Frontier
My wife cheated on me and left, but why should I care. Today is the day man enters space for the first time, and I am one of those men. It's a strange feeling, sitting here, about to make history, missing her, but loving this, and still... missing her. I couldn't help but get lost in those thoughts.
"Everything checks up on our end gents, give me the panel v4 specs, over." the radio crackles.
"Jim?", Charles said looking over at me.
"Yeah, sorry, eh... v4 ASR at 5.90, LIO 0.5%, all REP blocks calibrated, over", I replied.
"You nervous Jim?", Ckarles asked.
"Why wouldn't I be, it's exciting though, in that, we could die, kind of way...", I said.
"I heard about your wife Jim", Evan said, turning his head back over his seat, as if he wasnt aware of the intercom system built into the helmets.
"It's a fucking shame, but think of it this way, while shes sucking off some asshole, you'r gonna be one of the first to see this earth from the outside, thats not nothin", he continued.
"She left me for a woman you know", i repied.
"Shit...", Evan went silent for a moment. "Not sure if this beats that at all man", Evan cuckled.
The radio suddenly took over, "Gentlemen, 10 seconds 'till lift-off, godspeed to you all, over".
"See you on the other side, over and out" Evan replied.
"Everyone ready?", Evan asked the crew.
"Ready as we'll ever be sir", Charles replied.
"Three seconds, this wont be pleasant, just try not to pass out", Evan said as a final warning.
The engines exploded and the craft shook violently. I knew what to expect, and according to the readings on the computer everything was still operating as expected. I just couldn't have imagined it feling like this. The roar of the engines drowned out all sound, and the gravitational forces pulling me down stopped me from pysically sensing anything else.
I can see the outer layer of the atmosphere getting closer, we must have left cloud cover pretty quickly. The sky gets darker and darker. The craft starts to burn from the friction and the shaking gets worse, and then the presure reaches it's peak, until finally... silence.
"Control? we made it, over", Evan declared happily into the radio.
"Control?", Evan's smile quickly dissipated.
"Whats going on?", i said. "we made it right?".
"Control, can you read me, this is Evan Cross of the Olimar, over", Evan said once more into the radio. "shit... I think all we can do is wait for now...".
"At least we made it through, right?", Charles said trying to calm the situation.
"What's with that white ash on the window?", I asked.
"Yeah that's really odd is'nt it... Probably from the fire, you'd think they'd want to avoid things like that" Charles replied.
"Control, can you read me, over" Evan yelled into the radio. "what the hell's goin' on" he muttered in frustration.
I suddenly spotted something in the distance. It seems the white ash covering the window wasn't ash at all. It was something else... all i can see is white, except for a dark hole in the distance.
The hole looks like a tear though a piece of paper. Inside of the hole i can see the clouds, as if im looking down on our planet through a small opening. Everything else is infinately bright, but it doesnt burn the eyes. Did we pierce though this white... thing?
"Charles...", I said pointing at the window.
"What the hell is that?", Charles replied.
"I think... space, wasn't what we thought it was..."
