My first time in space.............. Would you like to hear about it?

Where I lived, not a lot of people go into space; either for lack of means or for lack of interest. So, when I heard that we (my parents and I) were going into space, it was a pretty big deal. Maybe it wasn't. I don't know. But I was pretty young at the time and it felt that way. Anyway, we were going to visit an old friend of the family who lived on a little planet orbiting the next star over from ours, so it wasn't going to be a long trip, comparatively speaking. (I hear Ferries will take people across galaxies and beyond and there are even special portals for really long trips.)

We didn't hop on ferries or go through portals, though. For shorter trips, such as ours, there are little shuttles. They run on regular schedules and one stops on our planet monthly. (Other bigger planets probably have weekly or daily shuttles, I think. Are there planets that shuttles go to even more often than that?)

After making all the necessary arrangements, we were on our way.

..........I have to say: Space is pretty neat. If you've never been, you should check it out. Everything looks different once you get out there. We passed through some pretty amazing things. A red planet with a steamy bubbly surface and jets of something that occasionally would spray out of cracks. A gas giant or two... One with swirly pastel clouds and a bunch of misshapen moons. Further out, there was a small, dark, icy planet that looked sad and lonely at the edge of the planetary system. The stars passing by resembled the way snow looks in the car window when you're driving through it at night time. To the right, off in the distance, there was what seemed to be a pretty cloud of gas or dust or something. It was various shades of green and yellow and had lots of stars glowing in it. I should have taken a camera with me, I guess. Whoops.

After a while, the shuttle stopped off at a big gas station type of place, to fuel up. It was called a "Dock," I think. As we were approaching it, it looked kind of like a glass golf ball sitting atop a giant metal tee, floating in space. It looked like there was an entire city, big enough for smaller ships to fly around, inside. (And there are special places for bigger ships to "dock.")

We had some time to kill, so we looked around for someplace to get a bite to eat. Walking about inside, it was incredible. There were so many different types of people going about their business, there. Some of them weren't even people, but aliens or something. (My mother told me not to call them that, out loud, though. I guess it would have offended them.) I think I even saw some robots wandering around. Everything seemed so high-tech. Platforms, signs, and other things were hovering above the crowd… Nothing hovers on our planet.

Finally, we found what I guess was a restaurant. I couldn't read the sign, but there was a picture of a happy-face Cheese Burger. "The language of meat is universal," I heard someone say. A waitress with a pretty smile led us to a table. She had wiggly antennae sticking out of her head. (Mother elbowed me in the ribs and said not to stare. Are women self conscious about things sticking out of their heads? I thought they looked kind of cool.)

We were sitting towards the back of the place at a table with a curved bench-type seat; but up front there was what looked like a bar with a type of music playing that I've never heard before or since. It seemed to have a good beat, though. (I think it was called "disco," or something.) There was one man with big, poofy hair that was dancing alone by the bar. No one else was dancing. Some people were giving him strange looks, though.

We ordered what looked tasty, based on the menu pictures. (Some of it looked pretty bizarre.) And it came fairly quick. At the table next to ours, there was a young couple with a baby. (She seemed to be asleep the whole time, though.) They were pretty friendly. The girl was chatting with my mother, and the guy was showing off baby photos... Or were they pictures of his car? I can't remember, but he was beaming with pride, either way.

The couple (and baby) had come in before us, so they left after not too long. As they were going out, though, another group was coming in. They were the complete opposite of those that left, in regard to the type of vibes you got from them. I know it's not good to judge a book by its cover, but you could see it in the reactions of everyone in the room: Looking fearful, cowering in their seats, some discretely shifting to the other end of the restaurant. These were obviously bad men. In fact, I would venture that they weren't new to the area. They had an air about them, like that was their turf.

They sort of reminded me of a type of sea-faring people I read about in a book, once... What were they called, again? ... "Pirates," I think. In the book it says that they attack cargo ships for plunder (or for the ship, itself) and usually kill or maroon everyone on board. The men in the restaurant carried weapons (swords, guns, etc); and one had a patch over an eye, I think. They talked with slurred, foul speech. What if they really were pirates? I was afraid.

....................My first time in space was.......... not so great.

The leader of the group (at least, I assume he was the leader) was speaking rather heatedly with a curly-moustache guy, sitting at the bar. I couldn't understand what they were saying, but it seemed like they were having a disagreement. My parents both looked pretty worried. I tried to ask what was going on, but I was hushed and Mother told me to pretend to be asleep. I wasn't tired, though, and thought that was a silly thing to do; but I did what I was told, anyway. So, I laid my head down on her lap and closed my eyes. (But I kept one eye open a bit, so that I could still watch what was happening... That didn't work too well. Because the table was in the way, I could only see their legs.)

After a bit, the pirate got louder and I heard a loud slamming noise and saw a table tip over. Other voices got involved and there were loud "thunks" and sounds that might have been punching noises. Then I heard the distinct "shiiing" of metal clashing with metal. The swords had come into play. There was a loud "bang." (Or was it a "pow?") It was gun fire. Curly-moustache guy fell to the ground, with a hand clasped over a blood soaked upper-arm. His face was twisted in agony and it was terrifying. By then, I really did close my eyes (as tight as they would go) and pretend to be asleep. I covered my ears, too. I didn't want to hear any more of this... But I was still able to hear some of it. (Covering your ears only really dulls and distorts the sound, but doesn't block it out, completely.) There were lots more gun and sword sounds, coming from various directions, and many angered voices, as well. It felt like all hell had broken loose.

