Incessant blaring woke me up from my sleep. I blearily opened my eyes and saw my cabin mates scurrying around putting on their suits. Clara was hopping up and down trying to work her foot into the suit, while Amy was pulling on her gloves.
“Get up Rose! We have an emergency.” Amy said while swinging open the door and leaving. I slowly sat up and asked Clara, “What’s happening?”.
“There has been a fatal mistake in calculations. Actually, I don’t think any amount of calculations could have explained this. Meet us at the main hold, the captain's explaining the gist of it.” Clara said as she left as well. What could possibly be wrong? My mind filled with different scenarios as the sirens continued to blast in the background. After slipping on my suit and gloves, I grabbed my helmet and tucked it under my arms. Entering the corridor I went straight ahead to the air lock doors and swiped my card; the doors opened with a hiss. Passing the lounge, I headed towards the main hold where most of everyone was gathered. Captain T, as we called her, was standing on an upper deck balcony. Her posture was stiff as she faced towards us with her hands behind her back.
“Fellow explorers, unfortunately, I have very bad news. As you all know, the purpose of this experiment was to find a powerful sun which we can harness energy from. Through calculations and predictions star Surya 7 had high expectations for this purpose. We know this is one of the riskiest planets to explore, but it is also one of the most powerful. It is balancing on a horizon between two black holes, and has one straight passage to reach it.” I remember learning the most important thing about this sun. If stray the tiniest bit away from the neutral passage, we will be sucked into one of the black holes. The captain explained that apparently we have successfully gathered enough energy to take back, but now we are stuck in the horizon between the two black holes.
No one was worried; in fact, some looked annoyed. Half of the people were now discretely using their holoscreens. I was disgusted at their lack of respect towards our captain.
“Well, why is it such a big deal? We have prepared for this. Just activate the thrusters, and that will safely take us out of this rut. All we need is the tiniest bit of force to escape the balance,” said George, a fellow physicist. His head darted back down to looking at his holoscreen as he pushed his slipping glasses up his nose. He was always too arrogant for his own good I thought as I internally rolled my eyes.
“Ah yes, that would be all fine and well if our thrusters weren’t welded shut from the heat of the sun.”
She went on to explain that what we didn’t anticipate was that the high level of heat would actually melt the metal and partially close the openings. Now, the system refuses to activate the thrusters because it thinks the hatches are closed.
“This metal is impossible to melt. What are you talking about? It has been carefully engineered for this very mission,” another scientist said, exasperated.
“Yes, but technically the level of energy produced from this sun should also be impossible. The fact that the sun is balancing between two black holes is impossible. The fact that we are even here achieving this is basically impossible! Space is not something we can always predict, and it never will be, ” Captain T responded. No one asked any more questions after that. I didn’t like where this was going at all, there were only three people on this ship who could go fix the thrusters manually.
“Of course there are more complications. Like the fact that since we are not in the exact place the sun is, the gravity from both black holes are pulling at us. In other words, we don’t have much time.” A grave expression took over the Captain’s face.
Oh no this is it, I thought, this is where she says it.
“There are only three technical engineers capable of fixing our thrusters: Amy, Clara, and Rose. I might possibly be sending you to your deaths. But there is no one else capable of doing this. You are not forced to say yes, but will you help us?” Everyone turned to look at us. Space is my passion and I have loved it ever since I was a child. Its infinite self and puzzling ways have always intrigued me. When applying for this mission, I knew it could be dangerous. But once again, I had underestimated space. We thought we could figure it out, and unravel its secrets. We were wrong. As for fixing the thrusters, of course we had to say yes. If we didn’t, the whole crew would be doomed.
“I will,” Amy suddenly said. She was always the bravest. Clara followed with an affirmative of her own. All eyes turned to me.
I responded, “Of course I will.” On the inside I was in turmoil of how dangerous this mission could possibly be. Half an hour later I was standing at the launch dock with Amy and Clara, ready to board the small shuttle-pods. The directions were simple, each of us would use a separate shuttle-pod to fix the one of the thrusters, as soon as we finished we were to immediately return to the launching dock.
