Alone in Space

Joshua Lomax was chosen to be a part of the first Mission to Mars. Everyone knew it would be dangerous, but no one was prepared for what they found on the red planet.

Joshua Lomax opened his eyes, almost afraid as to what he would find. Nearly six months aboard the Kratos 1 had left Joshua spent and homesick, the artificial gravity leaving him nauseated, and each morning he paused before opening his eyes, hoping to see something other than the bottom of Stephen’s bunk above him. Every morning he prayed that this one hundred eighty day nightmare was, well, just that�"a nightmare, and nothing more.

But really, it seemed to be backwards, because it was in waking up that Joshua was brought to this fiendish place. Surprisingly, his dreams were the best part. It was there where he got to visit his family in Oregon, and, more particularly, Sarina.

He missed her terribly, and he hated himself more and more every day he was away from her, wishing that, before he left, he had told her… no. He couldn’t start thinking about that, not now. Joshua knew he had already gotten too emotional far too many times when he pulled out the small photograph of her that he kept in his pocket. He didn’t want any of the crew to think he was so weakened inside. He knew that Stephen would give him a hard time for it, and, even worse, Marissa and Yessika might try to console him.

Although only six months had gone by, Joshua was utterly exhausted. And, when he took a minute to look upon the possibility of two more years floating around in deep space with these weirdoes, without any communication with the people he cared about… it was enough to make him go insane.

After a few more minutes of deep thought, he heard Stephen stir in the bunk above him.

“Hey,” he grumbled, leaning over the side railing to look at Joshua. Some of his dark hair was plastered against the left side of his face, and the rest of it stuck up in crazy angles all over his head. Stephen was a twenty-three year old from New York City (at least, that’s who he claimed to be), and the second-youngest in the group. Joshua was only three years older than him, and he guessed that Marissa, the captain of their crew and probable winner of the control-freak of the year award, had bunked them together because she assumed that they would be friends. This was true, if you asked Stephen, that is, but Joshua preferred to put barriers between him and most other people. He feigned friendship with Stephen, and wasn’t much more than acquaintances with the rest of the crew. He had nothing against them, but he knew enough about life to not let himself get too attached to these people.

“Do you think Marissa’s already down there, playing with her children?” Stephen asked with a good-natured grin. Joshua had often witnessed Stephen joke about how emotionally involved Marissa was with the Rx-5s, humanoid robots that Marissa had, in fact, helped to build. Remembering this, Joshua rolled his eyes. Stephen smiled, thinking they were sharing a joke. In reality, however, Joshua was rolling his eyes about the robots themselves, not Marissa’s devotion to them (no matter how ridiculous it sometimes was; he had to agree with Stephen on that).

Oh, God, the robots, he thought to himself, picturing the plastic-armored, emotionless creepers NASA had sent up with them to aid them on their journey in his mind’s eye. They were supposed to help the crew in, as Marissa had put it, “a variety of different ways”, such as handling tasks deemed too dangerous for any of the crew members, as well as performing the more boring, repetitive tasks like measuring the airflow in front of the vents, which takes a lot of control. Sometimes they were helpful, but the robots made Joshua feel strangely uneasy. NASA had obviously tried their hardest to make them look human, but their cold, blank stares gave away their secret.

“We should probably head down to the control room,” Stephen announced rather suddenly, jolting Joshua out of his thoughts. “Marissa and Yessika are probably already there, like I said, and maybe even Karl, and I hate those looks they give us when we’re the last ones out. Let’s go.”

Joshua grudgingly pulled himself out of his sleeping bag as Stephen slid off his bunk, foregoing the rickety metal ladder altogether. Joshua didn’t mind being awake early; in fact, he often enjoyed being the first to rise, but that was only because he liked the silence of a predawn morning when nobody else was awake. And that morning, he had a lot on his mind that he would’ve liked to think over in a quiet, isolated place, which made Stephen’s “in-it-together” attitude all the more annoying.

And that made him wish even more that he was back at home with Sarina; she had always respected his frequent need for alone time.

But nonetheless, within minutes he and Stephen were trudging down the Kratos’s corridors to the control room. It was a pretty long walk from their room to their destination, and occasionally, Joshua would sense the tension between the two of them densifying, and Stephen would make another feeble attempt at small talk. The guy loved to talk, but he still wasn’t much of a conversationalist. Simply saying, “Hey, did you catch that last episode of Doctor Who? I didn’t because I’ve been on this… oh, yeah,” has enough power to make any situation even more awkward than it was before.

And when you pair that superpower with Joshua’s constant quietness and extreme introversion, you get the worst TV superhero duo ever created. Even their biggest supporters would be rallying to get the show cancelled. Joshua couldn’t wait for them to get down to the control room.

Finally, after an especially long and awkward silence, Stephen said in a low, serious voice, “You ever miss your family?”

The question caught Joshua off-guard, and he stopped abruptly, right in the middle of the hall of the spacecraft. “What?”

“Your family, you ever miss ’em?” Stephen stopped too, and for once, he looked old and withered, instead of bright and full of life. Like he should’ve been eighty-three and not twenty-three.

