Three Mississippi

After Apollo 18 vanishes on the moon, Astronaut Kaylee threatens to blow the whistle if NASA doesn’t inform the public about the disaster. Will she live to tell Apollo 18's story?

Like a praying mantis waiting on an unsuspecting butterfly to land on a flower, I waited on Kaylee in the shadows of the spacecraft simulator.  She was so beautiful that I almost felt bad about having to kill her, but my job with a three-letter agency required me to have a cold heart.  Compared to all of the dangerous people I’ve killed over the years, I knew that assassinating a defenseless astronaut was going to be easy" especially with my skill set.  My jet-black attire blended in perfectly with the shadows as I watched Kaylee enter the simulator in her gleaming-white spacesuit, alone.

It was early in the spring of 1973 when I received an order to assassinate Astronaut Kaylee as part of a cover-up operation involving the Apollo program.  I laughed boisterously as I read the order, which mentioned aliens and missing spacemen on the moon, and I thought it was a joke at first.  However, it was soon revealed to me during a classified briefing that the crew of Apollo 18 mysteriously vanished on the moon and that Kaylee, who was close friends with the missing astronauts, was threatening to tell the public about the disaster if NASA didn’t.  She also refused to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement, furthering her threat to “spill the beans.”  If Kaylee’s testimony went public, it would shed light on NASA’s secret voyages to the moon and their knowledge of extraterrestrial life" it would have been disastrous for the government!

Of course, I understood why Kaylee needed to die and I was loyal to the US government.  But I never knew why I was selected for the operation; I never had the luxury of asking such questions to my superiors.  I always assumed it was because I was a woman, so they sent me to kill the female astronaut so a man wouldn’t have to.  Or perhaps it was because I preferred to kill my victims with my bare hands instead of using a gun or a knife and NASA didn’t want blood splatter inside of their expensive simulator.  Or maybe there was no particular reason.  Nonetheless, the question of why I was chosen for the assignment plagued my brain as I read Kaylee’s file.  This poor woman didn’t stand a chance against me, I thought to myself as I read her biography and looked at her photos; within a matter of minutes I knew everything about the beautiful and brilliant astronaut.  She was a pretty-little space-geek with a PHD in astrophysics and another degree in geology" not my usual victim.

The three-letter agency I worked for recruited me after I got out of the Marines; I was probably the only woman in the 1970’s with confirmed kills on her service record and I was skilled in multiple disciplines of martial arts.  When I wasn’t training in a dojo somewhere I was hitting the weights.  When I wasn’t hitting the weights I was running or sparring.  I didn’t have a family or any other obligations outside of the Marine Corps, so I was always training and my hands became lethal.  In fact, I didn’t use a weapon on any of the men that I killed overseas, which is why the agency took an interest in recruiting me.  People didn’t suspect me because I was a woman and I was untraceable because I didn’t leave bullets or shell casings behind.  The agency saw value in this and they paid me well; they had my back and I did what needed to be done.

In order to buy us some time for me to get down to Cape Canaveral, the director of the Apollo Program assured Kaylee that he was going to host a press conference about the missing astronauts in two days.  He also told her that he was sending her and two other astronauts to the moon to search for the spacemen and he scheduled Kaylee for training in the simulator.  Unbeknownst to her, this was a trap and she naively fell for it.  If only she knew how our government works…

The simulator was inside of an empty aircraft hanger and I arrived a couple of hours before Kaylee’s scheduled “training” time.  From the outside, the simulator looked like a giant steel tube with dozens of large cables and hoses connected to it.  I could see why the director chose this as the location for the hit; even if Kaylee screamed at the top of her lungs, nobody would ever hear her inside of that thing.  There was only one way in and out" through a metal hatch on the side.  With nobody around, I made my way into the simulator which looked like a spacecraft on the inside.  If you didn’t know you were in a hanger, you would truly believe you were inside of a real spaceship.  Thousands of buttons, switches, gauges and lights covered a complex assortment of instrument panels.  I found the perfect spot to hide and I patiently waited for my astronaut prey to arrive. 

Waiting was a big part of my job.  Sometimes I’d wait hours or even days to kill someone and then the actual action of taking the person’s life would last for only a few seconds.  I was always an efficient killer, dispatching my victims with relative ease.  But I wanted this time to be different.  I knew that Astronaut Kaylee would be no match for me and that she would be trapped inside the simulator once the hatch was closed.  I decided I wanted to have a little fun for a change.  You know, mix it up a bit.

My heart began to race with excitement as I heard footsteps approaching.  I could tell by the sound that it was a woman because of how soft the footsteps sounded" you learn to pick up on these things in the business that I was in.  I watched as Kaylee entered the simulator in her bulky Apollo spacesuit, oblivious to the danger she was now in.  She was holding her space helmet in her right hand and I could clearly see her face.  She was so damn pretty… she could have been a model but instead she chose to be a whistleblowing astronaut that I now had to kill.  Kaylee’s puffy-white spacesuit made her look like a marshmallow woman and I quietly snickered to myself as she closed the hatch.  The marshmallow was all mine now.

