Part I
I live on a beautiful and progressive planet that’s orbiting the Solar System, just like Earth. A planet my people like to call SS-6, but the people of Terra know it as Jupiter. Due to the advancement of science and technology, here on SS-6, our people have been able to thrive for years.
We live pretty much like the people on Earth, but it’s a lot more peaceful here. Crime rate has been at a record low for the last 40 years, there’s less hunger and less violence. On SS-6, we’ve found ways to control any kinds of natural disasters for the safety of our people, like unwinding a tornado or pulling a tsunami back into the water. It’s amazing what can be done when every citizen is striving for a better tomorrow.
Each one does it in their own way, but we’re mostly scientists and engineers here. We are one of the leading planets in our solar system for a reason. People don’t feel the need to steal or kill; we live as one colony under one rule that focuses on the people’s needs. I know it sounds a bit fishy, but it’s true, and we’re all the better for it.
The SS-6 Science Division is one of the biggest governmental wings on the planet, and they are paramount to the safety, satisfaction, and survival of our planet. I’ve always dreamt of being a part of the science division. Always dreamt of doing good and helping my people in the best way possible. There’s no better contribution to SS-6 than being a lead scientist in the SS-6 Science Division.
Lucky for me, I was recently recruited by one of their lead scientists, Dr. Calypso Veda, who has been studying our planet’s moon for a top secret mission. My level of clearance doesn’t get me to know the specifications and goals for this mission. I have been assigned with tasks that keep me on a ‘need to know’ basis, but I gotta start somewhere, and I’m glad to be a part of the team in any kind of way.
They have me monitoring readings and keeping records of any anomalies in data we’ve been receiving from the moon. That’s pretty much all I know about the mission. About a week ago, Dr. Calypso and her team launched several sensory beacons to the moon which have all landed successfully. They monitor the moon’s atmosphere, hydrogen and helium levels and whatnot. That’s mostly what I’m responsible for keeping track of.
I have been studying and working hard for my entire life, all to get to where I am today, but I do wish I could contribute a bit more. I’m 26 years old, and I already have a degree in Quantum Physics with a minor in Astrophysics. My degree is the most impressive on the planet considering my age. Sometimes it feels like my smarts aren’t really being put to good use, but I’m sure I’ll get my moment soon.
Someday, I’ll be able to prove my worth.
My family always says I had a gift, always thought I was special, different, too, but the good kind. However, being the smartest one in the family has made it difficult to communicate with them sometimes. My father, Perseus Sol, and my mother, Astra Sol, understand me from time to time, or at least they try their best to understand. My sister, Moon Sol, however…let’s just say I’m constantly attempting to steer clear from her. It is strenuous to talk to or even listen to her; she always makes it hard to get closer.
Be that as it may, I know deep down, she accepts me for who I am, even if she won’t admit it. The three of them barely understand me whenever I discuss school or my interests during family dinners, and it may feel like I don’t exactly fit in, but I know they love me, and I’m sure they’re proud of me.
My mother and father noticed my ‘gift’ from a young age and always pushed me to learn and try new things. They nourished it the best way they knew how. I love them for that. They’re the reason I try to do good, the reason why I want to help my people and my planet grow. I’ve learned a lot from them.
They are the reason I’m in the SS-6 Science Division and why I strive to contribute more. They always thought it’s where I belong knowing it’s where I’d fit in the most. Being there for a few months now, it’s proved to me they were right all along. I’m right where I need to be.
My parents think it was my fate or destiny, but I mostly believe in hard work and determination. That’s what gave me a place in this division. I did have a gift, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t earn my spot on the team.
“Nova, honey, you’re gonna be late again!” my mom yells.
“I’m coming down right now!”
“RI-02, I’m gonna have to head to work now… I’ll see you soon.” RI stands for Robotic Intelligence. I created him as a science project when I was in grade 12, and he’s kind of been my best friend ever since... The first prototype built went haywire and sort of malfunctioned… It didn’t really go well, but we learn from our mistakes. I think the fact that I created him gave him the ability to understand me the most. Like he was programmed to do so. He’s been with me for around eight years now, and our bond is unbreakable.
