Day 04. The Space Capsule
Well it seems that events have taken yet another strange turn for the worse and I now find myself in quite possibly the oddest place I have ever been and perhaps the oddest place I can even imagine. It’s also quite possible that you will not believe me if I tell you that I am actually inside the belly of this giant starwhale that currently surrounds me, who seemed to take a fancy to this shiny new space capsule hurtling through space, unfortunately with myself inside. Really you can’t help but laugh at the whole situation, but I figure I’m reasonably safe in here, at least for a while anyway.
Starwhales, from what I’ve seen on those space wildlife documentaries, have one of the most complex digestive systems of all celestial animals, able to digest virtually any substance in existence, though the whole process is extraordinarily slow and takes place over about a year or two. I can’t make out too much of what else is in here with me just with the light from the capsule; seems to be quite a lot of rocks, junk and metal all mixed in together floating in some kind of viscous yellow liquid. It is however surprising how gentle and stable it is in here, even if it is quite disgusting.
At first I was more than a little worried at the prospect of being eaten alive by a starwhale, thinking that I may have had to blast my way out, but I’ve since established a communications link with the nearby space station through the stomach walls of the whale. The station is apparently well equipped to handle these types of situations and they have told me not to worry, that they are sending someone out to retrieve me soon. So I think at this point I’ve stopped expecting that my life will just settle back down into a normal, dull rhythm of monotonous tasks and rituals; at least not any time soon. I am thinking however that it will be nice to get out of this cramped little space capsule at last, enjoy some real food instead of these little replicated nutrition pellets I’ve been nibbling on all day, and maybe just to have a nice cold Tyrellian beer in a decent station bar with a nice atmosphere and a few friendly faces.
I’ve tried to busy myself with various things while in here, but for some reason nothing seemed to be helping very much. I was feeling a little bit nauseous a short while ago, looking out of the small window into infinite space, just waiting and watching and thinking and waiting. I had to dig around in my pocket to look for one of my pills, when I came across my plastic pill container that had in it the parts from that macrovirus green phage from the junk ship. I looked through the plastic at the mangled metal body of the poor little creature and although I know it probably sounds more than a little bit strange, I almost felt an eerie kind of compassion towards the thing. I recognised an ever so vague similarity between it and me, shooting aimlessly through space, attempting to cling onto existence as best I could and just waiting for something to cross my path.
I thought for a while about my simple upbringing back home on the farm, my desperate longing, after the incident, to train at the Star Force Academy and really make something of myself, but then afterwards, resigning my dreams to the various jobs that I guess I was subtlety persuaded into taking on, just to pay the imaginary bills for thruster fuel, hyperdrive crystals, communications subscriptions, cigarettes and alcohol, all the latest in clothes according to galactic trends, one more reality screen for your bedroom and about a million other must have, optional extras. Until I finally began selling and performing consciousness uploads on behalf of the prestigious Immotec Ltd. I had finally made it, or so I thought. Lots of things just kept going around and around in my head, that feeling of isolation had compounded and the beeping and buzzing walls of the small space capsule appeared as though they were somehow closing in all around me.
Things were beginning to get pretty desperate. I think there is only so much sitting and thinking about nothing and doing nothing but thinking that one person can do before they begin to lose it, but hope, it seems, has somehow raised its head from the shadows, where it almost seemed to have been lost forever. A tiny blip had appeared on one of the small data screens on one of the lower panels and then another just beside it. The long distance scopes it seemed had detected something dead ahead, directly intersecting the escape pod’s flight path. Although many of the pod’s instruments were foreign to me, a few looked familiar and I tried the best I could to get some idea what these two objects could be. It took some time and a bit of playing around, but as they began to draw nearer, the two objects became clear on the main display. One was a medium sized, orbital space station, the other, a giant starwhale.
Ok, so I guess I’d better start using my time here a little wisely. I suppose I could bring you up to speed with what I was going to tell you earlier while still on the junk freighter, when I didn’t get the chance, just a little about me and how I came to be out here in the far reaches of space to begin with, so far from home. Perhaps if I manage to recount these events, then I might be able to understand a little better about the mess that I’m in now, somehow involved with, things that once seemed so far away and distant, things that never really rested heavily upon my mind until now. Now let me think.
Well actually I don’t really know anymore now really. I thought I did, but now it seems I don’t. It’s incredible how fast opinions and views on everything can change in an instant. I’m thinking now that maybe with everything that’s been happening that I’ve just been worrying just a little too much. It’s not like me at all to be thinking about things like this for too long, but I think it’s just the environment, enclosed in here all alone and confined to this small space seems to have a terrible effect on me. I can’t seem to put together any two thoughts or make sense of either one. And was it my imagination, or did that wall just move?
So I think I am going to have to make the decision pretty soon, whether I even want to get involved with any of the things that seem to have forced themselves into my life these past few days. I didn’t ask for any of this to happen you see, but now it almost seems like I can’t escape it. Sometimes I think there may be higher forces at work here, controlling my destiny and everything that happens. I know it’s most likely just me being paranoid again and the idea is kind of absurd that there would be someone or something, some hidden force controlling my destiny. So from now on there will be no more if I really want to get anywhere. It’s strange what time alone with just your thoughts can do to you.
Adrift in the blackness of space, alone in this cramped little escape pod, I sit, surrounded by various instruments, controls and display screens, all beeping and flashing away like mad. I’ve checked them all, but none of them seem to pick up the slightest bit of realityvison at all, so unfortunately it seems I am stuck in here with little but the crazy thoughts in my head to pass the time away. I don’t mind it too much though, as it can possibly afford me the opportunity just to think about things for a bit and it also gives me a bit more time to write in here, about the way things were before, and how they came to be now.
I actually managed to get a few hours sleep before, despite the fact that finding a comfortable position to lie down in here is a damn near impossibility and I now have a rather sharp pain in my neck where it must have been bent into the wrong position for just a little too long. You’d think they would have designed these things with a little more care, with people in mind perhaps, maybe not just profit and cost minimisation. Seems that’s just the way things are these days. I wonder if it could ever change.
The space capsule was virtually without controls and seemed as though it was programmed just to emit a distress beacon at regular intervals. I wonder how far away it is from the nearest star system. Most escape pods have only limited propulsion capabilities and navigation instruments, so even if I knew which way it was to an inhabitable planet, I’m not certain I’d be able to steer us in the right direction. And so it seems I am to wait here, absolutely dependant on whatever future the universe has for me. I am optimistic in the hope that I have most likely been cast away along a populated part of the galaxy, a frequently used trade route or something and it is quite possible that I will be picked up fairly soon, today or tomorrow even by a freighter responding to the distress signal, but then again, there is a slight possibility that I could have drifted off course, beyond all hope leading into uncharted, solemn space, and I could be adrift indefinitely.
