♥ Space Lift - COMPLETED ♥

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ Ok, i FINALLY FINISHED THE STORY ^^ enjoy! ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

                       ♥ ♥  sorry its so long but please read it ♥ ♥

Space. I’ve always dreamed from the moment I was born that I could experience it. My name is Matthew, my friends and family call me Matt though. I’m 17 and have finished school. I am about to live my dream. In fact, I am sitting in my parent’s car, driving to the lift station. Mum and Dad have never been enthusiastic about me going on the lift, not since Greenpeace have started sending threats and things into the station. They’re against dumping our nuclear waste and pollution into space. A couple of months ago, there was even a bomb threat. My great Grandpa tells me about the year 2012 and how Greenpeace was never so extreme and that they would just protest and occasionally raid a ship that was whaling or something. But my Grandpa is old, in fact, he was born in 1997, he is 93 now.I looked at the car clock and noticed the time.

“C’mon Dad, put the pedal to the metal! I don’t want to miss the lift! Besides, Kyle is probably waiting for me at the station!”

 Kyle and I have been best friends for ages, and he agreed to take the lift with me. We booked the overnight stay at the satellite. Dad sighed and accelerated from 70kmph to 75kmph. I rolled my eyes and peered up at the cable slowly appearing over the hills. We Australians were lucky that it was decided to build the project in Western Australia. It was a whiles drive but at least we weren’t taking plane flights and stuff.

“Matt, look! Wow, its...pretty high up. Are you sure that you want to do this, you can just come home...”

 Mum tried to sound convincing, and failed.

“No Mum, you know how much I want to do this, besides; I can’t back out on Kyle!”

Mum hung her head, disappointed that I hadn’t changed my mind. Dad parked the car. I jumped out with so much eagerness that I tripped over my own legs. Dad shook his head and locked the car. I checked in and claimed my ticket, then turned to look at the architecture. The inside decor was amazing. Blue, silver and black were the main colours. There were boards up with the departure times on them. The floating benches were everywhere; there were many people here just to admire the architecture. I looked around, but Kyle wasn’t anywhere. The loudspeaker crackled to life,

“Would all passengers please report to the boarding bay for the 6:15pm departure. Thank you.”

 My phone buzzed in my pocket.

“That must be Kyle” I muttered to myself.

“Hey Kyle, why aren’t you here yet? Its 5:30! The final boarding call is in 15 minutes!”

I waited for Kyle to answer.

“Sorry Matt, I’ve come down with something. I’m stuck in hospital for a while.”

Kyle’s tone was disappointed.

“Is it too late to reclaim your money for the ticket?”

 Kyle coughed.

“Yeah, gee I’m sorry. You have fun okay?”

 he coughed again.

 “Alright, I better go. You get better soon, alright? Bye.”

I sighed. Now I would have someone else sitting next to me in the lift.

“Matt, you’d better report to the boarding bay. Please, be careful, honey.”

 I hated it when Mum called me honey. I rolled my eyes and hugged her. I would only be gone for 2 days and yet she was acting as if I was moving out. I took my bag and stepped onto the escalator pad. It rose and took me to the bay directly. It was even more amazing up close. The heat shields were so thick, though they would have to be to go thought the atmosphere at the speed it needs to. The lift was enormous, silver, there were many small, round windows covered with clear heat resistant material and there was this huge solar power generator attached to it. I marvelled at the sight.

“This is the final boarding call for the 6:15pm departure. Please make your way to the boarding bay right now. Thank you.”

I headed to the crowd of people at the boarding door, the excitement and anxiety building up in my stomach. This was the experience I had dreamed of my whole life.

As I boarded the lift, it was amazing! There was a main cabin with 12 chairs in a circle around a large pillar in the middle. This had a TV and a snack bar in it as well as our headphones. I sat in my chair and waited for someone to sit in Kyle’s seat. These trips are almost always full. When no one sat down, I was surprised. This was the second last flight of the day. I examined the walls. Soft yet firm at the same time.  The flight attendant came round to tighten the harnesses and give us safety instructions. She was half way though when a girl about my age came onto the lift. She quickly sat down into Kyle’s seat and blushed, embarrassed for being late. The attendant gave her a brief run down and when to go to the cockpit.

