LUCAS’S P.O.V.
Michael and I climb into the EX-5, shutting the hatch behind us. I take my seat in the front of the craft, right beside Avera. I pull my harness down, and it clicks into place. I''m surrounded by buttons and switches at my seat—some might simply turn on the lights, while others might shoot you into space.
"Lucas and Scott, begin the power-up procedure," Avera instructs.
"Battery 1, Go?" I ask.
"Go," Scott responds.
"Battery 2, Go?"
"Go."
"Power up the APU."
Scott turns to his side and begins to power up the APU, the auxiliary power unit. It''s used to provide power while on the ground, and it''s shut off later.
"All hydraulics, Go?"
"Go," Scott responds.
"Hyperspace cell, Go?"
"Go."
The hyperspace cell is what makes this all possible. It produces a mind-numbing amount of energy, and once this power goes through the hyperspace pods in the wings, a "warp" field is generated. This allows the spacecraft to go faster than the speed of light—a true engineering feat.
I continue flipping through circuit breakers, slowly bringing the spacecraft to life. Soon, the display in front of me is buzzing with information and data. I lean over and tell Avera she can begin the comms check.
Avera begins listing off our names, and we respond.
"I am go," she says through our headsets.
"Lucas, go?"
"Go," I respond.
"Scott, go?"
"Go."
"Michael, go?"
"Go."
"Garrett, go?"
"Go."
"Vita, go?"
"Go."
We all respond, "Go," ready for further instructions.
"Ground control," Avera says, "we are go and ready to be towed out, over."
Ground control responds, "This is ground control. You are go and will be towed out shortly, over."
As she finishes the sentence, the large hangar doors begin to open, letting the morning sun shine brightly into the hangar. I do my best to shield my eyes from the brightness, but it''s still hard to see.
The spacecraft shudders as a towing tractor pulls us out of the hangar. I look to my right out of the window and see many workers standing on the ground, waving us goodbye.
It takes a couple of minutes to get towed to the runway while the slow little towing tractor does its best the whole time.
Once we are on the runway, the towing tractor unhooks itself from the EX-5 with a muffled clank.
We all exchange looks with one another.
"Don your helmets," Avera tells us before putting on her own helmet.
I turn to my side and grab my helmet. I lift it over my head and lower it onto my suit. The helmet locks into place with a click, assuring me it won''t come loose.
I look back at Scott, Michael, Garrett, and Vita.
"You guys ready for this?" I ask them.
"Ready as ever!" Vita exclaims through the intercom.
"Sounds good," Avera says. "Let''s get this thing moving!"
I turn back around, looking forward down the runway. I take a deep breath and close my eyes.
"Scott, are the thrusters ready?"
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"Thrusters ready for your input," Scott tells me.
Avera once again contacts ground control.
"This is EX-5. We are requesting permission for lift-off. Wish us a safe flight, over."
"Ground control to EX-5. You are cleared for lift-off."
I open my eyes and place my left hand on the throttle lever, and Avera does the same. We slowly advance the throttle lever forward, and I''m quickly jolted back into the seat. The spacecraft rumbles as two large rocket motors propel the craft down the runway.
I look down at the display in front of me. The indicated speed is rising rapidly, and within seconds, it''s time to pull back and point the craft towards the sky. Using my right hand on a side stick, I lightly pull back, sending the nose of the spacecraft up. The rumbling from the runway stops as the landing gear leaves the ground. Avera taps a button, and the gear is retracted.
We shoot above the ground, ascending into the sky. The craft rattles and shakes, pushed around by the extreme forces of wind. As we climb higher and higher into the atmosphere, it grows quieter. You can''t hear anything besides the angry hum of the engines.
KYLE''S P.O.V.
Michael leans down and embraces me in one last hug. We only hug for a couple of seconds, but I wish it could go on forever. Michael lets go of me and smiles. Then, without a word, he joins Lucas and climbs up the ladder to the EX-5.
Conrad looks at me with a scowl on his face.
"We gotta go now," he says.
"..Right."
The two of us walk to the exit of the hangar. Before we step through the doors, I turn and look back at the EX-5 one last time.
I''m gonna miss Michael and Lucas. Their mission will only last around seven months, but that will be seven months without anyone to talk to. Maybe when they get back, I could throw a party. That would be fun...
I shake the thought and turn back around, exiting the hangar. Conrad and I head to mission control, which is in a large building separate from the hangars.
The two of us continue down a large hallway, lined with doors leading to various storage rooms.
Conrad, who has been silent for some time, looks down and takes a deep breath.
"Sigh. Look, Kyle, I apologize for yelling at you and your friends. Avera and I had a bit of a... disagreement. It set me off in a bad mood. Just don’t hate me for today, will ya?"
He turns his head back, waiting for my response.
"Well, I''m not going to hate you for it, so it''s fine," I reply, doing my best to offer a sincere smile.
Conrad smiles. "Thank you."
We turn down the end of the large hallway, leading to a smaller one with only a few lights strewn about.
Eventually, a sign comes into view, attached to the ceiling, with the words "Ground Control" displayed in large letters. Both of us approach the double doors beneath the sign.
After fiddling with his keys, Conrad finds the right one and unlocks the door. We enter a somewhat large control room. It has wide windows letting in the morning sun, hurting my eyes. Complementing the room’s size are consoles arranged with workers who were clearly waiting for us to arrive.
