by Jacob Kriger (Grade 5)

Introduction
Space it seems as if it never ends. Some say if you go into a black hole, you’ll end up in another universe. I will be telling a story about a crew that got sent to space in the year 3000 and had a huge, risky adventure.
Chapter 1
It was the year 2999. It was New Year’s Eve, 6:48 pm in New York City. Flying cars and spaceships, that go faster than the speed of light with no problem, were being built. In the US National Space Port they created a new kind of spaceship. It was made of Trender metal.
Trender metal is a kind of metal that does not break. Trender metal is very valuable, very expensive and a very rare thing. Only one of the richest men could ever afford it.
One person did buy it; his name was Bob Relton. He dressed properly and he was well mannered but if a worker did something wrong he was quick to lose his temper. If his workers did even a small miscalculation they would be out of the door even faster than they could say the last words of this sentence. Relton once owned a planet called Foundasha but then he sold it for one trillion dollars. He was a “trillionaire.” Relton bought the space ship so everyone might know what is in a black hole. Relton was looking everywhere for a crew to go on the mission. He talked to the manager of the US National Space Port. The manager said, “Let me check out my list…..um, no sorry. I think all the crew-members are off duty. You might want to, …..oh wait, there is one person, his name is Jack Bronze.”
Jack Bronze was an ordinary person. He was poor and single. He lived in an apartment and spent fifty percent of his time drinking in a pub with his friends. He was bored with his life but he learned to accept it. He was a professional pilot astronaut but he did not get much of a chance to go into space.
Chapter 2
Relton got the information about Jack from the manager of the Space Port. The next day, he contacted Jack. Relton went to his apartment and rang the bell. Relton thought to himself, “How could anybody live in this garbage apartment?”
Jack was woken by the doorbell. He woke up grumpy and looked at the clock. It was 6 am! Jack stood up and walked cursing towards the door. He opened the door and said, “WHAT?!”
“Yes hello, I am Bob Relton, the trillionaire. I need to talk to Jack Bronze.”
Jack yawned. “That’s me, I think.”
“I have a job for you. I need to talk with you right away.”
Jack’s eyes opened wide. It was as if he saw a ghost, but through Jack’s eyes Relton was an angel. Jack took a big breath in and stammered “P-p-p-please , come in!” Relton entered and look around Jack’s place. It looked like a landfill site! There were beer bottles smashed on the ground; there was garbage everywhere. The T.V. was small and cracked. It looked like the couch was eaten by a lion and then spit out. His kitchen was on his bed. Relton realized Jack was a loser.
Jack wiped the cans and chips off the chair and asked Relton to have a seat. Relton did not listen, he was too busy looking around the room for a glimpse of cleanliness but the only thing he saw was one clean glass. Relton thought to himself, “What am I doing, putting this degenerate in control of my ship?”
Jack became impatient and said “Yo Relt, are you okay?”
“Huh? What?” replied Relton and he sat down.
Jack looked at Relton as if he was a crazy, mad person who wanted to jump off a cliff or something like that. Relton took a lot of papers out of his briefcase. It looked like a thousands pages. “Can you explain why you are here?” asked Jack.
“Yes. I have a job for you…. I think” said Relton
“Okay,” said Jack, “what’s the job?”
“Bronze, is that your name?”
“Yes,”
“I have a job for you and we can pay you a lot of money.” Relton had spoken before thinking. “Are you interested in a job?”
“Well, what is the salary?” asked Jack.
“Ten million dollars.”
Jack wasn’t surprised at all. He thought that this was another prank designed to tease him and point out that his life was worthless. Other people had done similar things before. “Okay, Relton, whatever you say.”
Relton took this as a ‘yes’ and gave Jack his card. Jack was starting to get annoyed and he yelled at Relton, “Get out of my apartment!”
Relton said “Listen I am 53 years old, I am a trillionaire, I am not going to joke about these things!”
“Okay then, I’ll take the job.”
Relton wondered what Jack was so calm. Then Relton said, “Listen if you don’t believe me I’ll take a lie-detector test!” Out of his briefcase he took a robot that looked like a little clipboard with paper attached. This was a lie-detector. Relton told Jack to ask him if he was lying.
