Lost in Space: One lone astronaut One lost space traveler Two ships passing in the night

by Dylan Keefer

  Contents

  Half Title Page

  Dedication

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  Review

  Author's Bio

  I dedicate this book to my friends and family.

  One lone astronaut

  One lost space traveler

  Two ships passing in the night

  By

  Dylan Keefer

  Copyright © 2013 by Dylan Keefer.

  All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  For information contact : purplepress.org

  First Edition: October 2016

  Never did Nivea truly know quiet until she knew the silence of space. She hadn’t heard another voice in days. At least, she thought it was days. Maybe it had only been hours. Minutes? Maybe she was already going insane. She knew that she would probably be ordered into therapy once she got home.

  If she got home.

  She wouldn’t deny that she needed the sessions. She wouldn’t even try to pretend she was okay during the psych evaluation. But she needed to pretend she was okay right now. For her own sake, she needed to pretend she didn’t see that mirage in the corner of her eye.

  “Imagination to Defiance Labs, Imagination to Defiance Labs…” she said into a microphone. “Please, someone… anyone, speak to me. If someone is listening… I’ve been trying for hours. I see another ship out of the corner of my eye. I keep seeing it. I know it isn’t real. I’m going to die out here.”

  “I’m going to die out here,” said a voice.

  “Hello? Who was that? Dr. Vanes?”

  “Hello. Dr. Vanes.”

  “Who is there?” Nivea said, shaking.

  “Who is theeeer,” said the voice.

  “Stop it!” she yelled.

  “…Stip its…” whispered the voice awkwardly. “Evolisnics.”

  Nivea wiped her face. She had started sweating, or maybe she was crying. She had been trained to handle anything that could happen out in space, but it didn’t really prepare her for the real unadulterated fear that came with being totally alone in the cosmos, and hearing another voice.

  She saw it again. Out of the corner of her eye. That ship. She blinked and it was gone. And then it was back again. It was right in her vision now. She couldn’t deny what she saw. Either it was real, or she had passed from tired and desperate hallucinations, to actual insanity.

  It wasn’t an earth ship. Not like one she’d ever seen before. It had the same basic shape as her shuttle-craft, but smaller. It drifted ever closer to her, just as she drifted ever closer to it.

  The ship was so close to her now, she thought it might hit her, but then, suddenly a hatch in the ship opened, and out came a person. She couldn’t see their features because they were in a spacesuit of some kind. A thick, dull, purple suit that was protecting them from the lack of atmosphere.

  Suddenly there was a banging on the side of the shuttle-craft. There was a long pause and then the banging happened again. Nivea didn’t know what to do. If this person needed help, she couldn’t leave them out there, but if they were a threat, and she let them inside, then her doom would be nothing but her own fault.

  “What are you so afraid of, Nivea?” she asked herself aloud. “That it’s a soul sucking alien? Even if aliens exist, I’m not even out of the galaxy.”

  The banging happened again. “Hang on,” she said, as though the person could hear her. She started putting everything away. Paperwork, food items, and tools. She would lose atmosphere once she opened the hatch. Everything had been put somewhere where it couldn’t leave the shuttle, and she started putting a spacesuit on. This spacesuit wasn’t even supposed to be necessary. She and Jack weren’t supposed to have to get out of the shuttle for this trip. It was just there in case. This would be the second time she reluctantly put it on. She tied herself to the console and activated the hatch.

  The whole shuttle beeped loudly as the hatch opened. Though she could barely see the face of the person waiting out in space, she could see relief in the body language, even with the lack of controlled gravity.

  This person in the purple spacesuit was tethered to their own little ship, but the tether was long enough for them to get inside before taking it off. Nivea reached out a hand, and the person took it. Nivea pulled and tried to guide them inside.

  “Come on,” said Nivea, getting the person just close enough to wrap an arm around their waist. It was just for her own benefit. The other person couldn’t hear her. When they were finally inside, Nivea held them tightly to her and untied the tether they were wearing, and threw it, letting it drift back out into space. Still holding tightly to this new person, she hit the button to close the hatch.

  Once the hatch was closed the person reached for their helmet immediately, but Nivea had to stop them. She shook her head, and held the person’s arms down. They needed to wait for the room to refill with oxygen.

  In a few minutes’ time, the console beeped, telling her they were safe to take their suits off. She took off her own helmet and said, “It’s okay now.”

  The other removed their helmet and finally revealed their face. Nivea laughed in relief. She didn’t know what she had been expecting, a big purple monster? But instead, she got a woman.

