Loner in Space

by Steve Simons

  After much struggling, Paul now knows what the loops in the walls are for, to drag oneself up and down the corridor. Paul manages to get to the cupboard where the suits are stored. He manages to stabilise himself so that he can take controlled sweeps with his torch at the door trigger, it opens after his third attempt. The suits are still obediently hanging up. Well sort of, the arms and legs are waving around a bit as if containing an octopus or similar creature. Paul manages to drag himself down to ground level and sure enough there at the back of the cupboard, are two pairs of boots. Paul carefully reaches in and pulls one pair out. Whilst they look like no boot on earth, being somewhat flatter and wider.

  Paul wonders if one of the aliens had worn these boots or if they were spares just put here in-case a visitor should join the pilot of this craft. The thought crosses Paul's mind, I wonder if they have smelly feet problems like my Dad? He cautiously lifts the boots to his nose, but there is only a slight metallic smell about these boots, so perhaps they do just come under the category of spares. Paul next wonders if they will actually fit him, whilst considerably wider than his own feet, the lack of depth could actually work in Paul's favour and help keep the boots on. Paul is somewhat reluctant to take his own shoes off, but one look tells him that there would be no way that he would get these boots on without taking his own off. Reluctantly he does so and slips one foot into the alien boot. It feels somewhat strange. The lining material has kind of rivulets running down it, which make the inside feel a bit rough. This may be deliberate to help keep the boots on. Having braved one foot, Paul turns his attention to the other one. As he struggles with the second boot, Paul notices that the first is doing its job, as it is sticking to the floor. Although it feels secure, the hold is not too strong and Paul finds he can easily lift his leg. It is a bit like walking in a weak treacle solution. Whilst the boots are far too wide and his feet slip a little in terms of sideways movement, they do feel reasonably secure. The boots seem to be doing the trick in terms of providing some stability in Paul's motion.

  Paul turns his attention now back to the cupboard at the end of the corridor and his search for the autopilot off switch. Paul struggles at first to walk in the shoes, but soon gets the hang of how to walk. When he reaches the cupboard, he triggers the door control and sure enough it slides open easily. The displays seem to be somewhat more animated than the last time he was here. Symbols flashing across them at a fair rate and obviously meaning a lot to someone who can understand them. This just didn't happen to be Paul. He watches for a while, hoping to spot any patterns so he can make sense of all this stuff. Apart from once or twice recognising the symbol that appeared on the space suits, nothing else made any sense. Paul wonders if it will be safe to test out any of the controls in here. He comes to the conclusion that he won't learn anything by doing nothing, so sets about triggering the most innocent seeming control. There is a beep noise, like a warning, but nothing else happens, Paul waits a moment in-case there is some sort of delayed reaction. Then he triggers the control again. He immediately regrets doing this as the lights all go out, plunging him and the craft into complete darkness. What is more, the reassuring sound of the engines has also died. Paul seems to have triggered the main fuse. Immediately Paul turns on his torch and triggers the control again and is rewarded as the lights and engine come on again. At least Paul now knows how to shut everything off in an emergency. He makes a mental note of the location of the control. He wonders if turning everything off has reset the autopilot.

  Paul makes his way back to the control room and attempts to alter course, the craft, stubborn as ever, ignores his commands and continues on in its pre-destined path. Paul goes back to the cupboard and tries more trigger points, but they seem to do very little apart from make small changes to some graphs being displayed. Paul reaches the conclusion that there is nothing further he can do, but to let this craft take its pre-programmed course. He can't contact his Dad or anyone back on earth as he doesn't even know which part of the control panel deals with communications.

  The thought crosses Paul's mind, that when scientists talk about taking journeys between the stars it will take many years and possibly many lifetimes. Paul just hopes that these aliens are 'just around the corner', so to speak. As he looks out of the control room window, Paul can see that the craft seems to be moving a very rapid rate now. At the start of his journey the stars didn't seem to change much at all, but now they seem to be moving past the craft at quite a speed.

  Paul decides that he has had enough excitement for the time being, so he will take a meal break. Luckily he had packed some food, although not a lot, it will at least be enough to keep that rumbling at bay, or is that still due to the weightlessness?

  ~~ Later ~~

  Paul has seen some pictures that looked a lot like the swirling galaxy that he was passing, whilst obviously still concerned as to what is happening to him and how he will get back home, Paul has become enthralled with the sights around him. It is almost like being in a dream.

  Something seems to be streaking across the sky, well you can't actually call it sky out here as there is no up or down, but you know what I mean. Whatever it is, it is leaving a light trail behind it, must be a comet or something like that and the trail would be gasses being emitted from its core. It was almost like a space firework. Paul just hopes that it doesn't head towards him and his craft.

  Paul wonders if there are any other space craft out here, maybe he will encounter one. If so, he hopes they will be friendly. Then he remembers the weapons that he had accidentally triggered when the craft was back in the woods.