Joshua swallowed roughly, but a lump was forming in his throat and he felt like he was choking. The picture of Sarina in his jeans pocket felt way heavier than it should have. “Yeah, sometimes,” he said casually, which was partially a lie. He thought about Sarina 24/7. “I didn’t think it, this trip, would be so….” He trailed off, struggling to find the right words and hoping Stephen would know what he meant.

“Yeah, I get it,” Stephen agreed, nodding. “I’ve got my mom and dad at home… and I missed my sister’s violin recital.” He smiled with some bittersweet emotion that Joshua didn’t recognize. Was it regret? Worry, even? “It was over three months ago, but… I would’ve liked to have gone.”

Joshua was confused. He had always known that Stephen was a little more personal that Joshua would’ve liked, but this was just weird. “Yeah,” Joshua found himself agreeing. “I have my girlfriend, Sarina, and I....” He trailed off again. What was he saying? Stephen had no business in his personal life; why should he have to open up like this? “I… miss her.” He cut it off there.

Surprisingly, Stephen seemed to take the message. “Yeah. Sorry, it’s just that I… I just remembered it was Dia�"that’s my sister, Claudia... it’s her birthday today. I was thinking about her. God… she’ll have to be nearly eighteen when I get back.”

Stephen seemed to be talking to himself more than to Joshua, and Joshua was thankful for that. After a few more minutes of walking in an uncomfortable silence, they finally reached the control room.

***

They opened the door, and instead of finding the usual hustle and bustle that awaited them in the control room, an eerie silence greeted them. For one shocking moment, Joshua wondered if he and Stephen were the first ones down. Then, he noticed Marissa and Lauren kneeling in one corner in front of Yessika, who was curled up in a fetal position and not moving. Karl stood a little ways away, flipping through one of his medical books he had brought aboard. Joshua knew he had taken a few years of medical school, but he didn’t know where or for how long.

“…used to have seizures and stuff, but that was years ago,” Marissa was telling Lauren, looking at Yessika with worried eyes. Stephen rushed over to them, and Joshua warily made his way toward the cluster of crew members. The back of his mind thought about how he and Stephen were the last ones out after all, but considering the situation, he didn’t think the group would appreciate his humor at the moment.

Upon getting closer, Joshua saw that something really was wrong with Yessika. Her soft, curious blue eyes were wide open, and dark circles underlined them. Short blond hair, usually braided neatly into twin pigtails, stuck up all over her head. Her hands were plastered to her cheeks, like she had been frozen in the moment she was startled by a spider.

“What’s the matter with Yess?” Stephen asked. “Yess” was the nickname Stephen had given Yessika after a few days of being aboard Kratos 1. Joshua couldn’t be sure, but he was fairly certain that this was a joke on the fact that Yessika nearly always said “Yes” to everything. She was a bubbly nineteen-year-old that had worked with Marissa at NASA since she graduated from high school at age fifteen. Despite Marissa being nearly twenty years older than her, she and Yessika formed a friendship right away. Other than that, however, Joshua didn’t know much about either of their pasts. He wasn’t sure if this was because they never shared anything about themselves, or because he spent too much time avoiding their company.

“I don’t know,” Marissa conceded, looking at Yessika the way Joshua had seen her look at her Rx-5s when she was repairing them: she was analyzing the data, but couldn’t seem to figure out the problem. The only difference was that when she looked at Yessika, there was something else in her eyes: worry, sentiment, love; something human. “She used to get seizures, but that was when she was, like, eight and nine, she told me.”

“Should we contact HQ?” Lauren asked, turning toward Joshua. With her dark eyes and thick, black eyebrows, Lauren could look pretty startling sometimes. Joshua couldn’t meet her stare for very long.

“Can’t,” Karl said, looking up from the main control panel. “Signal’s blocked for some reason. We’re alone.”

For some reason, the word alone rang through Joshua’s head for a long time, and it made him feel strangely afraid.

“What do we do?” Stephen asked, looking from Karl to Marissa and back again.

“We’ll arrive on Mars in no time,” Marissa said, her voice grim. “Based on the calculations of my Rx-5s, two days will take us there.”

The crew let that sink in. They were so close they could practically taste the dusty surface of the red planet.

“Where are the robots?” Joshua asked suddenly.

“Rx-5 dash one is taking an air flow reading,” Marissa answered. “Rx-5 dash three is keeping watch on the outer surface for possible collisions. Rx-5 dash two…” she racked her brain. “I think he’s down in the washrooms doing some routine maintenance, but he’ll be down in the robot hold if he finished.”

Joshua nodded. He didn’t trust the robots, and although it didn’t fit in with any of his logic, he couldn’t help but wonder if it could have been a robot that had done this to Yessika. With them being so far from the control room and the sleeping quarters, it didn’t make any sense, but something in the pit of his stomach was telling Joshua that this wasn’t a normal seizure that Yessika was experiencing.

Lauren spoke up again. “What will we do?”

Karl had gone back to his medical textbooks, and he looked up from them. “We should put her in the infirmary under close watch. I can keep an eye on her for now, but we’re going to have to take shifts. I mostly studied various diseases, infections, treating injury….” He shrugged. “I don’t know much about epilepsy.”

Joshua wanted to shout out, “But it’s not a seizure!” but he didn’t have any evidence to back it up. The rest of the crew would just think he was insane.

