ⁿᵃᶦˡᵃʰ'ˢ ᵖᵒᵛ

‧₊˚✩ 🪐✩˚₊‧

"WH--NAL, ARE YOU FREAKING DEMENTED?" Tyler yelled so loud over my radio that I grew accustomed to moving my wrist as far away from my ear as possible whenever he got the chance to trash the plan I proposed to him.

"Maybe, but -- We're kinda low on options apart from being electrically shocked to the point of no return by literally all security" I asserted, sharply inhaling as I looked up to mom and dad strapping the disposable emergency gas masks on, "Don't ask me why or -- or how...this is all your parent's fault --"

"-- When I told Cam how dad was gonna Tom Cruise his way to us, I didn't actually mean it!" he whined, "And I'm not that at ease knowing I gotta fly this Jupiter blind"

I really didn't have time for his utter lack of faith in me, I just saved his parent's asses and this was my thank you?

"Come on, piloting a Jupiter is like riding a...40 million dollar bike" I immediately scrunched my face with his loud silence, pursing my lips.

I could feel the unimpressed blank stare on his face, before he eventually summoned the board of directors, "...Mom?" he flatly drew out.

My eyes flickered to my mother hesitantly lifting her comm, her eyes softening at my gaze, before deeply sighing as she switched to Ty's frequency as she stated--

"Look-- Both dad and I certainly don't agree with your sister's...exotic methods of getting us to safety," I lifted my helmet to hover above me as I waited impatiently for her to continue, "but I trust her enough to believe that this is our only way out of this" she said, breathily.

"Powering up" I heard the computer announce over Tyler's radio

As I clicked my helmet on, with its lights igniting, I tried to suppress the cheeky smile on my stained face as I firmly nodded at mom's reluctant approval. I lifted my chin as mom and dad waited on my instructions — this was hands down the best and worst moment of my life.

"Your call, kid" dad sighed, I could tell he was too out of it to even dismiss my plan. My shoulders lifted with the deep breath I took in, about to boss my own family around — not like I never do.

I looked around the large metal bulkhead doors, then to the sensor beside it, then to the loud bangs on the door from where we entered, then back to mom and dad while my mind brewed up a step-by-step.

"Alright mom, I need you to shift lock an override on the sensors security for the bulkhead doors to schedule a close in...8 minutes," I commanded, mom nodding as she waved her inner wrist over the screen sensor beside the door, working her authoritative juices as dad and I set the clocks on our comms.

"Dad, I need you to manually open the bulkhead to the helipad," I told, as mom gave us the greenlight to proceed.

Beeping my radio on, I continued, "Ty and Cam, get the garage open and signal a path for us to follow — the storm is pretty intense now so we'll need the 500W floodlights to penetrate through...Then we run like hell"

I never realised how obnoxiously louder my breathing sounded under the confinement of my helmet.

"Currently, the wind speed rate is at 45 miles per hour and rising, and we've got a one second delay between the security knocking this door down and this bulkhead closing shut" mom paced around the corner of the office as we impatiently waited on dad's struggle to lift open the doors.

"In other words, we better move" dad strained, as the bulkhead doors loudly creaked open to the harsh roar of the outside storm.

My eyebrows twitched at mom's attire being only a blue dress, a lab coat and 6-inch heels as she kicked the taser gun lying on the floor — let's just say I was the only one actually equipped for this mission.

"Mom, how the hell are you gonna--"

"Nailah, baby, I've been through far worse. Trust me" she panted, smiling as her hair flew so graciously in this wind.

"Uh, yeah...Cam, on your mark" I finally continued on, my right foot in front of my left as we waited for bright light to show us the way.

"Garage is opening. Floodlights are on" his little voice confirmed

"Copy. Get ready to run" dad was in his serious voice, holding onto mom's hand as they ran into the outside, using his body to block mom from the wind.

"I'll be right behind you!" I yelled, grunting at the force it took for me to reach the bulkhead doorways.

And it was at that very moment when I remembered my unfinished business I had with the one specific women's restroom.

Oh shit.

I bounced my foot as I stared out into the harsh weather of the outside, then back to the other end of the office room — I could see the image of the women's bathroom icon glowing in my head, mocking me.

I sharply inhaled and exhaled as I grunted in frustration. The only thing that burned in my fogged up mind was --

Nico's scrunchie.

"I-- I have to go back I-- I can't leave without it-- " I trembled as I trailed off, feeling my chest close up with all the sense I had left in me. I panted as I slowly stepped back from the bulkhead.

