Astray in the Asteroids

Gemma was the head scientist for NASA. While NASA had been building their new rocket, the Spigot. Gemma used her valuable skills to climb to the top. Gemma strongly disproved of the name, but her boss was fond of the name. The rocket had a sleek white coat of paint, multiple boosters, and all of it state of the art. With this position came special privileges as well. Gemma had received the chance to bo in the control room, while the rocket took off. Everything was going perfectly. The rocket skyrocketed into the clear, blue sky. It's trajectory was perfect, not a centimeter off of Gemma's calculations. There was a brief celebration, a little confetti popper and some cupcakes. The radio was perfectly clear, and there was absolutely no static. Hours passed, then a day, with nothing wrong. Gemma returned day after day, and nothing had gone wrong. On day three, someone started recording everything that went perfectly. They were trying to make the history books for the most perfect rocket flight yet. Gemma would have liked to to be in history books, but that wasn't her main priority. Over the next two days, everything was perfect. So perfect, even, that she even started hoping her name would be in history books for this. But then, Gemma noticed something. There was another radio frequency trying to make contact to NASA's headquarters. It was strange though. They were on a frequency old spacecrafts used. Gemma wondered if it were a civilian with a large radio. It wouldn't be impossible. To figure it out, she left the control room, and went into the radio room. Her co-workers were confused as well, but it was quickly forgotten. As she walked into the radio room, she turned on the light. No one occupied the room. A thick layer of dust coated the room. Gemma walked over to the cleanest radio, dusted it off with her hand, and sat down. She set the radio to the correct frequency, and listened in. "Huston, we have a problem" a man said. Gemma then panicked, and made sure she was on the right radio frequency. When she assured herself that its was not the current astronauts who had made that statement, she continued. But Gemma was confused and asked "Sir, who are you??" The man replied "Ma'am, I am Alan Shepard." These words had Gemma in shock. Alan Shepard??? But he died years ago! She thought. Now, she knew something was truly wrong. Thinking he was joking, or that was just his name, she asked him "Well, Alan Shepard, where are you??" He hesitated for a moment, but then replied "I have no idea, we passed Mars a while ago, could've been days since then, but it could've been months." Gemma was convinced this was just a silly prank, but then, she asked "We? Who's with you?" Alan replied "I'm on this spacecraft with John Glen and Buzz Aldrin." Now Gemma was convinced. She had always believed in supernatural stuff, even as a scientist. She needed to know more. "Why are you even in space???" she practically screamed. This seemed to be a topic all three of them wanted to avoid. "We cant tell you" Alan said. Gemma was exasperated. "Look, I don't know why you cant tell me, but right now, I have no idea how to help you, or even why and how you're alive. I mean, you're in space. Way deeper than robots have even gone. Why would you three gone before robots. How are you not crushed?" This stirred a chuckle from their end. "Well now ma'am," another voice who Gemma thought was John Glenn, " What year are you in? 2023? Where we're from, we take big risks and get big rewards." It was then that Gemma really lost it. When she realized this wasn't some sick prank. She took a deep breath, and with all her strength, keeping calm, said "Why are you there? Why are you in space? How?" They seemed very confused. "Well,"Buzz said, "We came here in a rocket, and were on a mission." Gemma sighed. They seemed to have no clue what had happened while they'd been in space. Gemma finally couldn't hold back any longer, and with a loud voice, she exploded " Listen to me, all of you. You thee are all people who have been known to be dead for years now. Is that enough of an explanation for why you should tell me why you're up there?" This caused a long period of silence. Finally, Alan spoke up. "We're on a secret mission issued by the government. In a insane super rocket to try and see how far we could go. We have this thing called cryo-sleep. It had a year period where we are asleep for a year, then we wake up, for a year." Gemma's brilliant mind raced for an answer. There must have been a issue with the cryo-sleep! Instead of one year, many must have gone by. Gemma then had a solution in her mind. "Listen to me," she said "it doesn't matter what happened, just get out of there. I'm going to get you guys some help." Alan started to reply, but then, the radio was shut off. It was was like almost like there had been a thread of hope left for these men, but that thread had just been cut. Cut with a pair of big, black, scissors. In shock, she whirled around to see a man, in a finely tailored black suit. He seemed to be government type, but her gut told her he was more than that. His two bodyguards lumbered over him. They each carried clubs, and tasers. "Well well well ma'am. Looks like you've found out our little secret. You need to come with us," he said, "please step away from the radio." "But sir," Gemma said "If you know your secret than you'd know why you need to help these men. They've been abandoned in space! How could you do this? How could you just leave them there?" He sighed. "Well, we are kind of like janitors. Sometimes," he told Gemma," the government used to do messy things. Now, our job is to clean up the spills." Gemma was outraged "More like cover them up" she spat. She knew she wouldn't go down without a fight. She had to give those men a chance to return home. So much could be learn't from them. So much important information that could never be recovered if they died. The man sighed and looked up to his bodyguards. They walked up and smashed the radio with their clubs. Every little screw and bolt was smashed to practically fibers. As Gemma screamed, fought, and cried, all hopes of those men were forever lost. The big, black scissors weren't only cutting the thread, they were ripping it into nothing. The chances of finding them again were one in a million. To acquire a military grade radio would be hard enough. But to then have to go through every frequency ,trying each one for hours to see if they were there, it would be near impossible to find the right one. This was the last they were heard of ever again. Or, at least, that is what our government told us. As for Gemma, she did make history books, just not the way she'd planned. She was given the story of a NASA scientist turned mad when she entered an abandoned radio room. A mad woman who claimed that some of the most famous dead astronauts were stuck in space on a mission. Many theories were formed over the years. Was there something in the dust? Was she like this all along. Or, was this the greatest cover up of all time