Marcie felt herself suddenly jolt backwards into her seat as the rocket accelerated against the pull of earth's gravity. The G-forces pressed the seatbelts against her uncomfortably, at a force of 3G. Marcie was used to this of course, Modern race cars can produce up to 5G when under braking, and Marcie stayed calm as the rocket continued to climb.
"Stand by for stage 1 separation." Came the voice from Mission Control.
"Standing by." Marcie replied. She then heard a short countdown coming from mission control, before feeling the rocket get noticeably lighter.
"Stage 1 separation complete."
"Anything you need me to do?" Marcie asked.
"We will inform you when we do." Mission Control replied, as Marcie continued to sit tight. The rocket continued in an upward trajectory, and Marcie listened along to the messages from control as they made a series of micro adjustments to point the rocket towards the space station and to reduce turbulence.
After a few minutes, Marcie was on the edge of space, and mission control were almost beginning the next phase,
"Stand by for stage 2 separation."
"Standing by." Marcie replied calmly. A small clunk sound signalled the deposition of the main rocket.
"Stage two separation complete."
Now that the rocket was free of its excess weight, all Marcie had to do was follow the instructions laid out by mission control as the ship flew towards the orbit path of the ISS, only getting difficult when the ship had to dock with the space station itself.
Marcie breathed a sigh of relief after the docking procedure was completed and relaxed as the airlock began to re-pressurise. With a click, she unbuckled herself from her seatbelts and floated in the air.
Zero Gravity was a very new experience for her. being able to move any of her limbs in any direction felt extremely liberating, and also slightly terrifying, in the sense that only the objects and furniture currently at her disposal allowed her to travel in the direction she wanted. She took a few moments to get her bearings, before rolling around and pushing herself towards the door. Pulling the door open, she forced herself through, pushing herself into the space station.
"Ah, you're here!" a blonde haired woman exclaimed. "We've been expecting you. You can take off your spacesuit now." She added. She wore blue overalls much like the ones Marcie was wearing underneath her spacesuit. Marcie unscrewed her helmet and removed herself from her space suit, as she floated up towards the ceiling.
"Where should I put this?" Marcie asked.
"I can put it away for you if you want. It appears you still need some time to adjust to the weightlessness."
"What's your name?"
"Oh, my name is Dr Irene Carson. You'll find my co-workers through the door over there. I'm the senior technician here. You are aware of your reason for being here I hope?"
"I haven't been told, but I can make a good guess."
"Have you not? Well, I'll explain. The main reason you're here is so we can study the effects of space travel on someone of your size and age. This research will be important if the human race ever wants to be a properly spacefaring species."
"So it's part of a test on the viability of mass space travel? And further, to preserve the future of humanity in the event that global warming destroys the planet?" Marcie asked.
"We needn't be grim about it, but effectively, yes." Carson replied. "Why don't you go in and meet the team?"
"Sure." Marcie replied. Letting Carson take the space suit, she floated up towards the ceiling, before pushing herself down with her legs and using the walls to propel herself through the door, before finding herself in a corridor. This was the main body of the ISS, now the only thing left was to find the part of the station where the scientists worked. The answer came quickly, as an African-American scientist with dark, frizzy hair, popped out from behind a door.
"We're here." she called out, beckoning Marcie towards her. Marcie inched forward, still getting used to moving in zero gravity, before catching the arms of the scientist, who let her stop gently. Marcie was now greeted with the full cohort of scientists, all of differing backgrounds.
"Allow us to introduce ourselves. I'm Dr Tasha Williams, over there is Dr Tyler McKinnon, and next to him is Dr Louisa Cardillo.
"Hi there." They both waved, as Marcie waved back. "Over the next 4 days we will be conducting a series of experiments to ascertain your adaptation to space, after which we will all go down back to earth in the spacecraft we arrived in." Dr Williams continued.
"So, uh, what do I do here?" Marcie asked after a brief pause.
"Well first we'll ask you a few questions, and then we'll all be briefed by mission control for a while and then you can explore the station for a bit." Answered Dr Williams.
"Okay." Marcie replied, still a little confused.
"Come with me." Dr Williams beckoned her, as they floated down the corridor. Heading into the room at the end, Marcie was greeted with a view she could only have dreamt of.
"Hey that's… Earth." Marcie froze, speechless. "It feels a lot bigger when viewed from out here."
"And yet smaller at the same time." Dr Williams added, pointing at the vast emptiness of space. "I take you're getting used to the weightlessness now?"
"Yeah, I think. I don't feel anything abnormal. I can feel my heartbeat, but that might be because of the view."
"I think that's a fair analysis." Dr Williams replied. "Why don't we go back and tell mission control how we are doing?"
"Okay." Marcie replied. She and Dr Williams floated back through the corridor, Marcie doing so much more confidently. The two of them and the other scientists assembled in the main room and waited for mission control to open comms.
On the monitor, a brief flash of static appeared, before it began to receive picture, showing the controllers down on earth.
"Good evening." The man at mission control spoke. "
"Good evening, Mission Control." The scientists replied. "Everything is okay down there, I hope."
"Everything is fine down here. Marcie is doing okay up there, we presume."
"Everyone up here is doing fine." Dr Carson answered. "We are, however, concerned about the lack of information Marcie was given before her mission."
