A/N: Yeah things move slowly in my cray-cray life, but this will be finished, I know where I want it to end, and have three or four chapters after this one.
DISCLAIMER: I know nothing about space travel, aside from what I've seen on documentaries about Andreas Mogensen in the past 6 months. Now he is back on earth, and yeah this still needs to be finished. It was inspired by his journey to space, but with added CaptainSwan elements and way more angst than the Danish astronaut experienced on his trip. Everything about the Lunar Orbit is 100% a figment of my imagination.
And I know nothing about the stuff which happens at the end of this chapter (don't want to spoil it for you all.)
Huge thanks to my beta for helping me with this.
Hope you enjoy it.
Chapter 4LUNAR ORBIT SPACESTATION
"One more week, then I'll be back," Killian said and touched the screen, right over Emma's cheek. They were 238,900 miles apart, and he'd been on the Lunar Spacestation for four months now. It hurt him to his core not being able to touch her.
"I know." Emma looked down and fiddled with the strings on the hoodie she wore. She looked tired.
"How is the new crew coming along?" He tried to sound curious, but he only wished for her to focus on something else for a moment.
Emma smiled, "They are so ready for the launch in two days."
"Looking forward to welcoming them onboard."
"Yeah, they are excited, too." Emma shifted in her seat and leaned forward. "Come home safely, yeah?"
"I will do my best." Killian pursed his lips. He knew the trip back was only 7 days away if all went well with the launch from Earth. "We have accomplished so much up here. We're starting to wrap up the experiments and their data to bring back to Earth."
"Can't wait." Emma's eyes lit up, and the curious engineer in her seemed to come alive with this information. Some of the experiments were linked to the work she and her team were doing, trying to improve the safety of space travel. It was groundbreaking and Killian was proud to have helped gain all this new knowledge.
Someone floated into the compartment where Killian was doing the video call. He turned his head and waved, "Commander."
"Time is almost up, the connection to Earth will be lost in five minutes," Eric said with a knowing grimace. No one in the crew liked the limitation on their weekly Facetime calls with family and loved ones.
"Aye, we'll say our goodbyes." Killian turned his focus back to the screen.
"I know we need to say goodbye." Emma gave him a weak smile, her fingers still fidgeting with the strings on her hoodie. When had he ever seen her in a hoodie before? Before he could contemplate more on this, she leaned closer, and with tearful eyes said, "I love you."
"I love you too. Only one more week, love, then I'm back home." He touched the screen again and Emma did the same. "Stay safe."
Emma hiccuped, "You, too."
"Aye." He blew her a finger kiss and she returned the gesture with more tears welling in her eyes.
"We'll see you soon." Emma wiped away the tears. "Liam invited me out for dinner tomorrow, I think he's trying to pull away my focus on the worries for the launch."
"It will all work out fine," Killian said. "Give my hello to Liam. I'm not sure I'll have another scheduled Facetime with him before we return."
"I will." Emma gave him a sly smile, "Perhaps say a hello from him to Elsa."
Killian chuckled, "I will." It was still a bit under the radar, but on the night before his launch into space, his brother had confided in him that he and Elsa had slowly started dating a few weeks after the Halloween party.
The monitor started to blink with a time warning. "See you soon Killian."
"Aye." He blew her another kiss before cutting the connection. Pushing back from the monitor mounted on the wall, he combed his fingers through his hair. It was only one week he reminded himself, but why did it feel like forever?
Al came floating into the room and the two pushed their way down to the next section of the space station. They had a project they'd been working on together that needed to be finished. It took his mind off how much he missed Emma.
ONE WEEK LATER
The last 48 hours had been a whirlwind of greeting the new crew, and then trying to squeeze four extra sleeping spaces into the already-filled space station. Jitters had started to mount in everyone, but Eric had been an outstanding Commanding Officer and took control of the situation. The new Commanding Officer was an old familiar face. This was Nemo's fourth time into space - two on the International Spacestation, one in his early days, then one alongside Emma's father on his second trip to space. When the Lunar Orbit missions had started, Nemo had been one of the frontier astronauts setting up the foundation of the space station he was to be commander of now.
Killian secured the last of his belongings in the specially designed bag. One of the last things he slipped inside was his picture of Emma and himself, taken only a few days before his departure.
"Ready to leave the moon behind?" Al flew in and looked around the section, "Gonna be strange not being weightless anymore." He did a full summersault for show and grinned.
"Aye, but damn I can't wait to get back home." Killian pushed his bag in front of him towards the loading area. Here they would load up the various crates and packages they would bring back to Earth into the spacecraft.
