To everyone who has read this far, hopefully that means you like the story. You did a great job giving me feedback on my last chapter, which really motivated me to get this to you guys as quickly as possible.

I want to thank everyone who gave me suggestions, thank you. I don't pre-determine what happens in my stories so if your idea flows well and makes sense I might just use it.

Chapter 4: Takeoff

Eleanor's POV

There was no alarm the next morning. We each rolled out of bed, one at a time, peacefully, at least two hours past our normal time.

And seeing as though we were in no hurry to be anywhere, I decided to whip us up some breakfast. I began gathering what was left of our supply of dehydrated foods and began trying to plan something that would work. Theo offered to help right away, of course.

"What do you think?" I asked him. "If we rehydrate the peppers, onions, and ham we could use the powdered eggs to make an omelet?"

He thought about it for a second. "But we won't have cheese," he said. "We should use those ingredients but we could just make like a breakfast stir fry with them. Ya feel?"

I giggled. "Genius," I said, winking at him.

We got to work right away. He began the process of rehydration, I started the eggs. He chopped the ham, I chopped the veggies. We took turns sauteing and stirring. The end product was a rough hodgepodge of a stir fry by our standards, but the whole gang seemed to love it and that's what really matters.

We all paraded down towards the meeting room, where NASA's head of public affairs, Julian Mitchell, was standing waiting for us outside the door. "I trust you enjoyed your breakfast," he said, checking his watch. "I figured you would appreciate being allowed to sleep in."

"Thank you, sir," Jeanette said.

"What's on the agenda for today?" Simon asked.

"Today you will be officially introduced to the actual equipment you'll be using on your mission," Julian told us. "After that, you'll probably spend a while prepping for the live interview you're scheduled for in a week."

"Did you say, 'live interview'?" Alvin said, smirking.

"Yes, Alvin. And you will be prepped on what to say. To the word. Which means no improvising. You're gonna be taught how to walk the line."

"Please. If you've ever seen me speak live, you'd know you have nothing to worry about," Alvin insisted.

"Actually I have my job to worry about. NASA's got nothing if it doesn't have credibility. Now are you done being an ass?"

Alvin shut up.

"Good," Julian sighed. "Follow me to the testing lab."

Alvin's POV

Who did this Julian guy think he was? I've been through hell the last six weeks, and I was just trying to lighten the mood. I'd have liked to see this fool go through half of what I went through. He's in charge of protecting NASA's image? No wonder they came crawling to us for help.

He led us all the way down another flight of stairs to what I guess was like the basement of the building. At the bottom of the staircase was a thick metal door, which Julian opened with a six digit code.

On the other side was a giant room, where sparks were flying everywhere as the finishing touches were being put on the machinery that we would use on Mars. There was also that bald guy, Tom, waiting for us. He was chatting with a big, grunty man with thick facial hair and a hard hat on, so we walked over to meet him.

As soon as the guy in the hard hat walked off, he noticed us and said, "Oh! You're finally here!"

"These are some pretty sweet-looking toys," I snickered.

"Yes, well I am sure you're anxious for a tour," Tom said as enthusiastically as possible. "Let's begin."

It was easy to get hypnotized looking around at the machinery being built, even though it was only chipmunk-sized. But what really caught my eye was the Rover. It looked easily big enough to fit all of us, with eight giant wheels that looked able to climb over anything. The whole thing just looked tough, including the thick glass dome on the front end that allowed the driver to navigate.

Without caring about what the rest of the group was doing, I ran over to where the were testing it on a treadmill made of a bumpy terrain of red rocks and sand.

"Ah yes," Tom said, following behind me. "This is the new MR-17, a Mars rover designed specifically for this mission. Alvin, you've taken more than your fair share of goes in the rover simulator. Your skills have really shown in driving it."

"Can I get inside it?" I asked.

He hesitated, then shrugged. "I don't see why not."

The inside of the rover was insanely high tech. It had all of the controls and displays that they had tested me with on simulators. I strapped myself in and pictured myself actually on the red planet. I noticed there were cameras all over the place; one inside the cockpit looking down at me, the cargo bay, two acting as rear view mirrors, one facing the front.

"What's with all of the cameras?" I spoke into the headset.

"As much of the mission as possible will be recorded and transmitted back to NASA HQ," Tom explained.

Well, I thought, it's a good thing Brittany and I got our special night out of the way, before the cameras were watching.

