I didn't have to take more than two steps out of the airlock to see the size of the research station. I'd thought the dropship's size was incredible, but it could barely compare to the main vessel, which must have been at least twenty times larger. Even though I'd been briefed on what the ship would look like, it still amazed me how we could get something like this up in space—and how I had been selected to work in it.

Brown turned to us with a smile and a sweep of her arm. "Welcome to The Skeld!" she announced.

My friends, Lime and Yellow, looked equally as awestruck as I felt. We're the only ones who have never been on this ship. In fact, we've never been in space before at all. This is our first ever training mission. Might I add, this is only the fifth journey in the world allowing trainees to come along. Not to brag, but I think that makes us pretty special.

This stage of our training is to go into space and gain two months of experience on a real spacecraft. We'll learn how to fix and manage equipment on board, to work as a team in an isolated environment, and become familiar with ground control communication. Although this trip serves no purpose other than training, I'm feeling like the most important guy in the world.

There are ten members on board: Red, White, Black, Green, Brown, Pink, Purple, me, Yellow, and Lime. The older ship members have all been in here before; especially Brown and White, who have each spent most of their career on this ship.

Brown and Red, the latter being our commander, guided Lime and I through the back side of the ship. Purple and Pink led Yellow down the other side. We made plans to each make a full round through the ship and reconcile in the cafeteria, which doubled as our meeting room.

Black, White, and Green all headed to the front of the ship to confirm connections with ground control and chart the course for our journey. Midway through the tour, Brown broke off from our group so she could examine the engines before they were started up.

Red led us into a small room. Several complex-looking monitors lined one wall, as well as three panels. In the center of the room, two small steps created a dip in the red-tiled floor, leading to a large table. One corner of the room was slightly cut off to create a small two-foot-long section of wall. On this wall was another monitor.

Red said over his shoulder, "This is Admin. Don't worry about those computers on that wall. We hardly ever use those, and it's generally only the older crew members who do. The table is for keeping track of crewmates' locations, but there really is no need to use it. In case you do want to use it, this is the switch to turn it on." He opened a small panel on the side of the table and flicked a switch. The screen embedded in the center of the platform lit up with a brief flash of green light. It now showed a map of the ship from above. The map wasn't in great detail; only outlines of the rooms were shown. There were multiple small circular icons spread throughout the rooms. As I watched, one disappeared for a moment and reappeared in an adjacent room.

"See these circles? They each represent one crewmate. We can't see who they are—our ship doesn't have that kind of technology yet—but there are sensors to tell how many people are in that room." He pointed to Navigation on the map. "That's probably Green. And here, in Communications, must be White and Black."

"What is this for?" Lime pointed to the other side of the table, where an appliance rose from the platform.

"That's the card swipe to check in every morning."

"Why do we need to swipe it every day?" I said.

"Honestly, I'm not sure. We were told that it's to check in, but I don't see why it's necessary, considering how we can't desert the ship in the middle of space."

I chuckled and continued with, "One more question—what is that vent in the corner for? I've seen them in some of the rooms."

"Ask as many questions as you'd like. Those are to distribute oxygen around the ship and to generally help regulate air flow," Red explained.

Since Admin was the last room we toured, we turned right to go meet up with the others. The cafeteria was right next to Admin down a very short hallway. The others were waiting for us. It had only taken around half an hour to fully tour the ship.

A side note: the inside joke of our color-coded names started a month or so before our trip. Each crewmate gets to pick a colored uniform in advance. Brown jokingly referred to her friend as "Purple" while we were working one day. Most of the crew didn't pay any attention, but Purple and White found it amusing. Gradually, the rest of us caught on. I think it was made official when a dispute broke out about exactly what color my uniform was. Some said turquoise, some said aqua, but Green eventually confirmed the exact shade to be Cyan, and we stuck with that.

The first thing that caught my attention was a glass box in the center of the table. Under the glass was a wide red button on a yellow and black platform. The word EMERGENCY was printed in bold white letters on either side of the button. The fact that someone considered this a necessary addition to the station kind of unnerved me.

"What is that button for?" I asked hesitantly.

"Don't be intimidated by it," Brown assured. "If someone presses it, it will set off an alarm and trigger flashing red lights in the corners of the rooms. That means we all need to immediately report to this table for a meeting, no matter what we're doing. Someone on my last mission here set it off once because they thought something in O2 was malfunctioning—it wasn't, thankfully—and it scared the shit out of me."

Still not fully reassured, I nodded and fixed my gaze on the wall panels next to me instead.

"So, what do we do now?" Lime asked.

"We have a long list of tasks to work on. It's already getting late, so I don't see any point in starting now," Green said.

"We should do something to celebrate our first night here," I suggested.

"Funny you should mention that," Pink said with a grin.

Red seemed to become wary upon noticing her expression. "And what do you mean by that?"

"Hold on." She hopped up and rushed down the hall.

Red glanced at us uneasily. Lime, Brown, and Green were obviously trying to hold back snickers. Black couldn't hide a smirk of her own.

Pink came back a minute or so later with her backpack. I started laughing a bit myself at her rebellious expression. Red very obviously didn't trust her.

"So, I've learned from past trips that they don't check our—"

"Cut the stalling and just tell us!" Black encouraged.

Pink extracted two tall bottles from her backpack. "Look what I brought," she said in a singsongy, mischievous tone.

"Oh, yeah," Yellow cheered.

"So you're just gonna tease me like this? I'm underage," Lime laughed.

"By a month. You'll be fine," Purple assured.

"Just go easy," Black advised. "Considering how you're a responsible kid, you'll probably have no tolerance."

"Seriously? You can't encourage this!" Red shook his head in disbelief.

"Hey, c'mon! We can't have a little fun? It's not like there's enough for us to get intoxicated. Just a small celebratory glass of wine for everyone," Pink giggled, completely ignoring Red's disapproval.

"Here is not the place for this kind of fun," he said.

"What's done is done." Pink casually set the bottles on the table.

Red opened his mouth to scold her more, but closed it again after a moment. He knew there was nothing he could do about it, especially since the other nine of us were all for the idea.

My first night on The Skeld was just as exciting as I'd hoped it would be—although, not completely in the way I'd expected. Even Red eventually gave in and joined the festivities. I have to admit, Pink was incredibly stupid to smuggle this on board, but it was a great idea. Maybe she knew Red would allow it since they're such close friends.

I already know that this is going to be an awesome experience.