Alone on the Edge (The Chronicles of Anna Foster)

by Patrick Stutzman

  Anna gulped audibly and felt her heart skip a beat.

  Seconds later, she released the docking clamps. The shuttle silently floated out of the bay. As soon as she was clear, Anna fired the maneuvering thrusters to obtain her vector and launched toward the distant planet at full speed.

  The time seemed to creep by at a snail’s pace, but Anna did not waste any time locating the drone on the shuttle’s sensors. Normally, the same solar wind that interfered with standard communications would play the same havoc with the sensors, but she discovered this within the first few months of her tenure on the station and spent several weeks recalibrating them to filter out the solar wind and work properly. Despite her best efforts, she could not do the same with the communications array.

  She programmed the shuttle to calculate the halfway mark between the station and the rendezvous point with the drone. After that, she entered instructions to reverse course and fire the engines at full burn five seconds past the mark. Once completed, she brought the shuttle’s towing cable system online and activated its targeting system. As soon as the screen came to life and displayed static, she realized that she had forgotten that the tow cable had its own dedicated sensor array and had not calibrated it yet.

  The pit that formed in Anna’s stomach indicated the heightened stress level she was feeling. She activated the panel’s holographic keyboard and attempted to recalibrate the sensors. As she typed frantically, she struggled to remember all of the steps she had taken, but they were not coming to mind. It had been years since she had done this, and performing the task under duress was far from the ideal scenario to do it.

  Minutes went by, and Anna had made little progress. While she worked at recreating the formula, she heard the engines stop firing and the maneuvering thrusters engage. Motion outside the ship caught her attention through her peripheral vision and pulled her away from her work. The gas giant that was looming closer panned to the left and brought a view of the retreating station into view from the right. She had passed the halfway mark and had only a few minutes left.

  “Fuck!” she yelled, slamming her hand through the keyboard into the metal console beneath just as the engines fired again. Shaking the pain away from the impact, she sighed and pressed the manual override on the tow cable. Placing her hand in the holographic hand receptacle in front of the monitor, she figured that she would have a little time to test the system and see how quickly it worked.

  The cable turret moved around somewhat slow, making a full 360o turn in about 12 seconds. She aimed for a distant star and fired. The plate fired and remained on target for only a brief second before quickly veering away from her intended target. Confused by the result, she realized after a second that it is still on target but not from her point of view, especially since she is in motion, the star is too far away to be a decent target, and she had no wind resistance. She glanced at the count of the cable length which reached its end of 200 meters in just under 2 seconds. She hit the button to retract the line and counted its full return in another 10 seconds. If she figured right, she could have up to two chances to catch it before either the drone or the shuttle entered the gravity well.

  Feeling that she was as prepared as possible, she sat up straight in the pilot’s seat, planted her feet firmly on the deck, and began a deep breathing exercise to help her calm down. Concentrating only on her breathing, she relaxed and took each step of the procedure in 4-second intervals. After several cycles of the exercise, she felt her heart calm down and her body became more at ease.

  Without warning, the proximity alarm went off within the shuttle. Anna’s eyes snapped open, and she saw that they would be on the drone in 10 seconds. At the last second, she had a slight change of plan that might shave some time off of her rescue operation. Manipulating the controls for the tow cable, she turned it 180o to face the back of the ship and rushed to aim in the last few seconds she had. Fortunately, the shuttle was going slow enough that the drone seemed to be lazily floating by as it hurtled toward the gas giant that filled the space directly aft. She quickly lined up the shot and fired the tow cable. With her hasty aim, she failed to take the drone’s motion into account, and the shot flew short by a couple of meters.

  “NO!” she screamed and quickly slapped the switch to retract the cable.

  At this point, the shuttle’s thrust started to propel the ship back toward the station, widening the gap between Anna and the drone.

  “Come on! Come on! Come on!” she anxiously demanded while she waited, waving her hands in the air as if she was helping the line along. All the while, she watched the drone float closer to the planet.

  Once the magnetic plate returned to the ship, she adjusted the cable’s trajectory and fired again. This time, she overcompensated, and the tow cable fired over the drone and missed by about a meter.

  “NOOOOOO!” cried Anna in frustration as she hit the switch to retract the line.

  “NO! NO! NO!” she continued, slamming her clenched fists onto the panel with each exclamation.

  Chapter 4

  As she dropped her head, she caught sight of the sensors panel which showed that the drone had not entered the charted edge of the gravity well. According to its calculations, it would not enter for another 10 seconds.

  “One more chance! Please, just one more,” she whispered and threw her hand into the holographic control. Three seconds later, the cable was fully retracted.

  Anna’s eyes fell to the screen as she started to aim and caught the camera’s zoom feature. As if by instinct, she zoomed in, quickly brought the drone into her sights, and fired the tow cable a third time. Her eyes immediately darted to the length indicator, which rapidly increased to 50m ... 100m ... 150m ... and caught the drone at 198m.

  Anna screamed, “YES!” and threw her hands up into the air in victory.