Brittany's POV

"So, Brittany, help me understand how you fit into this mission?" Fox News' Tucker Carlson's question made me blink. He hadn't asked either of the other five that question, all of whom were sitting with me on the couch across from Carlson's desk.

"Well… what exactly do you mean?" I asked, squinting at him.

"As in, erm… how are you going to contribute?"

I shrugged. "Well, I'll mostly be manning the radar and the cameras to… help everything go smoothly. I guess that's a good way to put it."

Tucker nodded. "I see. I guess the overarching question on everyone's mind in America is… why a group of singing chipmunks?"

"Well…" Simon began to try to answer but he trailed off.

"I mean don't get me wrong you guys are very talented at what you do. But you never really struck me as astronauts. I just don't see why NASA would put all of its eggs in the baskets of six chipmunks who have no flight or space experience, for the single most important mission in this planet's history. Can you at least speculate on that? Any of you?"

"It's all economics," Jeanette said. "Not only did making the mission chipmunk-sized reduce the cost of the mission by 90%, but it also made it so that we could be sent with enough fuel to get us there AND back. It would have been impossible without us."

"Right well that makes sense, but all this seems kind of rushed, doesn't it? I mean the public only recently found out like a month ago and now NASA's already announced that they're basically ready for takeoff. Does that not concern you at all?"

"There's no reason to be concerned," Simon insisted. "All six of us have been through rigorous training the last month and a half. We're ready."

Theodore's POV

We had all known this moment would come. It was the day of the launch, Houston was buzzing with excitement. And here we were, us six chipmunks, in the prepping room, alone with our father for possibly the last time.

No one said anything for at least three seconds. Dave stared down at us with tears swelling up in his eyes. He took a deep breath and said, "I'm just so proud of you guys."

We all ran in and embraced him in a seven-way group hug.

"You guys have accomplished way more than any person in history," Dave continued. "And you're only eighteen year old chipmunks. I'm very proud to call you family."

We still hadn't broken the hug. "Dave, every last one of us will return home safely," Simon said, also holding back tears. "I swear to you."

Dave chuckled through his sniffling. "I know, Simon. These things always work out in the end. You guys always end up ok, no matter what."

Alvin smiled warmly. "I'll try not to be so much of a dumbass this time, Dave."

"So just a little bit?" Dave joked.

Everyone forced an uncomfortable laugh, almost as if we were trying to convince ourselves that this was just a short farewell. Even though, if everything went totally right during this mission, it'd be at least 44 days until we saw Dave again. And that was if nothing went wrong.

As everyone slowly began breaking away from Dave, I was the last one still squeezing him tight. This was the man who had taken my brothers and I in when we had nothing. He had helped us develop our talents into a phenomenon. He had watched us as people grew to love us, but he helped make sure fame never changed us. He had comforted me when I had nightmares. He had helped us grow into young adults. He had cared for us.

"I'll be here for you when you get back," Dave whispered in my ear.

I nodded, wiping my tears into his shoulder, and hopped down and joined the others.

Dave glanced at the clock, which read 7 am. The launch was at 10. "It's time for you guys to start getting ready." He turned, opened the door, and stepped out. But before he closed it behind him he looked back at us and said, "and don't forget, I'll be watching you guys."

And that was where he left it. He closed the door, and now it truly felt like we were on our own.

A few moments later we were joined by scientists and doctors. I can't talk for anyone else in the room, but I still felt lonely.

Alvin's POV

They started the long process of hooking up heart rate monitors to our bodies and helping us into the many layers of the space suits we had to wear during launch. It was uncomfortable, and it didn't take long after I had slid into the final outer layer that I started to get hot and sweaty. I looked at the clock and we still had an hour till lift off.

Suddenly, the phone in the room began to ring. One of the nurses walked over and picked it up. "Hello?" There was a pause. "Right now? Mhm? Ok thank you. I'll let him know." She put down the phone. "Alvin, they want you in the Medical room ASAP."

"Now?" I looked at her with wide eyes. "They want me to walk all the way up there in this suit?"

"Apparently." The woman didn't look up from the checklist she was working on or even make an attempt to care about my dilemma.

I rolled my eyes. But as I walked out the door, in my three layers of space suit, I turned and gave one last glance at Brittany. She smiled at me in a way that made my heart skip a beat.