  Long dark hair tumbled out of the helmet, framing the newcomer’s face. Her skin was terribly pale, but Nivea didn’t see that as strange with how long she could’ve been stranded out here.

  “How did you get here?” she asked her. “Are you trying to get back to Earth?”

  “Peh…” sighed the other. “Evolisnics.”

  “I’m sorry? Are you… Are you Russian?” asked Nivea.

  “Peh?” she said, taking a step closer.

  Nivea thought a moment. The woman had to be European. No other race fit her face. Nivea cursed herself. That wasn’t true, she had dark hair and brows, and could’ve believably been Hispanic. Except that Nivea could speak Spanish. And she didn’t recognize the word she’d used.

  “¿Español? ¿Cómo llegaste aquí?”

  “Peh?”

  “Not Spanish then…”

  The woman smiled and approached her. She pulled Nivea into an unexpected hug.

  “Oh, oh it’s alright,” Nivea said, patting her back, “You’re safe now.”

  Very abruptly the woman pulled away just a little and put a hand on either side of Nivea’s face. Swiftly she kissed her.

  “Oh!” said Nivea, taken aback, “That’s not─ Um you’re sweet─ I…”

  “My name is Meg,” said the woman as she stepped away from Nivea and started taking off the rest of her spacesuit.

  “Oh, Oh! I’m Nivea! You speak English?!”

  “No. I mean, yes I do now. Peh… You asked me before if I was trying to get back to Earth. That is your planet, yes?”

  “I… yes?”

  “Yes, well it isn’t mine. However, I am trying to get home.”

  “You’re… you really are an alien.”

  “Are you not as well? Neither of us is in our natura
l habitat.”

  “Oh, yeah, I suppose… but I just… my people… we’ve never met anyone from other planets before… at least not that everyone knows about. Some people think that the government─”

  “What are you doing out here all alone?” Meg interrupted her.

  “I could ask you the same question,” said Nivea. “And what do you mean you can speak English now?”

  “I touched my communication location… Peh, the combination of those words in your language sound funny together. Anyway, I touched it to yours. Now I have your language.”

  “But… but how…”

  “I… I sensed the information from you.”

  “You can just… just learn people’s languages with a kiss?” said Nivea, sounding almost angry.

  “I wouldn’t call it learn. More like, absorb?”

  “It took me seven years to become fluent in Spanish…” Nivea said sadly.

  “And that kind of patience is very honorable,” said Meg sitting down in front of the console in what looked like a black unitard. “I apologize that you find my ability distressing.”

  “It’s alright…” Nivea said, beginning to take off her own spacesuit.

  “I ask again, if you will tell me, this shuttle has two seats. You are out here alone.”

  “I had someone else with me. He’s dead.”

  “How did he die?”

  “I…”

  “You do not need to tell me if it is private in some way.”

  “No… It’s alright… he… I don’t know, he just… died. I know he had diabetes, but he had a handle on it. He was like, perfect about it, you know? He died in his sleep, I… I wasn’t gonna cut him open…” a tear slid down Nivea’s face.

  “Oh, I have caused you more distress.”

  “No… no, I just… I pushed him out of the shuttle,” Nivea said, wiping her face.

  Meg moved back slightly in her seat, a sudden wary look on her face. “This is how he dies?” she said.

  “No, no… he… had been dead for… for like four days. I couldn’t get a hold of anyone on Earth. I woke up, and he was dead, and communication was cut off. He started to… he smelled─”

  “You don’t have to defend yourself to me. I would have done the same. It was a dead body. The body is not the man.”

  “Thank you… you know part of me feels kind of… stupid for trusting you instantly.”

  “Your other choice was to leave me behind and continue on by yourself in the silence. I am no threat to you, as long as you are not one to me.”

  “… What… what are you doing out here?”

  “I’m lost. My escape pod was almost out of propulsion. I’m just trying to get back to my planet.”

  “Why did you leave your planet in the first place?”

  “Why did you leave yours?”

  “Exploration… science.”

  “How beautiful. I was traveling to a new planet to live, for my father.”

  “For your father?”

  “Yes, I was going to marry, Peh…”

  “What?”

  “I am not sure about the words in your language.”

  “No word for it?”

  “Well, I am just unsure whether to use the word politician… or prince.”

  “Oh… Are you…?”

  “My father is very influential. It is good politics for me to marry someone influential on another local planet.”

