Return to Earth Part 2
Part 2 of my science fiction story.
Will knew they probably weren’t going to really land on Earth. They had been talking about sending a party to a space station located just above Earth’s atmosphere and apparently they’d been able to finish and plan the project.
He could tell at once that he had reached the Labs when air turned to a strange chemical, acidic smell, very hard to describe. Inside there was a large domed room. Scientist in long white uniforms bustled about conduction all their scientific things. Will went up to one of them. "Excuse me, but could you tell me where I should go if I want to volunteer for the mission to Earth?" He asked.
"Ya, he’s over there behind that door," the scientist said in a gruff voice pointing to an ordinary door. Will walked over to it and knocked.
"Come in," a voice replied from inside. Will walked in.
The meeting went surprisingly well. It turned out that he had gotten the last spot. The interviewer had seemed to take a liking to him and been pretty easy with the questions. After that Will just had to sign his name and he was ready. The few days leading up to Friday he would skip work (what a relief) and complete a training course. Machines and experienced crew did most of the technical work, but there were a few things he had to know for space travel and missions.
All in all, Will was very excited. Even though they weren’t going there they would still get a pretty good view of Earth. What would it look like? People said trees 100’s of feet high cover parts of the surface and that huge ponds stretching 1000’s of miles also covered areas of Earth. He wasn’t sure he believed some of these tales though; they were just too strange to be true.
The next four days were actually fun. At least a lot better than it would have been had it just been a normal week. The trainings were hard and rigorous learning to move in zero gravity and work with the small landing crafts, but most of the new crew was nice and he got along with them very well.
Finally it was Friday, the day really had come! Will got up very early and packed the few belongings he was going to take before heading down to the launch site. At the site there were already quite a few people up and about working on last minute preparations. He noticed a table on the floor below him, two of the eight men were eating their breakfast there. Will climbed down from the balcony to join them. This meal was specially prepared so as to give the least amount of queasiness during take off.
An hour later everyone was tightly buckled into their seats aboard the rocket, nervously waiting blast off. 1 minutes left and then… "Three, Two, One." The ship leapt up from the planet’s surface with a thunderous power and a blast of flame. Within seconds it had dwindled to just another speck of light in the still dark sky.
In the rocket everyone was concentrating on just adjusting to the new change of speed, but it didn’t take long to adjust once the ship reached space, and after that, the trip would go a lot smoother. The ship gradually picked up speed; the whole trip was estimated to only take a few days in the frictionlessness of space.
Once he was allowed, Will quickly unbuckled himself and glided over to one of the windows. Outside it was an eerie kind of beauty. He could barely see Mercury around the ship. It was now a glowing red globe. The bright star behind it glared almost menacingly at him and he had to look away from the radiance. The rest of the Universe he could see was a dark black speckled by millions of tiny pin pricks of light. He looked away; there was work to be done.
Inside the gravity was kept relatively low. Once you got used to it, it made moving around quite a bit easier and more efficient. The first day Will got put to work moving and preparing supplies into the landing crafts, which would be used to get to the space station. They expected to reach it sometime the next day.
That night they ate a small packaged meal and the 1st officer was kind enough to give a tour around the main sections of the ship. It was incredible how many functions had to be run to fly the vessel and how many different instruments there were for measuring and calculating things.
The next day at 3:00 PM the ship started to slow down and at 4:00 PM Earth became visible. All the men crowded together at the windows, staring out at the new planet. It was everything people told and more. Will could easily pick out all the distinct color. Greens, large expanses of blue and white wispy things surrounding the planet. Gasps of awe and wonder spread through the men, but they were pulled away just as fast by a short order of "Get back to work!" from one of the officers.
He could tell at once that he had reached the Labs when air turned to a strange chemical, acidic smell, very hard to describe. Inside there was a large domed room. Scientist in long white uniforms bustled about conduction all their scientific things. Will went up to one of them. "Excuse me, but could you tell me where I should go if I want to volunteer for the mission to Earth?" He asked.
"Ya, he’s over there behind that door," the scientist said in a gruff voice pointing to an ordinary door. Will walked over to it and knocked.
"Come in," a voice replied from inside. Will walked in.
The meeting went surprisingly well. It turned out that he had gotten the last spot. The interviewer had seemed to take a liking to him and been pretty easy with the questions. After that Will just had to sign his name and he was ready. The few days leading up to Friday he would skip work (what a relief) and complete a training course. Machines and experienced crew did most of the technical work, but there were a few things he had to know for space travel and missions.
All in all, Will was very excited. Even though they weren’t going there they would still get a pretty good view of Earth. What would it look like? People said trees 100’s of feet high cover parts of the surface and that huge ponds stretching 1000’s of miles also covered areas of Earth. He wasn’t sure he believed some of these tales though; they were just too strange to be true.
The next four days were actually fun. At least a lot better than it would have been had it just been a normal week. The trainings were hard and rigorous learning to move in zero gravity and work with the small landing crafts, but most of the new crew was nice and he got along with them very well.
Finally it was Friday, the day really had come! Will got up very early and packed the few belongings he was going to take before heading down to the launch site. At the site there were already quite a few people up and about working on last minute preparations. He noticed a table on the floor below him, two of the eight men were eating their breakfast there. Will climbed down from the balcony to join them. This meal was specially prepared so as to give the least amount of queasiness during take off.
An hour later everyone was tightly buckled into their seats aboard the rocket, nervously waiting blast off. 1 minutes left and then… "Three, Two, One." The ship leapt up from the planet’s surface with a thunderous power and a blast of flame. Within seconds it had dwindled to just another speck of light in the still dark sky.
In the rocket everyone was concentrating on just adjusting to the new change of speed, but it didn’t take long to adjust once the ship reached space, and after that, the trip would go a lot smoother. The ship gradually picked up speed; the whole trip was estimated to only take a few days in the frictionlessness of space.
Once he was allowed, Will quickly unbuckled himself and glided over to one of the windows. Outside it was an eerie kind of beauty. He could barely see Mercury around the ship. It was now a glowing red globe. The bright star behind it glared almost menacingly at him and he had to look away from the radiance. The rest of the Universe he could see was a dark black speckled by millions of tiny pin pricks of light. He looked away; there was work to be done.
Inside the gravity was kept relatively low. Once you got used to it, it made moving around quite a bit easier and more efficient. The first day Will got put to work moving and preparing supplies into the landing crafts, which would be used to get to the space station. They expected to reach it sometime the next day.
That night they ate a small packaged meal and the 1st officer was kind enough to give a tour around the main sections of the ship. It was incredible how many functions had to be run to fly the vessel and how many different instruments there were for measuring and calculating things.
The next day at 3:00 PM the ship started to slow down and at 4:00 PM Earth became visible. All the men crowded together at the windows, staring out at the new planet. It was everything people told and more. Will could easily pick out all the distinct color. Greens, large expanses of blue and white wispy things surrounding the planet. Gasps of awe and wonder spread through the men, but they were pulled away just as fast by a short order of "Get back to work!" from one of the officers.
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