In space no one can hear you scream. That is what they say and that is what they believe. Who ‘They’ are or were or is or was is not known exactly, only that they say it and they believe it. They say it because in space there is nothing. Nothing that would hear you scream anyway. And even if they could hear, sound does not travel in space, it does nothing at all. You can scream as loud as you want but not even you will hear it. At least, all you will hear is the voice inside your head telling you that you are screaming, but that is not the same.
In space no one can hear you scream. And I believe it. For I am one of the ‘They’ that believe it. And I believe it because as I float through space, mouth open wide and screaming for all that I have, the only thing I can hear is the voice inside me laughing at my unheard scream.
It started when I fell out of the air lock hatch of a 24 Booster League Star Ship. It was an accident of course, no one ever plans on falling out of an air lock hatch, but it happened and there was nothing that could be done about it. As I said, no one hears you scream so they never noticed me gone. They never saw me either because the ship was travelling at warp, so by the time they do end up noticing I will be long dead. Maybe in another time, in another corner of the galaxy in stars they will never see again. It’s sad in a way, my life had just begun and now it was going to be over in another couple of seconds.
I was born on some small back water planet that didn’t even register in the system; I guess that’s why I never knew its real name. We always just called it Home, though it never ever felt like any of us ever belonged. It’s funny, they say one day everybody grows up and leaves home, and that’s exactly what I did. I never looked back once I was on the bus cruiser, I couldn’t have either if I had tried. We were now travelling at such force your face was being pushed into the back of your head and you couldn’t even blink. It was a terrible way to travel, but that’s space busses for you. They aren’t meant to be comfortable, they’re just meant to get you there cheaply.
My mum never saw me leave, she never had a chance to say goodbye. She’ll never know I died. Not that she cared if I lived when I was at Home. I have no idea what she thought, or what she thinks of me. But she will never know that I won’t exist soon, and that disturbs me. Tears don’t flow from my face now; the space I’m floating in is preventing them from flowing somehow in ways I don’t know.
I don’t even focus on the pain; it’s all like a dream. It just doesn’t seem possible, or real, I was never meant to die alone. I have a girl; she was going to be my wife as soon as the ship docked at Sentri. I asked her before I left and we set the date for the day I got back. She’ll be waiting for me at the docks, all dressed up pretty, wearing that little flower clip she always wears for special occasions, her shiny black hair even shinier than normal framing her delicate face, firm lips and clear eyes. We were going to go straight to the chapel we had booked in advance. The thought of her waiting forever tears me up inside even more than the thought of what space is going to do to me in one more second. We would have married before I left but couldn’t afford it, that’s why I took the job, so we would be able to afford the cost when I got back.
The job in question I had taken was Negotiation Expert, meaning I handled the negotiations between species. I made the terms and then present them to each side and get them to agree on it. Every ship normally has one in case they stumble across some new species. Hardly anyone ever wants to fight, and to make sure they don’t end up fighting they push me in front of them to protect them.
This was my first job, actually. Well, first job as a Negotiations Expert. I had had jobs before this one, doing all sorts of things, anything that would pay. The bus took me to Sentri, and I lived there for about ten years or so, the details are fuzzy. That and the 2 year trip I was coming back from makes me 28 now. I met my girl when I was 25, and we just clicked straight away. The first real girl I ever paid any attention too, the first girl I ever asked to be mine.
I remember the first day I met her, now that I thought was a dream. I just didn’t think it was possible for such a beautiful creature to exist. It was just, unimaginable. But even more so was the fact she noticed me, and she actually talked to me instead of the 400 other Information Clerks in the building. To this day I still don’t know how I ended up with her, I made mistake after mistake trying to impress her. But maybe that was why. It was first day at the job and I hadn’t a clue really what to do, but I told her I’d been there for years and knew the system back to front. Almost created a war somehow by some of the buttons I was pressing. Thankfully she actually worked for the government and was able to fix the probl-
The End