  Space seems to be so big and busy, yet at the same time, there's that vast nothingness between the stars and come to that the galaxies. The chances of running into another craft out here must be pretty slim. There is, or should that be was, obviously at least one other civilisation out here, the one that had made the craft that Paul is now travelling in. There just have to be others surely?

  ~~~~~~

  Chapter 10  Are We There Yet?

  The craft seems to be changing course now, heading towards that big spiral group of stars that had been getting ever larger to the right hand side of the screen. Paul wonders if his destination is towards the outer edge, in the centre or even beyond the spiral. At his current rate of travel, Paul should find out soon.

  Paul had managed to retrieve some of the food and drink that he had hastily shoved into his back pack.. It was difficult to eat in zero gravity and even more difficult to drink, Paul found himself wearing the globules of water, he had to carefully scoop them into his mouth. Of those that escaped, most were still floating around in the air. Paul tried to catch some in his mouth, but most even escaped those attempts. When Paul managed to swallow the globules of water, he found, he also swallowed air bubbles as well. A most strange experience.

  Another change in course, the craft now seems to be heading for one arm of the spiral of stars. The craft shows no sign of slowing up though as it speeds relentlessly in pursuit of its goal. Paul hopes that the craft does not run out of fuel. Whilst the journey has been quite enjoyable and even educational thus far, it would be a shame if it ended up in Paul being stranded in the middle of nowhere. He imagines that the chances of getting a tow to the nearest star base would be next to nil.

  The stars are filling the screen now, the clusters becoming clearer in terms of their detail. Another course change, the craft appears to be heading for quite a dense collection of stars. From far off, this area appeared to be sparsely populated, but as the craft gets closer more stars keep appearing.

  As the craft travels ever closer to this new cluster of stars, the screen fills with even more stars. Considering this is just one arm of the spiralling galaxy, Paul wonders just how many stars are in the whole galaxy. Just how many could support life of some kind or other, it may not be life of the complexity of humans or indeed the alien who had brought this craft
to earth.

  Another course correction brings the craft in direct line of a large bright shining star, which, as Paul stares more closely at it, he thinks he can make out two maybe three dark spots across its surface, could these be planets in orbit about the star. Paul wonders if this is his final destination, that last course change had seemed to be aiming him directly at this latest star. Or was it just one more tantalising teaser on this long journey. Will the craft suddenly take another direction, heading around this latest star?

  The craft could be attempting to return to a non-existent planet, or if it does still exist, it may be barren, no more than a dried up, or even frozen rock floating in space, with no hope of supporting any life, let alone Paul's.

  But then Paul thinks to himself, 'It can't be a barren rock, after all something is calling the craft back to its place of origin, an un-supportive rock wouldn't be able to do that.' Then Paul questions his original notion that the craft was acting under some sort of autopilot control, maybe the controls had just gone screwy and he is heading to no particular place. Paul questions his thinking again, throwing into the mix, the fact that there had been several course changes, although these could be random, it felt like there was a purpose to them. Or was it just comforting to assume that this was the case? So many questions and so few answers. Paul decides that he will wait a little longer to see if the craft's wanderings have a purpose or if they are indeed random. If he comes to the latter conclusion, Paul decides that he will try and gain control of the craft again and try to return to the earth, but will he be able to find it again? So many course corrections, would he be able to re-trace his steps? He realises that he should have kept some sort of map or log of his journey to this point, however, it is too late now.

  Those blobs, in front of the now much larger star, are taking better shape and form now, revealing that Paul's first impressions were right, they are planets. The largest and therefore, probably the nearest seems to be the most dull of the three spheres. This larger or nearer planet, seems to have quite grey and white colouration about it, whereas the next in size at least, seems to have much more varied colouration. The third is still too far away to make out any detail.

  Another course change and the speed of the craft is perceptibly slowing. The craft now appears to be heading for the second planet, although it is still passing quite close to the first planet. Whilst fascinating to see an alien world up quite close, there was insufficient changes in the land mass to make this planet really interesting. It seemed little more than rock and possibly ice.

  The craft slows again and heads on towards the second planet. Paul realises that he won't have long to wait now, if this is the craft's destination.

  Another course change confirms however, that this is not the final destination as the second planet slips off of the screen again.

  Just when will this torment end ? Paul asks himself, knowing that the answer will only come when this craft lands somewhere.

  The craft now seems to be heading towards the third planet. Paul decides not to raise his hopes and to think in terms of his destination being one of those star clusters beyond this planetary system. If only the craft had not raised his hopes, by flying so close to this planetary system.

  The star that these planets appear to be orbiting around, is getting somewhat brighter now. Paul has noticed however, that the colouration of the windows has changed, it is quite grey now and the closer the craft gets to the third planet, the colouration seems to increase. This affects the appearance of the planet that is ever looming closer. The colours seem to be getting duller, rather than more defined. Perhaps this is an automatic protection against the rays of this planetary system's equivalent of the sun.

