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12:55 pm, 10-3-2020

Out of all the spacecraft MIRA has ever constructed, the most famous and well-known is The Skeld. First approved for travel in mid-2018 and already known as "the Crown Jewel of their intergalactic fleet," the 5,000 ton passenger ship has become the new icon of modern space travel, and it makes NASA's Space Shuttle look like the Wright Flyer, both in size and in advancement. Its nuclear-powered shield and weapon systems neutralize anything threat, from hostile ships to asteroid showers, it's equipped with a renewable life support system in the form of a miniature greenhouse paired with an oxygen recycling system, and it can reach a top speed of Mach 3,000 in the vacuum of space, allowing it to cover 93,000,000 miles in just a handful of days.

I never thought I'd see it in real life...Let alone board it on a four-month expedition to planet Polus.

The officials called me into the office just three days ago. Said that after what I accomplished on the rooftop, they'd made the decision to add me to the list of crewmates set to board the Skeld to Polus. Turns out, even though MIRA and CARSA are trying to make a cooperative effort with the research over there, things are still kinda...strained between the two corporations. So they wanted to send me in case people on our side start turning up dead.

By this point, I was expecting them to have let me go get back to my digs on Staten Island, and I made that clear to them...But it's kinda hard to turn down a quarter-million dollar bonus just for doin' what I already do for a livin' up in space, so I figured it was in both of our best interests to accept the mission.

Black was put on the list, too. They said they thought he and I worked together pretty well up on the roof, so it might do some good...I don't see how any good can come out of me and him being stuck on the same spacecraft for two months straight. We might as well have been reenacting the Revolutionary War up there with all the nasty back and forth goin' on between us. What are these people thinking?

I was hoping that if Black were coming with us, Green would be put on the list too, considering that he'd been part of our group, too, and would probably ease up the tension just by bein' around. But those hopes were thrown out the window in a flash; due to his status as a D.I., he was disapproved for the flight to Polus...But they DID call him into the Skeld to give the plants in the mini-greenhouse a quick inspection before liftoff, so he got to do something for the expedition.

"Shame he couldn't come with us after the rooftop incident...Hey, who knows? If all goes well, maybe one day he will be approved to go with us into the depths of outer space."

"Yeah, that'll be the day. Heh...But in the mean time, I gotta be stuck with just you."

"Don't remind me, Black..."

He and I were the last two to board the ship, and even as we passed through the gate, he HAD to act like a smart ass...It's a good thing there's a whole rest of the crew for us to be able to mingle with, or else I'll be driven to madness up there.

Just as we were going in, our buddy Green was coming out, his bag o' gardening tools in hand and gloves caked in soil. Black was the first of us to greet him.

"'Ow do, Green? Everything set for departure in O2?"

He nodded his head in confirmation.

"And there's plenty o' water packed in storage for us and the plants?"

A thumbs up.

"Ficus tree fertilized?"

Another thumbs up.

"Moss tended to?"

"Ah, don't overheat your helmet, Black. He knows what he's doin', right Green?"

"M-hm. Yes."

"That's all I need to hear."

"S-so...you go?"

"Yep. We're headin' out..."

Our radio systems beeped, and a member of mission control spoke through the intercom.

"Ground control to crew: T-2 minutes to launch."

"Ah, crap...That's our call, Green. We should be back before spring."

"You...Y-you do come back...right?"

Black and I exchanged glances, then turned back to him...Black caught onto what was buggin' him pretty quickly.

"Oh...You're worried about Impostors gettin' to us somehow, are you?"

"...Maybe."

I stepped up to face him and rested a hand on his shoulder.

"Green...One of the reasons they assigned me and Black to the expedition was because they saw what we did with the alien on the rooftop. They know people like us are gonna be able to prevent things like that from happening...I promise, Green. We're gonna do everything in our power to make sure we all come back alright. And not a day is gonna pass when we don't think of you, and that promise we made."

"You did us good, mate. Keep it up for the team back here on Earth in our absence, a'right?"

He responded with a slow nod, the silence hanging heavy over all three of us...Finally, after what felt like a whole other minute had gone by, Green put his tool bag down beside him, rose his head to face us one more time, and invited us both into his open, yet trembling arms.

...Neither of us kept him waiting. We weren't about to deny him one last warm embrace before he had to spend the winter on Earth without us...And to be honest, I think Black and I needed it ourselves.

"Will do, Black..."

"...Take care o' yourself, big guy."

A loud sniff came in through our radios, and Green tightened his hold on us just a bit more.

"...Will do, Brown..."

He was built like an ox, yet he spoke with the tone of a mouse...It was funny. We'd all only known each other for four days at this point, but it felt like I was having to leave someone I'd known and cared about for YEARS. He felt like family to me...

Well...Come to think of it, when most of your ACTUAL family consists of crackheads, nutjobs and assholes, a few of which I've even had to bust myself once or twice within just a couple years of joining the force, I can imagine that one would consider looking for people who could fill in the space in your life that you had to clear out. And call me clingy, but I think Green qualifies as one of those people at this point...You know, I should really start callin' him by his real name here if that's the way it's gonna be.

"Okay...Time to go now."

He didn't want to let go just yet. None of us did...But we had to. Time was running out. So Green slowly released his grip and motioned for us to board the ship. I followed up with a wave, and Black with a salute, before we stepped into the cockpit, and the doors shut behind us just a moment later.

...This was really it.

The Skeld had a pretty interesting method of takeoff; you board it like an airplane, get strapped into the seats like a roller coaster, and then the rising platform the ship and its booster engines are situated on gets tilted up until the nose is pointing straight up, and it's from that position that you get hurled into space by the booster, which ends up falling away from the rocket and parachuting into the ocean.

...Damn. The more I think about what's about to go down, the crazier it seems that I'm actually living it.

Black and I situated ourselves into the last two empty seats, and right as we sat down, the harness above lowered overtop of us and locked us in, followed up by an extra stabilizer harness going around both us and the seat, which was backed up again by the panels on our arms opening up and starting a scan for anomalies in the system...Nothing abnormal turned up, so it looked like we were clear.

"Ground control to crew. Undergoing final maintenance check. All passengers secured?"

"Black to ground control. All passengers secured. Ready for liftoff."

"10-4. Ground control to crew. Commencing countdown, engines on. T-10 seconds to launch."

Looks like the final countdown.

"10...9...8..."

Two months from now, we'll be stepping foot on Polus.

"7...6...5..."

We won't be back to Earth until mid to late winter.

"4...3...2..."

And that's assuming everything goes according to plan.

"1...Liftoff."

...May God's love be with us.