The Other Worlds

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. They also say time is real, and you can’t travel faster than light. Oh what little they know.

James heard the scream, clear as day, “help me James!” He looked about, and there was Joe, drifting away from the orbiting ship toward Europa. His tether was floating free, and his life pack with it. Somehow his tether was severed. James had to act fast, without the life pack, Joe’s air would soon run out. He grasped his own tether and stabilized himself against the saucer shaped ship, 30 meters long, and graphite colored, finding a handhold on the titanium loops that were used as steps and handholds when doing periodic maintenance. It was time to use the Tesla Handheld Independent Energy Frequency generator, or THIEF, for short. James recalled his training on the THIEF, “First, set the generator for Joe’s body frequency, to calibrate, and then set the opposite frequency to attract.” He gripped the generator tightly, and calibrated, then moments later the attracting frequency was found, and Joe was pulled steadily toward James. Joe looked at James with a look of relief, and said,” oh thank you James, thank goodness you were out here.” James didn’t hear him this time, only saw his mouth moving behind the helmet, and wondered how he had heard the scream minutes before. “We’ll figure that out later”, James told himself, “first we have to get into the safety of the ship.” With Joe holding tightly onto James’ tether, the two made their way to the hatch, and into the airlock.

With the door closed, air filled the airlock, and a green light lit up, indicating the air was good to breathe. Joe took off his helmet and gulped big breaths of oxygen rich air. James also took off his helmet, and said, “we’re safe.” “For now,” replied Joe, “what happened out there?” James replied, “I was hoping you could tell me. I heard you scream, though I’m not sure how, turned, and saw your tether and life pack floating free, and saw you drifting away, so I used the THIEF to pull you in.” “You say you heard me scream?”, Joe asked. “Yes,” replied James, “I heard you as clearly as I hear you now.” Joe was stunned, and didn’t reply at once. They took off their protective suits, and hung them in the sterilizer. Joe pressed the button to open the inner hatch saying, “Let’s go inside where it’s comfortable, and we’ll figure it out.”

Inside the main control room, they found their respective captain’s chairs, and sat down. James sat in the pilot’s chair, on the right, and Joe, in the copilot chair in the left, reminiscent of the aircraft of old earth. There were windows on four sides of the craft, and they could see the turquoise oceans of Europa, broken up by the the swaths of varying shades of green and brown land masses. This moon reminded them of their home, Earth. Jupiter loomed large behind them. They could also see stars lighting up the sky in every direction. “This calls for some rum,” said Joe as he poured two snifters. He handed one to James, picked up his and took a sip. “ Ahhh, this should help settle my nerves.” James nodded and took a sip. “ So you heard me?” asked Joe. And before James could answer he added, “I think it was forced telepathy, we’re evolving.” Joe continued, “I mentally projected to you on my last cry for help. I was thinking, you must hear me. I knew the radio was dead after you didn’t hear my first call, and without my life pack, I was helpless.” James pondered, took another sip of the rum, ran his fingers through his red hair. Scratching his head he said, “telepathy, I know other creatures can project words to be heard, but you did it too. Evolution out of necessity. So what do we put in the report for the bosses? How did your tether and life back get separated from you?” Joe took another sip of his rum. Looked out at Jupiter, and replied, “it felt like somebody grabbed me, and pulled the disconnect.” He stared out for a moment into the stars. “ since we’re the only two here on this mission, I thought it was you, but when I looked and saw how far away you were, I knew it couldn’t be you…. Somebody else is here.”