Longer Than Expected

Mike was in a total state of panic. “I repeat, this is Mike Graw from RSS-177! Requesting permission to enter the grounds ETA 40 minutes! Over!” he yelled into the intercom.

It wasn’t the first time that he had lost communication – for four hours on Milanova he had lost connection with the station. But this time he really needed someone on the other end to reply- he was coming into the station, and he was coming in fast.  Mike had no clue whether he was entering the right hemisphere or whether the pressure would be high enough to enter the biosphere, or whether or not the station was ready for his arrival.  If he kept traveling at such a high speed without knowing where to land, he would definitely crash.

“Is anyone there?” he asked anxiously. “Hello, hello! This is Mike Graw from RSS-177! Can you hear me? Over.”

He pressed all sorts of buttons on the control panel and pulled all the levers that he could see in an attempt to reach the main line, but no luck. He yanked off his helmet, slammed it onto the dashboard, and sat in silence for a minute.  He listened to the manometer beeping. The silence was broken by a long and high pitched buzzing sound, which was followed by a voice: a human one..

“This is Lisa. We’ve got you targeted and we’re following you. Stay where you are for now. Can you hear me? Over.” the voice said.

Mike sighed of relief and felt the blood rushing back to his cheeks. He could feel his heart beating rapidly from all the pressure. “Yes, I hear you, over.” Mike replied, wiping sweat off of his forehead.

The RSS-177 approached its home, the New Mexico Station. All the final tests were conducted. Everything was in place.

“ETA 3 minutes. I repeat 3 minutes.  Latch in place and secured?” Lisa asked.

“Check.” Mike replied.

The shuttle started shaking violently as it approached the landing pad; buzzing and beeping noises were coming from everywhere. From all the noises, he paid attention to one in particular: the manometer. Abruptly, the shuttle slowed down and Mike was shoved forwards. For 10 minutes, the spaceship moved very slowly before finally coming to a stop. Mike heard one final click and knew he was clear to get off. He made one last detour on the way out of the shuttle to get a change of clothes before saying goodbye to his home for the past four months and stepping out.

He walked down a corridor, where he felt quite cold. He could hear the muffled sounds through the walls of people talking and working, and the machines beeping while operating. Towards the end of the corridor, he saw a small black figure getting bigger and bigger as it came in his direction. It was a sort of black ball, rolling on the floor. He thought that it must be a new upgrade for the station, these kind of robots.  As soon as the robot noticed Mike’s arrival, he jumped up and rolled back to the other end of the corridor, seeming alarmed. Odd, he thought, but kept walking. When he reached the end of this corridor, he saw something that amazed him :the whole station, exactly as he had left it - but without humans. There was not one single human inside the whole building. The only things alive were the black balls, rolling around throughout the entire building. These robots – they had taken control of the building. They were working all the machines and using all of the computers. But before Mike could even process anything, he was spoken to  by a voice that he recognized.

“Excuse me, you’re going to have to come with me.” Lisa said.

“Lisa, is that you?” Mike asked. But when he turned around, all he saw were the robots. There were now three of them.

“We’re the ones asking questions here.”

Without saying a word, Mike followed them into a room, which was even colder than the corridor, and in which he had trouble breathing.

“Who are you?” Lisa the robot interrogated.

“Mike Graw.”

“You’re a …”

“A what?”

“A human. Why aren’t you with the rest of them, Graw?”

“With who?”

“You know exactly who.”

“I really don’t.”

“The humans. Why aren’t you with them?”

“Listen, I have no clue what’s going on! I was just on the quest to Milanova, that’s all I know!”

“Where were you when they were all transported to Lupenius 67 years ago?”

“67 years ago? What are you talking about? I wasn’t even born 67 years ago! What are you talking about?” Mike exclaimed, struggling for air.

“How is it possible that-” Lisa started, but she stopped in her tracks. She seemed worried. For a moment, she stood in silence.  She levitated until she reached Mike’s face. Mike could see, from inside the robot,  small, yellow eyes squinting at him.

“Mike, did you calculate the time dilation?”

"Wallpaper: Space Shuttle." Wallpaper: Space Shuttle. Blogger, n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2015.