Through Dangerous Times

Quod Amor Navis

The year was 2111, a meeting having had just finished in the NASA headquarters. There was a space station orbiting the Earth, Quad Amor Navis. It was purely digital, more powerful that the ISS and capable of much more, all whilst not needed any humans on board to achieve its full potential. However, two months ago, it had been struck by a wave of space debris, caused by a satellite a few thousand kilometres away to explode, sending masses of metal hurtling towards said station. Quod Amor Navis (QAN) was perfectly capable of holding humans, however, with functional life support and living areas. So the plan was to send three astronauts up to complete some repairs to the station. At this point in time, Earth had severely changed over the past century or so, a massive leap in technology. The population was hovering around 10 billion, changes in technology involving space mainly consisted of easy travel back and forth, however, this was still a risky and dangerous process. The global temperature had upped by two degrees Celsius, global warming has taken its effect on the world, although now the world had switched to a renewable source of energy, this was predicted to decrease in years to come. The main dominating power in the world was Britain, who had been the main contributor to much of the QAN project. The astronauts departing were as followed: 

Cisco Ramon, 25, professional mechanical engineer.

Barry Allen, 26, chemist and physician.

Caitlin Snow, 26, Biochemist and medical doctor.

These three had gone through a few years of training for this task, Cisco and Caitlin already knew each other before the training and got along great, Barry not knowing either of them before the mission. Barry and Cisco had developed quite a close friendship throughout the course of training, however, he and Caitlin didn't seem to get along, which admittedly did make him rather upset as in his opinion, she really seemed like a nice person. Both Cisco and Caitlin had left the planet before, to work on the ISS, but this was Barry's first time.

They were all up and ready, equipped with their space suits as they lined up, ready to enter the rocket that would take them up to the QAN.

Looking to his left, Barry saw the other two lined up, Cisco looking more excited than he ever had in his life before this, Caitlin looked fairly professional, ready to board the ship in a more serious matter. Barry, on the other hand, was slightly nervous, this being his first time leaving the planet and everything. As the head of NASA, Oliver Queen announced that it was time to leave, so the pair started walking down the path towards the rocket, people all around them clapping, cheering, taking photographs, etcetera. They climbed up the stairs and entered to rocket, Cisco leaning out of the entrance, waving at the crowd with a giant smile on his face. As the entrance closed, Cisco spoke up.

"I have the perfect music for this," he said with a smirk, fumbling with his phone through his suit, playing the theme tune of A Space Odyssey on repeat, just as the 5-minute countdown began.

"Really?" Barry laughed, looking over to see Caitlin at the control panel, running many safety checks.

"Hey Snow, calm down, relax, both me and you have done this before, everything will be fine," Cisco said, causing Caitlin to look over at him, leaning back in her chair, stopping yet still looking somewhat anxious.

"4 minutes remaining," the speakers blared out.

"Remind me on what the ride up is like again?" Barry asked, the nerves being able to be heard in his voice.

"Oh, it's actually kind of fun, a bit bumpy but you soon get used to it," Cisco replied.

"Don't worry," he finished, placing a hand on his shoulder to assure him.

"Okay," Barry replied, looking over at Caitlin to see her staring out of a window at the crowds of people below.

"3 minutes remaining,"

"Hey Caitlin, are you okay?" Barry asked out of curiosity.

"I'm fine," she replied, in a fairly strict tone.

"Don't worry about her, she tends to panic a bit, she did this last flight," Cisco assured Barry, as the song playing in the background looped for the third time.

"2 minutes."

"So, guys, once we are out of the atmosphere, I shall pilot the shuttle to dock onto the QAD. Once we are on the station, our first priority is to find out what is wrong with the ship, Barry you are in charge of that, Caitlin you handle the life support in the station so it is safe to work without our suits. I will focus on sending a message back to Houston, as well as securing the ship," Cisco said, smile still present on his face out of excitement.

"Yes, Cisco, we have gone over this many times now," Barry joked, turning around and looking out of his window, seeing the hustle of people out there.

"60 seconds."

"Well Barry, welcome to your first flight on board the spaceship Amor Fabula II (AFII)," Cisco said, holding his hand out to shake Barry's hand.

"Thank you very much," he replied.

"30 seconds."

"Everyone buckle in, and prepare yourselves," he continued. Cisco was sat next to Barry, Caitlin sat on the other side of Cisco.

"Barry?"

"20 seconds."

"Barry!" Caitlin shouted now, her voice travelling over the noise of the now starting engines.

"Yeah?"

"You may want to lock your helmet. It's unlocked and will fall off if you keep it unlocked."

"10 seconds."  

"Oh wow, thank you," Barry replied, realising that he almost made a large mistake.

"9"

"Good, we may not get along amazingly but I certainly don't want you to die, Barry," she said, looking over at him smiling.

"8"

"Good luck everyone!" Cisco shouted, the engines now progressively louder.

"7"

The music was still blurting out of Cisco's phone, which he had strapped to the wall, however, it was slowly being disrupted by the sound of the engines.

"6, 5, 4,"

"3, 2, 1!" Cisco said in unison with the speaker, as the engines started exploding with sounds, the ship lifting off the ground, huge amounts of noise being made from the initial take off, the cabin shaking around, all of them being pressed against the back of their seats, heads looking through the main window, looking up into the blue sky.

The ship was violently shaking at this point, the group now being many kilometres above the surface, closing in on the edge of the atmosphere.

The rocket started to come to a balance, not shaking so much anymore, slowly coming to a more bearable balance, still shaking, but not as violently. It was at this point, around 5 minutes later, that they broke through the atmosphere, the blue skies disappearing as the stars came into view, making for a great looking scene.

Before long, the rocket had stabled itself, allowing the group to talk to one another.

"Well, that wasn't so bad," Barry said, catching his breath from everything.

"Nope, I told you it will be fine," Cisco said, just as the radio started emitting a static noise before a voice started speaking through it.

"To the crew of Amor Fabula II, you have successfully reached zero gravity. Congratulations."

The three of them cheered, congratulating each other on the successful launch, Cisco punching the air, before throwing in the co-ordinates for the QAN. 

"It's good to have you on board, Barry," Cisco stated, muting the music that was still loudly playing from his phone.

"Thank you, it's good to be here."

"Admittedly, it is nice to have someone other than Cisco, no offence,"

"No offence taken," Cisco laughed back.

"Well crew, to Quod Amor Navis we go!"