Adrift On A Stolen Moon

Prologue

"Today is the day."  I mumbled.

You could hear clacking of my shoes as I paced back and forth. The amount of stress and tension around the room was mutual and audible. Everyone was worried, this was the day that made or broke your life. I sat down in a chair adjacent to the front desk. The chair was oddly comfortable. It was a hard wooden chair like the really old ones that the Europeans had, however it almost felt like I was sinking into a pillow. I shifted my weight trying to calm my nerves. The chair made an ear perching screech as I moved drawing every eye in the room to me. I grabbed a magazine from the table next to me and quickly opened it to cover my face.

After a couple of minutes in silence I cautiously lowered the magazine, making sure no one was staring anymore. I glanced around the building to see if I could find anything interesting to look at. There wasn't any luck. It was the same old design as usual.

It was built was a super strong metal structure to withstand earthquakes and bombs. The entrance was a beautiful silver archway over looking a giant sliding glass door. The walls were a simple grey with bright blue pillars scattered around the room. The floor was a shiny marble with small pink flowers even spaced. I know this sounds like a super cool building that probably is super expensive, and it is. It's just...EVERY building is like this now a days.

I got bored of looking around the room and rested my eyes on the giant skylight. I could watch it all day. You could see the birds fly by, and the planes soar past, but the best of all was if you waited long enough you could see a drone and if you were really lucky a rocket or a space plane launch.

This was were I was gonna work. NASA, which stands for National Aeronautics and Space Administration if anyone didn't know. My name is Ashley Mesa, and I'm gonna be a NASA engineer and pilot.

People think I'm insane when I say that sentence. But probably not for the reason that you think. Most people's first instinct would be to assume that it's because I'm a girl, or because I have dyslexia, or some other stupid stereotypical reason. It's not. It's because the world is cheap and afraid of discovery.

I've never been afraid. Of anything. Bugs, heights, enclosed spaces, nothing. All my life I've never wanted to do anything but help build rockets and live on Mars. However...it seems like that might not happen.

Okay. Maybe I lied. I am afraid of something. Only one thing. NASA closing, and the USA add their names to the long list of countries.

Long list for what you say? Well. The long list of countries that have made space travel. Illegal.