400Hello! :)
This is my new story; a story of space voyage by our favorite characters. Don't worry, this is not some extreme Sci-Fi story. There are no technical terms but lots of made up terms and not much science. It's heavily focused on Rose and Dimitri :)
I hope you like it!
DISCLAIMER: I own the plot, not the characters! :)
Enjoy! :D
Space exploration is a force of nature unto itself that no other force in society can equal
~Niel Tyson
Ten amazing minutes. I've been out here for ten unbelievable, awesome minutes, lost in this wonderful feeling of exploring the new planet and I still can't believe that we've made it.
There must be a god, after all.
I was in a freaking desert of silver, eerily similar to the surface of the moon. It's strange how basic compositions of chemicals remain the same even across different galaxies.
As I was contemplating the beautiful landscape of the planet Sietera, a small beep sounded from the shoulder strap of my spacesuit.
"Rose?" A husky voice, laced with a soft accent, echoed in my ear. "Retreat immediately."
I huffed, kicking over a small rock by my feet. As I watched it sail away slowly in the air, I told my mouthpiece: "I thought I was the captain."
The husky voice chuckled, the sound reminding me of flowing chocolate rivers. "Be that as it may, you need to return."
I scowled in the direction of our spaceship. "Screw you, Belikov."
He chuckled in my ear. "Anytime, baby."
I smiled reluctantly. "Alright, I'm heading back now."
As I walked towards the spaceship, I marveled at how grand it looked, standing tall and majestic against the deep violet sky.
The Klasana, as the ship was called, was one of its kind. No spacecraft made was ever so huge or so advanced. Equipped with the latest technology developed by mankind, the Klasana was the symbol of hope, an object of fascination, wonder, awe and fear; propelled not only by the gallons of fuel but also by the dreams of the entire race of men.
When I reached the base of the ship, a flight of stairs descended smoothly.
Huffing, I climbed the steps slowly, cursing the strong gravitational pull of the planet.
It was a relief when I finally closed the door shut behind me, locking it and waiting for the pressure to stabilize before I lifted the giant glass bubble of a headgear.
My gloves, however, wouldn't come off so easy. As I tugged and pulled, a laugh sounded close by.
I didn't remove my eyes from the gloves. "Make yourself useful, will you?"
"I would-" said the same voice that had called me back to the ship, the tone ringed in amusement. "-but it's much more fun to see you struggling with it."
I glared at offending pair of warm brown eyes.
"Fine then. I don't want your help," I snapped, pulling away the gloves at all.
"No," he leaned against the archway leading into the ship, looking beyond entertained at my plight. "You don't want my help. But you need it."
I glared at him as he approached me, gracefully bending down to loosen my heavy boots.
I'd never admit it to him but he was right; I did need his help for this. Even after all this time, I couldn't remove the space suit by myself.
As he moved to detach my oxygen cylinder from my suit, I caught a whiff of his aftershave. It was a heavenly scent which I was ashamed to admit that I quite liked.
"Rose Hathaway being quiet," he remarked as he supported me while I extracted my legs from the suit. "That's a first."
"I'm in no mood to deal with you, Dimitri." I stated as I tried to step around him to go into the living room of this ship.
The bane of my existence, Dimitri Belikov- the pilot astronaut of the Klasanasmirked as he followed me in.
Despite all the antagonism between us, I had to admit that the man was hot, with a capital H. With shoulder length brown hair usually tied back with the stray strands struck neatly behind the ears, and a drool-worthy jawline, he was what the girls back home would call a God. His intense, warm brown eyes boosted the image as did his impressive height. His looks and his chivalrous ways made him a hot favorite among the opposite sex. But that didn't work with me.
He and I didn't really get along, despite the fact that we probably knew each other the longest among everyone in this spaceship. Our mothers had been best friends and they'd always assumed that we would too. We had been, we had been best friends. Dimitri and I had been inseparable when we'd been kids, doing everything together. Then, my dad was transferred out of Itaria, our home town. Mom and I went with him. I grew up in Yahona and Dimitri grew up in Itaria. We stayed in touch for a long time but we drifted apart as we grew. We met again, at the Janana Space Center (J.S.A). I'd been ecstatic over our reunion, especially when I found out that both of us were training to become pilot astronauts.
Then stuff happened and the drift between us turned to intolerance. We argued a lot, we fought a lot but fate stuck us together a lot too. Now we were in an entirely different planet, stuck together again. Thankfully, this ship had other crew members.
"How did it go?" Lissa, my best friend: the physician, asked as I stepped into the living area.
With straight platinum hair and jade colored eyes, Lissa looked like a princess, or at least a barbie doll with her slim figure. Her looks were a sharp contrast to mine. With brown eyes and dark brown hair which almost looked black in dim lightning, I looked like a desert princess. But nothing about my life or my work resembled royalty, much less a princess.
"Oh, I was just out exploring," I answered as I moved to sit beside her on the couch. "I'll collect the soil samples tomorrow. We need to test them asap."
Holding an advance degree in biotechnology before training to become a pilot, testing was fully my domain. Dimitri was the only other person who could assist me, having an advance degree in physics.
"We will," Lissa told me. "There were no problems?"
"Just one," I replied casually as I turned to face Dimitri who had occupied my favorite armchair and was busy turning the pages of one of his old westerns. "Why did you call me back so soon?"
Dimitri looked up from his novel and met my accusing stare with a mischievous look in his eyes and hint of a smile tugging on his lips. "I don't know why you insist on blaming me for everything. I called you back only because Tasha insisted."
"That I did," said Tasha Ozera, the main flight engineer in the crew. At thirty, she was the eldest among us and the most experienced. With her raven colored hair and crystalline blue eyes, Tasha had been quite a heart-breaker at the J.S.A. The long scar that marred her left cheek only heightened her looks. Now, those crystalline blue eyes of hers were focused on me with an apologetic look in them.
