The Journey to Neptune

Number One

A frustrated shout was heard from the main room, telling Elora that it was time she went there and found out what
had happened. The moment she came in, she at once laid her eyes on a brown-haired man slamming his fist on every
button available. The day before, he had introduced himself to her as Liam, flashing her a huge grin as they entered
the ship; honestly, he was a pretty funny guy. That was before the current events happened. Cursing, he stared at the
ground, “Why won’t this wretched thing work?!” To no one’s surprise, he was ruining the controls, not that they
worked anyways.

“That’s because you’re breaking the entire system, you idiot! Stop hitting everything!!” Beside Liam was an older
person, his eyes as warm as the colors of fall – however, the emotions he was showing was not the same. While
Liam and Elora were introducing themselves, he had proved to stay quiet most of the time. After a few minutes,
Elora had finally gotten impatient, and questioned her partner. “Hey,” she asked him, watching as he lifted his head
and looked at her direction, “we’ve already introduced ourselves; what’s your name?” Hoping he would answer, her
wishes were rejected when he simply gazed at her, before shrugging and looking away. Huh, he doesn’t seem to
have any manners. It was obvious that she wasn’t going to get any answers from him, though surprisingly, Liam was
able to reply.

“Don’t mind him, he prefers to not talk too much.” Liam teased, although in his eyes, he knew that he was giving
himself a death sentence. Since he didn’t want Elora to be concerned, Liam kept a smile on his face, ignoring the
secretive glares from the man behind him.

“Do you know each other?” Elora asked, pointing at the tan comrade for a better sign.

“Yeah! His name is Benjamin – we're best friends, though he refuses to admit it. If you ever want any information,
you can come to me!” after pondering this for a while, Liam crossed his arms for a moment, “I guess you can’t go to
anyone else, since we’re the only people here. Well, forget what I said earlier then.” This earned a scoff from the
Benjamin, “What you really should be doing is staying away from that idiot. Honestly, everything he does is
trouble.” How rude! Guess I know who I should stick with during this trip. That’s how the introductions ended,
leading them to begin their research on this strange planet. Though Elora thought that this was the worst part of her
trip, she had no idea of what was left to come. Now, she was regretting her life choices.

While the men were arguing over the controls, Elora stared into space, literally. Outside the ship was an endless
hallway of darkness, and it did not give her the answers she was looking for. Quite loudly, yet faint to her ears, she
heard Benjamin’s voice, “The experts would not send us this far away from Earth without a secure system – you
probably broke it on the way! Now, try to find a way to fix this, before they acknowledge us as travelers that never
came back!” Desperate, he looked over to Elora for help, “You’re a member here, can’t you do something?” Man,
this person is really starting to get on my nerves. Machinery was something Elora had never figured out; everything
about it was so confusing to her. Honestly, she preferred to stay outdoors, where everything wasn’t in code and was
natural. Yet now that it was the second day, Elora knew that even though she couldn’t do much, she had to do
something.

The controls were all over the place, there weren’t any instructions or hints as to what they did. Usually, Elora
would press any button available and figure out what each one did, but that was risky – what if there was a self-
destruct button? Hey, nobody said those buttons weren’t real in the movies, they could have put one in the
spaceship. The thing that made it even worse was the noise; there were noises everywhere. Apparently, Liam didn’t
care about these precautions, as he had pressed every button that he had. “Alright, do you want the good news first
or the bad news?” Liam asked, raising his head so he could face the rest of his crew. When nobody answered him,
he continued, “The good news is, we aren’t going to die. The world isn’t ending, and we’re all safe. The bad news
is...”

“Without communication with our home planet, our chances of getting out of here are screwed.”
Number two

Ending the journal entry on a short note, Elora got up and joined the others, who were lounging around in the main
room. Liam was throwing his small, bouncy ball back and forth, watching it float in the air and slowly land into his
hand. On the other side of the room, Benjamin had been staring outside, watching the mysterious planet from afar.
His eyes reflected awe and admiration, but at the same time, anxiousness and fear. To see a planet that appears
merciful from afar to be able to take a life in mere seconds. “If this is how you guys spend your days, then you must
be rather gloomy.” Seeming to be offended at such a remark, Liam stopped bouncing his toy and glanced at her, his
face giving her an obvious message: what else are we supposed to do?

