On Monday, she got the call that they were being shut down. Audra sat in deafening silence. She didn’t know what this earth-shattering news meant for her future. She felt like her life had just ended at 24.

Audra Davenport was a prodigy who had graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology at 22 with a PhD in aerospace engineering. When she was a young girl, she dreamed of going to space. Her affinity for science, deep understanding of the universe, and her precocious intelligence allowed her to excel through school very quickly. Before she even graduated from MIT she had a position at the United States Space Core (U.S.S.C.) lined up, where she had a chance of becoming the first woman to actually set foot on the moon.

The year was 2062, and the nation was itching to return to the moon, and create a lunar colony. The U.S.S.C. was the only company willing to take such strides. After a couple of years of preparation for this mission, Audra’s launch day was finally less than a week away.

This particular Monday began like any other, but it was soon to change. Audra went to the gym before beginning her medical quarantine at the Core Space Preparation Center, so as to not get sick on the mission. Being so close to the launch date and preparations for the mission, Audra was overwhelmed with nerves, some fear, but mostly anticipation for the new world that she could be the pioneer of creating. She had been at the gym for a little while when she got the call – not only was the Lunar Launch program being shut down, but she was no longer going to be needed by the U.S.S.C.

During the call, she was informed that while last-minute safety inspections were being done on the rocket, massive flaws were discovered in the O-ring and wings that occurred during recent unmanned test flights, and would likely take nearly another year of repairs before being safe to be able to bring a human anywhere.

While the U.S.S.C. had been a monopoly in the space industry for nearly a century, they were beginning to fall off the radar to the public because they hadn’t made much progress compared to other companies since the ‘20s. For that very reason, their funding was extremely limited compared to previous years. Sponsors were beginning to shift their resources towards other sharks in the space race.

Even though their planned mission to go back to the moon was definitely progress in the right direction, it was now falling apart. Since they didn’t have enough financial backing to keep Audra and the rest of their astronauts, they definitely wouldn’t have enough to fix their rockets or continue to build new ones in the future. This one step in the right direction after decades of falling behind wasn’t going to be enough to save the U.S.S.C., and this was likely the end of them.

Audra was devastated. While these issues of a lack of funding were not entirely out of the blue, she never thought they would grow to the point that her livelihood could come crashing down so abruptly, and so near to the mission.

She hung up and began to weep. Quickly, she went home to be alone and started to gather herself. Even though Audra was not immune to emotions, her pride helped her swiftly switch to problem-solving mode. She needed a job, and knew that she would not let the U.S.S.C.’s massive mishap reflect poorly on her. She had enough confidence to know that this was on them, and not her. She began scrolling through her contact list in hopes of finding the name of some higher-up from another space company who could be so gracious as to help her get back on her feet. She knew she had capabilities, experience, and a resume that many others would not.

However, as she got to the bottom of her list, she realized that she had no luck. Now a sense of defeat was beginning to set in. Devastated, thinking that she actually might be screwed, Audra turned on the TV to try to numb her thoughts.

Unfortunately, the first thing she saw was a massive news headline saying, “U.S.S.C. Has Let Go of Its Best Crew and Mission In Decades – Is This The End?”
She watched for a few minutes and immediately turned it off when a picture of herself popped up on the screen.

The day was droning on; what was Audra going to do? She choked down some cheap ramen noodles and sat in a trance-like state of helplessness. She was startled when her phone began to ring across the room. She didn’t answer; in fact, she didn’t even look at who it was. She figured it was probably her parents or a relative, and she really didn’t want to talk to anyone about how her whole world had just fallen apart.

When a few minutes later it rang again, her curiosity was sparked, and so she looked at the caller ID and realized it was a random number, the same one that had called earlier. She wiped some broth off of her lips before accepting the call.

“Hello?” Audra sounded annoyed.

A peppy woman responded, “Hi! Is this Audra Davenport?”

“Yes. Can I help you?”

“Oh good!” The lady was overjoyed. “This is Delilah, I’m calling on behalf of Future of Tomorrow–”

Audra was astonished. Future of Tomorrow was the driving force in the space industry, which had–in the last 5 years– made more advances than anyone else. They had built a new type of rocket engine that was powered by a fuel composed of an Anthracite Catalyst and Hyper-Oxygenated Benzene base, called Athroxygenzyne. Their cutting-edge technology and innovation made a rocket mankind never believed possible to create; they called it the Red Arrow. This missile reaches top speeds of 900,000mph, and if all works out, would be able to reach Mars from Earth in about a week, instead of months or even years like ordinary spacecraft would.

“Hello?” Delilah asked.

“Hi!” Audra shifted her focus back to the call. “I’m sorry, Delilah. I think I lost you for a moment. You were calling from Future of Tomorrow?”

She hoped she didn’t miss what Delilah was saying.

“Yes! We heard what happened at U.S.S.C., and we are terribly sorry about their lack of transparency and how they handled the situation. I’m the CEO at Future of Tomorrow. Here, we focus on things we are truly capable of, and that is a lot. A few years ago, we heard your name and wanted to reach out to you about being part of our Red Arrow project. However, we were too late. You had already signed on with U.S.S.C. Given the recent circumstances, we were hoping that you would possibly consider a position here as one of our three astronauts. You would be assembled as a part of a small crew for our maiden intragalactic voyage to Mars. You could go down in history as one of the first humans–and a woman–to ever set foot on another planet!”

People had been campaigning for decades to be the first to do so. Audra never thought it would be achievable in her lifetime.
She sat quietly for a moment, trying to process what she’d just heard. Mars. It seemed impossible.
Just hours ago, she thought her career was over, but now she had an opportunity for a whole new beginning.

A small smile crept onto her face. “When would I start?”
Delilah laughed, “I was hoping you’d say that.”

Audra’s heart was beating so fast. Everything was going to work out. This was absolutely perfect. She thought for a moment about how ironic it was that the U.S.S.C.’s biggest competitor, Future of Tomorrow, had just swooped her up and taken her in.

Elated, the next morning, Audra walked into her new headquarters at Future of Tomorrow and saw the Red Arrow rocket for the first time. It stood 45 stories tall, a magnificent silver and red. She was truly ecstatic.

Her old dream ended on a Monday.

And her new one began on a Tuesday.