Purple Planet

“Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say”. This annoyingly common joke among the astronauts I was forced to work with was, in fact, problematic for several reasons. Just to reenforce my reputation and keep anyone from getting friendly with me, I liked to remind anyone who said this that space isn’t technically a vacuum. It’s almost a vacuum. Of course, this is also vaguely deceptive, and if this comment didn’t immediately shut down any attempt to socialize with me, I was happy to go into detail about how space is mostly void of matter, meaning that a particular point in space could be considered a vacuum, and that any said point would immediately no longer be a vacuum if you were to enter it and listen for screams.

Now, I’m not stupid – far from it. It’s not that I don’t get the joke. It’s just that it’s a stupid joke.

Especially considering the context it was used in, as the group prepared for and departed on a deep space mission, teasing each other in a light-heartedly threatening or – usually – sexually suggestive implication. Despite the fact that, obviously, the inside of the ship was not a vacuum, and we could all hear screams just fine. Some highly optimistic mission commander had initiated a rule prohibiting sexual relations among the crew, which was obviously ignored, but I did wish some of my crewmates had a greater sense of privacy.

Also, side note, I really truly think it would have been best for everyone to keep it in their pants for five years. We would be cryogenically frozen for more than four of those years, anyway, and the rest of the time we have more important things to worry about than the incessant relationship drama.

Not to mention the bet I had become recently aware of in which the payout would go to whomever could “break” me of my celibacy first. As if I’ve been painstakingly practicing the art of abstinence for virtue’s sake. Because who could possibly go two and a half years (two and a half months, if you didn’t count the frozen part) without sex?

Only me, apparently.

I was abnormally short, especially for a male, and while I wasn’t a stick, I wasn’t exactly bulky. I had dark curly hair that I liked to keep grown longer than regulation typically allowed, the better to hide behind, and bright blue and green heterochromatic eyes that I put to use making people uncomfortable.

I hate people. I always have. It’s why I decided to be an astronaut, so I could get as far away from everyone as possible. It’s also why, when a decorated military general introduced this mission for the newly developed Space Force, I scrambled to sign up before his explanation was finished. So, it was my own fault I was here, really. I had no reason to assume that this mission meant a tiny, cramped capsule shooting me alone into the cosmos, and I hate assuming almost as much as I hate people, but I assumed anyway.

So, it wasn’t necessarily a “surprise” to learn that I had been selected to be a part of a 9-person crew, but it was a pretty big letdown.

I was mostly involved in chemical analysis, which meant that I would be responsible for the main purpose of the mission. This meant that during our travels, Captain Landon Blake was in charge with his first officer Lt. Lina Jun directly under him, delegating tasks and handling all decision making, and I was mostly able to keep to myself. Once we landed on the new planet, I would be put in a position of higher authority. I already had the authority to override the captain’s commands in an emergency situation involving the life-support systems, but I had no reason to expect such an occurrence.

On the planet, it would be the opposite. The crew would be at my disposal to gather samples and assist with the analysis thereof, and required my approval before taking any action that might pose a safety risk, but the captain had the authority to override my commands in an emergency.

The mission was fairly straightforward; a probe had picked up signs of life on this planet a few decades back, and more recently, radio signals had been picked up, so this was the selected destination for the maiden voyage of the first deep space capable ship. A starship, technically, as this planet orbited a different star system than ours.

The planet was about the size of Mars and had two small natural satellites, one moon and one oddly shaped object with an inconsistent orbit labeled an asteroid. It orbited a white sun, within the habitable zone, and the rotation gave it a 27-hour day cycle. A slight tilt to the axis could potentially cause seasons, although the atmosphere has shown minimal activity which could indicate mild weather patterns. The planet had both water and an atmosphere, and the probe picked up faint biosignatures – to be clear, the capabilities of the probe were limited, so “faint” almost certainly meant either a significant amount of organisms, or at least one organism of significant size. Most likely, this meant a buildup of microorganisms, but that didn’t stop his crewmates from spinning fantastical suppositions about intelligent aliens.

As it was, interstellar travel was expensive and dangerous, so it was imperative that we make this trip count. I am tasked with collecting samples of as many things as possible; the atmosphere, the soil, and any living things we come across. The ship contained a shuttle that could make multiple trips to and from the surface. One of my crewmates was responsible for analyzing the surface of the planet for safe places to land the shuttle so we can cover as much surface area as possible. With the samples I collect, we can determine if the planet, or a portion of the planet, is safe for human settlement.

