Senli let out a sigh of relief when she received back her exam papers. The perks of being in a small school meant that they could get instant feedback, so she only had to wait a few minutes for Andi to grade them. They were all passing scores, but not as high as the young Fiend had been hoping to achieve.

In her defense, though, the last couple of days that she had to cram had been entirely disrupted. Even though Natyhm had told her to focus on her studies, how in the mawhging hell could she?

When most other students graduated from highschool, they celebrated and enjoyed the time in a myriad of ways. Some would hold a simple or extravagant party, others would plan trips abroad to other countries. Plenty would waste away the last bit of freedom they had before going off to college or joining the workforce.

Senli fell into the crowd of going on a trip now—not that she’d initially planned to. But unlike anyone else, her destination was certainly unique. She was going to space, and on such short notice too.

The girl had tried to go back to studying properly, but it quickly proved impossible. Words in front her eyes vanished like a magic trick, obscured by the never ending excitement and anxieties of what was to come. She thought about everything amazing that she’d see and witness, and every little detail of what could go horribly wrong. It was a whirlwind of emotions, and not a great mental space for learning.

However, by that point she had already gone over all that she needed for the exams and was merely reviewing during those last few days. While her space-rotted brain failed to retain anything new, it also didn’t eject the gist of what she’d learned previously. And when it came time for the exams themselves, the girl had been able to blot out everything else and focus—a useful skill she’d learned from years of constantly hearing whispers.

The scores she received were nothing that’d help her chances of getting into a top university, but they also deserved to be celebrated. Still, that would have to wait, since her first astronaut training was scheduled for that afternoon. For now, she’d have to settle for the congratulatory handshake from Andi, and an affirming pat on the back from Headmaster Ipucco as she made her way out the door.

At first, Senli planned to get a great big lunch to treat herself, but then remembered what was in store for—what she assumed was in store, rather, since they hadn’t really told her any specifics. So she opted for food that was dry and bready, choices that wouldn’t upset her stomach later.

As soon as she arrived at Nathym's workshop, The Engineer brought her down to one of the rooms that they were temporarily using for their training. Their spacesuits lined the wall, and she was given the room briefly to change. When Nathym returned, he explained the large pod in the center.

“This will simulate the various environments and forces we’ll experience. We’ll start with the unpleasant one first. Get in, sit down, and I’ll start the program. Try to last as long as you can, but when it gets to be too much, push the button and it’ll stop.” The man then ungracefully slid a bucket over next to the pod’s entrance. “And this is for after.”

Did that mean Nathym had such little faith in her, or was throwing up an inevitability? Senli tried not to let it bother her too much as she got into the pod, sitting in the surprisingly comfortable chair. However, the padding was a bit less enjoyable because of her suit, though that was far more streamlined than she expected, closer to a racing uniform than she’d seen other astronauts wear.

The helmet was another issue, though. As soon as it was put on, she felt like she was suffocating, but then it was like the suit itself had matched her breathing a second later, and the fog on the hemet vanished. After just a minute more of wearing the fishbowl, it was like it wasn’t even there. A few icons had also lit up on the helmet’s display, but Nathym had told her to ignore them for now.

There was a brief countdown, which Senli guessed was to simulate the real day and shuttle launch, and then her chair along with the rest of the pod began to rumble. It started out fairly slow, like riding in an old car down a bumpy road, but it quickly picked up to rough turbulence she’d experienced once on a skycraft.

Not much longer, though, until the rumbling reached a realm she hadn’t experienced or could have imagined. Her very existence was vibrating, and it felt like her flesh was shaking off of her skeleton. And then it kept going, until The Eavesdropper was convinced her brain was going to melt from mashing against her skull and would leak out her ears.

She pressed the button and the pod came to a stop over the course of a few seconds—an included cooldown to not make the end just as jarring. As soon as the door opened, Senli leaned forward, falling right out of the pod. She tried to catch herself with her legs, but they weren’t working like she thought. Fortunately, her elbows served as a secondary support to keep her face off the ground.

With each passing second, her eyes focused a bit more. At first, the room had been so blurry that she literally couldn’t make things out, but the dots were starting to connect. Eventually, she regained enough bodily control that she could take off her helmet, chucking it gracelessly off to the side.

Senli then noticed the bucket again, sitting right in front of her face. She felt an overwhelming surge of pride that she hadn’t thrown up. But of course, reality punished her for it, and that was the moment it all hit. Pride wasn’t the only thing building at that moment, so was the pressure in her stomach. And everything came out a second later, all that she’d eaten that day and likely a few days prior.

“Ah, I should have mentioned something,” Nathym offered some words that weren’t remotely consoling. “But if you need to, you can throw up into your suit. You probably don’t want to know the details, but it’ll take care of it. Same goes for anything else your body needs to do.”

The space suit itself had a bit of a different perspective 🧑‍🚀I’m not a toilet, you can see. Please don’t throw up in me.🧑‍🚀

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She ignored Nathym’s teachings and the suit’s plea, having to ask, “Is that really what it’s going to be like when we warp?”

“Oh no,” The Engineer shook his head. “That’s just to get us into space. Warping will be a different beast entirely.”

Senli’s eyes rolled back, trying to process if this was something she could actually do, or if this was a big wakeup call to call it quits.

