The light of the Sun began to gently pierce through the window of the International Space Station. Filling the white panels with a soft warm glow.
With a groaning yawn, Captain Jim Reynolds pushed off his bunk, floating gently towards the viewport.
“Ahhh another morning of this, it doesn’t get old.”
He reached for his camcorder, one of his chosen personal items he was allowed to bring. A favorite from his childhood in the 80’s, this thing had seen it all. He pressed the red button and left it floating in the window.
“No need for Tripods up here!”
Stretching his arms and arching his back he grunted achingly.
“Time for some space coffee!”
After being a solo astronaut for several days, Jim had settled into the comforting silence of the station. It let him think, plan and get creative with engineering ideas for when he returned to Earth.
Before starting his daily duties he took a deep meditative breath, watching the beams of sunlight slowly creep around the Earth. This morning ritual is the closest thing to an earthly experience he’d had in a while. With a peaceful breath outwards he grabbed a rail and turned towards the view port.
Reynolds subconsciously guided himself towards the mess, floating with precise grace through ports and tunnels. His morning routine was ingrained in him for a long 6 months now. He reached the kitchen and took a foil packet from one of the storage draws. With a crack of the spout he sipped the cold brew whilst reviewing his morning checklist.
He reached into his NASA issued overalls and plucked his holo glasses from his breast pocket. This was his interface into the ship computer, sensors, robots, scientific equipment, you name it and these things had it. The Hololens contained every piece of information he needed to know, not only for the mission but the whole encyclopedia of every piece of software, hardware specs and blueprints from the whole of human history.
The coolest part, which made Jim feel the excitement he missed from his youth as the 8th grade’s chief AV club enthusiast, is that he had the new top secret Beta prototype. Giving him a visual display of the ship's functions and status, as well as a heads up display and voice command! It also had the new feature to play movies, tv shows and a host playlists too, which really helped with the whole only man not on planet Earth thing.
Through the opaqueness of his hololens a small flash of purple caught his eye and glided across his holographic to-do list.
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Day 181 Task List:
* Service report on Falcon docking automation.
* Data servicing and relay from Osborne Observation tower to NASA. Time to window of communication via Starlinker Comms array: 1 hours, 34 minutes.
* Re-fuel silo 2 from Falcon supply.
* Final check of Falcon status and ready for return to Earth re-entry.
* Approve Falcon for return mission.
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With a shake of his head and a rub of his eye he continued his coffee and began the timer on his breakfast burrito.
The burritos up here were lacking any real likeness to ones he enjoyed at home, everything was foiled and vacuum sealed and he loved the smell and mess of a gravy dip from those game day burritos. But it did the job and he couldn't be too picky up here, after all he was on a mission to keep this place running and get it ready for the future for Human space exploration.
He bit into the slab of burrito and turned to a fresh area of the room to load up more features of the Hololens.
“Lens, open my personal email please.”
In a warm New Zealand accent a female voice spoke slowly and clearly.
“Morning Captain, you have 2 unread communications, would you like to view your messages?”
“Yup.” Jim spoke in a pleasant and smiling tone in his humble northern route dialect.
One of the new features of the Lens was direct ocular sensory input, allowing for users to have privacy in their audio communications.
“Sir, Would you like your message visually or audibly?”
“Visual!” He exclaimed, remembering his short phase of having Michael Cane as the voice and having changed his lens title to Batman.
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That was fun to start with but got a little awkward when he received one rather saucy email from his then girlfriend Amanda in the early days of his mission. Jim couldn’t get the idea of Alfred describing things he was longing for from Batman for several days after that.
“I told ya’ Lens, always Visual for personal messages.”
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Message from Luke Reynolds.
Hey bro!
Remember how you loved fixing up that Tractor when we were kids? I’m fixing it up again, I may have had a small issue doing some seeding last week and kinda crashed the thing a little.
I’m fine, don't worry, it was just a janky angle around the old oak tree. I’ll need your help with it when you get back, so hurry your arse up and get home.