The planet was visible through the viewport for several days before we got into orbit. The atmosphere caused a purple glow as the sun shone through it, and as they grew closer, we could see cloud formations forming over the surface, and soon were able to see bodies of water and land masses. Cynical as I tend to be, the sight was breathtaking, and I took just as much pleasure as my crewmates in staring out the view port into the cosmos.

The crew was jittery with excitement as we made the final adjustments to begin orbiting the planet, and we again crowded around the view ports to examine the surface of the planet even as the scanners began making their initial analysis. Some of the surface was covered in various shades of green, and the crew speculated what kind of plant life we might find.

“It might not be vegetation,” I countered pessimistically. “It could be algae, or fungus. The green hue may even be an illusion.”

Jade, our navigator, gave me a withering stare and sighed heavily. “It’s really not necessary for you to be a constant downer.”

I put my hands up placatingly. “I just don’t want you to be disappointed if we land and it’s a barren wasteland.”

“Excuse us for trying to enjoy ourselves,” Marco snapped at me.

I huffed and pushed away from the view port. I had been obsessively preparing the supplies needed for collecting samples, and I knew they were already packed into the shuttle and accounted for, but with nothing else to do, I went to check them over again. As soon as the orbit was stable, Heather and I would go over the results of the surface scan to select a location for their first landing. Earlier than I expected, however, everyone was called to the lab for a meeting.

I rushed to the lab, anxiety rising in my chest that the scan had shown hostile environments, or nowhere safe to land. By the time he got there, Heather was enthusiastically chattering about her findings, but I couldn’t tell if it was good news or bad news. Once the crew was all present, she presented her findings.

“This planet is incredible – there’s at least four distinct biomes, with both plant and animal life, but that’s not what’s the most incredible. Look here.”

She pulled up a graph on the screen, which I could see was results of electromagnetic radiation – much higher than what was expected for such a small planet.

“At first, I thought this was an indication of a surplus of minerals, but see these patterns? There are mineral deposits detected in various places around the planet, and then a sudden spike in a very localized place, where the radiation is coming in rhythmic burst, almost like a radio signal. This must be what was picked up by the probe.”

The captain moved forward to look more closely at the graphs, and I also moved to see them better, not sure if the captain even knew what he was looking at. The readings did indicate an improbably strong electromagnetic signal, something that was unlikely to be naturally caused. The surface of the Earth was littered with spots like this, indications of man-made broadcasting stations like, as Heather suggested, a radio tower. It was far too strong to be any sort of static electricity, and the rhythmic pattern makes that unlikely, anyway.

“Aliens,” Marco said with certainty.

Heads turned to look at me, ready for my pessimistic view, but I was stumped. “If not living aliens, then something left by them. It’s just in this one spot, I think it’s highly unlikely whatever it is was created by the inhabitants of this planet, so this was probably sent from another planet to investigate this one, just like we are. A probe, probably, like we used to send to Mars, if not a ship.”

“Seriously?” Jade scoffed in disbelief. “Suddenly you believe in aliens?”

“I never didn’t,” I sneered at him, “I just base my speculations on evidence instead of fantasy.”

“Can you get us any more specific information about this phenomenon?” the captain asked Heather.

“Not with our ship’s scanners,” she replied. “We’ve orbited the planet four times, coming up on five, so I can tell you that the readings are consistent, but we’ll have to go down there to see any more.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” I asked, excitement taking over. I wormed my way past the captain and took my seat next to Heather’s. “Let’s see where we can land close to that thing and start plotting the course.”

“Whatever this thing is could be hostile,” the captain interrupted.

I scowled at him, itching to take command and start my experiments. While I had no interest in leadership, I was practically vibrating with excitement to get down there and take samples of anything and everything I could get my hands on. It was an opportunity of a millennium; sampling and analyzing the first life found on another planet, exploring an entirely new world – I could hardly wait. The last thing I needed was for Captain Kirk to take away my mission before it had even started.

“Jade, Marco, Lina, and I will go down first, and assess the situation. If it’s determined to be unsafe, we’ll have to cancel the mission, and report back to Earth with our findings.”

