Canton Writes Best in Show: Boom!

The Canton Citizen, a sponsor of the annual Canton Writes contest, will once again publish the winning entries as space permits. This week’s entry by Aidan Lee was selected as the winning entry in the Middle School Short Story category and also garnered the Best in Show award.

Boom! Boom! BOOM!

This is my final day on the Liberty, out-matched and out-numbered. I, Commander Connor Gibson, could have prevented this.

BOOM!

“Sir, our primary laser is hit and down. What should we do, sir? Sir?”

“Fly straight into their command ships,” I said. There was no other choice, I thought.

“Yes sir!” said Evan. Evan has been with me all the way through my life to death.

“Jettison all pods!” I ordered desperately.

“Yes sir!” repeated Evan with a frown.

San walked over. “So this is the end” he said.

“Yes, I will see you both on the other side” I voiced. “Impact in 5…….4…….. 3…….2……..1.”

It was void, bright light shimmered around me like a giant curtain in the breeze. “Where am I?!” I asked my voice cracking. I wasn’t expecting an answer so I jumped when an echoing male voice answered.

“You are on the first Condem, part of the Reanect project.”

“So I’m dead right?”

“NO!” it said loudly and mechanically. “3 minutes until Reanect engine starts.”

“Wait, what engines?!”

“2 Minutes.”

“I’m on a SHIP?!”

“3………..2……….1……….”

19 years ago

“Mum,” said 3 year old Connor Gibson.

“Yes honey?” Helen Gibson asked.

“Want ship.” Connor said.

“No son.” Helen said sternly, “you’re not old enough to fly.”

As she walked away, big flashes of noise and voices glimmered right in front of little Connor. The noise slowly formed into a person. Oddly enough only little Connor seemed to hear it. He turned as a strangely familiar man looked back at him.

“Gahhhhhhhh” little Connor squealed out in alarm.

“Where am I?” questioned the man. “There’s no need to cry. I won’t hurt you.” For at that moment, little Connor had started to wail.

Helen had turned around and was walking back. “Oh, honey.  There’s no need to cry. Are you hungry?” she asked as she stepped through the man.

When little Connor saw this, he was so startled his mouth kept moving but no sound came out.  Meanwhile, the man was patting his chest where Helen had just walked straight through him.  Then he looked at Helen in surprise, pointed at her and then at little Connor. Finally, he composed himself again and rephrased his question. “When am I?”

He looked over, saw a calendar, and peered at the date. It read, ‘Beta Sector 3053.’ He looked back at little Connor with a grin. Helen was bending over him, force feeding him food. Baby Connor decided he’d had enough mollycoddling from his mother and curled into a ball, the Gibson’s universal sign of ‘I’ve had enough; you can leave.’  “Well hello there, me” said Commander Connor Gibson. “Man, I haven’t been home in 17 years.” Commander Connor began to get his bearings and was trying to figure out what he was supposed to do with or for his three year old self.

Three weeks later, Connor and Connor had become good friends.  Although Commander Connor couldn’t place it, he had the suspicion that he had been sent back in time to do something, not to become friends with himself. Connor asked himself, “What happened in 3053 that would influence later events, that maybe should have never happened?” Then it clicked. This was the year, his name had been put in for high command school. “If I hadn’t gone to command school, then I never would have died in the battle.”

Helen called from the entrance room/living room. “I’m going out and I’m going to need all the papers on the work table.” A robot maid swept out to get the papers. Commander Connor thought, “This is it” and told his younger self he was going on an adventure as he swept out the door in pursuit of the papers in Helen’s hand.

Helen hopped in her land rover and zoomed out across the barren plains. Commander Connor looked around. The only transportation option left was an experimental bike, his dad had been working on before he lost his job. He hopped on and prayed that it would explode in his face, though from experience over the past three weeks, he doubted it would do much. It took a few tries, but the bike eventually started with a jolt and flew forward.  Helen hadn’t had much of a head start and it must have looked weird, for she looked back in surprise and sped up.

“She probably thinks this thing is malfunctioning,” Connor told himself.  She was almost to the outskirts of the city when he finally drew level with her. He heard a noise and looked up. A car was literally falling out of the sky, right in between them, so Connor did the only sensible thing.  He tried to get out of the way, but his hand went right through the car. It felt odd, but he could still move it forward and he had almost gotten the papers before she stopped and inserted them into a slot outside the door of the CommandSchool.

“No!!!!” Connor screamed as Helen rode away, but it was too late and no one had heard him. He had missed his chance to save himself and his friends and he would not get another. He thought about other options he had, like breaking into the Command Center, but just then a bright light formed around him and he knew his time was up. “This cannot be happening,” he thought, but even then, he was beginning to lose self consciousness. He felt at ease drifting in limbo and that was where his story ended. Or was it?

Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=25951

Posted by Guest on Jul 3 2014. Filed under Featured Content. Both comments and pings are currently closed.