"I had to call you back," she told me. "The methane in the atmosphere would've affected you if you'd stayed there longer."
Being a flight engineer, it was her duty to monitor our spacewalks. Since she'd specialized in logistics, she was responsible for all astronomical calculations.
"Thanks," I told Tasha as she settled on the arm of my-Dimitri's-chair.
Did I mention that she has a huge crush on Dimitri? Because she did. It was so huge that it was nearly suffocating at times. Tasha was a reasonable woman, cool and talented but she loses a lot of cool points every time she fawns over him.
Okay. I maybe exaggerating a little bit. But it was so annoying!
"Oh, look. The crew's all here," Christian, Tasha's nephew, said jovially as he appeared behind Tasha. He was also a flight engineer but with a specialization in mechanical engineering. Tasha's raven hair and blue eyes looked good on her nephew too, though I'd never tell him that. Christian was like a brother to me but we've never had an easy relationship. Figures, since he was also Belikov's best friend from high school.
"What's the plan, captain?" Christian asked me, sprawling down on the floor by Lissa's feet.
"The plan-" I said, slightly uncomfortable with my newly acquired title of a commander. "-is to have a nice dinner before getting some rest."
"Nice?" Christian snorted as the crew followed me into the kitchen. "Hardly."
I had to agree with him. As Tasha distributed the beef jerky packets, I tried to remember the taste of pizzas, burgers, brownies...all my favorite food items. To my dismay, I found that I couldn't remember the exact taste. All that was left were my recollections of savoring them.
One of the very few things I hated about being in space was the food. But we did have it better than our predecessors. We had freeze dried drinks and flavored drinks, packaged food items; even personalized menus.
But, it wasn't quite enough for a foodie like me.
"How's your research coming along?" I asked Lissa once we'd all settled around the round metal table.
"Good," Lissa said, nodding. She'd specialized in general astronomy before deciding that healing was her calling. "Tasha and I need a few days to verify the results."
I nodded and looked at Christian.
"The ship's in top shape," he said, knowing what I wanted to ask. "No maintenance problems. This baby is ready for anything."
I rolled my eyes as Lissa stared at Christian from the corner of her eye. Yeah, Tasha's little crush wasn't without company.
"Dimitri?" I looked across the table to where he was sitting, meticulously unwrapping the packet of beef jerky.
"Yes?" he asked, raising his eyes to mine.
"Will you be testing the air molecules?" I asked, trying not to grit my teeth at the sight of Tasha gazing at him, a lovesick look on her face. All this love, or rather, the lust in the air was making me sick. Lissa and Christian making goo-goo eyes at each other was bad enough. I've been putting up with Tasha's outrageous flirtations with Belikov since forever. It was a nauseating experience. I knew one day I'd snap and yell at her...or him. And she didn't deserve that. Why couldn't they just fuck each other already and get it out of their systems? And why in the bloody world was I getting angry over that thought?
"I would've if you'd collected it," Belikov retorted.
"Collect it tomorrow then-" came the voice of another person who got on my nerves. Adrian. The mission specialist, a good friend and a decent guy. But a flirt. A huge flirt.
His looks were easy on the eyes and his charming smile and emerald eyes lured unsuspecting women into his bed. At twenty-eight, he was one year older than Dimitri and Christian. That made him two years older than Lissa and I. "-let the Little Pilot rest. She needs her beauty sleep to maintain those incredible looks"
I was just about to snap at him to not bother me when I noticed a hint of anger in Dimitri's eyes. His face was impassive but his eyes held anger, maybe even a little resentment. Why?
Maybe it was the fact that we'd been best friends once or maybe it was that we've known each other for ages; whatever the reason, I could read Dimitri's eyes easily.
They were almost like an open book.
Almost.
I could easily understand his emotions but not what caused them.
"Look who woke up from their beauty sleep," Christian mocked.
"I need it," Adrian said as he opened the freezer to remove a packet of frozen biscuits. "You don't know how hard it is to maintain my good looks."
"Oh yes," I said, smiling sarcastically. "How can we forget your strict beauty regime? Moisturizers, foundations, lipsticks..."
Everyone burst out laughing at my comment. Adrian shook his head and sighed in mock sadness but I could see a smile threatening to break out on his face.
"Did I miss a call from earth?" Adrian asked as he chewed on the biscuits noisily.
"Nope." I replied, tossing the wrapper into the garbage disposal system which was actually a recycling system.
"They were supposed to call by now," Lissa said, chewing on her bottom lip in worry. "Taking into account the time difference, they should have contacted us yesterday."
"Relax," I said, placing my hand on hers. "There may have some technical error. They'll contact us soon."
Lissa sighed. "I just want to know what's going on there."
With those words, a heavy gloom seemed to settle over us. Everyone at the table sat silently, our thoughts on our loved ones back on earth. No one said it out loud but all of us had a sneaking suspicion that the situation had only worsened.
I just hope that my friends and family are safe. I knew everyone was hoping the same. We didn't want to entertain the likely possibility that we'd return to earth with no one to greet us.
Our earth has to survive...it must survive.
AN: How was it? I've done some research on how astronauts live in spacecrafts so that I can get my facts right. But this is still a fictitious story so I'll be inventing a lot of elements, machines and stuff like that. I hope you don't mind! :)
I love the idea of Rose and Dimitri always bickering but caring deeply for the other, so that's what I've tried here. Dimitri's personality will essentially be the same as in VA books but with Rose, he's more prone to arguing and teasing.
Thank you for reading! Leave me a review and let me know what you thought about this chapter! :)