We’re all missing you buddy.
Big love!
L
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Rubbing his temples Jim remembered the hours and hours he spent on that Tractor. Learning what each part did, how one change in the engine affected the balance of lift, torque, and pulling speed. He loved analysing the details of the machine. How materials from the engine were different sizes and weights and the journey of solving a problem. As a child It taught him to understand and accept that the real world wasn’t like Lego, that things can blow up and he’d have to do some serious reading to mend the old pile of junk.
“Poor Brenda” Exclaimed Jim.
With his head in his hands he breathed deep and muttered disheartenedly.
“He totally crashed her. He’s not telling me everything here. He crashed my damn Tractor again!”
“Next message Lens.” Jim spoke in a tone of loss and disbelief.
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Message from Dr Martin McClurr
J, I’m working on something here in Oxford and need your advice and assistance. Remember that thing we talked about in College? Well I’ve cracked it! I can detect it and there’s a huge amount in the US!
I need that idea you had around speculative resonant alloys. We need to collect some samples and study it.
Will explain all when we meet.
All the best,
Marty.
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Jim tried to remember what Marty was talking about. College was nearly 10 years ago now and they talked a lot about what the future of engineering and physics had in store. He did remember something about particles… and fundamental waves of reality.
He never had the brain to truly understand all that physics stuff properly, sure he understood that things are made up of other things, and that you can smash those things into other things and make new little things. Jim had the eye for parts and making stuff work. As long as he knew what he was working with, he’d get it moving. He was the Chief Engineer for a reason after all.
Heading towards the control room he sensed something odd. For a few minutes now he’d been feeling uneasy, and a sudden distaste for the burrito hit his soul, and his stomach.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck”
Reynolds knew he needed to immediately empty his bowels. Throwing the clipboard aside he rushed towards the toilet with an Olympic display of zero G parkour.
“I. am. not... shittin’... myself… in…Space.”
Zip, rustle, thwack and… SHHHLURP. The vacuum toilet activated and he winced in discomfort.
Naked from the waste down, with a suction tube around his butt he looked out of the viewport across from him.
“What the…. Hell is that.… what the fuck was in that Buritto! Am I seeing things?”
A faint purple light. Glowing lightly in a beam. Right outside of the viewport.
The light was odd, it was almost liquid in it’s movement but with the same piercing effect of the sun on a cloudy spring morning. It was moving fast too and didn’t look like it was struggling to escape from the planet’s atmosphere.
For a second the pillar of purple energy shot into the distance of space, rocking the space station, the light then settled and began to gently emanate and wash over the Earth.
Pulses, like waves from a central point, a beautiful Aurora of lights cascaded over the planet.
From just outside of the toilet sliding door a childish yet suspiciously wise British voice spoke
“Oooh that’s a pretty sight isn’t it… are you ready Jim?”
Reynolds’ head snapped forwards beyond the door, the voice triggering the final reserves of his bowels to violently empty.
“Right place at the right time I see.” giggled the boy.
“Wha wwhaaa, how, whattt the fuck are you?” A quivering Jim said.
The boy turned and floated directly in front of Jim. As he raised his arms in the air the room darkened, the boy’s voice turned into a deep, booming demonic taunt.
“I’m an alien from the planet JimShatHimself and I’m going to tell all your friendssss!”
With a snap, the room returned to normal and the boy rotated in the air and onto his back in a childish belly laugh. Slapping his thighs in glee.
Jim stared in silence… too shocked to muster any words.
“No need to be so scared Captain, I’m Dux, and I’m here because you are in a very special position in a very special moment in history.”
Dux crossed his legs, floated back to the same vertical angle and rotated in place as he ran his hands through his blue hair. He met Jim’s eyes with a deep stare.
The eyes of whatever this thing was, were filled with what looked like endless galaxies and Jim felt a wave of calmness pass through him, his anxiety and energy drifting away.
‘Now pull that thing off of your butt, get out here and watch the rest of the show, everything is about to change.”
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