ENCOUNTER Troy Hornsby

 

 

He sat against the eastern window that exposed the glittering stars that were sprinkled through the darkness. He twisted the colourful cube that he bought at E-02, hoping to finally get every side to be its coordinated colour. Harlan muttered to himself as the sonar from the control panel pinged at its usual five-second interval.

All was well on The Exodus.

The journey from E-02 to Nebulus 47-3E was usually a five-year journey with the average fuel given to single-shuttle captains—but Harlan Jive was no ordinary single-shuttle captain. He had actively traversed the Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxies to deliver cargo, food, weapons, and even light suits that were able to withstand the pressure of light travel.

In his slow thirty years of life, fifty missions were given and fifty missions were flawlessly completed.

The engine below the steel grates rumbled as the newly tested solar fuel coursed through The Exodus’ veins. Harlan was still as the ship shook and bumped in its flight. The rattling and the empty black fields of the cosmos never worried him. The only thing he did worry about was making it back to E-10 with enough credits to help Mary.

He cursed at the small red square in the bottom-left corner that disrupted the blue space. He twisted the cube again, only for three white squares to now occupy the left side of the blue field. He cursed again and continued to twist the irritating creation.

Outside the large window, a gargantuan yellow planet crept beside the ship. At its centre was a black spot that ate away at its lemon-coloured surface. Darkness surrounded the planet, not offering a speck of light to burn in its presence.

Harlan turned to the window after he slid the cube into his coat pocket and cocked his head. From his jean pockets he took out a paper notebook and an old-fashioned ink pen. He clicked the pen open and wrote down the characteristics of the rogue planet. Yellow exterior. Black in the centre. He shot up to his feet and walked to the control panel. Coordinates: Y-5897, X-986. No signs of life or storm. No water. No sun to exert heat on the planet. Even in the depths of space it does not seem frozen. Maybe an anomaly planet? I’ll send this to BA-465. He ran to the planet log which was a much smaller screen attached to the window. He selected the planet BA-465, a planet governed by Chancellor Reed, and sent the information he had written down. Outside the window, the yellow planet had got closer.

Harlan’s heart jumped. The stars that filled the darkness had now disappeared.

The five-second ping had now shortened to three seconds. Harlan left the yellow planet and the disappearing stars to their lonesome and ran to the control panel. The sonar screen detected an anomaly coming from the east. A red dot floated on the radar, inching closer to the ship. The dot was much larger than all of the other anomalies that Harlan had encountered. He ran back to the window with his body quivering. The yellow planet, which had been miles away at the time of its discovery, was moving faster.

Oh, God. He lifted his foot in the direction of the controls. Before he could take a step, he was airborne. A flurry of pain crawled up his ankle, and he screamed with a dried throat when he landed on the metal grates. The three-second interval had now fallen to a second.

The anomaly was upon him.

The ship jolted again, launching Harlan into the control panel. The knobs and buttons shattered and sparked, sending the ship downward into the abyss. The ship and Harlan screamed; the vessel’s red lights flickered violently.

Blood sprayed across the array of panels and screens. After an eternity of descending and spinning, the ship halted and Harlan fell to the floor. He winced and gripped his bleeding ankle, blood poured from the open wound where the crimson bone stuck out. The ship’s alarm wailed while Harlan dragged himself back to the window where nothing but darkness consumed the outside. There were no stars, no other planets, and the strange moving globe was now gone. Harlan held onto the colourful cube that was still in his pocket and dragged himself to the planet log.

He froze when the ship ascended with no assistance from the groaning jets. The large yellow planet rose to the window, its black-yellow surface now an inch from the window pane, exposing inky cracks running through its exterior like creeks in an open field.

Harlan nearly fainted as he gripped the cube. This isn’t a planet. His heart raced as his leg numbed. The yellow exterior turned black for a moment before returning to its original colour a second later.

It blinked.

For once in all of Harlan’s fifty missions he was not alone.