The Ghost From Above

Chapter One

The shuttle was silent. The crew members were all reliving the goodbyes in their minds after leaving their families, friends, and the rest of the Earth. Aaron Stevens, the command pilot, was remembering the look on his 7-year-old son's face. He was clearly very excited that his father was about to go into space in a rocket ship, however when Stevens looked into his eyes, he could almost see the struggle of spending a whole month without him. His wife was extremely proud of him, this was a big job, and it was his dream job. Today his dream had come true, but it was also a very dangerous job, and there were a lot of risk assessments which had to be taken very seriously. If anything went wrong, there was nobody up there with them to save them except themselves.

***

As they approached the giant floating structure of the International Space Station, they were completely mesmerized. Conversations began to brew and they were going through the plans one more time, to make sure everyone knew their jobs. "First thing first, we need to move as quickly as possible to switch position with the crew. It is very likely that they want to get back to Earth to their families as much as we want to get onto this Station. McClain, your job is to go around and check that all the airtight doors are fully functional, and that everything is safe to use." Stevens ordered.

"Copy that, commander Stevens." McClain replied. Stevens liked that, 'Commander          Stevens'. He repeated that name in his head a few times, that was something he could get used to over the next month. Abigail McClain was the crew's go-to person when it came to technical issues. She was there to do all the maintenance and she would be able to make repairs if anything went wrong.

"Shepherd, I need you to go straight to the control room and make sure the speed and rotation of the Station is correct to continue the orbit around Earth, I cannot be dealing with a Space Station floating into space. And I'm not joking, there is honestly no way to fix an issue like that, none of us could." Stevens continued.

"Will do." Shepherd replied, not as great as the last reply, but it worked if there was a yes to the command. Dennis Shepherd was in control of the station's orbit around the Earth, and had to make sure that all the measurements were correct. He was also responsible for entering data from their research into the database.

"Holt, you need to go make sure your EVA equipment is organised, ready, and safe to use. We can't have any problems with that equipment."

"Yes, commander." Holt replied. Gordon Holt was responsible for going on spacewalks and gathering the data for their research.

This was it, the moment they had all been waiting for, their dreams were about to become reality. Shepherd lined up the shuttle's doors to the ISS doors, and hovered their for a few seconds, before locking into place.

***

*Hiss*

The doors opened, and there they were. They were on the International Space Station. This was now where they'd be living for the next 31 days. "You all know what to do, now go!" Stevens commanded, and immediately, the crew members' jaws were lifted from the flaw, and they sped off to their stations. The previous crew gave Stevens a half smile, then rushed into the shuttle.

*Hiss*

The doors closed, and Stevens watched out of the window as the shuttle flew away, back to Earth. Stevens' job was to organize the crew and keep them all safe, so apart from keeping an eye on the other three, he didn't have much else to do. He floated through the station and checked on his fellow crew mates to make sure they were in the right places and doing their jobs, then took their luggage through to the rooms.

The floating was new to Stevens, he kept trying to get his feet on the ground, but         movement here was no longer a matter of 'Left, right, left, right', It was just like a         swimming pool... minus the water... Minus the Earth. He watched as the others struggled to stop moving down the corridors, at some points, they just carried on and collided with the wall at the end. That was the sort of thing that made Stevens laugh.

McClain was floating the most, she was swimming through the station, checking all of the airtight doors, making sure they were all fully functional, and they were all fully shut. Any oxygen in the station needed to stay in the station; otherwise they would not have        sufficient oxygen to last the month.

After checking all the doors and all the other vital parts of the station, she headed to her room to settle in, as did the others. It would be a long month if they didn't.

***

The crew gathered in the center of the Space Station, and ate their dried-up meals under the round window. The view was amazing, but also confusing. They all kept expecting a bunch of stars and maybe the moon when they looked out the window. What they got was even better. There were no clouds to block any of the view either, they could see the whole of the Earth through that tiny window. Stevens felt like the leader of an alien crew, looking down on all the humans below them. It was an incredible feeling.

*Tap*

"Did anyone hear that?" Holt asked.

"hear what?" McClain questioned, looking at Holt very blankly.

"Nothing, probably just me getting used to space is all." He replied.

Holt thought for a minute, he should've probably told them. This was a place where all sounds should be reported, in case it's something malfunctioning, but it was only a tap.

*Knock*

There it was again, louder this time. It sounded like the noise was coming from the window, but there was nothing that could knock it and definitely nobody else who could've done that. They looked away from the window and ignored the noise.

*Knock* *Knock*

This time they all heard it, it was a lot louder and almost sounded like a person knocking on a window. But this was space, they all eventually agreed it's probably just the noises of space. About 30 minutes past and there had been no more strange noises, and they were all playing catch with a baseball which they had found in a small box with the name 'Rogers' on it. None of them really knew who this Rogers guy was or why his stuff was still here. It was likely that he was just a member of one of the past crews.

*Bang*

The crew all jumped. That didn't sound normal or even space-like."What the fuck was that?" Stevens asked, terrified of what could have happened.

"I don't know, sounded like it was beneath us, and there are no other rooms beneath us, just space" Shepherd replied. The crew looked at each other in a mixture of fear and confusion. They checked the whole space station, and there was no obvious damage or cause of the noise. They agreed it was just the mechanism and went to their bedrooms, where they got in their sleeping bags. Sleeping was going to be weird with zero gravity, but an experience for sure.