Love : Not On Earth

Chapter 8 - I Am Going Home!

(A/N: Caution- Long part Ahead. All The Very Best!)

A month later.....

Drishti's POV

Well, barely a few minutes were left to start off my journey. I was having a tough time having command over my heart because of the adrenal rush. 

A week before the launch, I was kept away from everyone, so as to dodge any sort of infection. Twelve hours before the launch, my body was again and again wiped with the rubbing alcohol to make sure nothing is present on the skin, so as not to induce any fungal spores or anything up to the spaceship with me.

I was definitely not nervous. I am ready. Flawlessly ready! 

And why I shouldn't be? After all, I am going to accomplish not just mine but my pare.. dead parent's dream too.

I believed it was just like an exam where I knew the solution to every question and all that I had to do is commence writing the paper. That's it!

As I was walking to my spaceship which was nicknamed 'Rambler' I suddenly felt a spark inside me. I knew I am capable of doing it and developed sudden confidence in myself. I felt bigger than myself. I considered this as the day where I could manage everything excellently and bring it on like I want to do this!

Accompanying my complex pressurized spacesuit that had 'ISRO' signed on it, I was wearing a heart monitor. Monitor on heart passes through a skinny little wire and goes out to a little antenna on the space ship and then it is sent to the controlling centers, where there's a doctor sitting and observing my heartbeat.

I entered in the Rambler not before glancing at Rohit Uncle and Ritika Aunty once who proffered me a thumbs up and an assuring nod that made my heart bulge with love. 

I was laying there nice, calm, and relaxed as still there were 15 or 16 minutes to the launch and played some music to keep calm.

But instead of listening to the music, I was busy gathering myself because things are really going to get energetic for the next few minutes of launch.

It was like a brief moment of calm before the storm. I giggled slightly at my thought.

Taking a deep breath, I decided to go through the emergency checklist, that had everything that is supposed to happen during the launch.

I have got my thick heavy gloves on and I am holding on to that checklist and moving my finger across it watching and reminding myself of all the key moments and the actions that I have to take on the emergency panel in front of myself just in case something goes wrong. I have the checklist on the flatscreen kind of pads, which are the same which have been used in the simulator. 

If I have an engine breakdown or a leak or all the other things that could go wrong, I can immediately get to the right set of actions and be reminded of what switches and what controls I need to take care of in order to securely pilot the vehicle.

I was clasped to the seat so safely that would make it challenging for even 10 muscled men to drag me out. One seatbelt around my waist, one over each shoulder, one up between my legs, and then one on each knee just to endure my knees in the appropriate place and that's a sort of how I was squished in that chair. 

That was because if something violent happens, you don't want your body to be circumnavigating around. I could just move my arm, my head, and my fingers. Otherwise, my entire body was pretty much pinned to the chair.

I was having an extendable rod to poke the buttons in the cockpit because my body is so fastened to the chair that I can't reach everything in the cockpit. My body had become the part of the ship.