“Karl’s right,” Marissa said, standing up. “The infirmary is the best place for her.”

“Is it safe to move her?” Stephen questioned sympathetically.

Lauren stood, too. “She was moving earlier, rocking back and forth and stuff.”

“Then, it’s not a seizure?” Joshua suggested, hopefully.

“Frankly, I don’t even know if it was actually seizures that she was getting when she was younger,” Marissa admitted, her voice anxious and edgy. “She just told me that she had this problem when she was younger…. I think she said it was like seizures.”

“So, should we just try to pick her up?” Lauren questioned further.

Stephen sighed. “I guess so,” he muttered, and he and Lauren did their best with combined efforts to lift Yessika into their arms. To Joshua’s surprise, Yessika seemed to move, ever so slightly, in ways that aided the pair. She even reached up to grab Stephen’s shoulder when he had a steady hold of her.

“Not like any seizure I’ve ever seen,” Joshua muttered under his breath, so no one could hear him.

Together, Lauren and Stephen walked Yessika down to the infirmary.

Karl set down his textbook and closed it. “I guess that’s my cue to head down there too,” he said grimly. He started toward the hallway, but then Marissa held up her hand.

“Wait, Karl,” she said, stepping in front of him. “I want to talk to you for a minute.” She indicated for the two of them to go into one of the smaller main rooms branching off from the big one they were in now, and together they entered.

This left Joshua alone in the control room, something he had been wanting for nearly six months. Now, however, he just wanted someone, anyone else, beside him. He wanted to feel like he wasn’t completely alone.

***

After a while, Stephen and Lauren came back to the control room. They didn’t say anything to Joshua, but Lauren went to work at the main console, probably to see if she could contact headquarters. Aside from Marissa, she was the most tech-savvy crew member on the Kratos 1, and because of this, the crew often let her have a go at the computers whenever she liked. Even Marissa had grown accustomed to Lauren playing with her “toys” without her permission. Stephen took a seat next to Joshua, and just sat there quietly.

A few minutes later, Marissa strolled back into the control room. “Okay,” she said, pulling up a chair next to Lauren. “Are we back with HQ yet?”

“No,” Lauren admitted, slumping back in her chair. “Given, I’ve only been here five minutes.”

“That’s an exaggeration!” Stephen exclaimed, smiling despite the grim atmosphere. “It’s been…” he looked at his watch. “Fifteen minutes according to my calculations! Why doesn’t one of your little minions do it?” he asked, indicating Marissa. “What was it that you were telling us? ‘...capable of handling a wide range of EVA tools and interfaces…’?”

Marissa straightened. “Rx-5 dash three is… preoccupied, at the moment. What have you found, Lauren?”

“Uh…” Lauren frowned. “I’m not sure. Could be just a signal problem, but… this isn’t like anything I’ve ever seen.”

This whole day is just brimming with new experiences, Joshua thought bitterly.

“It’s probably the asteroid field,” a voice said behind Joshua. “That’s, most likely, what’s disrupting communications.”

“Karl?” Lauren said, turning toward the medic, who was taking a seat next to Stephen. “Shouldn’t you be with Yessika?”

“Is she better?” Stephen asked, but it was nothing more than a half-hearted hopeful wish.

Karl frowned. Joshua noticed Marissa tense up. “I thought Marissa told you… we left Rx-5 dash three in charge, since he was outfitted with medical programming.” He looked at the captain questioningly. “You told me they all had agreed to let Rx-5 dash three handle medical tasks that I couldn’t.”

“What?” Lauren gasped, her deep, brown eyes opened wide. The color drained from her face. “But… they haven’t been tested yet, have they? Someone should be keeping an eye on Yess, a real person!”

Marissa stood up suddenly, and Joshua noticed that she had this defensive look on her face that she adopted whenever somebody offended her robots. “Rx-5 dash three is outfitted with special programming, like Karl said, that allows him to watch Yessika’s vitals, treat small injuries, and, most importantly, alert us if anything drastic happens.”

Stephen spoke up. “But, what if--”

“No!” Marissa said. “Look, if you’re all so worried about her… wait. Do you not think I’m worried about her? Is that what this is? No! I have cared for Yessika like a daughter ever since she joined NASA! I… I….”

“Marissa, no one is saying you don’t care for Yess.” Lauren’s voice came out smooth and gentle. “And I’m sure your robots are entirely capable of watching her. But,” she looked meaningfully at all of us. “Just to calm you guys down, let’s check the footage.”

Joshua had to appreciate Lauren. She was sometimes a little intense, but she could be calm and gentle, and keep a level head when she needed to. Also, she was good at talking to people. Joshua wished he had her gift.

Lauren pushed a few buttons on the control panel, and the larger screen above it powered on. First, it showed grainy footage from the hallway, but Lauren punched in a few more keys and, soon, footage labeled “infirmary” played before the crew.

“See?” Marissa said, jabbing a pointer finger at the low-resolution screen. “There’s Rx-5 dash three, right where he should be: stationed beside the patient’s bed. Like my good friend Colleen Hartman said once: ‘The battle between humans and robots is a false one and a waste of time.’”

This was true, the robot was exactly where it should have been, but alarms bells went off in Joshua’s head.

