It has been a couple of days since you started training for the moon landing. You are currently thinking about what order you should do the experiments. You don't know why it is bothering you but it is. It's always the tiny things that bother you. You will be glad for Jay and Kelsey's help.
"We should check the old Apollo seismic measures," Jay remarks. He is right you should but you are thinking about something else. The fact that cancellation four will be leaving in three weeks. The stress is building because you won't know the results until the team gets back.
"We should set the landing beacon first," You retort. You don't mean to come across as grumpy. Your mind is occupied by other things. Twenty minutes later you have agreed on the order of the experiments. You are now getting ready for some more capsule training. Hopefully, it will get your mind off of the stress. Something tells you that it won't because it will make it worse.
"Lilly are you ready?" Jay asks. You nod. Three minutes later the simulation is underway and you are prepared for something to go wrong. The master caution sounds.
"We need to call an abort," Jay remarks. You put your hand on the abort leaver and you pull it. It does nothing because it is a simulation. You glance at Danny and he gives you the thumbs-up through the window. That means you were successful. You start to wonder how Kelsey is doing in the ESM. You start writing some notes on the little table that will one day allow you to write notes in the Orion capsule. It will be interesting to see what happens.
"Lilly I am going to see how Kelsey is doing," Jay remarks.
"I'll join you shortly," You respond. Hopefully, Pierre's team won't need the simulator while you write your notes. Three minutes later you have finished and you have joined Jay at the ES and command module trainer. You are enjoying what you see. Kelsey is muttering to himself about the issue at hand. He is getting worked up.
"What do you think he is dealing with?" Jay asks.
"I don't know but I get the feeling that it has something to do with leaving us behind," You respond. He is struggling as he pushes various buttons. Three minutes later he has finished and he has joined you. You can tell that he has been dealing with a high-stress simulation. You feel sorry for him because it is the second time that he has become frazzled due to simulator work.
"I'm never leaving you two on the moon," Kelsey triumphantly announces. You understand what he means. A month later you are in the astronaut green room with the constellation four crew and the rest of your crew. They are getting ready for the first manned mission. Danny has invited you to watch. You are also helping. The tension is increasing again as it seems to do with new spacecraft.
"See you guys in four days," Pierre remarks as he gets the last of his EV suit ready. You are almost giddy with joy at the sight of the spacesuits because they are significantly better than the Apollo era ones. You are also helping Jess who is having some last-minute troubles.
"Thank you, Lilly," She responds as she gets her hand the rest of the way out. She makes sure that she can get her gloves on.
"I wonder why the techs let me help," You ponder aloud.
"I couldn't tell you but I'm glad you did," Jess responds. The team is about to leave.
"Good luck," Kelsey beats you do it. An hour later you are watching the screen and listening to the pre-flight chatter. You can tell that Pierre, Jess and Jones are excited. You have started to think about what could go wrong. You know it won't go wrong but you just can't stop thinking about it.
"Lilly relax," Jay tries to reassure you. It almost works but you know it will only be better once the team comes back.
"Sorry, Jay. It's just how I think" You reply.
"T minutes ten...nine...eight...seven...six...five...four...three..two..one," As soon as Danny has finished the count down the Ares five comes to life as it leaves the pad. At least there is nothing wrong.
"All systems nominal," Comes the call from Jess via the squawk box. You are immediately relieved. It is a beautiful sight, seeing the flames trailing from the Ares five as it races through the atmosphere. You are secretly enjoying the launch. Hopefully, the others can't tell
"She is beautiful isn't she," Jay reads your mind.
"Yup," You respond a little cheerfully. You are happy that everything is coming together. Another three days later you are at mission control. You are checking with Danny and the engineer in charge.
"Marcus, what is their status?" You ask out of curiosity. It has been fun working with the ground team to help Jess and her team.
"We should be getting orbit confirmation soon," He responds. His eyes don't move from the screen. As soon as he said that the comms system crackles to life.
"Marcus, do you read me?" Jess asks. The audio is not the best but the footage you see on the monitor is stunning.
"Loud and clear and we are getting the footage," Marcus confirms. A small cheer ripples through the crowd. You can tell that they are pleased with the footage that they are getting. It is the most impressive thing you have ever seen and in the next two months, you may be going depending on if this mission is successful.
"Thank you, Marcus, we will be getting to work on the experiments before we do the TLI burn. Over and out," Jess confirms.
"Over and out Marcus responds. You are glad that the first manned mission of the constellation program has succeeded in the launch. An hour later you are having lunch with your dad and Neil. You are filling them in on what happened. You can tell they are impressed.
"So Lilly how are you feeling about constellation five?" Neill catches you off guard.
"Confidant but a little worried," you respond. You are a little worried because Pierre's team hasn't returned yet. You can tell that Neil feels the same.
"I'm guessing that's how you felt when Apollo eight went to the moon," You hope they know how you feel. Neil nods.
"The thing Neil knew the systems back to front and Buzz and I had faith," This is your dad's attempt at making you feel better. Unfortunately, you will only feel better when constellation four will come back. You get the feeling that this mission is going to be an exact mirror to the Apollo program like Danny said.
YOU ARE READING
Constellations
Fanfiction"I am so sorry Neil" "It will be alright Lily," he responds. Lily Collins yearned to follow in her father Micheal Collins' footsteps but there was one problem. She was stuck serving coffee to people at NASA. One fateful day she ends up spilling cof...
