Chapter Text
“An astronaut is someone who’s able to make good decisions quickly, with incomplete information, when the consequences really matter.”
Chris Hadfield
It was not abnormal for people to sometimes feel like they’re from a different planet. Especially for teenagers trying to navigate high school and societal pressures and the looming concept of adulthood.
Nicole Haught was no exception to this. Aside from the fact that she actually was from a different planet.
In her seventeen years of life, Nicole had never felt the grass beneath her toes. She had never swam in, let alone seen, the ocean. She had never looked up into a blue sky or made whimsical shapes out of clouds. She had never seen the sun rise or set.
Nicole had never climbed a tree, or skipped rocks on a lake, or played in the snow. She had never gone out to play with her friends after school. She had never gone to homecoming or kissed anyone. She had never even met someone her own age in person.
And all of that led to an overall mediocre and lonely existence.
So, Nicole often found herself clinging to her dreams.
Dreams of experiencing Earth, of feeling the wind in her hair and raindrops on her face.
Dreams that ranged from swimming in the ocean to simply going grocery shopping. Maybe even going on a date and holding doors open and buying popcorn, holding hands as the lights dim.
Even dreams of suffering through high school with too many students and not enough supervision. So many teenagers complained about it, but Nicole would give almost anything to be in their shoes.
A sudden ding pulled Nicole from her thoughts and she launched herself at her computer immediately, falling into her chair and causing it to spin with her momentum.
Waves: Do you ever feel trapped?
Nicole couldn’t help but grin, hands hovering over her keyboard as she tried to figure out how best to reply considering she was literally trapped by outer space itself.
Nicole: was that a rhetorical question?
Nicole: all the time.
Nicole: what’s got you feeling trapped?
Waves: Small towns, small minds…there’s a whole world out there, you know?
Boy, did Nicole know. More than Waverly would ever truly realize.
Waves: I’ve never even seen the ocean
Nicole: me neither. If I could, I’d go rescue you.
Waves: I wish you could. Maybe someday?
Someday, Nicole’s mind echoed, stomach swirling with butterflies and heart swelling with hope. Hope because Waverly actually wanted her to visit. It was a nice thought. A completely unrealistic, and physically impossible thought, but still a nice one.
It wasn’t like she could just ask to go visit her best friend who she might kind of be in love with. Not that Waverly knew that last part, of course.
Waverly did know, however, that Nicole wasn’t able to leave her house. Just not that her house was actually a NASA base on Mars.
Nicole had learned early on that you couldn’t simply go around telling people in online chat rooms that you were born on another planet. They tended not to believe it, and your big brother NASA tended to get a little mad at you.
Specifically because Nicole Haught was not supposed to exist, and as far as everyone in the world, aside from a handful of scientists knew, she didn’t.
Even nearly everything Waverly knew about her wasn’t real. Nicole had told her that she lived in a penthouse in New York and had a super rare bone disease that basically had her on bed rest forever. Osteogenesis imperfecta.
As if brittle bones were the only obstacle she had.
“Nicole Haught. Nicole Haught to the greenhouse. You’re late.” Bobo announced, wheeling into her room without preamble and Nicole quickly minimized her screen.
Nicole glanced at the time and cursed under her breath. “Okay, okay. Message received, I’ll leave in a minute, you can go now,” she dismissed the robot. She needed to reply to Waverly first.
“I cannot leave until you do.” Bobo replied, not budging.
“Bobo.” Nicole warned, but again he didn’t move. “Privacy mode,” she commanded.
“Overridden.” Bobo denied in a manner that was much too smug for a robot. “Come with me.”
Running out of options, Nicole sighed. If she was going to be treated like a child, she might as well act like one. “If you don’t get out of my room right now, I’m going to remove your power source, got it?”
“But I’m your best friend, Nicole.” Bobo retorted, seeming annoyingly unphased.
“You’re not my best friend.” Nicole rolled her eyes. Bobo was made to be her best friend, and maybe had been for a short time when she was young, but now Bobo was more of a spy than anything else. Always keeping an eye on her. A babysitter.
“That hurts my feelings.” Bobo stated, you know, emotionlessly.
“You don’t have feelings, you’re a machine.” Nicole muttered. “Fine, you asked for it,” she added as she stood up and started to advance on Bobo.