“Nova, get your act together for God’s sake!” my sister shouts, intervening whenever she finds an opening.
“Shut it, Moon!”
I run down and grab a sandwich my mom has ready for me. I kiss her on the cheek goodbye and do the same with my father. My dad is seated on the couch in the living room. He keeps to himself most of the time, watching his games and old films. “Goodbye, sweetie. Have a nice day,” he says as I kiss him on the cheek too.
“Thanks, Dad. You too,” I say as I leave our home. “And somebody, deal with Moon because I’ve had it with her! Thank you, love you, bye!” Now I’m gone.
The SS-6 Science Division has some of the biggest facilities on the planet, but I work in the biggest of them all, that’s right, HQ. It is exciting, but I try to humble myself, which is something I learned from my father. It was advice he gave me on my first day of school… but I didn’t listen and had to learn my lesson the hard way. Got my ass kicked by a girl named Cressida after making a fool out of her in class. If only I had listened…
“Late again, Nova!”
“Vega! Hey, did Dr. Calypso notice I’m not here yet?”
Vega Altair is my only real friend here in HQ as she was the only one I got acquainted with outside of the division. She’s a year older than I am; we met during university. She’s been working with Dr. Calypso for five months now, but as of today, she’s been working with the SS-6 Science Division for more than a year.
“Yeah, of course, she did, she always does,” Vega straightforwardly says, answering my question.
“What am I going to do? What am I gonna tell her?”
“I know you’re doing it on purpose, Nova,” Vega points out. “I’m guessing Dr. Calypso knows too.”
“Doing what on purpose?”
“Slacking, that’s what. It’s obvious you’re less excited about the job than you were when you first started. I’ve been by your side ever since, I can tell. I don’t know why, but I don’t have to know because I won’t have the power to fix it for you. Dr. Calypso on the other hand could, so you’re gonna have to talk to her about it.”
“Thanks, Vega.”
“Speak your mind, Nova. It’s always best for all parties, if not at first then it will be in the long run,” Vega concludes.
Vega has been by my side since day one, helping me learn my way through the division and the people that work here. She’s been working in this division for more than a year now, she got the gist of how things work real quick and has grown to be quite popular.
Our friendship has easily gotten stronger since I joined the Science Division. It gave us more time to realize how much we have in common. We both have sisters, are both enthusiastic and excited to be of service, and both have interest in astrophysics and the world beyond our planet.
Vega had minored in Astrophysics like me—it was how we knew each other—but her major was molecular biology. I like to think that our minors were what got us recruited on this team, looking out at our moon, a planet beyond ours. I always wonder why though, I have a hypothesis, but I can never prove it until they let me in. Well… I can, but I could get in a lot of trouble if I do, so I’ll just wait. It’s probably what Vega would advise me to do.
I walk into my lab and Dr. Calypso is already standing inside waiting for me. “Nova Sol… you’re late… again.”
“Dr. Calypso, hey! I’m terribly sorry, I really am–”
“You’re not always the smartest person in the room, Nova. You do know that, right?” Dr. Calypso asks, interrupting me.
“I don’t follow,” I answer.
“You’ve grown up thinking you’re special, but around here, we’re all pretty much the same. Which is why I can see right through you… You feel unmotivated, but you have to understand that we have jobs here, Nova. We need to follow the rules and adhere to the orders of those in higher positions. It’s called discipline. It’s paramount to our work and the advancement of Science. We can’t be running around doing whatever it is we want to do… that would be chaotic,” Dr. Calypso says.
“You’re right, Dr. Calypso. I haven’t been motivated lately, and it’s because I feel like there’s a lot more that I can do around here. If I’m being totally honest, someone else should be reporting these numbers, not me. I could be—I should be working on something of more importance to the project ,” I let out.