“Good luck, women, and we thank you for your service. I am sorry we must send you to do this, but you are our only hope.” Clara, Amy and I gave one last hug before heading into our shuttles, our feelings reflected in our faces. The shuttle’s system gave a countdown and launched off the main ship. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Clara and Amy’s shuttles do the same.  Immediately, I was in awe of the vast depths, space, and the twinkling stars. I was assigned to the thrusters to the far side of the ship, so I slowly maneuvered there, careful not to stray too far. I was nervous about this because the thruster I was working on was the farthest from the launch pad. Suddenly, when I got to the other side, I felt the ship start to violently shake.
“Rose to Main Ship! What is going on?!” I shouted in the transmitter.
“Captain T to Rose, the gravitational pull from the black holes is pulling on both sides, if we don’t get out of here soon, we’ll be pulled apart!” Not answering, I carefully got to work on opening the welded parts of the thrusters. It was tough because, at the same time, I had to avoid damaging the inner workings of the thrusters. The shaking of the ship worsened, making it even harder to finish my job.
“Rose, where are you?!” The transmitter crackled.
“Im almost done, give me a second!” I answered back.
“Didn’t you hear the order earlier? The captain has ordered all of you to come back even if you haven’t fixed the thrusters!  Even half working thrusters will get us far enough away from the black holes, so that later we can stop and really fix them. Amy and Clara have already made it back. Where are you? We need to leave now! The pull is becoming too much to handle.”
“Shoot! There was probably interference from the radiation waves. I didn’t get the order. I am on my way.” The ship was shaking violently now, and I knew I had to get back fast. Maneuvering under the ship, I carefully flew the pod closer and closer to the launching pad. I was almost there when the launching pad started to retract. The ship started to rumble, a tell-tale sign that the thrusters were about to be activated. Why were they starting the ship? Did they not know I was still outside? No wait, in the window of the launching station I saw the faces of Amy and Clara, their hands pressed against the glass. They seemed to be sobbing and mouthing something.
“Hello?! Rose to ship, Rose to ship! Rose to Captain! I’m still outside! Help! Open the launching pad!”
No one answered.
I was frantic now. The ship was slowly starting to move away from me now. I pressed my face against the glass of the pod and screamed at Clara and Amy’s now distant faces, “Get me out! Please!” I begged.
Silent tears traveled down my face as they continued to shake their heads and cry. The Interstellar slowly drifted away from me farther and farther until all I could see was the small flame of the thrusters. I sank slowly into my seat and stared out the window. There was a bright light behind my pod. It was the Surya 7. It loomed over my shuttlepod as it came closer. A bright beacon among the darkness of space. Once again I heard blaring of sirens and flashing red lights as the shuttlepod tried to tell me that it was overheating, and we were too close to the sun. But what could I do? There was no way I could escape the pull of the sun. I was far out of the neutral zone now. Over the noise of the warnings, the crackle of the transmitter was heard.
“Thank you Rose for the great service you have done. There is nothing we could have done to save you, and for that I am truly sorry.  I- I wish we could have spend more time together Rose. As not only fellow colleagues, but as friends too. Y- you were one of the best cadets, and it was an honor to have you on this ship. You have saved us and will be forever remembered as a hero,” Captain T’s voice rang for the last time. I could tell it was difficult for her to keep it together, as her voice cracked. In the background I could hear Clara and Amy’s mingled voices yelling “We’re sorry” over and over again. I didn’t feel anything, I was empty. I turned to the one constant thing in my life, space. Looking up I saw the beautiful galaxies and the gorgeous hues of distant nebulae. Purples and blues mashed together with sparkling whites in between. Flares of reds, oranges, and yellows burst from far planets. The vast expanse of the ever changing universe was the last thing I saw, as I fell into the sun.