I take a sip of alcohol-free champagne through a committee-approved sippy cup. I'm standing at a bar with no stools. The coasters are built into the bar and keep beverages safe in this environment.

  I know this place. I put my space-certified-child-proof mug into the sunken coaster. The image on the coaster is a vibrant Earth with Earthview Plaza's name and logo. The cup clicks and it latches to the bar. It's not that it'll float away, but -

  Damn, I'm back to being me again. I can't remember the fun stuff? At least there's a little gravity here on the moon. It’s better than nothing.

  Earthview Plaza. The nicest place you'll find outside of Earth. It's peaceful here, if not a tad artificial. They put so much effort into making grass out of recycled waste. To be fair, they use more nutrients and scientific magic than human excrement but I know it’s still there. I can't forget about the chicken crap either, but it's still a nice fresh patch of soil here.

  The real view is always up. Looking through the view glass I can see this place's namesake: Earth. The view never gets old; it's an always changing and swirling sphere of made of blue and white. I can see what passes for time for humans as the whole Earth slowly (almost imperceptibly) turns before my eyes. To make it even more awesome, we’re orbiting it at the same time on this base.

  I never get bored of the view. I don't think I ever will. I can't estimate the total amount of years it took to bring us to the Moon. Not just the actual engineering and building, but the theories and studying over hundreds of years. Even then, society still thinks that what Earth offers is so beautiful and unique that we should mimic it wherever we go.

  I will still argue that the gravity on Earth is a tad high, and I always argue that there's statistical orthopedic data to back me up but I have to keep the crazy talk down when I play astronaut in front of a crowd.

  Right, this is the pre-party for the launch. And it’s also a few words I thought I’d never use in a sentence. I face away from the bar and away from Earth to the room before me. It's a simulation of an outdoor park with seating, gazebos and lounging areas. This place is mostly used to relax when you're off-duty or between flights. The temperature is controlled, it's not too bright, and they cultivate the greenery with such detailed dedication. It really shows. There's never a brown leaf, or clover in the grass. It's like a finely polished golf course. Naturally, I hate it.

  The Plaza is a pretty big part of the Luna Provincial Base, but I've never seen it this packed. This mission is pretty important though, at least to Plastivity. Well, mostly to Benny Cole.

  I see him standing in an Earth-wood gazebo surrounded by his fellow… friends? Colleagues? No: more like underlings. Benny's all laughs, and his audience makes sure they laugh a little harder than he does each time he delivers a joke. I can't hear it, but I know I've heard it before.

  I think the upcoming mission is the last stage of his spiritual phase. He’s wearing a white and orange guru robe, and it looks like he weighed it down to compensate for the lower gravity. Thankfully, he chose to wear pants with it anyway.

  If I had a spiritual awakening maybe I'd wear that outfit too. Probably not, though.

  I make eye contact with a younger man walking away from the bar with a drink. He nods at me and walks over. I notice he's wearing 20LB weights around each boot. He walks awkwardly towards me, like he's avoiding puddles of water.

  "You in the shit?" He asks me before leaning his elbow against the bar. He struggles to balance but settles into the ground.

  "Just on it," I reply. I guess this means he's on the crew; this is a phrase pilots and crews use to identify each other in the Plaza.

  The young man grins ear to ear and reaches to shake my hand. "Engine Tech Ramirez! Are you Captaining?"

  "I'm co-piloting," I reply while shaking his hand.

  I introduce myself to the engine technician. I don’t think either of us know what to say next. We stand around a bit before I break the silence: "Haven't seen the Captain yet."

  "I heard he's pretty good," Ramirez says as he looks out to the crowd. "Apparently has been in some hairy flights out there which is good."

  I think he means me.

  "They're all hairy," I reply. I feel cheesy saying it, but it's never a walk in the park out there. "But we got a good crew, right?"

  "Absolutely," Ramirez says. "You fly many missions?"

  "I’ve been in a few."

  "Anything crazy happen?" Ramirez asks me. He's facing out and watching the guests on the horizon.

  "Usual emergency stuff," I say. "Fires, engine failures, like I said, something is always going to happen. Hopefully it’s just minor. Usually is a bunch of minor problems."

