A billion stars shine in the night sky but are out shined by the lights of the downtown city center skyscrapers that lay just beyond the Trinity park bridge. A mother and her twin children proceed to walk along said park on a dusty grabbel path. Their light chatter has quickly become to a fit of laughs and loud banter.
"Hmm that's weird. Phineas said he hasn't had an update from his brother or friends either. I thought at least he was told something since NASA hasn't posted anything to the public yet," said Carmen with a worried expression as she texted her engineering mentor while they were at the park.
NASA had planned a trip to Mars late last year for the Orpheus space crew that was aimed at testing a new powerful computer machine host called Harvestar. Not much details have been released about the invention yet besides the fact it was said to house a brand new VSS (Virtual Simulation System) unlike any other tested before. Carmens engineering mentor, Dr. Phineas Brown, was friends with most of the people on board the Orpheus space crew and his brother, Cole, was a chemistry scientist for the mission. For the past year the public had received four updates every month on the status of the mission and crew members.
Except for this month.
Carmen had waited patiently for the update like always yet the first week past with no news from NASA.
"Dude I definitely think the reason why NASA hasn't given the public any updates about the crew is because they finally found an alien. I'm not even joking at this point. The first time they didn't post an update in a month is because of communication issues? Nah! Aliens. Gotta be aliens," said Enola adamantly as if the theory was a fact at this point.
"Well actually scientists have discovered exoplanets similar to ours that are deemed to have traits suitable enough for preserving life. So who knows? Maybe they did find aliens. Anything is possible at this point,"agreed Carmen with a slight smile as she tried to calm her own nerves down. This was not the time to panic. Not yet.
"Or maybe they lost contact with them because a satellite dish broke or something."
"I don't even know which one is worse. The fact they might have found aliens or they lost their wifi."
"Well think of it this way. If anything did go wrong they might be just flying back here to Earth at this very moment and return tomorrow morning or something. They did upgrade all the safety precautions for research missions since the Moon Crasher incident a couple years ago" reassured Enola as she realized her twin was trying to remain calm about the situation.
Carmen not only viewed Phineas as a mentor but also as a older brother and met his brother last year during a tech expo before he went off into space. So if Phineas was panicking so was she cause like some people say 'great minds think alike'. Yet it was reassuring that NASA had come along way from the devastating Moon Crasher disaster four years ago by upgrading their space crafts and defense measures. She doesn't like thinking too much on the incident due to how tragic it was since half the crew died due to a cyber attack targeted at their ship. No one has managed to find the culprit behind the attack yet there hasn't been an event like that since for a while.
Well at least for NASA. Companies here on Earth can't say the same.
A comforting hand on Carmen's shoulder causing her to look up and see her mom giving her a reassuring smile.
"Everything is going to be. Hope is the last thing to die after all. Just wait a little longer," their mother, Rose, spoke in a soothing voice before she was interrupted by a phone call from work.
"Sorry. I have to take this."
She soon walked off to the opposite direction they were headed towards for some privacy. She sometimes did this during these trips to the park but it always bothered Carmen a bit. Going to the park is supposed to be relaxing but it seems her mother can't seem to find the time of day to relax a bit anymore.
The trio continued on walking and fell into a moment of silence. After a few minutes they arrived the park bridge and decided to view the highway bridge that was right next to it. The road was filled with cars and trucks that seemed to be loud enough to be heard a mile away. For Carmen tho, the noise simply went from one ear and out the other. After a few moments without speaking Carmen looked up towards the moon which seemed to be a glowing pearl in the sky.
"Enola?," says Carmen in an attempt to grab her twins attention.
"Yeah? What is it?," responded Enola as they stopped their music playing on their earbuds to give half of their attention to their sibling. She was busy checking out the sports car that found its way onto the highway and didn't pay much focus to her twin. That didn't matter to Carmen as much at the moment. She knew that Enola was probably half listening to her anyways.
"Do you think we can go to the moon one day?"
That question brought Enola out of her car haze and caused her to contemplate the idea a bit. She brought her hand to her chin before shrugging her shoulders at the topic.
"When they finally life the public visiting ban I guess. Of course they are planning to uplift it next week when me and mom are on a business trip out of state so maybe when we come back. Why do you ask?," questioned Enola as she turned towards her twin with slight curiosity.
Carmen looked down at the river below down which reflected the Moons image and tried to think up of a solid reason to why she asked the question in the first place. Sure, she already had a pass to the moon since her mentor worked there and she had to come with him for research experiments but she had wished for her family to come along with her for the longest time.
