“Brace yourself, they’re firing straight at us!” Captain Foren gripped the steering wheel so tightly that her fingernails left indents in the palms of her hands.
“They’ve caught us four times this week, Captain,” co-pilot Callisto exclaimed, “it appears that they’ve locked in on our coordinates once again.”
A beeping sound started going off indicating that there was a missile enclosing in on their location. Alexa, the small, heavy duty spaceship, can withstand strong forces for a very long time.
“Come on Alexa,” Captain Foren said to her spaceship, “you’ve survived through the worst battles; we’re only 1.25 light years away from home. We’re going to make it out alive and we’re going to come back stronger than ever,” Captain Foren jolted the steering wheel to the far left, trying to dodge an oncoming missile. Frantically, Callisto began firing back with what little ammunition Alexa had left.
“I can’t seem to shake them off our trail,” Captain Foren said, tucking her long, brown hair behind her ears. “Callisto, on the count of three, pull down that red lever to the left of you.”
“What? But that’s the—,” Callisto’s hands trembled as he reached upward.
“Three!”
Captain Foren slammed her foot on the gas and Alexa began spinning in circles until she completely disappeared. The beeping sounds faded and their vision was compromised by a bright light.

“Lyra?” Nurse Ariel began shaking the stiff bed as hard as she could. “Lyra, are you up?”
“What? What happened?” Captain Foren asked, slowly sitting up.
“You’re in the hospital. This is the fourth time you've been here in the past week,” she said, fixing the sheets on the captain's hospital bed.
“Wait, what happened out there?”
“You don’t remember what happened? You told me to pull down the red lever!” Callisto yelled from a nearby hospital bed.
Captain Foren sighed, “We’re going to need to create a new, solid plan.”

Later that night, Callisto and Lyra met up in the spaceship and began discussing their plan of attack. Their goal is to reclaim the star of Meda from the Andromeda Galaxy.
“Why’re we so focused on Meda? There are plenty of other stars in the galaxy for us to capture and use as an energy source instead,” Callisto argued.
“Well, before I recruited you to join me on this mission, my mother left me a briefcase filled with her research. She is um,” Lyra paused and took a deep breath, “she was very determined to reclaim the star of Meda, but she never got the chance to go on the mission because she had an unexpected heart attack and died.”
“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, Lyra I didn’t mean to,” Callisto stammered.
“It’s okay. I just want to make her proud and reclaim Meda for our dying world. It was wrongfully stolen from us by the Andromedans and I intend to get it back,” Lyra said.
“Our star only has enough power to fuel our planet for one more week, so we need to attack within the next two days,” Callisto inputted.
Learning from their past mistakes, Lyra and Callisto formed an elaborate plan of attack to reclaim the star of Meda for their dying world. Without their energy source, the planet will freeze, ending all life.
“Alright, you’ve passed your physicals and are now cleared to continue your mission. Be safe, Lyra,” I said, signing her release forms. “You too, Callisto.” Lyra rolled her eyes and waved behind her as Callisto followed her out through the automatic doors of the hospital. I said a quick prayer to myself and continued onto my next patient.
“Okay, Callisto, fuel gages are full, all systems are a go, and we are ready for take off,” Lyra said happily. Callisto strapped himself in and braced himself for the strong force of the takeoff. Lyra counted down from ten and the two sped 2.5 light years off. Looking out the window, Callisto knew they were nearing the Andromeda Galaxy. The mix of pink and purple hues of the Meda star illuminated the sky and increased Lyra and Callisto’s drive to reclaim the star.
“My mother’s notes stated that the Andromedans have an invisible fence surrounding their whole galaxy. We need to get into their force field in order for our energy absorber to work,” Lyra said.
“I remember, Captain Foren, let’s begin phase one,” Callisto said, pulling up their frequency tuner. “It’s vibrating time, let me work my magic, Captain.” Callisto turned the dial all the way up and the S.S. Alexa began shaking back and forth so fast that they were able to penetrate through the invisible barrier. Once the ship made it fully through, Callisto deployed their cloaking mechanism, making Alexa appear invisible to the security monitors on Andromeda.
“Alright, Captain Foren, we’ve successfully broken into the Andromeda Galaxy.”
