Jakin turned to page 104 and read, "Year 5002." He turned wide-eyed to Marion, who eagerly motioned for him to continue. He turned the page, and his eyes grew even wider as he saw a picture of a spaceship, flying in space. They both stood there silently, reading about spaceships, galaxies, and much more. They had never even seen planets before, and you can imagine that they were very confused about some things. It took them over a week to understand that human beings would begin to fly around in space, exploring a whole new world. Both really liked the idea of "space people," and were looking forward to going forward in time. Jakin especially studied the weapons used in that time, and found especially interesting the Phaser, and the Ray Gun. The Phaser you could set at different settings, such as, "Stun, kill, or shock." And the Ray Gun was a little different. It couldn't kill a person; it could only blast a wall of intense heat at a person, driving them back. Jakin couldn't wait to try one out! Meanwhile, Marion was more interested in the spaceships themselves. There were big, cumbersome spaceships, and there were sleek, fast spaceships. Marion's favorite was titled, "F-5 Comet." It was a small fighter spaceship, but thin and fast. Its hull was gray, with white outlines. In the cockpit, there was only room for one person, who manned the controls, and the weapons. The weapon was like a gun, but there were two guns together, so that the person put their hands in the middle bar, and could swing both guns around at the same time, so that the guns were straight, and easy to handle. The seat also moved, so that the person could swing to and fro, to follow the enemy planes in space.
Once they had all read up on the year 5002, they felt somewhat ready. They knew they would probably have to learn as they went along, and neither of them could wait until they were called into the future!
Marion took the basket her mother offered, and she and Jakin set off towards the village market. They were doing some shopping for their mother, and the weather was sunny, and bright. Jakin was about to ask Marion something, when he saw her suddenly begin to sink in the ground. Marion let out a startled yell, and desperately grabbed at Jakin's outstretched hand. Jakin pulled at her with all of his might, trying to get her out of the deep dirt hole that sucked her in. But something was pulling at her strong, stronger than Jakin. After a few moments of struggling, all of a sudden, a force dragged Marion down that was too powerful for Jakin. She was torn away from his hands, and then, she was gone. Jakin flew backward, landing on his back. He sat up quickly, but it was too late. Marion was gone, and now the hole was closing back up. Jakin did the only thing that he could think of: he jumped in the hole.
He expected to feel the normal sensation of falling in the hole, but suddenly, he found himself walking beside a man in a strange gray uniform, and the man was handing Jakin a clipboard full of papers. "Take these, Hanson. We need to get to the briefing room as soon as possible. Sign your name at the bottom, and then we'll get you all set up for the mission." Jakin hastily took the clipboard, struggling to keep up with the man's fast strides. He scanned the paper, only really reading a few titles, "Mission to Defeat Invaders," or "LDF." Jakin wondered what that meant, and asked the man so. "Why, you know it means Luna Defense Federation! Now get that signed, so that we can get things done." Jakin took a little more time reading the paper, and soon saw that the planet that he was on was called Luna, and that Luna was under attack by some invaders of some sort. The invaders were called the Zevers, and from what Jakin could tell, they were not human. He wondered where Marion was, but knew he'd better either sign the paper, or hand it back to the man, and get out of there. He signed the paper, hoping it was what Eashoa wanted. He handed the clipboard back to the man, who gave him a smile, and slapped him on the back. "Though the youngest in our class, I knew I could count on you. Is your sister planning on joining, too? You both are smarter than any kids I know nowadays, and besides, I've never even seen a woman fly the Comet like you sister does."
"Uh yes Sir, I think she is planning on joining, too."
"Good! I'll give her the same sheet to sign at the briefing room. Maybe the two of you will even be assigned together!" Now, he made a swift turn, into an enormous room, filled with hundreds of people, most of them younger, like Jakin was. He was scanning the room, while the man said to him, "Take a seat over there, with the others. Just wait until you're called up." He motioned to where the young people sat, and Jakin noticed how differently they were dressed than what Jakin normally wore. He looked at his own clothes, and was somewhat surprised to find they were the same as what the young men wore there. Tight deep blue pants with a black stripe running down the side, and a light jacket over a jet black shirt. An emblem on his front chest pocket caught his eye, and he lifted up the flap of the pocket so that he could see what it was. A large turquoise planet filled up most of the emblem, with a few stars sprinkled here and there. At the top was sewn, "Luna Defense Federation" in small words. Jakin looked up, and found a seat near the front. He saw the man he had been speaking to going to and fro in the crowd, and Jakin hoped the man had found his sister, and asked her to sign up. At last, a man stood up on a podium, and called for silence. Immediately the murmuring stopped, and all eyes turned to the man. He cleared his throat a few times, and then warmly stepped back to the microphone. "I fondly remember when my time came to choose my career for my life. I chose to be a commander in our forces, but there are many careers you can chose. I will call your name, and you will come up here one by one, and receive your career, and certificate. Please make this fast, and think carefully on what you want to choose. Remember, you may only choose one career. It will be your only job for the rest of your life, so choose wisely." Jakin was startled. These people could only choose one job…for the rest of their life? That hardly seemed fair.
"I will now start calling your names. Good luck to all of you!" And with that, he began calling names. One by one, they came up, some choosing a less exciting job of a desk duty or cleaner, while others chose to be fighter pilots, or mission specialists. Jakin knew what he wanted to be, and that was a ground man. A ground man was like a soldier, being dropped off at a location, and going in with large groups of men, and ambushing the enemy. Jakin knew that Marion would choose to be a fighter pilot, and wondered if he would ever see her. Then, he heard his last name being called. He stood up, and made his way to the podium. He saw someone out of the corner of his eye walking with him, and he looked up. Marion! He greeted her with a quick smile, and she smiled back at him. She was wearing a deep blue skirt and shirt, with a black vest over the shirt. A pretty blue scarf was around her neck, and he also saw the emblem on her shirt. "You are choosing a fighter pilot?" He whispered.
"Yes. And you?"
"A ground man. However are we going to stay together?"
"I'm not sure. I guess we'll just have to trust Eashoa on this." They had now reached the podium, and Jakin motioned her to take the steps first. He did so, and stopped before the man in charge of careers. Jakin heard her softly say, "Fighter Pilot." And then, she was further motioned forward. Her name was written down, a certificate printed out, and then she was done. Jakin walked up the steps, and then told the man what he wanted to be. He was then handed his certificate, and sent out of the building. He caught up with Marion, who had waited outside of the door, and asked her, "Where were you after you fell in that dirt hole in our time?"
"After I fell in the dirt hole, I was suddenly on my way to walking somewhere. I just followed some other people into the room, then a man came up to me, and asked if I wanted to sign this paper. He told me that you'd already signed up, so I figured that I should, too. Wow, Jakin! We're actually in the future!!