Alone?

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. But Alavana determined that to be false: She had heard herself scream hundreds of times over the last 11 months, and there were plenty more waiting to be unleashed.

When she was caught stealing an engine from one the new B425 prototypes, it seemed like the easiest decision in the world: 10 years in prison or 2 years alone in an isolated flash shuttle for one of GEN-X42’s new studies.

But the constant isolation and minimal communication from researchers as she floated away from earth made her regret her decision months ago. A prison cell would have been twice the size of her shuttle, which was barely big enough for her malnourished frame.

She had resorted to crawling across the cold aluminum-lined floor, afraid to hit her head for the thousandth time, although falling into a concussive sleep would have probably made things go by faster.

She had a bag of books to keep her company along with a thousand tubes of peanut butter and impossible meat. Her days were spent reading, crying, or watching earth become a tiny dot in the distance before it finally disappeared altogether 5 weeks ago.

All of this for some project that was too classified for its participants to know any of the details. She was constantly hooked up to a medical monitor and got a daily five-minute check in with the base to make sure she was okay, but other than that, she was alone.

Isolated from earth, isolated from her dog, isolated from the mother who begged her to reconsider her decision. But in the end, was two years of complete and utter misery better than 10 years in a slightly better environment? Perhaps, that was the experiment. How much psychological torment could one person take to spare themselves some time?

As her thoughts cycled through the repetitive meanderings that came in her pointless waking moments, she noticed a flash outside of the half-moon window at the front of pod. Using her leg to push against a support beam, she twisted 180 degrees and crawled over to the window, pushing her nose up against it.

She gazed through the abyss of space and saw a distant glitter slowly transform into the outline of a glowing blue … turret. It wasn’t long before the rest of the behemoth structure fell into view.

It was some sort of spaceship, but her gut told her it couldn’t be from earth. It’s unique, castle like shape was nothing she had ever read about it. It was far more pronounced than anything GenX42 could make in a thousand years. A hazy spectrum of blue outlined the entirety of the ship like it was a ghost.

Massive cylindrical tunnels branched out from different parts of the ship, with one of them facing in her general direction. At the end of beam, a glowing green sphere started to form into the shape of a ball.

She took a deep breath, contorted her body once again, and slithered over to the communication center.

“Ground base, it’s Valerie, I’m seeing something up here and I don’t think it’s from Earth.”

She waited a few seconds before adding, “I’m not joking.”

Silence on the other line.

“There’s a spaceship unlike anything I’ve seen before. It’s enormous.”

Pause.

“You have arrived, Valerie.” The voice was powerful yet devoid of emotion, like someone telling her a family member had died.

“What do you mean I’ve arrived? Arrived where? This wasn’t part of the agreement.”

“From everyone here at GenX … and Earth… we thank you for service. Good luck with the rest of the study.”

“What do you mean the rest of the study!” She screamed, slamming the wall beside the intercom. Her heart started to race as she turned towards the window again.

The light had stopped growing. Instead, it was shooting towards her like a beam from a lighthouse. It sliced through the abyss and slammed into her shuttle, perforating through the walls so everything around her became shaded in a dark green hue.

Her breathing became laborious as the shuttle started to shake and vibrate beneath her. After a moment, everything became calm. She opened her mouth towards the intercom again, but before she could say anything, her shuttle went flying towards the spaceship with more g-force than anything she had ever experienced.

She screamed once again before the world went black.