“Great work, I’m glad that didn’t fail like the first time we tried,” Lyra and Callisto began chuckling at the thought of their first mission.
“We weren’t prepared at all for the force field,” Callisto said.
“This time we are! It’s time for phase two,” Lyra removed her black insulated jacket and steered the S.S. Alexa to the left side of the Andromeda Planet. The pink and purple hues of the galaxy shone more intense than before as they neared the Meda star. Callisto pulled down a heavy lever to the right of him as the temperature began to rapidly increase. Whoosh! The spaceships windshield was now protected by an ultraviolet shield strong enough to protect both Lyra and Callisto’s hazel eyes. All of a sudden, Lyra heard a familiar, annoying sound.
“Oh no, not again,” Lyra sighed and increased the ships speed. “Ready the ammunition, Callisto, our friends are back.” Two larger spaceships were approaching their flying vessel. On the sides of the ship were the letters ‘ADF’ and a painting of the Andromedan flag.
“How’d the Andromedan Defense Force detect us?” Callisto doubled checked all of the spaceships settings.
“Don’t pay attention to them, we’re almost to the star,” Lyra said pushing Alexa to her maximum speed. With the ADF encroaching on their position, Callisto powered up the energy absorber and prepared the capsule. “We’re now 1.3 miles away from the star. According to my mother’s notes, we should be close enough to transfer the energy to our container,” Lyra turned on auto pilot and ran to the back of the ship to Callisto to take over connecting the wires. Hearing the sirens from the ADF ships drawing nearer, Lyra unknowingly misconnected an important wire and sent the capsule out into space. Within the next ten seconds, the wire became disconnected and energy was no longer flowing to the capsule.
“Oh, no, no, no, that’s not supposed to be happening is it? What’s going on Callisto?” Lyra stared out the small window rethinking her every move from the past minute or two.
“It appears that the transferring wire has gotten disconnected. There’s no way we’ll be able to bring it back, repair it, and send it back out before the ADF catches us,” Callisto explained.
“Then, there’s only one option,” Lyra ran through a corridor in the spaceship and locked herself in. Callisto, following her, continuously banged on the door for her to open up.
“Captain Foren! Please don’t do this. Your body can’t withstand the amount of radiation you’ll endure out there,” Callisto banged on the door trying to get Lyra’s attention but she was already slipping on her spacesuit. “Don’t you dare hit that button. Lyra, please, we can find another way to save our planet we still have a week,” but it was too late and they both knew it. Callisto bowed his head against the door and shed a tear. When Callisto looked away, Lyra hit the vacuum seal button and all of the air in the room was sucked out. Callisto wiped his tears, sprinted to the front of the spaceship, and took a seat at the control center. He placed the bulky headset overtop of his sweat filled hair and began talking Lyra through the steps of fixing the capsule.
“It’s the blue wire that’s disconnected,” Callisto said, reviewing the capsule’s manual that Lyra’s mom had written. “Use the pliers in the front left pocket of your suit to reconnect it.”
“Okay I think that--,” Lyra paused and started to hear a faint, familiar sound once again.
Focusing all of his attention on Lyra, Callisto was oblivious to the increasing sound of the ADF’s sirens. “Callisto? Callisto are you the--,” Lyra was cut off and the communication signal went off line.
Boom! The S.S. Alexa tilted to the far right as the Andromedan Defense Force launched a missile into its side. Callisto was jolted to the floor and hit his head hard against a nearby lever. Alexa started suffering major system failures as the ADF continuously fired its laser beams. Unaware of Callisto's well being, Lyra completed filling up the capsule and pulled herself back onto the ship using the tether.
“Callisto! Are you alright?” Lyra put her fingers on his neck and felt a weak pulse. “Come on, stay with me,” she whispered softly into his ear. Before knocking himself out unconscious, Callisto unknowingly hit his head against the red lever. Lyra felt Alexa power up and she braced herself.
“What happened?” Callisto asked, looking back and forth confused.
“You’re in the hospital for the fifth time,” Nurse Ariel said, examining Lyra’s radiation scans.
“What happened was we collected enough energy from the Meda star to save our planet. Good work today, Callisto,” Lyra said. With her mother on her mind, Lyra fell asleep holding her mother’s journal, knowing that she would’ve been proud.