“You’re still young, Nova, and I understand that you’re eager and excited to participate with new breakthroughs and help create new innovations, but you have to be patient. I know you’re destined for greatness, and that’s why I recruited you. My advice is to worry about doing the best you can with the task at hand, not about what you should or shouldn’t be doing. That’s not really your call to make, it’s out of your hands and therefore worrying about it is a waste of time… yours and mine.”
“With all due respect, Dr. Calypso, I believe in dedication and hard work more than I do believe in destiny. I know I’m young, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have much to offer. I’m simply eager for the advancement of science, my planet, and my people, and I know I can help with that, if given the chance. Maybe if you could tell me the reason why we’re monitoring the moon and its atmosphere, then I can offer more than you think. New ideas, an expedition, resources to utilize, artificial intelligence, you name it.”
“Very well, Nova. You’ve piqued my interest. Come with me.”
Guess I owe Vega another ‘thank you’ for the advice. I would’ve never gotten this deep into the conversation without it.
I followed Dr. Calypso all the way up to the forty first floor. It’s where her office is located, only a handful of scientists on her team have been up here and even Vega isn’t one of them. Things got a lot more serious for me when I saw her press the elevator button to her floor. I got a lot more anxious too.
We were quiet for the whole walk so I guess things are getting pretty intense. It’s obvious anyone without proper clearance could never get in or out without Dr. Calypso. They’ve got passcodes, face identification, retinal scanners, and more security procedures to move all the way to the lab. I was excited to be in the most top secret lab on the planet… maybe even the entire solar system, but I was also a bit concerned by the silence. Walking in, I realize Dr. Calypso and I are not alone. There’s another scientist here in the lab.
“Dr. Rigel Ewing, I’d like you to meet Dr. Nova Sol. She’s been monitoring the readings we’ve been receiving from the beacons sent on the moon. One of the brightest new recruits to the Science Division and our team. Nova, this is Dr. Rigel, he’s the brains behind those beacons you’ve been monitoring,” Dr. Calypso says, introducing us.
“Nice to meet you, Dr. Rigel,” I say.
“Nice to meet you too, kid…” he says right before he looks Dr. Calypso straight in the eyes. “Uhm, does she actually have clearance to be in here? Isn’t she a bit young to be here?” he asks like I wasn’t even here.
“I thought it was obvious I’m her ticket in,” she answers.
“Yeah, sure, I mean why is she here?”
“I can hear you, you know?” I say.
“Like I said, she’s one of the brightest new recruits in the division. 26 years old, and she has a background in Quantum Physics and Astrophysics.”
“Impressive,” Dr. Rigel let out in awe.
“Probably should’ve waited before judging me too quickly, huh?” I say.
“She could be of great help here. It won’t be her regular working space, but I brought her here to let her know what it is we plan to do on the moon.”
“Uhm, yeah, since I’m here, you should know that I’ve already come up with a hypothesis… the plan’s expansion. Right?” They both stare at me in silence; I can’t tell if I was right or wrong. “You’re monitoring the air, probably searching for signs of life and water in hopes that we can expand our great society. I’m also presuming you came up with a cool name for it, like SS-6.1or SS-6-1.”
They both glance at each other. Dr. Rigel seems astonished and shocked, but Dr. Calypso appears to be proud. Like she’s impressed, but not surprised.
“I tell you she could be of great help,” Dr. Calypso breaks the silence.
“I suppose she could,” Dr. Rigel agrees.
I can’t help but grin at their reactions. I am going crazy inside my head though. “I KNEW IT!” is all I could think about.
Dr. Calypso gives me full access to everything in their database. All their research and discoveries revolve around our moon. All I have is a few hours to go through it all, but I only needed two. It was incredible and all very promising.
They’ve sent rovers and cameras that gave them shots of the moon, all readings regarding the atmosphere were stable and promising too. Except for a few hours during last week. The moon’s atmosphere is mostly made up of hydrogen and helium, which are the same elements in the air that we breathe here on SS-6.
