“BEEP! BEEP! BEEP” I heard the alarm ringing in my ears. I shut off the obnoxious alarm clock and rolled over toward Alex who was still asleep. I met Alex through NASA. We were both working on the same project and it was love at first site. I loved watching him sleep. Alex was the smartest person I had ever met, I liked to picture his brain working as he slept. Like the inside of a clock with gears, cogs and wheels all turning and working together as one. That’s what I fell in love with. His brain just worked in a different way than anyone else. Eventually he felt my eyes on him and he slowly began to wake up.
“Good morning sunshine,” I said with a smile.
“Good morning my beautiful wife,” he replied as he grabbed me for our usual morning cuddles. Being newlyweds we felt inseparable. It was an amazing feeling to be called his wife. He was my best friend, my work partner, and now my husband. I felt like the luckiest girl in the world.
We both decided it was time to get up. We didn’t want to be late since it was our first day back from our honeymoon. We got up, got in the shower, and dressed for work. Both of us worked as space scientist but he had started as an aerospace engineer. He’s basically a space encyclopedia and I learn from him everyday. We headed to work at the Kennedy Space Center, expecting a regular day at the office. Michael Smith, the Director of Missions in Space pulled us aside as soon as we walked in the door.
“We’re waiting for two others,” he told us with a stern voice, then left and closed the door.
“What’s this about?” I asked Alex thinking he might know what was going on.
“I have no…” he began to say when Michael walked in with the others. The two found their seats and Michael began.
“I’m glad you’re all here. Alexander, Kaitlyn, welcome back. I hope you had a lovely honeymoon. This is Jim Porter and Samantha Hudson, you may have seen them around.”
“Thank you,” we smiled. “What’s this about?”
“Well I know this is very sudden since it is your first day back,” He looked to the floor as if it would be hard to tell us what he had to say. Anxiety was growing inside me like a wildfire. I grabbed  Alex’s hand, which gave me some comfort.
“We want to send the four of you to space.”
My jaw dropped. I looked at Alex and could see his brain working again like a clock. So many emotions were rushing through me.
“We’ve already started training,” Jim said, speaking for Samantha.
“Yes, if you two agree, your training will start today,” Michael said looking for an answer.
“What is this mission even about?” Alex asked. “We can’t agree to anything until we know what we’re going to be doing.”
“Oh, of course,” Michael said quickly as if he had forgotten to explain the mission. “As you know, our last mission we found the planet E-186. We now want to land on it.”
“But is it safe?” I said feeling nervous.
“Well you see,” Michael bagan. “This planet is the most similar planet to Earth that we have found. Potentially, this planet could sustain life. We want you four to find out.”
“I’m in,” Alex said. I paused for a minute, all eyes on me. “I’m in,” I said feeling confident. I’m going to space. I had always wanted to working for NASA. Now that was actually going, it felt surreal. The fact that I was going to experience this with the love of my life, made it even better. When I looked over at Alex he was looking at me like he did the first time we met. He looked at me like he was trying to get inside my brain to know exactly what I was thinking. I smiled at him to let him know I was sure about the mission. He smiled back and looked at Michael.
“Let’s start training,” he said in an excited yet professional tone. As I heard those words my heart raced. Any piece of hesitation I felt was gone. I was ready to take on the world, or should I say E-186, the potentially new world.
Michael walked us down to the training facilities. We started with simulators, then we spent hours in pool to feel a weightless environment, finally was aircraft training. This was our favorite part. Alex had flown planes all his life with his dad. We was an amazing pilot in airplanes, and I knew he would be an amazing pilot in our spacecraft. The training went very well, and we went home that night feeling more exhausted than ever.
As tired as we were, we couldn’t stop talking the whole ride home. We talked about the training and what it would be like in space, but most of all we talked about how lucky we were to be in love. Being in love made this whole experience better in everyway. We were best friends, we had fun together and helped each other reach our greatest potential. We really made a great team.
Training for space usually takes about two years. However, we had done some training in the past and within a year we were ready. We passed our final test and set a takeoff date. July 12, 2216. We had exactly one week before would be in space. We spent our time working harder than ever. We all had our job assignments. I was the flight commander, in charge of our overall mission, and the safety of our crew. Alex would be the pilot, in charge of getting us there and back. Not only the pilot, but he would also be the brains to help make decisions. Jim Porter was our flight engineer, and Samantha Hudson was the science officer in charge of analyzing E-186.

