The Diary of a Spaceman
Shrish Madhan
Friday, 13th September, 2061, 10pm
Dear Diary
Wow, today was a very eventful day! It all started in the morning when our ship’s commander noticed his comm-link was missing. (That’s a device used to communicate with members of the crew.)
We were almost half way to Europa, where our new colony is going to be located. Our ship was huge, with 500 people on board so it was tough to know whether it had been lost or stolen. The commander relieved us from all of our duties and we were told to search the ship until the device was found.
I was super-excited because nothing interesting had happened in a while.
Without hesitating, I began my search. I was sure that if he had misplaced it, it would be in the command module or his quarters. But, when I entered his quarters, I was surprised. There were two people, a man and a woman standing around the desk and, the moment they saw me, they slipped past me and ran through the corridor.
I was suspicious, so I decided to follow them.
After about a minute, they stopped next to the cafeteria and, carefully staying out of sight, I looked at what they were doing. One of them had a velvet sack which seemed grimy but maybe that was just a trick of the light. The man pulled a small object from inside and I recognised it immediately. It was the comm-link!
But, before I could react, he pulled out another object which was almost an exact replica and left it on a vacant table. At this point, I confirmed my hypothesis that we had been breached. There were thieves on board!
I went forward to apprehend but suddenly, they took off down an alley behind the cafeteria and turned a corner. Chasing them as fast as I could, I came across a gas leak which concealed dusty footprints. I traced them along and found myself in the launch bay. The thieves were about to escape! I immediately entered and signalled for help.
I turned around and examined the miscreants closely. The woman was wearing an eyepatch and looked as if she had been in some accident. The man looked similar and it was almost like he was wearing his skin as a costume. The air pockets in his uniform seemed highly unnatural.
We were all in eye contact when my cabin-mate entered, holding a crowbar. He pounced on the man like a tiger taking down a deer back on Earth. The man was handcuffed and taken into custody.
Meanwhile, the woman had tried to run in the other direction but smashed into a mirror. We were lucky. The mirror had confused her but her arm was bent in an awkward shape. Tendrils grew out of her shoulder like creepers and laced around her arm. With flashes and a deep glow, it seemed like she was healing herself! We took the thieves to the commander.
There may be aliens living among us!