“Hey, you alright?” asked Garrett. His eyes searched mine.
“Yeah, I actually think I’m great.” I smiled at him, and his mouth opened wide in a perfect smile back at me.
“Good.” He removed his hand from my leg and looked forward towards the team. “Is everyone alive?” he asked.
Chuckles from everyone were heard through the headset.
“Barely,” Smith uttered.
“Can we do that again?” Jane asked ecstatically.
“No!” a collective vocalization came from the entire team.
The team’s voices shut off and Captain Idris’ voice rang through my helmet once again. “Alright people, I believe we have stabilized and are now on our way to Circadia. As you know, this is a three-day trip. We have enabled semi-gravity as we have some livestock on board as well, so take advantage of that and get some rest. We would like to encourage all of you to stay in your pods with your team and make the best of our tight living spaces for the short time we are on this flight. As you know, we would like to keep clean living areas, and please don’t touch anything. Other than that, enjoy the ride.”
Chapter Seven
We dove into sorting out our living arrangements, making quick work of setting up sleeping bags and tiny living areas. The ship was cylindrical and very small, so each sleeping bag was right next to another. A small room separated a restroom from the rest of the living quarters, and an efficient kitchenette was stationed just to the left of the small room. The utility stations of the kitchen folded out from the white walls. But until they were extended, you would have no idea that a kitchen area even existed, which helped with space.
We had heard that food would be terrible during the three days in space. All of us had, of course, researched previous space missions and heard horror stories of the food being like toothpaste, but the truth was far from it. Dehydrated or freeze-dried foods were carefully packed, but once we added hot water or used a machine similar to a microwave to heat it, it was just like the food on Earth—or at least resembled it.
For three days, eating and sleeping were about all we did. With the flight crew running the ship, we didn’t have a lot to do. All of our supplies had been shipped to Circadia before us, so there was nothing to go look at or play with. We were encouraged to stay in our own cubicles and not visit with the other teams, so there was no company but ourselves. There were no windows to look out into space and wonder, nothing. No one had planned for the three days of boredom before the new planet, only for the new planet itself.
I found my way to our carry-on boxes and retrieved mine. I removed my notebooks and pencils and wrote about our launch; how I felt about leaving my home and the nerves I felt before reaching the new planet. Describing my teammates in painful detail, and my living quarters, I started to feel sorry for myself. The conditions were not wonderful since I was not a fan of people, and I was stuck on a tiny spaceship with a lot of them. It wasn’t my idea of perfect, but then again, it wasn’t meant to be. As long as I got to Circadia, that’s all I cared about.
On the last morning, Captain Idris opened the door to our cubicle, and walked in, ducking underneath the circular door. He took a seat amongst the scattered sleeping bags and smiled at all of us. “So, how’ve you all been the past two nights?”
“Bored out of our minds,” replied Garrett.
“No way, that’s just Garrett. I’ve been having a great time!” Spencer said, and shot his thumbs up into the air with a wink. “At least compared to you, since you're stuck with the camera crew...”
Everyone laughed quietly.
“Well, today is the day, right?” He looked at us in a way I hadn’t seen him before. He spoke quietly and his voice cracked.
It all felt so surreal that it was hard to get excited. We hadn’t really discussed how or where we would be landing either, and the thought was daunting.
“In about six hours, we will be ready to make our arrival on Circadia, our new home. There wasn’t a lot of discussion about landing beforehand, mostly because the network was worried it would frighten some of you away. But you’re here now so it’s really a no-brainer, right?”
All of us looked back and forth between each other. Some faces carried looks of disgust, others excitement, some anger. The mixed feelings about the arrival, or descent, made me nervous. What could possibly be worse than takeoff?
“Not to worry, though, it’s all automated. We will need you to have your suits on and be strapped into your seats in about five hours. When the time comes, we will make an announcement through the headsets that will give countdowns for each of the teams’ pods. At the end of the countdown, each team’s pod will detach from the rest of the ship and land on Circadia, one by one,” Idris said.
“By ‘land’ I assume you mean ‘crash,’ right?” Garrett accused sternly.
“Yes. Basically,” Idris replied.
“What?” I didn’t intend for the word to escape my mouth.
“Once your team’s pod detaches, it will float for a bit but it will be caught in Circadia’s gravity. It will act as a shield as you fall into the atmosphere and will deploy multiple parachutes to slow your descent. When you get close enough to the ground, your pod will sense this and automatically shoot off rockets on the bottom of the ship to bring you a soft landing. It will take you around three to four
