Tears descended down the cheeks of the young engineer as he stood in the desolate hallway of the spacing conveyor, staring out at the darkened and fractured earth below him. Teddy sighed gently, looking away quickly, as his mind wandered back to the words his brother muttered to him before he left. I’ll be okay. Clenching his fists, the aluminum alloy wall collided with his knuckles, ensanguining the hard flesh. An irate huff of air escaped his lips as he rubbed his knuckles to soothe the pain, not that it did much. Teddy took a few steps back from the unyielding surface.
“Bullshit,” he muttered to himself. “He couldn’t survive even if he tried.”
The sound of amplifying footsteps came from behind him in the bleak corridor. He peered over his shoulder at the noise, his powder blue optics spotting the shiny, sable hair.
“Teddy! There you are. I thought I would never find you on this mass of a ship,” a mellow voice declared, a smile on their thin lips.
The other male looked over at the younger adult somberly, “Who says I wanted to be found, Hazel?”
The raven-haired male’s smile faltered, a rare sight, as he remembered that his companion was not in the best moods. Teddy’s gaze drifted away, not wanting to be bothered by his presence.
“If you say so, Ted…. um, Admin wants us to meet in the boarding room to discuss course action and regulations… so I guess I’ll see you there…” Hazel muttered, almost inaudibly. Teddy nodded vacantly, his oculi settled on the window that displayed deep space.

...

March 27, 2047
11:36 PM
I had spent the past few hours kicking stuff in my dormitory before I had finally settled down. I couldn’t stop thinking about him. I tried every coping mechanism I could find on the internet. One, writing it down and reading it out. That ended up with me spending five hours crying my eyes out. Two, talking to other people about it. There was not one person on this whole godforsaken ship that felt what I was going through. All I received was useless advice and a few “You’re a man. Walk it off.” Sigh. Third, cry. That’s what I’ve been doing. That’s the only thing I could do. I couldn’t save him. I need to accept that.

...

“Please, sir, if we could have a manned emergency pod with one of our engineers controlling its coordinates, we could be thought highly of by America for returning one of their astronauts,” a demanding voice tried to persuade the intimidating figure before him. The male looked over, an amazed yet pissed expression tracing his rigid features. “Even if we did, the Americans wouldn’t want a sick passenger with them.” The smaller man frowned and looked away, “He doesn’t belong here, sir. Please, he has a family that is still alive. He still has a chance… please?”

...

May 3, 2047
6:03 AM
You may be wondering why I’m up so early? Today was my birthday and I hated every living minute of it. I was expecting the staff birthday party that was bound to happen later, but what was the point? I’m just getting closer to death and at this point, I’ve hit such a low that certain… thoughts have come to mind. But I couldn’t. I have friends who care about me. And a brother who may possibly be watching me from the heavens, purgatory, afterlife, etc. Maybe they’ll give me a mountain of paperwork as a present so I can distract myself from my existential crisis.

...

“I really must thank you, guys. I’m pretty sure I’ve been a pain in the ass and you’re most likely glad to be rid of me,” the brunette grinned as he rubbed the back of his neck. The cadet smiled back and replied jovially, “I honestly wish you could stay longer. Americans sure are interesting, but maybe we will be able to communicate later in the future, Frederick.” Frederick’s smile only widened and he held out his hand, both shaking wistfully. “You’ll hopefully be in the course of their space conveyor in a month. I wish you safe travels and Godspeed.”
...

“Sir, you may want to see this,” the captain of the ship called the administrator. The man looked over, his eyebrows raising in awareness, “What is it, Captain Chian?” He gracefully walked down the silver steps to a large command center at the front of the ship, which looked out at the stars and blackness of space. “An unidentified object is making contact with the ship,” he replied, The administrator gave him a questioning look, “Well, if it is of no concern to us, then let it pass by. If it causes damage, then we’ll have to destroy it.” Chian sighed and looked away, “Contact as in communication, sir. It may be a probe from another country, possibly wanting us to receive something.” With a tilt of his head, he commanded, “Use a heat scan and if anything is inside, we’ll bring it in.” Chian nodded before reaching for his radio and commencing in code with another crew member, most likely on another part of the ship. After about half an hour or so, the radio beeped and a female spoke, “Captain, results. Over.” Chian responded, “Send them over. Over and out.” Satellite images popped up on the large monitor at the front of the command center and the administrator and Chian looked over, both of their eyes widening in shock.

