When the Eyes of the World Close

It was as quiet as anything she had ever heard. Her ears strained to grasp at anything in the zero gravity air. The USS-Nirvana's engines had always been humming along beside her, always keeping her company. But now, nothing.

She floated in the darkness of the spaceship. The only light that appeared, appeared as beam below her. The beam of light casted through the window of the emergency door. Speckles of dust danced alone in the glow of the window. The moon lay infront of her and the ship, big and dead. She didn't know how she was going to land. She didn't know how she'd reach Houston. Could she even signal the International Space Station? How was she to contact the Galaxy-Y Mars Relay Ship to warn them the supplies are in danger?

Sandy Hopskins free floated with her eyes shut. Trying to find some sort of peace of mind, some sort of shelter to build a refuge from the outside. Things had went from bad to worse in a matter of seconds. Houston had been experiencing difficulties, static had been all Sandy had heard for the last ten minutes before the crash. A piece of space trash, what looked like a former satellite abandoned some 50 years ago, had collided into the USS-Nirvana cutting all of its power. This was the worst case scenario, there was no emergency back up generator because following the initial crash there was another crash with what looked to be a buick. What was Sandy going to do?

She began to hyperventilate.She couldn't reach Houston or anyone? There was no one to save her, but herself and what were her options? She knew exactly where she was and it was the last place in space she wanted to be. She and the USS-Nirvana were free floating towards the Earth's orbiting space dump. Now, for the first time in Sandy's life, she regretted having such a clean planet especially with such a dump being made out of the universe. What would she do?

With power it would be simple, she could turn the rudders and head in the direction she wanted. Preferably a more safe route, free of debris and chaos. Bam!

A smaller piece of trash had collided with the spaceship. The closer together the crashes with debris occurred the closer the ship was getting to the dump. The revolving trash dump would crush her, the ship and all the supplies if she didn't do something. But what? Her heart raged against her chest as she inhaled oxygen as fast she could. 

"Wait oxygen, it was powered by the generator. There was only a finite amount of air then. This was no time to panic," Sandy reasoned.

Skreeeeeeeeeek. 

Another piece of trash grazed the side of the ship. Sandy needed to get out of the path of the space dump. But how? How could she turn the rudders? Her heart began racing again, but she took in a few deep breathes. Sandy settled into the moment. Between everything that had gone wrong and everything that could go wrong. She knew what she had to do.

There was only one option, she would have to repair either the main generator or the backup on the outside of the ship. It was the best option, she could maintain the ship's oxygen level by using her spacesuit's supply. Worst case scenario she could adjust the rudders herself using the handle of a space-jack for a space-rover she had on board. 

She put on her suit and soon all she could hear was her own steady breathing. She attached a tether to herself along with a back up. She was alone, the final ascent to the moon was to be manned alone. She resented this now more than ever. Now this, the space trash, and the one man moon missions they were all very bad ideas. They said it was more efficient, but rumor had it, that it was to cut insurance costs. Two astronauts going to the moon would be a very expensive insurance policy. She resented that, she resented being alone.

She would pay anything now to have someone with her. Anyone to tell her what she was doing was not only dumb, but wrong. That there was a better way. In Sandy's head though, there was no other way. This was it and it was do or die. 

She stood in front of the emergency door, staring out the window at Earth's illumination. Its white clouds painted above endless waves of blue water made Sandy feel smaller than she had ever felt. More alone than she had ever been. The Universe could swallow her whole and no one would be none the wiser. 

"After all," she thought. "She had to come all the way out to space, the last frontier, just to get noticed."

She sealed the hatch above her to maintain the last bit of oxygen left in the ship. The steel bolts slid into their grooves sealing Sandy to her fate. There were more oxygen tanks she could use, but that was only in the worst case scenario. She made a mental note to remember she stored the tanks by the spare spacesuit and hammer next to the emergency door. Just in case.

She secured her tethers to the ship. They were the last thing to keep her in contact to the humanity she held so dear. She put on the space suit and grabbed the handle of the rover's space-jack. The time had come. She twisted the hatch on the emergency door until the moment came. 

The last twist that would send her out into space. Sandy closed her eyes and when she reopened them she twisted the hatch with a squeak. The door burst open to a glowing Earth revolving before her. A vaccum shot Sandy out into a sea of black twinkling stars. Every instinct in her gut twisted to tell her she should be falling. But instead, she hung in the abyss of space surrounded by glimmering galaxies. The tethers still attached her to the last shread of humanity. 

The ship was suspended before the orbiting space dump and the safety of the moon. Sandy was crawling across the ship when a rubber tire bounced across the USS-Nirvana leaving a black streak on its white exterior. The orbiting space dump twisted in a gnarled mash of trash and debris just in front of her. There was no time to look at the generators, if she wanted to live she would have to try and turn the rudders. 

She crawled to the base of the ship. There was no silence now, old mattresses, bicycles, plastic water bottles and other pieces of humanity's consumption were now pelting the USS-Niravana on a regular basis. 

Sandy forced the jack against the rudder, but nothing. She hopped to the other side of the rudder to pull on the jack handle. To her surprise the rudder shifted into place. The spaceship began to twist downward away from the dump. It wouldn't be enough to get past the space dump though.