  “Oh… we do that kind of stuff too… although these days a lot people think it’s pretty… wrong.”

  “Wrong?”

  “To force someone to marry someone they don’t want to.”

  “I said that I would go. I saw a… peh… peh…” she motioned a square shape with her hands, “Like a picture. Very handsome.”

  “Ooohhh,” Nivea giggled.

  “Not very nice though.”

  “Huh?”

  “They came, I traveled with them. The prince. He’s not kind.” A tear slipped down Meg’s face, and she wiped it away quickly. “We have both cried in front of each other now. I suppose that means we’re friends.”

  “Ha! Yeah,” Nivea reached out and touched Meg’s had as a way of comfort.

  “I escaped, if that was not obvious. I just want to go home. I thought I could figure it out. I was wrong,” Meg said, looking at her feet.

  “I’m so sorry, Meg… But I…I can’t take you home, you know that, right?” Meg looked up at her.

  “I wouldn’t know the way any better than you,” Nivea continued, “Besides, it must be outside this galaxy, because we─Humans I mean─don’t know about it. We’ve never gone that far. We don’t have the technology. We want it. We’re working toward it, but right now, it still takes us months to get to other planets in our own galaxy. I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s okay… I understand. But you have… you have food?”

  “Ah, yes. I’ve got food,” Nivea smiled.

  “And you are going to Earth?”

  “I am hoping to get back there, yes.”

  “You will take me with you?”

  “If that’s what you want.”

  “I want to survive.”

  “Then yes… I will take you back home with me.”

  “Thank you, Nivea.”

  Nivea stood up to go through her food compartment. Meg watched her quietly.

  “Meg?”

  “Yes, Nivea?”

  “I’m going to need to sleep soon. I don’t really know what do about that.”

  “You can sleep. I will stay up and monitor your ship.”

  “Yeah… that’s the thing, Meg… I don’t know if… I don’t know if I can sleep in front of you…” she said, handing Meg some bags of dehydrated food.

  “Peh… Why? Do you make noises? I don’t mind. You should hear my father.”

  “No, that’s not it, it’s just… I know we said we were friends, but… I don’t know if it’s really… safe for me to be sleeping in the presence of someone I just met, out in the middle of space.”

  “You didn’t just meet me. I’ve been on your ship for at least twenty minutes now.”

  “Eheh… yeah… That isn’t very long.”

  “Would you like to tie me up?”

  “Ha, no… no, it’s okay…”

  “If you need to, it’s okay, I understand.”

  “Meg, do you… do you sleep?”

  “Yes, but I have only been up for Ten hours. So I will not really feel like sleep for another two to four. I will gradually readjust to your schedule. Unless, of course, you would like me to change to the opposite of your schedule so I can stay up and alert while you sleep and vice versa.”

  “No, I’ve been operating the shuttle by myself for almost a week. It doesn’t need to be manned at all times.”

  “Okay… So we are going back to tying me up, then?” Meg said, pulling flakes from a bag that Nivea gave her.

  “No… I’m going to just trust you. I have no other choice.”

  “But you would feel better if I was going to sleep too? I can try.”

  “It’s alright. You eat some dinner, and I’m just going to try to get some shut eye.”

  Nivea pulled a cot out of the side of the cockpit. Meg frowned at this, wondering where the sleeping area for the other passenger had been. Meg stayed sitting at the console. She looked forward out into the stars, trying not to look at Nivea, who probably wouldn’t like being stared at while she tried to sleep.

  “Do you mind if I turn out the lights?” asked Nivea.

  “No. Do that.”

  The lights clicked off, but they weren’t entirely in darkness. The buttons on the console had a soft glow, and the monitor remained on, showing the vastness of space like a computer screensaver.

  Nivea laid down and stared at the ceiling. Her stomach lurched as she thought over the events of the past week. Should she be trusting this person so quickly? What if Meg tried to change their direction so that she could get home? But she said she was lost out here. She wouldn
’t know where to go anyway. Besides, Nivea had been telling the truth when she said it would take too long. It could take them years to travel as far as they would need to, to find some far off planet that Meg didn’t even know the way to.

  Meg seemed too smart to screw her over like that. Unless she was lying to Nivea about something. Nivea knew that there were all kinds of lies and motives Meg could have, but there was only one that kept coming to Nivea’s mind again and again: existence. What if Meg didn’t exist? What if Nivea was so lonely that she had invented Meg? What kind of a name was Meg for an alien anyway?