“Breaks don’t necessarily have to be exciting; they just allow you to take a breather,” Benjamin retorted, keeping
his gaze on the planet with no expression at all, “however, you wouldn’t know – you've probably never had a break
in your life, have you?” Despite showing no hate at all, his words were as cold as ice, making Elora’s blood boil.
This man has no heart, does he? Sigh, why did I have to go to space with this imbecile? Frustrated, Elora jumped up,
using the lack of gravity to softly land on the floor. Although it was quite uncomfortable, there wasn’t anywhere else
to lie down, and she was tired of floating around. From above, Liam was staring at her while she loosened her body
up, which was surprisingly stiff. When the team had first entered the spaceship, everything looked outstanding to
them; there was a bedroom where the members could sleep and a main room where they could hang out after a day
of work. All of them had been training for this, the time when they could prove themselves to be worthy astronauts.
Nowadays, it was repetitive, seeing the same rooms and the same darkness surrounding them.

Irritated, Elora let out a sigh, taking out the phone in her right pocket to turn it on. Predictably, it was low on
battery, with barely enough to take a few phone calls. The unfortunate thing was that there was no signal in space,
and they had just lost their only communication with their homeland. “I wish this place had Wi-Fi in here,” she
muttered, brushing the hair that had fallen onto her face. She seemed to push Benjamin off the edge, who finally
turned around to glare at her. “Can you stay quiet for one minute?”

“What’s your problem?” Elora scolded, sitting up to send his glare back.

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe it’s because there’s someone on this ship that won’t stop talking. Now, if you would
excuse me, I would like some peace and quiet.” He replied, ending the conversation.

Gosh, he was so full of himself; to think that he seemed like a decent person before the launch. On their day the
crew was about to leave, Elora had finished saying her farewells to her loved ones. There were lots of tears and
hugs, though it was time for her to say goodbye. At the time she was in front of the ship, two people had caught her
eye. One tall yet young-looking man was holding a girl’s hand, as the girl took off her glasses to hide the tears from
her eyes. Taking a closer look at their clothing, Elora recognized the exact same uniform she was wearing on the
man, he must have been one of her partners, while the female was wearing a uniform that was mostly worn when
you worked in NASA, however, she didn’t recognize her. “I don’t want you to leave,” the girl murmured, who
looked like she was desperately trying to keep him on Earth, “couldn’t you stay?” This moment looked quite
touching; however, those people didn’t have that much time. The launch was going to happen soon, and they were
expected to be there early. The man seemed to know this too.

“I’m sorry, Fauna, but I have to go – this is my dream,” leaning down, he pressed a small kiss on her forehead, “I
promise I’ll come back to you and the family. After all, siblings stick together, right?” He held up his hand, closing
it into a fist, as the girl looked down at it and shook her head. Instead of returning his fist bump, she jumped into the
man’s arms, hoping to keep their interaction if possible. Elora's crew mate looked startled, but relieved, nonetheless.
They truly did seem like a loving family. However, now all Elora saw in Benjamin was a huge jerk. Involuntarily,
Elora grumbled something that one second later realized wasn’t a good idea. “You’re so two-faced.” Nearly a
millisecond later, Benjamin had turned his head to her so quickly that she thought it was going to fall off; at the
same time, he looked furious, with enough anger to make someone else’s blood run cold. “What did you say?”

Before they could progress the argument any further, a small ball floated between them – Liam. Once his crew
glanced at him for an explanation, Liam’s confidence shattered completely. “Ok… let’s just use the time we have
right now to relax, alright? All of us don’t want to be here – all we have to do is wait for Earth to fix the
communication signal, then we can go home.” Regrettably, Liam was right; fighting wasn’t going to help with
anything, even if it was a fight with an arrogant fool. In fact, it would only make things worse. Although, when
Liam was saying that help would come so optimistically, Elora knew what he was really thinking. They all knew
that they had lots of time before help came, they were trapped in space, and there was nearly no way out of it.

