Chapter I
Part I
It all started on May 17, 1996. Well, technically it started 4 years ago. But I want to start from the necessary beginning. And before that, I must tell you a bit about myself.
My name is Matt Smith, and my space name is Sergeant Delta. I am 27 years old, 179 cm/5’10” and 72 kg /158 lb. I have brown hair and eyes, as well as light skin. I was born in France and spent my childhood in Australia. My mum is French, and my dad is from Poland. I have an older brother called Timmy, and he is a palaeontologist. I, as you might have guessed, am an astronaut. For the past 6 months I had been training before my first mission, and when I had finished, I had to wait.
And wait.
And wait.
And wait.
And wait.
And now we return to the important bit, the part that I am dying to tell you. I would like you to meet…….
The crew.
Part II
First up is General Mac. He Likes eating, yelling, eating, shouting, eating, sneak attacks, eating, dead aliens, eating, shooting aliens, eating and any way of killing aliens. Oh, and did I mention eating?
Okay, for reference, there are twenty-four crewmates, including me, and the commander. We are split into 6 groups and every group has a cafetorium. Guess who makes up the seventh group.
General Mac.
Going by the cafetorium and sleeping groups, Group A has:
Sergeant Epsilon, Sergeant Chi, Sergeant Gamma and Sergeant Rho.
Group B has Sergeant Lambda, Sergeant Sigma, Sergeant Omega and Sergeant Zeta.
Group C has Sergeant Eta, Sergeant Xi, Sergeant Omicron and Sergeant Psi.
Group D has Sergeant Nu, Sergeant Theta, Sergeant Upsilon and Sergeant Mu.
Group E has Sergeant Pi, Sergeant Tau, Sergeant Beta and Sergeant Delta, which is me.
Finally, Group F has Sergeant Phi, Sergeant Alpha, Sergeant Iota and Sergeant Kappa.

The structure of the crew is basic democracy. If the current ruler dies or retires, then one person from every group is chosen using votes from everyone else. Then they must go in the next round of votes against one person from every other group. The person with the most votes becomes the leader. Then random groups are chosen, and the entire process repeats again.

I must confess something. At that point in time, I didn’t really know anyone on board. I do now, of course, but I won’t spoil it for you. Everyone should have the joy of feeling tension.

Now, this is where it gets interesting. After yet another month of training and packing, we finally boarded ……
The rocket.

Chapter II
Part III
I am not a morning person. You should know that. But we had to wake up at half past 5, and I was so tired! I almost fell asleep while I was getting onto the plane! I went to the Group F sleeping quarters at once and had a 5-hour nap.
We were flying to NASA’s international space station. It was the 23rd of May 2019. I took a stroll around the spaceship to really get a feel of the place, since I would be staying here for the next four years.
Immediately, I noticed something. There. Were. A. Lot. Of cafeterias. General Mac must have had a special request to the builders of the ship. There were also vending machines, restaurants, cafes, buffets, just to hit the tip of the iceberg. I decided it wasn’t worth it to see everything, so I went back to the sleeping quarters. I noticed Beta getting all his stuff out of his bag. Me and Beta are close friends. We’re both sort of underdogs even though we’re both high on the pecking order. We started a conversation about how unfair it is, when suddenly the speakers start blaring:
“Attention!!! Prepare for launch!!! Attention!!! Launch will begin in…… 10, 9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1….”
As the rocket boosters ignited, deafening everyone on board, the ship flew out, with every single one of its passengers determined to get to the spaceship on time.