  Ramirez nervously chuckles. "You sound cool. Glad you're here."

  I nod back and we silently stand watching people socialize. Benny Cole seems to be particularly animated as he tries to direct attention to himself.

  Ramirez raises his sippy cup to someone in the distance who breaks away from a group and approaches us.

  "Good timing for you to show up," Ramirez says to the man as he politely elbows me to pay attention.

  The man joins us at the bar. He's not as young as the engine tech, but he's younger than me. At the very least, he's not wearing ankle weights like the engine tech or most of the attendees. That must make him:

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  "Commander Delcroix," he says, offering me a warm handshake. "Commander Henry Delcroix, CCO." He moves to shake Ramirez's hand. "And Mr. Ramirez, good to see you again."

  "Nice meeting you, Captain," I reply.

  "Call me Henry," Captain Delcroix says. "I gotta say, I was over the moon when I heard you were joining the crew."

  "I'm glad to hear it," I say. I never know how to reply to this kind of small talk. "Flight in was good?"

  "Slept the whole way," Delcroix says as he orders a drink from the bar. "And I was piloting.”

  Ramirez and I politely force a laugh. Silence sneaks up on us but the rest of the party roars on.

  “I'll have to get my wife to join us a little later,” Delcroix says. “You know how it is. They get a bit nervous. Especially with new stuff.”

  "My fiancée," Ramirez says, "Was the same way but she got used to it."

  "She's not nervous about this one?" Delcroix asks as he picks up his own sippy cup drinks from it.

  "A little bit, yeah," Ramirez says.

  I take a sip of my drink. I swallow a hard clump of bubbles. Whoever thought serving champagne here was ill-informed. The carbonated bubbles tend to group together and they struggle with breaking the surface tension of liquids like they do in normal gravity.

  "How about you?" Delcroix asks me directly.

  "No issues there," I say before drawing more champagne from my cup.

  "Yeah? They don't think it's dangerous?" Delcroix asks. He takes a quick and short sip of champagne. It looked like he faked it.

  "Oh, I'm single," I say with a shrug that almost unbalances me.

  Delcroix and Ramirez reply with: "Oh," before moving on to the next topic.

  "Any family watching you two off?" Delcroix asks us. His face looks like he's experiencing some kind of pain.

  "My dad came along. Got my two babies at home watching too," Ramirez says. "They were too young to fly up here but my dad couldn't believe he was gonna get to come here. Fiancée came too, I guess.”

  Delcroix looks at me expectedly before he started again. "My dad came along too. But he's on the TCU Aeronautics Committee. Senator Delcroix," he says before looking at his cup and trailing off.

  Senator Delcroix is his father. The Colonel had already told me that, so it's no surprise. It's amazing how far someone can get in life when your parents provide a golden elevator to the top of whatever piques their interest.

  "Cool, yeah," Ramirez replies. "I thought maybe with the name and all but didn't want to say anything." I can tell by his voice that he's putting on a show. He knew it as well as I did.

  "Yeah," Delcroix says as he motions to the entirety of Earthview Plaza. "This mission I don't think would have happened without my old Pa. Taught me everything I know. Except piloting, of course."

  I nod and make sure the Captain knows I agree. Definitely a great man. How else would we have privatization creeping its way back into spaceflight?

  I remember when I was a kid, I learned about corporate investments into space exploration. They taught us that it was a good thing, because the capital investments they gave out were the only way we'd be able to innovate. They also taught us that it's better for government agencies to manage these types of ventures and that it's a good thing that we were able to move on from that dark age of space travel.

  But with today's technology and economy, it's so expensive to go into space. The only way is for the TransContinental Union to fund tax paid excursions (which the member states hate paying for), or give trillionaires reasons to invest in space.

  Senator Delcroix argued that private companies should once again be allowed to venture in their own private expeditions. That's how it started it at least. Eventually, that was the only way anything was happening in space. The governments didn’t want to fund it anymore. Instead, the rich funded it for their ego.

  A bubbly woman along with a cameraman and producer makes their way towards us. They're all wearing ankle weights. It looks like 30LB attachments per foot. Newbies penguin-walking towards us with a camera means one thing. The media.