"I bet there's a certain someone quite eager to see you back on Earth." Al clapped Killian's shoulder and grinned when Elsa flew in with her bag. Al continued, "Bet your brother is eager for our crew mate to come home too."
Killian shared a knowing smile with Elsa, living so close with three others, it was unavoidable for some more personal talks to happen. Halfway through the mission, Elsa confided in them that she and Liam Jones had begun dating, much to the enjoyment of the two other crew members, both also having a woman waiting for them.
Everyone made sure the loads returning to Earth were ready and they proceeded to get everything into the spacecraft's storage compartments.
Two hours later they had the last pictures taken and the new crew filmed their departure and sent them off with well wishes of safe travels back to earth. Killian settled into his seat and strapped in while checking the monitors and listening in on the conversation Eric had with Houston going through the procedure of sending the spacecraft back to Earth. Everything went smoothly and an hour after leaving the Lunar Orbit space station, Eric deemed it okay for them to move around in the cockpit. It wasn't large but still had more room to move around than the old space crafts being sent to the ISS. Here the design did leave room for them to move around on their three-day journey back to Earth.
ONE DAY LATER — 48 HOURS TO TOUCH DOWN
It was a monotonous process going back and forth between the moon and Earth, but Killian and the rest of the crew settled into a routine of being on watch at the control panel, sleeping, playing cards, or whatever activity was possible while hurtling through space.
Killian had just lost another round of makeshift poker with their magnetic playing cards and he gave Al a friendly glower. "Good thing we're not playing for money."
"Sore loser?" Al grinned and flipped the card between his fingers. It slipped out of his grasp and floated between them.
"Attention!" Eric called out with a slight panic. Both Al and Killian forgot the wayward card and turned their focus on their commanding officer.
"What's wrong?" Killian noticed a red light flashing on the control panel.
"Something is slipping loose in the storage compartment and we need to secure it before we enter Earth's atmosphere," Eric called out. "Killian and Al go sort it out."
"Aye aye, Captain," both men said in unison.
"What's going on?" Elsa had woken from her slumber in her seat.
"The guys will sort it out," Eric said. "There's not enough room for you all to work in there."
Elsa slumped back in her seat and Killian vaguely heard her ask Eric if he had reported back to Earth. Seconds later the radio crackled to life.
It took Killian and Al half an hour to sort out what had happened inside the storage space. At the very back of the compartment, a crate had slipped loose and was pushing against parcels. Killian knew that quite a few of those held some vital research results.
Without giving it much thought he pushed at the wayward crate and grunted when it didn't budge.
"Bloody hell, this is stuck," Killian grunted and pushed harder. He managed to get leverage by pushing against the wall behind him with his feet.
Being weightless, everything moved in slow motion and when his feet slipped and he was hurtled forward his arm got pushed between the loose crate and the wall. The momentum of his fall was enough to make the crate slam hard into his hand. Even with his thick working gloves he immediately knew something was terribly wrong. Pain shot up his arm and he yelped in pain.
"Bloody hell," he moaned and glanced over his shoulder, Al was pushing his way towards him as fast as he could, "My arm is stuck." Killian gritted his teeth and attempted to pull free.
"Easy there, buddy." Al pushed past him and pulled at the crate. It gave away only an inch, but it was enough so Killian could pull out his hand. The previously white work glove was stained red with blood. Again the weightlessness worked against them. Keeping a bleeding hand above heart level wasn't going to help much when his whole body was floating around. He tugged his injured arm to his chest and grimaced.
With the help of Al, they got out of the storage room and Al called out, "Get the first aid kit!"
Everything else after that was a blur and Killian barely registered how his crew mates worked to secure his hand in an inflatable glove, one that could help keep the bones immobile until they reached Earth. There was nothing they could do with whatever wounds were inside the glove. Removing his work glove and letting out the blood into the cockpit was not an option. Even the tiniest drop slipping in the wrong place would be fatal.
"I've got some pain meds here," Elsa said and Killian tilted his head to the side so she could administer the drug to him. His neck was the only place where she could get to his skin, as they all wore their spacesuits.
"Bloody hell."
"I'm sorry that is all we can do for now." Elsa gazed at him with worry written deep inside her crystal blue eyes.
"Emma…" Killian moaned, "Need to call Emma…" The pain meds were starting to take effect and Killian knew that he would be halfway knocked out as they moved closer to home.
"Eric already called Houston, they know and they will make sure there are extra paramedics on our pick-up ship once we land."
Killian nodded mutely and closed his eyes, trying to ignore the searing pain burning from his hand. The inflatable glove went up to his elbow and he knew from their medic training that it was all they could do for now. But his mind slumped into a horror show of blood spewing from his hand and a crying Emma. Gods, he missed Emma so much, he needed to be with her, now more than ever.
