Monday Morsels: Astraeus

ASTRAEUS

by Haley Cavanagh

Chapter One
 
Year 2140
Sleipnir Science Vessel
Andromeda Galaxy

Dr. Sakota Thorell set her chisel-tip hammer to the side of the moon-rock specimen, ate the last bite of lunch on her plate, and stretched her arms over her head. She’d been so busy analyzing fossils for such a long time, her butt had become one. She shifted in her seat. Hisoka walked over to the window in her peripheral vision. “Hey, Hisoka. Could you grab me the culture tray in the fridge, since you’re up and about? I want to get—”

His sharp intake of breath filled the room, and she swiveled in her seat. “Hisoka?” He ignored her, his palms flat against the window as he stared out at the vast, inky expanse of space. “You okay there?”

“Doc, did you put something in my coffee?”

“Nope. Just cream and sugar, the usual gubbins. I can dope you up if you want me to, though. I’ve some morphine stashed in the back.” When he didn’t retort with his usual one-liner, she frowned. “Why?”

“Because there’s a person floating right outside,” he said, his tone hushed. “He’s got some kind of weird black body armor on, and he’s not wearing any face gear. He’s looking right at me. I th-think he’s alive.”

She cracked a smile. “Oh, jeez. Not this again. Okay, I’ll play along. Let’s say hypothetically,” she made quotation marks with her fingers, “there’s an alien on the—”

“I’m serious.”

His panic-laced, shaky voice shot cold daggers of fear through her.

“Come here, Doc, and look out the window.”

“I know it might have been a long shift and you think us Brits are easy to get one over on, but I wasn’t born yesterday. If you think I’m going to fall for—” Hisoka appeared by her side. He grabbed her hand, yanked her out of her seat, and placed her in front of the window.

“Look.”

Less than a few feet from where they stood, a man floated in the fetal position. A strange black suit encompassed his entire body. It appeared made of unusual mesh-like material, bearing a resemblance to carbon nanotubes. The suit was shredded at the left arm. Torn skin and frozen, congealed clumps of blood latticed the shreds. A thick sheen of shiny frost coated him from head to toe.

“Oh my God,” she said in awe.

The man’s head jerked, and bloodshot light eyes stared back at her. His mouth was set in a firm line, his face full of tension and anxiety. He unfurled his body, smacked his large palms on the glass, and blinked at her. She gasped and put her hand to her mouth. “Get Commander Rutledge. Now.” Hisoka ran to do her bidding.

“Hang on.” She hoped the guy could read her lips. Did he even know what she’d said? Most likely not. He clutched the outer titanium-grated edges of the window and graced her with a panoramic view of his impressive body. She was speechless.

Though his mouth was closed, his chest rose and fell. She looked him over. His features appeared human, but he didn’t seem to breathe through his mouth or nose. How could he still be alive? He kept his frost-lashed eyes trained on her. Sakota heard commotion and turned. Hisoka raced back into the room with Tatiana Morzeleskov, his girlfriend and the resident cosmonaut botanist who ran the hydroponics lab. Her father, Alistair, followed them in and joined her. The shock in his sharp, blue eyes mirrored the exhilaration pumping through her veins.

“They’re suiting up now,” Hisoka related. “Captain gave orders to bring him in alive, if possible, and sequester him after he depressurizes. She’ll meet us down there.”

“Prepare the room,” Sakota said. “I want all medical equipment prepped and ready.”

“Yes, Doc.”

“I’ll help,” said Tatiana, departing with him.

Sakota turned back to the window and nodded to the man outside. “It will be okay.” She tried to convey with her eyes that they wanted to help him. He trembled. His arm muscles bunched as he held onto the metal grooves of the window frame. He moved his thumb against the window, over where she’d placed her palm. She gave him a gentle smile.

A movement caught the corner of her eye. Commander Brent Rutledge was outside. He’d suited up fast! The upgrades they donned when out in space were the newest prototype, designed for high mobility and made from hardened lightweight fiber, durable. The helmet he wore gave him a computerized three-hundred-and-sixty-degree viewpoint. Both were technological marvels.

Tethered to the air lock, Rutledge approached the man from behind, a laser rifle in one hand. Even from here, the three red lights on the rifle’s side were visible, lit, and set to kill. He scanned the man with a handheld radiation detector before securing the device by his side.

She put both palms on the window and shook her head. “Don’t kill him,” she mouthed. Those gormless idiots would end the man’s life before they’d even gotten the chance to get him aboard.

Rutledge locked his arms around the man’s torso and pulled him away from the window. The man opened his mouth and reached for Sakota. Rutledge removed a syringe taped to his chest and jabbed the needle into the exposed side of the man’s neck.

The man fell unconscious. Rutledge tightened his arms around the guy’s chest, engaged his boot propulsion thrusters, and hauled him out of sight.

Sakota whipped around and fled to the containment chambers. 

###

One pre-apocalyptic Earth. One desperate space mission to find a solution. One unexpected alien.

When Dr. Sakota Thorell signed onto the mission to scout out a new, habitable planet, she knew discovering extraterrestrial life was always a possibility. But she never expected to find an alien adrift in space, nor for that alien to be so intriguing. Sakota feels an instant and undeniable attraction to Astraeus, but he represents a million possibilities, and just as many threats.

There are others hunting Astraeus, and his rescue may cost Earth its last hope.

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