Kaylee turned her attention to one of the instrument panels as I quietly emerged from the shadows and I surreptitiously approached her from behind.  I violently clapped my right hand over her pretty little mouth, preventing any screams from escaping (not that it would have mattered), and I grabbed onto her suit with my left hand.  The soft white nylon-fabric wrinkled around my muscular hand as I pulled the helpless astronaut tightly against my body.  She dropped her space helmet on the metal floor as she squirmed helplessly in my grasp, desperately trying to escape and scream.  Unfortunately for her, I was in total control. I was much stronger than the squirming spacewoman and I easily overpowered her.  I could have killed her immediately with a swift motion of my hand,  but I wanted to have a little fun.  

“They want me to kill you” I calmly said, “But I want to play a little game.”  Kalyee’s white space boots slipped and slid on the gray metal floor as I effortlessly dragged her into the back of the simulator, about eighteen feet from the hatch.  I could feel her warm tears on my hand, which I still had clutched over her mouth so I could explain the rules of our game uninterrupted.  “I’m going to give three seconds to make it to the hatch.  If you can open it before I catch you, I’ll let you live… I’ll just tell them you got away.”  Of course I knew that there was no escape for her, but I wanted to taunt her a little.  “Do you understand the rules of the game?” I asked the terrified astronaut, to which she nodded her head “yes” as she trembled in my grasp.

As soon as I let go of her, Kaylee stumbled forward in her clumsy spacesuit as her desperate escape attempt began.  “SOMEBODY HELP ME!” she screamed at the top of her lungs while continuing to stumble forward.  “One Mississippi” I calmly said as I watched her pathetic dash for the door.  Kaylee’s stumbling took the form of a crawl on the floor for a moment and her screams echoed off the walls of the tin-can we were in.  I knew this was going to be easy but I didn’t expect Astronaut Barbie to be quite so clumsy.  She finally regained her balance, transitioning into something that resembled a run towards the hatch" she looked like a little white bunny trying to escape a predator.  “Two Mississippi” I announced as I laughed at her.  Kaylee still had ten more feet to cover in order to make it to the hatch, which I knew wasn’t going to happen.  Her cumbersome spacesuit made a swishing sound when she ran and it greatly restricted her ability to move, but I don’t think she was athletic to start with anyway.

For a fleeting moment, I felt bad for Kaylee. She was just trying to do what she thought was the right thing.  Of course, the government has a good reason for keeping things from the public and it was my job to ensure that her testimony never saw the light of day.  My sorrow for what I was about to do to Kaylee was quickly overshadowed by my disappointment that our game had come to an end.

“THREE MISSISSIPPI!” I yelled as I snatched her up from behind.  “NOOOOO!” Kaylee screamed.  She was less than a foot away from the hatch when I ripped her away from it, screaming and crying and begging" all the usual stuff my victims do.  Kaylee helplessly kicked her feet as I effortlessly picked her up in one swift, seamless motion and I violently tossed her into the wall like a little doll.  Just before she fell to the floor I grabbed onto her suit and threw her into another wall.  It amused me that she thought she could actually get away; the thought of it actually enraged me a bit as I continued to throw her into stuff.  Kaylee landed on her back and she was writhing in pain from all the brutal impacts with the hard-metal surfaces.

It was time for me to finish the job.  I stood over her for a moment, to torture her with anticipation as she squirmed on the floor.  She wasn’t even screaming anymore.  Just begging for mercy in between waves of pain.  Unlike Astronaut Barbie, the other woman I had killed in the past put up a fight; they didn’t try to run or beg.  But of course they were dangerous women" this was my first time killing a naïve little to-be whistleblower.  I decided to finish the job quickly as I knelt down on top of her, straddling her with my legs.  Her annoying pleas for mercy increased, but I efficiently squelched them by thrusting my fist into her tummy; her soft white spacesuit made it feel like I punched a pillow, but the blow knocked the wind out of her.  I then reached up and wrapped my hands around her slender neck and squeezed.  She flailed her arms and legs and I squeezed the life out of her and Kaylee’s eyes met mine as she began to slip away.  Soon she was no longer squirming but I continued to squeeze for another minute, just to be sure.

Satisfied with my kill, I stood up and paused to look down at my dead astronaut victim.  Even in death she was pretty.  If only she would have agreed to keep her mouth shut and sign that stupid NDA, I wouldn’t have been hired to kill her.  We wouldn’t have ever crossed paths.  Perhaps if she knew how our government truly works, how it silences people, she would still be alive.  I quietly made my way out of the simulator and disappeared into the night once more.