The Hero’s Landing

Today was finally the day! The day where crew 83 would return to earth from space. We have spent the last ten years up space station 2 and have completed our mission successfully. Everyone was so excited, especially me! My husband and two kids are waiting for me, watching the live feed of our return. As the crew finished packing the ship for departure, I finished with our engineering check list. “All is good to go!” I yell. My captain gives a thumbs up and everyone boards. 

The five of us buckle up and our departure begins. As the ship leaves space station 2, I set the controls towards earths open pathed orbit. What that means is there are multiply asteroids and debris in the orbit. An opened path in the orbit is simply clearer for the ship to pass through with no complications. A lot of math is involved with where the ship is currently, how long it’ll take to get to the orbit, and if we’ll make it to the opened path on time. 

“Captain Drew, our coordinates have been set, we’ll reach the open path in approximately 9 hours.” He looks back at me, “Is there any way we could get there faster? I really want a chilly dog!” I giggle to myself before changing the fuel gage and the route. “We could get there within 5 hours, but that will exhaust our battery to a quarter tank. As of right now we will have a little more than half a tank if we continue current route of 9 hours. We’ll need at least a quarter tank for navigating earth, and the rest for landing.” I notice him rolling his eyes. “Do the 5-hour route, we’ll have to ‘wing’ the landing.” I look at him surprised, like the rest of the crew does. “Wing the landing? I want to get to earth in one piece!” I shout. He shrugs me off, “I’m your captain, trust me.” My stomach tightens a bit, but reluctantly I obey his orders and speed the ship up. 

In all honesty, I should have been the captain, I work with all the controls but he’s the perfect face for the magazines. One of the crew members, Dean, started to squirm in his seat. “Everything okay Dean?” I ask. “When can we move about the ship? I’ve got some business to take care of and I don’t know how much longer I can hold it.” Dean replies. “You can go ahead and unbuckle everyone. When we get to the open path, we’ll need to buckle up again.” Immediately he unbuckles and runs to the back. Drew and the other two crew members started chuckling to themselves. 

As we start to approach the orbit, the monitoring systems starts freezing up. “Drew, watch the system for me, I’m going to go open the electrically box to see what is going on.” I get up and walk over to the control panel and start looking through it, seeing if there is a wire out of place, or a short somewhere. “Bella! We have a problem!” Drew yells to me. “I turn around quickly and see an Asteroid headed straight for us. “EVERYONE BUCKLE UP!” I scream. Drew, Dean, Mark, and Gene rush to their seats to buckle up, as do I. 

By the time I sit down and grab the buckle, the asteroid smashes into the ship, flipping up around a few times before I lose consciousness. When I come too, my head is pounding, my vision blurred, and my side in excruciating pain. I sit up slowly, in the back of the ship. “How did I manage to get all the way back here?” I look around and my eyes widen. “M-mark! Gene!” They lie there, mutilated, dead. My adrenaline starts pumping hard as I stand up to check on Drew and Dean. “Drew! Are you okay?” I check his pulse, he’s fine. They both are just unconscious. I sit down in the captain’s chair and smack the console a few times before it lights up faintly. “We’ve passed the orbits belt and are headed into earth’s atmosphere.” I try the intercom to get ahold of someone on earth, but nothing. 

I yank the steering system back to change our direction, but the entire system is shot. “No, no, no, no!” I start to panic more. “What do I do?” I rattle my brain for a few minutes before hearing Drew’s voice. “B-Bella?” I turn to him. “I’m glad your awake…” I say with eyes full of tears. “I can’t feel my legs…” I grit my teeth, “It’s going to be okay, just breath. What do we do about the electrical? We’re moving so fast that we are out of route and going to crash into a city!” He gets quiet for a minute before answering me, “Take the extra power tube and install it into the top of the ship, in the outside panel. It’ll be the only way.” I get up slowly, grabbing my space suit, and the power tube. “I’ll do it…” I struggle to put the suit on and activate the oxygen before opening the doors to the airlock. 

The metal on the ship’s surface is hot. I can feel the suit burning away, disintegrating. The rest of the suit rips away from the hot air and I struggle to breath. I rip the panel to the electrical box open and replace it. The door slams shut on my hand, forcing my arm against the metal, burning it severely. I try to scream but can’t. I rip my hand away from the door, cutting my skin up. I force myself through all the pain and get inside the door and shut it quickly before falling through the interior door. 

“Did it work?” I groan. I get no response. I force myself up off the floor and back into the captain’s chair. I flip all the switches again and it doesn’t work. I sit back frustrated before looking out the window, seeing how close we are to hitting a major city.” I can’t let it end like this… If people are going to die, I’d rather it be 5 people vs thousands.” I grab a large tool and slam it down into the operating system. Somehow it managed to spark the system and I yank the steering back. I’m finally able to change the course of the ship into the ocean. It’s not far from sure, but it’s better than nothing. 

As we plummet down into the water, I brace myself. For the first time in my life, I’m scared. I won't get to watch my babies grow up, or be the mom they would be proud of, I feel like a failure. I was so eager to show the world who I was and how smart I had become that I left my family to go on the space mission. “Why didn’t I just stay home?” I ask myself repeatedly. I lost hope for a second, but then it all changed. The intercom system comes on, and the last thing I hear are my children. Their voices warmed my heart once again as the called me, A hero.