Written in Pen

A Friendship Begins

Far away from Earth, an advanced race of beings developed a biological weapon meant to absorb color on a grand scale and convert it into massive amounts of energy. The creators launched it towards a nebula rich in color, but the gravitational pull of a nearby black hole drove it off-course and it ended up crashing onto Earth's moon. When the object impacted, government officials were quickly alerted due to the bizarre form of the "meteorite" and prepared a manned mission to investigate the crash site. They decided to send Dr. Rose Fetcher, an astronomer stationed at the arctic circle, since she was the only qualified individual available. They knew however that Rose had a fear of flying, as she refused to travel via helicopter or plane, despite the known benefits in saving time.

Years ago, she originally had dreams of becoming an astronaut, even going through training to become one. During her training, she developed a close bond with a fellow trainee: Trevor Anderson. After completing their training mid-December, they both traveled via helicopter to the launch site, but their helicopter ended up in a storm. The helicopter was struck by lightning, causing it to crash midway to the launch site. Only Rose survived, but the electricity damaged her eardrums when it electrocuted her headset. The damage caused her to have sensitive hearing, now having to constantly wear earmuffs to regulate her hearing. She had chosen to wear the pair that Trevor was going to give her for Christmas, deciding to nickname them her fluffies. The trauma she suffered along with the loss of her close friend was what gave birth to her phobia for flying.

When Rose arrived at the facility, she was told she was testing a new arctic habitat. She entered the well-disguised rocket when she was offered to take a look inside. The engineer that was giving her a tour told her to wait inside so he could use the bathroom. The engineer locked the hatch as Rose climbed up a ladder to what at first glance seemed like a computer room. But after taking a closer look, she realized in horror that it was actually a cockpit as she saw a countdown on one of the monitors. She started to feel the craft shake as she rushed to the exit, only to realize she had been locked in. A voice on the radio suggested her to strap in and that things will be explained soon. She went to the cockpit and strapped herself to the seat. As the vibration increased, she screamed as she clenched onto her fluffies so they wouldn't fall off.

The disguise on the exterior of the rocket detached as the thrusters ignited, causing the rocked to slowly ascend as it then started to pick up speed. She wanted to close her eyes, but she couldn't knowing that she was airborne. Some turbulence occurred, causing her fluffies to fall of and land away from her reach. She tried to grab them, but the noise from the thrusters along with her sensitive hearing caused her to cover her ears with her hands in great pain. All she could do was look out the window from her seat as the ground went lower and the sky got darker. As the rocket left the atmosphere, she passed out from all the noise.

While Rose was out cold, the rocket was auto-piloted towards the moon. She woke up as the rocket was landing on the lunar surface. She unstrapped herself from her seat as she saw her fluffies and put them back on. She heard the radio turn on as a man from mission control apologized for tricking her. Before he could explain any further, Rose yelled through the transmitter using foul language and insults that shocked all of mission control. One worker at their desk conveniently kept pressing a censor button whenever a swear word or something else immature came through. They even turned off the visual camera when she started to flip mission control off.

Noticing she was not calming down, the instructor commented that they will leave her on the moon if she didn't calm down. Not noticing she was on the moon beforehand, she looked out the window and started to panic. The instructor told her to calm down and that they will send her back home if she followed their instructions. She was told to exit the craft and look for an object that recently crashed. When putting on her spacesuit, she noticed that the helmet wasn't fitting with her fluffies on. She refused to take them off when instructed, but was reminded that there was no sound in space. Now wearing the helmet, she got on a rover and left the rocket.