The Space Logs: A Captain’s Journal
SpaceLog: 9185577 – A Stray Astronaut
Stardate: 03212024
Coordinates: Two weeks away from Keid Omicron 2 Eridani
A sudden crash
He was just there
I thought at first we had hit an asteroid
Gone unnoticed by the ship’s shoddy autopilot
The breach sirens all began going off at once, crazed birds of light flinging themselves across one wall then the next
Rehydrated coffee painted pictures of surprise across the antiques paper star maps laid out before me
Monitors flicking from view to view
Frantically searching for cause
When a soft beeping alerted to a pod waiting in the bay for boarding
Out here? In deep space?
Light years from any tourist trap, refueling station or even a faint point of interest?
“Impossible,” I muttered
“Improbable,” corrected the ship in a soft voice
Which earned itself a quick string of poisonous curses
Mumbled like sacred promises
Peered through the porthole in the airlock suspiciously
Some kind of escape pod
Maybe once shiny and new
But it had seen better days
Faded friendly stickers from my homeworld
Decorated the dented, banged up and strangely frayed frame
As if it had been snatched by some cosmic mongrel and shaken until it had begun to forget what
shape it was supposed to be
I had just begun thinking of how familiar it seemed
How someone would go about restoring it
When the hatch bust open dramatically
A figure in a tattered space suit practically fell through
On feet that seemed to threaten to stumble but never quite followed through with their threats
Legs that wobbled with exhaustion but seemed too spiteful to give up on their rush forward
Radiation levels were clear, sensors picked up no weapons
For some strange reason when he slapped his hand on the biometric reader
My ship greeted him with a voice like honey before politely opening her doors
Who does ship thinks she is
Letting in random strays from Deep Space
What next, empire security agents?
I would have to check the drivers and update the security protocols
A swift jerk and click, the battle scarred helmet hiding his face crashed to the ground
Tired eyes full of constellation looked down at me in dazed amazement
“You’re cute,” he simply said, before collapsing unconscious into my arms
Leaving me in the waking world
To try and figure out who exactly this Stray Astronaut was
And how on Izar was going to carry him to the med bay by myself
Fantasy/Sci-Fi FILM & WRITING FESTIVAL 