Stories of the People

Thank you, Mission Control

There I sat. 

My crew was already gone, all the food eaten, all our resources already tapped out. Generators were zapped completely. 

It's kinda funny, when I imagined going to space, I thought that it would be a short little trip around the moon and back home sweet earth. But boy was I wrong. That little trip turned into this absolute mess of a rescue mission. If we were going home, it would end with us having a very teary funeral with all of America watching. 

The mission was supposed to be easy.

A quick trip to the space station, around the moon, back to earth. 

It will be fun they said! An exciting story to tell your friends! Yeah right...

We made it to the space station just fine. What was waiting there for us, we could never have expected. 

The crew we were going to meet was a group of 4 Astro engineers. They were fixing the space station satellites after the last asteroid storm that had passed through. They were very damaged. But we lost connection with the crew a few days ago.

Our thrusters broke on our way to connect with the space station. Someone at NASA thought it would be a good idea to let a putz who didn't know what he was doing try and navigate the ship while docking. We have no thrusters to get back to earth.

My crew was a group of 4 other astronauts that, as I was told, were approved by NASA to do this mission. They are all now dead. We have been floating aimlessly for weeks now. 

We have long since lost contact with Earth. They have no idea where we have floated off to. Sorry, I keep saying we... as if there is more than just me in this dark vessel. The power has gone to our backup generators and even those are running on fumes. I can feel my head getting lighter and lighter and I can barely see the stars anymore.

I can just imagine what the news is going to say about this back home. "American Heros Lost In Space. NASA to Blame." Ha, I wish I could see what NASA would respond with too. I'm sure it will be stoic and trying to cover up any mistake on their part as well. Sure, they will talk all about how we are... excuse me, were very brave in going on this mission. 

I wonder if they will send anyone else up here to try and find our bodies. Or the bodies of those on the station. Will my family get to hold a funeral with nobody to bury? Will they cry? Or will they, much like what the country will do, seek vengeance against NASA and go right into a legal case. I hope that they get their peace. I hope that they don't mourn my death for long. I don't want anyone to be sad over me. I chose this mission, my fate was sealed. This is just... unfortunate for lack of a better word. 

Either way, I guess that this is it. I float here in weightlessness, feeling my fingers go numb, and my eyes become heavy. I hear static noise. The radio. I try my best to push myself over to the controls. 

Over the static, I can hear it. 

"Rescue one, do you copy? Rescue one, come in. We see life signs in your vessel, do you copy?" 

Its mission control. They found me. 

I manage to press the button to talk. "Yes, this is Rescue one, I am here, over"

My voice is soft. I hope they heard me

"We read you. What's your status? We are working on getting a jet to head your way now. What's the status of your team and your vessel?"

"I am all that's left. The vessel is on backups and those are now failing. Oxygen is almost out, I am losing consciousness.  I believe I have just a few minutes left of oxygen before we go on complete failure. The thrusters are completely out of commission and the only system that is working seems to be coms. I do not believe a rescue mission is a logical use of resources at the moment. Have a recovery mission ready in doc. That is the only mission that is needed."

I can hear voices protesting with me in the background but I have no energy to make out what was being said, let alone respond much more than with a few grunts. I know that they are doing all that they can but there is no use. 

"Goodbye Mission Control, thank you for trying"

Space is quiet. It's peaceful. I never knew what true quiet was because of all the noise in my head. The stars are beautiful tonight. I can even see the sun from here. So bright. I wish I had some tea to enjoy. Maybe next time I'll remember to pack some. 

Yea... maybe next time.