It was enough for the machine to finally start to backtrack. “You don’t want to do this, Nicole,” the robot tried.
“Oh yes, I do.” Nicole shot back, taking another step. Bobo turned tail and raced out of the room with Nicole hot on its heels…er, wheels.
Only once Bobo was gone did she sigh and flop back into her computer chair, pulling the chat back up.
Nicole: yeah, someday. I gotta go, talk to you later?
It only took a moment for Waverly’s reply to ping through.
Waves: Definitely 😊
Worth it. Absolutely worth it.
A few moments later, Nicole was tugging on her jumpsuit as she half-ran and half-bounced through the facility to the greenhouse.
“You’re late.” Rosita said without even turning around to look at her. Nicole took the chance to run a hand through her disheveled hair and smooth out her jumpsuit.
“I know, I’m sorry. I got caught up…reading. Yeah, really good book.” Nicole replied, going with the first excuse that came to mind.
“Irrigator 32 needs to be unclogged.” Rosita offered without commenting on her attempt at an excuse.
Nicole nodded and set about fiddling with the nozzle and for a few moments they worked in silence.
“Bobo reported to me that you threatened him, is that true?” Rosita asked after a bit, turning to watch Nicole with amused eyes. Stupid narc.
“I mean yeah, but like, as a joke, you know? Just a joke, between friends.” Nicole answered carefully nonetheless, trying to play it off. “Oh, and this is fixed!”
“Right.” Rosita responded with no shortage of skepticism. Then she strode over to inspect Nicole’s handiwork. “Not bad for a Martian. We’ll make you indispensable yet, Haught,” she teased.
Nicole didn’t find it all that funny though. “How can I be indispensable when no one knows I exist?” The redhead retorted a little bitterly.
“Well, I, for one, know you exist, and I’m not no one, now am I?” Rosita said softly after a moment, eyes swimming with warmth and barely concealed concern.
Nicole just nodded her head in agreement with the statement. “Want some help with your notes?” She offered, wanting to change the subject.
Rosita nodded and offered her one of her many scientific notebooks. “You can take that half,” she motioned to the side of the room with the now-fixed irrigator.
Once again they settled into silence, both focused on writing detailed, scientific, and utterly mind-numbing notes.
Truth was that Nicole didn’t want to be a scientist, but it was kind of the only option when you lived in a scientifically founded settlement on a foreign planet in outer space.
Not that it had been a choice.
Science was fine, she was even pretty good, having been raised around it her whole life. But Nicole craved something more exciting, maybe even a little riskier. She wanted to help people, just in a more hands-on manner.
If she could choose her dream career, she would without a doubt go into law enforcement. Maybe she’d be a police officer or a firefighter.
But sadly, the only chance of her ever going into law enforcement is if the Space Force suddenly had intergalactic crime to stop.
If only Nicole could just go to Earth…
“Do you think I can ever go to Earth?” Nicole asked finally, one part terrified and two parts nervous to hear the answer. Basically, a very anxious cocktail.
Rosita paused her furious scribbling to look at Nicole carefully, and the redhead felt her heart sink at the thinly veiled sympathy in her eyes. That alone gave Nicole her answer.
“Honestly? I don’t think it’s very likely. I mean the repercussions would be innumerable and plausibly catastrophic. I mean just the effects of the increased gravity on your bones alone would be…” Rosita began, fully ready to launch into a long-winded scientific explanation, that Nicole already knew.
Gods, of course she knew the risks, the consequences that would be hers to own and live with. If she even lived, that is. But she had done the research, and you know, she was literally raised by scientists. Of course she knew.
But she was metaphorically suffocating on this base as much as she would literally suffocate if she stepped outside in the Martian atmosphere without a spacesuit. And what was life without risks?
Boring. Meaningless. Mundane. Basically, this.
“I know, Rosie,” Nicole cut her off before she could get too far into it. “So, what? You guys are just going to keep me locked up in my tower forever?” She sighed.
“You’re not Rapunzel, Nicole. You know we’re not deliberately trying to keep you from the outside world.” Rosita replied evenly.
“But you are! I’m going to be eighteen soon. Shouldn’t it be my decision? Isn’t that how it works? People turn eighteen and make their own decisions.” Nicole countered.
