Mission that changed everything | Teen Ink

Mission that changed everything

December 18, 2017
By Anonymous

  “ Breaking news from NASA came in this morning. Rather than listening to me, let's hear it from the professionals, NASA lead engineer, Bob Shilling” said the radio host Jim Falligine

“ Thanks for having me Jim, I’m really glad to clear up any rumors.” said Bob
“ We are anxious to hear about the history making!” Jim expressed
“ So, as you all may or may not know, the U.S has a satellite orbiting saturn. With the Milky Way galaxy coming closer to Andromeda, the closest galaxy to our Milky Way, the incredible force from Andromeda is causing the outer planets to lose its gravitational force which is causing our satellites to leave their orbit. Other countries want the classified information from the satellite. It’s not a regular satellite that people think of, it’s like a floating hardrive, the only difference is it can see what's happening around it. Germany is the biggest competitor and Russia and the Dominican Republic wants it to. We know why Germany and Russia wants it.  Why the Dominican Republic? So as long as the battery isn’t dead, the enemy countries won’t be able to access the information. I kn…”
“ I hate to interrupt you, we have some questions to ask you before our time is up.” Jim urged
“ Ok.” Bob said with a questioning look on his face.
“ Number 1, if the enemy countries get this information, what will happen?”
“ There isn’t a definite action, with our sources, it looks like Russia's army is training extremely hard, and it looks like they are getting ready for war. With Germany, it looks like germany is teaming up with England, and Russia and the Dominican Republic are getting ready. We have footage of the Russian leaders and the Dominican Republic leaders talking and going over strategies. So, to answer your question, we don’t know what the countries will do if they get that info, will they share it, we don’t. We’re just gonna expect the worst and hope for the best. If it means war, it’s war.”
“ Well then, I don’t think we expected that,” as Jim says laughingly
“ The next question, What is in the satellite that other countries what?”
  “ That satellite is like a back up information center for the U.S. and we also have information up there for astronauts. We have the ability to look beyond our Galaxy and explore the others and that's when we noticed that Andromeda, is getting closer and closer to the Milky Way. “
“ Well unfortunately that’s all the time we have for Bob. He will give us more information as time goes on, then we will pass is on to you.” Jim said happily.
“ I’ve enjoyed talking and explaining, I hope I answered questions and made more sense of why this is so urgent.” Bob said happily

This radio broadcast was the calmest moment of this whole year. The radio was broadcasted from Houston Texas on February 15, 2017 and the space shuttle was going to launch June 19, 2017. NASA had to pick some of the best astronauts in their program. Frank Jollington and Fred Loggington. Frank and Fred had gone to highschool together and they haven't been friends for 25 years. Frank and Fred had gone on a total of 15 missions which is to many and is why they retired in 2014. NASA knew they didn’t have the skilled astronauts to pull off this mission, so they were ready to pay Frank and Fred 1.7 million dollars to do this last mission. Frank and Fred later announced on public tv, that they will be doing the mission for free! As Fred said in the speech he wrote.
“ There was a time when I wanted to be a firefighter, a time when I wanted to be a construction worker. It’s not till I met Frank that I realized I wanted to be an astronaut. When I told my gym teacher all he did is laugh and said that I had no chance. It’s right, when you put your mind to something you will have a better chance of doing it. On March 23, 2005 Frank and I  signed up to go to a NASA training camp. I remember getting to Austin Tx, and the leader of the camp said - “ 89% of you men will not make it to being an full astronaut, 99% of you say you have the ability, honestly that's just a repeating lie to told yourself over and over.” - “So that wasn’t the welcoming that I expected but over time I could see what the leader ment. We were swimming one day and there was three people that drowned from pure exhaustion. I recall, the tuesday of the the third week, I had walked up to the leader and I guess he didn’t hear me,” - “ You know that Frank and Fred, I think out of anybody, they have the skill and abilities to become the next greats.
I know that they will be the ones that save the U.S information, you surely don’t see them everyday.” - “ I think know for a fact that we had probably the most determination and knew where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do, and I think that benefited us in the long run. Our first mission was very late, October 17, 2006, we took off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and we went to the middle of nowhere and I will never forget. I was the one who was hooked up to the tensile rope and had to collect this material and as I started to turn to go back to the shuttle, the rope began to unwind and  of the astronauts grabbed the rope that was attached to me, then the other astronauts held onto each other and started to pull each other towards the space shuttle until everybody was in the the shuttle. That was how I started my space experience. I have many others, what I’m trying to get at is if it wasn’t for NASA, I would never found my dream job. NASA has done a lot for me and Frank, and so for many reasons and stories, we will be coming out of retirement and doing this mission for free to the space program. We figure that this is good payback for NASA and we would do anything to give back to our country.
On June 19, 2017, the Space shuttle, Everlaster, was scheduled to launch. There was a big celebration in Houston Tx, this is a big moment for NASA. The crew was consisted of Frank and Fred, NASA thought that they should send some green horns but after talking with Fred and Frank, they pointed out that it’s to risky and if something were to happen it wouldn’t be safe. Everlaster was the most advanced space shuttle NASA had. The mission was officially started at 5:37 am on June 19. Launch was successful and the astronauts made it safely into space. The rockets were detached and fell into earth's ocean without a problem. Combining Fred and Franks knowledge of space travel, they figured a way to get to the satellite without using to much fuel. As the steered the shuttle towards the satellite, Fred talked with NASA of what’s going on while Frank steared the 36 foot long shuttle along the side of the 9 foot long satellite. Then came the scary moment, Fred was the one that had to put on the suit and go into space and disable the orbital motor. Fred was the one that almost floated off into space so he made sure that the tensile rope was extra durable this time. Frank took extra precautions and put rope around him so if worse came to worse he could go out and rescue Frank. As Fred started working, an alarm went off. It wasn’t normal, it was more unusual since the rocket was so advanced. Frank used a crane type machine to put the satellite into the shuttle. Fred returned safely, then NASA's computers started to beep, that there was something wrong on the shuttle. They couldn’t figure out what was going wrong. Fred realized that the temperature gage was beeping because it passed a set temperature point. When temperature passes that point an alarm goes off because there should be no reason why its that hot. While NASA was trying to find out the problem, the space shuttles gps slowly faded off. Nobody was watching the gps signal, they were focused because NASA thought that the shuttle was to advanced. The air pressure gage on the shuttle jolted way beyond the set numbers. This caused the alarms to go off, and even the knowledge of Fred and Frank wasn’t enough to figure out this problem. NASA was really panicking and at this point the public was getting up in NASA's faces. If anything happened to the astronauts NASA could not only face lawsuits, but also jail time and even worse the space program going away.
As the people panik on earth, Fred and Frank are lost in space. As more and more attention from NASA goes to the media to stop any rumors, and bad sayings, there are less and less workers working with the astronauts. June 28, 2017 was the Monday that changed the mission for ever. It wasn’t an ordinary Monday on earth either, it didn’t reach over 40 degrees and it was snowing and it’s like winter came early. NASA was really short staffed, the storm cut out radio signal from NASA to the shuttle, so the astronauts and NASA weren’t able to communicate.
Minutes later, the astronauts were getting light headed as they floated around in their shuttle.
“ Fffffff Rrrrrr Eeeeee Dddddd……….” Fred said shiveringly
There was no reply from Fred
Frank used all of the muscle he had left to push himself off the wall and go towards Fred's floating body. Frank slowly lifted his arm and put it on Fred's body, it looked like Fred is dead. Frank tied himself to the side of the shuttle and braced for his last minutes alive. As Frank felt himself running out of oxygen, there was a jolt around the shuttle, the shuttle started to go faster and faster. This started to worry Frank, what should he do?
Frank did the unthinkable, he stayed tied up to the wall and watched the stars fly past him faster and faster.
Then silence

