First Mission

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say.

I was never one to believe anything could exist in the vacuum of space without some kind of spacesuit. Merely because it isn't capable of harboring life forms without some kind of additional support. Let alone hear any sound. It just isn't physically possible.

So the night I heard a knocking from outside my shuttle I just figured it was space debris bouncing off the ships electron shields. However it just did not stop. I tried maneuvering the ship into a different sector but the knocking resumed almost as soon as I had locked into a new quadrant of space. Almost like it was following me. I checked my sensors and nothing popped up. I figured the debris just might be too small for the sensors. So I ended up putting on some noise cancelling headphones and continued my scans.

I was investigating a small planet on the edge of the Proxima Centauri System, One of the first manned missions out this far from my home planet Earth. I volunteered to go where no man had gone before. On a mission, to explore new places for humans to inhabit instead of fixing our problems on Earth. Mostly to get away from the overpopulated planet. It was nice and peaceful. Just follow my procedures and jam out to my tunes in the vast emptiness of space, run my scans, analyze it and send it back to home base. Rinse and repeat.. I was just beginning to kind of miss people a few months into it. Just kinda.

The knocking continued as I prepared for my sleep cycle faintly amidst my music. Almost with the beat. My shields were holding steady at 98 percent so I slipped into my sleeping bag and strapped down for the “night”.

I was awoken but a loud and very solid thud and an alarm indicating my shields had gone down to 95%. I popped over to run a perimeter scan and I found nothing. Strange, I thought. Maybe it was a big piece of debris, luckily the knocking had stopped. I made sure my shield field was stable and slowly regenerating itself, then tucked myself back in. I had a few estimated hours before my morning routine.

No sooner had I drifted off into sleep the knocking resumed. This time more repetitive and rhythmic almost like a beat to a song. I stayed conscious for a few minutes waiting to hear an alarm but the n all was silent and I drifted off into sleep again.

My watch went off at exactly 0435 hours in space time. Technically it was Central Standard but what time zone would I be in this far from home I wondered. I stretched and wiped off my face with a pre moistened towel, brushed my teeth, combed my hair and opened some space food. I used to wonder what it tasted like when I was a kid but after a few weeks of eating the same rotating meals. there was almost no flavour anymore so I ended up putting a load of hot sauce in my breakfast hashbrown packet.

I downloaded the scans that were taken while I was resting and began my daily morning routine. Just as I had finished my systems check the knocking resumed. But it seemed more… intentional instead of random space debris. It almost had a rhythm going. Once again I ran my perimeter scans and nothing showed up. I maneuvered my shuttle again and all was quiet.

As I began to review my overnight scans I could hear something gently tapping, almost softly rapping, and then a continuous rhythmic knocking.

Kunk kunk kunk kunk.

Kunk kunk kunk kunk

Kunk kunk kunk kunk.

Now. I was extremely curious. What the heck was going on? I double checked my perimeter scans and still found nothing. My shields were holding steady and back up to 100%

You know, they say curiosity killed the cat. Unfortunately I like cats and my curiosity was my worst enemy. I donned my space suit and entered the airlock. The was nothing in the systems detecting any external objects so I figured there may be something attached to the exterior of my ship causing this knocking sound. I logged my exit and decompressed the airlock.

Fwoosh! I felt the rush of atmosphere venting as the dock opened. I floated out into the void. I drifted a few metres away from the ships exterior but I could barely see anything. I switched on my suits lights and began a visual scan of the ship. As I rounded the planet side of the ship I saw what appeared to be space debris the size of a football bouncing on and off the hull of my ship.

I jettisoned my way over to examine it closer. There seemed to be a rope or something caught on the seams of the hull, attaching the object to my ship. I moved closer to knock it loose. As soon as I was within a few feet of the thing I realized that what attached to object to my ship was not a rope but appeared to be a tentacle of some sort.

My spine tingled. Holy cow! A space alien? The was no eyes or mouth just seemed like a regular old rock with a tentacle. Curiosity got the best of me and I felt pretty safe with my gear on so I moved closed to prod the thing. As I was just inches away the rock turned around on its own, revealing more tentacles than that of a squid.

Big mistake. It shot out its tentacles and took ahold of my suit. I tried to jet away but I was trapped. It made its way to my helmet and began repeatedly smashing itself against it with the familiar rhythmic. KUnk, Kunk, KUnk, CRACK.

I screamed.