Today’s the day. We woke up filled with excitement and nerves. Driving to work that day was silent. There was nothing to say. In about an hour we would be in space, and that was a crazy concept. When we got to the launchpad our spacecraft had already been checked. We were ready to go. I stared at Alex for a long few minutes, then we boarded the spacecraft.
“You ready?” he asked.
“You bet I am,” I replied more confident than I actually felt. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” he smiled.
We all strapped in, and in what felt like seconds we heard the countdown. “T-minus 10 seconds.” Our nerves were building, Alex was squeezing my hand. I don’t think he realized how hard he was squeezing it because it started to get painful. I squeezed back. “3-2-1 BLASTOFF.”
The takeoff was felt crazy. You can’t imagine the amount of G-force you feel. It didn’t last long, in no time we were floating comfortably in space. We all got to work calculating where to land on E-186. Time felt like it was flying by in space.
“Prepare for landing,” Alex said.
Already we were landing on E-186. It looked identical to Earth. It was a crazy to take off from Earth then land on what looked like Earth but wasn’t at all. Before exiting the spacecraft I glanced out the window. Out of the corner of my I saw something moving on the planet. When I looked again it was gone.
“Did you guys see that?” I asked feeling concerned.
“See what?” they replied.
“I don’t know… I thought i saw something move,”
“Let’s go check it out,” Alex said.
We suited up and stepped outside.
“Wow I saw something too,” said Jim. He looked white as a ghost.
When I looked over I saw a human like figure with skin that looked like a hairless cat. Silently, I pointed to it. I saw Alex follow my finger and his jaw dropped.
“Guys, I don’t think we’re alone,” he said still staring at the creature. “We should get back on the spaceship and contact the station.”
So we all got back on and got connected with Michael.
“Hey boss, there’s something… living here.”
“What do you mean, humans? What is it? Can you communicate with them? How many are there?”
“Slow down, we just saw them, we wanted to get further instruction.”
“Send one of you out to try to get close to one. Try to find out as much as you can.”
Just then I felt Samantha tap my shoulder. She looked frightened as hell and she was pointing at the window. I looked out and saw at least ten of the alien creatures gathered around our spaceship.
“Hey Mike, we gotta go…” Alex said when he saw all the creatures surrounding us.
“Wait, wait! Tell me what's happening…” Before he could finish Alex was leaving the spaceship.
“You guys stay here I’ll go.”
“Be careful!” I wanted to go after him but knew I should stay inside, he would want me to stay inside. We all looked eagerly out the window. As he stepped down the creatures  started toward him and they did not look happy. They stuck out there hands as if trying they were going to try to grab him.
“Alex watch out!!” I screamed, but it was too late. The one behind him scratched down his back. Alex started to climb back up into the spacecraft but they grabbed his feet.
“HELP ME!!” he yelled.
With all of our strength together, we pulled him back in. I got the first aid kit and fixed him up. While Jim contacted Michael again.
“Hey Michael, it’s Jim. We’re not safe here, I think we need to head home.”
“What happened??” Michael anxiously asked.
“They definitely don’t want us here…”
“Say no more. Get out of there.”
“Wait,” Alex said weakly. “I dropped key to start the spaceship.”
We looked out the window and there it was, sitting on the ground. Surrounding it was the creatures, looking even more angry than before.
“I’ll go, if I don’t make it, leave. I want to do this for our team,” said Jim. And with that he was opening the door to the ship.
“Be careful Jim, it’s dangerous out there,” Alex grunted through the pain.
We all watched Jim from the window. As he grabbed the key, and the aliens grabbed him. He through the key in through the door as they took him away.
“Jim!” we yelled hysterically. “NO JIM!”
Alex tried to go after him but could barely move.
“Babe you’re losing too much blood, stay still.” I knew he just wanted to help. Alex would never leave a man from our team behind. But it was too late. Jim was gone and there was nothing we could do. This was hard for all of us. We’re always taught to never leave a man behind. Sometimes there is nothing you can do. Jim made this sacrifice for us and we had to accept that. I started up the spaceship and latched the door shut. I got Alex buckled in, and did the rest of the procedure. The takeoff was silent. No one said a word. The only sound was breathing. We were about half way home when I noticed a heavy breathing. Heavier than the three of us alone. I checked to make sure it was Alex or Samantha.
“Do you guys hear that?” I asked them. “That heavy breathing isn’t any of us.”
“OMG…” Samantha said. She was stark white and staring into the back of the spaceship. One of the aliens was in the back of our spaceship.