Constellations

A press event

It is the day after the gathering at the bar. You are lying awake waiting for the alarm to go off to signal the start of another fun workday. It goes off. Kesley grumbles as he rolls over.

"Can you turn that bloody klakson off," he moans. He is definitely hungover which is a pity. You grab your phone and kill the alarm. You are surprised that he is even slightly awake. You carefully pat him on the shoulder.

"Come on Kelsey. We have to get ready for work," he moans again. You proceed to gently coax him out of bed. Five minutes later he is up. Another Twenty minutes later you are both ready. You giggle because he looks ridiculous in his NASA jumpsuit and aviators.

"What?" Kesley questions you.

"You should look in the mirror and it's not my fault you drank too much," You retort as you head out to the Tesla. Another fifteen minutes later you have made it to the johnson space centre. You are greeted by Roman who is slightly more cheerful than Kelsey.

"Good morning guys," he remarks.

"Looks like the German made a mistake," he starts what might just become a battle of words.

"Oh shut it. At least You may be more cheerful but I reckon your hangover is worse," Kelsey retorts. He is right. Roman gives up and in good time.

"You guys may be hungover but I want to get to work on the emergency systems," Both Benji and Jay round the corner. Jay quickly massages his head. At least you know today will be a little more relaxed. Two minutes later and everyone is in the sim. You are a little nervous because Elon is watching. It makes sense because these are his systems. The displays change from blue to red to indicate an emergency.

"The main battery pack has exploded," Roman calls out.

"Switching to auxiliary power," Kelsey confirms as he pushes some of the buttons. You can tell they are fighting various levels of hangovers to get the sim done.

"Will the explosion cause problems with landing?" You ask the most important question. You know it's just a simulation but you can feel your heartbeat rising. You hope it won't end up like this. You are glad that your team is able to work through their respective hangovers.

"No it shouldn't because I was able to get most of the residual energy from the batteries to the hydraulics and besides the backups should be able to operate normally," Kelsey responds. Ten minutes later the simulation has finished. The team has gathered around Elon to see what he has to say. You break away from the tiny gathering. You head to the old Kennedy capsule trainer. You make the slightly awkward ingress. You start to write more notes on what you learnt during that simulation. You get distracted by the control stick.

"I didn't know they still had the Kennedy capsule simulator," Jay remarks. He causes you to flinch.

"Jay you can make your arrival less frightful," You moan in anger.

"Sorry I should've warned you. Anyway, I was meant to ask you last night but what are your thoughts on starship?" Jay asks as he slips into the simulator with you.

"Well Elon and his team have done a good job on the systems and I feel confident that we can get to Mars," You respond.

"What brings you here?" You return the question. You are happy for the company even though you are questioning it.

"The uncrewed demo is in three days and Danny wanted someone to tell you," He responds. He has an air of pride.

"Let me guess you and Kelsey had a race to tell me," You respond. He gives a prideful nod.

"Remind me never to have a race with you," You retort. Another ten minutes later you have finished your notes and you are ready for the next simulation. You glance over at the others and they all give you reassuring nods. You all get to work on the launch sequence. The screens go red. This time it's because the super-heavy booster has ruptured. You have noticed that Kelsey is ready with his hand on the launch abort handle.