Alone on the Edge (The Chronicles of Anna Foster)

by Patrick Stutzman

  Suddenly, the speaker crackled to life and announced in a lifeless voice, “Now approaching Mining Station 14. Now approaching Mining Station 14. Estimated time of arrival: 12.6 minutes.”

  “Finally!” she sighed, sitting up and swerving to avoid the bunk above her. “I can’t wait to get off this flying piece of crap!”

  Walking casually back to the cargo hold with her suitcase and carry-on bag, Anna dropped the bags next to the outer hatch and looked out the window as the ship completed the jump. As the ship came about, the system’s lone star, g Lupi, presented itself to her for the first time. Its blindingly intense light bathed the vessel during its final approach, forcing Anna to quickly peel away from the window and blink the large spot in her eyes down to an amorphous shape.

  A few minutes later, the strong beam of light blasting through the portal instantly disappeared. Rushing back to the window, she carefully peeked out and found a large structure blocking the sunlight. Smiling once she recognized the mining station, she snatched up her bags and danced impatiently by the door while she watched the ship roll, line up with the cargo hatch on the spinning station, and dock after extending the hard boarding chute. Taking a step back as the hatch opened, Anna waited until the all-clear signal was given by the panel on the wall and crossed onto the station.

  The docking bay seemed a bit claustrophobic at first sight, with its ceiling barely two meters above the floor. She quickly discovered that the short height extended in for several meters before opening to a larger bay several meters higher. The horizontal space gave more than enough clearance for any freight coming in and out to move about with little to no restriction, provided it was not stacked any higher than two meters. Inside the cargo bay next to a couple of suitcases stood a short, thin Asian man wearing the olive-colored company uniform and showcasing a broad smile on his face. He waved to her as she took her first step onto the station.

  “Annika Foster?” he asked optimistically.

  With a friendly demeanor, she answered, “Please, call me Anna.”

  “Takashi Yamamoto,” he greeted as he approached and extended his hand to her. “Welcome aboard!”

  “Thank you!” she stated. “It’s good to see a friendly face. How long have you been here?”

  “Just a couple of minutes.”

  Anna laughed, “No, I mean aboard the station.”

  “Oh!” snickered Takashi. “Sorry! I’ve been here a couple of months, ever since the previous caretaker passed away.”

  Her smile melted away, turning her visage somber.

  “I ... I’m sorry to hear about that. How did he die?”

  Shrugging, he replied, “Old age, I guess. He had been here for over 40 years.”

  “Forty years? Wow!”

  “Yeah,” sighed Takashi with disinterest. “Well, I’d better get aboard. Heading back to Earth!”

  He picked up his suitcases and added over his shoulder as he walked toward the ship, “The pallet of gas tubes should be reaching the bay here in a minute. You’ll need to load it onto the ship, before we depart.”

  Caught off guard, Anna stuttered, “I ... I need to do what?”

  “Load the gas when it arrives,” he cried from inside the docking tube, still walking away from her. “You don’t have much time!”

  Astonished at the brief reception, she paused before proclaiming, “But, I haven’t even dropped my bags off yet.”

  No reply followed. Seconds later, the cargo elevator shaft door opened, and the expected pallet holding a couple dozen metal tanks rose up through the floor, already mounted on a hand-pulled cargo lifter. With a heavy sigh, Anna dropped her suitcase and carry-on to the floor and tugged on the cargo lifter’s handle several times until it finally budged off of the platform. She rolled it onto the ship and parked the load in the middle of the cargo hold, where she found Takashi waiting for her.

  “Very good,” he remarked, his smile still glued to his face. “Now, your supplies are listed on the ship’s manifest, which you should be able to access through your wristcomp.”

  Anna lifted her arm and activated the holographic screen, which appeared instantly. She noticed the new icons that connected to the ship’s files and touched them and the ones that appeared afterward to reach and open the cargo manifest.

  Finding the listing for her station, she shrugged, “Okay, I found them. Now what?”

  “They need to be taken on board the station,” he stated, some of the humor fading from his expression.

  Anna nodded, “Okay. Doesn’t the cargo handler take care of that?”

  Takashi’s smile was gone as he answered, “Yes, normally. Were you fully briefed on your duties with this job?”

  With a slight pause, Anna nodded slowly. Judging from the reaction Takashi gave, she started to doubt whether she had the full picture of what her job entailed. She did not mind a few extra duties being added to what she was already set to do, but one of the last things she expected to do was haul cargo around, especially large allotments of supplies. As soon as she got settled into her new quarters and before doing anything else, she wanted to speak with someone in charge and clarify what they expected of her.

  Slowly and with concern, he said, “Okay. Go ahead and take the supplies onto the station and then speak with the computer. It will help you get started.”

  Anna nodded again and quietly set about locating the shipments and transporting them aboard the station, completing the task in about twenty minutes. Once she pulled the third and last pallet across the threshold onto the station, the hatch closed, and the boarding chute retracted back into the ship. She abandoned the pallet and rushed to the small window, watching the transport drift away. Turning away from the view a minute later, she decided to leave the pallets for the cargo handler, picked up her bags, and walked out of the docking bay.