On planet earth the winter storm was over and NASA was putting together a rescue team. This rescue team was the last chance for NASA, they would do anything to put somebody in space and to keep their program going. The only problem was their astronauts were slowly leaving the program cause this hasn't happened since the 80s, when an astronaut floated off into space and died. There were riots happening all over even in other countries, this just isn’t heard of. Three weeks pass and they have four astronauts that will take the challenge, the reason why they're willing to take the journey is because the reward. Four million dollars goes to each astronaut for the mission.
“ It’s October 24, 2017. The rescue mission is in the final stages of launch. 5….4…..3….2….1…. Blast of !!!!!!!! Well I hope the rescue mission doesn't need to be rescued.” Said John Filligeral, the radio host from TNL - The News Live. The day of launch the US flag was at half mass not only for the lost astronauts but also for the astronauts going into space now. This was a very dark day on planet earth and not only were people crying, but the earth was raining a little bit during launch. NASA made sure that the signal between the space shuttle and NASA headquarters was connected at all times. NASA made sure that there were constant check ins between NASA and the astronauts. There was constant coverage to the public of the mission by the rescuers. They did find a body floating in space but it wasn’t Fred or Frank. The satellite is gone and NASA knows that it’s in the shuttle by US. There is no sign of anybody in space so the rescue mission is unsuccessful.
“ Houston, this is rescuer 1, there’s nothing up here, we’ll be rentering earth in about 5 hours.” Said lead astronaut Like Flotsam.
“ Rescer 1, we read you loud and clear, 10-4.” Radioed NASA
“ 10-4” Said 2nd head astronaut Bill Flashing Log
Within that 5 hours, the rescuers were rentering earth's atmosphere and the returning of them was televised. It did hurt NASA that they didn’t find Fred and Frank, they weren’t really expecting to find, although they didn’t wat the public to know that.

Silence…………….Fast forward through time………………………………..