“Is that a person?”

...

June 3, 2047
11:24 PM
What could they have possibly wanted at this time of night?! They basically called all of NASA’s staff, who were most likely in the middle of a good night’s sleep. And all for some kind of unidentifiable object approaching the ship! Fucking idiots… Well, all I can listen to is what they have to say. It’s not like I could just leave the room. Unless...

...

“I’m sorry to interrupt you this late at night,” the administrator began, which was replied with a few dreary groans. “I’ve come to inform you, however, that the object has something inside. After many scans, we have come to realize that it is an emergency probe sent from China and we have discovered that there is a human inside.” The silence settled for a few seconds until everyone in the room grew into a full-blown panorama of cacophonous noises. Teddy was standing in the middle, his eyes widened and his mouth agape. The only word he could think of seemed to escape his thin lips.

“Frederick?”

...

June 6, 2047
5:50 AM
I spent all night and morning pacing around my room in anticipation as Hazel tried to get me to sit and calm down. How could I? Frederick could possibly be alive. How is that even possible? How did he even get in a Chinese probe? Was he with China the whole time? They allowed him on the ship, despite him being sick? Or did he sneak on? Is that a war crime? All these thoughts swirled around in my mind like a tornado as I started to feel sick to my stomach. I could have stayed and watched the engineers of this ship retrieve my brother, but the probability of something going wrong freaked me out and made me extremely nauseous, I could barely stand. Hazel shouted, trying to get my attention, yet I remained caught up in my thoughts.

...

Hazel sighed in vexation and stood from his friend’s bed. He raised his hand and with a swift movement of his palm, he struck Teddy’s cheek, causing the skin to go red. Teddy flinched and held the side of his face, whimpering, “What was that for?” Hazel rolled his eyes, “You need to calm down. If you weren’t aware, Frederick is already safely on board while you were walking around, unable to keep your shit together.” Teddy’s eyes widened for he had ignored the rest of Hazel’s lecture when he mentioned that his brother was on the ship. He quickly speeded out of the room and Hazel’s eyes widened, going after him and yelling, “Teddy, hold up!”

...

A month had passed ever since the astronaut, Frederick Hadriens, was retrieved from space and welcomed into the U.S. space conveyor. He spent weeks in training as doctors and scientists wanted to witness the effects of space travel over extremely long distances. His younger brother waited every day for his training to be done, so they could catch up. No one believed that Frederick had survived, but then again, that man was full of surprises.

-------------

After a few weeks, everything had returned to normal and Frederick had relaxed back into the circle of friendship with Hazel and Teddy. They seemed to pass it over as if it had been another bump in the road. In addition, their trip would soon be ending as their destination lurked closer. Hazel walked beside the two brothers in the corridor and smiled, “We’re so close to Venus. I can feel it. I can’t wait until we get there. I wonder if the city is going to be just like America. The anticipation is killing me!” Teddy sighed, “I’m pretty sure it’s not that great because eventually, something is going to go wrong, as always. That’s just humanity. There are always flaws in their plans.” Hazel huffed at the younger brother’s pessimistic attitude and Frederick quickly intercepted, “Weeeell, they were able to save me, so maybe we should have a little more faith in humankind.” Teddy glanced over at his older brother and sighed, “Fiiiinee….” Hazel halted in the hallway and rushed to the window, pushing his face against it, like a child seeing Disneyland for the first time. “Guys, come look!” The brothers walked over and gazed out the window with him, their eyes widening.