The ceiling lamp twinkled twice and went off. At the same time, the soothing hum of the machine drive stopped and our excursion module made a halt in the opaque atmosphere of the alien planet.
“What's happened?” I heard my own voice anxious.
“Probably nothing serious, dear”, said Meon. “I'll call our guide on the Octolana right away and I'm sure he'll explain us–”
“Why have you stopped talking? Is the videophone communication dead, too?”
“Silea, please calm down. We can use... well, the emergency steering as described in our informative brochure. Give me just a moment.” Meon tried several switches and then he pressed successively on all the knobs available, but nothing happened.
“Oh, my God!” I felt my eyes were brimming with tears. “We're doomed! We're going to die, both of us, and nobody will ever–”
“Silea!” Meon's voice becomes authoritarian. “Hysteria won't help us, that's for sure.”
“Why–oh why we decided to go on that silly voyage in the first place?”
“You've persuaded me to buy the tickets for our honeymoon in space, remember?”
I tried not to whine. “Do you think... do you think they're searching us yet?”
“I'm sure they are. They must have noticed our signal had been interrupted so suddenly. We must simply wait for the rescue team. Meanwhile, you just watch the environment through the porthole. After all, that's the reason of being here.”
Owing to the slow moving of the atmosphere, our excursion module was gliding like a balloon. We drifted at snail’s pace over the ground past the unknown creatures. I've recognized some from the commercial video presentation but most of them seemed like dream visions.
Different kind of exotic, gaily colored plants grew on the gentle slopes. The animals were even more astonishing–swarms of tiny beings surrounded us, and some odd creatures crept on the ground or flew by the porthole.
Yet, now I could not enjoy in that spectacle for I was scared that world would become our premature tomb. But I tried to hide my fear from Meon.
I recollected the earlier crucial events, which led us into the present threatened situation. The fourth octochrone after we jumped from super space the video screen in our cabin flashed, and we saw the smiling image of our guide.
“Dear guests, allow me to inform you that our luxurious spaceship Octolana had arrived safely in the orbit over the exotic planet ST-3, which you could see now on the display. Please, feel free to apply for visiting that wonderful tourist destination.”
Several commercial presentetions flashed on the display.
“Each just married couple will be settled in the fully automatic two-person excursion module and the central computer will steer the whole group of them. I'd be glad to guide you there. Once again, I ask you to read thoroughly the brochure you have gotten, and pay regard to all instructions and especially warnings. Now we will present you a broadcasting about the environment we're going to visit.”
I glanced at Meon who was absorbed in the demo.
“Although ST-3 is a wonderful world, we must bare in mind its climate is unpleasant. Therefore you must never leave your excursion module. The most dangerous for us might be the bright regions of the planet, where an almost absolute vacuum exists. There is also much too hot and too dry for our organism.”
“Swell,” I said.
“Fortunately, the prevailing part of the ST-3 surface covers an atmosphere resembling to that on our domestic planet.”
“Thank heaven for that good news”, remarked Meon.
“Please, keep the filter for the outer atmosphere on so you could breathe inside the module normally. Immediately after this broadcast we invite the tourist enrolled to come to the upper deck where is already all prepared for the departure.”
The guide’s image gave us a broad smile.
“Have a nice day, ladies and gentlemen. I promise you an unforgettable adventure.”
What an irony–a bitter thought flashed through my mind. Suddenly I felt Meon’s grip on my shoulder.
“Silea, are you listening to me? We have to fix certain rules for the time we’re waiting on the rescue squad, agree?”
“I’m all ears.”
“First, we have to divide all our food available–I mean our only lunch–on a daily rations. You do realize they should be extremely limited, don’t you?”
“Daily rations? Do you expect we have to wait more than–”
“I do not expect anything, dear. Still, we have to be prepared for the worse.”
I nodded, unable to speak.
“Second, from now on we’ll rest by turns. Who knows where to could the wind–or should I say the current–carry our module during the night.”
I shook my head. Earlier, I didn’t imagine our honeymoon that way.
“And now you try to sleep,” he said. “I’ll take the first turn.”
*
Time has been passing by, slowly but inexorably, and our module travelled in the unknown direction. Three uneventful days and three nights passed by and my hopes about our rescue diminished more and more.
The fourth morning something woke me up suddenly. I opened my eyes and saw an unbearable glittering that was penetrating through both of the portholes into our module.
“You better watch your eyes, Silea,” said Meon. “It seems we've over that night reached the border between the atmosphere and the vacuum. And I can hardly understand that border is so sharp.”
I came close to the porthole but the dazzling light from the local sun was coming from above so I was forced to close my eyes.
“Meon,” I said and stopped. “Have you seen...” I didn’t dare to ask him that fateful question–the question, which meant whether we would live or die.
He gave me a gentle hug. “I’m so sorry, darling. More than four days passed by since the breakdown of our module and it seems...”
A violent fury overflowed me. “And that damned bastards on the Octolana had simply stopped searching us. I presume they have a rewarding accident insurance for such cases. Nobody cares we’re going to die.”
“We are not going to die,” stressed Meon. “I will find some food, I promised you.”
“But how? We must stay locked up in that module and–”
“Says who? You know, while you slept I was outside the module, just briefly.”
