The Sands of P-111

John F. Kennedy, the spaceship Emerald’s AI, reviews the mission’s astral chart with the crew.

“Er-ah, we have passed Gehenna, a habitable planet that was ultimately rejected for exploration by the United Terran Government because it has a surface atmosphere of 822 degrees Fahrenheit, which can boil a human being’s blood in seconds…”

John highlights the next planet on the screen, continuing to speak in his clipped Boston accent. “Er -ah, within the hour, we’ll pass Exidor, where temperatures average two hundred degrees below zero and life, what there is of it, is frozen in time…And then there’s Tesla, our destination, which takes 385 days to orbit the sun. Although a bit rocky, it has a similar temperature and is seventy percent water, like Earth. In between are over a thousand planetoids and asteroids, including S-481, occupied by arachnids that spew a serum toxic to humans; Zircon, whose atmosphere produces eight-foot diamonds; and P-111, which has minimal light and dust storms with winds that can reach a hundred miles per hour.”

“Sounds great for sailing,” Navigator Holden Hathaway comments.

“Er-ah, our research team believes carnivorous dinosaurs once occupied it, the most prevalent resembling an Allosaurus, but they died off when an orbital shift altered the asteroid’s climate.”

“Maybe we should set a course for Zircon,” Holden jests.

“I am not sure I would like to meet the woman whose finger could carry an eight-foot diamond,” Captain Kazimir “Kaz” Kachalov replies.

The Emerald’s three crew members sent to access Tesla’s compatibility for human colonization embody a cross-section of the United Terran Space Force. Brawny fifty-two-year-old Kazimir “Kaz” Kachalov represents the often politically turbulent Euro Eastern Republic. His difficulty with English hasn’t stifled his career - he’s commanded fourteen sorties to other planets and is noted for his leadership skills and calm demeanor.

Thirty-three-year-old Navigator Holden Hathaway represents Great Brittania, a collection of a dozen countries noted for producing scholars, artists, brainy business moguls, and Earth’s ruling class. Gentlemanly and spit and polish in appearance, Holden prides himself on being an efficient, down-to-earth family man.

Twenty-eight-year-old Science Officer Virginia Vestoff comes from Earth’s Northern Province, where all aspects of life, including industry, the arts, and commerce, have flourished. A botanist by trade, Virginia was pressed into service when the original scientist assigned to the mission needed an emergency heart transplant. Unsure of her role, she’s been putting on a brave face but would rather be back on Earth with her plants and her daughter, Apple.

“System check, John,” Kaz orders.

“Again, Kaz?” Holden asks. “I know Johnny’s an artificial being, and he’s not supposed to get upset, but you’ve asked him to do a diagnostic six times today. I’ve been meaning to ask you, Kaz; you could have picked anyone to be our AI, Lincoln, Stalin…”

“Stalin was evil man.”

“Then how about Marilyn Monroe?”

Taz briefly smiles. “Too hard to concentrate looking at beautiful icon staring back at me… Maybe next time…”

“So why pick a John F. Kennedy AI? Why not a Russian AI?” Holden asks.

“He was great man. He is still popular figure four centuries after his death. He brought America into space age. Kennedy said, ‘There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation may never come again.’ Those are words of a great man. He knew space should not belong to America or Russia, but everyone.”

“It’s still weird seeing you speak in Russian to a John Kennedy AI. And as for that Er-ah inflection... Do all Bostonians talk like that?” Holden jests.

“I like it… It is distinguished,” Kaz says.

Glancing at his watch, Holden announces, “Good news. It’s tea time.”

“I could use some black tea,” Kaz says. “When this is over, Holden, we will salute our success with vodka instead of tea.”

“Amen to that. You navigate, John, while I take a break. I’ll bring you back a coffee, Virginia.”

Kaz and Holden head below while Virginia loses herself looking at the stars.

The radio hums.

“Er-ah, incoming message,” John says.

“From where?”

“Out there,” John replies.

“This is Emerald.”

“…This is Virginia Vestoff, Science Officer for the United Terran ship Emerald… Captain Kachalov and Navigator Holden Hathaway are dead… The ship is stranded on P-111… I’ve escaped, but… but…”

“End of message,” John says.

Virginia remains frozen at the observation window, trying to fathom what she’s heard.

Holden waves a cup of caramel coffee under her nose.