But Nathym added one more slightly-encouraging tidbit. “The actual shuttle will have stabilizers, though, so on the day of, it will be a much smoother ride if all goes to plan. We just have to get you ready for the worst possible outcome in case something fails. The odds of that, however, are astronomically small. Still, though, you need to build the stomach for it. Take a break and we’ll do zero-g training next, then will come the actual warp simulation.”

Senli desperately tried to appreciate the lull as she slowly slipped stomach-calming tea in the corner of the room to help calm herself down. While she relaxed, the other astronauts came for their turns, ending with Nathym himself. And one by one, they all crawled out of the pod just as she had, and without fail, emptied their stomachs into their own buckets. That part actually did make her feel better, especially seeing Xard, whom she looked up to immensely, appear so vulnerable.

Their reactions hadn’t been as visceral as hers, though, since they’d all taken a few turns before this date. However, that wasn’t the most heartening news, since it meant that getting over the issue wasn’t a quick fix, but at least they got a decent reprieve from it.

Time in the anti-gravity simulation was actually pretty fun. It was the same pod, but with the chair receded, giving them a few feet to float about. Senli had felt a bit of queasiness at first, different from the launch sim, but she got over it pretty quickly. And her remaining time was just enjoyable, performing flips and tricks she’d never even attempted otherwise.

But that joy was rather fleeting, back to a nightmare in moments. Because next was the warp simulation, and no amount of explanation could have prepared The Eavesdropper for it. She’d assumed it would just be a more intense version of being launched into space, but they were nothing alike.

Rather than vibration, it was more like a mind and body piercing resonance. Her very soul felt like it was being split into a dozen different pieces, all floating away from her to depart forever. Only for them to come crashing back together when the warp concluded, ending her literal out-of-body experience.

She was even more eager to get out of the pod after that one, huddling over her fresh bucket immediately, even though her body felt more like jelly rather than being nauseous. In the polished metal, she caught her own reflection. Some of her blood had leaked out of eyes and ears. Maybe seeing that was what triggered the nauseousness, but it welled up in a nanosecond.

Since Senli had already gotten all of the food out of her system, what came up this time around was all liquid—mostly blood mixed with… she didn’t want to know. And just like the time before, the other three also joined her in her misery, which at least didn’t make her feel left out. After a brief break, they went through all three simulations again, and again, and again.

At some point, they had to stop and force themselves to refill their bodies, because they had nothing left to upchuck—not that they actually wanted biowaste ammunition, but it started feeling like their bodies would break without it.

“How many more times are we going to do this!?” Those words eventually leaked from Senli’s mouth after a particularly agonizing bout. She didn’t want to complain, but a trip to another planet was starting to seem not worth the effort.

Xard was the one to answer, and it was a bit direct but crude. “Until we stop throwing up,” he groaned, clearly fed up with the training himself, but still resolute to see it through. “We need to get our bodies used to it. Once that happens, it will get a lot better pretty fast.”

And thankfully, yet annoyingly, the man was pretty spot on. It took her longer the rest since they’d had a head start, and the course of three days, but Senli got there. By the end, the launch was nothing more than a disjolting rattle, and the warp became just a bad headache. Even though it wasn’t necessary after a few trials, they still kept the zero gravity training just as a spacer between the two nightmares.

Once their bodies had been properly trained, they moved onto practical drills. Nathym took them out to the rocket which had been rigged for launch deep in the northern mountains, as far away as they could get from civilizations on all sides. The locals would certainly still hear a commotion, but it was nothing stranger than their day-to-day living next to such an eccentric group.

Before moving on, The Engineer explained to them every component of the rocket that they could see. It was nothing they’d touch or have their hands on, but he wanted them to understand how it all worked, and what part performed each function.

Then they went into the shuttle itself. At first, Natyhm let them roam around and get acclimated, to test out the seats and explore, but then they got down to business. He explained what every single button did, and then he explained it again. After a third pass, he quizzed them. And then he did it again. It became an intense test of memorization until each crewmate could repeat exactly and perfectly every single function and operation of the ship.

Senli actually got it all right first, crediting it to her student’s brain that had just been in study-mode for exams. Ahvra was second, easily remembering all the technical jargon, but her sleepy brain made it difficult for her to regurgitate every specific detail since she’d exerted far more energy in the past few days than she was used to. And Xard struggled the most, having been out of school and any sort of learning environment for quite some time.

Once everyone was competent and comfortable, they started some exercises of situations that might happen, emergencies they’d possibly have to respond to. Some were rather hectic, like depressurization, and ones less severe like fuse replacements. After they’d gone through Nathym’s entire playbook, they switched over to routine launch protocol, going through the steps of what would happen day of, minus the actual trip to space.

Eventually, Nathym was content with their progress, and mostly dismissed them until the start of the mission a few days away. There were still some preparations to be made, and Xard hadn’t reached the specific Kinet level needed just yet. So in the meantime, Senli went back to her caretaker life, though now with endless questions about her training from the children.

Still, once a day, the space squad met up to go through the mission once more, running the simulations, and performing the steps. It got a bit easier with each passing day, but also a bit more daunting as the time they’d need to use that knowledge steadily approached. The night before, Senli barely got any sleep, even with her bed singing her lullabies.

And the day finally came, where she donned her suit for their actual mission, ready to head into dark dangerous depths of space.