sapphire skies ⋆ will robinson [ REWRITING ]

003 - jupiter's bay

ⁿᵃᶦˡᵃʰ'ˢ ᵖᵒᵛ

‧₊˚✩ 🪐✩˚₊‧

"ARM'S UP. EYES AND MOUTH SHUT." Mom commanded as we positioned ourselves in the dark grey chamber for our decontamination

I peaked one eye open to watch the lights of the room beam a roaring red, before the chemicals aggressively hissed against my dusty clothes.

I went from smelling like burnt sulfur to smelling like bitter hospital.

I thought I was the only one who broke mom's direct order of not keeping my eyes and mouth open, until I heard Tyler burst out the meanest cough he's been holding back since the computer announced its countdown to open the airlock.

I snorted into laughter as he choked on the bitter chemicals, the doors sliding open to a long cream-tiled hallway with a window's view of the outside storm. We were multiple stories above ground now.

"Rápido por favor, We don't have much time left" Mom sped forward to get our attention away from the rhythmic tapping of the sand grains tapping on the large window. It was appalling to barely see anything other than the gusts of orange wind.

She hovered her wrist over a scanner that chimed as it publicly announced "Access accepted" and slid open more doors into an empty lounge — the one where we should have been using to do some breaking bread shit and celebrate our journey ahead, but I guess Earth had other plans.

Cameron rubbed the car ride's sleep out of his eyes as he pointed to the long table of untouched finger foods of all kinds just sitting on the table in the distance as he asked --

"Can we get something to eat? Possibly something that definitely isn't on the colony catalog?" He asked.

Mom stifled into laughter as her three children wasted zero time immediately after her nod in approval for us to race towards the buffet.

I stuffed a glutinous amount of chocolate mini cakes into my mouth. Tyler helped himself to the cold chicken samosas and Cameron grabbed as many colors of macarons his little hands could hold.

"Cosgroves! So glad you've finally made it!" an unfamiliar British accented voice shouted as he approached us. I nearly choked on the crème brûlée mini donut I now forced down my throat as I turned to look at him.

His hair matched the emptiness of his grey eyes behind those thick lenses. I tried to act as civil as possible as he let his hand out to shake mine.

"You three must be Nailah, Tyler, and Cameron!" he said. I forced a smile and awkward laughter with food still in my mouth, before sharing a quick look with Tyler, whose face I read to be utterly unimpressed that his precious mealtime was disturbed.