I recently dug up a little SF story (very imaginatively titled 'Space story') I wrote in grade 6. I was most likely 11 years old. It is really dreadful with some terrible plot holes and what's basically the most boring first contact story ever, but a couple of bits made me laugh out loud so I thought I'd share it here. My teacher that year was one of the ones who really encouraged me to write (what was she thinking?). But it has at least one semicolon in it (albeit not especially well placed) so it's a start, hey? This is as it was written, errors and all, including my corrections, some of which are amusing -- at least to me.
1
"I don't care what you say!" There
is life in space! I'm sh
sure of it!” Carrie cried.
"Well, none of the 'Voyagers' or 'Vikings' have shown any evidence of cosmic life," Dr Prof Porter said cooly hotly, his cheeks coloring. This girl was just too much for him.
Carrie walked over the to the new probe, 'Voyager 3' and ran her fingers over its smooth shiny surface. It felt cool in her hand.
"There's some good equipment that could be used if a man was sent into space. We landed on the moon -- so why can't we land on Mars or something? It has a thin atmosphere of carbon dioxide. Why don't we bring plants there?"
"Ancora Imparo." Carrie murmured.
"Hm? Oliver Dr Prof Porter had not studied Latin at all.
"I am still learning." Carrie translated. "It's Latin." She looked at her watch at said, "Look Doc Prof. We'll finish this argument tomorrow. I've got to get home or my Mom will worry. Bye!"
Carrie gulped down her soup and quickly chewed on her meat. She refused the custard that was for dessert -- "I'm on dieting at the moment."
"Yeah, but what about the next moment?" Carrie's brother Jack snickered.
Carrie, being sixteen, was to mature to reply, but said to her sister Janie as if she hadn't heard, "Today we had another argument--"
"Who's 'we'?" Janie interupted interrupted.
"Doc Prof and I." Carrie frowned. "He doesn't think theyre that there's life in space. And to top it off, he doesn't think man can survive in space!"
"Well." Janie said dropped her voice to a whisper, "Why don't you build a spaceship and go yourself? You could do what you liked with it if you did." Janie was only nine ten and didn't know much.
"Because it costs thousands millions of dollars to build and launch a space ship." Carrie said. "Well, Mom, may I be excused? I've got stuff to do."
"Sure, honey."
Carrie walked briskly down the hallway to her bedroom/office/lab. It was large and airy, divided into three sections. There was her 'sleeping quarters', with her bed and a build in wardrobe. The 'sleeping quarters' were tiny, but cosy and comfortable. The lab had a desk, a sink with running water and a small electric burner. There were fixed into a built-in desk which also had plenty of work space on it a light which had a knob for dimming and brightening by the switch was set over head. A 600x power microscope sat on the desk and a shelf with held her 'logs', and chemicals, and books chemistry, microbiology and astronomy books.
Then there was the office. It was the smallest of the three 'parts' -- a desk with a closed laptop computer on it and a tall shelf full of all kinds of books on it. The office had a door which led out to the backyard. There was an in suite with a toilet, a sink and a shower. Carrie walked into the office and turned the computer off on. She opened her new plans, and the technical diagrams came up on the screen. She was going to try to build a robot to send up to space. It would be very useful and it would speed up the technology and since it doe did doesn't breathe, it could land and take sample of air, etc. Carrie looked over the many diagrams and decided that it would be pointless to try and build a robot without any engineering experience. She switched the computer of and pulled a piece of paper and a pen out of her desk drawer. She smiled and began to plot out the idea that was forming in her mind.
2
Carrie looked over her plans with sadisfaction. Then she took out her small black diary and consulted it, flipping pages over and until she found it. It was Tuesday, May the thirteenth. She The new probe was being launch in exactly one week three two days.
She didn't have much time, but she was sure she could make it. She added, subtracted, multiplied and divided until she knew that she would be travelling for twenty months days. She would bring 20 kilos of food freeze dried food and 10 litres of liquid in packets. A large supply of oxygen -- 40 tanks. A space suit -- with lead in the bottom soles.
And a big box of books -- as many Isaac Asimovs as possible.
