Fred Doskevinsky sat upside down in the giant rocket waiting for the launch. Even with all the space missions he had been on, he was still terrified of the launches. Sitting there in that upside-down seat made him feel vulnerable. It wouldn't be that bad if I were in control, he thought to himself. The ehgines ignited, and Fred began to tremble in fear. What would happen if the program that controlled the trajectory of the launch was glitched? What if the mathmaticions had mis-calculated how much thrust would be needed, and they didn't escape the gravity well. Millions of simulations coursed through his brain.
"Fred, are you alright?" The voice came through his suit radio. It was his co-pilot, Eugene Frankus.
"Umm, yeah, I'm fine. I just can't stand these takeoffs." Fred felt his muscles tensing up as the count-down commenced.
"... 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Ignition."
Fred felt himself being pushed into his cushioned chair as the engines screamed around him. The noise seemed to pierce his brain. Fred sqeezed his eyes shut, trying to block out all feeling. Beads of sweat formed on his face. In his suit radio, he could vaguely hear the cheers of the people at mission control. They wouldn't be cheering if they had to go through this, he thought. The pressure against him increased, and Fred fought to keep from retching. You've been through this before, he told himself. How would the others feel if they knew they had to follow a man who was scared of a simple launch? Fred felt tears begin to flow from his eyes. Darnit, he thought, the others will see this. It went on like this for what seemed like an eternity, but was really only a few minutes, then Fred felt the pressure against his chest begin to let up, and he sighed in relief. He couldn't see stars through the viewprot, but he knew they were in space. A buzzer went off inside his suit. Time for me to be in control. He unstrapped his acceleration harness, and basked in the freedom of weightlessness. He had never had problems with space sickness. On his first space trip, while others had felt queasy, Fred was expirimenting with how to manouver in the new envirnment. Fred took the controls, and immediatelly his fears washed away. He set off the explosions that would propel the boosters away from ship, and eventually into the pacific ocean where they would be retrieved, then he plotted the course to the Ship-Station. The S.S. would be his home for the next 2 years. It was a large mobile space station that would break orbit with Earth once everyone was aboard, and take them to Mars. Then it would actually land on Mars and be their home for the next year and a half, while they studied the planet. Afterwords, they would enter the somewhat smaller Ascent Ship, blast off of Mars, and live in that until they reached home.
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That is the beginning of the story. Feel free to add on, but the words, "fart", "poop", and all swear words are prohibited, and any posts that contain them will be ignored.