  As the craft gets even closer to the planet, Paul can see that the land masses are considerably different from those on the earth. The earth has some really large land masses and many smaller ones. This planet has, what one could consider as one massive land mass, but it is riddled with what seem like lakes, all interconnected by streams or rivers. This makes the land mass seem like millions of tiny islands, which are all interconnected with each other, by little causeways.

  The craft is finally slowing up considerably, as it gets ever closer to the planet. This just has to be Paul's final destination. As he looks more carefully, he can see that what at once seemed like small islands, were in fact quite large and there appear to be structures of some kind on most of these, but he is still too high up to make out any detail. Various screens within the craft have been going crazy in the last few minutes and there are various sounds being emitted all around him. Paul wonders if the craft is about to go into self destruct mode. There just has to be life down there for this amount of activity to be taking place. Unless it is all automated. Now there is a thought, what if this alien race had died out many centuries ago and all that was left of them are their machines, continuing to function as if still serving their masters. What a frightening thought? What would these machines make of Paul, would he be treated as if it were the native population returning? Would the machines be able to understand Paul and come to that would he understand them. He thinks back to the noises and screen activity currently taking place and he wonders if this is the machines trying desperately to reach him, to make themselves understood, to gain the least glimmer of recognition of their very existence. Paul likens it to a little boy who falls into the ocean and encounters a whale and tries desperately to get the whale to understand what it needs in order to survive.

  The ground now appears to be rapidly approaching the craft, although Paul knows that in reality it is the craft that is actually approaching the ground. Some detail of those structures is starting to become apparent. They appear to be transparent. Yes Paul can see right into them. The craft is unmistakably heading towards a circular patch of land which is itself clear of structures, but surrounded by them. There appear to be many dots within those structures, well from up here they appear no more than dots. They are too indistinct to make out any detail and purpose for their existence. Paul wonders if his theory of a planet inhabited by machines was correct. Maybe those dots are the machines?

  The ground getting ever closer now and the glide path is definitely aiming towards that open patch of land, if land you can call it.

 

  Suddenly Paul gasps for breath as he is splatted by a shower of water. Where on earth did that come from? thinks Paul to himself, then he is aware that he can feel the pull of gravity again and the pieces of the jigsaw suddenly slot together, 'Of course it was the water globules from the drink he took earlier. They had collected together and the sudden influence of gravity had caused the collective ball of water to fall upon me. Oh well a refreshing shower before leaving the craft will probably do me good. I just hope I don't look like a drip.' Paul laughs at the last thought.

  Due to the angle of descent, Paul can no longer see into the transparent structures, so his curiosity regards those 'dots' will not be satisfied probably until the craft lands.

  Paul is getting nervous now, going back over how the inhabitants of this planet are likely to view his use of their craft and he thinks through how he will handle the situation. What can he really do, he has no weapons, so he can't defend himself. He could always try the brave 'I come in peace and mean you no harm' bit that you see in the films. But if this lot are intent on harming him, he'll be shot down before he has a chance to say his classic speech. What oh what should he do?

  The craft steadily heads in towards its landing pad.

  ~~ Later ~~

  'It is dark and cramped in here, just what is taking them so long?' wonders Paul as he sits listening carefully for the least sound. Well sits, is a rather loose description, this cupboard was never meant to house anyone, especially an alien like himself. Paul's knees are bent right up, his chin almost touching his knees. He is glad that he had changed back into his shoes, those alien boots were OK in space, but not the most
comfortable of things to wear. He stops himself from moaning any further and reminds himself that he has a serious task to perform, he must keep listening out for any noises in the corridor.

  The thought occurs to Paul, 'Perhaps this craft is so old that no one remembers how to open the door.' Now this could be a serious consideration, that had never crossed Paul's mind when he had decided to hide away in this cupboard. He could be in here for hours if not days or months come to that.

  Paul's attention turns to the somewhat muffled sound that had alerted him to the fact that something was happening out there. He doesn't have to wait long before his suspicions are confirmed. There is the sound of several heavy footsteps. It is like an army has entered the craft, as the sound echoes throughout the craft. It seems like he had taken the right decision to hide away, rather than do the 'I come in peace....' bit.

  The footsteps get ever louder... ever closer. Paul's heart beats faster, he just hopes that they can't hear it pounding away. For all he knows it may be like a beacon saying, 'Here he is, in here on the floor, come and get him.'

  Paul struggles to keep still, the least little sound may give him away. As always happens, the more you try to not do something, the more you find yourself having to do it. But Paul struggles to stay absolutely still. The footsteps can be heard disappearing into the control room, whilst others progress further up the corridor towards that cupboard at the end.