He woke up as early as usual, at 6 a.m, in his small, cold steel room.
White walls, white sheets, and white artificial light.
Shower, breakfast, then put on the spacesuit.
First thing in the morning, go outside, travel to the trees of eternity, and collect the silver pears. They've tasted heavenly and that's what indefinitely prolonged his lifespan.
As he arrived on the spot, there they were, gray insects size of a badger, camouflaging between moonstones and nibbling on roots.
The Astronaut equipped his drill-spear and moved to fight the pests. The rotating tip of his titanium weapon was excellent at piercing shells of those tough creatures. Green blood oozed out on his boots, his gloves were quickly covered in slimy mess.
One by one. Hour by hour. Until he was done.
After the task, tired, the Astronaut sat on a moonstone and stared at the silver leaves that swayed in the astral wind. Glistening dust settled on the leaves, illuminating the miniature garden with the reflected light of far stars.
"It's always as beautiful as the first day." - The astronaut uttered as he moved from the stone, back to work. On his belt, was a laser cutter, which was used to remove shells of dead creatures.
The astronaut collected the fruits in the acquired carapaces and slowly walked home.
He looked at the sky, to his upper left was a large pink planet in the shape of a heart, it was leisurely spinning in a very irregular manner. The large celestial body was surrounded by black-and-white asteroids in the shape of arrows.
"I always wonder If anything lives there." - The Astronaut smiled.
Two hundred steps and he was back in the airlock. Equalizing the pressure. Decontamination. He only had to input new variables to the defensive protocols.
"Tuesday. Today, the whole moon will drown." - Astronaut reminded himself as he tapped his helmet with an index finger. - "What color was the rain yesterday? I think it was green. G-R-E-E-N, it is."
The lock gate opened.
The Astronaut moved shells and pears to the kitchen, and put them on the table. Next, he took a large grinding device from the top of the fridge and turned shells into a fine dust. He took the dust, then moved to one of the botanic chambers and sprinkled the substance onto small sprouts in flowerpots.
"Thousand more years... and our garden will get pretty little friends."
The astronaut lightly tapped his helmet on both sides, as If he was gently slapping his cheeks.
"Back to work! Eggs!"
The astronaut moved back to the kitchen, then opened an airlock to another, long and narrow corridor. It had about five kilometers, but the conveyor belt was placed instead of the floor, so the Astronaut didn't have to walk. The sides of the corridor were made of glass, so the astronaut could admire the somehow barren, rocky landscape.
It started raining, the rain was green, as the Astronaut predicted. A few round stones outside started moving, and snails emerged from underneath. It was their time to feed. Some were colossal, size of skyscrapers, others were as small as cherries and glued themselves to the windows.
Astronaut's fingertips gently touched the glass. - "I wish we could meet outside, but we both know that this dream is still impossible... but perhaps one day."
The Astronaut arrived at his destination, which was a large dome akin to a greenhouse. Inside, was a single trunk of a white tree, with green leaves, growing parallel to the floor. Surrounding it, was white wheat, white sunflowers, and white shrubs in outer areas. Between the plants, were a few beehouses.
On top of the tree, in its crown, a white peacock was sleeping. In the wheat lived purple ladybugs as large as a turtle, and in the flowers, silver butterflies and yellow bees were drinking nectar.
The astronaut approached a single bench where he sat down, then pushed a few buttons on a device on his wrist. A steel hatch opened at the top, revealing a vent blocked by steel grating and snow began falling inside the dome, and melted as soon as it touched any surface. Soon, small puddles would form and a tiny pond was created around the tree.
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The peacock opened its eyes, then shook off cold snowflakes from his wings. It majestically traveled down the tree trunk, to quench its thirst after a long sleep.
The astronaut got back on his feet, then approached a peacock and fondled its neck caringly. - "As usually, thanks for the eggs."
He looked up the tree, there were three of them. All bright and yellow.
The astronaut took the eggs, then collected the honey and moved back to the conveyor belt.
Everything was now under green water, including the snail shells, which were like rolling spiral meteors, stuck in time.
"See you tomorrow, snails." - The astronaut waved and smiled as he passed, until he was back in the kitchen.
"Now, I only need cream!" - He exclaimed in an excited voice, put ingredients on the table, then opened a lid under his feet and went down the ladder, through a vertical tunnel, at some point also made out of glass.
