This was it, this was the moment Fabian’s life would change forever. He’d worked towards this moment for years, and finally it was here. He slowly lifted his envelope to the application box, savouring every second of this momentous occasion. The moment he applied for an actual space mission. The moment his dream of seeing extra-terrestrial plants would become reality.
I had to light my candle by touch alone. For a moment, the smoke of the match overpowered the other smells permeating the air.
The relief didn’t last long.
My eyes hurt. Either because of the smell, or because I watched the stars for too long. I watched for hours. When I close my eyes, I can still see the millions of pinpricks spot my vision.
Prompt by: u/AnakinWayneII 2020CE: a group of investigative journalists and rogue intelligence analysts are investigating “wild” claims that 2 secret manned missions to Mars occurred nearly 40 years ago. Things get heated after some of the journalists die in “accidents” and intelligence analysts begin to go “missing”. There have been rumours going around that the space shuttles weren’t the only new space crafts launched in the eighties. Whispers of a project even more ambitious than the International Space Station. Grander than the Moon landings. Wild claims, ridiculous claims. Really, we shouldn’t have even bothered. The fact that we managed to get together such a big team is honestly ridiculous. No one really believed in some secret manned missions to Mars. How could something like that remain a secret? But work had been slow the last year, and this sounded more interesting than the usual slog. It didn’t take long before I was joined by...