Alex counted in her head,  She was in her dark purple space suit , which looked like a wet suit from the 2020s. Alex was the youngest ever Space cadet to be promoted to Captain, at just fifteen years old. The elevator seemed to take forever to reach the space dock.

One, two, three..  four, five, six..

The crew looked nervously at each other. "There’s no need to be nervous, we trained for this. Orbiting Earth? Piece of cake" said Alex, to the crew but partly to herself. It helped to know that she wasn't the only one anxious about being launched into space in a cone of metal as thin as foil. 

"There’s no need to be nervous, we trained for this. Orbiting Earth? Piece of cake"

"Alex is right, we came here to go to space, and that's what we are gonna do!" said Lillian

"Whoo-hoo!" said Michael; he raised his palms up in the air. The doors opened, here we go.

"Let's do this," said Alex

They all walked out of the elevator and into the ship; they were in a small room, with four seats with their backs to the floor.  They each took their assigned seat and strapped in.

 Alex recognized the voice on the speaker, it was Graham Wilson, he had been their training coach.

"Welcome Cadets and Captain Alex. This is Mission Control. This mission will take only two weeks, you will orbit the earth and study how the continents are reforming as Pangea. Focus on your mission and God Speed"

Alex took a deep breath; there was a loud hissing sound, then a weird banging sound then: BOOOOooOOooOooOOOOOM! The spaceship began to shake.  

She felt herself pressed into her seat as the shuttle launched into space. She closed her eyes and let her body sink into the seat. Eyes still closed she took long deep breaths and didn’t move a muscle until they were in orbit. 

“Lilian, are you ok?” asked Alex.

“Uh huh” said Lillian, nodding her head slightly, eyes closed.

“Dude, chill, we cool up in this space joint” said Michael

“I- oh my- ah-!” said Lilian “I’m in space! I regret it, I regret it already!”

“Chill, it’s two weeks not two months!” George said.