My hands violently shook as the hearing in my ears muffled, blocking me from all the yelling, from all the chaos.

I turned to my right, where the 'EMERGENCY EXIT' enchanted me with its glow — a way to the women's bathroom. But the timer set on my radio's clock actually felt like a ticking time bomb.

Don't do the math.

I grabbed the taser gun lying at my feet, holding it close to me, before darting my way to push open the swingy doors of the emergency exit.

I retraced the path we took earlier to get to those bathrooms, clenching my fingers to the taser gun trigger in case I was spotted.

My breaths were sharp, and my chest burned as my eyes eagerly scanned every sign that might match the cartoon of a glowing woman.

"...Oh thank God" I exhaled, rushing into the maze leading to the bathroom stalls as soon as I was greeted by the glowing icon.

And there it was: the olive green-velvet half a decade old scrunchie, peacefully lying on the marble counters.

I shakily rolled the hair tie back around my left wrist, "I so wasn't gonna travel 26 trillion miles away from Earth without you" I laughed to myself.

After a nonstop sprint back, I was finally in view of the emergency exit doors into the office with the open bulkhead blowing in heaps of sand.

I was finally about to leave this damn place, after the abundance of delays — this was the most content I've felt today.

As I grabbed the metal push bar, I abruptly stopped moving. The shiver behind my cold neck froze me in place. Someone was behind me.

"You didn't think you could get rid of me that easily, did you?"

The voice hoarsely spoke, annoyingly slurred in his speech. My lips quivered as I slowly turned around, a gasp escaping me as my eyes widened at the man — with a large and empty syringe sticking out from his neck.

I could tell George wasn't...himself. It wasn't only that his white lab coat had its entire right sleeve in deep red, or his sweat dripping from his chin. He was less alert, awake.

Like the lights were on but nobody was home — if he was himself, he would've noticed eons ago that I've been slowly opening the door behind me.

I froze as I gulped down my saliva, my shoulders lifting closer to my neck. He stood about 9 feet apart from me, and as I trailed my eyes down to the sharp shard of glass he squeezed in his palm, I flatly asked --

"Is that for me?"

He didn't make a sound other than his rather large effort at breathing. Each slow step he took towards me made me slowly retreat back.

He kept this up until I was finally in the office room — where it was only moments until the authorities on the other side of this room would barge in.

I had to act fast.

I shrieked as George began charging towards me, slamming the door so narrowly that it hit his sweaty face. He growled as I blocked the way for him in, using all my might to lift the metal knob and hope it was enough.

And then it hit me.

This door was all metal — which means it's highly conductive, obviously. And what am I holding onto dear life right now?

An electric taser gun.

I grunted as I squeezed the trigger onto the doorknob, backing away from it as the bright white shocks of electricity travelled to the other side.

Georges muffled screams in pain was all I needed to hear to know that my plan worked. Tossing the gun far away from me as I sharply inhaled and aggressively exhaled, I had completely forgotten that I muted my comm as everyone yelled--

"--Nailah, get out of there!"

I was suddenly aware of the fact that the bulkhead doors were creaking — they were closing. I looked to my right — George repeatedly yelled "We're everywhere" like a madman, then to my left — that door was gonna surrender at any moment.

"...Yeah good idea" I breathed. I sprinted towards the dropping bulkhead, sliding under it and out into — the violent storm.

Shit.

I didn't even hear the heavy doors shut behind me as I was pushed off my feet by the wind. My eyes lit up at the bright floodlights of the open Jupiter garage faintly shining my way to safety — like the gates of heaven.

And my only job was to get there. Easy peasy, right?

I groaned as I used all the shaky strength I had left in me to firmly get up from the ground, finding myself standing in the center of the big 'H' sign painted on the ground.

The sound of the sand hitting at my helmet was like a fork scraping a ceramic plate. Every step I took in my eager sprint to life, felt as if every force of nature was against it.

Every organ in my body ached and burned as I struggled through the violently howling winds. What an excellent Friday night I'm having, right?

My eyes didn't stray away from the waving lights in the distance, not like I could see anything else other than blowing sand.

Immediately as my right foot stepped onto what felt like the metal garage door, I shrieked as it lifted from under me, forcing me to tumble as replacement for my grand entrance into heaven.

My eyes were shut as I lied on the ground, and as I finally opened them, an aggressive exhale escaped from me at the sight of the bright ring light above me.

I MADE IT. At least I think I did, I actually couldn't feel myself at all.

The buzz from the outside remained echoing in my cold ears as my vision slowly readjusted itself.