“I’m going, too,” I insisted. I was suddenly overcome with a feeling of terror that I had come all this way and wouldn’t even be allowed to step foot on the planet. I’d been training for years, and I’d been stuck on this ship for so long I was going stir-crazy. “I can take the handheld reader; it will give us some more information without having to take samples back to the ship.”

“You’re not security trained,” the captain argued.

Heather spoke up in my defense. “There’s so much we don’t know about this, it’s likely you won’t even know what you’re looking at when you get there. You wouldn’t be able to properly assess the situation without the readings the handheld could provide.”

“Teach Jade or Marco,” the captain suggested, though I could tell even he thought it was a weak argument.

“The analysis of those readings take years to comprehend, that’s why Alex was chosen for this job despite his lack of astronaut training. He and I are the only ones who could understand the readings, and I doubt even I could provide any useful input.”

The captain rubbed his chin consideringly. I bit down on my lower lip to stop myself from rolling my eyes; he loved to do this, where he would look contemplative and then go around and ask the crew their opinions before making his decision. It showed good leadership to listen to his crew; after all, each crewmember had expertise in a different area, and it was the captain’s job to take all perspectives into consideration and come to a decision. The problem was, he always went with his original plan. I could be wrong, but it just seemed to me that it was all a show.

This time, however, I was astonished when, even after hearing from the other crewmembers that it wasn’t a good idea to include me, he relented.

“We’ll bring you down so you can analyze the readings,” he told me with a stern look. “You stay behind us and follow my every order. At any sign of danger, you get back to the shuttle, is that clear?”

“Yes, sir,” I agreed sincerely. If they wanted to risk their lives to protect me, that was more than fine with me, as long as I got to see the planet.

Lt. Jun gave me a glare before she and the rest of the crew turned to leave the lab, except Heather, who turned back to her console to start mapping out the shuttle’s course.

“Thanks, for that,” I said quietly to her. I was always a little unsure how to act around Heather; she was much nicer to me than the rest of the crew, and I liked her much better than them. Which was good for me, because she was the one I had to work with the most. But I was used to being around people that I didn’t like and that didn’t like me. It was easy to fill that role of indifference and pessimism. I was much less sure how to act around someone that I didn’t want to be a jerk to.

“Hey, if I wasn’t scared out of my mind, I would be fighting to go down there, too,” she admitted with a small laugh. “I’m just as excited as you are to see the plants and animals of another world. But if there’s actual aliens down there, like intelligent, little-green-men aliens . . . it probably wasn’t a good idea for my going-away party to be three nights of the scariest alien-themed horror movies.”

I looked at her incredulously. “You watched alien horror movies before embarking on a five-year deep space mission to a new planet with signs of life?”

She shrugged. “I guess my friends thought it would be funny. I did, too – I’ve always loved that stuff, anyway. It’s never scared me before. It’s just . . . a bit different now, wouldn’t you say?”

“Yeah,” I agreed, and we shared a laugh, even though I did not agree. Maybe there was something wrong with me, but I didn’t care if we were about to be murdered by xenomorphs; I just wanted to see it. I wanted to experience everything I could, see everything, study everything. I couldn’t imagine sitting up in this ship listening to radio relays of the events on the planet, without being there.

Soon after plotting the course, I and the rest of the away team began preparing for departure, suiting up in the space suits that would protect them from the radiation and atmosphere on the planet. The captain and the others grabbed a small arsenal of weapons, which I thought was a bad idea, but hey, what if there were xenomorphs? I grabbed a handheld reader and a backup just in case, as well as a small pack of sample collecting tools, despite the captain assuring me that this was just a preliminary reconnaissance mission and that if it was deemed safe, I would have plenty of time for that on a later trip. I insisted that being prepared for more in-depth analysis was necessary to give the all-clear.

We strapped into the shuttle and set off, gradually approaching the surface of the planet as they reduced speed. The shuttle had only one window in the front, where Marco, the pilot, could make small adjustments if anything unexpected appeared. I couldn’t see out the window from my seat against the wall, but Marco and Captain Blake made several comments about the beauty of the planet.

The suits we wore were equipped with high-powered radios that transmitted everything we said to each other and to the ship, where the rest of the crew was monitoring. I would need to be careful not to accidentally swear under my breath.

I started to get antsy as I listened to their comments about the planet, eager to land and see for myself. The conversation shifted slightly as Marco mentioned that he was having trouble slowing down in the thin atmosphere, and the shuttle jolted as they attempted to correct the course.

