Minerva X: Expanded Edition ✔️

Deleted Scenes

These are a few of the scenes in the first version of Minerva X that I deleted or rewrote. They are no longer canon to the Minerva X universe, so think of them as fanfiction.

Scene One: Chapter Two (NOT CANON)

And we all instantly asphyxiated from the lack of oxygen in the atmosphere.

Haha, you didn't believe that, did you?

I inhaled a deep breath, the air smelling like freshly mown grass. So Minerva X was inhabitable after all. Good to know.

Anthony coughed, turning slightly blue as he collapsed on the rough ground, hacking and wheezing.

"Tony! Are you okay?" Liz exclaimed, rushing forward. Mia and I eyed the killer with slight curiosity. Could the air be breathable for only some people? Teller seemed to be breathing fine like the rest of us. Only Anthony had a problem.
"Don't just stand there!" Liz demanded. "Help me! Don't you care about him?"

"Not particularly," Mia said at the same time as I said, "No, thanks."

I smirked at her as Anthony sat up, clearing his throat.

"I'm okay. I just... have asthma," he muttered.

"What?! Why did not tell anyone? NASA doesn't allow people who aren't in peak condition to fly! ... right?" Liz asked without conviction.

"No, you're right. That, my asthmatic friend, was not a very good decision," I told him seriously.

"If he's your friend, then why did you refuse to help him?" Liz asked indignantly.

"Hm? Oh, none of you are my friends." I laughed, undoing the top layer of my spacesuit and releasing my hair from the prison of a bun I had had to put it in. It was hot here.

"Then why did you-"

"Honey, 'that, my asthmatic friend, was not a very good decision' sounds much better than 'that, my asthmatic improbable crewmate, was not a very good decision.' Don't you agree?" Liz seemed to be at a loss for words. I tossed the blue jacket of the spacesuit to the ground.

"I'm pretty sure that you're not allowed to do that," Liz observed.

"Who's going to stop me? You, Little Miss Control Freak?" I asked, grinning. Mia snorted. "Anyway, if you hadn't noticed, we all broke our helmets. That definitely wasn't allowed, and you still did it." Liz looked down at the ground.

"Oh... yeah... sorry for acting so stuck-up, I'm just really nervous."

"Don't care," Mia told her, walking over to the biggest thing in sight, an enormous, bumpy gray rock. Immediately, I knew what she was doing.

"Yes. I'm so down," I said, running to catch up with her.

"What are you doing?" Anthony called, fully recovered.

"Testing the gravity!" I shouted back, Mia and I beginning to climb the stone.

"I don't think that's a good-" Liz started.

"No, they'll be fine," Teller interrupted. "The gravity doesn't seem to be much different from Earth, and the rock isn't very tall."

"Says you," I told him, a small piece of the rock breaking off as I placed my weight on it. Teller was by far the tallest of us, something that Anthony huffed about more often than he thought we heard.

Scene Two: Alternate Mia/Selena Exchange

"Do you like boys?" I asked as we lay in our separate twin beds. It was soon, but I wanted to know.

"Why do you care?"

"No reason."

"Fine. No," she sighed. I smiled up at the dark ceiling.

"I'm omnisexual. The weird thing about it is that I've never come out to anyone except my prison guard 'friend,' Adam."

"What about your parents?"

"My dad was a drug addict and an alcoholic who swallowed a bottle of painkillers when I was nine, and my mom abandoned me at fifteen when I was still questioning," I said matter-of-factly.

"Oh."

"It's not like I care," I laughed.

"I don't care if you care or not," Mia told me, voice muffled by her pillow.

"Yeah, I mean... no empathy."

"Mmhm."

"Good night." No response from Mia. She probably wasn't awake anymore. I rolled over and quickly fell asleep. People with no guilty conscience weren't ones for insomnia.

Scene Three: Alternate Shuttle Monologue/Montage

Tiny, dull, unexciting spaces are good for getting people to open up. Anthony told us all about the man he killed on the sixth day. Liz confided to me that she was also an orphan, with no family or friends on the fifteenth. All she wanted to do was help others, so she'd volunteered. Teller was a genius, but he'd never succeeded at anything in life, as we'd found out on day twenty-four. He'd wanted to go on the mission because he'd been in a dark place, wanting to end himself.

Mia was still a complete mystery. But at least she was a very cute mystery.

"I have another idea for a game!" I announced as the landing sequence began.

"NO." All of them spoke in unison, not even looking up.

"You're so good at those stupid little games you make up it's not even fun anymore," Mia told me. It wasn't like they were rigged or anything... everybody here was way more boring after being stuck in this uneventful, off-white, no-longer-shiny shuttle for a month.