"We too are concerned by that development. As you know, our Project Leader, Mr Daryl Matheson was supposed to handle the candidate selection process, as well as clearing legal pathways for that to be achievable. Unfortunately, based on testimony from some of Marcie's close friends, we now believe that Matheson was unable to perform his job legally and thus turned to deceitful and illegal methods to fulfil the mission, despite his assurances otherwise.
As such the priority is now the safe return of Marcie to earth. We will be performing the return trip as soon as it is safe to do so, which is at 18:00 tomorrow. If you have any questions, you may ask them now."
"What should we do in the meantime?" Dr Williams asked.
"Whatever you can to fulfil the mission, while keeping Marcie safe."
"Understood."
"May I speak?" Morag piped up, sitting next to the controlman.
"Certainly." The controlman ceded his microphone.
"Hi Marcie. How are you doing?" Morag asked. "What's it like up in space?"
"It's definitely worth it. If I had a long enough telescope, I could probably see you from here."
"I see." Morag chuckled. "Well done on getting there alive, by the way. Your parents are worried about you, Marcie. As much as you would like to stay up there, they need you here, at home."
"I know." Marcie replied. "I hope you're proud of me, Mom." Marcie said with a wistful smile. "Are they here?"
"No." Morag looked around her. "Not yet," Morag took off her headphones and whispered into the controlman's ear. "Can you go and get them?" some more whispers spread around the room, until an intern walked out and left. After a minute or so, Marcie's parents were brought in.
"Marcie!" Mr and Mrs Johnson called out.
"Hi Mom. Hi Dad. I'm okay, don't worry about me, I'll be back soon." Marcie told them.
"We'll be praying for you." Her dad promised, as they stepped away from the monitor.
"Any further questions?" the controlman asked.
"No questions here." Marcie and the others replied.
"Good. We will contact you again at 15:00 tomorrow. Mission Control out." And the screen went blank.
"So, what now?" Marcie asked.
"Well, you're free to roam around the space station for a while, but we would like to conduct a sleep study at 20:00."
"That doesn't sound too hard. What does that consist of?" Marcie asked.
"Well, you go to sleep, and when you wake up tomorrow morning, we'll ask you how well you slept, whether you had to go to the bathroom during the night, whether you had nightmares, and so on." Dr Williams replied.
"There's a bathroom on this ship?" Marcie asked.
"Yeah, it's down that way, second door on your left. Instructions for it are on the wall." Dr Williams explained.
"I'll keep that in mind." Marcie replied, heading off back to the observation room to watch the earth from above. After about an hour, she left, and headed to the sleeping quarters, where Dr Williams and co had set up their beds upright and secured to the wall, so they wouldn't float around. With a little assistance from Dr Williams, Marcie tucked herself into bed and went to sleep.
The next morning, Marcie awoke early, or so she thought. Truly, it was very difficult to tell what time it was, what with the vast blackness of space outside. Most of the other crew members were still asleep, so Marcie decided to try and go back to sleep. A couple of hours later, she woke up again, and this time, it was definitely morning, the other scientists were awake, eating breakfast. Marcie got up and joined the other scientists, and ate breakfast with them.
"So, did you have a good night's sleep?" Dr Williams asked.
"I think so?" Marcie replied. "I woke up once in the middle of the night and then again to go to the bathroom, but after that it was alright. I didn't dream much though."
"Good to know." Dr Williams replied. "You wanna try this?" she asked, handing her a small scone.
"You can have these in space?" Marcie asked her. "Won't the crumbs go everywhere?"
"Not if you eat it all at once." Dr Williams replied. Marcie smirked, before wolfing down the scone as instructed. After breakfast, Marcie hung out with the other scientists, taking a look at some of their studies, before having beef jerky for lunch. Dr Williams continued to study Marcie's actions and behaviours, noting down anything that seemed relevant. With an hour to go before Mission control called again, they all elected to play a game of catch with an inflatable beach ball, to let off steam, before Mission Control called at 17:00.
"This is Mission Control, come in Dr Williams."
"Mission Control, this is Dr Williams, reading you loud and clear."
"The return mission to Earth will launch in T-Minus 1 hour, please ensure you are ready for departure. We will be in contact at all times during the mission, so please ensure comms are also operational on the return ship." The controlman replied.
"Copy." Dr Williams replied, before all of the crew members, including Marcie clambered into the ship the scientists had taken on their journey to the space station.
So, where did you put the spacesuits?" Marcie asked, remembering the procedure she followed on her way up.
"In here." Dr McKinnon replied, holding his spacesuit, pointing at a cupboard nearby. After the scientists put their spacesuits on, Marcie did the same herself, and took a backseat as Dr Cardillo strapped herself in the driver's seat. After everyone was strapped in, and all pre-flight checks were made, the astronauts put on their helmets and sat ready to depart.
"Mission Control, this is Dr Cardillo, we are go for launch."
"Launch is set for T-Minus 5 minutes." Mission Control replied. after a short wait, Marcie began to hear a countdown.
"5, 4, 3, 2, 1…" Marcie listened as Dr Cardillo unhooked the ship from the docking port and began to accelerate away.
"Mission Control, this is Dr Cardillo, we are undocked and heading home."