  Suddenly, the shuttle jerked backward. Turning her gaze to the sensors panel, she saw that the drone had just passed into the gravity well, but the shuttle had generated enough thrust to keep it from falling. However, the shuttle and the gravity well were now at a standoff; neither was winning the tug-of-war.

  She glanced at the fuel gauge and saw that 66% fuel remained and was steadily dropping with the engines set to maximum thrust. She dared not reduce the thrust, for the gravity well would suck her in. At the same time, she did not want to release the drone just yet. With the drone’s thrusters offline, she could not rely on it for any help. The situation seemed hopeless, especially considering that she calculated having only another 20 minutes of fuel left.

  But, what about the other drones in the area?

  Snapping her fingers to confirm her decision, Anna sent a tight-beam communication to the station that read, “Computer, locate the mining drone closest to my location and order it to fly to me at best possible speed and push the shuttle toward the station.”

  A second later, she received the response, “Acknowledged.”

  “ETA?” she returned.

  “15.7 minutes.”

  “Fifteen minutes?!” she exclaimed rhetorically, which she followed with a heavy sigh. She looked up at the shining object directly ahead, feeling like these may be the last moments in her life that she will ever have, and she could only see the inside of the shuttle and the station in the distance against the starfield backdrop. She hoped that nothing would delay the drone coming to her rescue.

  Deciding to spend her time thinking about other ways to help her situation, Anna unbuckled her restraints and gently pushed herself upward, letting her weightlessness help her move around the ship. Using her hands to crawl along the ceiling, she made her way to the first panel: Life Support. No help there. She followed the wall to the navigational computer and then the engineering panel. She quickly scanned over the controls, hoping to find something to inspire a plan. After several minutes, she conceived two options, neither of them truly viable. The first idea was to overclock the engines, but that required her to crawl into the bowels of the ship and could not be done while
they were engaged. The second option was to jettison the fuel which could potentially make her situation worse and her wait time a lot shorter. She decided to make that her last resort if the drone was delayed.

  Returning to the pilot seat, she buckled in and sent a query to the station.

  “How much longer until the drone arrives?”

  The computer replied after a few seconds, “8.3 minutes.”

  “How are things on the station right now?” she transmitted.

  “Nothing has changed since your departure, Anna.”

  “Well, it’s at least good to know that the station will continue to operate after I die here.”

  “Anna, the drone is still expected to arrive at the estimated time and has not been delayed. If your plan works, you will not die.”

  Anna paused after reading the computer’s last transmission. Despite the fact she knew that the computer was incapable of giving an emotional response, she found comfort in what the computer told her.

  She replied, “Thank you, computer.”

  “Would you like to play a game while you wait?”

  Amused by its offer, Anna could not help but smile at its attempt to help keep her from stressing over the crisis.

  “No, thank you.”

  “As you wish, Anna.”

  “How much longer until the drone arrives?”

  “7.1 minutes.”

  “Could you please copy a song to the shuttle? Pick something at random.”

  Several seconds later, the sounds of a solo acoustic guitar introduction filled the cockpit. She thought the song started off very pretty, but the singer’s rough voice threw her off for a second. As she listened to the words, she realized that it related to her situation somewhat.

  “Song title?” she typed.

  “’Savin’ Me’ by Nickelback.”

  At that second, the song’s chorus began. As the song progressed, Anna felt the tears well up in her eyes. The music combined with the lyrics touched her in a way she had never experienced before, but she was not sure if it was the music or her situation. Though she did not know how, the computer again demonstrated an uncanny ability to affect her behavior. A few seconds later, the first of her tears rolled down her cheek.

  After the song had ended, she wiped the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand and fought hard to maintain her composure. Before she knew it, she heard something impact against the starboard side of the ship. She looked at the sensor readout and saw another signal next to the shuttle. Within seconds, she saw the shuttle and the drone edging away from the planet.

  Before she could send a query to the computer, it sent a message that read, “The drone has just arrived.”

  Anna could not hold back her elation, as she cried, “Oh, my god! Yes!”

  Glancing at the fuel gauge again, she saw that 15% of her fuel remained.

  “Just enough to get home,” she said to herself.

  Suddenly, the shuttle leaped forward, pressing her into the back of her seat. Another glimpse of the sensors clearly showed that the damaged drone had cleared the gravity well, and they were all heading back to the station at full acceleration. She let the ship go for another minute before cutting the engines and coasting most of the way.

  Once they started drifting on inertia, Anna retracted the tow cable enough to bring the drone closer, where she realized that the drone was still leaking fuel during their flight. Bringing the grasper arm online, she grabbed the drone and positioned it to where the breach in the fuel tank faced in the direction they were going and allowed their inertia to push the fuel away from the rupture.

  After repositioning the drone, the idea suddenly dawned on her that she could have retracted the line to free the drone from the gravity well.

  “I could have reeled it in,” Anna muttered. “I could have been back home and eating lunch by now if I did that.”

  Slapping herself on the forehead, she exclaimed, “Why didn’t I think of that before?!”

  Slumping back in her seat, Anna shook her head and stated, “I’m so stupid!”

