Date: 2099. First manned mission to venus, after the success of the mission to mars and the subsequent settlement of it, it was decided a small team would approach venus for personal study, althpugh the desire to settle there was… lacking.
Dr Corie Peters, Sussana Balding, and Yves Prasad would lead the mission, with Albie Moran being their main contact back on earth. THe ship would support them for several years of space travel, should something go wrong and strand them away from earth. Dr Peters, a fine physician and astronaut, had devised an excersise routine for the three of them that would help prevent (or atleast limit) muscular atrophy in the zero-G atmosphere, and was dedicated to keeping Balding and Prasad on it. Balding, who had just as much technical knowlege as Prasad, was tasked with entertainment alongside her usual duties. Prasad focused on navigation and communication, being the most linguistically adept of all of them. On top of English, Russian, Hindi, ASL, AUSLAN, she also spoke conversational Mandirn Chinese and Spanish, and could probably piece together something in french if needed. THe three had prepared for years before this mission, and all were leaving somethjing behind.
Peters kissed her Daughter before she left, Balding left behind an incomplete novel (planning to somehow complete it o the journy regardless… just without her manuscript) and Prasad her ailing parents, her brother promised to take good care of them. The three were friends, and had to be for this decade-long mission. Albie Moran they met on the day of launch. Lorin Coopers had left the mission due to some family conflict, unable to work the 24/7 job as main communicator with the Venus Mission. Albie Moran had nothing to loose and everything to gain for taking his possition, and was eager to fullfill his role as communicator. Moran would be their lifeline, the one person they could contact at any point in the mission for any reason - from boredom to fatal technological disasters. Even though they would be monitored by an entire fleet of computers and staff, Moran was more than someoen calculating tragectories - he would keep them up to date socially.
Day 3 and earth was still large in the viewing window. Morans voice drifted over the intercom. He was delayed, so conversations were always a bit slow, but Prasad didnt mind. Balding continued her observation of earth (Aoteroa was now descending into night) and half listened to Morans report on the Srilankan film awards, which featured him stumbling over name pronounciations every few moments. Prasad, ever patient, corrected him, which would then take a few minutes to relay back to him, and he would repeat back a few minutes later with the correct pronounciations. The delay would only grow longer with every day they travelled away from earth, and Balding commended Morans dedication to this tedious process.
“Worried about our first year away from home?” Asked Peters as she drifted down to Balding’s side.
“Not particularly, I’ve always had a good imagination - should we run out of things to talk about, I can always make something up”
“Not what I meant, moreso any failures in the ship would have to be repaired with no help from anyone else aside from us… frankly I think they should have given us a bigger team.”
“Sounds like you’re the one worried, Corie.”
Peters huffed. “Our abilities are fine, but If I were to become incapacitated, you would be down a doctor”
“We all have medical training, besides more people would have meant a bigger ship, more resources, more everything that we simply could not afford to loose.”
“But the missions to mars have been largely successful, with the 100 people ferry. We could have atleast had a team of 20 heading out towards venus”
“Towards a hot lump of rock and toxic gas… I dunno Peters, sounds ridiculous to put that many people on such a mission.” The argument had been going on since the team was finalised to the three of them. Peters had let her frustrations known, while Balding and Prasad simply accepted the terms and moved on. Balding grew tired of the convesation and before Peters could speak up, pushed off the wall and back into the living section where Prasad listened to the intercom.
“…Hollywoods newest movie “The” has been a box office success…” Morans youthful voice crackled slightly. Balding looked towards Prasad in confusion, who simply rolled her eyes.
“Yes, they named a movie ‘The’, I believe they have run out of words to use”
“Moran” Balding interrupted his report on the exact numbers.
“Yes sir?”
“Can we possibly get that movie? I know we have precious filespace but I think I wan tto see “the” for myself” She winked as Prasad. They already had plenty in their entertainment caatelouge. Moran criticised them for just that.
“Balding I cannot send you any film of your requirement, the energy cost is too much for a 90 minute runtime oscar-bait-“
“That’ll do, moran” she sighed. “I just wanted to know.”
Their venus-bound ship was the Classica. She was narrow, with two living quarters bisected by the main hallway. Viewing windows occupied parts of the ceilling and would-be floor, primarily towards the helm. Storage was all amongst them in quick-access. The whole ship had the appearance of a vague cone slightly squished. Like a rounded party-hat that had been sat on by a child. The design was fine for their project, but hardly stylish like some of the astroyatchs that had been released. The average person could enjoy a spacewalk for a small fee, but owning any form of spaceship was still strictly only for trained professionals, and would likely remain that way for some time. Balding, for all her love for science-fiction, found that no matter how cool the concept is, some fool would find a way to crash it into the closest building. Astrocoz would not be held responsible for any accidental acts of terrorism from a spaceship piloted badly.
NASA, alongside multiple space travel agencies, had been absorbed into Astrocos following the major conflict in the 2060s, operating as individuals in a collective rather than individualls with some shared infomration. Space-X had fallen to bankrupcy in the later 30s, and liquidated. No one alive cared about its short lived existance, that was the nature of life. New people are born and care less about the world that once existed. What mattered to Peters and Baldings and Prasads parents mattered to them… if it was relevant. Certain social media trends, popular fasion and foods, political events and so on were interesting to learn about, tbu they were never going to be the lived lives of the next generation. Prasad cared a lot about her familys history, more than the other two, but even she only focsed on the now. And right now, she was approaching 4 days away from earth. It would be 5 years before she would see them again.
