Art is a way of expressing oneself. Thanks to the occupational therapy team at Hunter Holmes McGuire Veterans Army Medical Center.

I have won 1st place for two consecutive years with the Marshal Cove Saga.

1st place in the Personal Essay Inspirational category with Arch Angel.

I began eating my cereal while watching the news. The phone rang wondering who was on the phone, I slowly walked over to it, and the display showed NASA. A woman said My name is Sandra you have been selected to attend your training. I could not believe what I was hearing. I finally got into astronaut school and would be selected to go on the Mars mission. Sitting at the bar sipping my drink thinking whether or not I should tell my family and friends.

The next year would be spent doing lots of simulations. This training would be like nothing I have ever experienced, everything had to be right because in space mistakes could mean my life or the life of my crew, every situation required prompt attention.

I rehearsed how to react in a life-or-death situation, would my good side take over, whether Would I think about helping others or just preserving my own life. I awoke and saw a set footprint standing by my door. Not sure where they came from, I looked around and saw nothing, my cabin was dark, there was no light. I walked through the footprints, but they did not change.

The next morning the footprints were still there. Inspecting the fire alarms to see if the light was coming from them, I noticed, they both have dim green lights, the floor is shiny maybe it could be reflecting the light no light was coming from the fire alarm, but the white footprints were still there they did not move. I was thinking maybe I have a guardian angel, somebody that would protect me, keep me from doing what is wrong, and keep me doing the right thing.

Getting used to the routine of early mornings and late nights, my thought wandered living in space would not be so bad. All volunteers gathered in the common area we went through six months of training. There were both males and females on the Starship it was an average size ship that could accommodate one hundred passengers. The ship was modified to comfortably accommodate twenty people with a common area, two decks for living quarters the size of a small apartment, two decks for work, and two cargo decks. The ship was about one mile long and a quarter mile in diameter.

We would complete and pass a series of tests before being selected for the Mars mission. I arrived at Star Base E. Walking into the spaceship with me were people I had never seen or knew. This was a test to see if we would get along if we could live together with people from different backgrounds and disciplines. Once we were in space there would be no turning back. Now is the time to learn and weed out the weak while we are still on earth.

I took my clothes to my quarters not bad I thought, were called to the second deck for our daily briefing in the common area. The ship’s commander gave us a good layout of all the decks and what would be expected. The big door shut, I knew this was real, there would be six months before I would be able to get off this ship.

The ship Captain said if you want to leave now is the time All you will see are pictures of stars that’s how it would be in space as we leave Earth behind and in front of us would be the vast darkness of space lit by twinkling stars the trip to Mars would be about six months. Training would be more rigorous inside the spaceship here on Earth than the real thing.

One of the crew fell to the floor he was not moving I sprang into action administering CPR, and my crewmates assisted me what we did not know was that this was not part of the training after about ten minutes our crewmate regained consciousness the paramedics were on site the ship’s commander said that was real and not part of the training, I felt good about myself and my crewmates.

After six months of rigorous training, it was nice to be home again laying in my bed looking up at the ceiling relaxing from the sirens going off having to adjust to radiation storms and constantly checking instruments it was nice to be home when we got word of the mission date the starship was completed. It was built in space and took seven years to build. My guardian angel guided me through training. I prayed it would accompany me to Mars.

2nd place in the short short story category with Hybrid Martian Colony

It was March 30, 2030, and the first mission to Mars was successful. Avatars were sent to set up, and lots of data was collected and processed before humans could be sent. Several starships were being built after many trials one company won the bid it began to build the first habitat for sustaining humans in space it was constructed much differently than conventional starships. Heavy lift rockets were used to build a 3D printer in space. Materials from asteroids were mined to build the starship. My mother is an astrophysicist who works for NASA. Her job is to study soil samples from asteroids that could be mined for materials such as iron, titanium, and other hard metals used in spaceship building.

After several designs were submitted there was one design that stood out. The Starship was designed with three rotating saucers creating centrifugal force that would keep everything down to the floor. It was big, and more than enough to sustain life for an extended period. The three saucer-shaped structures have living quarters, working quarters, a sports complex, gardens, and large storage areas.

There is no atmosphere on asteroids, the drills had to be anchored to the asteroid. I have been on this starship for about ninety days. We are halfway to earth; I have gotten used to my surroundings. When we were in low earth orbit, I looked down at the earth, the pretty light blue color was a welcome sight. I saw the white fluffy clouds. I remember as a child looking up at the sky and seeing those white fluffy clouds it was nice feeling the sun on my face, and seeing how the leaves would change on the trees from lime green in the spring to a dark green color during the summer.

On Mars that was not the case, there would be no lime-green trees, no fresh air to breathe, and there would be nothing, but dust two years seemed an eternity. Being Born on Mars I don`t remember much, I was a baby when my parents returned to Earth. I floated to the top of the observation deck, closed my eyes, and thought of what I would do when I got back home, my time was up. I could feel the ship slowing, I knew we were getting close to Earth. We would spend two more months slowing down before entering low earth orbit. Being born on Mars was something we never talked about my parents told me I was born in Dearborn Michigan my grandparents lived there.

