Friday 28th December
Having spent Christmas at home with her family, Marcie and her family made the trip to Cape Canaveral, taking a flight the previous evening so they would arrive at 8am sharp, as the invite instructed. As they got off a shuttle bus at the main gate, a trio of tour guides were waiting for them at the entrance.
"Good Morning." Marcie began.
"Welcome to Cape Canaveral." One of the tour guides responded. It was an overcast morning that day, although, the weatherman said it would clear up by 10 am.
"I take it you must be her parents?"
"Yes. We are. We're very proud of what she's achieved." Mrs Johnson beamed, putting a hand on Marcie's shoulder, as she looked up at her uncomfortably.
"Good, let us show you around." The tour guide replied, as the three walked through the main entrance.
"Our first stop on the tour is here, at the Visitor Complex. In here you will find displays of the Space Shuttle Atlantis, as well as the Saturn V rocket and the Apollo 14 command module, among other things, for this section of your tour, we will allow you to take your time to explore the sights by yourselves, just be back by 9." The tour guide replied.
Marcie's parents wasted no time in enjoying the sights, taking as many pictures with their daughter as they could for some rare family memories. Marcie still wasn't feeling completely happy with the situation, but tried to enjoy it all the same. By the time they were done, it was almost 9, so they headed back to the start, where the tour guides were waiting.
"Welcome back. You're in good time." One of them spoke as Marcie and her parents approached.
"Where are we going next?" Marcie asked.
"Well, for the next part of the tour, we will be going into the facility proper. As this area is normally off limits for civilians, only Marcie will be allowed to enter in with us." Another tour guide replied.
"Are you sure it's alright for you to do that? I'm not sure I trust you three with her. What if you, uh, what if my daughter comes to harm?" Mrs Johnson protested.
"Military personnel are strictly supervising everything, I highly doubt there are any blind spots where I could get hurt, and I don't think anyone's going to try and storm the place either." Marcie rebuked.
"Everyone in this base is professionally trained and have perfect disciplinary records, thank you very much." The tour guides replied, visibly annoyed. "Shall we get going?"
"Yes, Please." Marcie answered, keen to get on with it. Marcie waved at her parents as she was led through the checkpoint by the tour guides, while the guards that were posted saluted them in response.
Meanwhile, outside the main entrance, Morag, Roy, Charlie Brown and Linus were running hectically towards the main gate.
"What's got you in such a hurry?" Asked a ticket lady as they ran past her.
"Was Marcie here?" Morag asked, as she tried to catch her breath.
"She was here an hour ago. You must be her friends."
"We are. Can you let us in?" Roy asked.
"Not unless you pay for a ticket like everyone else." The ticket lady replied.
"Well of course." Morag responded, as she and the others handed the ticket lady some money. "Do you know where she might be?"
"If she's not in the Visitor complex, she'll probably be in the facility proper by now." The ticket lady replied.
"Thanks." Morag replied, with a hint of irony. The gang four spent the next few minutes searching up and down for Marcie, and not finding her anywhere. Morag came to the conclusion she was already in the facility proper, so they decided to head up to a viewing gantry as close the rocket as they could get, where they could see a rocket in the distance standing amongst the wide open space of the base.
"Do you see her?" Morag asked.
"Not yet." Linus replied, peering through a pair of binoculars.
It made sense he couldn't see her, because currently, Marcie was inside a hangar containing some spaceship parts, having already seen the vehicle assembly building and the mission control room, where a number of people were busily working. Shortly afterwards, she was led by the tour guides to the launch pad.
"Finally, we're here. For the last part of the tour, we've taken you to the Launchpad, to see the inside of a real rocket!" the tour guide said with forced enthusiasm.
"That sounds interesting." Marcie replied, curious.
"Then let's go." The tour guides motioned with the hands as Marcie followed them to the rocket.
At the vantage point, Linus was finally able to get a visual on his binoculars, as Marcie crossed the platform to reach the hatch.
"She's at the rocket." Linus confirmed.
"Oh boy, here we go." Morag replied in the most cynical and deadpan way possible.
Marcie clambered through the hatch and looked inside, taking a moment to appreciate the controls and the interior, as the hatch shut itself behind her. The interior was sparse; Apart from the seat and the control panel, the walls were white and bare, although she did notice a closet embedded into one of the walls. Turning to the hatch, she attempted to pry it open in order to leave, but to no avail.
Marcie looked through the hatch window and saw that the three tour guides had disappeared and was about to contemplate where they had gone when a computerised voice was heard over the speakers outside.
"The crewed flight of Victory 1 launches in T-Minus 30 minutes. Repeat. The crewed flight of Victory 1 launches in T-Minus 30 minutes." Marcie felt a wave of panic rush over her. She had read about the rumours of the eventual winner going to space, and what the Organisers were up to, but she did not think for a second that it could possibly be true, and she felt wholly unprepared for such a task. Panic bubbled in her chest, as the weight of what she was experiencing hit her like a ton of bricks.
Quickly, Marcie realised she was panicking and decided to sit down. She took a few deep breaths, like she used to when she sat on the grid and tried to block out the noise. Faintly, as she emptied her mind, she could hear a quiet, repetitive crackle coming from the direction of the closet. Getting up out of her chair, she approached the closet in complete silence, listening out for the sound.
