The Trek — A Soft Landing on a Hard Time

Tonight's Episode

https://herschelsterling.com/#cat-scifi

Astronaut John Officer had been given a punitive assignment. After blowing a whistle on some mandate violations he witnessed on a mission, he was sent to an abandoned post on a diminutive planet in an uninhabited district in Andromeda.

His single-seat craft was programmed to land at an equatorial location. Then he was to wait an unspecified amount of time for an automated rover to pick him up and take him to a base where his supplies and duty protocols were located.

He contacts Control: “Mission Control, John Officer confirming arrival at post assignment.”

CONTROL: “Roger, Officer, await rover. Stand by and update status appropriately. Once aboard the rover, the shuttle will be returned to home base.”

Officer is strained at the orders and at this assignment. He knows he’s being ostracized, and it frustrates him.

JOHN OFFICER THINKS ALOUD: “No way can I sit here. For all I know, they’re leaving me out here forever.”

He knows the coordinates and the planet map, and the base he’ll be stationing is about 8 clicks directly from the front of his craft.

He looks overhead at a starry sky and ahead at a snowy tundra.

“The hell I’m sitting here in detention.” He says. He pops the hatch and stands up. It’s an expansive sky over this tiny rock where the horizon dives within 20 kilometers in all directions.

“I might as well make the most of my alone time.” Officer thinks out loud. He jumps out of the craft. He double-checks his supplies and suit. He takes a look around, then he begins walking and journals his assignment.

OFFICER:

I can hear and feel the dry snow beneath my boots. Though in this atmosphere, it sounds and feels like walking through a field of wet, matted grass. I can almost smell the greenness of an early morning summer dew.

The night sky is an extended veil over this miniature, white gem. A light anomaly reaching out further from the edges of the sphere, the stars at those points are streaks that swirl with the movement of this orb.

Up ahead there is a range. A rocky berm that rises as an arctic wall. It invites my prospecting, and I expect a vigorous relationship. I’ll imagine that beyond it is a new world of inner space.

Let me review my steps and peruse the perimeter. The starkness behind me is a rush as though I’m viewing down the edge of a cliff, but straight into space.

Up ahead, Officer sees the rover breaching the top of the range.

“How can I hide from this damn thing?” He thinks aloud.

440 Words.

https://herschelsterling.com/#cat-scifi

Don’t forget to check out my other podcast, The Arc of The Bard. I haven’t done a new writer’s conversation in 3 months, and it continues to grow. New ones are coming soon, now that this flash fiction marathon is ending.

31 brand-new stories written & podcasted in 31 days