Halfway through the walk to the Medical office was quick but very beautiful stop. It was a bridge, leading across to a different wing of the launch headquarters. And as I walked it I was stopped dead in my tracks by the view to my left. The ship, called the Caesar, stood tall amongst the support poles mounted to it. Even though it was "chipmunk-sized" it was still at least the size of two big freighter trucks combined. There was a large crowd of people that had gathered miles away from the ship just to watch the takeoff. Even from where I was standing I could hear the crowd rumble through the wind that was blowing in my face.

"Mr. Seville." I jumped as Captain Megs' voice spoke to me from behind.

"Megs!" I exclaimed. Where did she even come from.

"A word or two?" she asked in a way that made me nervous.

"Well, actually Captain I've been summoned to the Medical office so I should probably get going."

"No you haven't," she said, stepping in front of me. "I was the one who made that call. If you please, it's important."

I was still looking for a way out. "Actually, I should probably get back to the prepping room."

But she stopped me again. "Listen up you little shit, I know what you and Brittany did in the locker room the other night."

I looked up at her with shocked eyes. "Oh, um, right well… it wasn't us?"

"'It wasn't us'?" she chuckled sarcastically. "Is that what you were planning on telling a multi-trillion dollar government agency when they discover you knocked up one of their crew members and got her pregnant?"

"Woah woah woah!" I backed up from her, insulted. "No need to disrespect the pull out game like that!"

"You think this is a joke?" She didn't seem as angry as she was pretending to be. "I could have reported you, but I don't think it would have made a difference." She leaned over the railing to stare at the Caesar along with me.

"Look," I said, "what's this all about?"

She sighed. "Listen Alvin, I'm going to give you some instructions. Now it's very important you keep this between us."

"What do you mean?" I said.

"In the cargo bay. On the Caesar. Hidden in a cabinet in the back left corner. The cabinet's locked, and the only key is strapped underneath your mattress."

"What's inside the cabinet?" I asked suspiciously.

She hesitated. "Only open it in the case of extreme emergencies. I think it may come in handy. Just… please keep this between us. Promise?"

"Yeah," I said, nodding. "I read you Captain."

"Good," she said. "You should get back to the prepping room now."

I saluted, somewhat jokingly and said, "aye sir." And with that I began to walk back in the direction I came.

Just as I was about to round the corner out of her sight, she called out, "Alvin!"

I stopped.

"May God be with you, and with the others."

"Thank you, Megs. For everything."

And I walked off, feeling confused, scared, thankful. Second thoughts were beginning to pop into my head about this mission. But it was too late to go back now.

Simon's POV

There was one last thing to take care of before we boarded the Caesar. All six of us stood side by side, with Tom in front of us. In his hand he held six little white pills.

"Cyanide pills," he confirmed for us, as he handed us each one starting with myself. "Throughout the course of this program, we've had our astronauts carry one on their person at all times."

Eleanor's hands were shaking as she was the last one to take her cyanide capsule.

"Now remember," Tom continued, "these pills are only to be used in the case that you are stranded and there is no hope for rescue." He must have seen the frightened looks in our eyes, because he finished with, "never in the history of NASA has an astronaut been in the position of swallowing their pill."

Never in the history of NASA.

Because no human could fit inside the Caesar, it was our responsibility to run all final interior diagnosis' ourselves. I was in the cockpit with Brittany as she was working out the kinks with the ship's navigation and communication instruments.

I watched as she typed into the ship's main computer, the Motherboard, "this is Brittany testing Motherboard communication systems." The computer was only a blue background with white letters in the standard Times New Roman font.

We waited for a few moments before the computer screen refreshed with the response of, "we read you Brittany. Proceed with testing instruments."

I nodded, reassured as everything was going smoothly. "Brittany, you got it from here?" I asked her.

She turned to the surveillance screen next to her and began flipping through each and every one of the cameras on board as she muttered, "yeah I got it… um, Sir."

That caught me off guard as I wasn't yet used to being in charge. Well, actually I was but not officially. "Good," I said, "in that case I'm going down to the engine room to check on Jeanette."

"You do that," she said without looking at me.

Jeanette was busy, as I expected, doing her job.

"Everything checks out," she told me. "The combustors react normally. The thrusters on all sides are functional."

"So if everyone else's departments are a go, you're saying that we're ready for liftoff?" I asked, clarifying.

