Playback

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. So how can I hear that? Is it all in my head? What the hell? Ok, focus. Think! Breathe.

Main power to Jupiter 3 is offline, diverting backup to life support and comms. Command, Command, come in. This is Captain Nicholl, do you read me? Come in Command!

Command, I don’t know if you’re receiving me, but I’m alive. At least I think I am.

Situation here is, well, I’ll do my best.

Mission time 2309:43. I don’t remember going through the gate, must have blanked out. Arg, my Chest. Think I got whipped by the seatbelt, but other than that I’m ok. EMU seems to be intact.

All instruments on the control station are unresponsive. No way of knowing if the O2 in here is still good. Going to turn on the suit sensors. Yay! At least something is working. Kind of! Says I’ve got 45 minutes of oxygen remaining. I’m not detecting any leaks, must be a fault with the reading. No surprise there, seems that anything on electrical power during the flight has been corrupted.

Some form of gravity here, a little lighter than Earth.

I’m going to take a look through the viewing port. Standby.

Ooh. Command, Jupiter 3 appears to be floating in space. If that’s what you’d call it. It’s hard to explain what’s outside. Everything is black. No stars, no moon, no Earth. There’s a dim light some distance behind me, I can’t get a good look, but it could be the gate I passed through. Jupiter 3 is leaning heavy on the starboard bow and- wait a minute! We’re unstable. It just rolled a little. I think we’re on solid ground. It appears-

Hey! There is goes again! I can hear something outside. Faint. One hundred percent a noise, I’m not sure, but it could be a code, like Morse. Ra, Ra, Ra-ra, Ra….. Ra. It’s hard to hear from inside the module. Command, I’m going to do an EVA. We all know this was a one-way trip anyway and I didn’t come all this way to die not knowing.

Damn, EMU oxygen levels have dropped. Says I got 23 minutes. Got to be a faulty gauge. Command, I’m at the air lock. Sealed in. Green for go. Purging.

Woah! O2 from the module just vented. That’s a vacuum out there. Didn’t expect that! Suit maintained oxygen so EMU still has integrity. That’s a plus. Faulty sensor.

Command, opening exterior door. Door open. Lanyard attached. Stepping out.

Damn, I wish you could see this Command. Terrain seems a bit unstable. Spongy. When I step on it, it blasts out the brightest blue light around my feet, like phosphorescence. Ha! Reminds me of when I was a kid walking along the beach one night. The water around me was glowing, I thought it was magic. My dad told me it was copepods. Gee-whiz, I haven’t thought about that for so long. That was the moment I realised my passion for science.

Got an alarm here. O2 level warning. 10 minutes remaining. Seems to be dropping faster.

Command, I can hear a noise up ahead. It sounds like a, like a dog’s bark. How is all this possible? I’m in a vacuum, there should be no sound at all. What is this place? That noise has stopped. I’m going to investigate.

Bright blue light sparkles with every step. I can no longer see Jupiter 3; it’s disappeared in the darkness. The light from this torch doesn’t throw too far here, it seems to be absorbed into the blackness. Lanyard is at three and a half meters.

I see something. Hard to tell, torch just catching a bit of reflection. Must be only a couple of meters away. Approaching.

Ok, I see it. It’s the probe. Doesn’t look to be damaged. No power. Command, I’m going to hook into the probe’s secondary sensors to get a reading on my EMU, only take a minute.

Yeah, that’s not good. Command, EMU sensors are reading correctly. I don’t have much oxygen left. And…. aar, mission time, 2310:12. Looks like time has no place here either. Well, there’s one for the physicists.

Ahem, Command. I can see some fluid at the base of the probe. I know this is crazy, but it looks like a urine – Arrrrr!

Down boy, down! I’ve just been bowled over by a dog! Sit, sit. Ha ha ha, he’s trying to lick my face through the visor. Sit! Good boy.

Arrrr, my chest. Oh that hurts. Might have some broken ribs. Cough, cough. You heard that boy? You heard my scream? So you can hear it in a vacuum.

Ha, I know this dog. Where have I seen you before. Yes, of course, Luka? Liaka? Laika! Ah, the dog just barked. Laika? Ha, it’s like she knows what I’m saying. Command, this is Laika, the stray mongrel dog from the mean streets of Moscow. One of the first animals in space, and the first to orbit the earth. Well, I am indeed among the celestial gods.

Sit. Good girl. Command, this dog, it seems so real, but it hasn’t aged a day. When was that flight? 195-7. This, all this, it’s not science, it’s not real. It’s something else. Magical. What do they want?

O2 Alarm. Three minutes. Laika has no life support, I’m going to take my helmet off. Whoa, whoa, settle girl. Command, she does like that. Change of plan. I’m going to keep the helmet on.

She’s wagging her tail and barking. She seems excited. I think she wants to go somewhere. What is it girl, you want me to follow you? Command, she’s just run off into the darkness. I can’t see her, but her prints are lighting up. I’m detaching the lanyard and chasing after her.

Command, I don’t know if you can hear me. I’m with Laika. We’re at another gate. It appears smaller in size than the first, and I can see through it. It looks like a place on Earth, but not as I know it. It looks primitive. Wait! A large truck has just arrived. Big, heavy looking. Looks like an old combustion engine type, like the one my grandfather used to drive. Soldiers are jumping out of the truck. They’re taking up position, weapons aimed at the gate. I don’t know if they can see me. I can hear them. Russian. They’re speaking in Russian. I don’t know what they’re saying. I know a little, but they’re talking too fast.

Command, why would they send me here? What is it they’re trying to tell us? What is it they want me to do?

Laika is barking at me. What is it girl? No wait! She jumped through the gate. She’s on the other side. The soldiers, the soldiers have lowered their weapons. They look confused. Hold on, someone is getting out of the truck. He’s wearing a lab coat. A scientist? Laika is running to him. She seems excited. They know each other.

O2 level critical. Less than a minute and dropping quick. The gate, when I touch it, it hums. Someone just yelled out some orders. They know I’m here. The soldiers have their guns aimed. If I go through the gate I’ll be arrested, probed, tortured, or worst, they’ll shoot me dead as soon as I step out. But if I stay here, I run out of air and die alone in this cold empty space. Either way, I will have failed the millions upon millions of people who are praying and hoping for my success.

O2 almost out. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.