120 Blind Dates... And Other Short Stories

Her Destiny

There was only one thing that Captain Joyelle Lite loved more than space travel: history. She would have become a historian if her father, the late spaceship Captain Packard Lite, had not been dead set against it. He wanted her to followed in his footsteps, which she had done by becoming a space captain at just 29 years of age. Yet her fascination with history had never stopped. Therefore, she had been overjoyed when her First Officer Marley Bard had reported to her that they would make a stop at the oldest operating space station in the universe.

A great many books had been written about Alpha Destiny since the legendary station had been built in a remote corner of the universe at the end of the 21th century. The station had the shape of a horseshoe because back in the day, people had thought that was a lucky sign.

However, they soon found out that the station had seen happier times. As their ship tried to make contact with Alpha Destiny, they failed to get a reply, which was highly unusual. 

"Perhaps the officer on duty is taking a break," Marley suggested.

"If that is the case, it's still against the rules," a puzzled Joyelle replied and made a mental note to discuss this with whoever was the head of the space station now. "They could be attacked if they have no one watching their radar."

After a few minutes and several unsuccessful attempts to make contact with the space station, they finally received a signal: Someone wanted to talk to them. 

"Put them on the big monitor," Joyelle commanded and sat down in her chair on the bridge.  

She expected a lot of people to appear on the screen, but then they could only see one tiny, scared-looking man with a faint voice sitting in the main control room of Alpha Destiny.

"I am Doctor Spacecraft, the director of the medical station of Alpha Destiny and one of the last people here that have not been affected by the virus. Whoever you are, stay away from Alpha Destiny!"

Marley and Jodele looked at each other. "Do we have any information about a medical emergency on Alpha Destiny?"

Marley shook his head. 

"I'm Joyelle Lite, the captain of the Omega Rho. What kind of virus are you talking about?" Joyelle asked, thinking that she was talking to someone who had mental health problems. It was no secret that some people developed such issues if they lived on a space station for a long time: They felt isolated, became depressed and had hallucinations.

"I don't know. It began like a simple flu, and we underestimated it for a long time because everyone who had had it recovered quickly. Then all of these people began to die..." the physician explained and could not hold back his tears. "Except that they did not really die. They came back to life after they had died!"

"Okay, this guy is seeing zombies. He must be crazy!" Marley remarked and told one of the officers in charge of the controls to find out how many life forms were still on board of the Alpha Destiny.

"That's a good idea!" Joyelle said, but then, she remembered something that disturbed her quite a bit. "What's the state of our fuel and supplies?"

"We will run out of fuel in 11 hours and out of supplies in 17 hours, Captain. If we don't stock up our fuel and supplies, the first persons are expected to get hungry on our ship at..." Harry the robot began after he had accidentally overheard the captain's statement to her first officer. 

"Thank you, Harry!" Joyelle Lite said, cutting him short. 

"The problem is that we really have to restock our supplies here," Marley said. "The next space station is 2 days away!"

"This is strange," the officer who had been scanning the Alpha Destiny for life forms remarked. "There are 12 life forms on the Alpha Destiny, but 50 more objects that seem to be moving."

"Zombies?"

"I cannot tell," the officer said and shuddered visibly at the thought. 

Captain Joyelle Lite had hoped that a moment like this would never happen to her. Being a hero had never been something she had excelled at. But she had to save her ship and crew in this situation. More importantly, she had to follow the unwritten protocol of how a captain should behave in a situation like this if she wanted to be respected by other captains in the future. 

She had to sacrifice herself.

She needed to beam herself on the Alpha Destiny and transfer everything they needed to her ship.

And if the physician had said the truth and there were indeed zombies on the Alpha Destiny, she would have to remain there. 

There really was no other way, even though she still hoped that the physician had simply gone crazy.

"I'll go over there," she said with a firm voice. "Marley, you will take over as captain for as long as I'm gone."

As she left the bridge, one thought crossed Joyelle Lite's mind: Perhaps this situation was her way out of a job that did not really fulfill her and perhaps this would lead to her doing what she had always wanted. Perhaps she could study history on the Alpha Destiny, or she could study the Alpha Destiny's history.

No matter how bleak things seem at first, all you have to do is for something positive about them, and you will usually find it.