Breathing in the crisp stale air of the spacecraft, while tracing my hand along the cold, smooth white walls, made me feel satisfied to finally be here. In space and on my first mission! The only factor bothering me was my Russian partner, Kyra, and the thought of her only made me groan. How was it that they had been inseparable just a few months ago? Now she was annoyingly becoming one of the most pretentious people I had worked with, trying to instill fear in me about the prospect of this mission ending in disaster if I didn’t follow her every command, whether they be reasonable or not. Just as I was rolling my eyes, she walked in with a thunderous look in hers, ‘Don’t you dare tell me that you were the one who sent the most recent message to NASA Alina!’ Why did she have to get so mad? I mumbled, ‘Who else would have sent that message,’ after all, we were the only ones on the mission, but of course, she heard me. ‘Stop trying to be smart with me, it’s only your first mission!’ As I’m sure you have reminded me every second since our spaceship left, and will continue to do so once it lands, I think, however I do not say anything, not for the sake of angering her further, but just because I know how scared she is of this quest as much as I am. This is the first time she’s been in charge of a trainee or a beginner as they call me. Oh well, someone had to compromise, even if it was the younger, less experienced astronaut.

Stars, the universe was breathtaking. I was at the helm (even though Kyra had strictly told me the helm was off limits but heck, how can I continue my training if I’m not even allowed at the controls?), gazing at the purple-bruised nothingness, unable to take my eyes off the star-stained void, when Kyra came marching in, in all her glory. Why did she have to come now? ‘Alina vat is this?’ Oh great…now I knew she was mad because her what came out as vaat? Which only meant she was failing to control herself, and her accent, it seemed. ‘What are you talking about?’ I ask with what I hope (and know) is an innocently sweet smile. ‘You aren’t supposed to be here! This is your first—

‘mission, I know, I know. But I haven’t done anything wrong. In fact, I don’t think you’ve let me done anything at all. Why can’t you for once see how much this mission means to me as it does to you?’ Wow, didn’t know I had it in me to give her my opinion; nevertheless she needed to know what I thought of her attitude. Before I am given a chance to do just that however, my cheek is thrust to the left, the pain jolting me. I am frozen momentarily, disbelief clearly showing. Did she actually just hit me? I knew Kyra had anger problems but never before had she actually resorted to violence. My cheek was throbbing, which might have fueled my fury into doing something I had no idea was in me. I pushed her against the wall causing her to hit her head so badly, that the anger in her face disappeared, to be replaced by a blood thirst for revenge. I gulped. Being in her presence suddenly frightened me so much, I worried for my life. Kyra’s hands suddenly found my throat, constricting it so much that I was choking. No thought passed through my mind as I tried in vain to get a single gust of the artificial air that I had taken so granted for before. She is going to kill me, was the only though that passed my head as I struggled to get out of her wrestlers hold. She must have noticed my face going purple, because her vein-bulging face abruptly loosened, a pathetic look crossing her eyes as she let me go. I finally gasp in lungfuls of air, unable to get enough, so desperately filling my blood with oxygen that I didn’t stop Kyra as she crept away from the compartment.

I handed her the spiced coffee as I sat down beside her with my own mug. Spiced coffee always cheered her up and I wondered if it would hold the same magic as it did before. She looked up at me with red rimmed eyes as she silently thanked me with a nod and tenderly held the bag. I tried not to think about those hands that had been on my neck… After a few moments of dragging quietude, Kyra, noticing that I was so not going to start the conversation, took the lead in a rather shaky voice. ‘I’m sorry Al…I know that you are capable of running the Flicker and that this mission is important for you too… I just got carried away I guess.’ Ok, maybe that wasn’t the perfect apology running in my head, but at least she sounded genuine. Or at least I hoped so. I realized that I no longer trusted what she had to say, that our friendship was forever tainted with this…brawl (as a generous person would call it). Never before had I been scared by Kyra, but now I realized that I did not know who Kyra really was. How could she resort to violence after all those intimate years we had together? I could no longer imagine a life with her, but, as I shuddered to think about it, I realized that I had to stay with her in this ship without any protection from other human bodies, for another month…