First Place: Andrew Hawk, 10th, Williamsburg Jr-Sr High School, IA, (Fiction) "Lost Space"
Day 15 We shut the engines off earlier today. Yuri said it was either that or we continue losing a gallon of fuel per second. I knew we shouldn’t have tried going through that damn debris, but Vaughan is too stubborn for his own good, and now we’re paying for it. No one’s said anything to him, one part being because we know one more word would shatter him and the other being he hasn’t left his quarters since we drove straight through that shrapnel. Somehow, we still have contact with NASA, but that comes with the same little asterisk it always has. Since there’s an additional medium-sized planet between us and Houston 12 hours out of the day along with the couple of AUs we already put behind us, communication with our terrestrial friends is never as consistent as I hope. Thankfully we haven’t reached the point yet where we’d have to factor light into speed of communications, probably won’t for a long while. Yuri seems to think she can reengineer the ship with enough effort so that the thrusters will send us backwards just as effectively as we got sent forwards with the standard engines. I’m more optimistic than Vaughan. Yuri’s a genius at this sort of thing, but the odds still don’t seem to be in our favor. Shelby, if you’re reading this know that I am going to do everything in my power to come back to you. Make sure Sam doesn’t forget me and don’t try to hide my situation from Tyler. He’s old enough to understand what’s going on.
Day 16 I ran the tally, and we have enough food and water to last us a month. I’m not really concerned about the water; ship systems already have the potential to turn our waste back into something at least drinkable. The food’s what concerns me. Hopefully I can convince Yuri to ration, though something tells me that won’t be a quick argument. Vaughan’s still in his room, brooding over that debris field. If he’s not out in a few days I’m going to have to force my way in there to make sure he hasn’t withered away. At least Yuri’s more than enough for conversation. I swear her smile makes this trip at least somewhat more bearable. Houston says they’re going to spend the night crunching numbers over 119
