Floating through space for 100 years makes you wish for a companion. A loyal companion.
Floating through space for 100 years can make you wish. One of my wishes was someone who was loyal through thick and thin. But i didn't know my wish would come true.
We launch in T- 10 minutes. "Joshua if your to scared you can back out now" Said my mom as she hugged me hard. "No i can't back down now. I spent more than a billion dollars on this thing and I'm not backing down now." I said in reply. Launch in T- 7 minutes. The elevator that rose up to the top of the rocket was 168 feet high, not counting the steps you have to walk up to get to the capsule. The door to the capsule opened and all the computers turned on as planned. I closed the capsule door and sealed it by pushing the pressurize button. Launch in T- 3 minutes. I already had my space suit on and I was hooking it to the various hoses hanging from the ceiling. One was labeled with a sticky note saying 'cryo' on the front. I hooked the hose up to an auxiliary connector on my space suit, which led to the climate control inside my suit. Launch in T- 60 seconds I tuned my radar altimeter and began pressing buttons on the preflight checklist console. LES:Ok Fuel Feed:Ok All Gauges: Ok I completed all 20 of my preflight checks and the rocket started to whir to life. T-20 seconds to launch I locked my helmet into place and armed the emergency pressurization buttons. You have to press 3 buttons in a row to set it off, so no accidents would occur. Launch in T-10 I strapped myself into the harness and tightened it firmly. T-5 4 3 2 Ignition 1 Releasing Lift off! We have lift off of the centurion 1B The rocket rattled so much i was physically shaking back and forth in my seat, like in cartoons when someone drinks caffeine. All i could think about was making sure the rocket didn't crash from me not pushing the sequencing buttons. "Uh Joshua you are clear for escape tower sep." said the mission controller. Woah it had been that long already? I did as i was told and pushed a tower saying 'tower sep.'. "tower separated control" I responded as i soared higher and higher. My radar altimeter ended at 24,000 yards and then the booster cutoff. About 5 seconds after booster cutoff i heard an explosion of the decoupler separating me from the booster as well as igniting the orbital stage. The G meter was hitting 2 G's as the orbital stage entered full power mode. As expected the orbital stage cut off once a stable orbit was reached. Then the fun part begins. I unstrapped myself and went to the back of the capsule and pulled a handle down. The back of the capsule was starting to assemble and the stasis pod was opening up for me to come in. I unhooked all the hoses from my suit and climbed in to the stasis pod. I screwed in the cryo hose again and could feel myself getting tired. Before i passed out completely i used my wrist console to set a course for the closest planet capable of sustaining life.
Cold. So cold. So very cold. I could hear my breathing echo inside my suit. I set my 'alarm' to stop sending in cryo gas when 1 of 2 circumstances occurred. 1. 100 years had passed 2. the ship had found a planet capable of supporting life. My heart began to beat again as a shock pulsed through my body. "Computer how long have i been in cryo?" "Exactly 100 years and 362 days 2 hours 5 minutes and 45 seconds." "Time to get to work." I thought as i began opening the radiation shields. After about 2 minutes every window shield was open and i could see a VERY colorful planet full of green red blue and all the other colors. "Wow" is all i could say as i stared out the window in awe. Now i knew why the computer woke me up. The top window on the space craft had a spotlight and was revealing a space station named Equis IV. Something was floating outside an airlock, using an old tether. I snickered at the ancient tech until i saw the figures form. It looked like a horse! A SPACE HORSE!!! "Hello there! Space horse? can you hear my voice boy?" I asked on all frequencies. The space horse thrashed around until it was looking at me through the window. The helmet had a golden tint just like mine. "I beg your pardon?" asked a female voice. "Sorry a space PONY my bad." i said sarcastically disregarding the fact that it responded to my words. "Thats much better" said the 'mare'. "My name is Commander Josh Ferrum. Permission to EVA ma'am?" "Permission granted" said the mare. I opened up the hatch and when i came out the pony flailed in joy screaming. "YES I KNEW I WAS RIGHT THEY DO EXIST THEY DO EXIST!!!!!" shouted the space mare. "Your name ma'am?" i said firmly once her giggling calmed down. "Lyra, Sorry i didn't introduce myself right away" she said still very giggly. I lifted my visor up and she did the same. what i saw was a white and mint green cartoon pony with the biggest grin on her face. "That face is so adorable!" she said over the radio. "Why don't you come inside where its safe? Maybe we can eat some hay burgers or what ever humans eat." she said barely containing her joy
I kept my suit on when we entered the very small hatch to the space station. "Oh my gosh. The stallions are going to be so surprised!" she said really excitedly. "You mean there are other ponies on this ship too?" i asked curiously. "Yeah, about 20 other ponies are on here." Lyra responded. I went inside the very small space station only to see all the ponies stare at me in fear. "Hi." i said very shy like. All of them didn't dare move a muscle until lyra broke the silence. "Welcome aboard Josh"
"I'm going to give you 3 reasons why i can't stay. 1 The space is WAY to small for me, I mean my ships living quarters i bigger than this ones. 2 All the male ponies are still staring at me like I'm a monster, its kind of creeping me out. And 3 I have to make sure that you ponies are the native species of this planet." I explained to the little mint green and white pony.
"Can i come with you? You know i kind of want to see bon-bon." she asked kind of embarrassed to say 'bon-bon'.
"Wait is that a ponies name or is it a candy?" i asked.
"She's my wife." Lyra said plainly. I tried hard not to laugh but a smirk escaped which was blocked my helmet.
"Uh, ok i guess but i might be uncomfortable since it's a one man pod and all." i said
"Does this mean i get to sit on your lap!?!?" Lyra asked excitedly pushing of the station walls and all over the place.
"Er, uh yeah i guess?" I said nervously.
"Well let's get going" she said pushing with her hind legs and catching me in mid air. Once we were outside in space i had to unlock and de pressurize my cabin before it could open. Once that was done Lyra and I got inside the pod and she gasped at how big it was.
"This is kind of spacey don't you think?" she asked since it was only for 1 man.
"Well most of it is just coms. equipment so no it's not very big" i answered. She asked more questions that i had to unfortunately answer.
Before she started asking more 'intimate' questions, the computer blared,
"Atmosphere detected, sit down and strap in. Prepare for entry heat." After that i went in to auto pilot and strapped the cooling hose to my suit and Lyra's suit. I fastened the straps and prepared for the heat to come.
