By: Katelyn Tijerina and Kai Cutler
~Aster~
Supplies were starting to dwindle; the spaceship is starting to malfunction. Everyone we knew… no, I refuse to think about it. I’m sitting next to Daniel on our bolted-to-the-ground-sofa with a thin blanket; I leaning slightly into him. We watch one of my favorite movies Titanic, which is full of cruel irony in context to this situation. Daniel wordlessly lifts up his arm from where I’m leaning and puts his arm around me; my head falls on his chest. Everything kind of speeds up, my body, my heart, my pulse, my breath. Aware of the position I am in, the entirety of my right side is touching Daniel at this very moment, I froze. Unanswered questions floated in clouds through my mind.
“Are ya alright? I’m real sorry bou-” He starts
“No, no it’s okay,” I said, still acutely aware of everything around me similar to the heightened sense of animals. I feel myself rising slowly off the couch. I looked over at Daniel. He too seemed to be rising. I realized the gravity must have turned off again; I cursed in frustration. My arms and legs sprawled next to me in the air facing Daniel. He slid his hand behind my neck send a shiver down my spine.
He pulls me in stopping right before we make contact under his breath he whispers “Do you wish to continue? insert 50 cents,” I laugh
“Yes thank you for-” asking. I can’t say before he closed the kiss and any and all thoughts melted away which I’m sure isn’t positive but I didn’t have room to care.
“This is crazy,” I say in time with the movie. I haven’t any idea of what I expect him to say, but it was not what he does.
“I know. It doesn’t make sense” he said simultaneously with titanic“That’s why I trust it.” “How do you know the lines?”
“It wasn’t really a choice. my folks never would let me forget it,” I gasped, taking his face in my hands and kissed him“You’re ridiculous.” His hand was on my waist, so I was more or less parallel to the ground, over the couch.
“If I could pick anyone to be stranded in space with it’d be you.” I smiled. In this moment, he is the moon, and I am the Earth. He pulled back and forth on my tides, and I held him in place in this vast extension of the universe.
The gravity returned and we fell on the couch
~ before~
I gain consciousness and immediately take deep gasping breaths. It’s not that you don’t breathe when you’re under, but since you’re sleeping, you’re definitely not breathing the CDC recommended amount of oxygen. I start coughing.
“Too much breathing,” I rasp; trying to sit up to cover my cough, but my head is not met with blank space but with the cold steel of the top of my sleep bunker consequently banging my head.
“Oww,” I lay back down rubbing my head that hurts and the world spinning. I feel my bed moving on its steel tracks. I’m met with a blinding light. I turn my face into my pillow. I look up to see a dark shape move among the white light. Using the process of elimination (giving there’s no one else aboard) I conclude that it is Daniel who woke me up from hypersleep.
“What?” I whine
“Uh, well we seem to have been under for far longer than expected. If this’s a joke, it’s a nasty one,” I winced, he is visibly pissed.
“Wait, seriously,” I ask wiping the sleep out of my eyes.
“Yes seriously.” I bend at the elbow and open my palm. He takes it and lifts me up to a sitting stance. I put my hands on my head fiddling with my orange curls.
“Okay… so, what?”
“While we were under there was a massive solar flare, it completely wrecked our computers. luckily life support system kept us alive till now, but we have no idea what’s happened in the time that we were out.”
“Oh that does, in fact, sound like a problem,” I say pondering our options
“Ya no shit” Daniel says in frustration. I notice Daniel eyeing my face; I wouldn’t be surprised if I looked terrible, I know they say people need beauty sleep but this beauty isn’t pretty after years in hypersleep. I haul myself up to try and access the situation a little better than I could in bed.
“Have you tried contacting NASA?”
“Nearly a million times and a half I’d say, but not a single one did they answer”
“Thrilling,” I rub my face and suddenly notice how thirsty I am. “Water?” Daniel doesn’t have enough time to answer before I spot an opened water bottle on a counter. I grab it and gulp in large amounts of water.
“That uhm, that’d be mine.”
“Oh… my god… I’m sorry, I, I didn’t know.” I look away embarrassed
“I was pretty much done with it anyway.” he rubs his neck and looks down at the floor. Blood seemed to rush to his cheeks making them flush.
We came to the sun; Daniel and I had glasses made to protect our eyes from the harmful rays of the sun. We watch out the windows as the sun comes into view. It is indescribably beautiful. We simultaneously made eye contact. The sun is reflecting in his eyes, and he is equally as beautiful. We head back to the earth after collecting data going back into hypersleep is not something I am looking forward to. However I was excited to see my family again
~Daniel~
When we wake up again we’re still at the sun but it appeared to have shrunk. I look out and realize what had happened in awe. I am consumed by fear this red sphere is… My face goes numb and my hands start to tremble, I reach toward it, I am compelled to scream and start digging my firsts into the ground. no! no! It hasn’t happened this is a mistake. Someone just broke the matrix. Someone’ll fix it. I can feel the pain in my heart. It is true… that red sphere it’s no second sun, no that is the earth or at least that’s what it used to be.
…
Within these few seconds as if on cue, the whole ship started flashing red. It would immediately send anyone into a panic, and so it did.
