The ship was drifting. It had been orbiting the earth for about 30 minutes now. There was absolute silence.
Richard thought it was terrible.
He was completely alone with his thoughts. Every once in a while, one of the consoles emitted some strange garbled static sounds. He assumed the ship’s computer was checking local radio communication to make sure its path to the earth’s surface would be clear when it descended – whenever that was.
Richard laid his head back on the chair. His thoughts turned to Madeline. That’s worth going home for, he thought again. He began to think about his job, and all the people he knew there: Bob from accounting, John across the hall, and Isaac in the cubicle next to him. His boss Mike. The janitor, Chris. He knew most of the people on his floor – if not well, at least by name – and as he thought about them, he realized how much they cared about him.
And how much he cared about them.
He thought about his house – his home. He thought about his neighbor, Jack, and Jack’s little min-pin puppy. He thought about the little old lady, Mrs. Martin, who lived across the street and liked to collect frog memorabilia. And what about the elementary school down the road? A lot of times the kids would ride their bikes across the his yard on the way home from school. He never stopped them, even though it often damaged his lawn a bit.
He thought about his home some more. If he was correct about the length of time he had been gone, then his favorite TV show would be in the evening. There was a half-finished copy of “The Return of the King” on his coffee table, which he read every day after work. There was a second draft of a cost proposal open on his computer, which he was hoping to give to his supervisor within the next week.
As each of these things went through his mind, he kept coming back to this thought:
That’s why I’m going home.
Richard was already resolute about returning but now he was even more so. All doubts were gone from his mind. It would take something pretty severe to stop him now… like aliens. Real aliens, not dream/nightmare aliens.
Suddenly, out of the static from the consoles came a voice:
“Attention foreign vessel! This is the United States Air Force, contacting you from the Kennedy Space Station in Florida. Please identify yourself.”
Richard jumped to his feet and frantically looked for the source of the voice. It was coming from a small speaker in one wall. He tried to find a microphone, but he couldn’t find anything remotely resembling one, so he began talking directly into the speaker.
“Hello, yes, uh, my name is Richard Smith, I was on the moon, and then I found this, uh, rocket ship, and now I’m headed back to earth!”
He smacked his forehead. I sound like an idiot, he thought.
Over the intercom, he heard the sounds of confusion. Lots of people were talking at once, and he thought he heard someone say, “I told you, the systems are never wrong about these things!” Then the first voice come back on:
“Richard, there’s a bunch of us down here who wouldn’t believe it until we actually heard your voice. We’re not sure how this is all happening but* o*ur* s&y*#t(ms* s$m*()w &)$*!@^$%^$%#&(**************”
The voice was consumed by static. Richard started yelling into the speaker “I’m sorry, you’re breaking up” and other such things, desperate to not lose the anonymous voice from earth.
Over the static, Richard heard the main console emit a strange sound. Looking at it, he saw the words
“ORBIT DECAYING. DESCENDING TO SPLASHDOWN LOCATION.”
The voice from earth then began to return, saying
“*****(*(!*$)%&#om*uter* sh*ow tha*t your orbit is decaying. You need to correct and maintain your orbit until we can set up a landing zone for your ship.”
Richard stammered, “Well, uh… there’s really nothing I can do about that. You see, uh, the ship is locked into a splash-down location, and we have no power to change it… and I –”
The voice started saying something, but it was covered by static, which grew louder until the speaker shut itself off. Richard stared at it. At least he knew that somebody was aware of his situation – several somebodys, apparently.
He looked out the porthole and caught his breath. It was the earth! This whole time, the porthole was facing away, into space. But now… It was breathtaking. Richard saw the continents and oceans, and all their contours. He saw clouds everywhere, and mountains peeking through them, and greens and browns and blues of all different shades and hues. He couldn’t tear his eyes away.
He soon didn’t have a choice, as the picturesque planet grew closer, and the rocket began to shake. He looked around the interior of the ship and saw that the speedometer was maxing out, and the main screen read
“ENTERING ATMOSPHERE. PLEASE FASTEN SEAT BELT.”
It didn’t take Richard long to get into the chair, as the rocket jerked & flung him into it. He quickly located the seat belt and fastened it securely around his waist. He was glad he did, because he could see flames licking around the edges of the porthole as the ship began to plow through the earth’s atmosphere. Richard thought the ship was going to be torn apart, as the geeforces began to press him against his chair. He began to feel his nauseous, and his the edges of his vision faded. He closed his eyes and used what little focus he could muster to pray for his life.
Suddenly, the shaking stopped. Richard opened his eyes. The flames were gone, and although his vision was still blurry, he could see that the console screen read
“ENTRY COMPLETE. BRACE FOR CHUTE DEPLOYMENT.”
The rocket ship jerked abruptly, slamming Richard against his chair and stunning him. He stared at the instrument covered wall in front of him as he felt the ship flip itself over so that it was pointing towards the sky. He could see the ocean through the porthole, approaching at a swift pace. He couldn’t tell how long the ship floated downwards,
but it
seemed
like
hours
before he finally felt the shock the ship hitting the water and saw the ocean sweeping by the window. The waves began to move up and down against the window, and he saw the parachute collapse into the water.
Richard’s vision swam. Now that it was over, the stress of his entire adventure was taking its toll on him, and he could feel himself losing consciousness. Still in a sitting position, he was on his back, facing upwards. He thought he heard the distant sound of a helicopter, as if from a dream. He then heard something clanging on the outside of the ship. Completely unable to focus, he barely saw what looked like a Navy Seal prying open the door directly above his head. The Seal leaned over the doorway and asked, “Are you Richard Smith?”
As images of Madeline flitted across his mind, Richard could hardly keep his eyes open, but he managed to gasp,
“Yes… but… you can call me… Rick.”
Then, he blacked out, passing into blissful, silent rest.