“Are you lying about this job offer for ten million dollars?
Relton said, “No.”
The lie detector drew a straight line. Jack asked another question. “Is this job a suicide mission?”
Relton hesitated “Ah, well, you see…. .there might be some consequences….it’s about fifty / fifty……” The Rellton took a deep breathe and said “NO.” The lie detector pen went crazy and started to smoke. Jack had an eye on Relton and nodded. Relton squinted and said, “Well you won’t die if you don’t do something idiotic!” The lie-detector calmed down and drew a straight line.
“Do you think I am an idiot?” Jack asked.
“No I just think that you are loser that can’t find anything to do with his life.”
“I’ll prove you wrong, I’ll take the job!” Jack yelled.
“Okay then, let’s talk about the crew…”
“Wait, wait, what crew?” Jack asked with much concern.
“Well you do need a crew.”
“No way, I work solo!”
“Okay, you have gotten on my nerves. You either take the job WITH the crew or I will leave and you will be worthless again.”
“But, but… I have worked every mission alone so far!
“U-huh. And how many missions have you done, Jack?”
Jack hesitated and took a big breathe of defeat. “None” he sighed.
“Ah-huh, listen Jack you are a loser, you are bored with your life and you know it. Take my card and call me if you change your mind.” Relton got up and left.

Chapter 3
The next day Jack was in a bar called the Loof Bar. He sat down and asked for the strongest beer called “Bloors.” After that, Jack’s friend came in. His name was Justin Marlin. Justin was an average person. Wait a minute, who am I kidding, he was just like Jack but kinder and he wasn’t an alcoholic.
“Hi, Jack,” said Justin.
“Hey.”
“So, what’s up?” asked Justin “Hey, you are drinking Bloors. You only drink that when you’ve had a sad, mad or frustrating day.”
“All of the above,” grunted Jack.
“Okay, what is wrong?” Jack started to tell Justin everything about Relton, the ship and the crew. After a while, Justin asked about the salary.
“How much is this rich guy willing to pay?” A couple of minutes passed and Jack finally responded.
“Ten million dollars.”
“WHAT!?” screamed Justin. The “what” passed all through the bar.
“Shhhhhhh,” whispered Jack.
“Well, are you going to do it?”
“I don’t know. I really wanted to go solo. Maybe….”
Justin cut Jack off, “Dude, we are talking about ten million dollars. The heck with the degenerate crew!”
“I guess, but where am I going to find a ……”
“I’ll go!!” yelled Justin.
“What you want to be a part of this degenerate crew?”
“Yes, sir – sir,” said Justin.
“Really? Well okay, I guess. Let’s take a walk.” In a few minutes, they were jogging down the road with Vodka in their hands singing “We are rich! We are rich!”

Chapter 4
The next day, Jack and Justin went to Relton. They rang the bell but no one answered. Then they had to take a hover taxi to the US National Space Port. The Space Port was huge. There were people everywhere. Jack and Justin walked up to the doors. The doors looked like they were five meters long. They went into the Port and their jaws dropped. It looked bigger on the inside than it did on the outside. There were people from different countries, such as China, England, Japan, Russia… you name it! Jack and Justin arrived at Relton’s office.
The secretary said, “Hello, I am Sarah Moar, how can I help you?”
“Thank-you, Sarah,” said Jack. Sarah was a nice person. She was quick to forgive and adventurous. She smiled at Jack and Justin and opened the door. They came in. Relton was sitting at his desk and talking on the phone to an employee.
“I know you want to raise the salary, but I can’t!” Relton was talking into the phone. “Yes….. why?” Relton then noticed Jack and Justin in his office. “I’ll have to call you back, John” Relton hung up the phone.
“Sit!” said Relton. “So you took the idea of being a hero instead of a zero?”
“Yes,” replied Jack.
They talked about Justin. Relton asked for Justin’s ID, skills and phone number. Jack demanded a raise on the salary to forty trillion dollars.
“No, Jack! This is an outrage! I have already paid you!”