“Um… Marissa?” Stephen asked warily. He cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Where is…?”

“Yessika… isn’t there,” Lauren sputtered.

Joshua jumped to his feet, which surprised everyone, including him. Adrenaline was pumping through his veins. “Then let’s go.” He started running down the halls, and the crew raced after him.

***

When Marissa threw open the door to the medical room, Yessika still wasn’t there. Rx-5 dash three stood next to the bed, calmly positioned like nothing strange was going on at all.

Lauren ran toward the robot, put her forearm on its neck, and smashed it into the wall.

“Don’t hurt him!” Marissa yelped.

Lauren ignored her and pressed harder against the robot’s plastic armor, even though she knew it couldn’t feel physical pain. “Where is she?” she growled, her teeth clenched.

The robot didn’t answer at first, but then said in its unnatural, automated voice: “Yessika Lawrence has been decommissioned.”

“What?” Lauren asked the robot. “What did you say?”

The robot repeated its answer. “Yessika Lawrence has been decommissioned.”

“What does that even mean?” Lauren screeched.

The robot repeated itself again, in the same monotone drawl, “Yessika Lawrence has been decommissioned.”

Lauren turned toward the rest of the crew. “What does that mean?” Her cheeks glistened with tears.

“I… uh…” Marissa sputtered. “I don’t know.”

“Someone opened the doors,” Stephen said quietly. “The… those doors were opened.” He indicated the double doors-- the ones that led out into deep space-- located at one end of the infirmary. A tear slid down his cheek. “It’s recorded on the computerized panel outside here.”

Marissa frowned. “But, that would mean that….” Her eyes widened with understanding. “No… no, no, no!”

Joshua looked at the robot. All the Rx-5s were equipped with feet that could lock onto the floor of the spacecraft. It wouldn’t be pulled out into deep space by the vacuum. Not like… like a human would.

“Yess…” Stephen gasped. Lauren’s posture sunk and she choked out a cry, but she didn’t release the robot from the wall. Karl lowered his head. Joshua felt his eyes burn, and tears brimmed in his eyes. That confused him. Despite spending the last six months with her, he didn’t let himself get to know Yessika that well. So why was he crying about it?

Marissa was the worst of all. She fell to the ground in a lump and let great sobs escape her. She didn’t even care that mascara was running down her face. Joshua had never seen her this way, so broken. She had always presented herself in a way that was so disciplined, so painfully ordered. Now, she was a mess.

“Why?” she asked Rx-5 dash three, looking into its mechanical eyes. “Why?”

“Because it’s evil!” Lauren screamed.

Stephen walked over and put a hand on her shoulder. “Lauren,” he said, his voice filled with sadness. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not!” she screeched back, but she released the robot.

Rx-5 dash three shook its head and replied, “We will arrive on Mars in twenty-nine point three hours. Yessika Lawrence was sick.”

“That doesn’t mean you murder her!” Lauren flung herself toward the robot again, but Stephen held her back.

“Calm down,” he told her. She struggled against him, but Stephen held her firmly. “It’ll be okay.”

“No, it won’t!” she wailed. “Yess was--”

“Our friend, I know. But we need to calm down.”

“Yess was--” Lauren started again, then stopped suddenly. She sank to the floor, rubbing her head. “Ow…” she muttered.

“I think we all need to take a minute to calm down,” Stephen said, letting go of Lauren. “e’ll be on Mars in no time. We all need to get some rest.”

Lauren didn’t try to  protest. She continued to rub her forehead. Her dark hair hung limp and stringy all around her, and she looked absolutely shattered. She didn’t complain when Stephen helped her up and started guiding her to her room. Karl went over to help Marissa, which left Joshua standing over in the corner, feeling awkward and out of place. He wasn’t very good at comforting people.

“You should probably get some rest, kid,” Karl advised Joshua as he walked by, Marissa leaning against him for support. She had a faraway look in her eyes, and the way she seemed to glide over the spaceship’s floor made her look like a ghost.

Joshua nodded. “Yeah… I’ll do that.” He would’ve liked to have said more, something to comfort Marissa, but he was afraid he would make her angry or cry or something. He had seen how drastically Lauren had reacted to the simplest statements.

After Karl and Marissa left, Joshua stared at the robot.

“Why?” he asked. His voice  was surprisingly calm and smooth, almost robotic. “Why did you do it?”

The robot turned toward him and answered with the same phrase. “Yessika Lawrence was sick.”

Joshua shook his head. “That doesn’t mean anything, not to a human. What are you talking about, anyway?”

The robot spoke up again. “Yessika Lawrence was sick, and so is Lauren Gilmore.”

The words stung Joshua like a dagger, and his anger engulfed him. He walked over to Rx-5 dash three and punched its head off. The wires protruding from the robot’s neck sparked and sizzled. Then, he walked calmly down to his sleeping quarters, massaging his hand as he went.

***

“There it is,” Marissa mumbled, pointing out one of the Kratos 1’s windows. The red planet, their destination, loomed before them, half of the planet’s surface in darkness. “Mars,” she added on, an air of mystery to her voice. Her eyes were still red and puffy from crying late last night, and her lips were chapped.

Karl stepped closer to the window. “How long until we’re there?” he questioned no one in particular.

