Fly Me to the Moon

Chapter 8

The next day was launch day. It was televised for the whole nation to see. The three astronauts were getting ready by telling their loved ones a farewell before flight.

Jae was hugging Stella and John goodbye.

"Good luck, kid," John said, "you're making America proud."

"Thanks, John," Jae smiled at him.

"I wished your mom could see you now," Stella teared up, "she would be so proud of you going to space like she tried to. Good luck, miha."

Jae teared up and hugged them tightly.

Tony was hugging and kissing on his wife, Sharon, and two kids, Nicholas and Cassidy.

"You better come home to us after all of this," Sharon sniffed, she was emotionally overwhelmed. This is the first she has seen her husband in a little over a month.

"I can't make that promise, babe," Tony said while holding her.

"You will come back, you hear me?" Sharon said.

Tony kissed her forehead and each of the kids' forehead. Trisha walked over and introduced herself to Sharon.

"Trisha Faust, engineer. I've been training your husband," Trisha said as she shook Sharon's hand, "I will confidently say that he is fit to come back safely to you. He's a big help for this space mission as he can fix things that could break. When he comes back, he's got a promising career ahead of him. Please. Stay with me and my daughter until his return."

"You wouldn't mind the company?" Sharon asked, "thank you, Mrs. Faust."

"Miss, and you call me Trisha. We are already friends," Trisha said, "Tony's family is a friend of mine."

Sharon hugged her, finally letting Tony go.

Joey was at the window side bench waiting for his family since the moment he finished getting ready. Still, no family showed up.

"Where's your family, buddy," Tony put his hand on his shoulder while he stood behind him.

Joey looked down, "not here."

"Why not?" Tony asked.

"All I can figure is because they didn't approve of my decision of going through with this," Joey shrugged.

"You didn't mention that before," Tony said.

"I guess I was trying to avoid the topic," Joey said.

"I'm sorry, bud," Tony said, "in my opinion, they oughta be proud of their big astronaut son. I would be and I am a dad."

Joey chuckled and smiled up at him, "thanks, dad."

"You're welcome, son," Tony grinned and hugged him.

"Astronauts to the loading dock!"

The three astronauts went to the loading dock and got into their space suits. They were loaded into the ship one at a time as they practiced many times over in training. Joey was in the middle with Tony on his right side and Jae on his left.

Soon all of the televisions and radios were switched to the launch of the rocket. Everyone watched and listened as the countdown happened.

"5...4...3...2...1...Blast off!"

The rocket flew up into the air. The astronauts held hands as they watched forward. They were scared, nervous, and excited all at once. The song "Fly Me to the Moon" recently produced by Kaye Ballard played on as the ship took off and faded the closer to outer space they came.

'Man, here we are. Going to space,' Jae thought as they were leaving earth.

'Wow, we are so high up. I wonder when the zero gravity is gonna hit,' Joey wondered.

'Ahhhhhhhh!!!!' Tony screamed on the inside.

Within minutes, they were weightless and earth was notified. The team on earth cheers for success.

"We already are past the previous checkpoint from last year's mission," Penelope said happily, "as long as all goes right, there should be no problems."

"They know their training," John said.

Three days of flight and the astronauts made it to the moon. The rocket landed and the three took their first steps on the moon.

"Whoa, it's so quiet here," Joey said as he looked around in awe.

"Almost serene," Jae said.

"Look at me! I can fly!" Tony was jumping around as he played around with the low amount of gravity.

"Stop playing around please. We need to collect samples," Joey said, "yes, it's fun and all. But we are on a mission to collect samples and to do research."

"Right, sorry, captain," Tony said as he stood back on the ground.

All of a sudden, he was hit in the back by a moon rock. Tony quickly turned around and saw Call Lab acting innocent as he picked up rocks. Tony was confused and shrugged as he went back to his sample collecting.

"Good job taking initiative, Captain," Jae said.

"Thanks, Lieutenant Jae," Joey said.

Tony continued to collect moon rocks and got pelted every five minutes with moon rocks. He started chasing after Call Lab and throwing rocks back at him. The rough and tough human and the mischievous machine continue their rock fight until Jae gets hit by accident.

"That's enough!" Jae shouted with annoyance in her voice.

"He started it!" Tony shouted back.

"Well he dented me," Call Lab said.

"That's just great!" Joey said sarcastically.

Call Lab suddenly went into standby mode. Tony rolled his eyes and fixed Call Lab where he was broken.

"Calling...lab..." Call Lab said, "call...complete. Message. Return back immediately. Mission canceled."

The three astronauts groaned as they loaded the ship with their samples and got ready in their space station. The ship started back on its journey to return to earth. The three fell asleep irate with each other.