When I Hear The Calling

Do You Copy?

Faster than a blink, the immense pressure pushed me like a current back to my seat. I couldn't move my head, I wanted to look at Lorra to see if she was okay. It felt like an earthquake in my seat from the constant intense rattling of the shuttle, There were loud noises of air from the engines that not even the helmet could muffle the sounds. Then, the engines grew softer.

"Forward link should be ahead."

I didn't know what the man through the speaker was saying. But the British man seated in front of all four of us having control of the buttons and switches did.

"Copy that," he said.

"Secondary-stage separation coming up."

"Copy that, separation of engine engaging."

A loud bang was heard behind me and through the side window I can make out a blue glow emerge beneath.

"Cyclo, you're leaving for Kepler-78b transfer orbit." Said the speaker.

The man looks back at us lifting his visor up.

"Ready to go?"
"Yes."
I looked over to my right to see the two other people agreed. Lorra and I look at each other. "Yes."

"Roger Resert, we're ready. Go for "MTO" burn."
""MTO" burn engaging in three, two, one."

The shaking feeling stared once more as everybody was again lassoed into their seats. My mouth was dry. The force of the shuttle had taken away my lungs. Everybody was silent apart from the small gasp, trying to breathe from the "g-force" each second.

"Main engine cutoff, three, two, one."

An abrupt stop pushed us forward from the seats and the raging noise of a thousand vacuums had suddenly disappeared. My body felt light as air, my hands started to rise to my shoulders by themselves, space was picking them up.

Then there it was. Our home. A glowing blue ball popping from the darkness was floating in front of me. I smile at Lorra who was also in a trance by the blue planet as it slowly came into view from the triangle window. She smiles back.

"There she is." Said Cyclo.

I look to the man in front who was staring at Earth as well. As everyone was in shuttle twelve. Most likely the other shuttles were too. One side of his face was glowing. From the habitable sun.

The operator's voice then interrupts the moment. "Cyclo, We're approaching the space station."
He looks back to the front sitting in his seat. "Copy, approaching space station."

I looked at the triangular window panes above me as another shuttle floats above us peacefully.

"Closure rate is five centimeters per second. "TDS" nominal and at full speed."
I looked back at the side window as a white pillow-like pad was beginning to cover the pane. I looked up the window above where the material started to block the top windows too.

"Plugs out, Thank you for the launch Rusert."

Noises of steam emitted from a latch on the side of the shuttle. Cyclo got up from his seat and opened the latch. A white light came through the latch but I couldn't see what was in there from the angle I was seated. "Sir, where are the other shuttles at?"
He turns his body in my direction. Then he eyes the two people next to us. From the look on his face, they must have wanted to know also.

"The plan is to have different space shuttles we can separately live in. As we know this mission has a risk of failure. If one of the stations shut down, we have eleven more", he says chuckling. He stops when he looks at our worried faces.