Snippet's

Space Dabbles

Hey everyone!! This might be the last little story in this book, since I'm going to work on a story that actually has a plot. Wish y'all the best!!  Hope you enjoy this little story!! ( ◞･౪･)

T-minus 29 seconds until lift-off. 20 seconds, 18 seconds....

Kalisto squeezed her eyes shut, breathing in deeply. 3,2,1...she exhaled and tapped her fingers against the console. She leaned back in her seat in the crypto-pod, staring up at the metal ceiling. Her earpiece dinged softly and she tapped it.

Lift-off in 6 seconds, 5 seconds...Accept? The robotic voice asked her. She nodded- not like there was anyone else in the cockpit with her-and straitened herself, sitting properly and pressing the red button on her side. A flickering hologram appeared before her. A nondescript figure formed, his bland grey suit sticking to him like a second skin. He nodded towards her.

" Astronaut Kalisto,"he addressed. She nodded back at him- she seemed to enjoy nodding quite a bit. "You have the rundown of the mission?"he asked her.

She nodded once more. " Yes, the mission to the planet Zerces 3."she stated, then began to parrot the file she had meticulously studied. " Zerces 3 is the newly discovered planet in the Tetros Galaxy, approximately 3 million light years away from us. It recently showed up on our scanners due to our recent exploration to a neighboring planet in Tetros-"she said, and began to tap away at the control panel, pulling up a holographic map of the planets. In the background, she could hear the whirring of the machinery, the beeping of the control monitors, the crew yelling at each other. She felt the ship exit the last of Earth's atmosphere, and the invisible force lift off of her.

She sighed and continued her speech- " Our mission is to extract soil and crystal samples from the planet, and then deliver it to Space Station Cali for further study and to determine if the planet is habitable. If it is, then we are to collect various samples of the planet, and prepare it for Inquisition." she stated. She looked at the hologram. Did he seem satisfied with her explanation?

He nodded, his face still impassive as he looked down-presumably to a datapad, she guessed. He looked back up at her. " Continue on with the mission then, Astronaut."he finished, the holograph turning off.

Kalisto sighed and began to tap at her datapad, preparing her numerous equipment for the long journey. It would take at least 4 months to reach Zerces 3, and she needed to make sure her instruments were ready for the journey.

The switches were flicked, the cooler has been turned off to save power- Can't have us run out of power during the trip, she thought- and the tiny data readers, along with the bots had been booted up and test run by the time she heard a tiny knock at the door. She internally groaned, knowing who it was. " Come in,"she called. A tall, grey haired, tan girl popped her head in, a wide smile on her face. " Heya Kalisto!"

Kalisto turned to look at the girl for a brief second, then turned to look back at the datapad. " Abri."she replied, tapping away vigorously at her screen.

Abri, Kalisto's research partner, was a Ziggan, whose family had immigrated to Earth from the planet Zigga, as the name implied. Kalisto and Abri had shared a dorm room, classes, and meals together since they were research partners, and Kalisto had hated it. She hated how peppy and down right annoying Abri was. It didn't exactly help that Abri was a Ziggan, either.

Abri childlisly skipped in, heading to the hovering chair stationed next to Kalisto's. She sat down, and turned to another console-there were three consoles in the pod- and began fiddling with it. Kalisto scoffed and turned to her. " Could you stop screwing around with that. You aren't exactly the best using those."she said, glaring at Abri. Abri flinched and stared at her inquisitively.

" But," Abri began, " everyone know to use consoles..."she said, trailing off. Kalisto rolled her eyes.

" Yes, but these are state of the art consoles- not just anyone could operate them." Kalisto replied, going back to the console's glowing screen. She inspected one of the charts, silence engulfing the room.

" Oh-okay.."she heard Abri mutter, accompanied by a tapping noise. Abri was tapping her foot on the ground. Kalisto ground her teeth in annoyance.

"Could you stop?"she asked, whipping her head towards her, glaring. Abri jerked up, startled, her skin turning pink from embarrassment.

" S-sure!" Abri replied, and stopped tapping, instead playing with her thumbs. Kalisto turned towards the console, and began her work.

The days passed like that- Kalisto and Abri would walk into the office, Abri would attempt to help her, Kalisto would shoot her down, and Abri would fiddle around with the comm sets, attempting to scan some other data.

Just as they were reaching the last leg of their trip, a strange transmission came over their comms. Kalisto glanced at Abri. " Can you track it?"she asked, staring at the Ziggan. Abri nodded, and lightning crackled at her fingertips.

Ziggans, as well as being able to change their skin tones based on whatever emotion they were feeling, could manipulate electricity and machines. They were considered to be the perfect engineers, and during the influx of Ziggan immigration, almost all of Earth's human engineers were replaced with far more efficient Ziggan engineers. Kalisto's father had been an engineer for NASA, now known as TSI, for years-a Ziggan had one day come and replaced his position, rendering him jobless. He'd gotten stuck working as a janitor. Kalisto had had to work extra hard to get into TSI's space program, while Abri had just waltzed in.

She was shaken out of her thoughts by Abri's shocked gasp. She looked over at the Ziggan girl. " What?"she asked, raising an eyebrow.

Abri looked a mixture of shocked, confused, and scared as she pointed to the transmission signal. " I-it's coming from Zerces 3."she said, gulping.