The tunnel led to the bottom of a large cavern, where stalactites and stalagmites were placed all around, with spiderwebs between them.
In the middle of the cave, between the ceiling and the ground, floated small ghost-shaped creatures with glowing turquoise eyes and fairylike wings, their small bodies emitted a dim moonlike light.
The Astronaut's feet landed and submerged in a thick layer of cream substance.
Splat, splat, could be heard as the astronaut walked. He took out a jug and filled it up with the cream.
As he did so, an eight-eyed creature approached him from the front.
"Hello, Opal." -The astronaut welcomed the creature, he named it Opal, because its bright eyes were as colorful as one. It contrasted spider's black, hairy skin.
Opal hugged its head into the Astronaut's suit, pressing and shoving it with love.
"Hahaha". - The Astronaut laughed, then patted the spider. - "How are you doing, today, buddy? I hope you're not eating any of your friends because I brought you some pears."
Opal jumped enthusiastically upon hearing the word 'pear'. The astronaut wasted no time and reached his pocket, then gifted the fruit to his hairy friend.
Spider's fangs dug into the snack, and sweet fluids soaked the Astronaut's gloves. The spider produced pleased noise.
"I'm glad you liked it." - The Astronaut told as he retracted his hand and patted the animal again. - "Now, I'm sorry, I'll be going, but we'll get to play later."
Opal's arachnid legs reached for the Astronaut's knees as he was leaving, latching onto them.
"Opal, you know, I have work to do" - The astronaut spoke, but the spider wouldn't leave, so he added. - "If I stay now, the cream will spoil and there will be no cake, you know it."
Reluctantly, the spider let him go.
"Goodbye, Opal. See you in the afternoon."
Once again, the astronaut climbed, this time up. Turquoise ghosts playfully danced around the glass pipe, as If to say their goodbyes too.
Finally, all ingredients were there. The astronaut took out the white flour, butter, some cinnamon, and ginger. He preheated the oven, prepared the pears, then placed them in a skillet on top of the oven, together with honey, then mixed flour, butter, cream, and spices in a separate bowl.
After putting everything together into a batter, the astronaut placed the pie in the oven and waited until the cake was golden in color. In the meanwhile, he worked on preparing some aromatic tea.
"Thanks for the meal!" - As the Astronaut seated himself next to the table, and was about to take off his helmet when everything outside suddenly turned dark.
The Astronaut stood up and moved to the window. There was a black sphere, far in the depths of the ocean, it was growing larger, and everything it touched disappeared inside it.
Suddenly, red lights turned on in his shelter and sirens started wailing. The Astronaut quickly looked at the device on his wrist and whispered out a shocked – "Emergency...".
"What it may be?" - He looked at the miniature screen and analyzed numbers, but whatever input he would give to the device, the output was 'Undefined'.
"I will need to go there." - The astronaut ran to the airlock, then attached a strong cable to himself. He slowly flooded the gate with water, then opened the lock.
The astronaut waded through dense water and noticed a shining outline of somebody's drifting, immobile silhouette in the sphere. It was shrinking in size, as If it was disappearing in a distance.
"What? Who???" - The astronaut asked himself but did not hesitate. He swam into the sphere and suddenly, there was no light and all sounds stopped. He couldn't even hear his own breath or heartbeat.
'Where am I?' - The astronaut wanted to spoke, but no words came out.
The astronaut desperately looked around, but there was no sign of silhouette.
'Did I imagine it? No. I CERTAINLY did not.' - The astronaut was adamant about his trained senses, he kept swimming in the direction where he last saw the shadow.
But his breath suddenly stopped too, and he broke in a cold sweat. It would not be long before he would faint. He could either turn back or be forever lost in this darkness.
'No... there definitely was someone...' - He thought, but as he thought, the light in his helmet went dark. Not because they turned off, but because he was blind now.
'I can't give up yet.' - The astronaut pushed forward and bumped into someone's body. He grabbed it, but it was stone cold.
'No...' - Tears started rolling down his cheeks. The only person he met in his whole life, was gone. He had no much breath saved. Dragging the body with him would certainly slow him down – 'I should... leave it...'
He was about to release the arm that he latched on to, when he suddenly lost all sense of touch.
That's when he realized what he always had felt and gripped even harder.
The Astronaut wanted to turn back, but his mind became hazy. He couldn't see the panel of his arm device, he couldn't feel it and he blindly tried to push the buttons.
The Astronaut's consciousness soon faded.