“Hang tight back there, it’s going to be a rough landing,” Captain Blake warned shortly before we made impact with the surface. Coming to a full stop, Marco and the captain commented on possible damage to the shuttle, but it was sturdy by design and was unlikely to have suffered any debilitating damage.

The crew remained strapped in their seats as the captain took the first steps onto the new planet. There was a sense of reverence among the crew, both on the shuttle and in the ship, as this momentous occasion was recorded by the cameras on their suits and on the shuttle. I tried not to let my annoyance show on my face. I understood that this was a big deal, but Captain Blake was not the first person to step foot on another planet – not even the first to step on a planet outside of our solar system. All of this showmanship was a tad overdramatic, in my opinion. There was still a significant chance that the environment would be too hostile to allow for continued research, let alone human colonization.

Also, not to be too prideful, but the research we were there to collect was much more important than achieving a new milestone for the progress of humanity. The battle for technology to combat Earth’s dwindling resources as well as human overpopulation was becoming more and more urgent, and colonizing other planets was widely considered to be the only permanent solution.

If our research concluded that this planet was not fit for human life, the news would be devastating across the globe. The readings so far were not promising. While the rest of the crew seemed to be ecstatic, I was not impressed by the readings. Results claiming a “breathable” atmosphere, “signs” of life, “survivable” levels of radiation, made it easy to hope for a paradise akin to pre-industrial Earth, I knew that there were plenty of conditions that fit this description that were not actually safe. Even on Earth, there was a dramatic spectrum of environments, some of which were not able to support human life, at least not without expensive and fragile equipment.

I doubted we would be able to run around freely without our protective space suits for the rest of our life spans, but I hoped this planet could provide a kind of port, a pit stop where starships could resupply and make repairs before continuing on to farther worlds.

My attention snapped back to the captain as he finished whatever speech I had been ignoring, and called for the rest of the crew to disembark.

Despite my eagerness, I waited patiently to follow the rest of the crew as I had been instructed. They exited single-file, each person stepping onto the new world and slowly taking in the scene, taking only a few steps before stopping to gape at the view.

When I finally exited the ship, it was more gorgeous than I had ever imagined . . . which was good, because I was a little worried it would look like Mars or the moon – monochrome dust and rocks and an uneventful sky.

We had arrived on a part of the planet that was approaching sundown. The atmosphere here was much thinner than on Earth, so we could see stars scattered across the purplish sky even as well lit as it was. The sun was setting in front of the ship and appeared much larger, and while Earth’s white sun had a yellow hue seen through the atmosphere, the sun here had a more blueish tone. As I knew from previous scans of the planet, several elements found in this atmosphere caused a faint reddish-purple color to the sky in the daytime instead of Earth’s bright blue.

Beneath the incredible sky, the planet was dull in comparison. The shuttle had landed on a flat plain, slightly elevated and covered in large boulders. Beyond the drop off a few meters ahead of them was an expansive stretch of dry, cracked dirt, a dried-up lakebed if I’m not mistaken. I immediately wondered if the dark bluish-gray dirt was hiding fossil records of creatures that might have been in the lake.

For a moment, I scolded myself for fantasizing, but I decided to let it slide because all of these stunning sights were just added bonuses on top of the one discovery that I had been hoping for but not expecting:

Grass.

Or rather, something similar to grass. Tufts of a long, thin, green plant were scattered around the elevated area they were perched upon. It was so vastly different from the surrounding dirt and rocks that there was no question it was a living, complex organism – several of them, it seemed, unless they were connected to a single entity beneath the surface like mushrooms on Earth. Their green color hinted at photosynthesis capabilities, but green was a common color in nature on Earth regardless. While the rest of the crew explored the small area, for a moment letting their guard down to take it all in, I pulled out my sample-collecting pack.

First, I gently poked the creature with the tip of my scalpel to see if it reacted – hey, it could be sentient, and it wasn’t cool to go around cutting off pieces of something that could feel pain. The thing did not show any sign of reaction or independent movement, so I carefully sliced off a sizable piece and put it in a vial, securing it tightly. I thought about digging down through the dirt to get a sample of the roots or whatever was holding it to the ground, but I was interrupted.

“Hey, Alex,” Lt. Jun barked at me harshly.

