New Earth

• Rose Pearson, Grade 6, Christ Our Holy Redeemer School
• Short Story
• 2017

Excellence Award in the 'Spread The Word 2017' competition

“Captain Atlas?”
“Yes Jim?” I say.
“We’ve lost contact with Earth due to a meteorite shower. It’s only temporary, so we should get it back once we’ve landed”.
“We will soon be landing,” Luna adds, “and the scans we have produced of this planet suggest that there is life on it.”
“Hmmm……..” I say, and I wonder if the life is friendly.
“Captain, you’re looking concerned, is something the matter?” I hear Luna ask, waking me from my trance.
“No, nothing at all,” I say, not wishing to worry my crew.

I move toward the cockpit and start taking control of the rocket. “Jim,” I say, “can you see those lights below us?”
“What lights?” he asks.
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” I say.

As we land, my worries start up again. What if there is unfriendly alien life out there? It is possible isn’t it? I ask myself.

We slowly exit the rocket and I notice that the planet is very similar to Earth, other than the fogginess. When I look up I see some humanoid shapes in the distance; it couldn’t be... could it? As the shapes grow closer through the fog, I notice more and more similarities they share with humans, such as their facial features and clothing. I stare at them for a full minute before I realise that they are us! They are wearing different clothing and have their hair styled differently but they are certainly us.
“Wow!” I breathe, “it is us!”
“We are the aliens,” says Jim.
“It’s amazing,” Luna says.

“WE... ARE... FROM... A... PLANET... VERY... SIMILAR... TO... YOUR... OWN,” I say slowly and carefully, hoping that their language is like English.
“You don't need to speak so slowly, we can understand what you are saying,” says the female who is my very reflection. “We are your doppelgängers. Would you like to have a tour of our city?”
“Yeesss,” I say doubtfully, still not sure if I should trust them.
“We will start by taking you to our city’s finest building,” says the male who is the very image of Jim.

We walk toward the building and my stomach lurches as soon as I realise it is a prison.
“I have claustrophobia,” Luna says thinking quickly.
“You’ll be fine,” the tour guide tells her and gives a creepy grin.
“No, I have REALLY bad claustrophobia!”
“You’ll be fine,” she repeats, before pushing us into a cell and locking us in.

Why did I ever say ‘yes’ to this tour? I ask myself. More importantly, how can we escape? Can we even escape?

At night, questions cloud my thoughts while I sleep.

When we awake we see the doubles crowding around the spaceship. As I look closer, I notice the three inside are the doppelgängers of Jim, Luna and me.
“Look!” I exclaim. “They’re waving to us.”
“I know,” says Luna. “I think they’re going to Earth and will pretend to be us.”
“Yes,” says Jim. “But why?”
I watch as the rocket slowly lifts off the ground on its odyssey towards Earth.