“ ugggggggg………” moaned Fred
“ Fred?” Frank said shockley as he looked out the window.
“ What? What happened.” Fred said very confusingly
“ I don’t know, but you might want to come check this out.” Frank said with a shock look on his face, with a quiet voice.
What they were puzzled over is as they clear the frost away from the window, there are flying car type vehicles and there are cities on other planets, and earth is more green and blue then ever before. The space shuttles auto pilot comes on and heads to earth. The astronauts can’t find a way to stop this, so they just hope for the best. As they start to enter earth's atmosphere, the shuttle's heat shield is heating up a lot more than it should. When they enter the sky there are thousands of boats and ships around, there are helicopters and Fred and Frank can’t think of why this is.
Wooooooshhhhhh..
  The shuttle has crashed into the water. Boats and helicopters from news stations are getting this on live tv. The top of the shuttle opened up and the person makes eye contact with Fred and Frank and notice their clueless of what’s going on.
  “ Hi, my name is Will, I work for the Coast guard of the U.S and we’re here to rescue you. Can you give me your hand.” Will said with a smile on his face, as he reaches out to Fred and can tell Fred's hesitant, then grands Wills arm. This is probably one of the biggest things in earth's history. Will pulls out Frank and Fred and their airlifted from a helicopter on the ship to a hospital along the coast line.
As the helicopter arrives at the hospital, Fred looks down and signals to Frank to look down. There were 7 news station vans, and 2 limos, along with a bunch of cars. The astronauts get rushed into the hospital, as they’re rushed through the hospital the people are taking pictures of the astronauts.
“ Hello guys, my name is Dr. John, I’m the head doctor here and want to check you out. We have to take off your suits…” Dr. John and his assistants slowly reach for the astronauts, the astronauts are hesitant to let the assistants touch them. The astronauts haven’t had human contact and with them being in this future world, they don’t know what’s happening. The doctor wants to have his assistants leave the room, so he can talk with the astronauts. As the doctor tries to get the astronauts comfortable, the astronauts are learning about their new surroundings. After talking with Dr. John, the doctor tells the astronauts that he needs to examine their bodies because with the long time without food and or water, their bodies might be eating itself. With the change in atmosphere pressure and gravity, their bodies aren’t use to it and their for any surgeries that happened on other earth could come undone. Thank god for Dr. John, Fred had stomach surgery 15 years ago and the substance holding his stomach in place was coming undone from the change in pressure.
Once Dr. John and his staff got pictures from the astronauts, the astronauts were discharged from the hospital. The security was really intense, more than any country leader would have in public, that tells you something about this situation. The astronauts were escorted into a limo, where they met Bennett John.
“ Quick! Get inside!” Pete, one of the escorts for the astronauts
Pete quickly had to shut the door behind Fred, who was the last one in the limo and Pete had to shut it so quickly, Pete actually slammed the door into Fred's butt.
“ Hello guys.” Bennett said cheerfully
“ Ummmmm, hello?” Frank said with a questionable look on his face
“ My name is Bennett John, I will be your personal guide.”
“ Hello,” Fred said with a straight face
“ I know you guys probably want to know what’s going on….”  Bennett said with a serious look
“ Yes” Frank and Fred said simoustanily
“ Correct me if I’m wrong, you guys went into space to capture a satellite from Saturn's atmosphere and they you guys basically fell asleep and then woke up to this time. You guys landed here were rushed to a hospital and then entered a limo where we met and started talking.”
“ Yuppp.” Said Fred
The astronauts talked with Bennett as the 1.4 million dollar limo drove the to Bennetts mansion. They entered through the iron gate and drove up the limestone driveway. Fred and Frank were surprised of how big Bennett's house was.
“ Bennett you have a nice house.” Fred said calmly
“ Thanks.”
The limo slowly came to a halt to the front doors. The front door to the mansion open in a flash as a security crew came rushing out like a hipped football team ready to win the state championship. The lion door opened and there, there was a familiar face. Fred and the familiar face froze and then he was pulled by the arms out of the limo, then followed Frank ad bennett. They all entered Bennett house and there was a science team. As Fred and Frank slowly looked around, a team of scientist rushed by them with their NASA suits. Fred lifted his arm and pointed at the team of science test examining their suits and stared at them while asking Bennett…….
“ Bennett, why do they have our suits?”
“ We want to exam your suits to see how they held up.” Said the lead scientist who walked up behind them.
“ Hi, I’m Bill, the lead scientist in the country. I work for NASA and the government, they wanted the best workers on this case so I assembled the best possible team. Don’t worry, they won’t do nothing to ruin them.” Bill said with a respective aspect to the astronauts.
There were thousands of questions from the astronauts and the scientist, also from NASA back in 2017. That night, while the astronauts were sleeping, the space shuttle was delivered to Bennetts back yard. All of the rucus woke Fred and Frank. They both slowly walked toward the window, then the watched carefully as scientist take photos of the outside and the inside.
“ Their just examining your shuttle of what cause what and how things are still working how they are.” Bennett said calmly.

Some how, Bennett got Frank and Fred to go back into bed. The next morning Fred and Frank woke up to millions of flashes from cameras. Photographers got into Bennetts back yard and got onto the roof, then found the room were the astronauts were staying in. The astronauts went to the window and opened it and started talking with newspapers. Meanwhile, Bennett was in bed and heard Fred and Frank talking with people. Bennett slowly got out of bed and moaned down the hall till he got to the room and found the door shut. Bennett slowly put his head to the door and listened…
“ Fred, what do think happened?” said Katie, who was channel 4 head reporter
“ Well, I don’t know. All I remember is landing in the ocean and then going to the hospital.”
“ Frank, do you think that the scientist will destroy your shuttle while their examining it?” said Kal, a reporter from station 980
“ No, we are constantly reminded that we are under great care. I know that we have other things to be doing….” Frank was interrupted by Katie
“ Do you know about your ‘ leader ‘.. Bennett?”
 
The door flew open and Bennett slid across the shiny reflective  wood floor in his bunny slippers to the windows and slammed them shut. Then Bennett closed the blinds and had the guys sit on the bed.
“ You guys have to be more careful of what you say and who you say it to.”  Bennett said with a stressful look on his face.
“ Ok…” Fred said with raised eyebrows.

3 days later, Bennett and some of the research team has a talk..
“ Bennett we think that the astronauts need to get out of this house.” Paul said
“ No, they can go in the backyard. The news will get info that they’re out in public and they will go and basically tackle them with pictures and questions.” Bennett urged
“ I understand that this is your job, they will get closterfobic in here, plus the air in here isn’t fresh.” Paul said
“ I don’t care! I’m doing my job by protecting them. Do you job and figure out what happened to the shuttle!” Bennett said as he started to storm off

Meanwhile the astronauts were on the balcony listening to the conversation between Bennett and Paul. Fred looked at Frank and they realized then that this is much more important than they originally thought. They new they were pronley the first record time travelers, the only thing is they wanted out. Fred and Frank turned around and they started to head down the wooden steps to the next balcony where Paul met Fred and Frank.
“ Hey guys, how's it going.” Paul said with a big fat smile on his face
“ We’re not going to sugar code it, we heard you and Bennett talking, and we want out!” Frank said
“ Ya, we’re tired of being in here! We want to explore the city!” Fred urged
“ Ok, I can work something out with the security team and make sure Bennett doesn't even get the slightest idea what we’re planning. Ok?” Paul said to the astronauts
“ Ok.” Fred and Frank said simultaneously

Later that night, Bennett had to report to NASA's headquarters for an meeting and that gave Paul and the astronauts plenty of time to explore the city. The good thing was, there was still a lot of day time out and a lot of the people had gone home. Fred and Frank put on normal everyday leisure clothing to blend in with their environment. Security was the hard thing. Paul had to explain something to the astronauts once they were in the limo.
“ Ok guys this is what’s going to happen. I will be on one side of you while Keith will be on the other side of you. We will have snipers on building tops and security hiding between buildings. On case anything happens, Keath will lead you guys out and I will follow while shooting behind. Once keath finds cover, he will stay behind to cover us while we run, us three will hop in the vehicle we have at that time and take off. Does that sound like a good plan?” Paul said with a confident look on his face
“ Yes…” Frank said
“ I almost sounds like, it’s determined that something bad will happen.” Fred said with a worried look on his face.
“ Don’t worry, we have you guys covered and have a security team better than the president has himself.” Paul says reassuring both men that everything will be ok

