The Shipmate

The Shipmate

How It Started

Being out in space can really make you think about your life choices, when I agreed to this mission I didn’t think that I would end up on an uninhabited planet with a creature helping me to survive until I can find a way home, but here I am. It all started the day my department was visited by the head people in charge of the company, they were looking for volunteers for a secret project that would soon be announced once they had everything in place. They were going around each department looking for people to participate in a series of tests, I was the last one they talked to and everyone else had already said they could not do it, it helps that I was the only one without a family. Both my parents were gone and I was an only child so I was the perfect candidate for the project, however, I still had to complete the test in order to be selected for the project. The tests were relatively easy to do but I was not the only one buzzing through them, there was a man from another department who was also having an easy time with them so I was really nervous about beating him.

When it was all said and done I came out second and lost to Bob from bio-engineering I was feeling a little down but I figured it was for the best so I put it out of my mind and got back to work, after a few days I forgot all the losing because work began to pick up. It wasn’t until I was called into the office of the head of the company who told me that Bob had to drop out of the program due to family issues, and being that I was second place I had been moved to the top of the list for candidates.

“Hello Pixie Jones, you have been selected to participate in a project of top-secret importance, Bob had to back out for unimportant reasons”, vague much.

“Wow, I had forgotten all about that, what do I have to do?”, I really did forget.

“We are looking for a new planet to start a new colony on and we want you to be the one to explore space to find that new planet”, yeah cause that has worked so well in the past.

“OK, so let me get this straight, you want me to go into space and find a new planet to colonize, even though last time we colonized a place we caused all kinds of issues”

“Let’s not get into a history lesson right now, just know that in two weeks you will be on a spaceship with five other individuals who will help you in your mission”, more people to add to the chaos.

“At-lease I will not be alone who are my shipmates anyway?”

“You will find all that out soon enough, just know that you have two weeks to get your affairs in order before the ship takes off so do what you need to do”, there is that vagueness again.

“Very well, is there anything else that I need to know about this mission?”

“Information will be given when needed, just know that this is a top-secret mission that can not get out for fear of other countries trying to beat us to it.

“You guys really are secretive aren’t you, it’s not like I’m going to tell anyone”

“This is just a precaution ma'am”, who is he calling ma’am.

“Drop the ma’am stuff, do I look like a ma’am to you?”

“Sorry ma’am, just a term of respect”

With that, I left and told my supervisor that I had to go home because I was not feeling well unsure if they knew or not and not wanting to accidentally say something I shouldn’t, when I got home I talked to my landlord and told him that I would be moving in two weeks. He asked if I would be paying rent for the month before I left, I told him that I would be paying but I would also be leaving my furniture behind because the place I was moving to had furniture. He didn’t care because he would just rent the apartment at a higher price because it was already furnished, I didn’t care because I would not be needing it where I was going. I spent the rest of the first week getting my affairs in order so that I could just spend the second week just packing clothes to donate because I knew that I would be mostly wearing what was given to me by the space team. All the big furniture would stay in the apartment and the rest would be sold and the money put into the bank account that I had a friend look after, I trusted that she would not steal from but at the same time, I had very little to steal.

The day finally came for the launch and I was very nervous about meeting the people I would be spending so much time with because I had not spent that much time with anyone, not even my parents given they died when I was young. A car was sent to get me from my apartment and I was instructed to leave my suitcase behind because I would not need it for this trip, I told them that I just wanted to bring a few items to make me more comfortable. In the end, I was able to bring a small bag of things with me, so I took the essentials having been told that feminine products would be provided for all female passengers so I didn’t need to bring that with me. I just packed a few books and an old-school portable DVD player with a few movies, I also packed a few dresses and some board games just for the fun of it, they were one of the first things I got when I went into the system. When I got to the launch site I finally saw who I would be living with for however long this would take and I was feeling a bit nervous luckily one of the women came up to talk to me.

“Hi, I’m Marjory Bright, from Black Brick Industries, R and D department, what about you?”

“Pixie Jones from Shadow Lane Inc, Bio Agriculture department, nice to meet another woman on this trip, my worst fear was being trapped on a ship with all men”

“That was funny, but also my worst fear too, it looks like it is an even number of both men and women on this trip so that’s good”

“Thank goodness for small miracles” Marjory let out a snort.

“Your funny, we should be great friends”, friends is something that I really did need.

Well since we are going to be on this long road trip why not make a few friends on the way”, she snorted again.

“Let’s go meet the others, they look really nice and friendly”, yeah but look can be deceiving.