A speaker crackled,

“Thank you for taking the lift to the space station, Stallion. Please enjoy the lift ride; it will be a 2 hour ride. The countdown will begin for lift off. Please brace yourselves. Thank you,”

 I took a deep breath. I wondered how it would feel. I took another breathe, being careful not to hyperventilate,

“10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.”

 The Lift flew upwards with tremendous pressure; I thought I could pass out. After 30 minutes of high speed and tremendous pressure, the lift was slow enough that we could undo the harness, keeping the seatbelt on.

Some people rested, some turned on the t.v and some read. I decided to talk to the girl sitting next to me. She had long, straight, shiny, smooth black hair, tied into a pony tail; her face was young. Her eyes were an amazing bright blue.

“Hi, I’m Matthew.”

I couldn’t think of what else to say.

“Hello. I’m Sophia. Nice to meet you.”

 She smiled and went back to her book. She made me think of my average height, my eyes were a dark green and my hair was a light brown.

“Excuse me Matthew, but how old are you?”

I realised that she was looking me, her face lit with curiosity.

“I’m 17, how old are you?”

She smiled, showing her shiny, white teeth.

“Same age as you, actually,”

 I was surprised. She looked pretty young to me.

“Have you finished school too?”

 I nodded sheepishly.

 “Well, I’m going to finish my book. Maybe we can talk later, ok?”

She smiled and turned back to her book. I sat there staring at Sophia.

Somehow, two hours passed and we were arriving at the space station. I think I spent most the time staring out the window, into space. The earth looked so beautiful form above and the moon was so much more detailed. Sophia and I disembarked through the lift door, and I stared in complete awe. So technological, there were screens of data and diagrams of different stars, sections of space and the planets, the astronauts were working behind soundproof glass, so they couldn’t be distracted.

People were lining up to board the second last shuttle of the day and the crowd made it difficult for Sophia and I to push through the crowd. As we walked, she asked me some questions.

“Are you staying here overnight?”

 I nodded.

 “Really!? So am I...” I cut her off, “Actually, you’re staying in the room my friend was supposed to be in, he fell sick and couldn’t come.”

 She paused, her face full of empathy.

“We’ll I hope he’s better soon.”

 She raised one eyebrow accusingly.

“It is a he right?”

Sophia giggled.

“Yes, it was a him.”

 We walked into the hotel together, looking around like Japanese people in a French speaking city. We were both lost for words.

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The architecture was amazing! I walked in circles, admiring the space above me. There was antique styled furniture, from about 1920, and it looked so, beautiful. Teapots, tea cups and saucers made from china, wooden furniture, coffee tables with legs to support it, windows with real material curtains, it was all so different, like great grandpa’s stories! Sophia smiled a huge grin.

“Like it?”

 she asked, her face lit with curiosity again. “Miraculous! The person who designed this was a genius!”

 I smiled back and she blushed.

 “Actually, my Dad designed it! It’s the first time I’ve seen it though. Amazing. So beautiful.”

 Her voice trailed off, and I stuttered

“Your Dad designed this place!”

 She blushed a deep tone of red. “The furnishings and decor actually.” 

She began to walk to the counter of the hotel to check in.

Once I had finished checking in too, she turned to me

“Do you mind being called Matt?”

 I shook my head.

 “Matt, why did you come up here. For a holiday?” She stared at me.

“Well,” I began, “I have been fascinated by space since I was old enough to know that it existed. I really wanted to experience it for myself. If I could, I’d like to get a job up here.”

She starred at her feet, thoughtful. “That’s really interesting.”

She smiled, though she looked distracted.

“What’s wrong?”

 I asked her. She looked up at me.

“Oh, sorry. I’m fine. Just thinking about what to do tomorrow. Whether I do the zero gravity first or the history of space morning session.”

 We both laughed together as we walked up to the rooms. Since Sophia had taken Kyle’s booking, our rooms were next to each others.

“Goodnight, Matt. Maybe I’ll see you in the cafe for breakfast, that is, if you’re up early enough.”

