One day. JRManaia.
“Lift off in T minus 10......9......8......”
Distantly Amy could hear the smooth
voice of Houston control in her earpiece.
She shifted uncomfortably in her seat.
Even if she had been able to scratch
her left cheek through the heavy space suit, she certainly couldn't take her
finger away from the keypad and the big red button that loomed only an inch
away, not now that the countdown had been initiated.
Her nose was itchy too, which was ridiculous. But she knew
from all the assessments and training that this had something to do with her
being nervous. They had taught her how to control it.
“T
minus 5......4......”
Everything was going blurry. She could
feel the cold sweat clamming up her hands and crawling down her neck as she moved
her finger closer to the button. This was the big red button she had dreamed of
as a little girl, though that seemed a rather laughable memory now. She inhaled
deeply and then let the breath out in a silent prayer.
The man next to her, the astronaut who
had done it before, he was watching her. If she made a mistake, he could
override. But this was her one chance to prove she really had what it takes.
She’d been over it so often in the last year that she could do it with her eyes
closed. She could launch a space shuttle in her sleep; all the knowledge was
there in her brain, but somehow it seemed disconnected just at this very
moment.
His name was Bruce, the one who had done
it before. They had spent months in training together, but experience made all
the difference. His face was calm, not a drop of sweat across his crease-less brow. Maybe he had done this too many
times?
Amy swivelled her helmet to look the
other way. Scott looked marginally worse than her, and he hadn't let go of her
free hand since they had been strapped in. This minor sign of affection was forgiveable given that they came from the same womb, but only just. Scott had
followed Amy all the way to NASA, always a year behind her, but always there.
Then the engineer assigned to Amy’s voyage had failed his final tests. Unfortunately
Scott had been the understudy in this stage-worthy drama. They didn't get along
at the best of times, but right now hand-holding was okay. She told herself not
to tease him about it later. He was just an engineer after all.
“T
minus 3......2......1......”
“HOUSTON,
WE HAVE LIFT OFF!”
announced Amy, the rocket scientist and co-pilot of the mission. She forced her
voice to remain even as she pulled her finger back from the red button. She dialled
in a safety code with her free hand before she let her spine relax back into
the chair, but only for a second.
Just beneath the skin of her neck her
pulse was fighting madly with the tight collar of her suit. She could barely
breathe.
Adrenaline shot through her veins just
like the fuel as it shot though all the conduits and into the rockets before it
was kissed by the spark of flame at its final destination.
Amy did not remember much of the next
few minutes – the hair-raising feeling of your frail human body being launched
into a speed it was simply not created for can make that kind of thing happen.
When her brain re-connected with her mind, it seemed she had been doing all
right. The demands from Houston were coming in fast and hot. Bruce, the pilot,
had taken back control, punching in codes and commands with a calm face. Amy
was relaying data back to him in a level voice, and following his responses. Bruce had definitely done this too many
times.
The craft picked up speed and shot
faster and faster, out of the atmosphere until it breached the vast and empty
territory of space. As quick as it had begun, the launch was over.
Amy breathed deeply and finally allowed
a laugh of relief to escape her lips as someone leaned forward over her
shoulder from the seat behind. It was Fiona, the nurse.
“Where are we going?” Fiona asked.
Amy frowned. The nurse shouldn't have
taken her belt off yet.
Bruce sighed, “Neptune.” he informed
her, “In search of water to replenish Earth’s diminishing supplies.”
“Hold up, what year is this again?” Scott
interrupted. He had let go of Amy’s hand a few minutes ago. He’d also unbuckled
his belt.
Amy was jealous that he had gotten
to float in space before her. But that was childish. “Scott, really? We are in the year two-thousand-and forty-five. You
should know this, you were writing the date on your exam papers only yesterday,”
she jibbed at him.
It was funny, and everyone laughed,
but she knew she would have to apologise for it later.
Bruce frowned, and everyone stopped
laughing. "I'm switching to auto-pilot now, so we can make the jump to hyper
space,” he told everyone, as he turned to the keypad.
“I’ll do it!” Amy volunteered.
“Buckle up!” Bruce barked at Scott and
Fiona.
The jump to hyper space happened much
smoother than the rocket launch.
“Can I get out of my seat now? I'm hungry.” Scott asked, after they had watched the universe flicker by for a few
awestruck minutes.
“Scott really?” Amy didn't put herself
beyond punching him like she used to.
“Hey, I'm honest. You don’t need me
right now. I'm am engineer, not a pilot, sis.”
He reached down to undo the clasp on
the belt once more, when suddenly the spaceship lurched sideways.
Fiona let out a scream.
Scott stopped undoing his belt.
“Bruce?” Amy turned to their pilot.
“Amy, take over. The ship is falling
out of hyper space. We must have hit something. I need to go and check.”
Scott looked worried that Bruce
would ask for his help. But he did not.
“Bruce–” Amy began, but he was already
up out of his seat.
“It’s all on you Amy. We are making it to Neptune this time!”
And then he was gone.
Suddenly the ship started to rock. Violently.
“I've lost contact with Houston!” Amy
exclaimed. “Houston, are you there? Come in Houston? HOUSTON? ARE YOU THERE?”
Scott was too scared to even bother
thinking about mechanical difficulties.
Amy tried in vain to punch in commands she
knew. All of them. But the ship was
not responding, and neither was NASA.
The electricity flickered.
Amy went cold. Her heart dropped in her
chest, and this time it was she who reached for Scott’s hand.
To the side of the craft there was a
painful grinding sound, a thousand times worse than nails on a blackboard, and
then everything went dark.
A burst of light, and the screeching
sound of metal tearing.
Amy could feel her body flung far, and
then tumbling.
Tumbling like a rag doll into nothingness.
Tumbling back down to earth.
THUMP!
Amy rolled over and opened her eyes. She
pushed her braids out of her face and sat up.
She was lying in the backyard along with
Scott and Fiona, a few feet away from the big cardboard box the new fridge had arrived
in the day before yesterday.
“Did I make the asteroids big enough
that time?” asked Bruce, the boy from next door as he peered down at her.
Amy sighed. “We almost made it that
time.”
“I don’t think I like space much. I
think I’d rather be an actress when I grow up,” said Fiona, jumping up and
brushing off her dress.
Scott frowned. “I thought you were gonna
be a nurse!”
“That was yesterday.” Fiona giggled and
raced off to find her mother, who was probably sipping coffee with Scott and
Amy’s mother in the lounge.
“Do you want to come see the electronics
kit my Dad got me for Christmas?” Scott asked Bruce.
“Sure kid,” Bruce shrugged and followed Scott
back toward the house.
Little Amy finally rolled over and stood
up.
She walked over to her big brown space
ship, shining magnificently in the afternoon sun.
‘One
day,’
she thought, ‘one day.’