We walked over to where the others had gathered and were talking to the people who were going to be monitoring the mission from ground control, I tried to hang back and let Marjory do all the talking since I was not a big talker to begin with. We met Andy King from Obsidian Corp he seemed friendly enough but there was something lurking just below the surface with him, I couldn’t quite put my finger on it but I got a feeling about this one. We also met Sandra Smith from Dark Star industries, her company used high-tech telescopes to look into space and were the ones who set out on this mission to find a new home for the people of earth. Then there was Rob White from Negatoro Inc, he got picked because no one in his whole company wanted to do it and he was the last person to say no so he was drafted into going, his look of apprehension did not make me feel good. Lastly, we met Phil Crankmen from Sunco corp, he seemed happy to be going, turns out that his ex-wife was trying to get more money out of him and if he isn’t on the planet then he won’t be able to pay her. Now that the pleasantries were out of the way, it was time to start the launch so we all has to climb into the ship so that the count down could begin and we could depart.

How It’s Going

The launch went just as expected there were no issues that we could see on the surface, by the time we notice something was wrong it was too late to turn back so we had to figure things out on the fly, the first thing to go wrong was the communications. At first, we just figure there was an adjustment period and we would have to fix it and keep it pushing, so that is what we did, however, nothing we did worked, and we were running out of tricks to try. Just as we were getting to the end of our rope with communication the fuel canisters started to leak, but we didn’t know that until a full week later, by the time that we found out a good third of the canisters were gone. We didn’t have enough fuel to get home so we were going to have to find a planet to land on soon so we could try to find something we could use as fuel to get back home. Everyone but Andy began to panic when we couldn’t find a place close by to land on, I found it odd that he was not freaking out but I let it go for the time being because we all had to figure out our next move.

“Ok people, we need to figure out what we are going to do about the situation at hand”, Rob was already starting to try to take charge.

“Who put you in charge of this mission?”, Sandra spoke up first.

“We need a leader and I nominate myself for the job”

“However, we don’t nominate you so step back sir”, she was ready to tell him off.

“Well we need to do something”

“Hey guys, let’s not fight, we are going to need to work together”, Marjory was trying to calm things down.

“Marjory is right, we need to work together if we are going to get back home”, Phil spoke up after Marjory.

“We are spending time on the wrong things right things, we should be working on a solution to the problems right now”, we needed to reign things in.

“Alright, people, let's just take some time to make sure everything else is still working before we tackle the major issues”, Andy was the last to speak.

With that little non-meeting over, we all went around the ship and made sure that all the other areas of the ship were working just as they should, I was in charge of making sure that the food was still good for consumption, luckily that was untouched. I had to check the agricultural pods to make sure that the food and regrowth supplies were still good to go; the pods were multipurpose, we grow the food that we from the pods so if that goes then we are screwed. It took me most of the day but I was able to check the entire agricultural pods, we also grow inorganic materials that we use for other things on the ship like bedding and clothing. Once I was done with my personal task I decided to find Marjory and help her with her task so we could get it done faster because the faster we got the ship to check done the faster we could worry about the real problems. The whole time we worked I told her about my suspicions of Andy and how I thought it was weird that he didn’t react when the communication to ground control didn’t work or fuel was gone.

“I just find it weird that he didn’t react at all”

“Maybe he was in shock, this is a major thing you know”, she was too sweet and trusting.

“We were all in shock, but we still had a reaction”

“I suppose you are right but let’s not jump to conclusions”, she was right and I hated it.

“I know you are right but I am still going to keep an eye on him just to be sure”, I’m not taking any chances.

“Well anyway, what are we going to do about the fuel problem we need it to get home and I didn’t see any nearby planets that looked like they were hospitable”

“I know right, what are we going to do if we can’t find a place to land?”

“There are always the escape pods but those are only for emergencies”, and they only fit two people at a time.

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, now let’s get back to work”, Marjory was such a cheerful person.

We worked for the rest of the day talking and joking, she told me about her life back on earth and how she was moving up in her company quickly but took the spot on this team because she wanted to explore the universe and see what was out there. She was a huge sci-fi romance fan so she was secretly hoping that where ever we land there were humanoid aliens that she could get to know, I was right there with her but I was not going to tell her that. I told her about my life back on earth and how I was the alternate to another guy that was supposed to be going but backed out at the last minute, she was sympathetic when I mentioned my parents. Turns out that she had just gone through the same thing before the mission was announced, I felt for her and this made our friendship even stronger; we talked the whole time we worked and really got to know each other.

The next day I was ready to get back to the grind of working on the ship and trying to fix the rapidly growing problems that would cause so much tension between the crew, I still had my suspicions of Andy but I was willing to put them aside from the betterment of the ship and the crew. That is until I saw something that made me rethink everything that I thought I knew about everything; I was heading to the control room when I saw Andy heading into a storage closet. I know that may not seem strange but the door was locked and he didn’t even open the door, he just fazed through the door like it wasn’t even there, at first I thought I was seeing things. I tried to let it go because I could be going a bit stir crazy, I put it out of my mind and kept on going with my day, but then I saw something else that made me question my sanity and make me take a closer look at Andy. I went to his room to ask him about something and I saw him with one of the fuel tanks, he was drinking the contents; I always thought it was weird that he didn’t eat with us but I just figured he like to eat in his room. It was time to get some answers about who or what Andy was because I didn’t want to put the other crew members at risk if he was going to be hostile I would rather he deal with me than with all of us.

