Astra & Astronaut

Lonely ship in the sea of void

"You won't be forgotten!" Shouted Maria's chatty senior before she stepped into her spacecraft supposedly to leave Earth for 4 years at most, everyone had a crowd of people and a loved one to say goodbye to, this mission was her senior's dream, a dream Maria had to fulfil for her before she passes away from a terminal illness. The quote echoed in her head; it was meant to be a motivational quote before her space expedition but now it has become a fear trying to get a grip on her consciousness. If there were a few things Spacecraft Commander Maria Katz feared, it would be an unsuccessful mission, being forgotten and well...being left in the dark. All three of which are currently happening.

Maria checked back on her worried crew like a good leader and saw all of them sulking, running around, and panicking, maybe she heard some soft sniffles from crying as well. Maria nervously skidded over to one of her fellow crewmembers in genuine hopes of comforting him, his hands rested on his face, Maria almost wanted to give him a comforting pat on the back to say 'You did your best' but her hand swiftly jolted back at the thought of him hitting her in the face out of reflex.

Maria took shuddering deep breaths, unable to hide her panic "How is the situation looking?"

The crewmate looked up to Maria, he immediately let it all out and his eyes may have either sparkled with hope or with tears "No! it's not. Why did they have to extend the mission? They expected too much and how we're stuck here"

Maria bit her lip until her tongue tasted copper as she swallowed the lump in her throat "I have checked the damages and they are, quite bad. Do what you can first, no one will blame you if you don't know what to do"

Her words didn't inspire even a bit, even when she was checking the controls and protocols for this type of situation she felt no ease. It was her boss's fault for extending the mission just because there was no progress, despite the massive amount of funding that went into building this giant spacecraft, the control system itself is sure to cost more than thousands. She wanted to just melt into her seat, take a short nap, and wish this had never happened but the lullaby of her crewmates screaming her name would disturb her sweet slumber. Besides, that's not what a good commander would do. A good commander would complete her duties during a time of disarray, re-check the control system, try to fix damages, help out, and be an all-knowing leader! Truly an overwhelming job for someone as free-spirited as Maria.

She continued pressing the buttons needed to contact the headquarters but to no avail, the only sound that could be heard through the intercom was increasingly irritable beeps. BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! She was tempted to hit the control buttons but Maria was afraid of damaging any buttons. She looked through the window, into the lonely void of space then her sight shifted to the spaceship's logo and name etched on the top of the window written in a bright hopeful yellow: 'Void Voyage' the preplanned and costly space expedition meant to observe planets as well as test new advanced technology. Maria's crew thought of that name because they thought it was a catchy name that rolled off the tongue.

"Maria?" a muffled voice called her name from the back of her head

"Maria!" The muffled voice became loud enough to snap Maria back to reality

Maria turned her swivel chair to face the other direction, her sweating crewmate's expression was one of worry "Any problems?" asked Maria

"Something infiltrated through the spacecraft, I-I don't know how or what it is."

Maria's eyes widened from fear, this was unexpected so it would potentially add to the pile of problems the crew already had "Come with me, we'll check"

Maria pulled her crewmate along with her to check the scene, each step decisive and bold but her poor heart was about to explode from anxiety. As soon as they reached the back of the ship, joining the circle of people that was surrounding something, both of them were stunned. An unconscious woman lay on the floor, everyone confirmed she was not part of the crew, she didn't even have a space suit on, the woman looked pale with white-blonde hair and an ivory flowy dress that would look fashionably suitable on a ghost.

One of the crewmembers spoke up "If she's not part of the crew then how did she get in here?"

Another nodded their head in agreement, and the others chimed in one by one "You don't suppose she was hiding in the walls?"

"If she were in the walls, I would've noticed. She doesn't even have a space suit on, do you think she came from outside?"

"But the 'outside' is a vacuum of space!"

"No shit Sherlock."

Everyone was arguing about the origins of the woman. Still, Maria was crouched down, hugging her knees while staring at the woman with a soft smile she couldn't control, a part of her wondered where she came from but another part of her was fascinated.

Between the loud clatter of debates, Maria spoke up once more "We should bring her to the sick bay"

A worrisome crewmate protested "But she could be an alien?" then another crewmate bonked her head

The same crewmate hissed "Listen to the commander!" as she, Maria, and another crewmate tried their best to carry the woman to the nearby sick bay.

They laid her on one of the medical beds then a man bolted through the door, he was wearing a casual grey T-shirt but had a lab coat lazily thrown on with his scribbled name tag labelled 'Oliver' hanging for its dear life. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and brushed aside his ink-black bangs to see clearly. For a moment Maria even doubted that he was the spacecraft's most qualified doctor.

The doctor's eyes widened in surprise "So there is an unidentified person here..." the doctor said as he edged closer to check on his new patient.

It seemed like he heard the whole story already and he obviously didn't believe it, as far as he knew, everyone in the spaceship could just be playing jokes on him. He checked her vitals, everything was healthy, she was just unconscious from a hard blow to her head.

Maria took an uneasy, deep sigh the doctor could already tell that she was stressing out more than need be "Oliver, is everything all right?" asked Maria with an undertone of demand in her voice.

"Yes, yes everything is fine, just wait for her to wake up." Said Oliver as he jotted down something on his clip pad. Maria took a peek, but his handwriting could only be described as a heart attack on paper.

Maria sat down on the edge of the patient's bed, everyone had already gone to complete their part of the work, and Oliver was writing god knows what in his thick and chunky notebook. Maria looked back at the sleeping woman, wondering how she even got in the spaceship because there was no way she could've lived in the spaceship for weeks without anyone noticing, there was also less of a chance for her to infiltrate from the outside. So...how?