ARTEMIS

Prologue

Ground control to ARTEMIS; come in. I repeat, ground control to ARTEMIS; come in. There was a static on the line, as if someone was trying to speak through it, but the technology did not work the way it's supposed to. There was a brief moment of silence in the mission control area. Everybody in mission control, the people who have worked on the ARTEMIS project for a couple of decades, held their breath when the static was heard through the enormous sound installations. Again; ground control to ARTEMIS, do you copy? Still no reply, no static this time as well.

An agitated vibe went through the room when there was no response from the shuttle. Time seemed to move slower, as it always does in extremely stressful situations. The adrenaline in your body makes your brain work at an increased rate, which results in events seeming to move slower. When a person is about to get hit by a car, things around him will always move slower than they really are.

The same thing happened to the mission control captain. People were rushing past him, various people were viciously making notes and there were a few people calling out orders, whilst appearing calm, the people calling out orders were obviously stressed out and sleep deprived. Everything that happened around the mission control captain appeared to move slower, like a car was about to hit him in a full frontal collision, but this wasn't a car, it was a train coming in at rocket speed.

The seriousness of the situation finally dawned on the captain. He picked up the microphone standing in front of him, brought it to closer to his face and opened his mouth. At first, words wouldn't come out, but he pulled himself together and spoke confidently: "Keep on trying team, we can't give up" the captain paused for a brief moment and looked around the room " not just yet" he continued. The second the captain finished speaking, the same message was heard once again. Ground control to ARTEMIS, do you copy? Ground control to ARTEMIS, come in.

This went on for at least fifteen minutes. 900 seconds, which felt like a lifetime to the captain. After these fifteen minutes no more attempts to contact ARTEMIS were made again. People were slowly gathering at the main board, close to the captain, abandoning their posts. There was a woman sobbing in the back, being comforted by one of her co-workers. Everybody, the entire team, including the captain, looked defeated. The tense atmosphere made place for an ambiance full of sadness, questions and broken dreams.

The captain, a middle aged man, who was sitting in his chair, looking everything but happy, rose to his feet and the quiet mumbles instantly stopped. "Today" the captain began speaking "has been a day full of excitement. A day full of hard work. A day full of hope, and most importantly; a day full of passion. Normally, days like these end in even more excitement, in fulfilled hope and an ever increasing burning passion. Today, unfortunately, has not been such day. But do not think all our hard work of the last couple of years was for nothing. The scientific progress we made, will always be recognised and of great use for humanity. We just did not receive the result we were hoping on. Do not let this setback extinguish your fiery passion. We will.. " the captain was interrupted by static coming through the speakers once again.

Everybody looked up, at the screen. This time, a voice was heard from the speakers: "Ground control, this is ARTEMIS" A joyful cheer went through the room, but the captain acted instantly. "Everybody to your assigned posts. We've got work to do." the captain spoke confidently. Nobody thought about it for an instance, and ran to their spots. A reply sounded: "ARTEMIS, this is ground control, come in." With a short delay, response was heard from the other side. "Ground Control, this is ARTEMIS. We've been coping with ..." the voice was disrupted by static once again.

The captain wiped the sweat of his forehead with the sleeve of his purple, silk blouse before smashing his fist on the table and proclaiming: "Fix the sound, damn it!" Two members of the staff looked absolutely terrified when the captain cursed. The normally calm and serene man was rarely seen angry. A team of engineers immediately proceeded to work on the communication technology in an effort to get rid of the static.