Far from home

Chapter II

Dad and Dante wanted to come to Washington D.C. with me, but I said that there was too much CCV. They didn't care and came anyway.

Dante had 'forgiven' me and now just wanted to spend as much time as possible with me before I'd leave.
In the airplane we talked almost the whole time about something. It was like nothing was about to happen.

I had a boyfriend in Milano, if that's what you could call him. We had been on a couple of dates and seen sometimes, kissed a couple of times. Anyway, when I told him about this, came out that it wasn't very real.

"I don't wanna be together with someone who'll die. So I guess we're over", he had responded to me in phone. I was a little upset that he didn't care more than that, but I didn't have much feelings for him either.

In Washington, we got a room from a great hotel. I was told that it should be secure from the virus too. That was good because I didn't want dad or Dante to die while they were escorting me to a mission, whose goal is to save them and everyone else.

We got in Washington three days before the launch. On the second day there, I got a request to go seeing my future crew mates. So I left dad and Dante at the hotel and took a taxi to the office where our meeting was.

When I got to the meeting room on the fifth floor, there were four people already. One of them was a man from Nasa. I had seen him a couple of times when I worked there, but I wasn't sure what his name was. The other three were members of the crew.

I recognized Derek Clearwater, the commander. One was a beautiful dark haired and pale skinned woman and the last one was a young man, not much over twenty who had very short hair.

"Hello Ms. Colombo, take a seat", the man from Nasa said smiling. I smiled and nodded at him and then sat down next to the woman.

"My name is Olivia, it's nice to meet you", she said in a low voice and smiled at me. I smiled back, she seemed nice.
"I'm Fia, it's nice to meet you too", I responded. She nodded still smiling.

Then the door opened again and a tall man stepped in the room. He had short brown hair and dark brown eyes. I had seen him in somewhere, in news or something. I didn't remember his name, but I knew he was Russian.

"Good morning Mr. Volkov, sit down please", the man from Nasa said to him smiling like he had smiled to me.
The Russian man, Mr. Volkov whose first name I still didn't remember nodded quickly and sat down at the other side of the table, next to the young man.

"That one's hot", Olivia whispered in my ear. I glanced at her and saw her smiling. I had to fight so I wouldn't start giggling. She was right tho, that man wasn't bad looking.

"You know relationships between two crew members are forbidden, right?" I whispered back. Olivia smiled even more.
"Yeah, but who has ever followed that rule?" she noted with a little louder voice.
"No one, I suppose", I responded and shrugged. I guess I had already got a friend from this crew. That was nice.

Next one to walk in was an Indian woman who sat on the other side of me. Then came an Asian woman and some other woman and they found their seats around the table.

"Good, we're all here. I'm Thomas Green and I will guide you through your mission. Of course, ground control has many members from many countries, but I'm your main contact", the man from Nasa, Thomas Green said. The whole crew was listening and nodding in the right places.

"Okay, I guess you should get to know each other. Quick round. Tell your name and your occupation. Let's start with the commander", Thomas said pointing to Derek Clearwater.

"I'm Derek Clearwater, as you probably know. I'm your commander, and I have a training of an astronaut. I also have worked as pilot", Derek told us what I think at least almost all of us already knew. He had a calm expressionless face and almost black hair.

Then came the young looking guy next to Derek. He looked real nervous.
"I'm Oliver Granger. I am responsible for the coms", said pretty quickly with a nervous voice and a British accent. He kinda wakes some sympathy in me, he was clearly youngest of us and shy too.

Then was the Russian guy. He didn't have any problems like Oliver.
"I'm Sergei Volkov. I'm an astronaut and if something happens to commander Clearwater, I will be your new commander", he said with a strong Russian accent in his voice. Sergei was his name, I had heard it, just forgotten.

Then was the Asian one, probably Chinese.
"My name is Lin Lin Wu and I'm your pilot", she told. Shortest introduction this far. She clearly wasn't very talkative.

Then was the woman who had came last.
"I am Astrid Rasmussen and I'm a biologist. My job is to find out if the planet we'll find is habitable", she said smiling politely. I inferred from her name that she was from the Nordic countries. She had long blonde hair and blue eyes.

Then was the Indian woman next to me.
"My name is Myra Kaushik. I am your doctor and will take care of your injuries", she said also smiling. I was surprised by how little the Indian accent could be heard from her voice.

Then was my turn. I took a deep breath. I wasn't a performer.
"My name is Fia Colombo and I'm a 0-G mechanic", I told them without any explanations. I sighed relieved, that was over.

Last one was Olivia. She smiled to everyone.
"I'm Olivia Virta. My occupation is engineer", she said. So she was the engineer. Not bad. She was the only one from who I couldn't tell where she was from.

So, now you know my crew mates.

After the introductions, Thomas told us our mission again. Of course we new the main things already but more specifically.

So, our mission was to find a habitable planet, without serious living threats. We had a few coordinates for possible places we would check first. If those wouldn't work, we should try to find something else. If a year would pass without any progress, we could come back. And that situation should be avoided.