“Thirty-three minutes, by the calculations of our ship,” Stephen said, glancing over the main control panel.

By the robot’s time, Joshua thought bitterly, it would be thirty-four. He was surprised to find that he had been counting. No one, not even Marissa, had gotten upset when they found Rx-5 dash three decapitated. Earlier that morning, Marissa had dumped him into the scrap pile in the robot’s hold.

“Do you think Lauren’s okay?” Marissa asked Stephen, almost as if she had been reading Joshua’s thoughts. Lauren hadn’t been out of her room since yesterday, and Stephen was the last to talk to her.

“I think so,” Stephen muttered, “she seemed to have calmed down and all, but last I saw her she was complaining about headaches.”

“She’s probably stressed,” Karl said. “I mean, with all we’ve been going through….” He trailed off, but everyone in the control room understood what he meant.

And Joshua didn’t mention what Rx-5 dash three had said about Lauren Gilmore being sick.

“You should try to talk to her,” the captain whispered, not looking at Stephen even though she was talking to him.

“I tried this morning,” Stephen muttered, and Joshua remembered how he had woken up to see the top bunk vacant. “She keeps her door locked, and she won’t let me in.”

“It probably wasn’t wise to have her sleep in her old room,” Karl said, looking down the hallway. “She shared that room with Yessika.”

Stephen lowered his head. “Sorry… I wasn’t thinking.”

Marissa’s voice came out dark and serious. “None of us were.”

A long silence passed.

Finally, Joshua broke the silence, which was unusual for him. “How long now?” he asked.

Stephen glanced at the control panel once again. “Twenty-five minutes,” he replied.

The captain of the Kratos 1 closed her eyes as if in a prayer.

***

The Martian surface was less than twenty feet below them. Lauren had finally been convinced to join the rest of the crew, but she wouldn’t stop moaning and holding her head. Karl and Marissa had tried to offer her ibuprofen, but she refused.

Now, Stephen offered her his hand. “Do you want to see Mars?” he asked her gently. His voice was smooth and calm, but it had an underlying tone of concern.

Lauren nodded and took Stephen’s hand. He led her to the window, and she watched the red surface come closer and closer.

“We’ll be there in… “ Marissa began, waiting for the timer on the panel to hit zero. “Now.”

Then, all at once, the lights turned off, Lauren screamed, and Joshua’s vision blurred as the world went dark.

***

When Joshua came to, he was in a dark room. Suddenly, a light flickered on from overhead and, although it wasn’t all that bright, his eyes took a couple seconds to adjust. He noticed the rest of the crew members were all laying down asleep or sitting up on hard beds like the one he was on. Except for Lauren, that is; she was nowhere to be seen.

Then, Joshua noticed Stephen sitting up in the bed to his right. “Hey,” he whispered urgently. “Where’s Lauren?”

Stephen looked up, his eyes reddening. “I don’t know. I was holding her, and then….” He shook his head mournfully “Where are we?”

Joshua sat up and looked around the room. Now that it was illuminated, he could tell that the walls were made of a sort of clay, a deep red clay. The beds that they were sleeping on were rough mattress-like cushions placed in alcoves of hollowed-out sections of the walls. In two other beds out of maybe ten alcoves, Karl and Marissa began stirring.

“What’s going on?” The crew’s captain demanded, suddenly alert.

“We don’t know,” Stephen admitted. “Are we on the ship?”

“As far as I know,” Marissa mumbled with an air of sarcasm, “the Kratos doesn’t have any rooms like this.”

Karl surveyed the group’s surroundings. “The clay…?” he questioned curiously.

“I know,” Joshua replied, rubbing his head. “I may not be a professional astronaut or anything, but I know my colors. Looks Martian.”

“Where’s Lauren?” Marissa asked, her eyes wide with concern.

Stephen’s head lowered. “I don’t know. I’m sorry, guys.”

“Could she have escaped?” Karl suggested hopefully.

No one said anything. Considering what had happened the past twenty-nine hours or whatever it was, Joshua didn’t think Lauren would be lucky enough. What happened to Yessika…. Who knows what could’ve happened if Rx-5 dash three hadn’t ejected her out into space. Maybe she would have gotten better, but could it have been right?

He looked at the rest of the crew. Stephen’s eyes: red and puffy; Marissa’s hair: messy and tangled; Karl’s face: grim and mirthless. He didn’t share his thoughts.

Karl’s question floated in the air, like a feather, until it touched the ground and he lowered his eyes.

Suddenly, a section of the wall on Joshua’s left opened up. Strange, dust-filled light poured in, but a vast silhouette soon covered it. The figure entered, and once Joshua’s eyes focused, he gasped.

“Seriously?” Stephen muttered so that only Joshua could hear. “Aliens on Mars? I think Hollywood’s already done that.”

The “alien” drew closer, the plating of its red clay armor clanking along with the creature. It was probably eight feet tall, and Marissa shrank into her cubby-hole as it neared. It’s face reminded Joshua of pictures he’d seen of the Martian surface: rocky, dry, and a deep, rusty shade of red. It looked as if it were made of rock… kind of like the Thing from the Fantastic Four. It’s head was covered in a clear, plasticky-looking fishbowl helmet, and a shockingly high-tech looking respirator was attached at the base of it.