“What?”
“Calm down, dear. I found out I could breathe the alien atmosphere. I admit it wasn’t pleasant but it was bearable, at least for a while.”
I was astonished. “But that’s dangerous! The guide had told us that could be even lethal for our organism!”
“Rubbish. The next time I’ll try to search the environment a bit further around our module. I’ll be careful, don’t worry. And now let’s have our... our meal.”
“That’s our last meal, isn’t it? Only these few miserable crumbs have remained–despite we’d used it so sparingly.”
“You just eat it up,” said Meon. “I’m not hungry; besides I’m stronger than you are.”
“That’s out of the question,” I opposed. “If you’re intending to hunt you’ll need much muscular power. And I don’t want to hear any objection from you.”
When we’ve finished eating I was even hungrier than before. I laid down, trying to chase away the dismal thoughts about our future.
*
We've stopped to count days without having any food, and it seemed to me my movement became more awkward. During my night watch I’ve noticed Meon rolled himself in his sleep, probably trying to soothe the cramps from hunger.
Then, at the first daybreak during my duty, something unbelievable happened.
Through one of the portholes I caught a sight at a creature, which was so alike to Meon and me that I couldn’t believe my eyes. It moved leisurely on the ground and now and then it made an elegant jump of several its length, as it was nearly weightless.
I darted toward Meon and shook him out of his sleep. “Hey, get up! Look through the porthole, there on the left!”
He stared to where I pointed. “What’s so special there?”
But in the meantime that creature was gone. A bitter disappointment overflowed me.
“I saw... I saw... Oh, Meon–it was... he was one of us, I swear!”
Meon hugged me comfortingly but I pushed him away.
“You don’t believe me, do you?”
“Silea, I believe you saw something. Yet, there is a possibility that was... well, a kind of illusion. Maybe a hallucination because of hunger.”
I was depressed and irritated on him. “I’m not mad, damn you!”
“I did not say that, darling. But tell me–how probable is that another castaway might stay alive there–all alone on the alien planet, without a module?”
I didn’t want to prolong that quarrel. But I was sure what I’ve seen.
“I have to do something,” said Meon firmly, “to get some food. No matter what–anything with protein. I must try to do it at once, before I’d be too weak for hunting.”
“You intend to go out of the module again? But–”
He interrupted me. “Near the border to the vacuum I’ve seen something that moved, several times. And now I'm going to explore that. Probably it will take some time so you better try to sleep.”
After time a rustling awoke me from the restless slumber and I saw Meon dragging something big through the trapdoor into the module. When he turned round I saw his prey and felt a nausea–it was nearly white, its appearance was repulsive, and it stank.
I saw Meon was exhausted from the efforts so I tried to hide my dislike.
“Listen,” he said firmly, “don’t pull faces at it. Now I’m going to cut it up and then we’ve no choice but eat it. Understand?”
After time, I restrained my feelings and carefully tried a small piece of... it. I was surprised for its taste was much better then its appearance. Then I took another chunk.
“Well?” Meon asked me triumphantly.
“My compliments to the cook–I mean to the hunter. Oh, dear, I can feel how the strength is returning in my weakened body!”
“The best news is that creature had moved slowly and clumsily. Its senses were so dull that it hadn’t notice me until I caught it.”
“What if you couldn’t ever catch any other?”
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of them in the distance. It seems they’re coming from the hot area.”
I was astonished. “But... but how could they breathe in the vacuum?”
“I have no idea and I don’t care either. Silea, this is an alien world and the creatures here are not like us.”
“Have you seen what are they doing there?”
“They just crawl there aimlessly and emit shrill sounds. They mostly gather in small groups or couples. Yet, I saw some individuals happens to be alone and these could be our future prey.” He stood up and went to the porthole again.
“Hey, where are you going? Don’t you see it's growing dark?”
“This time I’m only going to survey to what place those creatures went at night-time.”
“Oh, Meon, I beg you be careful. Don’t push your luck.”
“Don’t worry, Silea. I won’t be long.”
I waited and waited impatiently until, finally, I heard opening the porthole.
“Thanks heaven! I was so afraid about you.”
It took some tome until Meon managed to recover his breath. “This time I haven’t seen any creatures; maybe because I couldn’t hold my breath long enough.”
I couldn’t believe my ears. “You... you’ve been... in vacuum?”
He nodded. “It’s not so hard as I’ve assumed; at least for a short time. Look what I’ve found there.” He showed a flat peace of unknown material to me.
“There are some odd marks on it,” I said.
“Yes. I haven’t the slightest idea what could that mean. I found it fixed in the ground inside the vacuum area; I’ll try to study it to morrow.”
“Now you must take some rest; you’re exhausted.”
He smiled. “I’ve another good news: I managed to anchor our module so we could rest at the same time.”
“Oh, finally. From now on we’ll sleep together as it should be. We are, after all, on our honeymoon, darling.”
I snuggled up tenderly close to Meon, beak by beak, wrapped all eight tentacles of mine around his smooth red-brown body, and he did the same.
The last thing I saw before I closed my eyes was the slab that Meon had brought from outside. On it there were mysterious symbols like this:
THE SUNSHINE NUDIST CAMP

BACK TO TOP