioed in.

“But there are 7 and your friend is only 1.”

Someone banged on the door loudly. It seemed they would barge in any moment.

“Zorhfpsgh Lopilurt.” said the alien.

“Barricade the door.” Bill screamed. He had a translator in his hand.

Before the alien could do it, the door bust open and 6 mean looking figures stepped inside.

Whatever the aliens said, it translated it.

“Trapped. You come with us, little brother—”

He dragged the alien away.

“Your planet is going to be destroyed.” It said pointing to us.

“Hello? Is anyone there?” the radio shot up.

“Yeah, me. The alien was—”

“I know everything that happened. We got to save our Earth and the friendly alien. Follow them.”

We did as we were told. Two humans with MK 41’s walking against the skyline of this planet VS 6 aliens. It would be kind of a hard fight, considering they knew this planet better.

“Kloiork xghty, maters.”

The aliens turned around. They left the little alien and headed towards us. It was just the perfect  Western Cowboy background except it was on a different planet.

I thought it’d be a classic film fight. The villains be polite and come for you one by one. But the aliens clearly didn’t see any movies. They came at us all.

What happened then was a disaster. We lost the fight in 2 seconds. Everything just happened so fast. We ran towards them but it happened suddenly. We were pinned down with guns pointed our backs.

“Go in the volcano.” said the translator.

We climbed it. It was not that tall but it was really hot. So, they we were, about to get skimmered like roasted kebab. It was hopeless. Earth was going to be destroyed.

We messed up on our first and last mission.

“Jump when I tell you. We want a perfect picture. 3…2….

—"

Boom!

A loud noise shook us all. Another one accompanied it, only louder. Someone was bombing the planet. Could it be…

“Kyle!”

“Hope on guys.”

The friendly alien ran and caught up with us.

“What is going to happen to this planet?”

“I’m sorry to do this. I’m going to put this planet in a black hole. No permanent damage done.”

Saying this, she did the grim actions and off we went, back to Earth.

3 years later…

“No, the new recruiter? 3 tests, not 2.”

Now, I’m head of NASA. I have never travelled into space again. All was fine until…

“Jack, I’ve got a problem.” Bill rushed into my corner office. “We found 10,000’s of them same aliens on another planet.”

“What, we almost failed with 6 and now there are 10,000’s of them?”

“Yes, and we need you.” “So, back into space?” Bill asked.

“I got to face my fears. So, yes.”

I headed down the stairs.

“Hey, F.A., you’re coming with us.”

“Yes, in just a second.”

By F.A., I mean Friendly Alien. He can now speak English. But, no more bragging. We’ve got a mission ahead of us.

So, bye. See you next time.

Thank you for reading this story. Hope you like it.