Dean's unfortunate encounter in space

In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing, when you look at the sky at night...You - only you - will have stars that can laugh.

He’d heard those words a hundred times before, but they never failed to make him smile regardless. This time was no exception. He smiled even harder. He’d found a new star! It had taken nearly an hour to track down and get here; he could hardly wait to tell his sister!

A sudden movement drew his attention back to Earth below him and he gasped. A spaceship was headed directly toward them. It wasn’t slowing down. Why wouldn’t this ship slow down? Surely the pilot knew they were there already. Was there someone on board?

There seemed to be nothing he could do about it – and so he let go. As soon as he hit the atmosphere, a feeling of exhilaration took hold of him.

They were flying through space! What did space feel like for a human? How fast must they fly? Would they catch the mysterious spaceship in seconds?

Suddenly, he felt his heart leap into his throat, and the ground fell away from beneath him. The ground hurtled up toward him until –

Everything stopped.

His heart sank further than it already was, then came right back to crush him again, only worse now. They weren't coming down after all! His stomach twisted uncomfortably as he struggled to breathe, to move. Nothing happened. He couldn’t see anything at all. Couldn’t hear anything. Was he dead? Was he dying? Had he fallen too far from where the spaceship had been headed to crash? He didn’t know what was going on, or why he couldn’t feel anything!

And the worst thing was, there was no way out.

The darkness around him grew ever darker as more and more light started to filter in through the hole he'd fallen through.

He hadn't been able to scream because of how tightly his lungs felt. No matter how much air he took in he still seemed trapped. There wasn't any air left in this hole, not even enough to fill the space he was in. If he tried, he might suffocate.

What had happened to the sky?

Why did the blackness feel so heavy and cold? It was like being buried under snow, but without the snowflakes. He couldn't breathe properly. Where was he going?

When his thoughts became clear enough, he realized his body ached terribly – everywhere, but especially behind his knees. The pain reminded him that he'd broken some bones, and there were bruises along his spine – some pretty deep ones, judging by how tight they still felt. His legs were also badly injured, though whether from falling out of the hole or hitting the ground, he couldn't guess.

As he lay helplessly in the dark, he thought he heard something.

A faint noise…something metal. Metal scraping over metal. What was that sound? Why would a spaceship need to scrape metal over itself? And why did it sound familiar? Something inside him began to stir.

It had to be some kind of spacecraft. There was no way a spaceship made that noise unless it was a real spaceship, which meant that this was probably a rescue ship. But what could they possibly want with him? He didn't understand. What was wrong with him?!

A few seconds passed and still no sounds continued. Maybe the person who'd rescued him hadn't seen him yet. Hopefully they wouldn't be too upset when they found him in a dark hole in space. He hoped that the person wouldn't just leave him here, alone, to die!

After waiting for several minutes and seeing no sign of anyone else coming, he started praying to himself. "Please, please, don't take me away from home! Please, Lord, make my parents forgive me!" He wasn't sure what good he would be to anybody in a spaceship, but he prayed anyway.

More silence. More time passed.

"Lord, help me. Please."

This time a faint noise sounded. At least it was a sound rather than a noise that had never come before.

The lights began to flicker, like a camera shutter slowly opening and closing. Then suddenly a bright orange light flashed across the whole place, flooding the hole he was lying in with light so intense he instinctively shielded his eyes. When he opened them again, his first thought was that he was looking at a spaceship, because he definitely remembered seeing one in the sky.

Except this wasn't one. This spaceship was big, much bigger than a normal spaceship – probably huge – and the entire side panel looked as if it had been carved out. He wondered if it had come straight from outer space, like a movie he'd once watched.

The strange alien in front of him wore a red jacket similar to the one he'd worn the day he saved his father's life. Instead of boots, he was wearing shiny silver high heels. He was short and stocky and bald. His eyes, despite having round glasses perched on top, were squinted against the glare of the sun.

The man in front of him was smiling broadly. "You okay?" he asked cheerily.

He nodded slowly. "Yeah," he said uncertainly. How had he got here? He remembered falling out of the hole and hitting his head, but he couldn't remember much else before that.

"So…" he said. "Who are you, exactly?"

The man chuckled. "My name is Doctor Jackson. I'm a scientist with the UNIT."

"The WHO?"

"United Nations Space Force. You must be a soldier."

He nodded. "Yes, sir. I'm part of the US Army."

Doctor Jackson grinned wider. "Great! Let's see if I know any of these names of yours!" He clapped his hands together loudly. "I've got to get back to my research. Come on, follow me!"

He led Dean through another doorway into what appeared to be a small room, lit by a large, glowing screen.

Dr. Jackson looked curiously at him. "Are you hungry? Are you tired? Hungry? Are you thirsty? Are you dirty?"

Dean shook his head. His mind was still trying to wrap itself around everything that had just happened. He wasn't really sure how to respond to the questions Dr. Jackson had posed. Was food what they were calling it nowadays? He supposed there should be something in here that tasted like real food. He just wasn't quite sure. "Do you know who I am?"

"Of course, you're Captain America!" He laughed loudly. "Come on, sit down!