Rosita frowned and set her notes aside. “But you’re not-” She started carefully, but Nicole didn’t want to hear it.
“Not what? A person?” Nicole exclaimed harshly. All the hurt and anger at the sheer unfairness of it all swirled in her stomach until she felt like she was made of it. Made of self-righteous anger.
“Not a normal teenager, Nicole. You know this,” Rosita corrected with a grimace.
That was what it all boiled down to. Her life did not belong to her, no, it belonged to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. To the United States government.
Nicole was an unintentional science experiment. A cracked theory accidentally thrust into reality before it was fully thought through. In essence, a colossal mistake.
And really, it was her own fault for momentarily forgetting that and thinking things could be different, wasn’t it?
“Right.” Nicole muttered dejectedly, shrinking back into the role of the good little science experiment that she was.
Rosita frowned and set her notes aside. “Hey, I didn’t mean it like that. And look, I can’t make any promises, but I can try and talk to Nedley. Maybe there’s a compromise out there somewhere,” she said softly.
Right, Nedley. Rosita didn’t have the power to make those types of calls, she was simply a scientist and Nicole’s unwitting caretaker.
It was Randy Nedley, the CEO of Genesis, the head of this entire mission. He was the one who had all of the power over her life. The one that made the initial call to cover up the whole incident.
Nicole had met him a few times over the years, always over video calls and usually with Rosita. He was always nice, and she didn’t think he was a bad guy despite everything. He had done what he had thought best in insane, unforeseen circumstances.
But would he ever agree to letting her come to Earth, consequences be damned? It had been seventeen years since he made that first impossible decision. Things changed, she had changed.
Maybe it was time for a new call to be made.
“Thanks, Rosie.” Nicole said quietly, grateful that Rosita saw how much this meant to her. That she was willing to put herself on the line to convey it to the man who wrote her checks. It may have been all she could do, but it meant everything to Nicole.
“You’re welcome, kid.” Rosita smiled at her. “This doesn’t have anything to do with your girl that you message constantly and are definitely crushing on, does it?” She teased with a twinkle in her brown eyes.
Nicole blushed. “What? No! I mean, maybe yes, a little. But I’d want to go anyway. And I’m not crushing on her,” she rambled. True, she wasn’t crushing on her, she was in love. Probably.
“Your face matching your hair right now says otherwise, Romeo.” Rosita laughed. “But whatever you say, now go finish your half.”
So, she did, trusting in Rosita to keep her word and hoping against hope that there might just be a chance.
And a week later, Rosita followed through, getting Nicole a meeting with Nedley that could potentially, hopefully, change her life.
To say she was nervous would be the understatement of the century. It was almost sickening how nervous she was, but she was also determined. Beyond determined really.
Hell, she was ready to make a whole 200 slide PowerPoint to make her case if need be. She’d write an essay longer than any and all of the hundreds of scientific papers strewn throughout the base if that was what it took.
But here she was, waiting for the incoming video call with nothing but her unwavering resolve and an abundance of nerves.
Click.
“You want to go to Earth?” Nedley asked without preamble, starting the conversation off with the obvious.
Nicole nodded. “I do, sir.”
“You’re a good kid, Nicole, and I hate to be the bad guy, but I’m afraid that just isn’t possible.” Nedley frowned.
“It is, though, if there was ever a time this could be done, it’s now. I don’t want to wait another two years for this chance.” The redhead pressed, because she had done all of her research. She knew as well as any of them that travel between Mars and Earth was best done every twenty-six months and they were about to hit that perfect alignment. Once again, raised by scientists.
“Nicole, the risks involved…” Nedley began carefully, echoing Rosita’s words from the prior week in the greenhouse.
Nicole cut him off. “I know. Okay? I know what the risks are. And I know I’ve been a giant wrench in your plans since the beginning of my existence. I know I’m supposed to stay a secret from everyone, but I’m also a person, and this is my life. I didn’t get a choice about living here, and I’m asking you to give me one now.”
“It’s just not that simple. Maybe in a couple of years we can look into it, you’re not even eighteen. There’s plenty of time,” Nedley tried.