The security team hops in the undercover van, while Frank, Fred and Paul take the limo. The other half of the security team takes the back vehicle and 4 men that the helicopter. This is being perty risky, besides that, in Paul's eyes he sees that the astronauts are getting bored and they need action.
The team gets to the most popular shopping skirt and the first thing they want to do is go look at the animals, they think that all the endangered species is there. They open the door and they walk in and Freds face is sweating and they feel like everybody is looking at them because they’re dressed so suspiciously. The astronauts panic and they run out of the animal hall. Paul is worried that this is too much and the astronauts will blow their cover. It sounds easy to say that you're going to do something, then when you get there, it’s so hard to do. Paul runs after the astronauts so he knows where they're constantly are. Then the astronauts get split up and this is what Paul was worried about. The bad thing is one astronaut has a security guard and the other doesn't.
“ Paul to Keath over.” Paul talks through his radio to get to keath
“ Keith, Paul go ahead.”
  “ We’ve had a split.” Paul said worriedly
“ What!?”
“ I was running after them to see what happened and then they split.”
“ Ok, we have to stay calm, we need to block all exits.” Keith said quickly
“ We need to get a search team in here and start going through the whole park.” Paul said with a nervous sound.
“ The thing what worries me is they will do something stupid.”
Paul and Keith had to think of something to do, and the only thing they thought of is get the police involved and hold all the citizens in one place. No more than 5 min later, there were 50 plus policemen and 6 helicopters. They thought, since it’s by the water, why not get police boats out there.
“ Attention all available officers, we have had two people go missing at port 0090 at 7:30 pm. They are new to the surroundings and are undercover, they might blow their cover which might get them into life trouble. We need helicopter and boats and search teams. All available units report to highway 7567 to listen to the plan. “ The radio call ends and gives officers the adrenalin rush to get there and get there quick.
“ Thanks for all of you being here tonight. Frank and Fred the two astronauts have gone missing…” chatter and gasps start to fill the crowd as Paul starts his speech
“ Please be quiet, the two men are wearing leisure clothing. Freds wearing White dress shoes and Frank is wearing Orange dress shoes. Both men have black pants on, Fred has a white dress coat and Frank has a orange dress coat on. It is important that we find these men, they might blow their cover and do something stupid. The civilians are all in the animal hall nobody gets in or out, to prevent more damage done. Thanks and please radio if you see anything suspicious, even if a leaf isn’t where it should be.”
The search isn’t even an hour in the investigation and on officer found a white coat. Paul and Keith run to examine the coat and they say that it belongs to Fred. Then Keith points out that it pointing towards the ocean, they immediately get rescuers in the water. Paul is hoping that what he thinks has happened hasn't really happened. The thought of Fred being in unstable condition is constantly in mind.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the park, Frank is found trying to jump off a bridge. They did catch him before he jumped but this was a scary moment for Paul, he wanted to do something nice for the astronauts and the good deed has turned into a horrific situation. As seconds turn into minutes and minutes turn into hours, the thought of Bennett coming home and finding the security team gone and finding the astronauts gone was a constant fear. Fred had to be found, and quick.
“ 2309 to Paul, over.” Said a security agent from the house
“ This is Paul over.”
“ Bennett is coming up the driveway.”
“ Stop him, come up with some excuses that will make him drive for hours and make it so he's not suspicious.” Paul urged

Bennett has a history of becoming suspicious and that causes him to look things over more exact. The security agent got Bennett but he was going the wrong way. Bennett knew that the faster way was passing the mall. They couldn’t get too far, the police had the road shut down. Bennett rolled down the window
“ Evening officer.” Bennett said with a happily smile
“ Evening, I’m afraid that you have to turn around.”
“ May I ask why officer.”
“ We have a missing person case that we’re trying to solve.”

