Spencer, Garrett, and Smith just turned and walked away without saying a word. Jane stuck around, though.
“That was awesome! You outsmarted the system and those idiots! Pretty smart, if you ask me,” she said as she, too, turned and slowly skipped away.
Chapter Five
The outpost was quite accommodating, even though it was situated in the middle of nowhere. There was a full-service cafeteria with delicious food, a couple of dormitory halls, and a few living areas equipped with TVs, games, and movies. Anything we needed was provided.
The entire facility was connected by long hallways and passages, so that we never had to go outside or to a different building. Each hallway had its designated theme or design, and purpose. The hallways were named alphabetically: ‘Hallway A’, ‘Hallway B’, etc. It took forever to remember which hallway was which, but we caught on.
We got to pick our roommates within our teams, as there were only enough dormitories for people to sleep two to a room. Jane and I paired up immediately. Spencer and Garrett paired up quickly as well, leaving Smith to fend for himself.
“Who am I supposed to stay with?” Smith asked. “There’s five people on this team.”
“I figured you and I would bunk together. It’s a lot better than me having to bunk with the film crew—on my end, at least!” Captain Idris answered and walked up behind Spencer.
Smith looked at us and frowned.
Spencer walked by and casually slapped Smith on the ass. “Good luck. He snores a lot!” he said as he winked at Smith and continued walking.
“How do you and Spencer know each other?” Jane asked Idris.
“Oh, we’ve known each other for a long time. When I was deployed in Afghanistan, Spencer was responsible for creating hospitable environments for livestock growth. I was commanding officer at the time, so we ended up working together every now and then. It was... interesting, to say the least.” He raised an eyebrow then added, “The man really never knows when it’s not a good time for a joke. He’s good at his job, though, I’ll give him that.”
Spencer heard him from the other end of the hallway. He gave us a thumbs up and yelled, “I’ll take it!” without ever turning around.
IT TOOK FOUR WEEKS of flight and zero gravity simulations to prepare us. The days were long and grueling. All of us were exhausted by the end of each day and ready to give up. Our brains were jammed with information, our bodies pushed to their limits.
We sat in class, practiced emergency drills, read more, listened more, and did more drills, for sixteen hours every day. Lectures lasted for hours. Drills and simulations were outrageous and unrealistic. They wanted to prepare us for the worst possible scenario, but I was sure we were already living it.
“It took four days, six hours, and forty-five minutes for Apollo 11 to reach the moon in 1969. That was a long time ago. Circadia is just a tiny bit further away than the moon, but it will only take us three days to get there,” the flight instructor told us.
When I heard this, my heart sank. I hadn’t been scared up until that moment. Not only were we going to go further than anyone had ever gone, but we would also be going faster than anyone had ever traveled. After NASA had shut down, private sector companies had become quite competitive. This had spurred new innovations, leading to the newest ship design.
Everywhere we went, we could see the ship looming, waiting.
Late one night, once everyone had gone to their rooms, I heard a knock on the door. Wrapping my white robe around my white pajamas, I fluffed my hair and looked through the peephole. It was Smith Greene. I hesitated then opened the door, letting in the light. Jane sat up in her bed, disturbed by the sudden illumination.
“Who is it?” she asked groggily.
“It’s Smith. I’m going to see what’s going on,” I whispered in reply.
Opening the door enough to see out, I saw him standing there twiddling his thumbs. He wore the same white pajamas and robe provided to us by the facility. His bright orange hair was a mess, and his green eyes looked tired and nervous. He wore only his socks and no shoes. From his disheveled appearance, I could tell he hadn’t been sleeping either.
“Is everything okay?” I asked.
“Oh! Yeah... I just—can we talk? Like, can I come in?” he asked, running a hand through his hair, then twiddling his fingers once more.
“Umm... yeah, I guess so. Jane is here,” I said, confused.
“Oh, okay, great.” He nervously walked in and I backed away.
I perched on my bed. He slumped on the other end. Jane sat up in her bed, under the covers.
“So... what’s going on?” I asked. This must be something urgent.
“You’re gonna think I’m crazy,” he said.
“We already do, so no worries!” Jane laughed.
“Ha! Yeah, I bet you do. Okay, well, I didn’t wanna tell the guys this, because they’ll think I’m soft, but I’m really nervous about launching next week.” He continued to fiddle nervously with his fingers. “I don’t really have any friends in our group, no one to talk to, and this