"Yeah," she said, "I think so."

"Not good enough, Jeannie," I said. "Anything goes wrong and it's our lives that could end."

She hesitated, but finally said. "We're ready. The ship's in good shape."

I nodded. "Then this is it. Ellie's medical supplies and tools are all accounted for. Alvin just told me in the cargo bay that all of the equipment is ready. Theo said all of the rations are on board and organized. Brittany's instruments are all functional. We're taking off."

Jean looked up at me. "So this is it?"

"What do you mean," I said, looking into her eyes with confusion.

"You know, I've always liked you, Simon Seville. Always had a crush, even back when we were little kids."

I stepped closer and grabbed her waist as she put her hands on my arms. "I know," I whispered.

"Things will never be the same between us," she said, tears beginning to swell up in. "We're never going to be that cute celebrity couple that everyone adores. That won't be us anymore when we get back down here."

I wiped her tear away with my finger. "Don't think like that. Whatever life throws at us…" I paused to think of the right way to put this, "we can get through it. Together."

She looked up at me. "You mean that?"

"Of course," I said, reassuring her.

Without warning, she leaned in and pressed her lips against mine. And we stood there for at least 5 minutes locked in a passionate kiss.

It was 10 am. All systems had checked out. Launch was proceeding according to plan. As all six of us buckled into our assigned seats within the cockpit, we could hear the sound of Julian Mitchell's voice blasting over loudspeakers, announcing, "attention, everyone! The launch is about to commence! Please join us in giving the Chipmunks and Chipettes a warm farewell as they begin their heroic journey towards Mars!"

"Ok," I said as soon as everyone had buckled up. "All systems go?"

"Yes sir," Brittany said from her seat behind me.

"Very good. Houston, begin the countdown."

"Confirmed," Tom said into our headset from launch headquarters. "Julian, begin countdown."

Once again, Mitchell's voice boomed out through and across the launch site: "Launch commencing in ten… nine… eight… seven… six…"

"Jeanette, fire the primary boosters!" I yelled.

"Five…"

"Aye," came Jeanette's reply.

"Four…"

The Caesar began to rock violently as the boosters began to fire up.

"Three…"

Things began to get hot. And very loud.

"Two…"

Cheers began to erupt from the crowd.

"One… liftoff!"

The cockpit became more stable as the landing legs of the ship were slowly lifted off of the pavement.

"Brittany give me updates on our altitude," I yelled as I took control, trying to keep us balanced in mid-air.

Brittany obeyed, "Currently at 3 meters and blimbing. Now at four meters… now at five."

"Jeanette fire up the back thrusters."

"Aye."

With Jean's press of a button, the Caesar began to surge forward while still climbing. I pulled up on the stick, forcing the nose of the ship up towards the sky.

"Jean, put the back thrusters at one hundred percent power and kill the primary boosters."

Jeanette did as she was told, and with a jolt we began to blast upward towards space.

"Altitude now at one hundred fifty meters and climbing," Brittany filled me in.

"Noted!" I responded.

As we flew, the cockpit was once again shaking more violently than they had prepared us for in simulators.

"We're now at a mile… now two miles."

I was struggling to keep us headed at the same general angle. It felt like it was taking hours.

"Forty-one miles."

My neck, arm and back muscles were very close to giving in.

"Eighty miles… Eighty-one now."

"W-we're out of Earth's atmosphere!" I yelled at my crew.

The ship began to calm down. The flight began to get smoother. "We're at one hundred and fifty miles above the Earth's surface," Brittany updated me.

"Jean kill the thrusters!" I barked.

She did as I commanded. The rockets propelling us forward died instantly, meaning the speed of the Caesar began to decrease steadily. The whole ship ceased to vibrate completely. We were finally free of Earth's gravitational pull. We had done it. We were on our way.

And that was it! Sorry it was a long one, but I really felt like I needed to get the blastoff on this chapter for you guys, because my readers mean everything to me.

As always, if you enjoyed please show the story some love by following/favoriting it and by leaving it a review. (You guys have been so great about it so far.) If you had some issues please don't hesitate to let me know, as I am ALWAYS open to hearing advice or constructive criticism.

Finally, I'm still open to suggestions about the direction I'll be taking this story so if you have some ideas those would be a great reason to leave me a review or a PM.

I'll be getting the next chapter to you guys soon. 'Till then, do what you can to pass the time ;).