The Invisible World
"Base, this is the Constellation, we are experiencing some unexpected gravitational pull." Captain John Connors wished that he could wipe away the sweat that was trickling down the visor of his spacesuit. His spaceship, the Constellation, was just outside of orbit with Saturn, performing a search of the moon Cletus for water. The grainy reply of the base on earth came through. "It is probably just Titan, you are drifting close to it's gravity field. Compensate your course." Captain Connors glanced back at his fellow astronauts, Teak and Alice. "O.K. base, compensating course."
The gravitational pull grew stronger and stronger. Connors activated booster rockets, but not on full, he needed to conserve fuel. Alice spoke on the personal communication channel. "Captain, this gravity field is almost exactly like reentry. If we weren't clearly thirty thousand miles from the nearest moon I would say there was a planet right in front of us." Connors nodded, even though no one could see it from inside his helmet. "Base, we are having trouble breaking away from the field, booster rockets on full, please advise." Static filled the channel. Connors threw some switches, trying to filter out the interference. "Base, come in base. I say again base, please respond." Static. Suddenly Captain John Connors felt very small, a tiny actor against the vast backdrop of space who had forgotten his lines.
The Constellation shook and began pitching down, despite the booster rockets. The three astronauts gasped as, where moments before there had been only a splendid view of Saturn's rings, the surface of a planet, blue with water and green with life, suddenly appeared before them. Connors cut the booster rockets and angled the ship to give him some control. Teak began rattling off the landing sequence checklist. Connors scanned his instruments, looking for a good place to put down. As the Constellation flew in decaying orbit within the atmosphere he considered a wavy purple forest, or a small desert framed by crescent-shaped mountains. Alarms began beeping. A indicator showed that the outside of the ship was flaming hot from reentry, in a few minutes the ship would disintegrate like a shooting star. "Teak, put us down over on that continent, if we can hit it." Connors sat rigid in his seat, unable to do more. Calling for base again and again over the static-choked channel. Parachutes flared out of the Constellation, slowing it to a few hundred miles per hour. The wheels extended, Teak pulled back gently on the stick and the spaceship gently demolished a giant mushroom farm.
Connors, Alice and Teak stepped out of the airlock, dropping slowly to the ground. John Connors didn't think of anything historic to say, he just bent down and ran his hands through the light, pinkish soil. Teak broke in on his profound thoughts. "We have company John."
The alien farmer was staggering towards them. He stood ten feet tall and hopped slowly on a single leg. Three eyes stared out of his blue, filmy, stunned face. Connors held out his hand slowly. The alien hopped forward and looked carefully at it. The strange person from space seemed to be offering him something, but he could not see it. He politely pretended to take something from Connors palm. The alien farmer was relieved, at least these person's were not hostile. His mouth curved downwards in a smile. Teak bounded up in the less-than-Earth gravity and grabbed the alien's hand, shook it, and let it go.
Everyone turned as dozens of three-legged pods bounded into sight and towards them. The pods formed in a circle around the Constellation. Forty tall aliens in black suits bounded out of them and rushed towards the ship, slipping on inter-species communicators and flashing badges with their slender hands. The chief alien approached the farmer. "Mr. Vitzala. I must ask you to forget everything that just happened to you. A Rumosta demolished your mushroom crop." He handed the farmer nine gleaming silver stones. "Fortunately the government is more than compensating you for your loss." The farmer nodded and began hopping away backwards. Teak waved at him. The alien waved back and hopped out of sight. The chief turned back to the astronauts. "You will be taken care off. Your ship will be repaired and readied for launch back to your world. You will be blindfolded and you must forget ever finding this planet." The Connors tried to protest but the black-suited aliens forced him into one of the pods and he was to a isolated facility hidden deep in a waving purple forest.
Four months later Alice, Connors and Teak found themselves four thousand miles from Earth, traveling aboard the repaired Constellation. The communication channel conveniently cleared and the control station came through. "Hey Constellation. Nice to see you back. That solar storm really messed up our comm's." Teak broke in. "Base, you will not believe what's happened out here. . ." A stern voice cut him off. "Teak, save it for the debriefing." Teak sat back in shock. Connors spoke. "We are beginning our approach for reentry, base. Please advise."
The landing went smoothly, without incident. The astronauts were hurried from the spaceship by black-suited men and debriefed separately. Connors was ushered into a lavish room bedecked with ribbons and left alone. Through a window he saw a massive crowd by a stage, waiting for the return of the heroes from space. A clean shaven man in a black suit and dark sunglasses stepped into the room. "Captain Connors. I must warn you not to speak to anyone about what happened to you in space." Connors bristled. "I am tired of people telling me what not to do. What are you going to do to stop me, huh? I'm a hero to these people. You gonna kill me? Or hide me away in some bunker?" The man in black shook his head and chuckled softly. "No John. We are not going to hurt you or threaten you. But nobody will believe you. What will you achieve? At most an official inquiry that we can effortlessly misdirect. Sure, it might make your biography sell better." John paced to the window and looked out. His wife and little boy were standing in the front row, beaming, waiting to see him. He turned back to the man. "But somebody has to tell the truth, even if nobody will believe." The man smiled, threw an arm over John's shoulder and led him to the door. "The world is not ready for this truth John. Go have your moment of triumph, see your family. Collect your generous retirement bonus and spend quality time with your son. Make memories on this planet." John Connors put his hand on the doorknob and sighed. "Alright, I won't go encouraging the conspiracy theorists. But I will never forget what really happened out there."
A cheer roared to life as the astronaut ran onto the stage and into his family's arms. The man in black headed for the back room where the spacesuits were being decontaminated. To anyone else it seemed he was frowning and upset, but inside he was smiling.
I hope you all enjoyed this short story. Please feel free to comment and tell me what you think.