How It’s Still Going

“OK, what the fuck is going on?", At first I thought I was just going stir crazy but now I know I am going crazy, are you drinking the fuel?”, that was the last thing I remember before everything went dark. When I woke up I was in the sickbay strapped to a bed, Andy was sitting next to me with a concerned look on his face that I thought was fake as hell given he was the one who most likely strapped me to the bed. The memory of watching him drinking the fuel started to come back to me and tried to get up but quickly remembered that I was strapped to a bed; I tried to scream but nothing was coming out of my mouth, when I looked over at him he just sat there with a straight face like he knew I would try to scream for help.

“Scream all you like but no sound will come out unless I choose to let it come out, so if you will please calm down I will give you your voice back”, I had no choice but to calm myself down or continue to be strapped to this chair trying to scream my head off. I lay back on the bed and just looked at him with anger in my eyes; after what felt like hours he finally gave me my voice back and I was able to say one word.

“Why”, straight to the point.

“I needed the fuel to recharge my body, I will unstrap you if you do not try to run out of the room”, I nodded my head knowing I would run the second I was out of the bed. I got up from the bed and tried to make it to the control room to warn everyone but when I went through the control room door I was back in the sick bay. I ran out again and tried every room in the place but every time I went through the door I was back in the sick bay; Andy just watched me do this for a full 20 minutes knowing I would just end up in the same place. “Are you done with the theatrics cause we need to talk about a few things”, how could I talk about anything after this whole thing but it was time to get a few things straight.

“Are you serious, where are we and why do I keep ending up back here?”

“We are in mindscape right now, I pulled it from my mind so that we could talk alone”

“There is a lot to talk about, like how you were eating the fuel”

“I needed the fuel to recharge my body, I was going to find a way replace what I ate once we got to a new planet”, a likely story.

“But what about the communication to ground control, you were not freaked out when it stopped working, why?”

“Because I was the one who cut it off, I was going to turn it back on when we got to where we were going”

“But you didn’t know how long that was going to take and we need to talk to mission control for everything”

“I didn’t think about that but also I need to find my way home, so until then I will have to keep you in here until I do what I need to do”

“You can’t leave me here, the others will start to notice that I’m not there”, he can’t be serious.

“When you passed out I told everyone about it and your body was taken to the actual sickbay so no one is going to say a thing”, he really was going to leave me here.

I spent the next few weeks in this mindscape waiting for the entity known as Andy to come back to let me out but every time he came he just told me about what was going on with the crew, like how Marjory would sit by my bed and read to me from her favorite book. He also told me that two of the crew members were sneaking off to hook up when they thought no one was looking, I knew that sooner or later Sandra and Rob would hook up, they had crazy sexual tension. He would come by once a week to give me a recap and every time I would ask him to let me out but he would just leave without saying anything else to me. Finally, after the sixth week of being in this fake coma, he came to talk to me about what was going on out there and told me that we could not find a place to land to find more fuel for the ship, there were talks of using the escape pods to get back home.

“You know if they do this you will be stuck on this ship alone right”

“Yes I know this, but I can adapt to any environment so I think that I will be OK”

“How are you going to explain staying behind to the rest of the crew?”

“I am going to break one of the pods and then fix it when everyone is gone, which is why I need to ask you a favor”

“Why would I help you, you are keeping me in this fake coma”, he must have lost his damn mind.

“Because you don’t really want to go back home”

“You don’t know that, I could want to go home just like everyone else”

“But I do know, I can read your mind and I know that you secretly want to find a new place so you don’t have to go back to earth”

“That doesn’t mean that I want to be stuck here with you”, I don’t trust him like that.

“I am going to convince the rest of the crew to go without us and that I will take care of you until we get back home”

He left without saying another word and I was left to try to figure out my escape from the coma, I noticed that every time he left he would walk through the sick bay door and disappear, I tried it after he left the first time but nothing happened. I knew there was something about it but I was not sure so I took a closer look at it and noticed that there was a crack in the space between the door and the frame, I grabbed a scalpel and started to pick at the door frame until there was a crack big enough for me to go through. I woke up on the bed but I was not strapped to it, I ran to the command room to look for everyone to warn them but they were not there, then I remembered to escape pods and went for there next and just as I got there the last pod was taking off. I screamed after them but they did not hear me and kept on going, when I saw the pod leaving I just broke down and cried, I ran to my room and just stayed there until Andy came to check on me. I refused to talk to him because he trapped me with him on this ship, I was not going to talk to him out of anger, however, you get lonely fast and I needed someone to talk so I had no choice but to talk to him.

This is my story of how I got stranded on a planet with this alien who is helping me to find a way to get back home, once everyone was gone the pod we were in deployed and we ended up on a desolate planet. We were able to tow the ship with us so I was able to keep the agricultural pods in-tacked so had food to eat.

The end