Parked inside a crater was a spacecraft of sleek design, floating on a gigantic asteroid; floating among millions of space rocks. On-board was a young woman of college age. Out in deep space, the beacon was chirping like crickets, struggling to cut through the noise in the galaxy, which was still audible to the woman. The beacon was muffled by sizzling noises mingled with snaps and crackles from background radiation left over by the imploded wormhole. She amplified the beacon and the interference from the radiation was suppressed. The beacon was not transmitted from a pulsar. It was too artificial to be radio waves emitted from a natural source in the cosmos. She knew that the beacon had been sent from an intelligence in an unknown part of the universe. The urgency of the beacon suggests to her that someone was in danger, someone who was out there – alone.
Emerging from the blackness of space was a light object spinning at high velocity, flying towards the asteroid field. It was The Falcon heading for a collision course. To crash into one of these wandering boulders on impact would be devastating. Asteroids in this region of space were planetary icebergs drifting unpredictably, crossing a ship’s path that were unfortunate enough to run into one. She locked onto The Falcon with crosshairs, combining peripheral vision with radar, an extension to her senses. Her humanoid brain was connected to the quantum computer, enhancing her physical senses, providing optimal efficiency for her neural pathways. The quantum computer helped her to overcome language barriers whenever she came into contact with extra-terrestrials by analysing speech patterns and processing vocal pitch. This facilitated communication problems with various civilizations while she was on interstellar vacation.
By comprising augmented reality with a real scenario, she tracked The Falcon’s progress in real time, watching the doomed spacecraft drawing closer, close enough to avoid a terrible collision. There was something following behind it. The shockwaves. Expanding wider and becoming weaker as it tore through deep space, there was still a lot of power to cause a certain amount of destruction to anything caught in its wake.
She gave the command, ‘Activate the trailer-ray’.
A ray of light stretched out from her spacecraft to The Falcon like a rope, stopping it in mid-flight. The shockwaves were a deadly tsunami ripping through this star system.
‘Fire all thrusters’, she commanded.
Jets of white smoke shot down, lifting the spacecraft out of the crater. Aft thrusters fired and the large asteroid fell away tugging The Falcon along with the escorted spacecraft. She weaved through the asteroid labyrinth, swerving round monsters and ducking under huge blocks. The shockwaves smashed into the asteroids. Rocky fragments flew out in all directions, lethal projectiles shooting across one another like missiles. The cabin trembled. The asteroid field was a minefield, bits of rocky canons firing around the spacecraft. Even the tiniest fragment would be enough to cause significant damage to the two vessels if they were hit by a particle the size of a grain of sand. Every lump of rock struck against each other like billiard balls, which had become hazardous to navigate.
The computer said, ‘Impact in fifteen second’.
It was no longer a tournament. There was only one course of action. To angle the spacecraft and fly askew. It was the only way to leave the asteroid field as fast as she could. The constant barrage of fragments were like machine guns shooting upwards.
The woman said, ‘Go to light speed’.
Both vessels streaked across space, drawing a bright trail in the void. Stars whizzed past the cabin window, scattered rocks receded behind the speeding vessels, getting smaller and smaller. From a distance, the rocks were as small as gravel. They flung out of the star system, slipping into darkness. The terrible shockwaves energy dissipated, and vaporised.
‘Drop out of light speed’.
The vessels slowed to a cruise, moving smoothly like a barge on the canal. On the edge of interstellar space, the parent star was a tiny bright light shining among thousands of varying luminosity.
‘Full stop’.
The cruise stopped, engines lowered to a soft hum, the woman sank back into her padded seat, staring blankly out into eternal darkness; the weight of the mission rested her shoulders. The vacation had turned into a rescue operation. She had neither anticipated this, nor dreamed of a sudden turn of events. Space travel came with risks. That, she should have anticipated. She had a responsibility. To save the pilot aboard The Falcon.
Slowly, she stood up, fingers trembling on the armrest. Moving with small, slow steps, she walked to the other side of the cabin, like a scared cat, eyes fixed on a spacesuit. This was the first time that she was about to step out into the airless void, first time for a young space traveler. She slipped into her spacesuit as easily as a pair of jeans. She slid the helmet over her head, fastened it securely to the suit. The one sound heard in the noiseless universe – her breathing.
An extra supply of oxygen was attached to the spacesuit, an emergency reserve for the marooned pilot. She stared at the hatch above, contemplating on her mission outside the spacecraft, knowing that once she was out, there was every chance she might not make it back. A chance she was prepared to take.
‘Open the airlock’, she said.
The hatch slid open with a hiss, unveiling a blanket of stars that looked awesome, so terrifying to the inexperienced space traveler. At a height of 6’ 1”, she climbed out of the spacecraft with little effort. Out in space, out in zero gravity, she floated as freely as a coconut on an ocean. After rising a couple of meters above the craft, she turned to face The Falcon. The marooned vessel tilted like a sinking ship, as though submerged into the abyss. She programmed the computer to fire mini-rockets positioned around different sections of her spacesuit. The mini-rockets on the back of her heels and wrists blew out steam-like exhaust, pushing her forward, gliding along as if skating on ice. It boiled up feelings of excitement, terror, horror and ecstasy inside her. The Falcon grew bigger as she flew towards it.
The rockets fired for ten seconds, providing enough thrust to propel her towards The Falcon, fast enough to fly past it. She held her hands out in front, ready to grasp onto the vessel. She bounced off its hull, flying towards a wing. She grabbed the fin with one hand while trying to reach it with the other. While trying her hardest to keep a firm grip, trying to hold onto a thin part of the vessel was exhausting. When she brought her arm round, she gripped onto the fin with her other hand, holding herself steady. She swung her legs up; her feet landed on the bulk of the spacecraft. After letting go of the fin, she slid steadily down its hull, grabbing hold on anything to stop herself from floating away. Her hands pressed down on the spacecraft’s canopy while her legs held onto the curved glass, as though she were on horseback. Sliding her hands down the side of the canopy, she was feeling for the clasp. It would have been hard enough to find with bare hands, but to search for something as small and intricate while wearing gloves was even tougher. To open the canopy from the outside was hugely challenging. It was like looking for a needle in the cosmic haystack. Her hand slid over a join that secured the canopy onto the cockpit. The thick gloves were stiff, making it harder to open. She lifted her legs off the glass, pulling with both hands. Her arm muscles stiffened, tugging at the join. The canopy opened with a clunk, throwing her up like a ball. Hovering above The Falcon, facing downwards, she saw the pilot, unconscious. Exobiology was a subject that the young space traveler was studying. This was an opportunity to learn about the pilot’s people. It was clear to the traveler that the marooned pilot was a primate. But it was unlike any humanoid that she had encountered during her vacation. With so many countless civilizations in the galaxy and such a diversity of lifeforms, this had to come from a strange part of the universe.
All sorts of questions filled up in her mind, like an overflowing wash basin.
Where’s he from? Are there more like him here? Why is he here? What are his people like? Are they friendly? Aggressive? Let’s hope that this lost wanderer turns out to be a nice guy.