“No you didn’t. Forty trillion or nothing.” Jack said.
“Jack, Jack, Jack, why do you need this kind of money?”
“To pay Justin!” Justin almost cried with joy. Rellton was furious.
“Fine,” Relton seethed.
“Okay, now everything is good,” said Jack.
“Okay, boys, but you will have to pass the test.”
“What test?” they asked.
“The medical test of course,” said Relton. Jack and Justin looked at each other with much concern.
“Are you guys okay?” asked Relton.
“Just fine,” Jack said quietly.
“Okay then, let’s go.”



Chapter 5
They went out into the hall and then into Dr. Sharon Lambert’s office. Sharon was wearing a white coat. She had long hair and dressed modestly. She wore reading glasses on the middle of her nose and she was in her late twenties.
“Hello, how may help you?” Dr. Lambert greeted them. “Oh right, your are Jack and Justin. Please, follow me.” She takes them through to another room where there is a pod to determine people’s health. “Lie down here.” She said to Jack and Justin.
Jack and Justin lay down with much anxiety. They were worried because they both had a drinking problem. They lay down and asked Dr. Lambert what the pods were for exactly.
“These pods tell us if the individual has drinking problem, if they are a smoker or if they are a drug addict,” she replied.
Jack and Justin looked at eachother and screamed, “WAIT!” But it was too late, the doors were shut. Jack looked around for something to open the door. He found a pole that was part of the pod. He nudged it out and launched it into the door of the pod. He was struggling until the pod’s door made a crack and the door opened. Then the pod started to smoke.
Dr.. Lambert screamed, “Get out of the room. It’s gonna blow!!”
Jack quickly took Justin by the neck and threw him out of the pod. Justin ran out of the room and Jack tried to follow him. But Jack’s foot was stuck. He could see the warning screen. It showed 30 seconds left before the pod was going to blow up! Jack tried to take his foot out, but it was jammed too far in. He could not free his foot. Then he had an idea. He grabbed the pole that he had used to jam the door. He pushed the pole into the hole and levered his foot out. He jumped out of the room onto Justin, knocking his friend out.
The pod showed 3 seconds left on the warning signal. A computerized voice came on saying, “Overload, overload, warning, warning.” The voice started to slow down like a sterio with low batteries. Suddenly the pod exploded right in front of Jack and Justin. The dirty deed was done.
Dr. Lambert exclaimed, “That’s the second time this week that this has happened!” She looked at the computer. Unfortunately for Jack and Justin, the computer managed to get the information it needed. “The managed to collect the information before the pod exploded!” she told them. “And it looks like you….just passed with a mark of One. Zero is a fail.”
Relton was so mad. He yelled, “Never drink or smoke again or else you’ll both be fired!”
Chapter 6
They returned to Relton’s office. “What was that all about?” Relton screamed. “Oh, never mind…..I have to talk with you both about the crew.”
“What? But, Justin and I……” Jack is cut off.
“Enough of your whining! I am in charge. Things will be e as I say. If you can’t listen to my commands you will both be fired. I am not putting two idiots in charge of my ship! If there are any damages to my ship, both of you will be in the slammer and while you’re there you’ll be paying off the damages – 100 Trillion dollars! There better not be a scratch on her! Got it? GOT IT?!”
“Yes!” Jack and Justin screamed at the same time.
“Okay then,” Relton said and took a deep breath at the same time. “Meet Sarah Moar, my secretary. She will be arranging for the food, water supply and camera systems. And of course, you need a medic: Dr Sharon Lambert. She will be in charge of the first aid kit, wounds system and general health. Last but not least, John Frandan, he will be in charge of cleaning, co-piloting, engines and repairs.” John walked into Relton’s office. John is an alien. He had four hands and was blue. He came from Fandasha the planet that Relton sold. He was wearing army pants and boots and a t-shirt with no sleeves. He wore cap that said New York 3000.
“Okay, now, the whole crew is here!” declared Relton, “You should all get to know eachother. Go to a restaurant or something. Oh yes, and before you go, I decided to give you all a quarter of your payment in start-up money.”