"I know we can go up to the moon one day but I don't know if we can go up there one day. Everything is so expensive these days you know."
"I mean if trips to space sell like concert tickets now a days than I guess it could be kinda complicated for us to go to space seeing how difficult it would be to even get a pass on a ship. Then again in a decade they would probably be so many space travel companies popping up that it wouldn't be that hard to get a pass to visit the moon. And you are Phineas friend so he could just take us their on vacation one day if you ask," responded Enola as they looked up to the large moon in the sky. Her face soon turned from calm to mildly confused. The emphasis on the word "we" caused Enola to do a double take. Sure it's not like they were professional astronauts or whatever but some random billionaires still got to go to space and that is enough evidence for her.
"I- yeah no that sounds like a thing he would do. He is planning to make a robotics lab on the moon soon so it's possible. But I've been waiting for this moment for ages and now when the ban is finally being lifted you guys are going back to work. Why can't you guys take a vacation or something?," exclaimed Carmen, frustrated. She leaned against the bridge fence and went back to looking at the passing cars with her head in her hands and her mind elsewhere. After a minute she could here Enola sigh before she popped up right beside her.
"It's because it's our birthday next week right?," asked Enola. The frustrated sigh and head nod from her twin proved her right.
'You guys barely came back from California and now y'all are leaving again after only returning for a weekend. And this time you guys don't know how long you'll be gone for. Near our birthday of all times!," exclaimed Carmen before looking over to the direction their mom headed off to have her phone call.
"You know we have to go. The bills don't pay themselves. Even with you working under Phineas the price of rent is going up again."
Despite them already having the same conversation a while ago the reality of Enola possibly not being with her on their birthday was hard to swallow.
"I know but it's not fair. Life's not fair. It hasn't been fair to any one of us as of late and I fear it could stay that way forever!"
"Then why don't you enter the Cybrim Space Sim program?," suggested her twin out of the blue.
The suggestion caught Carmen off guard a bit and caused her to glance towards her twin with a surprised face.
"What?"
"Cybrim and NASA are collaborating again remember? They stared a program were users submit a design for a space themed virtual world for experimental purposes such as robotic testing. If they accept the proposal they give them resources and funding and the project will be displayed in the ATLAS Institute Tech Expo later this year. See," explained Enola before showing her phone screen that displayed the programs information on the NASA website.
"Besides, it's not like it would kill you to try. We recently graduated after all. You have plenty of time to mess around inside the Hologlobe now. Who knows? Maybe NASA will hire you if it's successful."
Enola patted her twins on the back who still seemed lost in her head a bit.
"I know it's just. I don't know if my work would get noticed. Just because I work under Phineas doesn't mean i'll get more attention for my work since he works in the Kai-O foundation and not NASA. And besides, I'm a level 15 in Hologlobe. I look like a complete newbie," says Carmen. She worried at the idea of not getting noticed with her work has kept her at bay.
"Then get peoples attention. Do videos or something. You're going to have to do something either way. I'm not going to be here forever you know. We already graduated and fall is finally here. It's up to you to decide what you're going to do now."
After their recent graduation the need to find a job has become a common goal for the twins. Enola had already decided to help their mother with construction work and is dreaming of one day opening a bakery business but Carmen is still trying to figure out what to do with her life.
The idea of them being full fledged adults now that they have finally graduated brought Carmen both a sense of ease and anxiety. Sure, the fact she never experienced a normal childhood has caused her to grow up faster and mature a bit but the idea of going out in the world without adult supervision alone is enough to make her dizzy. She has already experienced the "wonder" of being without her mother for a weekend "business" trip to Austin for her middle school government club and it was definitely not joyful for her. The level of anxiety and panic she felt there could have caused her to explode or go insane. Maybe even both.
"Well if I do take this opportunity what do you suggest I build? You know me and my indecisive brain. I might be a genius but I still can't decide on a basic project idea to save my life."
Enola just shrugged in response to her sisters problem which caused Carmen to facepalm.
"Well you have to deal with that on your own. Why not just watch shows or read books or something? Maybe you can get ideas from that?," suggested Enola as she knew that her sister always got new ideas for stories after they watched something new on TV.
Carmen thought the idea over before nodding.
"Yeah I think that could work. I may know a anime show I have been meaning to watch for a while now that has space exploration in it."
"Oh really? What is it?," asked Enola, curiously. The mention of anime had always peaked her interest.
Carmen smiles before taking out her phone and typing the title of the anime show in a search engine. After it popped up she showed the phone screen to her siblings who saw the shows poster that had a mech on a moon.
"It's called The Last Planet."