 She giggled again and entered her room. I heard a gasp before her door quietly fell shut. I to, entered my room.

It was just so cool! The beds didn’t float and there was a small bedside table with a plug in lamp! It wasn’t even built in! There was a small bathroom with a shower, toilet and sink which you had to turn on yourself. I dumped my bag of stuff in the cupboard and went to brush my teeth. Two days of staying in this place will be such an awesome experience. I walked wearily to my bed and dropped onto it. How could one lift ride be so tiering? I drifted off to sleep in two seconds flat.

I woke up, dazed about why I hadn’t been woken by the sunlight. I then remembered that I was in space. I was really here, not some dream. I looked at the clock. 7:30am. “Well” I thought to myself, “I guess I’ll just have an early breakfast and find Sophia later.” I sat up and looked around the dark. My hand stumbled around the bedside table until I found a switch, hopefully for the lamp. The light startled me for a moment, then I stepped out from my nice, cosy bed to the cool room. I hadn’t bothered to unpack my suitcase last night so I had to rummage around until I found something to wear. Cargo pants and a sweatshirt, “That will do” I thought. I opened the door and headed out to the lobby to find a map to show me where the cafe was. It was pretty easy or it was easier than I thought. There was a massive map in the centre of the lobby area and the cafe was clearly labelled. I looked around the empty lobby. It was nicer when it wasn’t crowded; it was easier to admire the beauty. I walked into the cafe, expecting to have the counter staff look at me thinking “Why is he up so early?” but as I stumbled in, Sophia was sitting there beaming at me.

“Good morning, Matt. Did you sleep well?”

 Sophia almost sang it. “Why was she so happy?” I thought.

 “Morning. I slept well, what about you?”

 I asked.

“I slept great.”

 I ordered my blueberry muffin and O.J at the counter and returned to sit with Sophia and eat. “Maybe she has already eaten” I wondered as I nibbled the muffin. I looked at what she was wearing. Blue cardigan, pink shirt and navy blue cargo pants. “At least I look alright” I muttered under my breath and took a sip of my O.J, complaining to myself about the overwhelming amount of pulp in the glass. There was a period of silence after that. Sophia was staring out the window with a thinking expression on her face. I sat there eating my muffin and sipping my O.J as quietly as I could in the silence. Sophia broke the silence.

“I was thinking of doing the zero gravity chamber first, then the history walk. Does that sound ok to you, I thought that we could do it together.”

 I took this in for a moment. I nodded and ate the last bite of my muffin. She smiled again, then got up. I stood after her, feeling very sheepish. We headed over to the map to find out where to go.

 “So we go left past the waiting area and then turn right when we get to the observation lounge. It sounds simple enough. Alright, let’s get going.”

 Sophia turned toward the waiting area and we headed off.

It was at 8:30am we got to the zero gravity chamber, and we were amazed at the machinery we were looking at. The machine was enormous, lots of gizmos and gadgets and dials on it. A small gasp escaped from Sophia’s mouth.

“Excuse me, are you here for the zero gravity session?”

  A man in a station uniform asked. We both nodded at the man.

“Alright. You two are up very early, well, come this way and I’ll go through the instructions and safety precautions.”

 He smiled and gestured us into the room.

“Oh,” he continued, “I’m Gerald, and you are?”

 he asked, grinning a friendly smile.

“I’m Matthew, and this is Sophia”

I pointed to Sophia. Gerald lead us into the room attached to the machine we saw earlier and started giving us suits and instructions. Just as we were about to put the suits on, an alarm went off. There were so many gun shots. Sophia’s face went white as a ghost.

“They’re here. They came.”

 Gerald ran out of the room, telling us to go to the main foyer. I nodded and started to head off when Sophia grabbed my arm. Her quivering voice was no more than a whisper.

“It’s Greenpeace. They’re going to blow up the station.”

 Her voice faded behind the tears.

“Why” was all I had time to ask.

 

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Sophia pulled me to the ground and crawled into a small gap in between the machine and the wall. There was enough room for one more person at least, so it wasn’t that crowded. In a voice no more than a whisper, Sophia answered my question,

“Greenpeace doesn’t like us dumping the nuclear waste into space.”

