- Link for Chapter 1: Family’s happiness
- Link for Chapter 2: Headed to the darkness
Mia has been working on the ISS for five weeks. She has worked so hard. She even has three new friends: Evelyn Moore, Jessica Johnson, and Marcus Jones. Evelyn and Marcus have Canadian roots and are two years older than Mia. Jessica is one year younger than her. Mia, Ethan, and Emma are still trying to get used to life here.
Today, Mia is watching Evelyn and Marcus take care of some plants—astronauts have started growing plants in a weightless environment—when Ethan floats in.
“You and Emma have a call from Earth! Maybe they want to send you two back because of your laziness.”
“Thanks, Ethan. That last sentence was unnecessary. You’re just trying to scare me.” Mia winks and floats away.
Emma is waiting for Mia in front of an enormous screen—they often communicate with Earth through this. A woman appears on the screen.
“Hello, I’m Elizabeth Shirley from the NASA control room. Can you hear me? Over.”
“Yes. Over.”
“Great! A solar panel near window A1 is broken, and we need you two to go outside and fix it. Do you understand? Over.”
“Yes, Ms. Shirley. Over!”
“That’s good! You better put on your suits now—you’ll be heading outside in 30 minutes. Over.”
The screen shuts off. They put on their astronaut suits with help from their colleagues.
“We can start with the bottom part!” Ethan says.
“I’m so excited!” Emma exclaims.
“Yeah. I’ve been outside a couple of times, but I still want to go again!” Jessica shrugs.
Thirty minutes later, Mia and Emma are ready to go outside. They need to go through three doors to adjust to the feeling of being in space. The last door opens, and their eyes widen in amazement. The Earth looks so big and radiant—unlike anything they’ve seen in images. But one thing makes them freeze: the aurora. It looks ethereal, shimmering, dancing—celestial, mesmerizing. Mia can’t think of any adjectives worthy of describing its beauty.
She and Emma completely forget their mission until a voice booms:
“Hello, this is Elizabeth Shirley from NASA. The broken panel is not far from you two. Over.”
“Okay, we see it now. Over.”
“Beautiful! Now you need to—eed…ed…ddd…Grr…Grrr…”
“What’s happening?” Mia asks. No one answers.
“The connection is having trouble,” Emma guesses. “Hello? Can you hear me?”
No response.
They start to panic. Suddenly, the ISS shakes and dashes away at high speed. Mia and Emma grab onto a bar, but their hands slip, and the ISS vanishes out of sight.
“What now?” Emma asks.
Mia says nothing. She tries to calm herself, but panic is creeping in. She’s scared. She tries to communicate with Earth, but nothing works.
“I can’t hear anything from Elizabeth!” Emma says.
“Hey… do you feel that?”
“Feel what?”
“I don’t know… something is pulling us. No… something is sucking us!”
They realize—a black hole is pulling them in. Their hearts pound. They grab each other’s hands and say nothing.
A few minutes later, they begin to spin. Faster and faster and faster. Mia hears BANG bang bang BANG bang bang… Then—nothing. Just dizziness. They close their eyes. Their lives are almost over. Mia’s eyes grow heavy, her heartbeat slows… and then—
- What’s happening to Mia and Emma? They are heading straight into the black hole. You might laugh and think that’s impossible. But this is a black hole—no joke! Are they alive? Or…
- Let’s find out in Chapter 4 – coming soon
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