girl genius ¹ ≫ young tony stark

fifty six

February 15, 1992 — Somewhere in Space
2:10 PM, EST

"Shelby. Shelby!"

Adam jolted Shelby awake as he gently shook her arm. Her green eyes fluttered open, instantly noticing the smoke that was filling the capsule.

"What happened?" She asked, sitting up far too quickly and regretting it as dark circles clouded her vision.

"We were hit with something. I don't know what, maybe a meteoroid," Adam said. "Are you alright?"

Shelby reached for her forehead, and although it was pounding, there didn't seem to be any blood. "I'll be okay, I think I've got a concussion, though," she admitted. "Where is the smoke coming from?"

She turned towards the back half of the capsule, seeing that Wilson was investigating the other half. Walker sat at the front of the ship, still piloting them towards home.

"Back half," Wilson responded. "We have to close it off. I can see the flames, there's no way we can put them out before they reach the oxygen tanks, and if that happens, this entire thing will burst, us along with it."

Shelby's stomach churned. "No, we can't!" She pushed past Adam, peering into the smoky darkness of the other half of the capsule. Emergency lights illuminated the smoke, but beyond that, she couldn't see any movement. Whatever had hit their shuttle had certainly forced the door between the two parts shut. "Dr. Feldstein is in there!"

"Shelby --" Adam reached for her as she moved towards Wilson, ready to pull him back from the control panel that could detach the two halves.

"Wilson, he's in there. We have to get him out." She banged loudly on the door, which wouldn't budge. "Dr. Feldstein! Do you hear me?" No response returned, and Shelby felt a lump form in her throat. "Joe?" Her voice cracked.

"Houston says the O2 tanks will blow any minute now," Walker called from the front. "We have to detach."

Shelby grasped onto the back of Wilson's suit, pulling him away from the panel. "No, we can get him out of there!" Her hands shook as she held him back.

"We have to let him go, Red," Wilson said, turning to look at Shelby. His face was solemn, and it looked as heartbroken as Shelby felt. "I don't want to do this, but there's nothing else we can do."

Shelby knocked on the door one last time. "Joe, if you hear me, knock twice on something!"

No sound, beyond the roar of the flames, answered back to Shelby. If Dr. Feldstein was still alive in there, he wasn't conscious.

"Shelby, we have to let him go," Adam said, gently placing a hand on her shoulder.

Shelby shrugged him off and glanced out of the capsule window as she composed herself. Her eyes caught something near the shuttle, another craft of some kind.

"What the hell is that?" Walker's voice echoed her own thoughts, and the Tenacity crew watched as the foreign shuttle zoomed turned away from them, as if the Tenacity had been their target, and the mission was complete.

Shelby saw a face standing at the front of the ship, a man that appeared human, though somewhat extraterrestrial as well. Beside him stood two others, a blonde woman and a creature with skin as blue as the sky.

"We have to close it off," Wilson said, pulling Shelby's attention back from the attackers.

"Right," Shelby sighed. "Go on, then."

Tears rolled down Shelby's cheeks as she watched Wilson punch in a code on the control panel. She pictured Dr. Feldstein's smiling face; his kind words. She remembered the phone call she'd gotten from him in college, and how happy she had been when she learned she would be working for one of NASA's best. She remembered Miriam, and the love he had for her.

There was a loud grinding sound, and then the second half of the shuttle detached, floating backwards into space. It became smaller and smaller behind them, before the flames inside finally caught the extra oxygen tanks, exploding the capsule into millions of pieces.

"Tenacity, do you read? Status update, Tenacity."

The Tenacity crew fell silent as they mourned their lost leader.

"I repeat, status update, Tenacity. Do you copy?"

Shelby brought an unsteady hand to her comms unit. "This is Colewell, we copy. Tenacity has detached from its second module. We've lost Feldstein."

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Official Press Release

Re: Tenacity incident on 02-15-1992

FEBRUARY 16, 1992 - HOUSTON, TX - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reports that at 2:17 p.m. on February 15, 1992, an incident occured that impacted the integrity of the Tenacity return shuttle as they returned to Earth after a mission to the moon. Astronauts aboard, along with correspondence from NASA Mission Control in Houston, TX, made the decision to detach from the second module of the shuttle, in which an internal fire had started. After detaching from the main Tenacity module, said module was destroyed after the fire reached extra oxygen gas tanks that had been stored there.

The incident has resulted in one fatality, Dr. Joseph B. Feldstein, 55, of Cape Canaveral, FL, commanding officer of the Tenacity crew. Dr. Feldstein is survived by his wife, Miriam, and mother, Henrietta.

Other injuries have been reported among crew members, but the extent of these will not be known until the astronauts have returned to Earth and can be evaluated by medical personnel.

Dr. Feldstein's loss is felt throughout all of NASA, as he was an integral part of the organization, and especially the Tenacity team. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of Dr. Feldstein and the surviving Tenacity crew members as they continue their trip back to Earth.

An investigation is currently underway as to what caused the shuttle's integral failure.