I thought this over for a minute. It made sense at least, though we don’t even know if there is alien life out there.

“We have to stop them.”

 I tried to keep my voice under control, but I was just as scared and she was.

From a gap in the machine, we could see everything. The men wearing the green jump suits with Greenpeace all over them, the guns they were holding. We knew that whatever was in them, it wouldn’t kill people, just shock them or maybe put them to sleep. As a small group of them entered the room, I heard the conversation that the men were having.

 “We’ve got to get all the people to the foyer by 10:00am. That way, we can use the ventilation system to put everyone under the numbing gas and they won’t feel anything when the bomb goes off at 10:10am.”

 The first man’s voice trailed off. A different voice followed.

“Where is the bomb going, in the cafe or the space history dome?”

 The voice asked. The first man replied quietly.

“It’s going in the cafe.”

 And the group left the room.  I looked at my watch and gasped quietly.

“What?”

 Sophia asked, worried.

“We have an hour to stop the nerve gas and bomb.”

 Sophia’s face turned pale again. I felt the blood leave my face too. Only an hour, what were we going to do?

“We’re going to disenable the ventilation system and stop them from activating the bomb.”

 I told Sophia. This was the plan that I had come up with. It was not very likely to work, but we had to try something.

 “Are you crazy? That will almost certainly not work.”

 Sophia sounded annoyed.

“Well, have you come up with anything?”

 I retorted. Sophia looked away.

“No, I haven’t. Alright then, we better get to one of the control rooms then.”

 I nodded in agreement.

“Probably one near the foyer.”

 I suggested. Sophia nodded and we quietly crept out of our hiding spot and cautiously began walking to the pile of space brochures just down the hall from where we were.

“The brochures will have a map in them.”

I quietly muttered under my breath. As I reached out to grab a brochure, Sophia tripped and hit the floor with a loud thud. I froze, quickly grabbed the brochure, helped Sophia up and ran back to our hiding spot with Sophia close behind. “Clumsy girl” I though.

“We go down the hall, go into the observation lounge and there should be a door next to the bathrooms that needs a key card. I have Gerald’s here. Must have left in such a hurry he forgot it. When we get in there, find where you can turn on and off the ventilation system and shut it down. Once we have done that, head over to the cafe. We will need to disguise ourselves to get in though.”

 Sophia nodded at my plan.

“There will be guards around the place, and they will all be armed,”

 I nodded

 “So we will need to get the guns off them so they can’t fire.”

 I thought about what mum will do if we fail and get blown up. She’ll never forgive herself. I can see her sitting in a black dress for the rest of her lift on the couch in front of my pictures and she’d be sobbing her heart out. I sighed.

“I guess we’d better not fail then”

 I grumbled.

“Alright,” Sophia began, “This is it. It’s 9:20am which means we have exactly 40 minutes to save everybody on the station plus the station itself. You ready?”

She asked, her face expressionless. I nodded. We both crawled out of the gap and put the plan to action; we began running carefully and quietly down the hall to the observation lounge.

We slid our way through the hallway, being quiet and careful, not to get caught. Most of the guards were in the foyer now, keeping people under control. Sophia cautiously used the key card and opened the door. It just occurred to me that even the doors here were old fashioned and needed handles and key cards. Weird. There was a single man sitting in the room wearing a Greenpeace jumpsuit.

“Great”

 I muttered sarcastically under my breath. Sophia put her finger to her lips, shushing me. We quietly entered, closing the door carefully behind us. Sophia walked to the left and I to the right. “I hope this works” I thought. I gave the man a hit to the head and Sophia grabbed the confused and dazed man’s gun. One more hit knocked him out cold.

“Sorry, mate, but I’m not going to let you blow up the station”

 I whispered into his ear. Sophia lay him carefully on the ground and came to help me. We looked over the board of buttons and dials three times until I finally found the button that turned off the ventilation. I turned the ventilation system off and destroyed the button so that they couldn’t turn it back on once we’d gone.

“C’mon, Matt”

Sophia called, not being too loud though.

