Just me and the stars

Chapter 1

I stand there trembling, yet cold and sweaty. It was the first time in months that I had worked up the courage to go near the sick bay. Yet, I felt the courage dripping off me like water in the shower. I grip the door handle and my breath gets stuck in my chest, and it feels like I'm falling, down down down. I'm dying, get me out, let go of me, I'm suffocating, what's happening!? WHAT'S HAPPENING?!  I let go of the handle and run, I think I hear footsteps. I still can't breath. I can hear the manic screaming, can feel it rattle my bones.

I slam the door to the control room shut, I feel tears sting my eyes and I'm trembling. I start counting down from 100 by 3s and I start taking deep breaths in... out... in... out. I can feel myself start to calm down and the panic attack goes away. This happens to me every time I try to open the door to the sick bay after what happened 7 years ago. I walk over to the hard chair and sit down, I stare at the bright blinking buttons and sigh to myself, I've always loved the sound of the beeping, its comforting.

I watch the small screen that tells me if we're nearing asteroids and stare at it, letting my mind wander. It keeps coming back to what happened 7 years ago, but I keep rejecting those horrible thoughts. I think about my mum, my dad, the crew, what happened 7 years ago. No, not what happened 7 years ago, I don't want to think about that. I think about my name instead Ace Cosmic Elliot. I've always liked my name, it sounds like a name a famous astronaut would have and my initials spell my first name. 

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I open my eyes and wipe away the rheum in the corners of my eyes and yawn. I guess I must've fallen asleep. My back's sore since I slept in the hard chair near the control panel and I wonder how long I was asleep. It could've been a few minutes, or a few hours. Judging by the rheum, it must've been the latter. Not that it matters much, time doesnt mean a thing to me out here in space.

I stand up and stretch, then walk over and open the door so I can see the hallway leading to the kitchen. The kitchen leads to the sick bay which has a door that opens to the hypersleep chambers, one for each member of the crew, but I quickly push that thought out of my head. I walk to the small, clean white kitchen area and start scavenging for something decent to eat. I open the cuboards and see a packet of dried apples. yes! something decent to eat! I grab the packet and walk to my room.

My room is decent sized and has a metal bed frame with a mattress that curves downwards in the middle. It has a wide window that I love looking out of. The room is slightly messy and the bed is unmade, and theres pillows on the floor and a worn out one on the bed that I use, but I don't care about the mess, I'm the only one whos gonna see it anyway. I sit on the bed and pick up a motorbike magazine one of the crew members must've packed. I look through it while I munch on the dried apples.

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I finish reading the magazine for what seems like the millionth time and sigh. I sit up and grab my laptop, it's slow, but I can e-mail Cynthia on it. Cynthia is the CEO of NASA and she e-mails me to make sure I'm ok and so I can talk to someone, which is nice of her, even if her job requires it. I reread my e-mail and read her reply. 

My email to her: 

To: Cynthia Davies        Subject: None

Hey Cynthia, how are you? What's happening on Earth 2? Anyways, I've watched all the movies you've downloaded for me, and listened to all the audiobooks, songs, and podcasts. I was wondering if you could download more? I've also done all the worksheets, so if you could download more, that would be great, thanks in advance, talk to you soon.

- Captain A.C.E

her reply:

To: Ace Elliot        Subject: None

Hello Ace, I'm fine thank you, Earth 2 is already getting destroyed like Earth, obviously people still haven't learned. Anyway, I've already downloaded more stuff for you, so by the time you see this, you'll already be able to access them. Bye Ace, talk to you soon, be safe

p.s Don't think I wouldn't notice the 'captain', very cheeky, but don't forget you're not there yet, but I'll let it slide this one time ;)

- Cynthia

Cynthia is the kind of person that would correct your grammar, even if you're in the middle of a story, but I think she has a soft spot for me, that thought always makes me smile. 

I quickly start loading the stuff she sent me and I bounce my right leg on my left one and watch as the little bar on my screen fills up and the wait time goes down. As I wait, I think about the people on Earth 2. About 5000 years ago the people on the original Earth destroyed it by polluting it too much, as far as I know, Cynthia always says I'm too young to understand. Anyways, in the years 2056 the world became too uninhabitable and people had to leave. I've read about it, and it was absolute chaos. The same thing is happening to Earth 2, which is my mission, I'm going to a planet to see if it's able to inhabit people. The mission was completed before I was born, so now I'm on my way back from Earth 2, I have been for the last 13 years.

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A few hours later I've been looking at the stuff Cynthia downloaded for me, my personal favourite is maybe legally blonde, or maybe pirates of the carribean, maybe House M.D, no definitely Alice in Wonderland. I dont know, I have too many favourites. anyways, I get hungry again and so I walk to the kitchen and look in the small fridge-type-thing and get a lump of steak from an air tight bag and turn on the oven and wait for it to warm up. That's when I hear the sound that makes my heart miss a beat

A/N Please vote, comment, and share if you enjoyed, please leave suggestions for future chapters, I'll give credit if you ask. Should I make the story of Earth 1 a different book/chapter? If you want song at the beginning of chapters please suggest some, again, I'll mention you if you want, or you can be kept anonymous, the song is 'rocket man' by Elton John, and I don't own the song, so all credit goes to him and 'How are you today' which is the channel that did the lyric video. If you follow me I'll follow you back. I doubt that future chapters will be this long, but I'll try and make them decent sized :) updates may take a few days each chapter, I also can't publish on the weekends :)