A huge “Wahoo!” came through the room.
“Okay, okay! Said Relton the cheque’s are at the front-desk in envelopes. Get out of my office!” Relton said.
The new crew went our of the office with money in their pockets. They all went to the bank and put their money in their accounts. Jack put his bank PIN number and a hundred thousand dollars in his wallet. He carried his PIN number with him because he always forgets it.
They all went into a restaurant called Kelso’s. They took the best seat in the house and ordered a huge feast. They started to chat with eachother.
“So, I guess Relton is paying us all the same amount,” said Jack.
“Twenty trill, do you think it’s worth it?” asked Justin.
“For me it is,” said John. “I grew up in the military. My father was a spacefighter and I am trying to follow in his footsteps. This is the best job I have for now. I may be risking my life to do it, but at least I am not wasting it doing nothing.”
“How about you Sarah?” asked Jack.
“Well I was twenty-two when I got out of college and I was working at the space-port for one year.”
“Which university did you go to?” Justin asked Sarah.
“Moon University.”
“I also went there with Sarah,” said Sharon. “I got my medical degree at the Space Port and became a Space Port doctor.”
A few hours past and the crew continued to get to know eachother and discuss the salary. Then they ate. At 8:30 pm they got up to leave and gave the restaurant a huge tip.

Chapter 7
The crew walked outside and said good-bye to eachother and went their separate ways. Jack went into a dark alley to take a short cut. Suddenly he heard a noise. He looked around, but there was no one there. So he kept walking. He hear the noise again, only louder. He tried to turn, but it was too late. A person in a black mask hit him on the back of the head with a gun. Jack fell onto the rough, brick road. There was blood all over his face. The person in the black mask took Jack’s wallet and found his PIN number and bank card.
Jack’s eyes opened suddenly. Jack tripped the man in the mask with his leg. The robber fell to the ground and his gun fell out of his reach. Jack quickly picked it up and pointed it at him.
The robber said, “Your friends are going to die, Jack.” There were three gun shots, and then silence.
Jack looked at the robber, he lay there still. Jack suddenly dropped the gun and ran as fast as he could. In a few minutes after Jack was out of sight, the robbers eyes opened. He got up and ripped his shirt open. Under his shirt was a laser-proof jacket. The robber said to himself, “This is only the beginning, but it will soon be the end.” He laughed even harder.

Chapter 8
Jack was running as fast as could with blood on his face. He ran and ran. Then he looked at the clock. It was 8:59 pm and he was beside a five star hotel. They hotel closed at 9 pm. He decided to run in and see if he could check himself in. Everyone asked him how he had gotten cut up so badly. He told them he had fallen on a rough, brick road.
He went to his room. He washed up fell asleep.
The next morning, Jack woke up and looked at the time. It was 10 am. Jack had overslept, he was supposed to meet Relton at 7 am. In the lobby the receptionist was making a reservation for a man. Both of them heard screams coming from Jack’s room, “#%**@!” Once the screaming had stopped, the man making reservations left the hotel, got into his car and drove away as fast as he could.
In a few minutes Jack was running out of the hotel with coffee on his knee. He was heading toward the Space Port. He entered. He saw Relton standing with the crew. Relton did not look happy!
“If you can’t be on time, maybe I should buy you a time bomb. Maybe then you will be on some kind of time-line,” said Relton.
“No thank-you, sir!” said Jack.
“Okay, then let’s go.” The crew went into a room. Relton pushed a code into the security system that said “BLACK MISSION.” Inside the room was a hug ship and beside that was a smaller ship.
“Is this is?” asked Jack with much excitement.
“Ah, yes” said Relton.
“What is that smaller one for?” asked Jack.
“That is the ship I built from the leftover materials I had. It is a battleship. The big one also has some guns,” said Relton.
Everyone went into the ship. Once again it looked much bigger on the inside than on the outside. Jack sat at the wheel. “This is so cool!” he said like a little kid.
“Ready for take-off?” asked Relton.
“YES!” Jack said with huge excitement.
“Okay then, good luck and good-bye!”
