Within the Reach of Mars

2088

"Wake up!", a voice screamed and grabbed my attention. My eyelids fluttered open tiredly.  I instantly sat up and turned on my instincts, turning my head in every direction. Zombie apocalypse? Alien invasion? 

"What?! What?!", I asked quickly as I took in my surrounding. Computers, spacesuits, and a floating banana peel?! That's when my mind decided to bring me back into reality. We were on a mission to establish the first-ever livable home in the planet Mars.

 33.9 million miles. 9 months, 3 weeks, 5 days and 1 hour or you can just say 300 days, but to me, details matter so there you go. 

Who are we? Oh, I forgot. WE are the three astronauts chosen for this mission, Luke Phillips (my BFF), a graduate of Harvard, Calissa (my other BFF), a graduate of Stanford, and me, Arlene, graduate of MIT!

Anyways, the spaceship we were traveling on, Atlantis 42, started to tremendously shake, causing all of us to lose our balance, well I guess not really since we were technically floating. 

"Arlene! Thank the gods you're finally awake! We have been shaking ever since Luke here decides to take a little doze while ON DUTY!", Calissa explained frantically as she glared at Luke who was nervously trying to avoid her deathly look.

"Ok! How about let's think of a way to solve this problem instead of accusing each other ok?", I addressed as I tried to lessen the tight tension.

My two besties nodded their heads in agreement as each of us went to a different part of the ship to look for the source of the problem. As I headed (well, floated) into the main control room, I noticed something from outside the window. A rocket thruster! I watched helplessly as darkness engulfs our rocket thruster into the darkness, completely out of sight now.

"One rocket thruster lost! I repeat, we have officially lost a rocket thruster! Report to the main control room!", I spoke into our speakers, while trying to contact the space station on Earth.

"Atlantis 42 to Merritt Island! Can you hear us?", I spoke loudly into the radio as I waited for a response. In response, however, buzzing came through instead. I tried again, but same response. 

Well, we only have ourselves now. My besties came back up as I explained the current situation we are in. They understood and took emergency procedures. I, on the other hand, however, was determined to complete this mission. I thought of the possible ways we could take, which wasn't much. That's when it hit me! AI! Before I left, I remembered the AI they have installed into the ship.

I float-sprinted to the end of the ship, where the AI was installed. Yes, yes, you might be asking why didn't I think of that before, well, that is because, this AI was the newest version, not tested yet, so I am taking quite a risk. 

"Alessandra, operate emergency procedures, rocket thrusters plan!", I shouted as I floated down the stairs. 

"Operating emergency procedures for rocket thrusters! Before I start, please state your identity!", Alessandra, the AI, replied as its screen started to flash. The brightness lighting up the pitch black room.

"Arlene Liu, 213259, captain of Atlantis 42!", I stated with impatience. The shake was getting worse and worse, food started to come out of its package and float along with the shake.

"Permission granted!", its robotic voice stated back.

"Emergency procedures proceeded!

I looked out the window and realized we were finally back on course. Without Alessandra, we would have thrown off into who knows where. 

"Arlene! Arlene!", my two besties' voices rang out in search of my location.

"I'm here! Wait, stay in the control center! I'll come to you!", I responded as I floated/crawled out of the room. 

As I arrived at the control panel, I finally came to my senses, away from all my anger. A circular, darkish dot came into view, and as we closed the distance with the spaceship, I realized, we have arrived on Mars. Finally!

This is how you complete one rapid mission. Mission accomplished!