“What’s the matter? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“…Heard one is more like it…,” she mutters.

                                                   ***

“This mission, as you Northerners would say, is ‘easy peasy,” Kaz says. “We take a few water samples, a few plants and capture a few indigenous animals. We will be back on Earth in a month.”

“Just in time for my daughter’s birthday,” Virginia adds.

“How old is she going to be?” Holden asks.

“Eight.”

“Smashing. We should set up a play date. My Patti’s going on nine.”

“Might be a bit of a commute between Baltimore and Brighton, but you’re on.”

“Maybe you can borrow this bucket, providing we can get her home,” Holden replies.

                                               ***

Holden glances at his sensor array. “I’m picking up a blip. It’s coming at us from the northeast at light speed.”

“Whoever is piloting that craft is in a hurry,” Kaz notes.

“I think it’s blind. It’s coming right at us!” Holden says.

“Evasive action, Holden. Zig Zag at full speed, and strap yourselves in.”

The Emerald shudders, shifting sideways, and the lights inside the ship flicker.

“It bounced off of us,” Holden says.

“Damage, John?” Kaz asks the AI.

John’s voice is slow and wobbly. “Er-ah, two of the starboard heat shields have been displaced. I’ll check for internal damage.”

“Sounds like Johnny took a hit, too,” Holden comments.

“What was that? A meteorite?” Virginia asks.

“It was made of metal,” Holden notes.

“A satellite?”

“There are no Space Force satellites this far out,” Kaz replies.

“It was a ship. Sensors indicate one occupant,” Holden reports.

Virginia considers telling Holden and Kaz about the message she received but remains quiet, doubting they’d believe what she doesn’t believe herself.

“Er-ah, I’m detecting damage, deck two, engine room,” John announces.

Holden looks at his instruments, a sense of alarm crossing his features.

“He’s right. The engine’s leaking coolant. It could overheat or, worse, explode. We’ve got four, maybe five hours of flight time left.”

Kaz's expression remains a controlled blank. “John, send a status report to Mission Control.”

“…Errrrr-ahhh…er…, Ich bin ein Berliner... Ask not what your fellow crewman can do for you; ask what you can do for them.”

“I’ll state the obvious,” Holden says, “John is malfunctioning. We’ll have to check the systems manually. Crikey, I’m reading an oxygen leak in the living quarters.”

Kaz inhales heavily, calming himself. “We are still five lightyears away from Tesla. We must set down on whatever is closest to us, which is the asteroid P-111. Set a course for it, Holden. I will try to make repairs. As for you, Virginia, you have the task of continuing to try to contact Mission Control and tell them we are, as you Northerners would say, ‘screwed’.”

                                               ***

The three astronauts sit around the breakroom table, unable to look at one another.

Kaz takes a sip from his black tea. “Compliments on the smooth landing, Holden. Any word from Mission Control?”

“Not even static,” Virginia replies.

“Keep trying. I was able to stop the leaks, but we lost half our oxygen supply.”

“Still, that’s just enough to get home,” Virginia says skittishly. “Let’s get out of here.”

“It’s not that simple,” Holden interjects. “We have to replace the damaged plates. They might survive take off, but they’d never make it through re-entry.”

“Holden and I will replace the plates.”

“You can’t go out there,” Virginia says nervously. “The winds are a hundred miles per hour, and visibility is near zero.”

“We’ll be okay. We’ll be tethered to the ship.” Holden says. “You stay here and plan our kids’ playdate.”

                                               ***

Virginia sees only swirling, grey dust outside the Emerald’s observation window. When she turns up the radio to speak to Kaz, the atmospheric interference crackles like popcorn in a skillet.

“Can you hear me, Captain?”

Virginia struggles to hear Kaz’s voice above the howling wind.

“…We read you…”

“…Will be in… In a jiffy…,” Holden adds.

A console light begins to blink.

“I’m picking something up on the sensors…Something big. It’s moving toward the ship,” Virginia says.

“…Identify?...” Kaz’s garbled voice asks.

“The sensors must be malfunctioning again. It’s huge, at least twenty-five feet high. You should be able to see it, even in this soup.”

Kaz’s reply is an agonized shriek.

The raging sandstorm slows long enough for Virginia to see an enormous, grey-skinned lizard with a long tail and dozens of sharp, serrated teeth.

It’s holding Kaz in one of its three-fingered claws.