And at that, I was bombarded with arms wrapping around me, lifting me to finally sit up. I was still in utter shock of everything that I couldn't hear anything my parents or little brother yelled to me.

I felt my helmet being clipped out, and as my mother lifted it from my head, she cupped my chin as we joined foreheads as dad squeezed my shoulder and laughed. This brief moment of calm was all I needed in all of this mess.

We were together again.

I weakly hugged my little brother back, grateful that my hearing was still syncing in, which meant I couldn't hear his inaccurate recap of events. I avoided mom and dad's deadly gaze at me, but when I finally surrendered, to my surprise, I got the nods of approval.

"So no Italian pisghetti, huh?" Cam pursed his lips. I chuckled. Mom snorted into laughter.

"No, baby," Mom said. "But ask me again once we've landed on the new world and I'll take you to eat the best pisghetti in the universe."

I finally stood up to find Tyler climbing down the ladder in the corner. His eyes widened at my state of complete disarray as he approached the four of us.

"Told you I'd make it" I smirked as he pulled my numbed out right hand to force me into dapping him up with our practised handshake.

"Yeah with two dents in your face and gimpy parents" Tyler scoffed, before smirking as he quickly lifted his chin up and down, pulling my head to hit his chest into a hug.

"Weird way to say thank you, but I'll take it" I chuckled as I hugged him back.

"Alright, roll call," Dad announced after a loud clap. "One."

"Two," Mom breathed.

"Three," Ty said.

"Four," I answered.

"Five!" Cammy said in his weird demon voice. I chuckled. Dad let out a huge sigh, smiling as Mom rested her head on his shoulder.

The little rumbles from the outside that made the Jupiter loudly creak beneath us gave us that harsher reality check, that--

"We've got some launching to do" dad strained, concerningly groaning during his fight to walk over to the ladders

"Who's 'we'? Dad, the only place you're 'launching' to is the med bay" Tyler blocked dad's path with his hand, his eyes flickering to mom who hardly panted as she lightly nodded

Tyler flashed us with the vitals monitor screen of all five of us, with green borders around Tyler and Cam, orange-red around my name, and bright red borders flashing around mom and dads.

"So now you're fine with captaining?" I scoffed, skipping to reach the silver ladders first before stopping and stammering as I turned back to my older brother, "But-- wait who's gonna be your copilot?"

"...I'm looking at her," He said...To me.

I stammered, my heart pounding in my chest as I avoided eye contact with mom, furrowing my eyebrows as I shook my head to ask him to repeat his request. Me? A pilot?--

"C'mon on-- Don't act like you didn't sneak into the Jupiter simulators every day of training. You've done that long enough to know something as simple as launching" Ty continued. My cheeks went red as I turned my head down at mom's reaction as she lifted her finger to blurt out--

"Uh-- We're gonna circle back to that, actually" her eyebrow raised.

I averted my eyes back to Tyler, who bounced his foot as his eyebrows raised for a response from me. Only for Cam to make that decision for me as he yelled--

"...Well, let's go! Chop chop!"

"BOOSTERS, READY?" Tyler called as he aggressively typed onto the bright white keyboard

"Check!" I answered, holding tightly to my straps as I stared at the windshield displaying nothing but a murky dark sky.

"Panels, Radiation shields?" his voice got louder as the engines swelled on

"Check check!" All I could hear from us was our sharp erratic breathing under our helmets as we rushed through the launching procedure

"Alright, prepare for lift off in T-minus 6...5..." Tyler waited on me to press the button under the yellow cap as he counted down.

I groaned at the Jupiter's mild vibrations managed to throw me back into that whiplash-y pounding migraine that almost disappeared.

As Ty slowly pushed on the propelling lever, our heads shot towards each other's as the Jupiter's whirring weakened at the computer calmly announcing --

"Impact detected. Impact detected..."

Ty tried to override the Jupiter grounding us, as my ears suddenly focused on the consistent loud bangs I've been hearing coming from the back of our spaceship.

Shooting my head towards the schematics of the Jupiter, my eyes widened at the red flashing of the thruster on the inner left. I furrowed my eyebrows at the sight of it as Tyler beeped his radio on to yell--

"Hey guys, are we being shot at?" his voice heighted in pitch. My head shot towards him as my lips parted at his question.

Oh my God, we're being shot at.

"George! How dare you bring my children into this" mom whined over the radio, grunting in frustration

"Flight Compromised"

I shot my eyes to Tyler at the sound of the thrusters powering down. The Jupiter's lights blared a deep red as all of the displays flashed 'WARNING' pop ups.

