The Blue Sun Space Resort Part 1

Sol 1 - 07.23.72

I woke up with a jolt of energy. It still seemed dark out. My parents were still sleeping, but their alarm would wake them up soon. My clock read “6:30 AM”. It seems that I woke up earlier than my alarm. That's new. I got up out of my bed like a bolt of electricity.  I was waiting for this day to come forever. I walked up to our hotel balcony and opened the door breathing in the salty Cape Canaveral Air.

My parents, my younger sister, and I had only arrived at the cape last night. We were so tired and went straight to bed. No dinner. No nothing. Not even talking. I heard a creaking noise behind me and jumped. It was just my dumb sister, Peggy, with her bleached-blond pigtails and her pink pajamas.

“What are you doing?” she asked in a snarky tone.

Annoying as ever. “Enjoying the view.” I answered. “We aren’t gonna see anything like this for a while.” 

We had been looking forward to our trip. A couple of months ago, on my birthday, my parents announced that we would be going on a trip to The Blue Sun Space Resort, in Valles Marineris, Mars. I had always dreamed of going to the resort. Just the thought of it made me jump with excitement. Ever since humans started widely popularizing space travel, everyone has dreamed of going there.

The resort had three heated pools in a bio-dome, luxury villas with views of the surface, Michelin star restaurants, excursions on the surface, an arcade, a superintelligence system that can play you in chess, and, not to mention, spectacular reviews! We were boarding a transport craft at the nearby Kennedy Space Center that very morning. I was going to miss Earth.

All of a sudden, I heard my parents groan at the sound of their alarms. “Time to get up guys,” my dad mumbled. My mom and dad were both wealthy business owners, but they acted like normal people most of the time. They were very humble about their lives, unlike most people who are rich. After quickly getting dressed and packing our bags, we were out the door in ten minutes.

A robotaxi was waiting outside for us. We all got in and listened to the AI assistant. “Please buckle your seatbelts and settle in. You guys are going on a long trip,” it said. It was right, even though breakthroughs in rocket technology lowered the time from 8 months to 3 weeks, we had never been in space before, let alone for 3 weeks! I looked out the window at our hotel as it fell behind us. We were finally starting our trip.

My sister and I got bored easily, so we took our iHolos out of our bags. My dad looked at us with a tired face. “You know kids, I remember when Apple made opaque devices,” he said like a teacher. Both my parents were Gen Alphas, and didn’t understand the fact that companies no longer needed to make metal products; moreover it saved them money!

I mindlessly scrolled on YouTube, which apparently used to have competitors. My parents used these old apps called “TikTok” and “Snapchat.” Suddenly, I heard the AI assistant state, “You have now reached Kennedy Space Center. Please exit the car, and remember to bring your luggage.” My family and I quickly got out of the robotaxi and started rolling our bags to the tourist center.

It was a massive futuristic building that was shaped like a luxurious airport terminal. It had a water fountain and a statue of a space shuttle at the front. I approached the building, looking in awe. We went inside and shuffled over to a woman sitting at a desk labeled “Security Check In” in big neon letters. We showed her our passports and were given tickets. Apparently my parents used to go through a whole process called TSA, but now we are just able to scan our passwords! My parents said it was like something they had as a kid called TSA Pre.

We walked over to a boarding area that looked like an airport gate. The huge screen near the boarding door said, “BLUE SUN SPACE RESORT,” in big blue letters. We walked up to a friendly looking man near the door and he scanned our tickets. We then entered the door and it appeared we had entered a monorail type train. We sat down and waited until everyone boarded. The monorail jumped forward like a cricket and suddenly I saw what it was taking us to. A massive, monolithic ship, with four small pillars around it, connected by a ring of metal. I was amazed; I felt as if my dreams were about to come true.

A few moments later, the monorail came to a stop and we walked out. We saw men in high-vis vests ushering people into elevators. One of them held a sign reading “Suites”. My parents told me to go up to him and follow him. We followed him onto an elevator playing smooth jazz.

The elevator stopped in a narrow hallway. We looked around for our room and found room 402. We walked inside and I was shocked…

Fin

(For now)