Jack started the count-down. “Ten….nine…” he clicked a lot of buttons, “eight…seven….and, uh…”
“Oh, just get on with it will you?” said Justin.
Jack pushed another load of buttons, held the wheel “Hold onto whatever you’re holding onto! BLAST OFF!!”
The ship roared and blasted off into space. The crew screamed very loudly. The ship was in space and the crew were excited about their new adventure.

Chapter 9
The ship flew peacefully along in space. There were no concerns at the outset.
“We have five weeks to get to the nearest black hole, so who’s up for hibernation?” asked Jack one day while having dinner.
“I am.”
“Me too.”
“Lovin’ it!” said the crew.
“Okay, but before we go to sleep I want to tell you about a dream I had last night… I went into a dark alley and a guy with a mask jumped on me an tried to kill me with a gun. I fell to the ground and scraped my forehead badly.”
“What do you think this dreams means?” asked Sharon.
Jack put his hand to his head and said, “I don’t…….” he felt his forehead. He lifted up his hair, he felt scrapes all over his forehead. “Wait a minute – the ‘dream’ was real!” exclaimed Jack.
The crew made a hug “GASP.”
“Why did we come on this mission?” said Justin.
“I don’t know, we didn’t talk about people killing us for the money!” said Jack.
“What do we do?!” screamed Sarah.
“We will have to go into the Black Hole,” said Jack. “If we go back to earth they will try to kill us again.”
“Then let’s go to sleep,” said John. They all climbed into some freezing pods and froze themselves.
The next morning everyone woke up. They realized that John wasn’t in his pod. Soon after that, they realized that there was a bullet stuck in the Sarah’s pod plexi-glass. Then they found a gun on the table.
“John!” they all screamed at once.
John came out. He looked terrible. His shirt was ripped up to his chest. He had green alien-blood on his face, arms and legs. There was red blood on his gloves. One of his boots was torn; he had a black eye. His hat looked like it was chewed up by a monster and then spit out. He started to say, “A guy got into the spaceship when we took off….. he had a gun and a knife. He tried to kill me with the knife and he cut me up bad. I hit him in he mouth – both the knife and gun fell out of his hands. I took the gun and shot; I missed and the bullet bounced off and got stuck in Sarah’s pod.”
“John!?” screamed Sarah.
“Then I shot again and this time it hit. He was down. I sent his body out the evacuation doors into space.”
In a couple of hours, Dr. Sharon fixed John up. The crew went to dinner. They talked over dinner about what they should do. They decided that they should all continue to the Black Hole. Jack checked the security system – it indicated that there were only five living creatures aboard. Then they went to bed.

Chapter 10

In the medical room, John was fixed up and they repaired Sarah’s pod. While everyone was discussing the situation, Jack went into the kitchen. He sat at the table and looked at it. There was a book entitled, “How to keep Murder a Mystery.” Jack picked up the book and flipped through it. Then he realized the gun that the robber had was still there. He took the gun and slipped it in the back of his pants.
Sarah came in and started to prepare dinner. After dinner they started to talk.
“What do we do now?” asked Sarah “There may still be more people on this ship than we know.”
“No, no, no. I checked the security system last night. It said there were only 5 creatures alive on board,” said Jack.
“Okay then,” said Justin. “Let’s talk about the Black Hole.” They then had a short conversation about whether they should go to the Black Hole. John kept on insisting that they should go. Justin thought they shouldn’t go. They got into a heated argument. The whole crew decided somebody should stay up all night to look out for any robbers or killers. They played poker to determine who would have to stay up all night. John lost all the games, so he had to stay on guard. They decided to give him a knife so that he could protect himself and the others.
Everyone froze themselves for a week except for John. John watched “Futurama” all night. After eight hours John froze himself also.
In a week, they all woke up. They found nothing wrong with the ship so they went to breakfast. John left the table; he ate only half his breakfast. He got up and said, “I have to go an work on the ship’s engine in my quarters.” John stood up to go with a little grin on his face. He went into his room. In a few minutes Jack started to talk to the others at the table.