  As soon as she climbed out of the elevator on what was labeled Gray Level, a male voice announced, “Welcome aboard, Annika Foster!”

  The voice sounded smooth but almost monotone, yet it contained enough inflection to make its speech somewhat bearable. Despite that, she instantly recognized that it was artificial.

  “Hello, computer,” she responded as she looked both ways into the upward-curving corridor. “You can call me Anna.”

  “Very well, Anna.”

  After listening for any sounds besides the humming of the lights and the rush of air through the vents, she asked curiously, “Where is everybody?”

  “Currently, all 24 drones are deployed to the gas giant that has been labeled g Lupi VI.”

  Waving away the response, she clarified, “No, I mean the humans. Where is the rest of the human crew?”

  “There are no others, Anna,” the computer stated without hesitation. “You are the only human currently occupying this station.”

  Anna’s eyes widened upon hearing the news. More out of disbelief than anything else, she questioned the computer’s answer, “You’re joking. Right?”

  “No, Anna. I am incapable of creating humor. You are the only human currently occupying this station.”

  “Okay,” she stated under the impression that it was taking her entirely too literally. “Maybe you misunderstood me. I am the only human aboard right now. Are the rest of the people flying around outside the station or something? Maybe they’re visiting the gas giant or something.”

  “No, Anna. You are the only human currently assigned to this station. No other humans are assigned to this station.”

  She stood silent for several seconds, trying to comprehend the weight of the situation as it gradually revealed itself to her. This could not be right! Who in their right mind would assign a single person to man a station in the middle of nowhere for an extended period of time? This had to be a mistake, and she needed to find out exactly what was going on.

  “Computer,” she requested nervously. “Open a channel to the cargo ship.”

  “Unable to comply.”

  Anna felt her heart skip a beat.

&nb
sp; “Is it still here?”

  “Visual sensors indicate that the cargo vessel has not initiated its jump out of the system yet.”

  “Then, open a channel!”

  “Unable to comply,” the computer repeated.

  “Why? Is the communications array damaged?”

  “No, Anna.”

  “Then, why can’t you open a channel?!”

  “The solar radiation emitted by g Lupi prevents communications from being established.”

  Her heart sank into her feet. Not only was she by herself, but she could not call anyone, either. As she realized that her situation grew worse by the second, feelings of despair made their presence in her mind known.

  Abruptly dropping her bags on the floor, she jumped back into the elevator and rode it to the command deck at the top of the station. Dashing out as soon as the doors opened, she looked around, taking in the layout of the narrow room that encircled the top end of the station. Locating the largest control panel in the room, she sprinted to the workstation, nearly toppling over when she stopped abruptly, and vaulted into the chair.

  Browsing the controls, Anna spotted the communications and sensors panels. Ignoring the archaic appearance of the old-style buttons and switches along with the two-dimensional display screens, she activated both systems and opened a channel.

  “That will not work, Anna,” the computer interjected calmly.

  “Not now, computer,” she interrupted, cutting it off. “I need to do this.”

  She pressed a couple more buttons and yelled into the microphone attached to the panel, “Attention cargo vessel, please respond!”

  “They cannot hear you, Anna.”

  “Shut up! I have to try!”

  “Cargo vessel, can you hear me?” she cried again into the panel. At that point, she spied the sensors display out of the corner of her eye: white noise static. Her gaze slowly panned to the useless readout, and the reality of her situation hit her like a large rock. She could not contact anyone outside of the station, on which she was the only one present. She could not even see anything beyond what the cameras would allow.

  Mindlessly, Anna toggled the screen from the sensors display to the external live camera feeds, until she found the one aimed at the distant and retreating cargo ship. As she watched it shrink from her view, she felt the tears build up in her eyes.

  She could not call anyone for help, for simple conversation, for any reason. She would never know how her family was doing. Her promise to keep in touch with her friends proved to be hollow. All contact with Danica, Yvette, Rachael, and the others was lost.

  As she continued to watch, the first of her tears spilled over her eyelids and dropped onto the panel, its soft impact made audible in the silence that surrounded her.

  Seconds later, the cargo ship jumped away. Anna was now truly alone.

  Chapter 1

  “Good morning, Anna.”

  No response.

  “Good morning, Anna.”

  Again, no response.

  “Good morning, Anna.”

  The calm, almost-monotone male voice repeated the phrase again and again, until the woman lying in her bed finally stirred.

  Groggily, Anna turned onto her back and opened her eyes. Catching sight of the bare metal ceiling, she groaned her discontent and pulled the covers up over her shoulders in a futile attempt to go back to sleep.

  “Good morning, Anna.”

  Her eyes snapped open. Sighing heavily, she stretched while still prone and tossed the covers off of her, revealing the gray tank top and briefs she wore on her thin but somewhat athletic frame. Swinging her legs around lazily, her feet landed on the cold metal deckplate, waking her up even more.