The police man made a mistake. Paul had given the policeman a picture of Bennett and told the police officer that “ If you see this man, don’t give him any clue that there is any missing person just tell him there was a shooting.” Instead the policeman didn’t study the picture like Paul told him to and gave Bennett all the news. When Bennett found out that Frank was missing, Bennett kindly turned around and speed off to the dead end of the road and turned left which put him on the truck entrance for the mall. There were no policemen guarding the entrance, so that let Bennett walk in without getting stopped. Bennett had to find Paul and ask him what happened. Paul sneaked around the mall and hid behind a building while Paul walked by. Bennett forcefully jumped out from behind the building and shouted,
“ Paul!.”
Paul force caused he recognized that voice. Paul slowly turned around looked into the eyes of Bennett.
“ How did you get in here?!” Paul wants answers so that all the attention on Paul was transferred to Bennett.
“ You stupid officers left the truck entrance unguarded.” Bennett shouted
Things are starting to get physical.
“ You know what! “ Paul said very madeley as he threw his coffee cup on the concrete and coffee spilled everywhere.
“ I know you think this is all my fault…..”
“ Well it is…” Bennett said as he interrupted Paul
“ This wouldn’t be happening if you let them out. You can’t keep them as prisoners. These are people that are new to this world and they want to explore.” Paul said as he pointed towards the empty tent.
“ Wait, did that tent just move?” Bennett said questionably as he slowly moved towards the tent.
Bennett and Paul slowly inched towards the tent like the tent has a tiger in there and you don’t want to wake the tiger. They entered the front of the tent and Bennett looked at Paul and whispered
“ 1...2...3...now!”
Whoosh, Bennett tore back the tent opening and found Frank's body lying there. It took both of them a minute to process what their looking at, then Paul shouted for medics and they both ran towards the body. They both fell to their knees and stared at the lifeless body. Tears began to fall……
“ What’s up?” A paramedic asked.
“ We need you to get Frank here, to a hospital as quickly as possible.” Paul urged
“ Ok, Will, you want get the feet and I’ll get the head?” Ok Liill and the other paramedic lifted Franks lifeless body onto the stretcher and rushed to the hospital. The hard part would be telling Fred what has happened. Paul ran over to the second ambulance and told Fred what happened as Fred was still getting checked out from the suicide attempt.
“ Fred I have to tell you something.” Paul began to cry
“ What? Did they find Franks?”
“ Yes, unfortunately Frank was lifeless when we found him.”
“ What?!” Fred began to cry
“ Franks was rushed to a hospital and the doctors are going to try their best to revive him.
Ring! Ring! Pauls cell phone started ringing. Paul was reaching for his cell phone so quickly that he had a hard time pulling it out of his pocket.
“ Yes! Yes! Hello, Hello.” Paul said quickly
“ Hello this is Western Health Hospital who is this?”
“ This is Paul.”
“ Paul, my name is Dr. Albert Fingles, I’m the head doctor here and wanted to inform you of your friend.”
“ Yes, how is he.” Paul had a hard time keeping the tears back
“ Your friend is in stable condition and is doing well.”
“ WHAT!!?? You mean he’s alive?” Paul said happily
“ Yes, we want to keep him under surveillance tonight and let you know if he’s stable enough to have visitors.”
“ Thanks doc. That means a lot.”
Paul turned and looked at Fred and walked over, Paul started the cry with a smile.
“ Why are you smiling?” Fred asked as he gave a dirty look to Paul
“ That was the doctor, Frank is alive and they’re going to keep him under surveillance over night.”
There was a big realization moment in Fred's eyes. There was relief and there was a lot of relief in Paul's eyes to. Paul had to man up the courage and go tell Bennett. Paul asked around to see where Bennett was and nobody new. One person knew but they said they seen him a hour ago. Paul went to check the docs were Bennett was last scene. Paul couldn’t find him, Paul did feel peace, so Paul decided to sit on the docs and admire the peaceful waters. Then Paul got the sense to look down, he looked down and seen a floating body. Paul got the attention of the officers in the water to check it out.
Hours later there was a note found that read the following
“ Dear whoever is reading this,
I feel like i’ve let people down the last year or so. I feel that my job and the authority I have has taken over. I was excited to find out about the astronauts and I know that there were specific rules and regulations to follow when this type of this takes place. Later when I started to loose the people that were close to me, I went back to look at the rules and found that the loopholes that people were walking about. I should’ve listened to the people who worked with me. In the beginning they worked with me to help me get where I’m at and then I pushed them down and they eventually left. I know there were times when you guys wanted to just leave instead, you guys knew I needed help and you stayed there. I am taking my life tonight because I feel it’s the only to free me and to free the others I’ve hurt during this amazing life journey. I want to say you're free and I’m free, free as one could be.
Bennett Family
This was a big changer in how things would be run for now, cause Bennett was the leader of everything. Now since he’s dead, who will be the leader and how will they run. The next day Paul and Fred went to the hospital to see Frank. Fred and Paul entered the elevator and Paul looked over to Fred, Fred was crying.
“ What’s a matter?” Paul asked Fred quietly
“ I just don’t know!!” Fred said bowlingly
“ You don’t know about what?”
“ Why this is all like it is, when will we go back home.”
“ What do you mean?” Paul said
“ Face it! Frank and me don’t belong here and we want to go back home, or did your “ Helpful workers” ruin our ship?” Fred asked sarcastically
“ They have been working on your shuttle. It is in condition to return to earth, well your earth. The only thing they did is test the instruments and how they were affected by the change in atmosphere and gravitational pole.” Paul told Fred
The two walk into the room, the enter the room quietly. It was so quiet, you could hear a penny drop down the hall, it was the quiet.
“ Frank…” Fred carefully rubbed Frank's arm to get him to wake up
“ Ummmmmmmm? Hey guys.” Frank said happily
“ How are you doing?” Paul asked
“ Fine how is Bennett reacting to all of this?”
“ How could you know what happened? You were lifeless.” said Paul
“ I knew it was a bad idea for us to go to the mall, I knew it was only a matter of time before Bennett found out.” Frank said
“ Well there’s some bad news to tell you….” Fred said hesitantly as he slowly rubbed Frank's arm. Franks face is in shock, he doesn't know what to expect
“ Bennett commits suicide that night. In the note he left, he said that he has hurt the ones closest to him, also all the loopholes he could’ve taken and he didn’t. The night when he came back home, he looked and found the rule book and all the ways to go around the rules and he didn’t because it was to risky. Police searched his house the next morning and found many letters of him killing himself. Like he’s been planning this for a long time, the first time is when he got a divorced and he finally snapped.” Fred said calmly to Frank as Fred started to tear up. Frank was lying there in shock, then he started to smile…
” That means we can go back home?” Frank said smilingly?
“ Yes, when the time is right.” Paul said.
