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William briefly paused before commencing, and held the paper before him,
and came to the realisation that it held his destiny to become an astronaut. He
opened the test and his heart dropped. There was a total of 10 scenarios to
complete in only half an hour. Through his studies Will had only managed to
solve such a set of questions in at least an hour. He would have to halve the
time it took him in practice and ensure perfection. There would be no second
chances. His hopes of becoming an astronaut could be quashed. He nervously
began. One question down, five minutes gone. He needed to pick up the pace.
He reached the next question, in which he had to determine the rate at which
a spaceship travelling at two thousand kilometers per hour would reach earth,
and completed it in just few moments.
He continued, completing seven of the eight remaining questions in record
time with only four minutes remaining for the final question. This single
question would be the determinant of whether he would pass his writing
exam. It was worth a total of 10 marks. It required him to determine a solution
to the required amount of thrust from the spaceship to get out of the
gravitational pull of a black hole. He had to determine the escape velocity of
the black hole and Will remembered that this was determined by the distance
and mass of the black hole. He managed to calculate the gravitational pull with
only 50 seconds remaining. He then managed to calculate that the exit velocity
and then violently scribbled the required thrust as the bell rung out to signal
the end of the test. He dropped his pen and took a deep breath, he had just
completed the problems in record time, two months ago such an undertaking
would have been unimaginable for him, only achievable due to Lyra’s
demanding training. He’d done it, he glanced out the window, earth a shining
speck in the distance, he knew his family would be proud of his achievements.
His elation was suddenly cut down by the realisation that he now had to
complete the nerve racking spaceship simulation test. He had no idea what he
would encounter, but all he knew was that it held all of his aspirations to
become an astronaut.