“You can call me Dr. Matthews, if you want,” I responded icily – of all the crew, I did not think she and I were on a first name basis.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she continued. “We are not here to collect samples. Get out your reader and locate the source of the radio signals.

I huffed in annoyance, but she was right. There was plenty to see on the reader. That wasn’t quite her point, but still, it served my purpose.

Starting up the reader, I glanced briefly at the first readings that came available; an in-depth analysis of the atmosphere, nothing surprising but a bit more specific than what we could see from space, and radiation levels. UV levels were concerningly high, but nothing serious. This planet lacked the ozone layer that protected Earth from the majority of the sun’s harmful radiation, so levels were bound to be higher. Still, it seemed that a person could survive without their protective suits for considerable time before risking serious harm.

I pulled up the electromagnetic readings and quickly found the signal Heather was looking at on the ship. The source appeared to be close by, and I was able to pinpoint a direction.

“It looks like it’s coming from the lakebed,” I said as I pointed to the direction, out toward the sunset and to the right.

“Lakebed?” Marco asked skeptically.

I blushed, embarrassed for revealing my educated guess without checking to make sure it was accurate first.

“What might be a lakebed,” I corrected myself bashfully. “Perhaps something under the surface is causing the emissions.”

“Let’s get a closer look,” the captain declared, and the crew began carefully making their way down to the flat, possible lakebed.

We hiked across the plain for nearly thirty minutes, the shuttle shrinking out of view behind us. Lt. Jun, Marco, and the captain each held a gun, walking around in odd patterns so they could get a 360 view to lookout for danger – which was weird, because there was miles of completely flat nothingness with a few small rocks here and there in every direction, but what did I know about military procedures?

I mostly kept my head down, focusing on my reader to ensure that we were heading in the right direction, but in a moment that I happened to glance up, I froze, suddenly struck with a shockwave of terror.

“Uh, do you see that?” I asked timidly. The fear ebbed away, and I felt silly for being so frightened.

“It looks like . . . lights,” Captain Obvious observed pensively. “Could be a reflection.”

“It moved,” I told them urgently. In that moment that I happened to look up, I had seen a collection of small lights in the distance, and a shadow had made a broad, deliberate movement. Suddenly, I understood why Heather was scared to come down here.

My three escorts raised their weapons and closed in around me, but we were too far to see anything, so we continued moving forward cautiously.

Before long, the figures of light and shadow began to take shape. Stepping on this planet was one thing, but what we came across was very probably the greatest discovery in human history. It appeared to be a large mechanical device in disrepair, burn scorches and bent metal over most of the frame that sat in a shallow crater of disturbed earth (does it count as earth if it’s not from Earth?). The lights were not from reflections, but from the device itself, apparently still in some working order. All in all, it looked like a spaceship crash from an old sci-fi movie. It was clearly not something Earth-made, so all four of us immediately knew that some form of intelligent extraterrestrial life must have left this here.

I froze on the spot as I thought of the movement I had seen, starting to shake in my suit and wishing for the first time in my life that I had something to defend myself, especially when my personal guards started to move away from me, crouching down and taking aim as they tried to surround the threat. Everyone was silent, and the sound of my hearth pounding in my ears was so deafening I worried that I wouldn’t be able to hear if the captain or someone said something to me.

Suddenly, like a cat hearing a noise, four heads popped around the wreckage to stare directly at us.

I heard a very high-pitched squeak, not recognizing for a moment that it was me screaming. Lt. Jun and Marco stood to their full heights and aimed their weapons, but the captain held a hand up to them to hold their fire.

We were still some distance away, watching as the four creatures cautiously came around their crashed ship, and started coming toward us.

This alien crew appeared to be humanoid, with pale blue skin and white hair. Their eyes glowed like a cat’s although the light was coming from behind them, and they were wearing protective uniforms and had something holstered to their hips. They had no helmet or anything protecting their heads. One out of the three of them had a figure and features similar to a human female’s, while the other three looked more traditionally masculine, but I wasn’t about to make any assumptions about their biology.

The four of them looked just as wary as we were, but not afraid. Either they didn’t know what my crewmates were pointing at them, or they knew that we were not hostile. We continued coming closer together, my crewmates closing around me once again. Eventually, when we were only a few meters away, the captain signaled for us to stop, and continued forward alone. The feminine-looking one continued forward to greet the captain.

“My name is Captain Landon Blake, of the ISS Sunrise, representing the planet Earth. We come in peace.”