However, for seven days during the past month, the air was contaminated with all sorts of different elements. Some considered to be lethal to our people, but there was no explaining where it came from or why. The gravitational pull is stable and so is the magnetic field. Its rotational axis works a lot differently than our planet, but it is steady and safe. However, there hasn’t been any sign of life. Through the rover, they’ve been able to detect bodies of water, but it wasn’t built to take samples that we could analyze. In my opinion we had everything we could get our hands on being hundreds of thousands of miles away.
I go in search of Dr. Calypso; it was an immense lab. When I find her, I suggest my idea, one that is simple but should be done sooner rather than later; an expedition.
“It’s way too early for that, Nova. Did you seriously come in here with all these bright minds sitting around and think no one came up with that? We’ve been monitoring the planet for only a year and a half. It took us a year to come up with, develop, and launch these beacons onto the moon. We need more time, more information before sending out some of our own into the abyss.” She pauses for a while before inviting Ewing into the debate, “Dr. Rigel?”
“I’m already working on that, Nova. However, it is a plan best kept for later. According to my calculations, about a year or two from now, definitely not before then,” Dr. Rigel adds.
They are wrong, and I’m not really sure how to tell them. However, it is no time to be polite or put people’s feelings into consideration. A lot is at stake here; I could help the expansion project with saving time and money on research. It’s times like this where one gets to prove themselves… This is the moment I’ve been waiting for.
My father taught me to humble myself, yes, but there were these particular instances where he’d tell me, “Seize your shot and let the people know who you really are.”
“Hear me out. Everything we have tells us that the moon could be habitable and support the life of our people. Sitting around in this lab receiving data from a rover and some beacons will only give us the ability to come up with theories, and theories will only get you so far. We have no way of analyzing the water on the moon and making sure it’s consumable. We’ll need labs and doctors around the bodies of water that we’ve located to make sure that it’s safe for consumption. The air is breathable, but due to the rotational axis, for seven days the moon’s atmosphere is exposed with many different elements that could be harmful to us. The beacons will never tell us what causes that and it definitely won’t tell us how to stop it.”
Dr. Calypso doesn’t say a word or move a muscle. Dr. Rigel, on the other hand, takes out his tablet to check the readings. He asks the lab’s AI system to run diagnostics, to make sure I didn’t miscalculate anything.
“Dr. Nova is correct. Delaying the launch of an expedition will only bring in unnecessary information that would merely set back the initial mission behind project Expansion,” the AI confirms.
“There you have it,” Dr. Rigel says.
“You think we’d be safe?” Dr. Calypso asks. “The way I see it, we still need more information to be sure of that. I’m not really pro sending our people in at a high risk of catching the storm,” she adds.
“We’ve been monitoring the gravitational pull for only one week now and it’s been stable, but to be safe, I think it’s best if we keep monitoring the levels for a couple of weeks before moving forward with the expedition. We’ll be able to calculate the storm’s location at least,” I respond.
“Dr. Rigel?”
“I can speed up the process on the plans for the expedition, but I won’t have any time to curate a team.”
I couldn’t believe my ears… Are we actually gonna go through with my plans? I don’t know if I’m excited or worried. It’s a whole lot of responsibility to carry. The safety of every single scientist and pilot on this expedition is in my hands. This is too overwhelming…I think this is the first time in my life where I’ve doubted myself. I don’t like it.
“Nova?” Dr. Calypso calls out, but I can’t answer as every sound in the lab fades.
“Nova?!”
It’s clear now.
“Oh, uhm. Sorry,” I finally respond.
“Are you okay? If you feel like this is all too much, we don’t have to go right ahead with the expedition…we can wait,” Dr. Calypso says.
“No, I’m good. My calculations are correct. I’m sure this is the right call,” I assure her.
“I guess this calls for congratulations,” says Dr. Calypso.
“What do you mean? We haven’t even gotten started…” I ask in confusion.
“You’re the youngest lead scientist in the history of the SS-6 Science Division.”
I don’t know what to say or how to react. This is incredible… It’s beyond that even.
“Congrats, Dr. Nova,” Dr. Rigel says.