In an attempt to distract the creature, Holden yells, “C’mon, Ally! Are you hungry, Allosaurus? How about some Britannic beef?”

Virginia can hear Kaz’s bones crack as the creature crushes his body.

His last gasping command to Holden is, “RUN!”

The creature pops Kaz’s crumpled body in its mouth like a savory hors d'oeuvre. It gnashes its teeth, spitting out bones and parts of his spacesuit.

A frantic pounding from outside the airlock freezes Virginia.

Holden’s terrified voice blares out from the radio.

“VIRGINIA! OPEN THE DOOR!”

The creature bangs its massive reptilian skull off the bridge window, howling angrily.

Holden fires his laser pistol at the creature.

“Come and get it, Ally!”

The laser blast only seems to infuriate Ally even more.

Chasing Holden, Ally momentarily disappears from Virginia’s view.

“OPEN THE DOOR, VIRGINIA!”

When Ally’s colossal form reappears a short distance from the ship, it’s holding Holden in its maw.

Ally tosses Holden to the ground, stomping on his body.

The radio crackles. “This is Conway, Mission Control…”

“They’re dead!” Virginia screams in return.

“Send…Coordinates…”

Virginia rapidly enters her location. “We’re off course. We’ve crash-landed on asteroid P-111! Please, send help!”

“…Two months…” Conway’s faraway voice replies.

Their connection goes dead.

“…But I only have enough oxygen for a month…”

                                               ***

Putting on the last remaining space suit and strapping on a knapsack, Virginia ventures outside. She realizes not being tethered to the ship increases her chance of getting lost in the storm, but she also knows she has to get to her dead friend's oxygen packs to survive.

The gritty sand ricochets off her helmet as she staggers toward Kaz. All that remains of his body is a pile of indistinguishable bloody meat and bones. Fortunately, his oxygen pack lies undamaged nearby.

Virginia feels the tears running down her cheeks as she looks down at Holden’s bisected corpse. The pounding sand and the rough atmosphere have already made Holden’s body look less human as if he was made of plastic. Holden’s helmet is cracked into splinters spread across the shifting sand, exposing his shocked, betrayed expression.

Taking his oxygen pack, Virginia turns to head back to the Emerald.

She slows her belabored trek when a bright crack of light appears in the blackened sky above her.

A ship emerges, bouncing to a halt a short distance away.

With every two steps forward, the wind pushes Virginia back an equal amount, but she makes it to the ship half an hour later.

Virginia bangs against the airlock door, realizing it’s open. She slides in, locking the door behind her.

She walks the length of the ship. No one’s on board.

“…Maybe they went out to explore the planet…”

Moving to the bridge, Virginia looks out the observation window at the swirling, unforgiving dust storm.

Her eyes catch the sign above the navigator’s station.

EMERALD.

Virginia goes into panic mode. She wants to run away, but her quivering legs betray her.

Outside, two small shapes battle against the force of the sandstorm, struggling to move toward the ship.

The ship’s radio jumps to life.

Holden’s cold, hollow voice says, “…Open the door, Virginia…”

“No! I saw you die!”

Ally looms behind the two men.

                                               ***

Virginia cowers at the window, watching the creature tear Holden and Kaz apart all over again.

Waiting until Ally disappears, she goes outside, collecting their blood-spattered oxygen packs.

The wind picks up, throwing sand against the windshield of her helmet.

Virginia turns away from Holden’s smashed body, thankful that this time he was killed with his helmet on, keeping her from seeing his look of betrayal.

Virginia pushes on against the wind, unsure which ship to head for. She heads back to the original Emerald, dismissing the second ship as a hallucination and its occupants as ghosts conjured up by her guilt.

But the extra oxygen packs weighing down her knapsack feel real enough.

A strong gust of wind slams against her helmet. Something ticks off her facemask.

Bending down, she picks it up.

“A cigarette butt.”

Virginia wonders why Holden or Kaz would take time to smoke a cigarette down to the filter during their last moments of terror and how they could smoke while wearing a helmet.

Then she remembers that neither Holden nor Kaz smoked.

Suddenly feeling as if she’s not alone, Virginia looks around at the vast, flat, dark surface, barely able to see more than ten feet away.

Squinting, she thinks she sees the shapes of two men. Neither man is wearing a helmet or a spacesuit.

Before her eyes can focus on the two figures, they’re gone.