Number three

“What are you doing?” From behind Liam, Benjamin was looking at the small notebook that laid on his lap.
Surprisingly, Benjamin and Liam had been close acquaintances ever since they were in middle school – Benjamin
had been the caring leader, while Liam was the class clown. At first, Liam had stuck by his side simply for safety
reasons… he didn’t want to talk about his past classmates. Although nearly the entire school didn’t care about what
happened to a helpless student, Benjamin was always there to protect him. Yet, ever since they graduated, he had
become more distant, enough that sometimes Liam wouldn’t even tell if the Benjamin he knew in the past ever
existed. Yet, despite all his cold remarks, Liam didn’t want to leave him alone.
 While Liam didn’t want to reveal Elora’s private journal, he couldn’t help but admit that Benjamin was scary –
Elora had been the only one that could speak to him that way, and Liam had known him for years. Immediately, the
first thought that came to his head was to wait for someone else to back him up. But this time, Elora isn’t there to
save me; neither is anyone else. From beside him, Liam realized that his newfound friend was stirring in her sleep;
obviously, her sickness was getting worse. Since they were in space, there wasn’t anything they could do but wait
for her to recover on Earth. Hesitantly, Liam closed the book, giving his brightest smile to his cautious partner.
Before Benjamin could continue his investigation, he used Elora’s current situation as an advantage to get him to
leave. “I was simply taking care of Elora; recently, she had been getting several headaches and felt extremely ill,”
observing his friend, Benjamin’s expression had changed completely, transforming into a concerned and guilty look
before trying to cover it up with an eye roll, “I know you guys don’t seem to like each other, but please, give her a
chance to recover without you two bickering.” It amused Liam how easy his friend’s feelings were able to be read –
his emotions were practically on his face.

Benjamin seemed to understand his message, as all he did was give Liam a faint nod before leaving the room to try
contacting their home planet for the hundredth time. Yeah, he wasn’t going to change anytime soon. Focus, Elora’s
health is your main goal. Switching his focus to the matter at hand, Liam softly tapped on the weak lady’s shoulder.
“Elora, do you think you’ll be alright for the rest of the trip?” Barely, she lifted her hand, softly punching his
shoulder: Do you think I’ll be alright? The action itself was enough to make him chuckle; despite only meeting her
six days ago, she was already considered someone precious to him – he couldn’t bear the thought of losing her just
because they didn’t make it to Earth in time.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Liam questioned, watching her expression for an answer.

“Liam, I’ll be fine. I just need some rest; I’ll be back to normal tomorrow.” She murmured, wrapping herself in a
blanket that was not there, making Liam feel even worse.

“Space sickness doesn’t fade away like that – at least let Benjamin and I help.”

“Pfft, Benjamin? Since when did he care about me?”

“You might not see it, but he cares a lot. He’s already given you a chance, it’s time you did as well.” While Liam
wasn’t courageous as Elora, or an amazing leader like Benjamin, however, he could still comfort others. Somehow,
his words had an impact on the people around him. Even on people like Elora, who had sighed, and put her hand of
her head. Obviously, she was exhausted; that’s what six days away from Earth can do to you. To recover you’ll need
around a day of rest, without interruptions or anything that could stress their mind... wait. I’ve been talking to her
way too much – I’m not even letting her rest! Stuttering, Liam forgot about what he was saying, giving her a swift
bow and excusing himself, “I should let you rest; please don’t push yourself too much!” How could he have been so
ignorant? No wonder Benjamin never invited him over whenever he was ill. Not bothering to spare her another
glance, Liam left the room, oblivious to the soft smile that was on Elora’s face.