“ What do you mean when the time is right?” Fred said getting a little defensive
“ We have to match the weather on this earth with the weather on your earth and they won't be in condition for space travel until next month.” Paul said breaking the news to the guys.
“Look, I know you guys are tired, so am I so Fred let's go home and come back tomorrow.” Paul said as he started to walk to the door.
“ You know what, I think I will stay here tonight with Frank.” Fred said as he started to get on the other side of the bed.
Paul didn’t say nothing, he just looked really sad and hung his head as he left the room. When Paul was driving home, he stopped by the docs were Bennett had committed suicide. Paul thought he could have a talk with Bennett. So Paul slowly walked along docs and crossed though the police tape and basically fell to his knees in tears. So much has changed within the last 48 hours and Paul thinks that if he never took the astronauts out, none if this would’ve happened. Bennett would’ve still committed suicide but that would be in years.
“ I’m so sorry, you hear me!!!!!!! I’m so sorry Bennett ok!!!!!!!!! You were right ! I was wrong !!!!!!!!!!!! This is all my fault!!” Paul lost it he just started to bawl while rocking back and forth until morning when he was found flat on the docs with Bennetts shoe in his hand. Paul was taken to the house and the hospital came to the house to check him out. There has been so much change in the last now 52 hours, people are now just confused of what to do.
Days pass, months pass, then it's been 6 months since the astronauts have been outside. Leaving them locked up in the basement sounded like a good idea and looked good on paper. The astronauts suffered severely and all they wanted to do is get back home. Paul tries to work with his team to get the astronauts back home, the only problem is NASA. NASA wants to meet with the astronauts and they want the astronauts to know what events caused what.
“ Fred…...Frank….” Paul called out to get the astronauts
“ Coming” Fred said happily
The astronauts met Paul at the staircase were earlier that year, Paul and Bennett had their argument.
“ Guys, I just got off the phone with NASA, they want to meet with you in person and they said that they want to tell you something important about your earth.” Paul told the astronauts
“ Ok, when do we leave?” Frank asked
“ Now.” Paul said with a smile
The astronauts walked to the limo with Paul and Paul told them…
“ I will be waiting here for you when you come back.”
The astronauts rode in the limo to NASA's headquarters and as they pulled up there was a older man standing there. The limo pulled up, the astronauts got out.
“ Hello guys, my name is Johnny Ruth, I am the president of NASA and I wanted to have a meeting with you. I was hopeful that you guys would allow me to show you something.”
Johnny and the two astronauts walked through the building and went up a staircase. As they went up the staircase, the two astronauts noticed all of these newspaper articles and there was one recurring subject, the missing astronauts from 2017.
“ Hey John, why is there newspaper articles of us from 2017?”
“ When you guys went missing, it was a big deal. You guys were in the most technology advanced space shuttle and you guys just disappeared. When the rescuers went into space days later there was no sign of you guys being on space.” 
“ So was it really the biggest manhunt in earth's history?” Fred asked as he read one caption
“ Yes, the man hunt was big because not only did the most technologically advanced space shuttle just disappeared, but NASA's reputation was on the line.”
“ Ohhh so that makes more sense.” Frank said
“ Come on, let's go to my office and have a talk.” Johnny said cheerfully
The astronauts and Johnny walked to Johnny's office. As they entered his office they seen models of the space shuttle that disappeared, they seen actual flyers that were handed out. Then they came across the last picture ever taken of them alive, the picture with all NASA and the astronauts with their families with the shuttle in the background.
“ So there’re some things that I want to talk to you guys about. The first is the earth. With the technological advancements these days, we can see where the people before us went wrong, like how they didn’t prevent this thing, or they didn’t do this, or that and so on. One thing that really killed the earth was the pollution. There are so many things that we do now to stop pollution and Johnny gave some of the astronauts a paper with ideas on it.
“ Guys, I think if we go into space you’ll see what I mean.” Johnny told the astronauts. Johnny got into a shuttle and took the astronauts space. Johnny got them far enough into space to not be in earth's orbit and showed them what earth looked like.
“ You guys see the brownish color that the earth is? That is from hundreds of years of pollution and do you see how earth isn’t spinning?”
“ Yes, how is that possible?” Fred asked Johnny
“ We came up with this thing that kept the gravity on earth, but kept the earth still. In 2065, the earth's spinning was actually cooling down the earth and we were entering a new ice age, to prevent that we came up with a machine that keeps the north and south pole connected and keeps the gravity on earth constant. The tricky part was how do we keep the weather going? We came up with another machine that pulls the clouds and air currents. We still have tornadoes and hurricanes and all those nature occurrences happen, this is a way to keep earth alive. I’m sure you also see cities on other planets. We have found a way to get gravity and oxygen and weather like occurrences on other planets. There are two machines that help life be on other planets. The two machines that are on earth, well those are also on all the planets. W..”
“ How come saturn doesn't have rings and how come earth has very light rings?” Fred said interrupting Johnny
“ Well we don’t know why Saturn doesn’t have them. Saturn is the only uninhabitable planet so far. Last year it had rings then they burned up. Like if you looked in a telescope, you could see a fire.” Johnny said
After hearing that, Fred and Franks faces looks like they just seen a ghost.
“ We don’t quite know what earth has light rings. Earth did have them thousands of years before life was even considerable, but we can’t figure out why now.” Johnny continued.
“Is there any questions you have?” Johnny said
“ No, I think we’re good.” Fred said as he looked at Frank
Johnny tured the shuttle around and reentered earth's atmosphere. Soon after they landed, Jonny took them two see the two machines.
“ Guys this is the gravity machine. It uses heat from earth's core and intercepts the two poles and creates gravity.” Johnny said as they walked up to the machine.
“ Wow! This is extremely big.” Fred said
“ Why is it so quiet?” Frank asked
“ It is one of the newer machines, it uses energy that is created by the poles and is sent through the turbines that power it.” Johnny said
“ Now the weather one, it uses moisture to run its turbines. The moisture isn’t always consistent, so it resorts to using wind for power. We don’t want to use all the moisture in the air, so that's why it goes back to wind” Johnny explained
Johnny took the astronauts back to the office and they wanted to know when they could go back home.
“ Say Johnny, when could we go back home?” Frank asked
“ I don’t know. That’s not my call.” Johnny said
Johnny walked the astronauts to the limo and they went back to the house. The limo pulled up to the front steps and nobody opened the door. That was a little weird because the door is always opened as the limo pulled up to the door. The astronauts entered the house and was surprised by a surprise party.