“But I will be. By the time we reach Earth, I’ll be eighteen. I’m not the six-year-old kid you had to stop from running out the doors anymore. I may not have chosen it, but I’m as much an astronaut as anyone else on this base. I know the risks, I do, but if there is even a chance I might get to see…might get to experience Earth, then I’m all in. I’ll train harder than anyone’s ever seen. I’ll sit through as many drawn-out, painful tests as you want. Just give me the chance.” Nicole made her case earnestly.
And for a moment, Nedley was still and silent and Nicole wondered if the connection had frozen up. Talk about inconvenient timing to be having tech issues. Only her entire life and future on the line, no big deal. Ha.
“Bustillo, what’s your input on this?” Nedley finally spoke, turning his heavy gaze to Rosita, who had been standing just behind Nicole throughout the whole conversation so far.
“I think there are an astronomical number of risks involved in doing this. I think it would be a PR nightmare for the entire mission if the press ever got word of this, which is more likely with Nicole on Earth,” Rosita stated. “But I also think Nicole is right. And I know, just like she does, that there’s a surgery that can be done to increase her bone density, to give her a chance at an existence on Earth.”
“Yes, a major, extremely risky surgery.” Nedley clarified seriously.
Nicole was starting to think she could go the entire rest of her life without ever hearing the word ‘risky,’ again and it still wouldn’t be long enough. Even if she somehow lived seventy more years.
“Of course, I already said there were risks involved. I know this, you know this, and Nicole knows this. But that’s part of life, and more so, it’s part of our life. Being an astronaut is not a safe job, and Nicole is an astronaut, just like you and me. She deserves this, and you know it.”
“This is really what you want, kid?” Nedley asked after a long moment, his face impassive but his eyes pensive.
“More than anything in the universe, sir.” Nicole responded without hesitation. “I just want to experience life on Earth.”
Then there was what felt like the longest silence of Nicole’s life, stretching minutes into hours. This was the moment of truth. The moment that someone else got to decide Nicole’s fate for the second time around.
“Then you’ve got NASA’s support, and mine. But you will undergo extensive testing both before the trip and on Earth to see how you hold up and if at any point the risk to your life is too great, you will return to Mars, do you understand?”
“Yes sir,” Nicole agreed immediately, a wide grin breaking onto her face as she struggled to keep her composure.
“This isn’t going to be easy, kid. I hope you know what you’re in for.” Nedley warned. “But for what it’s worth, I think if anyone can do it, it’s you.”
And with that, the video call clicks off and Nicole lets go, pulling Rosita into a tight hug. “You did it! I’m going to Earth!” She exclaimed, feeling like she could cry actual tears of joy for the first time in her life.
“I just set up the meeting,” Rosita laughed and hugged her back before pushing back, still holding onto Nicole’s shoulders. “You did it, Nic. You made your case. You convinced him. And I couldn’t be prouder.”
“Still…I couldn’t have done it without you. Just…thank you, Rosita.” Nicole beamed at the only scientist who had given her the time of day. The one who had been by her side her whole life, when no one else really was.
“You’re very welcome, Nicole.” Rosita smiled warmly back at her. “Now go clean your room or something,” she teased, ruffling Nicole’s hair playfully.
Nicole ducked away and rolled her eyes. “My room is clean, I’ll have you know. But I know you’ve reached your sap limit so I’ll pretend it’s not,” she winked at Rosita before taking her leave.
The whole way back to her room she felt like she was floating, and for once not because of the reduced gravity that came with living on a foreign planet.
Nicole Haught was finally going to Earth, like she had been dreaming of since she was old enough to understand that living on Mars wasn’t normal. That she wasn’t normal. That a whole world existed out there that everyone got to be a part of except her.
The redhead fell into her chair as soon as she scanned back into her room, logging into her computer at light speed.
Nicole: hey, are you around?
She tapped her fingers impatiently on her desk as she waited, dying to tell the only other person that mattered about this new development. In different terms, of course.
Waves: Of course, glad you finally came to save me from the boredom of study hall 😊
Nicole: glad to be of service
Nicole: speaking of saving, turns out there’s this new surgery that might be able to stabilize my bone disease
Waves: A surgery? Is it risky?
Nicole couldn’t help but smile softly at the concern Waverly had.
Nicole: kind of, but it’ll be worth it. I’ll be fine.
Waves: If you say so...What does this mean exactly?
Nicole: it means that if all goes well, I’m coming to see you. It means that maybe ‘someday’ isn’t that far off after all.