Chapter 5
Stuck On Autopilot
Carlos and I were now tightly fastened to our seats again with no chance of escaping this high jacking spaceship. My books were still floating around along with our space helmets that we removed from our heads earlier. We could hear that the rockets at behind us were dying down as the ship was slowing down almost coming to a complete halt. Then it went slient. We were experiencing the quietness of space, no sound could be heard from near or far "Hey Carlos, can you hear that? Nothing..." i examined to Carlos who was gazing into space (literally). He then finally turned his head and looked at me "Oh sorry DA, i guess i was a bit SPACE OUT! HA HA!" oh no Carlos was making puns! I made a fed up look at him while shouting out his name in a frustrated tone. He just sat there and giggled "Sorry DA, it was so tempting, i was just admiring our Earth!" he answered back to me. As we looked through the windscreen while in obit, we could see Earth in all its glory. Still as beautiful as ever, i was admiring it too but had to remember in my mind that we had to somehow get ourselves back home but how?
Just then the intercom voice started to speak again "Your journey through space is about to begin, you will be learning all about our Solar System, our 8 planets including our dwalf planets such as Pluto, our moon and even riding the asteroid belt". Sounded just like a normal procedure voice you would normally hear at the Planetarium, however today is not a normal day at the Planetarium. "Looks like we are going to get a re-education Carlos" i said to Carlos taking a deep breath "Yeah but do you think we can at least drive this thing?" he answered back to me. He was thinking of playing with the controls on the dashboard but before he could even consider it, the lights flicked and the lights on the controls started to flash in a sequence. "Carlos! What did you press or do?" I shouted at him, "Nothing! I didnt touch anything" he shouted back to me using a nervous voice. In a few short seconds the flashing stopped and it want slient again "What in the world, do you think we might've hit something?" i asked Carlos "I didn't feel anything" he answered back looking as confused as i was. Then the intercom voice started to speak again "You are now in Autopilot, i will be your guide on this mission and you may speak to me at anytime during our journey". Carlos and i then screamed "AUTOPILOT!".
"Let the touuurrrrrr begin!" the intercom then said. The voice sounded a lot like what Ms Frizzle said during our first visit to space. Was that a coincidence? Carlos and i were heavily nervous but in way we were both eager to see what happens next. Suddenly the sound of the rockets started to power up again and the engine started to sound "To the moon!" the intercom shouted. We were moving, in almost light speed, faster then the average rocket ship as it would take days, months or even years to reach a planet or two. Even the timer on the dashboard (that we originally thought was fake) was starting to count the days "Only a magic rocket would do this" i said to Carlos "DA not sure about you but do you really want to learn all about the Solar System again or we turn off autopilot and we create our own adventure?" Carlos eagerly asks me. I smiled brightly towards him, as much as i loved to learn things, we may never get this chance again "Lets do it" i said to him in joy! "Umm hang on...i cannot see an turn off autopilot button?" says Carlos "Do you see one near you?". As looked around the console lifting up my arm and my finger doing little circles within my glove and i couldn't find one ethier. That's when i got a bit worried "Um Carlos i think your right i cannot see when ethier, just heaps of other flashing buttons and a sterring like device" i mentioned to Carlos as we both gulpped "Hey what if we ask the intercom if there is an autopilot stop button?" Carlos asked me. I thought that was a great idea due to us not being able to locate one on the console. "Hey ahhh... Intercom...how do we stop autopilot or is there a button we can press to stop?" Carlos kindly asked the intercom, then everything started to flash again for a second "I'm sorry but no such thing has been installed as yet, please contact your service provider" the voice stated. "What! So there is no way of stopping the autopilot?" i shouted at the intercom "Again, I'm sorry but no such thing has been installed as yet, please contact your service provider" the intercom stated again. Carlos and I looked at each other "Well guess we stuck on autopilot for the remainder of the trip" Carlos said while letting a deep breath out, "Sorry Carlos, looks like we are stuck with the lesson plan" i then answered back to him taking a deep breath myself. I looked around and took note again of the sterring like wheel that was infront of Carlos "Hang on, maybe we can try gaining control by sterring?" i examined to Carlos "Guess we can try hey?" he answered back to me. He then reached out for the sterring wheel to gain control of the rocket. Carlos used all his strength to move and control the wheel but it was no use...we both let out a sign...
I looked towards the timer on the dashboard it was almost on day 3 amazing what magic can do to speed up time. We could feel the rocket going at fantastic speed its no wonder that the intercom wanted us securely fastened to our seats. I looked then up at the windscreen and could see the moon has now in sight getting bigger and bigger as we got closer "We are now approaching our Earths only moon, our moon is approximately 4.53 billon years old, standby for landing in a few minutes" the intercom announced. The rocket still on autopilot took control of all the sterring (the sterring wheel was moving by itself) and preparation for landing "Looks like its doesn't want us to take control" i said to Carlos. As we were slowing down the intercom was contining to give us tips and facts about the moon, i think Carlos was starting to get a little annoyed "Is this thing going to do this everytime we arrive at a planet?" says Carlos "Carlos, the moon is not a planet" i then said to him "You know what i mean DA, by the way where have our helmets gone? We cannot enter the outside with out them!" he then said back to me. "Space Helmets on please" the intercom then announced "It is vital that all travellers must wear a helmet along with their Spacesuits at all times while exploring the outside world". Just then a pair of large metal like arms with what looked like hands appeared from the ceiling "Eeep!" we both squeaked, what were these metal like hands going to do? I could feel my heart pounding from the inside of my spacesuit. They began to head towards us before flying away from us like they were reaching out for something. Carlos and i were a little relieved that they were not going to touch us we both took a huge breath out in relief "They might be getting our helmets for us" Carlos examined. In a few short seconds and i saw that one of the arms placed a helmet on Carlos's head "Ooofff, they could've been a little bit gentler on the landing" i heard Carlos say now sounding like he was transmissioning on a radio. I could not help but laugh before it was my turn. I looked up and my helmet was above my head ready to be placed on my head. The metal arm was being lowered and the hand placed my helmet on my head gentley, not sure what Carlos was talking about! The arms then disappeared back into the ceiling "That's better, now standby for landing" the intercom informed us. The Moon was closer then ever as we felt the rocket start to turn vertical to land with its nose upwards towards the dark space sky "Any minute now" i say to Carlos in an excited voice. We were slowing down, right down and the sound of the rockets began to fade before we felt a mid bump! "We have now landed on the Moon, please remain in your seats with your seatbelts still fastened until we inform you that it is safe to do so" the intercom told us in a voice very much like in a normal airplane "Hey Carlos?" i asked excitably " This has go to be real, we are on the Moon!".
Thank you for reading, hope you are enjoying the story so far. Next chapter coming soon.