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Centaury-1: A Science-Fiction Short Story, by Daniel K.



This is a complete narrative and auditive log of the mission throughout its last stretch of the Centaury’s trajectory.

The Centaury program is a special engineered rocket program. The journey from our home planet to the edge of the universe will take well over 13 years to complete. The Centaury has already passed the dwarf planet Pluto and beyond our universe into interstellar space. The rocket is not far from the Voyager-1 that was launched almost 20 years before this program was formed. The Centaury-1 is expected to pass it by 1992. So far, the program has collected millions of data and information that has been sent back to Mission Control on Earth to help with the development and knowledge of outer space. Scientists and NASA will be following along listening and instructing where the rocket will go throughout its time in space to see if it's on its correct flight path. The year is currently 1990, and the team still has well over a year to finish their mission. The team consists of Richard Trulman andFrederick Myers as the in-charge astronauts, Hellen Fletcherling and Grace Panehall as system engineers, and Jefferson Lowley as nutritionist and interface co-officer for when fellow team members exit the space shuttle.

“Centaury-1, repeat Centaury-1. Coming in from the (INCO) Integrated Communications Officer. Can you read me?” the voice on the other end said. The INCO is responsible for all data, voice and communication from the vehicle and the ground.

“This is C-1, what do you need M.C?” Richard Trulman responded.

“We would like to correct your flight path, you are off by several degrees. Is your system working alright?” the person on the end stated.

“Yes all set, we’ll stand by.”

“There we go,” the voice under the other end murmured. “You should see the Voyager-1 very soon.”

The team of astronauts began to cheer since this was one of the greatest accomplishments not only for them, but for everyone back on Earth. A far greater step to see what is beyond the current knowledge of space. They would soon find out.

“So. I’m guessing we’re winning the space race?” Hellen stated to Grace.

“Yep. Though, the Krastikovich-2 is not far off from where we are. NASA has reports that they are only a few hundred miles apart from us. Scary to think about.” Grace responded back.

The radio started to transmit a scratchy voice, “You guys are doing great so far, we’ve managed to gather a ton of data from Centaury-1. Just wanted to stop by and say that.”

We found out that the person speaking was the NASA Administrator. The man started to talk again before the transmitter sputtered and went out.

Jefferson tried his best to see what was wrong with the transmission system but to no avail it had indeed failed to respond back. A silent buzzing noise came from it. “Mission control. Mission control! This is C-1. Do you read us?”

Almost instantaneously, the lights had gone out and all systems powered off. The astronauts fell forward, everything pitch black, with the sound of scraping metal.

TO BE CONTINUED...


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