  “Good morning, Anna.”

  “I’m up, computer,” she responded absentmindedly as she pulled herself out of bed and strode to the head attached to her cabin.

  “How was your sleep?” the disembodied voice of the computer asked sounding a little more cheerful than before.

  “Same as yesterday,” Anna said with a hint of annoyance in her voice. “Why do you keep asking me that?”

  “Humans are chaotic. A chance exists that your conditions may change.”

  Reaching the head, Anna stopped at the mirror hanging on the wall above the stainless steel sink and stared at her reflection. Her dark blonde hair hung limply from her scalp and brushed against the tops of her shoulders, mussed from sleeping restlessly.

  As she grabbed her toothbrush from its niche, she mumbled, “Yeah, whatever.”

  “Today’s schedule,” the computer began, apparently ignoring Anna’s comment. ‘Happy 29th birthday, Anna!”

  The woman stopped all motion for a second as she weighed the computer’s last statement, the tube of toothpaste just a hair’s width from her fingertips.

  “It’s my birthday,” she said facetiously. “Yippee.”

  “You don’t sound excited, Anna.”

  “Why should I be? This will be the sixth birthday in a row that I will celebrate by myself. No family. No friends. I don’t even know if I have any friends or family anymore. I’m the only human on this god-forsaken station in the middle of nowhere. I’m probably the only living thing in 10 light-years!”

  “The nearest recorded Human facility is at Beta Trianguli Australis, approximately 23 light-years away.”

  Anna paused for a second before replying sarcastically, “Thanks, computer. That makes me feel better.”

  “Glad to be of service!” the artificial voice answered, oblivious to the woman’s true intentions.

  Letting out another sigh, Anna applied the toothpaste and brushed her teeth, while the computer continued giving the list of required maintenance for the day. She faded the computer’s voice into the background and let her thoughts wander. She remembered first being hired by the company, NR Suppliers, and how she looked forward to finally getting away from the 20 billion people that walked planet Earth. With her new degree in robotics, Anna looked forward to taking the position where the company promised that she would be working with robots every day. She had no idea that it would be maintaining mining drones and the entire space station that housed them at the farthest reaches of explored space.

  “Anna?”

  Hearing her name broke her from her walk down Memory Lane as she finished her morning shower.

  With a feeling of submission, Anna resigned, “Yes, computer?”

  “Would you like a cake baked to celebrate your birthday?”

  Dreading the idea of being reminded yet again of her solitude, Anna said, “No, that won’t be necessary.”

  “As you wish, Anna. You are expected to begin your work shift in Blue-3 in thirty minutes. Don’t be late!”

  “Sure thing!” cried Anna, feigning happiness.

  As she looked down her wet body, she mentally thanked her parents for letting her have the hairs on her legs and underarms cosmetically removed while she was in high school, especially considering that she no longer had all the supplies she needed to maintain a feminine appearance. As her mind looked forward to yet another day of nothing but routine maintenance, she wondered if she could do anything to break the monotony of her day-to-day life.

  Minutes later, Anna walked down the corridor away from her living quarters to the mess hall nearby to grab some breakfast. As she passed a window that offered a view outside the station, she paused for a second and looked at the star floating in the distance. Although she knew that g Lupi had not changed much in the last several million years, she somehow got the feeling that something was different today, but she could not put her finger on it. Anna needlessly shifted the olive-colored vest she wore over a white T-shirt, hefted the tool belt she was carrying over her shoulder, and continued to the mess hall.

  As she reached her destination and walked in, the computer asked, “What would you like for breakfast, Anna?”

  Refraining from telling the computer how she really felt, Anna took a quick breath and replied, “Just give me a n
utrition bar and coffee this morning.”

  “That choice would not meet your nutritional requirements for this part of the day, Anna.”

  “Then, pour some milk into the coffee. I don’t have time for a normal breakfast this morning.”

  “Anna ...”

  “Do you want me to be late?!” she snapped as she dropped her tool belt on the table.

  “That would not be desired ...”

  “Then, just give me the fucking bar and coffee! I’m running behind!”

  “As you wish, Anna.”

  As the culinary system began assembling her order, Anna ran a hand through her hair that she combed straight, sunk into a nearby chair, and tried to calm down. Surprised at her outburst, she searched for a reason behind her frustration. It could not be because she was running late. She had been late to her work shift several times over the past few years, and she received no real punishment for it. It could not be the computer. It has not been doing anything different in just as much time. Could it be the fact that she was turning 29 today? Twenty-nine years old now with one more year before she officially leaves her youth behind. Coupled with the fact that she has spent almost one-quarter of her life isolated from the rest of humanity, Anna figured that keeping that fact in the forefront of her mind must be the reason she was so irritable today, and she was taking it out on the only entity with whom she has spoken for the last 6 years.

  Feeling remorse for her actions, Anna apologized, “Computer, I ... I’m sorry for what I said.”

  “You do not need to apologize, Anna,” the computer returned. “I cannot be adversely affected by emotional outbursts.”