Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say.

“Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space or so they say.” The headline on the cover of Caltech Magazine the words of Scott Wilkens his ancient, weathered face winced into the lens a la Clint Eastwood. It was also the first sentence of Scotts resignation as Vice President of Operations at Planet Orbit X. Scott, his mentor his friend or so they say baled. Why didn’t stop him? Why didn’t I listen, Scott said it every single day, ok maybe not every day but at least once a week. Not if, but when?

Most of the article was scathing attack on his greed and God complex leading him on a path of destruction. The article lobbed insult after insult as to why tethered free spacewalks were dangerous. The unsafe practice was standard operating procedures at POX. Having the service ship stay in one spot for 5 hours was expensive, plain, and simple. His stomach burned like it always did when he thought about Scott, he took a big swig of Pepto. Scotts idea of a resignation was him throwing the magazine on his desk. Written in magic marker the words ‘I quit.’ “If you have any questions read the article,” and he walked out. He was out there somewhere shaking his head, the media was probably outside his door. He missed him so much.

The day had started as a typical day in space satellite repair. The two astronauts left the dock of the repair station at 0800. The hook still attached. They propelled themselves toward the broken satellite. After about 15 minutes they reached the satellite and released the hook from the tether line. Their mission, to repair a flap that had come lose most likely from hitting space debris. They both had a five-hour oxygen tank, which would allow them three hours for the repair and two hours for travel.

The repair station would remain nearby in a parallel position monitoring for safety, and retrieval. Once they were finished the repair station would move toward the men. A hook line would be launched in their general proximity, grabbing the tether line between them, and pulling them back to the station. The dangerous part of the maneuver was, missing. If the hook missed the line, there would be no way to retrieve the men. Every bit of the operation was a mathematical calculation.

Everything was status quo. The men were ahead of schedule and had plenty of time to be retrieved. Then the explosion, an overheated lithium battery the size of a city bus exploded. Rocking the station and sending the ship away from the men. The station team went into code red procedures ejecting the battery conducting the check list making sure the damage was only where the battery had been, all other controls were tested and put back online. The explosion and the time it took to regain control after, caused the ship to leave its parallel position with the astronauts. An hour had passed before they came back online, too far and too late to retrieve the men. The stuck astronauts were left clinging onto the broken satellite. They could see the station in the distance with no way to get back on. Even if they used their jet packs, the coordinates would be nearly impossible to measure on a human scale.

Before he could even blink the story blew up in the media. A network news company’s dream. 150 satellites one third of all the satellites in orbit were in proximity to the men. And so began the televising of the entire tragedy live. It took them minutes to find the astronauts families offering them the chance to say goodbye. The world had spent the last few hours watching the astronauts taking their last breaths a countdown clock in the lower right-hand side of the screen. Cut back and forth to their family’s teary words. Every dramatic scene appeared on every television across the world. The world breathed with them as they struggled to remain positive to the very last breath. There was nothing he could do about it. He had passed on the chance the media companies had offered him to explain to the reason nothing could be done. He was still milling around the decision. Good or bad it was too late.

He watched the video again and again. ‘When?’ Were they screaming? Or were the last image in their eyes looking at something that could only be one thing. No matter how many times he watched the video he could not see the dying men’s expressions they appeared to be unconscious with less than 5 minutes on the countdown clock. What he could see was that they were holding hands. Humanity until the end. And then the thing.

When? The other when. For years, decades governments that ruled the worlds had been actively covering up any talk of a faraway life form visiting our planet. Project Blue Book had been started in the 1950’s to convince people that what they saw was not what they saw. To take credible information, pictures, videos eyewitnesses accounts and turn them into laughing stocks. It had been the elephant in the room for years. Even taking the most credible people, pilots, and embarrassing them or threatening them into submission.

The anomaly entered the picture a portion of something metallic seamless showing just enough to make sure we knew it was there. Moments later all the feeds all 150 of them and anything on the earth that was live filming the event went down. A little static and then black. One minute later the pictures came back on. The satellite was there but the men were gone.

It was time. He took a deep breath blowing it out slowly before opening the door. Before the explosion of lights, flashes, clicking sounds, and the human voices that pleaded for answers.

When? Now.

He took his place at the podium, alone, he had never felt so small. He only had a written outline of the facts thrown together. He was a mess. At that moment he would be glad to give it all back. To start over, to not being a murderer, because after all he was in fact a murderer. The unsafe practices he had evented. The elephant in the room was beyond anything he could have imagined

“If we could settle down, I have a statement to read then I will take questions. The astronauts

Bob Johnson, and Jose Rodriguez were working on the Cap 1, which had lost the parts that kept it in orbit causing it to wobble which changed its orbit. Without fixing the satellite the risk was too great to ignore and could potentially destroy several other satellites which would cost millions and it could potentially disintegrate and land on earth with dire consequences. The astronauts were on the standard output status. They were released from Orion Space Station at 1300. At approximately 1430 Orion lost control of its orbit caused by a lithium battery explosion. They drifted for one hour and fifteen minutes, trouble shooting and following the emergency check list to be able to come back online. Putting them in a different orbit making it impossible to recapture the astronauts within the 5-hour oxygen protocol. Everything possible was put into use to save them from oxygen deprivation death. At approximately 1800 the video captures and anomaly. All the satellites that were monitoring the situation went offline. When the feed came back online the astronauts were gone. We are not sure what happened to them and believe that they untethered from the satellite so their families would not witness their inevitable death. We are actively working with all the space agency’s private as well as governmental to retrieve their bodies. Now I’ll take your questions.”

Voices called out to be picked. “Yes, you,” he said pointing at a pretty reporter.

“Dr. Peterson?”

“Just call me Paul,”

“Do you think the astronauts were taken by an alien ship?” she asked.

The clicking and flashes once again hit a feverish pitch. “No one has been able to say without a doubt that the anomaly was that of a UFO. The amount of time on video was not enough to make any concrete evidence of what it was. You,” he said pointing to a man.

“Why has Orbit Planet X still continued using tether free methods, when every one of the space agency’s have ended that process to err on the side of caution?”

“We have been using the technique for close to 10 years with not a single problem. Orbit Planet X has left the decision up to the astronauts. They have final say in if they go out un-tethered. We use other methods as well, but it is up to them. Yes you,” he pointed.

“Is there any chance of getting them back, have any of OPX satellites manage to catch site of them?

“We are doing a sweep formation looking for them. The moment they are found we will let everyone know.” He pointed.

“Did anyone on the ground get a photo of the spaceship?”

“Not that I know of. Next.” Pointing.

“Will OPX start practicing the more expensive protocol of doing repairs, with the shadow method.”

“I think we have a lot of things to discuss and make decisions on. We need learn as much as we can to determine future repair space walks. Right now, I’m mostly concerned with finding the men, to return them to their families. I think that’s all I have time for. We will have another news conference later today. Thank you,” he said the roar of the hungry media.

Now.