“…Oh, my God… Now I’m hallucinating… First ghosts, now this…”

Ally's roar hastens her departure. The creature appears out of the thick sandstorm, gnashing its teeth threateningly as Virginia boards the first Emerald.

Ally slaps its tail against the window. Ally storms off when it fails to break, turning one last time to let out an enraged roar before disappearing into the storm.

A flash of light overhead illuminates P-111’s opaque surface.

A third ship lands in the distance.

Moments later, Holden and Kaz appear in front of the window.

Kaz’s voice breaks over the radio.

“…Open the door, Vestoff! That is order!”

“You’re dead!”

“…Let us in…,” Holden begs.

She ignores their pleas, running to the ship’s life pods.

Jumping in the first pod, Virginia starts the craft’s engine, then quickly records a distress message.

“…This is Virginia Vestoff, Science Officer for the United Terran ship Emerald… Captain Kachalov and Navigator Holden Hathaway are dead… The ship is stranded on P-111… I’ve escaped...but…but…I’m setting a course for Earth.”

The communication screen hums. John’s visage stares at her, cross-eyed.

“You’re back online, John?”

“Er-ah, yup.”

“Can I get home, John?”

John’s eyes swirl. “Er-ah, yup. Slingshot.”

“You’re not making sense, John.”

“Er-ah, use P-111’s gravitational pull to catapult you. It will send you two light-years across space… Slingshot…”

                                               ***

Checking the pod’s visual monitor, Virginia breathes a sigh of relief when P-111 shrinks from view.

John appears on the screen.

“Thanks for the advice, John. If your calculations are right, I should be on Earth in a few weeks.”

“Er-ah, Two weeks, two days.”

“Good. I’ll set the sleep station to wake me eight hours before I enter Earth’s atmosphere. Nighty night.”

                                               ***

In her dreams, Virginia remembers her pleasant interview with Gavin Grissom and Ponce DeGamma, the scholarly-looking administrators for the United Terran’s Repopulation Mission. They were pleased with her knowledge of alien worlds and that she showed signs of being a team player.

They told Virginia that Kaz and Holden were equally impressed with her and played recordings they had made commenting about her.

“We got on great,” Holden said. “Virginia’s smart, conscientious, and dedicated to our mission. Kaz and I agree. We can’t think of anyone else we’d rather have watching our backs than Virginia.”

Smiling into the camera, Kaz commented, “She is highly motivated and focused, the type of person who can work with others and not give up. As John F. Kennedy said, ‘One person can make a difference, and everyone should try.’ I think Virginia is that type of person.”

“I’m none of those things,” Virginia thinks. “I’m a survivor!”

                                               ***

Virginia’s uneasy dreams are interrupted by the earsplitting sound of an alarm.

“Er-ah, WAKE UP!”

“What’s happening, John?”

“Er-ah, you’re re-entering the atmosphere.”

Virginia checks the sleep bed’s chronometer.

“I’ve only been asleep for a few hours! What’s going on, John?”

“Er-ah, we collided with another ship. It changed our course. It turned us around…”

Virginia rushes to the window. “Then the planetoid I’m looking at…”

“Is P-111. Er-ah, I wouldn’t be too concerned with that. You’re more likely to burn up during re-entry than having to worry about crash landing on an asteroid populated by a blood-thirsty Allosaurus. Please strap yourself in…”

Virginia tears at her hair, crying.

Looking out the window again, she sees Kaz and Holden looking back at her.

She faints, never hearing Gavin Grissom say, “End simulation.”

                                               ***

Grissom and Degamma watch with dismay as a comatose Virginia passes by them on a stretcher.

A trio of giant wind machines are pushed past them. Two men walk by, holding pieces of mannequins made to look like Kaz and Holden. Nearby, a crane maneuvers a full-scale model of an Allosaurus onto a flatbed truck.

“Another valuable team member lost,” DeGamma says. “We pushed her too far.”

“Vestoff had three chances to help Kachalov and Hathaway and chose to save herself,” Grissom says grimly.

“Maybe she was thinking more about her daughter than herself,” DeGamma offers.

Grissom frowns, nodding at Kaz and Holden as they head to the debriefing room.

“We need crew members willing to sacrifice their lives for one another. Otherwise, this project is doomed.”

“Do you think she’ll be all right?” DeGamma asks.

“They never are.”