"Hey boss, they’ve begun the power-up procedure," a worker informs. "Everything seems fine."
"Good to hear," Conrad says, turning his head to me. "You should get to your console, Kyle."
I nod in agreement and head to my station behind one of the consoles. My task is to review the EX-5''s system data: temperatures, stress loads, oxygen levels, and the like. The screen in front of me lights up as the spacecraft systems come online.
With no issues, all systems report operational. Seeing this, I turn back in my chair and give Conrad a thumbs up, to which he nods in return.
Communication with the EX-5 crackles to life. "Ground control," Avera says, "We are go and ready to be towed out, over."
Conrad looks around at everyone. "Is everything good for launch?"
We all glance at each other, then at Carlin, and collectively answer with a quick, "Yeah."
Conrad grabs his headset and speaks into the mouthpiece. "This is ground control. You are go and will be towed out shortly, over."
We watch through the large windows and monitors as the EX-5 is towed out to the runway. My heart rate begins to rise rapidly at the impending takeoff, making me feel queasy.
The craft sits idle for a moment until a familiar voice crackles over the radio again. "This is EX-5. We are requesting permission for lift-off. Wish us a safe flight, over."
"Ground control to EX-5. You are cleared for lift-off," Conrad responds, his eyes fixed on the runway.
As we all watch, a sudden, loud rumble can be heard as the EX-5 throttles up its large thrusters. With brilliant speed and grace, the craft lifts off into the air and disappears from view.
I breathe a sigh of relief as I watch my friends vanish into the clouds. Turning around in my chair, I focus on the monitor, analyzing all the system data on it.
LUCAS''S P.O.V.
The view outside the window is mesmerizing. My planet, Aureon, sits in a soft blue glow. The vast dark oceans and their accompanying coastlines are cloaked by a variety of clouds and storms.
BEEP!
A button on the instrument panel to my left lights up brightly and noisily. It’s time to shut down the engines, leaving the spacecraft in a stable, weightless orbit—constant free fall around Aureon.
"Engine shutdown," Avera calls out.
"I''m on it," says Scott, quickly shutting down the engines, silencing their raw power for the final time.
The spacecraft is no longer under constant acceleration, and everything becomes weightless. The ends of my harness straps slowly float up, lazily bumping into my helmet.
"Heh, this is fun!" Michael blurts, playing with his weightless arms.
"You’re more like a child than I thought," Scott says, amused.
"I am certainly not a child," Michael retorts, glaring at Scott.
"If you say so..." Scott responds with a smirk that’s visible even through his helmet.
It’s only five minutes of orbiting Aureon before we begin the six-day journey to a planet nicknamed Sirius II. Located in a nearby solar system, it won’t take long to get there.
The EX-5''s mission is to study Sirius II’s atmosphere and ground conditions. We know the atmosphere is partially breathable, but there’s little other information. Upon departing Sirius II, we will briefly study its sister planet, Sirius, which is undergoing rapid environmental changes.
"What''s it like to go into hyperspace?" Vita asks Avera.
Avera, an experienced commander who previously led EX-3 to the Lovell system—a group of six planets orbiting a small dwarf star—answers, "Well, everything outside the windscreen stretches, and then things begin moving. You don’t really feel the jump into hyperspace, but you sure can see it."
"Noted," Vita replies, sounding anxious.
The radio crackles to life. "This is ground control," Conrad’s familiar, almost irritating voice comes through. "We just wanted to check in before you guys made the jump."
"All is good up here," I say. "The only issue is that I don’t think we brought enough snacks for Michael."
Michael glances my way and chuckles. "You better be wrong!"
"If that’s the only issue, it should be smooth sailing for you guys," Conrad responds. "If all goes to plan, we’ll be speaking with you again in six days when you arrive at the Sirius system. Good luck and goodbye."
"Yep..." Avera replies in what I can only describe as an "I couldn’t care less" tone.
The console in front of me, displaying our orbit around Aureon, signals it’s time for the jump into hyperspace.
"It’s time," I announce through the intercom.
Avera turns to Scott. "You know what to do."
Scott powers up the hyperspace pods with the flip of a few switches.
"Ready on your mark," he confirms.
With Avera, I place my hand on the throttle for the hyperspace pods.
"Three, two, one... Mark!"
We both push the throttle forward, and suddenly, the most brilliant phenomenon unfolds. All the stars in the windscreen stretch endlessly.
"Holy..." Garrett mutters, awestruck.
"Why aren’t they moving?" Avera asks, stunned.
Vita looks at Avera. "Huh?"
"This isn’t normal. Everything should be moving by now!"
The master caution alarm begins blaring loudly throughout the cabin.
"I’m getting stress warnings! There’s too much gravity!" Scott exclaims.
"That’s impossible!" I shout over the intercom.
"We’re aborting!" Avera commands.
"Shut it down!" Garrett yells.
Scott scrambles through the emergency shutdown checklist, but it’s too late.
The spacecraft groans as it’s pushed to its absolute limits, on the verge of being torn apart by excessive stress and gravity.
Suddenly, the rattling and groaning stop. Silence. Warning alarms still blare, furious at our actions.
"Is everyone all right?" Avera asks.
"We’re good," we respond in unison.
Michael, looking terrified, finally speaks. "What the actual hell was that?"
"I don’t know," I reply.
Feeling the ordeal is over, I lean forward and silence the master caution alarm.
I breathe a sigh of relief, clutching my seat harness tightly.