“We don’t have time to look around. We only have 25 minutes. Hurry”

Sophia was sounding urgent now. She gestured her hand toward the door. As we left, there was one problem remaining. How would we get Greenpeace jumpsuits, let alone into the cafe?<o:p></o:p>

Well, the jumpsuit problem was easy. Sophia was surprisingly good at handling a gun, for a girl at least. She smiled at the compliment and continued taking off the jumpsuit of the women she shot.

“Wonder how long this stuff lasts?”

 She muttered to herself.

Once we were disguised, Sophia exchanged her gun her a fully loaded one and I picked up the other fully loaded gun. We entered the Foyer carefully and hesitantly. We were shocked to see how many people that there actually were on the station. Most the benches were full of elderly people or people who had been shot and put to sleep. The kids were sitting in a circle, parents trying to keep them entertained and calm.

“They mustn’t know what’s going to happen to them, do they?”

Sophia was upset by this.

“Look, there is a guard coming this way. Act like... well... just act like the others you see.”

I told her. She nodded and began to walk around. She would have been menacing if she didn’t look so young.

“Excuse me, but what are you doing here.”

The Greenpeace guard began to question us. He lowered his voice so it was barely more than a whisper.

“You’re supposed to be in the cafe, setting the bomb off. You are late. Oh well get in there.”

He pointed the cafe. We nodded and walked on over the cafe. “That was easy” I thought to myself. As we walked into the cafe, two other Greenpeace guards were standing next to the bomb.

Quietly, I murmerd to Sophia,

“You shoot the tall one, I’ll shoot the blond one. Got it?”

I asked. She nodded once and raised her gun. I did the same. There was a loud shot and the others were lying on the floor.

I grabbed the bomb.

“Sophia, quick! Let’s get to the rubbish shute before some other guards come to see why the bomb hasn’t gone off.”

She ran to the staff door at the back of the counter, holding the door in. I hobbled through the door quickly. Sophia opened the shute and helped me drop the bomb.

“It should go into a holding bay. Now we need to press the button over on the other side of the kitchen to release the rubbish into space.” Sophia ran to the big, red button. “Got it!” She yelled and pressed the button.

“Now, we need to deal with the guards.”

Sophia pointed out. I nodded and picked up my gun. Three men came bursting through the door. We shot them down easily. A woman came shortly after, calling for the rest of the guards. Sophia got her straight int he thigh.

“Nice”

I complimented her. She nodded, accepting the compliment. Six more guards came through the door. Sophia shot two before she ran out of ammunition.

“I’m out of amo!”

She yelled desperately. She picked up a tray and ran forward, using the tray as a shield. I covered Sophia until she picked up a fully loaded gun. She shot the last person, a women. She had a direct hit.

“YES! WE DID IT!”

I yelled happily! There was a loud thudding sound through my cheering. Sophia fell to the ground, a needle in her arm. I gasped and pulled her out of the kitchen. People were looking at us with confused, scared expressions on their faces. I took off my suit and explained to everyone what had happened and not to attack us. It was all merely a disguise.

I watched Sophia as she opened her eyes.

“Did we do it?”

She asked me.

“Yeah, we saved everyone. And you said that I was crazy.”

I shook my head. Sophia laughed loudly.

“Yeah, you are.”

I looked at her, shocked. Had my plan not just worked? Wasn’t everybody safe?

“Why?”

Sophia giggled.

“You’re crazy because your plan actually worked.”

We smiled huge grins. All of a sudden, Sophia’s face looked distressed.

“What is it, Sophia? Are you hurt or in pain or something?”

She shook her head.

“I was just thinking if we should do the zero gravity chamber or the space history dome first.”

We both laughed. The good thing was, everyone was safe.

After the trip, i arrived home to a distressed mother, a worried father and a whole lot of news reporters. Sophia and I were interviewed, there was even a story written about our adventure called “Space Station Raid-Greenpeace Invade” and we were given honour medals by the priminister. Sophia and I went to collage together too, studying space and chemistry. Oh, and Sophia took up artery, and was extremely good at it too! So all was well and Greenpeace stopped harassing the station. I guess this is what you could call a happy ending.

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