All These Lights

Pods

The first month of the mission went by in a blur. Harry found himself settling into a steady routine - something he hadn't been expecting to happen so easily. The station was a great place to be, so much space, so many high tech gadgets to get used to, and so many places to wander and explore. The lads spent most of their days working on their individual tasks and in the evenings, they gathered in the huge lounge room - playing cards or even just sitting quietly doing the mountains of paperwork that seemed to always accumulate, but enjoying one another's company whilst they did. With the outside of the spaceship being dark all the time - they made a conscious effort to keep on top of what time of the day it was and keep to routines.

Harry had a lot of work to focus on and - as Captain - was expected to keep in regular communication with NASA and Avery, his days usually starting and finishing by speaking to someone back on earth.

In the moments where he had some time, Harry found himself drawn to a small room at the very back of the station - the room where four emergency pods were stationed, lined up and hopefully never to be used. Harry loved to climb inside the small confined space of the pod assigned to him which had a completely glass front to it, meaning he could sit and watch the quiet universe in front of him for hours. The quiet and focus he was able to have here was better than any therapy he had had before. The occasional shooting star would fly past and everytime it did, he found himself wishing. Wishing for a successful trip, wishing for his family to be alright, wishing that his time up here would be worth it and that when he reached home - his life would be what he truly wanted it to be.

'How are you doing Captain Styles?' Avery said through the screen in the control room one evening. Harry stood alone - the others away working on their jobs leaving him and Avery to discuss how everything was going. He looked up at Avery on the screen, smiling back at him slightly, proud to be in the position of being the one responsible for reporting back to NASA's main man.

'So far so good Sir, we've settled into a steady routine and the crew seemed to have settled and adjusted well.' Harry replied, feeling a lot more relaxed now, the nerves he had felt in the first few days had slowly slipped away the more sure he became of his surroundings.

'Good stuff, and the station itself, everything coming together nicely?'

'It is sir, I know Tomlinson had some issues he wanted to correct with one of the engine connectors so I have given him the go ahead to prioritize this first before he moves on to the extensions that are required, NASA engineers on the ground have been notified' Harry said, flipping through his notes that were up on the screen in front of him - underneath the one that had Avery's face looking back at him. He noted everything that happened on the station - day in day out - just to keep track and on top of things. Harry was determined that in the event of a mishap or any wrongdoing he always had a record of what had been done by himself and the crew.

'Also Horan has shown me that some of the equipment he had listed hasn't made it up here in one piece with us, I'm currently trying to organize the sending of new equipment and have also reorganized his schedule so he can work on other projects whilst we wait,'.

'You seem to be running a good tight ship up there Styles, I knew you could do it,' Avery smiled at him. 'Now I'm sorry I must go, it's incredibly busy down here too - thank you for updating me on your progress, I'll get Arden to schedule another meeting with you soon - keep up the good work, we're always watching'.

'Thank you Sir,' Harry replied before he ended the screen call. He sighed with relief, knowing everyone up here and everyone down in NASA were happy with the mission's progress - even though they had just begun.

Packing away his paperwork he decided that he was done for the day - having been up since 5am trying to communicate with NASA about ongoing's on earth as well as up here. Wondering where to go next he made his way out of the control room and wandered along the pristine hallways of the station, wondering where the others were and what they were up too. His mind wandered to one crew member in particular.