Lost in Space

The sirens immediately woke him up from his comfortable dreams, causing shivers throughout his sickly body. John rolled his fatigued eyes, as he could not remember the last time he had good sleep. The good old days of eight hours a day on planet Earth are gone. Every day is a source of concern for Laninea Spaceship. Despite the overwhelming fatigue, John scrambled out of bed in his yellow astronaut suit, floating out into his meticulous office, which was full of sophisticated designs of spaceship machinery, and machinery, towards the control panel.

He was the sole astronaut for this mission. Every breakfast was spent alone. Every lunch alone Every dinner was a microwaveable meal. There were no other candidates with his level of expertise. He signed the contract, and without fulfilling the terms of the contract, he would be fired with no money to afford his daughter’s hospital treatment. John thought about his daughter every day, endlessly, as he missed her more and more, his only wish was to see her again.

Rushing to the flashing screen on the control panel, an unidentified object similar to the size of a meteor was approaching. He tried to estimate its speed using artificial intelligence but it was high beyond measure. John felt blood rushing through his veins and he could hear his heart pumping faster by the second. He gritted his teeth and pulled the emergency evacuation signal, retrieving immediately to the hatch inside the cabin to redirect the ship.

What he discovered only made his hands tremble more. The lever for the accelerator stayed up, but resisted backing down regardless of John’s attempts. Entering using his private login, his worst fear came true when the operational computing codes were hacked by an unknown source. The buttons on the control panel flicked randomly, and did not respond to John’s voice commands.

Sweat rolled down John’s pale face as he flustered about this mysterious and complex situation. He directed a call to his team back on Earth to seek information, but all signal was lost. He glared around him at the dark, empty galaxy. The astronaut suit was drenched in his sweat. This was not the best time to hyperventilate. However, John had no control over his nerves. It has been 467 days since he saw light. 467 days of missing his precious and sick daughter. Instead of being there for her on her birthday, he could only watch a short blurry video of her celebration two days after, he also missed her daughter’s funeral which was around two months after her birthday. There have been three attacks by unidentified alien sources and John could feel that one of it was coming right at him right now, but he persisted onwards.

“BANG” the ship spun off course like a speeding cricket ball. John collapsed to the ground like a ragdoll, with his head slamming down on the cold metal floor. His gray eyes dimmed from time to time from the tumultuous motion of the ship. The wailing siren sounds were drowned out by his heavy breaths. John clutched onto a ledge on the stairs and forced himself back up. He just couldn’t take it anymore but he had to. The violent motion of the ship launched a metal storage box towards his body. The components spilled, with screws piercing through his suit. He raced to the lever to decelerate. The plan backfired, with the lever releasing itself, with its parts slicing effortlessly to form a deep cut below his left eye almost blinding him.

He collapsed to the ground, and the world around him began to fade, but John knew what was coming next, his last wish was coming true. “Daddy!” a little girl shouted with delight as John recognised the little girl that was holding him in a tight embrace as her daughter, “it was just 467 days” thought John “before it actually came true.”