“Why-- are-- you-- here?” The creature sputtered, it’s deep voice contorted by a speaker that seemed to be located next to, or even be a part of, the respirator. Each word came out strained and slow, like English wasn’t its first language.

No one answered the alien at first. After a couple tension-filled seconds, Marissa spoke up. “We’re four members of the crew aboard NASA’s spacecraft, the Kratos 1, sent to Mars by NASA’s mission to Mars program,” she said meekly. She sounded like this was something she had rehearsed.

“Take me to your leader,” Stephen muttered sarcastically. Joshua didn’t reply.

“Mars?” The alien questioned.

“Um…” Marissa seemed at a loss for words, like that response wasn’t part of her speech. “A planet, hopefully the one we’re on. What planet is this?”

The alien frowned. “We call this place….” The alien made a sound that was like a combination of a cat yowling while spitting out a hairball, and someone vomiting. Joshua scooted as far away from the creature as he could while still sitting on the mattress.

“But in your language,” the alien continued after he got over his little fit, “we call it Ka’a Nu. In the Old Language, it means Dead World.” The word “dead” seemed to take everyone aback. Stephen gulped loudly enough for Joshua to hear.

“But never mind that,” The alien continued, his voice suddenly fierce and imposing. “Why have you come here? A mission?”

“Yes,” Marissa said eagerly, but her voice was shaky. “We came here to explore new planets and hoped to start a colony here, but….” She trailed off.

But you seem to have beaten us here, Joshua thought bitterly.

The alien scowled and ventured further into the clay room. “Ka’a Nu is not for the taking of aliens! You are intruders!” He seemed to be growing larger, or maybe it was Joshua getting smaller. “ Leave now, or suffer the consequences of the Ka’a Nutheans!”

Time froze for a second. Looking back on that moment, Joshua realized that all of what happened next might have been avoided. In fact, he was almost sure of it. He could’ve hopped back on the Kratos 1 and flown back to planet Earth, back to Sarina, and lived out a completely normal life. NASA would’ve had to deal with the angry space creatures at some point, but Joshua’s life would have been totally fine.

Instead, Marissa stood up and said, “No! I have worked too hard on this mission to just turn right around. We are staying here as long as we like!”

Joshua’s mouth dropped. Sure, now you sound all confident and stuff, he thought subconsciously, but at the moment all of his conscious thinking was focused on the fact that it felt like his entire being was on fire.

The alien’s scowl deepened. “Then we will have no choice but to invade your home planet. An eye for an eye-- that is the way of the Ka’a Nutheans. But first,” the alien added on, “you will be executed by Supreme Leader Zaaltek himself, by order of me: Ra’aneth Aluu!”

Marissa shrank back into her seat. “No,” she muttered. “No, no, no.” Karl lowered his head, and he seemed to be muttering something that Joshua couldn’t make out. Stephen examined a leather bracelet on his left wrist that Joshua hadn’t noticed before. On the band, one name was inscribed in dark thread: Claudia. “I’m sorry, Dia,” he was whispering to himself.

And their pain made Joshua angry.

He wasn’t sure why he did it, he’d never done anything like this, but Joshua stood up and confronted the red Ka’a Nuthean.

“No,” he challenged, surprised at how calm his voice was. “We didn’t know you were here; we wouldn’t have come if we had known. Let them go. They can take the spacecraft they brought with them and leave. If you want answers….” He faltered. “Keep me here. I’ll answer anything you want.”

Marissa stood. “Joshua,” she gasped, looking at him like he had sprouted a second head. “What are you saying?”

In truth, Joshua didn’t have a clue what he was doing. He figured he was just copying the brave heroes he saw in TV shows and movies, even though he knew that he wasn’t anywhere near that brave. He half expected to start crying uncontrollably any second now.

“I’m saying that you guys can go home,” he said, doing his best to keep his voice smooth and confident. At the word “home”, his mind’s eye flashed to Sarina, and his pocket felt so heavy he might fall over. “Tell NASA… what happened,” he added.

“Wait,” Marissa said, her eyes widening as her brain switched gears for a second. She looked at Ra’aneth Aluu. “What happened to Lauren, the dark-haired girl we had with us.”

The red alien scowled. “Zaaltek took over her mind just as he did that epileptic girl. We were being invaded, and we had no choice but to fight back,” he said. English seemed to be getting easier for him. “Your android was wise to throw her into space. It slowed us down for a little while, but it was easy to target that dark-haired girl.”

Suddenly, their captor made a strange, strangled sound that could have been suppressing a laugh. “She was so consumed by her grief… it was simple.”

Stephen gave Ra’aneth an incredulous look. “Lauren was our friend,” he gasped.

“As was Yessika,” Marissa added, her eyes still wide.

“So, what happened to her?” Karl interjected warily.

Ra’aneth frowned. “As soon as your ship touched the Ka’a Nuthean surface, her mind overloaded and we intercepted your ship. You should all assume that she is dead.”

“But is she still aboard the Kratos 1, our ship?” Marissa asked hopefully.

“Probably not,” the red alien replied. “One of my kind has already tended to your ship. We have confiscated anything of value, like your androids.”

“Let them go back,” Joshua continued. “Let them go home. I’ll stay here.”