“Did you see that smile on John’s face?” asked Jack.
“Yeah, what’s he up to?” asked Justin.
“Maybe he is just happy because he killed that robber,” said Dr. Sharon.
“I’ll go check on him,” said Jack. Once Jack got up and left, they all saw the gun tucked in his pocket.
“Did you see that gun in Jack’s pocket,” asked Justin.
“Maybe he is trying to kill us to get the rest of the payment,” gasped Sarah.
“Let’s try to get him and squeeze it out of him,” said Justin.

Meanwhile, Jack came into John’s room. John was doing something but Jack could not see what he was doing. John was sitting with his back to him.
“Hello” said Jack. John quickly turned and hid what he was working on. “What are you doing in here?” asked Jack.
“I am working on a surprise to celebrate the hundred trillion dollars.”
“Okay, why did you smirk at the table just now?” asked Jack.
“Ummmmmm…..well I wanted to come in here to work on the present and that is why I smiled. Is it against the rules to smile around here?”
“No, no. It’s just that we’ve been having some problems with the murder and things.”
“Okay, then. I have to go. I have to go – I promised my Great Auntie Mae that I would call her.” John went into the telephone room. Jack smiled and opened the door to the kitchen. The first thing Jack saw as he opened the door was a fist…..and then, darkness.

Chapter 11
Jack saw nothing. He felt absolute pain on his right eye. A light was turned on. Jack felt cold and wet. He opened his left eye. At first he could not see perfectly, then he started to see in double vision. Soon after he could see clearly. He didn’t know what was going on or where he was.
He heard a voice behind him. He could not see who it was. He tried to move, but he was all tied up to a chair. “What the heck is going on here?” asked Jack.
“Who are you working for, Jack?” came a voice from behind.
“What, oh, fine….. I am working for a guy named Relton, R-E-L-T-O-N,” yelled Jack.
“You had a gun with you. Why is that?” said the voice.
“Oh, oh, … the gun. I found it on the kitchen table so I took it for protection. Who are you?!” screamed Jack.
“None of your business, Jack.”
“Alright then, that means I can do this,” said Jack. Jack jumped with the chair that was tied around him and hit the person behind him. He heard the person fall down. Jack looked around the room quickly. He found the knife laying on the table. It had belonged to the robber. He jumped with the chair to the table. He took the knife and cut the rope that was bound around him. He freed himself from the chair. Then he looked at the person laying down. He had a different mask than the robber that had tried to kill him after leaving the restaurant. With the knife in his hand he ran at the person on the floor. The man suddenly took Jack’s hand and kicked the knife out of his hand. The knife flew up and was stabbed into the ceiling. Then the guy punched Jack in the face.
Jack fell down while looking around the room. The guy tried to stand up. Jack saw the chair that he was tied up to. He took it and flung it at the guy. The man fell unconscious. Jack put his hand on the man’s mask and pulled it off. It was Justin!
“Uh-oh,” Jack said with his eyes wide open. Jack tried to wake him up. He slapped him and poured water on him. But he did not wake up. He ran to Dr. Sharon’s office.
Dr. Sharon was standing with Jack’s gun. She saw him as was startled. She started shot the gun and let out a scream. Jack dodged the bullet. She shot the gun again with her eyes closed. She shot the gun again, the bullet grazed Jack’s arm. He hid behind a desk. She dropped the gun and ran out the door.
Jack said to himself, “What is the world is going on in here?” He then came out of his hiding spot behind the desk. Seeing the gun, he picked it up and put it on a table. He took out the bullets and put them into a drawer and then left the room. There was nobody in the hall. He came into the control room. Justin was sitting with ice on his head; his back was turned towards Jack.
“Justin?” asked Jack.
Justin jumped up from his chair and said “Jack!”
“Whoa, whoa, before you get all weird. I am not the killer!”
“Well I can’t just trust you,” said Justin.
Then Jack did some thinking. “Isn’t there a lie detector on every ship?” he asked.
Justin looked surprised and said, “Yes, I think I saw one around here.” He took something out of the closet. It was pretty small. It had a piece of lined paper stuck to it. It was a small, inexpensive lie-detector.