What an odd man.

~~~

A day had passed, meaning that the crew had been on space for an entire week with no messages from their home
planet. Unexpectedly, the headaches had begun to fade away, probably because Liam let her rest for the entire day.
Though, Elora still hated the thought that she missed an entire day of research. I better explain this in my – before
she could finish her sentence, realization hit her. Where’s my journal? Panicked, Elora jumped out of bed, ignoring
the small headache that was still there, and looked to see if there was any hint of sage green, the cover of the journal
she had owned for nearly ten years. Not only did it keep all her journal entries about Neptune, but all her memories
were there as well – songs she had written with the family, notes during her old schools, doodles that while they
weren’t masterpieces, she had at least been proud of them. In the end, the journal wasn’t anywhere. Where did Liam
put it? He didn’t lose it… did he? At the mention of it, Elora’s mind continued to ask questions. What if he did?

Just then, a knock was heard from outside the room, making Elora jump in fear due to her current anxiousness.
Assuming that it was Liam, Elora planned to scold him over where the notebook was and why he couldn’t have just
put it beside her. “Liam, where is the notebook? I told you to write reports in it, not to take it for your-” Yet, it
wasn’t Liam who had entered the room; instead, it was Benjamin.

“Looking for this?” reaching for something, Benjamin took a small object out and tossed it in her direction. When
she caught it, she recognized the familiar shade of green.

“My notebook! When – how-” she was at a loss for words.

“Liam left it in the main room – he probably told himself that he would get it later but forgot and never did,” looking
the other direction, Benjamin continued to sheepishly confess, “I may have looked at it a little, just to see what you
were interested in. The audacity of this man, looking at someone else’s privacy. I should really give him a piece of
my own mind. Preparing to make up a comeback, Liam’s words stopped her. Benjamin, as her other comrade said,
had given her a chance to recover without interrupting her in any way. In addition to that, he brought her notebook
back without damaging it, other than recklessly throwing it at her. “Give him a chance.” Flashbacks of Benjamin
and his sister popped into her head, softening the annoyance that was in her a few minutes ago. Hesitantly, Elora
grasped onto the journal, meeting his gaze and responding with nothing but, “Thanks.” Benjamin, used to speaking
less, gave her a nod, before heading back to complain about Liam’s forgetfulness.

“If you ever need someone to talk to, just know that I am here.” Benjamin mentioned, before leaving her alone in the
room once again. Despite the fact that he was already gone, Elora gave him a response, “I’ll keep note of that.”

Number four

Just when Elora began to feel better, another problem occurs. The strange thing was that it wasn’t Liam who had
screamed, as he usually did. Instead, it was Benjamin; he wasn’t the type to scream, which is why she had decided to
dash into the main room. Despite the appearance, their spaceship wasn’t that huge and was easy to memorize. Or it
could just be that being in space for so long had allowed them to know the machine like the back of their hands. The
only problem with the place is that it was never quiet. There was always some type of noise, whether it be the
technology working or the gentle rumbling of the ground. Oh, once I feel the ground again, I’ll never take it for
granted. After what seemed like ages, Elora had finally reached the main room, when she went straight to Benjamin
to ask him what the issue was. “What’s going – on.”

There was a face on the screen. There was a face on the screen. Benjamin had contacted the people on their planet.
Stunned, Elora stood there for a while; she had forgotten where she was and what she was about to say. Finally,
their prayers had been answered. Nonetheless, this realization told her something else – their communication system
had been working all along, they had just been ignoring it all this time, did they even know that they left? Had their
family tried to reach us, or did they move on with their lives? While she was having a panic attack over why they
would be ignored, she had no idea what the person beside her was thinking.

~~~

How does it work now? Millions of questions flooded Benjamin’s brain. His sister was a member in this
association, if they had been able to do this all along, then his sister, Fauna, would have been able to spot their signal
– there was no way that his own sister would ignore him, right? Well, it doesn’t matter, they’ve answered now, and
that’s all that matters. Shortly after Elora came into the room, Liam followed, showing the same awe and wonder as
they both had when they viewed a human in front of them. Sitting in a chair in front of them, was a professionally
dressed woman, who had her dusky blonde hair in one, long braid. Surrounding her was a group of other members
on Earth, all occupied on their own work. “This is the Neptune, the group that had been sent to observe the recently
discovered planet,” Benjamin noticed that Elora’s voice was strained, as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing,
“we have been trying to reach you, however, nobody answered.” Nobody. None of them, out of millions of people,
had answered their calls and left them abandoned next to an inhabitable planet. The thought of this infuriated
Benjamin, enough to remind him about the reason he had stopped looking out for others a long time ago.

Liam had seemed to agree with his thoughts, as he looked at the lady with the feeling of betrayal. “Why didn’t you
answer? Are the people there really that careless?” This was the question everyone was asking, since none of it
made sense; NASA wasn’t cruel enough to desert people, were they? If so, then the entire group’s expectations
would be shattered – it would be something unforgivable. Abruptly, everything around them turned silent, while the
crew waited for the woman’s answer. However, all she gave them was a befuddled face, and she looked around for
any explanations.

“My apologies, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she mumbled, scratching her head in confusion, “this
group never went on their trip to Neptune – it was cancelled a long time ago. How are you people in space?”

“.... What?”