“Joshua,” Stephen said exasperatedly. “Be realistic.”

“I am,” Joshua replied. He turned back toward Ra’aneth. “Let them go.”

Ra’aneth frowned. “I will have to run this by Zaaltek, as I am not in any place to make executive decisions,” the alien said slowly, raising his eyebrows like he wasn’t sure if Joshua was tricking him. “But don’t get your hopes up. The Supreme Leader is not forgiving.”

The alien turned and slid open the red, clay door and left, locking it on his way out.

After a few moments of silence, Joshua turned toward the group. “This is your chance to escape.”

“Our chance to escape,” Marissa corrected. Her eyes were filling with tears over what Joshua guessed was Lauren’s death.

“How do you propose we do that, Joshua?” Stephen snapped, spreading his arms out in front of him.

“I don’t know,” Joshua admitted. “But there has to be a way.”

“Just a question, guys,” Karl said warily. “But how are we even breathing this atmosphere?”

Joshua took a breath. It was true; the air around them seemed perfectly earth-like.

“Maybe this room is filled with breathable atmosphere, just this room,” Marissa suggested, waving her hand through the air. “The alien had a respirator, right? He probably can’t survive in this composition of the air.”

“Well, that was kind of them,” Stephen muttered sarcastically. “Put us in a place where we can breathe for… oh, a couple hours at most, but then execute us within ten minutes of our arrival.” Stephen looked up at Marissa. “Real logical.”

“We can’t be questioning… Ra’aneth’s… logic at the moment,” Marissa said.

“Actually,” Joshua suggested, looking down at Stephen. “You might be onto something. Why go to the trouble of making an entire room breathable for us when they just wanted to send us back or kill us?”

“You might be right,” Karl added. “If they have the technology to create artificial Earth air, and respirators, they would probably just give us a helmet, too.”

“And the beds,” Stephen said, looking around the room. “They’re human-sized. If all the people on this planet are roughly the same size as Ra’aneth-whatshisface, these beds would not work.”

“Maybe they wanted us all to stay after all,” Marissa suggested. She looked at Joshua meaningfully when she said “us all”.

“No,” Joshua said. “All of you are going home.”

Suddenly, the clay door slid open again. A red alien ran in. Joshua wondered if it was Ra’aneth, or a different one. How similar did they look to one another?

“Aliens,” the Ka’a Nuthean greeted them. “It was just as I feared. Supreme Leader Zaaltek wants to travel to your home planet. A civil war could be birthed today.” He looked at Joshua. “Brave human, you could stop this war before it happens. Do you still wish to stay?”

“No!” Marissa shouted, looking from the alien to Joshua and back again. “I am not leaving one of my crew behind.”

“If the human does not stay,” the red-skinned creature pleaded, “our planets will go to war. The Ka’a Nutheans have worked too hard to make this Dead World habitable to have it destroyed by a race as petty as yours.”

Stephen spoke up nervously. “Are you… Ra’aneth?”

The alien shuddered. “Please don’t mistake me for my brother. When he came to Zaaltek, I tried to sway him in the right direction, but he wouldn’t listen. Call me Xero’lek.”

“So you can get them to safety?” Joshua questioned.

“Yes,” Xero’lek answered. “It is correct that you have ship?”

“Yeah,” Joshua replied. “The Kratos 1.”

“The name of your craft does not matter. What matters is that it can get the three of you off this planet.”

“Four of us,” Marissa corrected stubbornly.

“You heard Xero’lek,” Joshua said, turning toward Marissa. “I have to stay, unless you want Supreme Leader Zaaltek coming to destroy planet Earth and commit mass genocide.”

“Your ship should be ready to go,” Xero’lek announced. “What are your names?”

“That’s Marissa,” Joshua said, pointing to the captain. “The dark-haired one is Stephen, the one with the hat is Karl, and I’m Joshua.”

The alien smiled. “It is important to know names. Marissa, Stephen, Karl, come with me.”

It was clear that Marissa did not want to leave without every member of the Kratos 1 coming back, but she knew it was pointless to argue. She, Stephen, and Karl followed the red alien out of the sliding doors, only half the original crew.

Joshua watched sadly as his friends disappeared from view.

***

When Xero’lek came back, he carried one of Marissa’s robots with him. Joshua didn’t know them well enough to know which one it was. He jumped back from it nonetheless.

“Did Marissa say to bring it?” He asked.

“Yes,” the alien replied, looking down at the piece of metal in his hands. “Apparently it was overlooked when the ship was scavenged, along with all necessary equipment.” The kind alien’s orange eyes twinkled. “Ka’a Nutheans are not known for spotting a valuable item in a lineup; that is why we often trade with other planets. She said it contained supplies,” he continued. “Medical, food items, company.” He shrugged.

Something clicked in Joshua’s head. “How am I going to survive here for longer than a few weeks with limited water and food supply?”

The alien smiled. “In case you haven’t noticed, we’re rather good at supplying necessary conditions for guests.” He gestured to the air around them. “Is it like the air in your home world?”

Joshua took a deep breath. “Better,” he decided. “The air on Earth is polluted, badly. This feels… clean.”