“ SURPRISE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” the crowd cheered
Paul gradually walked towards the astronauts and had a glass of champagne in his hand.
“ Well guys, you're going home in 3 days!”  Paul said cheerfully
“ Really?” Fred said
“ Yes! The team is going through the shuttle making sure everything is ok for your return to earth.”
  “WOW! Who would thought that day would come.” Frank said cheerfully
The surprise party was a total success. The astronauts were comfortable and the team got to have their last moments with the astronauts.
3 Days later, the astronauts were getting ready and at that moment they realize how Bennett's house has became their home over time. Paul came through the kitchen doors and found Fred looking at the window. As Paul got closer, he realized Fred was crying.
“ Fred, are you ok?”
Fred blew his nose, “ No.”
“ What’s a matter?”
“ I’m going to miss this place. I always thought this was a jail until I found out I was going home, then I realize how much this has been my family.”
“ Awwwwww.” Paul came in and hugged Fred.
“ Everything will be ok and, I will never forget you or Frank. Let's get ready, I have to get you to the launch pad in 2 hours.”
Paul walked with Fred to the limo where Frank was waiting. They had a police escort and there were hundreds of people driving to watch this. This was by far the biggest speech ever watched. A record of 78 billion people watched it from all over the universe.
“ Ladies and gentlemen, I’m proud to present to you Frank and Fred, the two men that we’ve began to love. Let's give them a round of applause!” Kip, the speaker said as he stepped away from the microphone for the astronauts.
“ I will go first cause Fred can’t find his speech. I think I speak for both of us when I say that you guys have opened your world to us. We were very confused at the beginning and still little confused, one thing is for sure we have fallen in love with your world. There are things that Fred and I learned that we can take back to our world and change to make your world better.” Frank kept his short and sweet, while Fred was pulling out papers by the tens.
“ Hello,...” Said Fred and the crowd already started to applause
“ The day that we left our earth, it was the same procedures and task at hand. The same food and approach to any mission before, then the alarms went off and questions began to come. I will not forget the feeling of dying up there, the next thing I remember is the impact of the ocean. You guys remembered us and didn’t treat us like aliens , which we’re both grateful, but there are things like Frank said, that we can take back and in the long run make your earth better. Thanks and God Bless all of you!” Fred ended his speech, he stepped back and signaled with his hands for Frank to come up there. They got their pictures taken and then in the far distance, the space shuttle was rolling out on the road. It took them 4 hours to get the shuttle up and began fueling. The astronauts got their picture taken with the shuttle and went to go change in their uniform.
“ Well guys, are you ready to go back home?” Paul asked as Fred and Frank began to change
“ Yes, how will we know where to go?” Frank asked
“ We will be steering your shuttle until you go through the portal, then it’s all on you.” Johnny said
“ Hey Johnny!” Fred said with a smile on his face
“ What are you doing here?” Frank asked
“ I couldn’t see my friends leave without saying good buy. Could I?” Johnny said
“ No I guess not.” Fred said
“ Hey Jenny, I want a picture with my two amazing friends.” Johnny said to his secretary
Jenny got them in a good pose and took the picture. 
“ There you go boys.” Jenny said with a smile on her face
“ T minus 45 minutes.” Said Bob, as he opened up the door to the changing room. Bob is the guy who tells the astronauts how much time they have left before they go to the next destination.
The 45 minutes later, the astronauts are all suited up and ready to fly. Bob leads them to the elevator which takes them up to the shuttle's main doors. There is no time to waste, Fred is the first one in and he climbs up the ladder to get to the chair and then gently falls backwards into the chair. The same is done with Frank, then their both strapped down tightly into their chairs.
“ Shuttle 9809, this is mission control, do you hear me loud and clear?”
  “ Shuttle 9809 hears you loud and clear over.”
Johnny who is speaking with the astronauts takes them through all preflight checks. Half an hour later, the astronauts are ready to take off, everything is ready to go.
“ Shuttle 9809, this is mission control are you ready for take off?”
“ Shuttle 9809 to mission control, yes.”
“ Count down is going 10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...TAKE OFF.” Said the speakers by the audience as well as speakers in the astronaut's helmets. Shuttle 9809 was 10 minutes into launch…. “ Shuttle 9809 this is mission control, you are clear, and are on route to destination.” Since mission control was flying the shuttle to the portal, the astronauts sat there in their seats until it was their time to take over.
“ Shuttle 9809, this is mission control, you are 4 miles from portal, you are flying on your own in 5..4...3...2...1.. Your on your own.” The shuttle kind of shuck and lights flickered as mission control disconnected their signal from the ship. 
“ Shuttle 9809, this is mission control your on your own, travel safe and god bless.” Mission control was the last thing the astronauts ever heard from the future again. The astronauts felt a jolt almost like when you're on a roller coaster and you're getting ready to go down the steep hill. Whoosh, the space shuttle entered the portal and what took hours to pass felt like minutes.
“ Sir, Sir.” One of the employees at NASA seen a gps signal on the screen and brought it to the attention of others.
“ What do we do?” Tommy asked
“ We watch it, look at the strength of the signal.” Captin Jack said
Tommy went back to his computer and started to measure the strength of the signal.
“ Cap. it’s 5.” Tommy said
“ 5? That’s what ours measure.” Captain said shockley
Not only was that the measurement that the space shuttles give off, but it also was coming from where the space shuttle was last seen long ago before it disappeared. It got really quiet because the thought of the gps signal being the lost astronauts was on everyone's mind.
“ What do we do?” Katlyn asked who was in charge of the map tracking.
“ Katlyn get Jims headset and try to get in touch with the source of the gps signal.” Captin Jack said
Katlyn has never been on the radio before, Jim is the one that communicates between the headquarters and the astronauts, it was Kaitlyn's ture to shine.
“ Hello, Hello, this is NASA, is there anybody there over?”
A static sound came over the radio
“ Hello? This is NASA is there anybody there?” Katlyn asked again
“ H…….ens….s.d.s” Came over the radio
Katlyn couldn't make out what was being said. There were letters but nothing useful. Katlyn didn’t know that she was talking with the astronauts, with all the static, it was hard to understand the words.
Hours pass, the suddenly…..
“ This is Shuttle 9809, to NASA over.”
It went from concert loud with everybody talking and then silence as they heard talking over the radio. Captain Jack ran over to the headset and started talking.
“ This is NASA to shuttle 9809, who is this?”
“ Fred, and Frank. We’re astronauts for the U.S.”