  I set my drink inside the bar's cupholder and take a deep breath. I might be able to jump over them and skip away, but that would probably get me grounded from flying this mission. Probably get me grounded from flying, period.

  "Oh shit," Captain Delcroix says as he straightens his uniform and puts his cup down. "Be cool, be cool." He faces out them and forces a smile.

  "This is fun," Ramirez says as he shoves his drink in his holder and adjusts his uniform.

  I guess I should too… I adjust my jacket to pull out the nonexistent wrinkles.

  "I'm happy to do all the talking," Delcroix says, before turning to me: "You good?"

  "Yeah," I reply.

  "Hello, I'm Veronica Bell," the bubble woman introduces herself. "Am I looking at our amazing flight crew?"

  The cameraman steadies himself and the producer speaks into her headset behind him. They're setting up the scene. I still have time to run, but I don't want to get grounded.

  "You know it," Delcroix replies without cracking his smile. "I'm Commander Delcroix, Captain of this mission," he extends his hand to Veronica.

  Veronica smiles even bigger as she shuffles her mic around and clips the audio pack to the side of her dress. Her snub seems unintentional. "I'm very aware of who you all are! I was actually hoping to get the chance to interview you three."

  "We'd be delighted," Captain Delacroix answers for us. "Who are you with?"

  "We're with Ether Wave News," the producer yells from behind the cameraman. She's huddled like a baseball umpire. "Don't worry you signed the NDA as part of the whole shebang."

  Right, Ether Wave is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Plastivity. I guess I signed my life away in those papers.

  "That's right," Delcroix replies. "Well, happy to get started."

  "Oh," Veronica says, "Before we get started. I feel silly asking, but how do you pronounce the, uh, vehicle's name?"

  "The ship?" Delcroix replies. "Excellent question. It's the, uh, give me a second. The Zephirz. No, the Zephirx."

  "The Jeffirks?" Veronica repeats back.

  "Zephinx," Ramirez says.

  "No, no," Delcroix waves Ramirez and me quiet. "It's Zephirx, pronounced 'ZEFF'-'er'-'iks'. Zephirx."

  "Zephirx," Veronica repeats. "Zephirx. Okay, I think I got it."

  I mouth the word myself. Zephirx. I want to make sure I'm ready in case I'm tested on camera. I think I’ll just try to talk around it. Worse case I'll ask for a do-over.

  The cameraman and producer set up their scene and Veronica steadies herself in the low gravity before turning to the camera.

  The producer waves to get my attention. "Can you scooch in a bit more?" Her whole arm motions for me to move towards Ramirez and he inches closer to Delcroix in return.

  "Let's get started," Veronica says as she faces the producer and cameraman.

  The producer starts a silent countdown. The whole room seems a lot quieter all of a sudden. It seems almost darker too.

  "My first question," Veronica starts, "Is directed to the co-pilot. Commander, I was wondering if you could tell me if you've ever -"

  "No," I say and reach out to block the camera. I almost fall over. "Please don't do that."

  Veronica looks extremely offended and Ramirez backs away from me until he's laying against Delcroix. Captain Delcroix looks at me incredulously and shakes his head.

  "She's trying to ask you a question," Captain Delcroix says with his hands on Ramirez's shoulders.

  Ramirez looks almost terrified as he huddles away, secured by Delcroix. I’m surprised he’s not fumbling in the gravity anymore. I’m not sure I am either.

  Well then. I need to weigh my options. After all, running hasn't been working for me in these situations.

  "Commander," Captain Delcroix says as he points his hand at me, "I order you to answer Veronica's question!"

  "Okay," I reply. "But have you heard of the Singularity?" I ask Delcroix and Ramirez’s shocked faced. I look at Veronica and her crew: "Have YOU heard of the Singularity?"

  Veronica brings her mic up. She bursts out laughing. "Now you're getting it!" Veronica tells me.

  "Okay?" I hesitantly ask as the entire world disappears before me. Veronica's grin is the last thing I see.

  I feel myself fade into oblivion.

  No more questions.