Camilla's Cosmic Adventures

"It's just a little bit longer, Camila," the voice said. "We're going to make it."

I opened my eyes and looked around the cramped shuttle cabin. I had survived the launch into space. The ride through the atmosphere was rough and I had blacked out from the G-forces, but we were now safely in orbit. I could barely move, I felt like every bone in my body had been crushed. The others were in similar shape, all of us moaning and groaning as we slowly regained consciousness.

"Good morning, everybody," I croaked. "How are you feeling?"

"Like somebody spent a day kicking me in the head," one of them moaned back at me.

"At least we made it here okay," another one said, slapping his hands together and rubbing them together for warmth. "Can you believe this is our first time in space? I can't believe that after all these years we finally have a colony up here, and they sent us five newbies to manage it!"

"Well, I wish they would have let some of those more experienced types come along," a woman said from behind me. "This job is going to be tough enough without having to do all the work."

"Did anybody get any sleep?" I asked hopefully. We had been awake for two days straight on Earth before being launched into space; given our lack of training, I was concerned that none of us had been able to sleep while waiting for our shuttle's departure.

"I got an hour or so last night, I need more than that though," another guy said sadly. "I've got some pills if anybody wants them." That was the first thing he'd said since we'd woken up! It was good to know that at least one of us didn't mind breaking protocol on Earth by bringing medicine with him.

"Well, let me see what I've got," the second woman said quietly as she rummaged through her satchel and tossed a couple packages of pills across the room to him. He quickly took them and downed them with some water from an emergency ration pack sitting near him on the floor.

My heart sank when I realized that my own supply of caffeine tablets was back on Earth somewhere - there wasn't much chance that any of us would be seeing Earth again for quite some time...if ever! When this job was done and we were safely established on Tyche Station, then maybe I could make another trip back home...if there was anything left worth returning to at home! The world wasn't exactly thriving anymore; global warming had taken its toll on humanity and many ecosystems were destroyed as a result...and that's not even getting into all of the wars between countries over dwindling resources! At least here in space we wouldn't have to deal with that...not anymore anyway! Still, it was hard not to think about what was missing from my life back home as I tried to keep myself busy checking over each system in our shuttle for damage caused during our atmospheric entry earlier that morning.