In a couple of minutes they had set the lie-detector up and called the whole crew in. Though John did not come.
“Hey, where’s John?” asked Jack.
“Oh, I guess he didn’t come. That’s okay, I heard him say that he had to work on something. I will test him later,” said Justin.
The lie-detector was set up. Jack stood with a smile on his face. The lie detector’s pen started to twitch.
Justin started to ask the questions. “Did you have the gun on purpose or by accident?”
“Well, on purpose, but…….” Jack was cut off by Justin.
“Thank-you.”
“But wait, what I mean is I took the gun so we can protect eachother!” said Jack. The line on the detector drew straight.
“Okay, okay. Are you trying to kill anyone?” asked Justin.
“No,” said Jack. The line continued to draw straight.
“Okay, Sharon, you’re next,” said Justin. “Are you trying to kill anyone?”
“No,” said Sharon. The lie detector went straight. So on and so on. Questions were asked and questions were answered. A few hours later, John showed up.
“John, you’re right on time! Come here,” said Justin.
“For what?” said John looking a bit suspicious.
“We are trying to test the crew to find out if anyone is trying to kill us.”
“Okay,” said John still looking very suspicious. John walked up to the lie detector. He looked at it, touched it, examined it. Justin quickly took John and hooked up the wires to him. John was confused.
“Are you trying to kill us?” asked Justin.
“N-……” John was cut off by a huge noise that sounded like a bomb hitting the ship. It was a smaller ship flying close to them. Jack could almost make out the letters “NIMBUS II.”
“Hey, that’s the small ship from Relton’s office,” said Jack.
“The robbers must have stolen it from him,” said Justin.
“What do we do then?” asked Dr. Sharon.
“We fight back!……. I guess,” said Jack.
“But how? It is made out of Trendor metal also!” said Sara.
“Well, they might be faster, but we are bigger,” said Jack.
“What?”
“Our guns are bigger and stronger,” replied Jack. “I see a star that is about to implode. Maybe that can help us! I can lure the Nimbus II close to the imploding star. Once the star implodes, it will make a black hole, taking the Nimbus II inside it.”
“We have no choice,” Justin said, “I say we do it!”
“And I say that you’re all crazy!” yelled John.
“Too late to complain, John,” said Jack. Jack started to fire at the Nimbus II. The Nimbus II dodged the shots and got closer to the star. Then the Nimbus II stopped firing. They were out of ammunition. Jack clicked a big red button and the Andromeda pulled out a huge gun. Jack clicked several more buttons and pulled down on a big blue lever. The Andromeda shot a huge bomb into the star. The bomb exploded. All of a sudden the star had red cracks all over it. The Nimbus II figured out what Jack was up to. It shot a rope that was made of Trendor metal and it attached to the Andromeda. Because the rope is made out of Trendor metal, it is unbreakable. Jack tried to move his ship, but it wouldn’t budge.
The star exploded. The explosion shut down both ships’ engines. The star then imploded and made a black hole.

Chapter 12

The Nimbus II and the Andromeda were being dragged into the Black Hole.
“What is happening to us?!” asked Dr. Sharon.
“We are getting slowly pulled into the Black Hole,” said Jack.
“What are we going to do?” asked Dr. Sharon.
“We will have to go into the Black Hole,” said Jack.
“What? But this is the wrong Black Hole!” exclaimed Justin.
“Look, we don’t have a choice. The gravity of the Black Hole is pulling us in and it has destroyed our engine!”
“Fine,” said Justin. He was feeling very sick by now. The ship made a weird noise outside.
“What was that?” asked Sara.
“The pressure of the Black Hole is pushing harder on us the closer we get to it!” explained Jack. “The ship is trying to fight it.”
“What if it fails?” There was a big pause.
“Well…….. let’s hope it doesn’t.” said Jack.
“Okay, listen, this is going to be one heck of a ride!” Then Jack saw a glass on the table beside him. Jack quickly screamed, “Get that glass off the ……!” Before he could say “table” the glass blew up in his face.
