“Future is not something we enter. It’s something we create,” -Anonymous. Elon Musk has finalized the date of the first public spaceflight to April 23, 2041 in the SpaceX South Texas Launch Site (Brownsville, Texas). I, William Nayatt, was one of the five chosen for the mission. The five of us included John Hart, Allison Key, Sean Peck, and Kay Juller. Our intelligent group began suiting up and preparing for the televised launch into space. Elon entered the room and began,

“Today is the day where the US and SpaceX takes yet another historical step into the future of the universe.” Our group is motioned onto the large stage from the side door. We walked proudly out over the sea of scientists and doctors, and made a straight line behind Elon. “These men and women have been decided the best fit individuals to conquer the first commercial space flight,” he said profoundly. The audience roared is excitement as we waved and strutted off stage.

The next morning, I woke up in the SpaceX living quarters to see the date on the wall ‘April 23, 2042’. Today is the day that I will embark on a historic mission that will be known as the “Public X”. The team began suiting up and all gathered in the meeting room for a final say before the launch. I began,

“On behalf of my team, Elon Musk, and the SpaceX organization, we have made it our goal to successfully conduct this mission in light of a public space transportation in the near future. Thank you.”

Now done with the press conference, I made my way through the entrance of the launch; then climbed into the small compartment where I would strap in to decent into outer space. The rest of the team got into position and locked in.

“3, 2, 1,” could be heard faintly back inside the building. Boom. The rocket had launched and began its race into space. John was controlling the air flow while all of the others, including me, watched as we broke from the atmosphere into space. The view was immaculate, with every star and particle flying by so close you could almost touch then. From the radio we were instructed,

“Unlock your seatbelts.” So we unbuckled and all rose expectedly out of our seat in anti-gravity. The team laughing and playing, came to a dead silence after the loud engines propelling us toward the moon had stopped making noise. John, who continued controlling the monitoring systems, began to panic.

“All engine function down, I repeat, all engine functions down,” John exclaimed. 

“No this can’t be happening, this cannot be happening,” Allison fretted. The team began to lose control and as civilians had no idea how to fix a rocketship engine failure.

The radio came in, “PublicX, this is Elon, we are working to resolve the issue, please hang tight.” John went back to the control panel to possibly figure out a short-term solution.

“Guys,” John began, “The satellite is showing we are headed in the polar opposite direction of the moon.”

“This is not good, we are going to die,” I said frowning. 

Sean blurted, “Don’t say that...” A large crash made Sean stop mid-sentence. The ship began to rattle and shake in an aggressive manner.

“A meteor shower!” Kay screamed. The team frantically grabbed their seats and swiftly snapped their seat belts back on.

“Hold on!” I yelled in panic. The loud banging and shaking slowly settled as we passed the meteor shower. John unhooked his seat and began to assess the damage. The alarm system went off above the oxygen tank and we all looked at each other with great fear. John checked the vitals of the ship,

“The oxygen levels are decreasing, their must be an exterior break in the tank,” John informed us all. Sean and I both looked at each other almost insync, we both knew that this meant their was not enough oxygen for all of us. SpaceX radioed in to return back into our seats and stay still while the scientists figure out a way for us to return to Earth. I knew that this wasn’t enough and we would all die if all of us were consuming the limited oxygen, so I made a plan. I reached into my bag to pull out a small yet shape pocket knife. I floated over from my seat behind Kay and grabbed her thin neck with my blade in hand.

“What are you doing?!” She yelled frightened.

Sean added, “William stop your going to hurt her!” It was too late, I stabbed Kay in the abdomen and began to seep out into the air. Athletically kicked the knife out of my hand and bound my hands together with a zip tie. He threw me against the inner wall of the rocket and rushed over to help Sean and Allison with Kay. Allison grabbed the emergency medical equipment and wrapped gauze and taped around Kay’s wound. Due to blood loss Kay had fainted and was hard to work on

“How could you do this!” John screamed at me. I looked across the room in despair as I believe we all were going to die. Sean tied me up to a metal rail so I couldn’t do anymore harm. Kay had regained consciousness and started to recover. With all this going on, one problem still remained: the oxygen was still declining.

“Someone must go out into space and repair the break manually,” SpaceX said over the radio. 

“I'll do it,” Kay reluctantly stated after a long rest. With no time to argue, John hooked Kay up to the cable and sent her out with the radio. After twenty minutes pass, Kay rounds the corner and returns successfully as the alarm shuts down. In the meantime, SpaceX scientists wirelessly re-establish a connection to the engine motherboard. 

“Your coming home, over and out,” SpaceX repeated over the radio. The trip home was silent, everyone processing the events that had unfolded. Eventually and ship made its final descent and landed smoothly back into the space center. I am the first one out the door excited to be back on land. The five Texas state troopers met me at the door.

“What do you guys think you are doing?” I questioned.

One replied while putting hand cuffs on my wrists, “William Nayatt, you are under arrest for the charges of attmpted murder and purposful endangerment of a government operaion. You have the right to an attorney, if you can not afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you.”