A few years ago, in 2021, I woke up to a normal day except for the fact that I had a weird dream that night. .. I saw that I was with the great scientist, Albert Einstein, helping him build a spacecraft that could travel faster than light itself !
Anyway, while I was brushing, I was still, for some reason, daydreaming about it. Later that day, I did some research and reached out to NASA; turns out, they have already created a spacecraft based on that concept which was still in its alpha stages but a sample had been launched already !
Luckily, NASA had scheduled a new space shuttle launch in 2023. Apparently there was a vacant seat left! In the two years I had, I trained and studied as well as I could, and with a week to spare, I was awarded my degree and licence in Astrophysics. Afterwards, I applied for the captain’s position and like a dream come true, it was approved ! And then came the day of the launch ! I put on my spacesuit and climbed into the space shuttle. After a long six hours, we finally reached the spacecraft and all the crew hopped on board.
A lot of things were churning in my mind but finally, I directed the spaceship towards the Andromeda Galaxy and hit the “Warp” button. Instantly, everything in front of us started to shrink while all the space and matter behind the spaceship started to stretch and expand into humongous sizes. Suddenly, I heard a beeping noise emitting from a display, saying, “Light-Years Travelled” and the counter was at 100,000 Light-Years! While standing in shock, we could see the Milky Way Galaxy panning out of view while a blinding white light was approaching. Soon enough, the light faded away. Through the hue, we could make out another way larger galaxy in front of us, along with hearing an alarm and spotting a message on the screen, stating, “Destination Reached”!
All of a sudden, one of our crew members passed out and collapsed on a button with “Time Travel” written on it. Immediately, all of us saw a new variable pop up on the screen which was named “Year’; and it was increasing rapidly …
Within a few seconds, it hit 4 billion years. But now, there was a smaller galaxy about to collide with the Andromeda Galaxy ! I realised what was going on; the smaller galaxy was the Milky Way, the galaxy we lived in! Knowing what was about to happen, I forcefully pushed off the unconscious member’s head off the button.
With everyone’s hearts pounding, we decided it would be best to head back to Earth instead of witnessing the end of it all. As I selected the year 2023 on the “Year” counter, the co-pilot pressed the “Travel Back” button. We could see ourselves drop into the premises of our galaxy. While travelling through Interstellar Space, we could spot Voyager 1; a space exploration probe launched way back in 1977 by NASA! But we didn’t have much time to stare at it as it just flew right past us at what felt like lightning speed.
Anyway, after a few minutes, we had made it back to Earth successfully! As we all applauded in joy, we were glad to see that our Solar System was in one piece and everything was alright, while realising that we still had a long way to live on happily and there was nothing to worry about. After our capsule splashed into the South Atlantic Ocean, we were picked up by a rescue team and a helicopter and were brought back to shore. On the drive home, I was still thinking about what I had just witnessed. It was truly one of my better experiences, and to this day, I still wonder when I would have another opportunity to experience the depths of spacetime again.
– by ALEEN BOSE
(Class VI)
Well Done,, SantuBaba.. Keep it Up !