“Yes, and we have clean water and human food here. It may not be exactly as you’re used to….” The alien paused. “But we trade often with other worlds. Na’aluuh, Dal’ak Kahth. But those words mean nothing to you. I believe in your language you call them Mercury and Venus.”

“They are inhabited?”

“Of course. I have heard that your planet has tried to send probes to both of them, but you are always looking in the wrong places.” A smile crept across the alien’s rough face. “We saw the little wheeled android you sent here. A shame you placed in the most uninhabited area of our planet.

“But the medical supplies that Marissa’s android offers will be valuable. We do have human medicine, but it is a rather limited supply. And it’s only the basics.”

Joshua looked at the robot. He hated that his life was basically in the hands of that emotionless machine.

“But never mind that, for now, anyway,” Xero’lek continued. “We won’t have very long before Zaaltek realizes what I’ve done.” He looked at Joshua meaningfully. “Be brave when you confront him.”

“How long will I be here?”

“Marissa said they’d be back in one Earth year. Plenty of time. They will report to your Earth leader, straighten things up, then bring a larger crew for the rescue.”

Joshua’s pocket burned.

“Be brave, little human,” the alien reassured him. Then, Xero’lek turned and walked out the clay door.

Epilogue:

Sixty Years Later

Sarina Jackson practically flew off the Kratos 2. Her clunky spacesuit made it difficult to move, but her excitement and worry propelled her off the ship with ease. The rest of the crew filed out: Marissa, Karl, and Stephen, along with two other newcomers like Sarina  named Grace and Kevin. The followed Sarina onto the Martian surface. Marissa stepped forward.

“We should be in the right place,” the captain said worriedly.

“There’s a Ka’a Nuthean over on the horizon,” Stephen said, pointing to a large silhouette in front of them. Almost as if it had heard them, the alien began walking toward the group. Sarina’s heart pounded in her throat, and Grace and Kevin looked pretty nervous, but the three original crew members seemed to be able to keep it together.

When the alien got close enough, Sarina gasped. It was very humanoid, but also very different. It’s burgundy head looked like crumbling stone. It was about four human heads taller than Sarina. Grace’s eyes widened and Kevin backed up nervously. But Marissa, Karl, and Stephen were unphased.

“You’re Xero’lek, right?” Marissa asked the alien.

“Yes,” the alien smiled, but there was a sadness in his eyes. “It’s kind of you to remember my name.”

“Of course,” Stephen said. “We could never forget you.”

“Was Joshua able to convince your Supreme Leader to keep the peace?” Karl asked.

The alien’s light orange eyes seemed to darken with sadness. “Yes,” he answered, “Zaaltek has forgiven the humans. Peace has been made.”

“So where is he?” Sarina asked. Her voice came out loud and confident, but with an edge of worry.

The red-skinned creature sighed. “We were monitoring your ship. Everything went smoothly until… until you came too close to the black hole.”

“Black hole?” Marissa asked. None of the crew remembered a black hole.

“We helped guide your ship away from the hole, but….” The alien swallowed. “It took a while. Your ship was locked in a stasis for sixty Earth years.”

“Sixty years?” Stephen asked.

“And, in that time… neither the Ka’a Nutheans nor your android was expecting that long of a delay.” The alien lowered his head.

“No,” Sarina muttered, hardly believing her ears. “No, no, no!”

“He became a very important part of our history,” Xero’lek told them. “Zaaltek is very happy that he came, in the end.”

The words “history” and “end” were each a stab in Sarina’s chest.

“Which one of you is Sarina?” the red alien asked, looking from face to face.

All heads turned toward Sarina.

The creature nodded. “Come,” he said gently, gesturing for her to follow him. “Joshua had an important message for you.”

“Do you want us to come with you?” Stephen asked Sarina.

“No,” the alien said firmly, but his tone was still sympathetic. “Joshua wanted her to get this message alone.”

Xero’lek guided Sarina into a clay building. Only a small, frail robot occupied the spacious room. It staggered toward her on weak mechanical legs.

“Sarina Jackson,” it said. It’s robotic voice stung Sarina’s ears. “This is a gift from Joshua Lomax.”

“I will leave you now,” The alien said. “Joshua wanted you to be alone when he gave this to you.” Xero’lek turned and left, and Sarina stared back at the robot.

The robot held out his hand, on which a small, velvety box sat. Tears welled in Sarina’s eyes. She took the box, and opened it. Inside was a simple gold ring with a small diamond on top. Saltwater poured like a waterfall over Sarina’s cheeks. Great sobs escaped her lips.

“Following is a message from Joshua Lomax,” the robot continued. Then it said to Sarina, in the recorded voice of the one she loved: “Sarina Jackson… I love you. And I’m glad you’ve gotten the chance to hear this, if it really is you. I love you.”

Sarina fell to the ground, holding the ring to her chest. She felt her heart liquify within her ribcage and melt inside of her. There were so many things that she wanted to say to Joshua that she knew she couldn’t. But still, she smiled. Joshua had saved planet Earth, and she loved him.

 

Author's Note

I wrote this a while ago as a school assignment. We had to research NASA robots, and include information that we found in articles and/or videos, so I apologize for anything that doesn't flow right. I wanted a good grade :/ But I also fell in love with the story itself, and I wanted to share it :)