I enjoyed visiting them, they gave me a telescope for Christmas, and my grandfather and I would sit for hours watching the stars. The ship’s Captain said we are reaching Cislunar orbit. I had ten days left to stay on the starship before leaving to look at a picture from the James Webb space telescope. I saw the beautiful colors of the Orion nebula, but my eyes did not see these colors in the vastness of space. All I saw were twinkling stars and darkness looking down at earth was a welcome sight.

Ten days went by quickly; I kept busy working, trying to find plants that would grow in zero gravity and make enough oxygen. One of the scientists brought with them some turf grass to see how it would grow. The shuttle was coming towards us when I heard it dock. My taxi had arrived, and it was time to go home, my heart was racing after calming myself and getting into my spacesuit. I boarded the shuttle, the shuttle departed and began the trip back to Earth.

After landing on Earth, I went through processing everything and checked out that gravity did not affect me. Exercising two hours a day was something I had not been used to. That is what it takes to keep your bone density and your muscles strong. I thought when I got back, I would go to my favorite place, my favorite little nook. Sitting there sipping my drink watching people scurrying around about their daily lives unaware of how good they have it we often complain, but the truth is we have it really good science is moving forward better and better ways are being invented in which humanity can one day move to Mars a baron red planet. The daily news highlights a successful mission. It is no longer about beating the Chinese or the Russians to Mars it is about the preservation of humanity.

I went home, took a shower, and got in bed. Thinking of what tomorrow may bring I fell asleep. It felt good to be back on Earth after spending six months in that hollow tube, although its size and amenities took some of the edge off of space travel. It was nice to wake up to Mother’s home cooking the smell of bacon and eggs sizzling and crackling, pancakes with maple syrup, birds chirping, and hearing Mom and Dad talk about what they plan to do next week.

3rd place in the Personal essay general topic category with How AI impacted my farm.

It was a warm summer day in mid-July, the smell of farm life and freshly mowed Lawn. The smell of my grandfather’s one-hundred-acre farm, I love working on farm equipment and dreamed of one day having a fleet of robots to help farm, but I did not want it to be a traditional farmer, something was missing. I will be finishing high soon. Thinking of how I could earn money for college while watching YouTube. I saw three ways to join the Space Force.

I enjoyed artificial intelligence as much as working on the farm. The next week I talked to my recruiter. She told me I had to excel in areas of math and science and creative thinking is a good trait to have. All my grades were good. I have been on the honor roll for the last three years my parents pushed me to do better. Other branches of service did not appeal to me, the Air Force was appealing, however, there was still something missing. AI`s fascinated me I wanted to learn as much as I could about AI systems. As a child, I spent my weekends trying to build a machine that made farming easier.

I started looking during the summer talking to my teachers about ways to join Space Force ROTC. I was interested in computers. I watched lots of YouTube videos on how artificial intelligence would impact humankind, I have wondered how artificial intelligence would help me on my farm, as machines get smarter and we age our bodies get weaker would those machines be able to help humankind, or would they be our worst enemy, Artificial intelligence is something I am passionate about.

The next day I dug deeper to find out what I could learn about the Space Force. My friends were out playing, and some of my friends were on vacation in Europe, Disneyland, but I stayed home. I started studying as always, I was dull to most people and was not popular in school. On Monday I talked to the recruiter about joining the Space Force and she told me it was extremely competitive. I had to work hard to get an ROTC scholarship.

I had a 3.9 GPA but wanted to bring it up. I wanted to make it better. I took extra classes to bring my GPA up to 4.5. Other students ridiculed me for being a bookworm always studying and not having fun. I did not have many friends. I wanted to have someone who would understand me, and an AI would be perfect, one of my friends came over for dinner. Tom asked me if he could help with school, I asked him what he would be doing after he graduated, and he said I did not know.

Next year will be my senior year. I told him I was going to join Space Force ROTC, he thought that was good. I spent lots of time studying artificial intelligence and its impact on humankind. The phone rang, it was my recruiter, she talked to my teachers and told me the necessary classes I needed in information systems to join Space Force ROTC. Technical Management was on the top of my list after completing high school with my associate of applied science degree in information technology, I relaxed for the summer.

ROTC was hard, there was lots of studying, lots of exercises, and there was lots of everything. I graduated at the top of my class in Technical Management. My college tuition was paid. I returned home after ROTC a commissioned officer, the people I left were still there doing the same thing.

After completing five years of active service with the Space Force I went back home to pursue a career in artificial intelligence. I have a bachelor’s degree and technical management. I wonder how artificial intelligence would help me on the farm. I have built several machines that do lots of work from harvesting, planting fertilizing, and taking care of crops. These systems do most of the work without my help and make farming so much easier.

I often think about how far artificial intelligence will go, although I had a good GPA, I knew an AI could easily maintain a high GPA it could retain and retrieve data much faster and more efficiently than I could. The older people get they lose some of their cognitive abilities, which is different with artificial intelligence, artificial intelligence would not lose its cognitive ability and it would have the ability to live forever it could transfer their conscience from body to body giving it virtual immortality.

Artificial intelligence would get smarter and smarter; its capability of learning would be almost endless.