"Uhh-- The computer isn't letting us launch" I shakily yelled to my comm as I watched Tyler's override attempts blow up in his face with the words 'DENIED' on his screen.

"Request an override!" mom yelled back

"I've tried!" Tyler cried, "Autopilot just won't--..." And then something in Tyler clicked. It made him unbuckle his seatbelt as he crouched to the bottom side of the console.

I furrowed my eyebrows as he popped open the seals, before --

"--Warning: Disabling Autopilot"

The cockpit remained quiet as Tyler slowly turned around to face me. He pursed his lips as my jaw dropped at his impulsivity, scoffing as I drew out--

"Wow Ty, how's that for 'demented'"

"Manual launch will commence in T-minus 6 seconds" he rolled his eyes as he marched back to his seat. I chuckled to myself as I nodded, and he clearly didn't wanna hear any of it.

On his mark, I watched him gently push the lever, the Jupiter immediately lifting from the ground as the alarms blared at the damaged thruster. The ship tipped aggressively to its sides at Tyler's heavy push.

And finally, we were airborne. And departing from those chambers of hell mom calls 'work'. Tyler met my gaze, before gesturing his head at the open seal, and I knew exactly what to do.

I could tell from his pursed lips and furrowed eyebrows how difficult it was to navigate blind and on manual. I unbuckled my straps as I crawled over to the seals.

After skimming through the rainbow of gazillion buttons, I exhaled as I finally spotted the 'AUTOPILOT' switch, lifting it back up as--

"Autopilot Rebooting"

"Autopilot Online"

I rushed back into my seat as the Jupiter stabilized — for the most part. My breathing hardened as I crossed my fingers as I yelled--

"Computer, take us the Colony Ship!" I closed my eyes shut as I felt the Jupiter make a hard turn 180 degrees.

"Correcting Course"

The Jupiter charged with the force that pulled me further into my seat, sharply increasing in acceleration. The turbulence was absolutely horrifying for my current state, it pushed me around like a sardine in a packet.

I clenched my teeth and scrunched my face to somehow stabilize the aggressive vibration and the swelling whirs of the spaceship, waiting on when it could be over.

And before I knew it, the vibrations came to a stop, and my body felt concerningly lighter. As I finally cracked my eyed back open, I almost screamed at the top of my lungs at the sight of the glowing white speckles light years from us sprinkling the dark canvas of infinity — or as one might call it, the vacuum that is space.

Holy fucking shit. I'm in space.

My lips parted as a breath escaped me, the floating helmet of Tyler catching my eye as he floated to me, shaking my shoulder to bring back the color in my face.

I scoffed into laughter, finally joining him as we swam in the air to hover in front of the windshield. And below us was the quiet planet of Earth.

Earth's clouds were a greyish orange, with way less green than the photos I've seen in the atlas books.

But it was beautiful. And deadly silent.

Nico, If only you could see this.

"Nailah Cosgrove, welcome to space" Tyler whispered to me as I fogged up the windshield with my breath. He pulled me in with his arm over my back for our spacesuits to clank against each other with our relieved hug — we actually made it out alive.

"Ladies and gentlemen this is your captain speaking," Tyler began, I rolled my eyes at his strained voice as he continued, "We're officially in orbit. Feel free to...float around"

I chuckled. We stared on as we soared over the oceans of planet Earth, our eyes darting upward to the starry black sky.

This is it. I could never imagine it beginning this way at all but, this was the start to an intergalactic conundrum of a journey now that meant my name was marked in the history books.

This was to Mission 25...

‼️ FUN FACT ABOUT THIS ACT ‼️

So this act is loosely and coincidentally based on the song Strawberry Swing by Frank Ocean. The song explores the reminiscence of Frank Ocean's childhood with his best friend in a nostalgic gloom with the idea that Earth will soon destroy itself and we'll eventually be just memories.

So, like Nailah who lost her best friend and is forced to "lift off...[from] a dying world" which she'll obviously miss. This was an introductory Act to explore this world but now from her point of view and also what she makes out of a situation.

You can give the song a listen (I also love love love Frank Ocean)

author's note

Published this on 1 Dec in honor of Lost in Space season 3 releasing two years ago today!!

AND...SCENE

We are officially in space yall !!!

SOO EXCITED FOR THE JOURNEY AHEAD U HAVE NO IDEAA

dedications

-acciosanity solyyybenonyy saanvinarang_01 euphoreallia candysznn frailergirls hearts4walkerscobell ST4RRYBL4DE

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