“Everything in the ship is exploding!” Jack said.
“But we aren’t!” said Justin who was perplexed and terrified.
“Oh, don’t worry, we will be soon,” said Jack.
“That’s great!” said Justin sarcastically. But it wasn’t great. Some might say that they would prefer to die a quick and painless death as opposed to suffering for a long time in a Black Hole. But Jack wanted to do as little dying as possible!
The crew were pushed into their seats so hard that could not move. They felt that their body was getting longer and felt that the air was fading away. The noise of the Black Hole, pushing on the ship got very loud. All of sudden a very high pitched noise was heard. It sounded like metal scratching on glass. The two ships were stretched out very wide and disappeared into the Black Hole. Jack let out a scream and closed his eyes.
Then everything became silent.
Slowly he opened his eyes and looked around him. There was nobody beside him.
He looked to find Nimbus II but it wasn’t there. “Justin,… John,…. Sharon,…. Sara…?” Jack whispered, but there was nobody there.
Then Jack looked out the front window. He saw that he was in a universe of opposites. The universe itself was white and the stars were black. Then Jack started to feel very sentimental.

Chapter 13
Jack’s whole life went through his mind. It almost seemed that he could remember every moment of his existence. In very small details he remembered every single event of his life. He remembered how small parts of dust danced in the sun’s beam which entered his apartment when he opened the door to Relton when he came to Jack with his crazy offer.
Then he recalled the bright, ginger-coloured hair of the girl that he never knew the name of. He remembered her apple-green shirt and her long, pink fingers holding the pencil. He also thought of the light smell of first, spring flowers. She had studied in the same year at the pilot school with Jack. He saw her only twice a year during the big exams at the end of the terms. They never got the chance to get to know eachother and he was never brave enough to find out what her name was.
Then he remembered how he and his father, when Jack was 10 years old, went on a trip to the moon. He thought about how they floated through the air, looked at the stars, looked through a telescope and how they got stuck in a crater. They rode a moon car and made big jumps. They played “who can jump the farthest.” Then Jack remembered his mother sitting in the kitchen making Jack’s favorite Martian, apple jam. He remembered the juicy, sweet and sour taste of Martian apples and the tender warmth of his mother’s hand on his head. He recalled all of this like it was yesterday. A wave of love and self-pity drowned him.
After he left his parent’s home, the distance between his parent and himself grew bigger and bigger. And suddenly he realized that all this dumb anger and misunderstanding was not important after all. The only important thing was to preserve this feeling of love that he had again. He felt a huge sense of regret that he would never have the chance to say “I love you” to his parents and that he would never have a chance to find out the ginger-coloured girl’s name.
Suddenly he felt the ship stop shaking. After a second, he saw a bright but natural light around him. He thought that the ship was about to explode. But it was not an explosion. The light around him was very bright and white. Suddenly Jack felt very calm. He relaxed, closed his eyes and felt himself floating in the air. After about a few minutes, or a few centuries, he felt a voice in his head saying “Go back, Jack, and try again.”
The next minute he felt himself in his bed in his apartment, somebody was knocking on his door. He got up and opened the door – it was Relton! Jack was so happy to see him.
“Yes hello, I am Bob Relton, the trillionaire. I need to talk to Jack Bronze.” This time the conversation was cut short. Jack immediately declined Relton’s offer. Yet he felt and so young and playful and happy. Relton understood Jack’s happiness. Then they even went downstairs to the nearest pub for breakfast. They ate eggs and bacon and talked and laughed. Jack did not order even one alcoholic drink.
When Relton was gone, Jack phoned his Mom. Jack said he would visit her tomorrow. Then we went out of the pub and suddenly he bumped into something bright, apple green. He said “I’m sorry.” Then he raised his eyes and saw the same ginger hair that he was dreaming about for the last few years. It was her! This time she was wearing an apple-rain coat.
She said, “It is okay, oh, and can you please show me where Queensburg Avenue is?”
“I’ll take you there if you wish,” said Jack.
“That would be nice.”
After they went two blocks, Jack asked her name. It was Carol.
The End