“What’s happening!?” I scream while I attempt to keep a logical mind about me
“I’m not quite sure, but this is almost assuredly unwelcome. We will collide with the remnants of the earth if we continue,” he says calmly the panic showing on his face.
“What if we launched out in a safety pod? It’s pretty big, and it could safely land.”
“Hmmm, then what shall we eat? My first reaction is you,” he says scathingly
“It’ll be fine. There are things that we need to survive on the safety pod and we’re close enough to the moon to land.” As the spaceship starts collapsing, we race to the pods on the other side. I happen to look back to see that no one is behind me; the floor collapsed beneath him. I kneel and reach out to Aster. If he didn’t make it to the pod, I would be the last person, all alone and I was most certainly not going to have that. “Grab my hand!” I yell I lift him up. We continue in our desperate attempt to reach the pod. Aster had made it in first, and right as I reach for him, the door closes shut.
~Aster~
I reach the escape pod, and I hear Daniel say something, but I couldn’t understand. I turn around. I’m considering asking him to repeat himself. However, as I turn around before I could say anything, I see the door is closed, and Daniel’s on the wrong side of it. My heart drops to my stomach. Oh, fuck no!
“What do I… Oh God! Fuck! I don’t… Daniel!” I scream. He yells back, but all I hear are muffled cries. I’m patting the door looking for how to get out, the touchscreen that controls the door is malfunctioning. I’m slamming my hands bloody on the door, and the touchscreen is flashing red.
“Bloody idiot!” I aim at the inanimate object. I look out at Daniel who looks back absolutely terrified, and my heart just… ahhhh. I can’t bear this. Tears start to form around the perimeter of my sight. My vision’s blurry. My heart pounds so loud, and my other senses seem to malfunction along with the spaceship. Red flash, heartbeat, darkness, heartbeat, darkness, heartbeat, red flash… Daniel will die if I can’t get his bloody arse onto the pod and I too will die of the most natural kind… heartbreak. The door starts sporadically closing and opening. I see flashes of Daniel wide-eyed and scared. It scares me more than I can process. I force myself into action, monitoring the door’s movements. I taking a closer look I notice the movements of the door weren’t exactly sporadic as I’d concluded before. It’s open for approximately 10 seconds before closing but there was no real way of telling. I had an idea, but if it was not done with exact precision, Daniel would be crushed under the 200-pound door effectively splitting the second to second to last person ever into two equal pieces. I quickly explain my idea to Daniel in between the shutting and opening of the door.
“Okay quickly now,” I warn both me and Daniel effectively.. Daniel just nodded. There was nothing else to say. This moment was devoid of words. ‘Okay’, I say to myself as I move anxiously. I breathe slowly attempting and failing to control my breath. The door shut, and I count down on my fingers and mouth the numbers through the small, circular window. 3, 2, 1. The door opens, and Daniel jumps.
I think back to the first time I saw Daniel, I was sitting in my first ever class on how to be an astronaut. I never really wanted to be an astronaut, but I always had eyes for the stars. Though, I never thought I’d get to meet them. A lot of the biggest moments in my life were held under the stars. I had earned that I’d won my first science fair while walking home under the stars, I remember getting the call and the happiness that overtook the moment. I got mugged under the stars, I remember the bloody lip and the fear that had run through me; I’d had my first kiss and second and third under the stars, and even my parents had gotten divorced under the stars on the driveway in front of my house my mom screaming about abandonment and such as my and my siblings watched from the window, and now it seems among the stars is where the last human and a friend was going to die in front of me, right now. I was going to watch the lights go out in his eyes, as he struggled for both life and breath. My first death under the stars and as it goes last heartbreak.
Daniel ran into me hitting me hard and knocking me over. Our faces inches away. Relief washes over me in waves, and we both start laughing so hard, and I’m so happy. Daniel screams out in pain. I feel his whole body tense and the scream’s bludgeoning. I cover my ears, and I almost regurgitate lunch when I saw what had transpired.
~Daniel~
I scream out in pain, attempting to grasp what I’m experiencing. I hold Aster’s hand, and I squeeze it in torment.“I don’t blame you but-” Aster screams in agony, and soon we are both screaming in pain and agony. It feels as though my leg throbbed all the way down to where my foot.. used to be. My knuckles started to turn white from the force with which I held Aster. I had little sympathy for his hand when I looked down.
“Aster, Aster!” my eyes bulge.
“I know I know!” Aster looks away and grabs a lighter. He kneels down next to me.
“Oh no, Oh no!” I try and army crawl away. “No way, your crazy” I breathe heavy
“ Honey, It’ll help.”
“No, no” I shew him away “I think I’ll bleed out”
Aster takes off his belt and hands it to me. “You know what to do” I let out a long string of curses that even the devil himself cringed but Aster didn’t waver “Ah fu-” Aster puts the belt between my teeth.
I screen as I feel the sensation and smell of my flesh literally burning. It was just as bad if not worse then getting my foot taken off. My screams ring out across the escape pod and are lost to the eerie silence of space outside. It feels as if it’s been days in a matter of moments, and I can feel my teeth sinking into the belt. The pain is just too-.