Sandy crawled to the adjacent rudder to begin pulling on the jack handle. The rudder didn't budge. She pulled and pulled and then, she slipped. She began floating further and further away from the ship. Away from her last hope of connecting to her fellow man. She reached for nothing trying to swim back to safety, but she was done for. There was no hope now, she would either be crushed by the dump or suffocate somewhere in the vast vacuum of space.

She stopped. The tethers held. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to begin pulling herself back to the ship. Then she was struck by a broken rocking chair. 

The rocking chair split her facemask like a spider's web. The glass kept in her oxygen, but only just. Then another piece of trash hit her, knocking the wind from her gut leaving her gulping for air. Then another piece of trash then another and another and another. An old baby's diaper splattered against her space suit. Old used heroine needles pinged against the metal of her suit. Old newspapers clung to her. Each time a piece of trash that hit her sent her back to the end of the tethers. Everytime having to restart trying to pull herself back to the ship. 

The USS-Niravana was being hammered by debris of all kinds, pinging off its sides leaving dents all over its surface. Streaks of bare metal showed where trash had chipped away through the ship's white paint. 

Sandy finally made it back to the rudder only to find the jack handle gone. Frustrated, she kicked the rudder. The rudder tinged against her steel toe boot knocking it into place.

"Easy enough," She thought. 

The USS-Nirvana turned down from the space dump and towards the moon. If she could kick the other two rudders into place she could crash land the USS-Nirvana and salvage the supplies for the Galaxy-Y Mars Relay Ship. Sandy kicked the first rudder into place. The ship groaned to its side only slightly leveling out. The moon's dead white surface loomed below. Sandy was kicking the last rudder as fast and as fast violent as she could, but it wouldn't work. She kicked and kicked but the moon came closer and closer. 

"The hammer," she thought. "To the right of the hatch." 

Sandy dove toward the hatch, but it was too late the ship crashed into the moon. Sandy was flung into space twisting off the ship. One of her tethers snapped loose cracking like a whip against the moon's surface. The ship flipped and skidded. Sandy was pulled behind the ship, jerked from one side to the other. Until the USS-Niravana stopped and Sandy was propelled forward, only to be snapped back against the ground next to the ship. 

She gulped for air, but it didn't come. A coldness seeped inside Sandy's helmet. It had cracked the rest of the way. She pulled herself along the moon's surface to the ship still dragging the tether the whole way. She stumbled to her feet. Her throat croaked against the cold nothingness of the moon's unforgiving nature. Sandy climbed into the emergency door and grabbed the spare helmet from the other spacesuit. 

Sandy took a deep breath and looked out into space, past the orbiting space dump and to Earth. She was alive and she was safe. Two things that had no guarantees moments before. The supplies were still intact with the exception of a few. She had actually done it. Against all odds, she had done it. She had completed a crash landing on the moon. Delivering the goods, the mission was accomplished. Now all Sandy had to do was wait. 

So, she waited and waited and then when she saw the Galaxy-Y Mars Relay Ship fly past the moon and down to Earth she knew she was as good as dead. How could anyone of guessed Sandy would have survived all that? The only thing that may have kept her alive was her crazy stunt that put her outside the ship. If Sandy had been inside, she would have pin balled against the walls of the cabin during the crash landing or been crushed in the space dump. 

It was all for nothing though. She had supplies and she could survive, but for how long would she have to? How would they ever discover that she was alive? Would they try to salvage any of the wreckage? But Sandy knew the answer to that. It was the US government. There was no need to salvage anything when you could buy it new. 

She knew she was doomed. She could hold on, but this was the first resupply mission since Galaxy-Y had landed on Mars five years earlier. Could she hold out for five more?

She checked the supplies. Yes, she could survive. But after a year of watching more and more ships fly by, Sandy began to doubt whether she would be anything more than just a relic. Anything more than just a blemish against the moon's surface, something less than human and something more of a space side attraction for passing astronauts. Everything she had done for the mission, for humanity, for her country and for her planet had amounted to nothing. Against all odds she had rode the USS-Nirvana to crash into the moon only to be forgotten. For all her heroism, her all bravery and moxie to amount to nothing. To never be anything more than a gravestone on the bright side of the moon. Sandy sat amongst the stars listening for signs of hope. 

It had been as quiet as anything, she had ever heard. Her ears had strained to grasp something in the desolation of space, but she never heard anything. The last thing she heard had been the ship crashing and her gasping for air. Now all she did was sit in silence breathing quietly against a dead backdrop. With her legs crossed and her back against the ship she watched stars flicker in and out of existence. She looked from them to Earth and wondered where she belonged. 

Sandy had been abandoned on the moon, left to be forgotten by the world she thought she knew. Maybe one day they'd know about everything she done to survive, just to stay alive a little longer only to end up forgotten by humanity. She made it five years, five long years, only to hear nothing. Just dead silence humming endlessly in her ears until the day her oxygen ran dry. On that day, Sandy closed her eyes for the last time to drown amongst the stars she had held so dear for the last five years.