SUNGLASSES AND ROCKETS Part 1 : New Moon

LIFT OFF !

Flooded with feelings, in a flurry of emotions, I reached Room C, on the second level of the building.

There were several space suits piled up in a corner. I tried to take the closest one at hand. It felt like a lead weight! But I managed to pick it up. Then, right away, I hurled myself towards the first floor. I could clearly hear the powerful noise of the gigantic motors belonging to the rocket. I forced myself to pick up speed and reached the end of the corridor. Opening the door seemed like a task that lasted an eternity. My hands were soaking with sweat and they slid off the handle each time I tried to turn it.

I finally did it. I opened the door and left.

The noise became deafening. I breathed deeply and, surrendered to my uncertain destiny, I made for the shuttle tower. There was the elevator, waiting for me. I quickened my pace. The floor shook underneath my feet. Before entering, I looked up. The silo's hatch was completely open!

Hundreds of stars twinkled, suspended in a dark, bottomless sky, in infinite blackness. I got dizzy. I begged for my life once more. I pressed one of the two buttons on the metal wall; the railed door to the elevator slid open. I went in. The door slid again, then I pushed the only button that was there. You could hear gears grinding.

The elevator started up.

Barely feet away, to my left, you could make out the huge rocket. The whole framework vibrated heavily; so much that the violent vibration was transmitted along the entire tower. The tremor was constant and threatening.

"Keep calm!" I seemed to hear in the middle of the deafening racket.

It was Darwin's voice. I looked up. I managed to make him out between the railings on the ceiling of the elevator. My friend was leaning over the hand-rail of the bridge.

"Only 65 feet to go!" he was shouting his head off.

"Understood!" I replied.

Suddenly the elevator stopped. I immediately started to push the only button my confused eyes could see. Nothing. The elevator wasn't moving. I knew that at any moment, the lethal combustion gases would start to come out, and they would quickly fry me to a crisp.

Suddenly, a noise comparable to the first crackling sound of a loud-speaker was heard; it sounded out over the fierce din of the engines.

"Three minutes until lift-off," announced Felix's voice, resonating metallically throughout the vault.

He said something else, but it was impossible for me to catch what it was. However, the little bit I did manage to make out was enough to end up turning me into a prisoner of panic.

"Help!" I cried out, at the top of my lungs, "I'm trapped! I'm trapped!"

I frantically pushed the button, but nothing happened. The elevator was not working.

"Get out of the elevator!" I heard the doctor shout.

"I'm trying to!" I replied desperately.

"Push up the grate on the ceiling!"

The deafening noise suddenly got louder. Another engine had become activated. In one desperate outburst, I made fists with my hands and jumped up energetically. I smashed against the roof, which vibrated. Encouraged, I repeated the motion several times. The grating gave way. It fell into nothingness. I immediately picked up my suit.

As I bent down, I noticed a white puff of smoke coming out from the bottom of the rocket. The loud-speaker crackled again.

"Gordo," it was Vanessa's voice. My heart almost jumped out of my throat. "From the moment I first saw you, I knew that..."

She kept speaking, but her words were lost in the thunderous noise of the engines.

"Vanessa!" I cried with all my might. "Don't forget..."

"Gordo," Felix's voice interrupted, " find the jet-pack on your suit. Activate it. It's the only way you can go up. Time is running out!"

In an inexplicable skillful hand movement, I put the jet-pack on my back. The controls were like arms at the middle of my chest; hurriedly I quickly started to push every button, one by one.

In the meantime, the noise of the engines had become unbearable, to the point of hurting your ears. Besides that, a thick cloud of white smoke started to curl upwards.

At that instant, quite clearly, the loudspeaker crackled once again.

"Gordo!" I heard Vanessa shout.

She was speaking. But it was impossible for me to make it out.

"I love you, Gordo! I love you!" Darwin shouted.

"What did you say!" I exclaimed.

No. Not my best friend.

"Not me!" Darwin corrected. "Vanessa loves you! She loves you! She said it! She loves you!"

Oh my God! She loves me! I thought, amazed. She loves me! and just at that moment, I pushed another button.

"Get up!" I heard the doctor shout.

I shakily started to float upwards. It was difficult to steer the jet-pack. However, I went up in one go. Darwin and the doctor had to hang on to my legs so I wouldn't keep going up, so I let go of the button and fell on top of them.

"Thank God!" the doctor exclaimed. "There are twelve seconds to board the rocket!"

We started to run towards it. In the background you could hear the countdown, coming from the loudspeaker: ten...nine... Blazing clouds of white smoke rose up fiercely through the whole vault. The capsule was about 40 feet away. The hatch was open. But 40 feet was too far away!

"On the floor!" Darwin shouted suddenly, knocking us down.

He seized my arm and pressed the button that started up the jet-pack.

We shot across the bridge like torpedoes. My skin was hot from the friction. The entry hatch was getting nearer. Our screams got swallowed up in our throats. You could hear metallic thumping noise; we ricocheted off the railings like a pin-ball. The door was nearer still. I closed my eyes and felt a hard knock on my head. I couldn't protect myself. My arms were practically useless. I lay flat, as if knocked out.

We had entered the capsule. I managed to see the doctor closing the hatch. Darwin picked me up and put me in a chair. He adjusted the belts around me.

Then he put my helmet on. I felt more pain. The doctor and Darwin seemed to be checking the controls of the flight cabin. In the background I could make out Felix's voice:

"Lift-off ! lift-off, Bat!"

A deafening roar, like that of an earthquake on judgment day, invaded the ship. I begged God to save my soul. The chairs trembled and my head wobbled about like a spring. I felt something wet covering my forehead. It was blood, but I stayed calm; I was in a daze.

Suddenly, a mighty jolt made me sink hard into my chair. I still heard the doctor's words in the helmet's headphones:

"God have mercy on us."

Then, I went to sleep...