Carrie pack put her library card in her wallet, told asked her mother if she could go to the library, and with permi her mother's stamp of approval, took her bike to the library to borrow books. She put them into her backpack. Then she pedalled to the science shop and bought sufficient food. The clerk looked very surprised, but Carrie had prepared her story. "It's for a party. My little sister is a science nut, and she's holding some for a group of her friends."
The clerk laughed.
"Thanks," Carrie said.
She left the shop and loaded her bike with the cartons.
It was a pretty slow ride home.
Carrie opened the her back door and lugged the boxes in. She knew (from experience) that the cartons they held only half a kilo when they could hold one. So she spent the rest of the evening transferring containers packets into different boxes.
Absently she glanced at her watch. It was ten-thirty and Carrie usually went to bed at around this time. So she kicked of her tennis shoes and put on her pajamas. She switched off brushed her teeth, shook her hair out of the long plait it was in and went to bed.
Carrie jumped sat up in bed, breathing hard. Beads of sweat glistened on her forehead.
"It was just a dream," she said aloud. "Nothing to worry about."
She sighed and lay down again. Seconds later she was asleep.
3
That last day on Earth had flown. Carrie had spent alot of time sneaking her food, oxygen and books into the space ship probe. Then she had the difficulty of getting herself in.
As soon as the ship was launched, Carrie wished she hadn't done it. "I'm crazy," she said aloud.
The trip wasn't bad. There were enough tanks left for homecoming, and enough food.
The probe was landing on Neptune. Well, it was going into it. It would land in five minutes. There was one window, and Carrie peered through it. She looked down and gave a sigh of relief.
There was land. She put on her space suit and went out side.
Crunch, crunch.
What was that? Carrie thought. Someone's (or something's) coming!
It was a boy. A little boy around 5.
"Hi!" He said.
He speaks English! Carrie thought! Wow!
"Who are you?" He said.
"My name is Carrie." she answered.
"I'm Luke."
"What are you? I'm a human."
"I'm a Uman."
"Do you have a radio system?"
"Of course. We've always tried to connect to you on Earth, but you never answer them."
"Can I try to communicate?" Carrie enquired.
"I guess so." Luke said. He seemed a bit more mature than he looked.
4
Carrie followed Luke to a tall building. It looked about as tall as Melbourne Central. There was a lift that went up the whole way. Surrounding it were tiny flowers. They were blue, and they looked like roses but they weren't in bushes. They just grew up, like daisies.
The trees were funny too. The leaves were pink and the flowers where white. The trunks were green and brown white, in stripes.
"Come on!" Luke said. Carrie followed him int the lift. It seemed to work like normal lifts. They stopped on the tenth floor. The lift was automatic, and it said, "Radio communications, level ten."
"Where now?" Carrie asked.
"Just follow me!" Luke answered.
So Carrie did. They went into a room with electronic devices similar to those on Earth. Luke point at a table, and Carrie walked over to it. She made calculations; set the distance, etc, etc and spoke into a transmitter:
"Paging Dr Oliver Porter! Paging Dr Oliver Porter!"
Presently, 'Doc' came through.
"Hi, Doc!" Carrie said cheerfully.
"Caroline! Is that you Caroline?"
"Yes its me, Doc."
"Where are you?"
"I'm on Neptune."
"What? Caroline, really. Where are you."
"I said, on Neptune. Why would I lie to you?"
"I don't know. For attention, no you don't like attention. I don't know. Maybe you really are on Neptune. But how did you get there?"
"I stayed on the probe that you sent up."
"Well, well well! You're very brave, Caroline, I must say."
"Well, I...." Had Dr Porter been there, he would have seen Carrie blushing.
"Carrie?" Luke said. "How are you getting home? You have a stransporter?"
"No."
"Then you are stuck here?"
"I guess so... one minute, Doc."
"We have transporter beams. They go up to three billion km miles each time."
"Uh, Doc," Carrie said, speaking into the transmitter again, "I think I'll be home soon."
An hour later, Carrie was transported home. She ended up at the Lab.
Dr Porter ran out of the lab and straight to Carrie.
He started firing questions at poor Carrie and she said, "Oh, Doc, I'm getting a headache! Please be quiet!"
"Back to normal, eh?"
"Well, almost," Carrie groaned as the reporters began to crowd around them...