As she got closer, she realised that the sound was calling her name. She opened the door of the closet and found a spacesuit, complete with helmet, a set of blue overalls, and a snoopy cap (the cap with the headphones). Marcie immediately reached for the snoopy cap, and put it on, adjusting the microphone closer to her face.
"Marcie, do you copy?" A familiar voice was heard on the other end.
"I copy. Is that you, Morag? Over." Marcie replied.
"Yes it's me. Thank god. Linus and Charlie Brown and Row are listening in. I tapped into the radio frequency to communicate with you if that's alright. Over." Morag responded.
"Perfectly fine by me. Where are you? Over." Marcie replied.
"We're on a viewing gantry on the beach a mile or two away. This is about as close as we can legally get. Over." Morag added.
"Does that mean you can't get me out of this? Over." Marcie asked.
"Unfortunately not. If I tried to do that I think I'd become Swiss cheese. Mission control might be more understanding of your situation though, I feel, but then again they might not. You'll have to come to a decision on whether to ask them yourself. Over." Morag replied.
Marcie thought for a while. On the one hand, she was locked in a rocket bound for space with no real knowledge or training of how to operate it, and her parents were waiting for her to be back. On the other, she could go to Outer Space, and accomplish something no child has ever done, which would almost certainly put her mother's expectations to bed. Getting a B without a berating would be nice, she reasoned.
"I'm gonna do it. I'm going to space. Over." Marcie told Morag over the radio. Marcie got out of her seat and headed to the spacesuit hanging on the wall. It was bulky and heavy to carry, but nevertheless, after putting on the overalls, she put on the space suit and went back to her seat.
"Marcie, are you still there? Over." Morag asked.
"Yep. I am now wearing the spacesuit. Over." Marcie replied.
"Copy that." Morag confirmed. At that point, the pair of them were interrupted by the arrival of a third voice.
"Victory 1, this is Mission Control, come in, Victory 1."
"This is Victory 1." Marcie replied.
"Victory 1, what is your status?" Mission Control asked.
"Mission Control, My spacesuit is on, my seatbelts are unbuckled, and my helmet is off. I also have no knowledge of my mission or any understanding of the controls of this spacecraft. Other than that I am ready to fly." Marcie replied.
"Can you repeat, were you informed of your mission before boarding the spacecraft?" Mission Control asked.
"Negative. I was not informed." Marcie answered.
"Copy. Your mission as follows. You will travel to the ISS whereupon the team members stationed there will assist you. As part of the mission, you will be asked to take part in scientific experiments measuring your adaptiveness to a weightless environment. After 4 days, you will head back to earth with members of the crew." Mission Control explained. "As for flying the rocket. We would not expect someone of your age to command a rocket, especially without training. For the launch procedure, we will be controlling the rocket remotely from here. If any controls require your specific input, we will give you clear instructions on what to do."
"Understood." Marcie replied, her voice slightly static.
"We're picking up some interference on our end. Please bear with us while we ascertain the cause of this issue." Mission Control said suddenly. Marcie pulled a face as if she knew what had happened, and soon enough, the culprit eventually revealed herself.
"Are you possibly referring to me?" Morag asked.
"Probably. Who are you and who gave you permission to communicate on official channels?"
"She's a friend of mine." Marcie vouched for her. "And for what it's worth she seemed to know more about this mission's existence than I did. She radioed me after I uh, went in the rocket and to be honest, I'd be much more comfortable if I could talk to her."
"Understood. We will try to find a way to accommodate your request at some point. In the meantime, to the person in question, we will overlook your transgression, but we do ask that that you switch your radio off while the rocket is in motion, to prevent interference." Mission Control asked.
"Copy that. Morag out."
"The crewed flight of Victory 1 will launch in T-minus 15 minutes." The message rang out over the tannoy. Marcie sat in silence and readied herself for her task, taking the time to buckle herself into her seatbelt. Charlie Brown and co were still listening in from the receiver.
"Do you think she'll be ok?" Charlie Brown asked.
"Yeah, I think she'll be fine, provided the rocket goes up in one piece of course." Morag replied, doing little to allay his worries.
"We'll be able to see the rocket launch from here, so we'll know." Linus added.
"I see." Charlie Brown replied, turning his eyes to the rocket.
"The crewed flight of Victory 1 will launch in T-Minus 5 minutes, will all personnel please clear the launch area." The tannoy rang out.
Marcie sat in her seat, anticipation building as the time ticked down. It felt an awful lot like the times before the races when all the cars were lined up on the grid, although this time it felt significantly less comfortable. With nothing else left to do, Marcie put on her helmet.
"Victory 1, this is Mission Control, performing final systems checks. Are you all set?"
"Helmet and seatbelts are on, Mission Control. I detect no issues on the console, do you have telemetry?" Marcie replied.
"We have telemetry. All systems are fully operational. Initiate countdown.
"30 seconds to launch." "25 seconds to launch." "20 seconds to launch." "12, 11, 10, 9 8, begin ignition sequence, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
"We Have Liftoff."