~Aster~
Daniel passes out in my arms, which for the amount of pain he’s in is more than understandable. I propped his head up with a bag I’d found; I tend to the wound the best I can. I happened to have a first aid class in preparation for the flight, but my skills were mediocre at best. I wrap up the remnants of his foot… leg? He sleeps softly. I put the auto piolet on set for the moon. Technology really has come a long way. I lay down next to him, resting my head on one arm and my hand on his chest hoping to provide some unconscious reassurance.
We descend onto the moon. The landing isn’t terrible, but it makes room for improvement. Daniel somehow sleeps through the entirety of the landing. ‘Must be a deep sleeper.’ I shake him slightly, not wanting to startle him especially considering the amount of pain he’s in. He sits up fast looking frantic, looks at his foot or lack thereof, turns to the side I’m not on (luckily), and throws up.
“I’m sorr-” he throws up again and I pat his back,
“It’s okay; you’re in a lot of pain.” He just nods, probably mortified that he just threw up in front of the last person, We shuffle to get our space suits on avoiding the throw up; I help Daniel get his on after a lot of reluctance on Daniel’s part. The spacesuits are a lot less bulky than they used to be, now fitting snuggly around the body and inflating ever so slightly to make room for oxygen. We cover our faces with masks and I can s see him pretty clear. Daniel refuses to make eye contact as we head out arm in arm.
“Whoa,” I said looking into the universe, stars surrounding us, my eyes met Earth.
“It’s Halloween and,” my eyes form tears, “Earth is pretending to be,” I hiccup, “the sun,” I laugh and start bawling like a child. Every- everyone I know… is… is just gone, not there, Ku-put. Daniel hugs me. It is so unfair. It is so unfair that he is providing me with comfort when I am holding him up and the bottom right of his spacesuit has nothing in it. I cry and I cry and I cry. The tears had no escape, so they just run down my body until I can feel them on my toes. Daniel isn’t mad that I am crying, still having two feet or that his family is also… no longer partaking in the continuation of living. He just holds me until I decide to continue.
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry… this is, this is stupid.” I say through tears “this isn’t going to fix anything”
“Crying doesn’t fix anything. However, we don’t cry to solve, we cry to release”
We travel for days on end. We learned about the old research center before we ever even planned on making a pit stop at the moon. It was created years to millennia ago we still had no idea the year or time. We knew it was here and eventually we found it. “A gift from God,” Daniel remarks.
I roll my eyes. “Luck is as luck does.” There’s food for a while and a sort of green room; nothing had been planted in a while, but it is definitely reusable.
~Daniel~
The Earth and the sun are both engulfed in flames; nothing matters anymore and I start to wonder if anything ever mattered. We have natural light everywhere. I work in the garden. Gardening had always been my hobby. I learned it from my mom and It was my favorite pastime with her; she is gone now, and I continued attempting to make sense of everything to no avail… Aster strolled in while I am gardening, probably just checking me. Since this whole endeavor, we’ve grown quite close. I wipe my eyes.
“Hey” Aster came to my level. Sitting next to me and rubbing my back.
“My mom and I used to garden like this. “I sniffle “ I just wish I had been with her or that she was still here.” I feel tears welling up in the sides of my eyes.
“It’s okay I’m here for you when you need it.” Aster remains in contact while we sit in silent mourning.
I say “Thanks…” and we continued gardening in silence.
~After~
The revolution of the moon made it devastatingly tedious throughout our stay. I could see Earth from all angles. After a month and a full rotation, we saw the entirety of the Earth, and it was not pretty. I contemplate the beautiful painting that the original astronauts must’ve gazed upon versus the horrendous sight my eyes fall upon now. I sniffle, and I kick the ground, and I yell, and I cry, and I scream. How could this happen? Why were they dead and not me? I yell at the sky, and scream to the ground, and shout at a rock. I fall to my knees and whisper to the ground. Then I fall on my side and cry to the stars.
We saw many rotations after that; years, lifetimes worth. We saw the fire die out, and green slowly overcome the planet once again. The planet we loved to destruction. The inevitable came, the lab started malfunctioning. But we both knew what this meant. We didn’t discuss it, we didn’t need to. we already almost died once; the oxygen just randomly shut off. Thankfully we both made it to the green room on time, and we just couldn’t reproduce. There is nothing we can do… we had food and water thanks to the green room. After that, we just accepted the inevitable. We were the last of humanity. I suppose we should be thankful, but it’s hard when you’re sitting on the moon, the earth on one side and death on the other.
We sit on the semi-comfortable couch. We know it is now, no good evidence but a shared gut feeling. Titanic plays softly on the TV.
“I’m glad it was you,” I whisper
“I’m glad… It was you,” a small strand of tears followed the same path down his cheek. It isn’t sadness but happiness that we’d found someone to live our days with, to share our hopes and dreams, to have worth holding, and to say goodbye to.
We kiss and the power shuts off.
Picture from;
Erwin, Sandra. “Military Space Situational Awareness 2020.” SpaceNews, 4 May 2018, spacenews.com/artificial-intelligence-arms-race-accelerating-in-space/. Accessed 4 Sept. 2020.
