Prolouge
I look out the window of the shuttle. I stare into the void. I begin to think about my family back at home. My wife and my daughter. I miss them a lot. I hope they remember me, I think to myself. Suddenly, an extremely loud alarm comes on. It felt like my ears were bleeding. I ran over to the cafeteria, where the alarm was the loudest. All of my crewmates were there. We have Cyan, my best friend. Pink, Brown, Yellow, Orange, Blue (me), Lime, Purple, and Green. I ran up to Cyan. “What’s going on!?” I ask in a panic.
“I’m not sure.” He questioned. “But I think it has to do with the engines.”
“The engines? Let me go check it out.” I say, turning to the engine room.
“Wait up!” Cyan says, running up to us. “I’m coming with.” He grabs a tiny tool case and follows me. We get to the engine room, and we see Yellow and Orange trying to find the problem. “See anything yet?” Cyan asks.
“Nope. Not yet.” Yellow replies, checking all over the engine
“Wait! I see it!” Orange exclaimed. “It’s a hole in the engine block. We just have to repair the connecting rod.”
“Awesome!” I say, with a sigh of relief.
“It’s not that hard of a fix, but it’s about $1500 in parts to repair one.”
“Well, luckily we have that,” I say. “or else we’d be doomed.”
“Not necessarily,” Orange says. “We could always call in for more parts with.. the.. radio…” Orange pauses for a moment. “Oh.”
“It’s ok, Orange.” Yellow says, “You just forgot.”
If you don’t know what happened, basically, we were in contact with a meteor, and the crash broke our radio, so we couldn’t contact home.
That was four years ago. We all know deep inside that everyone back on Earth thinks we’re dead.
“Anyway…” I say, trying to lighten the mood. “How ’bout we get that engine fixed?”
“Good idea, Blue,” Yellow says, picking up the toolbox next to Cyan and bringing it to Orange. “Alright crew!” She says. “Let’s fix this puppy up!” After about 2 hours, Orange puts down the wrench he was working with.
“Done!” He cheers, looking back at us. “Finally, alright, let’s go get some lunch.”
“Alright, let’s go. I’m starving,” says Cyan.
“We know, Cyan, we know.” Yellow, says, getting up from the floor. We head to the cafeteria to get some lunch. Once we do, we sit down at the table.
“I know I shouldn’t bring this up, but do you guys have any family or anything at home?” Yellow asks.
“Yeah,” Orange says, taking a bite out of his sandwich. “I have a wife and two kids. What about you?”
“I have my parents and my little brother. I just finished college before I came with an astronomy and astrophysics degree.” Yellow answers. “How about you, Blue?”
“Well, I got my wonderful wife and my amazing daughter back home. I really miss ’em.” I say. Suddenly, I began to flashback.
“Honey!” My wife says. She rushes to me, holding a letter in her hand. “You got accepted! To the space shuttle mission!”
“I did!?” I yell, surprised.
“Yes! I read this letter here and it says you’ve been accepted! You’ll go January 1st!”
“That’s amazing!” I say, excited.
“I’m so proud of you, sweetie. But I don’t know how we’re gonna tell her.”
“Don’t worry about it, I got it.” I say as I walk to my daughter’s room. Her ceiling star light moves around like waves in the ocean. “Hey! How’s it going, sugar bunch?” I say, moving towards her. I crouch down next to her. She’s drawing a picture of me, my wife, and her, altogether. Happy.
“Hi, dad! I’m just drawing our whole family all together, cause we will never be apart. Right? That’s what you tell me all the time. We stick together no matter what.” She says.
“Well, I need to tell you something, sweetie.” I say nervously.
“Yeah, what is it?” She asks, not taking her eyes off her paper.
“Daddy has to… take a very long tri-”
“I know, Dad.” She interrupts.
“Oh.”
“Why would you do this to us?”
“I-”
“YOU LEFT US.” She looks up at me. This can’t be real.
“WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO US. YOU’VE RUINED THIS FAMILY.”
“That’s not what happened. GET OUT MY HEAD.” I yell. Everyone stares at me, confused and concerned. “Sorry.” I say. “Just a bad thought.”
“Ok…” Yellow says, still concerned. “Anyway, how bout’ you, Cyan?”
“I…” Cyan looks down.
“You good, C?” I asked.
“Yeah, it’s just…” He pauses. “I don’t really have a family. My parents died when I was young and I’m the only child. I moved from my hometown to run away from the pain. Then, I saw the shuttle program. I asked myself, ’Why move away from my town when I can move from the whole Earth? There’s nothing left there for me anyway.”
“Cyan…” I say. Sadness flashed over me. “I can’t even begin to understand how that feels. I’m so sorry that happened to you.”
“It’s ok. I’m out here, maybe since we are already lost we can start a civilization on Mars or something.” Cyan replies.
“No, Cyan. We will get back home. I promise. Things will get better for you.”
“Ok, Blue.” Cyan says. “I trust you.”
Suddenly, we hear another alarm go off, but only for a second. A loud voice says, “EMERGENCY MEETING. EMERGENCY MEETING. REPORT IN THE CAFETERIA.” After the voice, Cyan, Yellow, Orange, and I get up, confused. We sit at the big table with a big button that says ‘report’ on it. That button hasn’t been used ever since we’ve gone on this mission.
We all sat at the table. We see that Lime is the one who pushed the button.
“What happened?” Yellow asked.
“I… I…” Lime couldn’t speak. It’s almost like he’d seen a ghost.
“Come on, spit it out!” Brown says.
“Pink is dead!” Lime yells, shocking us all. The room went silent.