“Thank you.”
“Dr. Rigel and I will tag along, but you’ll be leading the expedition. I’ll take care of the preparations for the mission. When I curate a team, I’ll let you know about it. You need to keep track of the gravitational pull on the moon until then, but get ready, Nova… We will hopefully be on the moon in approximately three weeks.”
I am beyond overwhelmed. A LEAD SCIENTIST… SHIT! I feel like this is my moment to prove myself, but never did I think that I could get a lead scientist position after being around for only a few months. I knew I was special, but I didn’t know I’d get my chance this soon.
Dr. Calypso and Dr. Rigel look at me like two proud parents, which is kind of weird, but I guess they are just equally happy for me. They can easily tell by the look on my face that I can’t believe it, that I was a bit overwhelmed, and of course the happiness and joy rushing through me.
“I’ll be ready. Dr. Calypso, Dr. Rigel, thank you so much for the opportunity… I promise I’ll do my best, and I won’t let you down.” I am more concerned about letting my people and the planet down, but I wouldn’t have gotten this responsibility without them believing in me.
During the past two weeks, I’ve been back to working like I did during the first. Nothing is more important to me than my expedition and the project it serves at the Science Division. I’m burning through long nights thinking about different ways to colonize our moon and successfully complete project expansion effectively.
The gravitational pulls have been very promising; they did nothing but prove my calculations right and encourage the rest of the team. Dr. Calypso gave me the list of people joining us on our mission. Dr. Rigel was to join us as well as a fourth lead scientist, Dr. Halley Carina. Captain Oberon Azure was to join us with the task of getting us there and back safely.
There’s another ship joining us with another pilot and four other scientists to assist us lead scientists with sampling and data analyses. We are ten people in total, two pilots and eight scientists. Unfortunately, Dr. Vega Altair isn’t one of them.
I would have loved to have her on this mission. On the bright side, I am able to convince Dr. Calypso to agree to get RI-02 on board. He’ll easily be able to assist us on anything we’d need and is also capable of piloting the ship in case of any emergencies. Things could move a lot faster with him around.
It was tough to break the news to my family. Not only will I leave home for around three months, I’ll also be leaving the entire planet. They were so proud of me, my accomplishments, and the accomplishments that were yet to come. However, the fact that I’d be about a million miles away from home for a long time was something that they did not take lightly.
My mother fell to tears. My father kept asking questions about how safe I’d be. I couldn’t tell them the reason why we were going, I was lucky enough to get to tell them where I’m going. They had to sign NDAs because of it too.
I tried my best to assure my father about the safety of the expedition, but he couldn’t really understand me. In the end he trusted that I knew what I was talking about. I also tried my best comforting my mother, it wasn’t easy. Moon took things pretty well, surprisingly so. For the first time in a long time, she was actually nice. She was happy for me, supported me, and even did her best to assist me with comforting our parents.
They could never be fully on board with this, but they knew I was meant for great things and they simply had to accept that this is one of them. That this is how I pave my way to greatness. I am the brains behind the expedition. It only makes sense that I’d tag along and lead the way, which was something Dr. Calypso Veda and Dr. Rigel Ewing thankfully and surprisingly granted me.
I hate the fact of leaving my family a long way behind for such a long time, but I know this opportunity is one I have to take.
The day of the launch was the worst of all. Astra went back to crying and Perseus went back to worrying. Moon assured me she’d take care of them, and I hugged the three of them for as long as I could, up until the moment I had to leave.
I’ve been arriving to work on time for a while now, and I wouldn’t like to break that streak on the day of the big launch.
“Nova, honey. We could not be prouder of you. Your mother and I love and care for you so much. I’m sure you already know that, but I’ll still say it every chance I get. I love you, Nova. Take care while you’re on your mission, show them how smart you really are, and more importantly, have fun doing what you do best,” my father says, looking at me straight with his hands on my shoulders before he pulls me in for one last wholesome hug.
“Thanks, Dad. I love you too.”