The sudden realization that the astronauts aren’t dead that their in communication with the astronauts. This was a suddenly big, they started recording all the conversations between them and the astronauts. As the astronauts got closer, the more NASA was doing to get them on the ground safely. NASA had got in touch with the families and newspapers and news stations, for the great arrival of history making. Hours pass, and everybody's ready to see the shuttle flying through the sky and crashing into the ocean. There is this sound that sounds like a wind storm, then somebody sees the shuttle flying through the sky and SPLASHH…..
“ We have to get the door open.” A muffled voice says from the outside of the shuttle doors. Fred looks at Frank and they see their in the water, are they home? The door opens and the astronauts are blinded by the 2019 sun. Fred and Frank are strapped down so tight they can't undo their belts, the people from the outside came in to undo the belts and they couldn’t undo them either. They had to cut the straps loose.
Frank was the first one out of the shuttle, then Fred. A ship took  them to the docs, and their exit off the ship was  historic. After 45 minutes of pictures, both men give speeches.
“ It feels so good to be home. There were defiant times when I though I’m not coming home. To see you all feels good. It doesn't feel so good to say that we’re the first time travelers. We went to future earth and were there for many months and so much happened. I now know how prisoners of war felt, just not to the extreme.”
“ Why don't you feel good that you're the first time travelers?” Said a reporter as he interrupted Fred. 
“ You know when you plan something and you put all of this effort into it and it works out and you feel so proud? Well that wasn’t our case, it was actually quite scary. It’s safe to say we could’ve died up there and not be standing here, I’m just glad that there were nice doctors in the future that checked us out and fixed some of our surgeries. We learned some things to protect our earth now, so it won’t be so bad in the future. We also learned that if time travel were a thing that we would do, there would need to be special medical exams that would need to be done. So yes it is history making, it’s the way that it happened to us that we didn’t like. Thanks and now Fred.” The crowd clapped as Frank stepped back and motioned to Fred it was his turn
“ Thank you all, there’s not much to say, Frank covered most of it. There are somethings I would want to talk about to inform you guys about. The first is NASA. Many of you blam NASA for our disappearance and it’s not there fault. They did all they could do to save us, unfortunately this was a new situation to them and to us and neither one of us knew how to approach it.”
“ How come you’ve been so nice to NASA?” Said a reporter interrupting Fred.
“ You know how, when somebody does so much for you and when they don’t ask for much, but for you to do this one thing? NASA knew we were the most experienced and we were the most capable, so we did it right? Things didn’t go the way everybody thought, although when do things go the way they want? One of the things I wanted to talk about is something I heard on the radio on this ship from our shuttle to the docs. The guy on the radio mentioned something about the government cancelling NASA. Don’t cancel NASA, nobody seen this coming and it’s for sure not their fault. NASA has done so much for science and the people to inform them of what their doing to the earth. If you cancel NASA, you're not putting us in danger but the future generations. Let me just tell you that things were so bad in the future, that the earth was brown on the outside and once you entered it and got onto the ground, there was just a foggy hace and that’s from the stuff we’re doing today. If you stop NASA now, think about the future. Don’t tell me that this is the first time, bigger things have happened to other organizations and they’re still around, just stop and think. Do you wanna be the one that dangers earth? Or do you want to be known as the one that helped protect it?” Fred said very powerfully
The crowd flew out of their seats and started to cheer and whistle. The astronauts went to the center of the stage and bowed together while news companies got their pictures. The astronauts then were escorted off the stage to the limo outside. Although, the limo was a wayz a way so security had to be top notch for the astronauts. Security made a circle around the astronauts so they were protected 360 degrees around. The news was getting the hole return and the speeches so people could see them. More and more people showed up as the limo was leaving and boxed in the limo. This made things interesting, the people want to get the astronauts to talk. Fred got tired and stuck his head out the ceiling roof and tried to calm down the audience.
BAM!!!!..........BAM!!!!..........SILENCE………...BAM!!..........BAM!!
A gun was shot 4 times. Then there was a cry.
“ HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!!!! FRED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!FRED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!HELP!!!!FRED!!!!!” Frank called. The gunman shot Fred in the head 4 times. The cars moved out of the way and police chased the shooter in the car and police escorted the limo. Frank held Fred in his arms and was bawling.
“ Ohhhhhhhh Fred!!!!!!”
“ Bgggggggg.” Fred tried to talk as blood flooded out of his mouth
“ Shhhhhhhh, it’s ok………”
Fred started to tear as he used his hand he get Frank to him. Fred had to tell Frank something
“ I…..gggggggggg” Fred gurgled blood as he tried to speak.” Henre Tlbimp………” Fred tried to say
“ No!!!!! Fred!!!!!!!!!!” Frank cried. Freds dead and their not even halfway to the hospital.
“ STEP ON IT!!” said the security guard who’s next to Frank.
They arrived to the hospital 20 minutes later and Fred's body was in the hospital room lifeless. Frank stayed in the room for 40 minutes until he cried himself to dehydration. Police caught the man and took him down to interview him.
“ My name is Officer Pete and that’s my partner Lutein Diet Kipling. We know you shot Fred, why?”
“ I did it !!!!!! I’ve always had a hateful passion against Fred! He was the one that always finished one above me. I was originally the one that was supposed to go into space with Frank and I was gonna kill him!!!! When BOTH returned alive I knew I had to stop one of them. I shot Fred, he deserved to die, I don’t care I was the one that was supposed to go into space.”
“ To kill Frank.” Officer Pete said interrupt Genre
“ Stop I’m not done. I was going to keep Fred alive on earth and then when I got back Fred would get told the news and would be vulnerable. Better watch out I work for Russia!!”
“ Get him out of here! He’s sick!” Lutendiet coupling said to the other two officers in the room. That night he committed suicide by taking an officer's gun and shooting himself. Fred's family along with Frank's family has a lot going on. It takes them a couple of months to get back into the grove of life, which can never be normal again.
Years later Frank is found dead in his home with the interviews playing on his tv. There are the newspapers in his hand with a note on the side which read
“ Dear people,
After this long time of loss and suffering, it’s my time to go. This loss is a good things cause I will be reunited with my good friend Fred. We spent years together and having him not physically here has been hard. I know I have ones that love me, that’s good, it’s just my time to go. I will be in a good place cause I will be with Fred. God bless you all,
Frank”


The author's comments:

I wrote this peice based on a dream to go into space and see what the polution is doing to our earth. I then began to think about how technology could help our planet and would we move to another if things got really bod?


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