Then, I thought I heard my father's voice. Was he actually confronting the pirates? Was he worried that they were going to hurt Moustache guy again? "No no, don't get involved," I thought. "Don't talk to the pirates, just pretend to be asleep." ...... I heard another gunshot. And then Mother's voice, calling out Father's name. Was he shot?! I wanted to know, but I didn't want to look. I just closed my eyes tighter and tried to block out more noise.

Mother had scooted out from under me and rushed over (I assume) to Father's side. If he is hurt, she will make it better. She's good at that. (Or, at least, that's how it is when I get hurt.) I thought I heard her exclaim something like "Oh my god, what have you done?!" But then there was yet another shot and a pained scream. At that, I had to open my eyes. (It sounded like mother, after all.)

The scene that met my eyes was nothing for a child to see. Both of my parents collapsed on the floor, with crimson puddles forming beneath them... It was too much to bear. Hot tears began streaming down my face and wouldn't stop. I wanted to go over to them, but there were too many pirates over there and I was too scared. I thought about if there was anything I could do for them. Ideas like "go get a doctor," or "seek revenge," popped up, but what could someone as young and as small as I was, at the time, really do? I couldn't fight the pirates and even if there was a doctor around, I probably wouldn't speak his language. I started to wish I was back home on my planet. First of all, nothing like this would happen there. It was a safe place. And we knew and were friends with everyone, so even if something did happen, someone would be around to help.

My vision had blurred from the tears, but I blinked away as much as I could. I had to at least see who did this. Slowly, I looked up; and there, standing over them, with the barrel of his gun still smoking, featuring the most sinister grin I've ever seen plastered on a face I will never forget. He was one of the "pirates" from the group that came in before, but was not the leader. In contrast to the leader, (who seemed to have a real issue with Moustache guy,) this pirate was far more despicable, and looked like he was just killing people for fun. (And loving every minute of it.) Is he what is known as a "sadist?" (Probably.)

Just then, his eyes locked with mine and he got a real psychotic look on his face. I had been spotted. (Can't go back to pretending to sleep, now.) I needed to get away, so looked frantically around for an exit. It looked like the way we came in is the only way out, but I'd have to pass through a swarm of trouble to go that way. As the crazy pirate started aiming his gun in my direction and I was concentrating hard on the door (hoping to suddenly develop some sort of teleportation ability), it opened. Did my concentration powers summon more pirates? (Looks that way!) More pirates. This was the last thing I wanted.

The first one that came in had a beard that was a brownish-purplish colour, and was wearing a green coat. If this new group was also a pirate crew, he seemed like a "captain" type. He (and the crew behind him) took one look at Curly-Moustache guy on the floor (who seemed to still be breathing) and got really mad. He drew his sword and pointed it toward the leader of the other pirates, and said words that I still remember clearly: "Anibal Feldman, ye ask'd fer it." Following his lead the other pirates drew their weapons and started attacking the other group. (I guess moustache guy was/is a friend of theirs.)

I was afraid of this new crew, also; but for the moment, it seemed that Crazy-gun pirate's attention was off of me. So I scurried over to hide behind the bar. (It seemed to be an uneventful area.) The disco-dancing guy from before was there, also. He made some comment about violence not being "groovy." (I'm not sure what that word means, though.)

I peeked over the bar, to see what I could see. Captain Green-coat and his men seemed to have the upper hand. They weren't killing anyone, but they were giving "Anibal Feldman" and his men quite a beating. I don't know why, but it almost felt comical to see pirates who were acting so fierce, minutes before, to suddenly be having a whole heap of bad luck... Almost. But I'll probably never be able to laugh about any of it. This new group can't change what has already happened. (Thinking about that, new tears started pouring out, with a renewed force.)

After the fight drew on, for a little while, Anibal Feldman and his fellow pirates-turned-cowards started inching towards the exit. Once there, he spoke (this time, in a language I could understand), "We won't ferget dis, Hyperion, ye 'aven't seen the last'v us!" With that, they were gone, and the whole restaurant seemed to heave a sigh of relief... Or was that just me?

The remaining pirates started bustling around putting tables and chairs upright and picking up broken plates and things, while a funny-looking robot wearing a bandana tended to Curly-Moustache guy. (It looks like he'll be alright.) For pirates, they don't seem like such bad people... At least, not as bad as that other crew. Actually, they seemed kind of cool, while fighting...

Hyperion (with the green coat) came over and asked if I was alright... But I couldn't stop crying long enough to answer. (Well I tried, but it just sounded like random blubbering.) I was thinking about what I should do, since my family was gone. One thought was that I could go ahead to that friend of the family's house and hope that he would help. But I didn't like the idea of asking for help from someone I don't really know. Another thing I could do is stay right where I am, and get a job here in this restaurant. (Or somewhere else in the dock.) Or I could have gone back to my house on my planet and just lived alone. But there were a lot of things that I still didn't know how to do, such as cook. (Hell, I couldn't even reach the top shelves of the refrigerator.)

Curly-Moustache guy came over, still clutching his wounded arm, and introduced himself as Pete, saying that he is "so sorry;" but I wasn't sure why he was apologizing. It's not like anything was his fault. He asked if I had any other relatives, but I told him that my parents were the only ones I knew of. He said, "I'm so sorry," again, and had a really sad expression. He was (unintentionally) making me feel even worse.

Suddenly, Hyperion gave me a hard pat on the back and belted out some boisterous laughter, "Don' worry s'much! Ye can come wid us!"

I was shocked, to say the least... Did this pirate just ask me to join his crew?

....................My first time in space was nothing like I thought it would be.