  Over a half hour later, the shuttle finally docked back at the station. After the landing bay doors closed and the area repressurized, Anna set the drone on the floor in such a way to minimize fuel leakage and shut down the shuttle’s systems. After that, she disembarked to transfer the drone’s remaining fuel into storage and refuel the ship.

  After spending an hour checking over the drone’s systems, she headed to her cabin to clean up and finally get some lunch.

  “Computer,” Anna started after she passed through the airlock. “I have completed an initial damage assessment of the drone. The port sublight engine will need a new outer thruster casing and combustion chamber, so those will need to be requisitioned. The fuel tank has two centimeter-wide holes that cannot be easily patched, so let’s requisition one of those, too.”

  The computer replied, “Acknowledged.”

  “And now,” continued Anna. “I’m going to take the rest of the day off.”

  “Anna, you have other duties that need to be completed.”

  She stopped in the middle of the corridor in front of the mess hall, looked up at the ceiling and replied, “Computer, I have just been through a traumatic experience. I need to take some time off to help relieve my stress.”

  “Time has been allotted for you to do so after the daily agenda has been completed.”

  Rolling her eyes, Anna retorted, “Did you stop and think that I may develop post-traumatic stress disorder if this is not dealt with immediately? I could have died out there!”

  “The timetable communicated to you indicated that you would have been rescued without any physical harm to you. You had no reason to become stressed,” stated the disembodied voice.

  “I had every right to be stressed!” cried Anna, stretching her arm out and pointing to her right. “Even though the drone did arrive without any interference, it could have been delayed and resulted in my death and the loss of the other drone! What if it was hit by another micrometeor?!”

  “The odds of a second drone experiencing the same incident are approximately 12,349 to 1 due to the fact that the rain of particles from the comet that passed by the planet 3.4 months ago had already passed through the area and damaged the first drone.”

  Anna fumed while the computer finished its explanation. Finally, she yelled sarcastically, “So, you’ve got me all figured out, huh? Because you calculated the odds that came out in our favor, I should trust your infinite logic and pay no heed to my thoughts or feelings! All hail the computer, all you human drones! Fall in line and do as the wise and generous computer tells us!”

  “Anna ...”

  “You know what?” interrupted Anna heatedly. “I haven’t even had lunch yet! Between that and facing death in the cold depths of space, I am NOT in the mood to be trifled with! I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU SAY! I’M TAKING THE REST OF THE DAY OFF!”

  As she stepped forward, the computer said, “Anna ...”

  “WHAT?! ARE YOU GOING TO REPORT ME? GO AHEAD! SEE IF I CARE!”

  “Anna ...”

  She only responded with her middle finger as she walked toward her cabin. The computer fell silent.

  Several minutes later after washing her face and hands, Anna walked into the mess hall and approached the culinary system.

  “What do you want for lunch, Anna?” the computer asked.

  With a frown, she replied, “I’ll give you three guesses, and the first two don’t count.”

  “Wouldn’t that truly entitle me to only one guess?”

  Anna sighed, “That’s not the point. What I’m saying is that my answer should be easy to figure out.”

  “And, what would that be?”

  Her eyes narrowed as she placed her hands on her hips and said, “Filet mignon and garlic mashed potatoes.”

  “I am sorry, Anna. That ...”

  Anna stated along with the computer at the same time, “That selection is not available.

&nbs
p; “Yes, I know!”

  “This makes the 2,176th consecutive day that you have asked for that selection.”

  “Because,” she interrupted. “I will continue to ask for it until I get it!”

  “But, that selection will never be available, as it has never been added to the inventory.”

  Anna stopped from yelling at the computer, as she pondered an idea for a second.

  “What if I picked a food and renamed it ‘filet mignon’?”

  The computer answered, “That would not make sense, as the food you rename would not really be filet mignon.”

  “How about just for today?” inquired Anna. “After I rename it and receive the food in question, you switch it back to its original name. Would that be okay?”

  “Although I do not understand your reasoning, that would be acceptable.”

  “Great!” she cried with a smile.

  She thought for a moment, thinking about which food came closest to what she wanted.

  “I’ve got it!” she exclaimed after a few more seconds. ‘Computer, change the name of ‘roast beef’ to ‘filet mignon’ and ‘mashed potatoes’ to ‘garlic mashed potatoes’ ... for today only.”

  “As you wish, Anna.”

  “Great! Computer, I want to have filet mignon and garlic mashed potatoes for lunch, today!”

  As her mouth began to salivate, the computer answered, ‘I am sorry. That selection is not available.”

  Stunned by the response for a brief second, Anna cried, “What?! I just ...”

  “The last portion of ‘filet mignon’ was used with the lunch you ordered yesterday. That selection is no longer available.”

  Doing her best to keep her anger in check, Anna stared at the culinary system and asked in a slow, deliberate voice, “Do you have any beef products in inventory at this time?”

  “The only beef product currently in the food inventory is hot dogs.”

  She paused for a few seconds and snapped, “Fine! Give me a hot dog!”