Space Camp

(Note by Mom: Steve was invited to a 3 hour space simulation with a group of homeschool friends. The following is his report.)

Last Tuesday, (funny I always start with that sentence) I went into deep space. No joke! Liftoff was at the Christa Mcaulliffe space center. It was a totally awesome space simulator. We got there, entered the briefing room and received our mission. A wormhole had opened on the other side of our galaxy and yesterday a strange ship had come out of it. The U.S.S. ranger, a nearby ship, reported that the ship was totally mutilated. Soon afterward all communications were cut off. It was our job to go investigate. (by the way this is in the future. Think Star Trek.) Among the crew were security officer Weston, damage control officer Brooklyn, first officer Preston and captain Alexander. After receiving our uniforms we were beamed to the bridge of the U.S.S. Voyager. (It looked exactly like the Enterprise.) It contained about 13 decks and 300 people. (Don’t get confused, there were only 12 people actually in the simulation, and the actual simulator was only 2 decks, each the size of a large room. We were in the bridge, which is pretty much command central. Everybody else was either not real or were just staff talking over the radio.) After reaching the wormhole, we came in contact with the ranger. They gave us more info, and left. Then we scanned the ship for life forms and found one still alive! We beamed it aboard and found it was an 11 year old girl. Just then another ship came out of the wormhole. We made contact and it turned out to be more aliens of the same race, claiming to be pretty much the police force of another galaxy. They claimed that the girl was really 43 years old and a thief, murderer and slaver with a record as long as your arm. They demanded we turn her over to them, before the wormhole closed, and they were trapped in our universe forever. Well, we didn’t like that idea, and when we refused, they nearly atomized us with an incredible super weapon! Well a crazy chase ensued including 2 decks being evacuated, 1 alien boarding, I accidentally phazed myself, another ship being obliterated (thank goodness they had escape pods), the captain and ambassador being kidnapped, nearly trying to send officer Brooklyn instead of the girl, various torpedoes being fired, and coming so close to blowing up that we could smell smoke! Eventually we beamed the girl to the other ship, and the simulation ended. We then found ourselves in the debriefing room were we discovered that she really was a criminal. In her own universe, she was tried and found guilty. We were then awarded for our bravery and an interplanetary holiday was made in our honor. Just kidding. It was LOADS of fun! I can’t wait for my next mission! I’m also going to be more careful where I point my phazer.