Have you ever wondered if there was something else out there? Have you ever had one of those experiences where the foundation of what you thought to be true was challenged, if only for a second? It’s been a year since it happened, and despite all of the praise that I got for doing what I did, I wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for what happened. If there was a god, they saved me.
I’m not a religious man. I’m an astronaut, so I’m not allowed to be. The machinations of quantum mechanics (along with the judgmental nature of my peers) was enough of a reason to stifle any suggestions, joking or otherwise. Since the entire nation agreed upon a perfect, religious family, those who disagreed kept their mumbling to themselves or amongst their peers when another tenant of Christianity was ripped from the book and chastised. I believe in a different god, a dark blue equine with eyes that you could lose yourself in.
Yes, that is why I am here, and no, I am not crazy. I made sure of it. With government healthcare, I was able to check every single area of my mind to make sure that it was working properly, and there was not a single blemish upon my bill of health. I came here to tell you the story, since I can’t explain to my wife or children, or upon the news since they are just waiting for the first man on the moon to admit insanity. I landed on the moon, and I believe that the darkened horse image that astrologists have stared at for centuries is our God.
They say that science is completely calculated, that every single discovery that has changed what we believe to be true was thought out and planned through a series of experiments. However, I know this to be wrong. Uranium became nuclear when a scientist left it in his desk. The radio worked due to an ink spill. Flukes, simple strokes of luck, have shaped science for the better. But the only problem is that those flukes were able to be redone. Ink can be spilled again, for example. But the fluke that I went through is unable to be replicated. I have not heard another story such as mine from my colleagues. Granted, it’s kind of hard to bring up whether or not you were saved by a deity while on the moon in conversation, but we were a tight knit group of scientists, despite our beliefs. We were family, and family stuck together.
Like the scientific experiments before us, I practiced and prepared for the moon landing. We worked overtime to make sure that this would be something that we could write down in the history books. Gravity testing, spacesuit training, and the ingestion of food from tubes, to name a few. Years passed, and when the day finally came to fulfill my role as messenger to the stars, to alert them of Earth’s existence, I was buff, ready, and anxious to take off.
The countdown still rings in my head from time to time. This was the first time that a human was ever going to be on the moon. The first time that I could actually look down at the darkened image inside of the moon rather than through a NASA telescope. Despite my training, even as a scientist, I believed that I wasn’t ready to reach the moon. There were so many variables, so many things that could go wrong. Those variables always stay in the back of your head, like a test question that you guess on, but don’t know the answer to until it gets handed back.
I was strapped to a chair and focused forward, which was just as well. If I looked at what I was leaving behind, I might have had more than second thoughts about my travels. From the countdown to the moon is a blur… my crewmates told me that I didn’t speak the entire time. That I was entranced, marveling in the beauty and savoring it like the dessert at the restaurant that you took your wife too before you left on a life-threatening mission. Where a wedding ring just happened to appear in the wine when your wife spent a moment to go to touch up her makeup, I mean go to the bathroom.
My vacation to the moon felt like an affair. Never once have I dared to cheat on my wife, but the things that I did to the moon felt like grounds enough for a lawyer. The emotions that flowed through me as I stepped upon the gray rock rivaled that of my first date, when my accrued overtime brought my future wife to the best restaurant in the city. The splendors of this bare environment were incapable of explanation. Each step, each hop brought me closer to the moon, to her. Before I knew it, I was fifty feet away from the spaceship, my eyes focused on the beautiful Earth that was hundreds of thousands of miles away. There was nothing but rock for miles.
There was beauty in its silence. I could just sit, or stand, or lay down, and wait. I would be waiting for nothing, and yet, that’s all I wanted. Nothing was good. Nothing was nirvana.
And then, it happened. The one thing that could have gone wrong, did. As I turned around to signal my crew to pull me back in, the wire that provided me with life, my oxygen, was severed. No classes in breath management were able to prepare you for that. I heard the white mist shooting out into space as my suit slowly began to beep louder and faster until a migraine accompanied my lack of oxygen. Although the moon’s gravity was way less than our Earth’s, my legs felt numb. I couldn’t move.
I could barely see the outline of the spaceship as I tried to step towards it, but only managed to fall onto the unforgiving crust of the moon. My oxygen slowly depleted and my eyes rolled into the back of my head, ready to accept death’s embrace. At least I died as the first astronaut.
That’s when I heard it. An ethereal voice, like the ones that God portrays, whenever they are telling someone to do something. I thought it was death, but her words were too gentle, too calming to be him.
“I won’t let another suffer on my moon.”
That’s when the miracle happened. Defying all logic, my wiring had repaired itself. It wasn’t even close to new, but what was left in my oxygen tank was enough to keep me going. I sputtered. I gasped for air and threw up right there in my suit from the stress on my body. But I could feel my body, which was enough of a wake up call. I crawled towards the space ship, my eyes glazed over as I held my breath and tried to make the last few lungfuls of air in my tank count.
I don’t know how I managed to make it, but I did. The crew immediately saw my faulty wiring and repaired my tank. They laid me down and monitored me while another member of my crew suited up and walked outside to investigate. It wasn’t long before I fell asleep.
In my dreams, I saw her. A dark blue horse… pony? I don’t know the difference. I was born in the city, I’ve never seen either of those in my life. Her hair shimmered like the reflected light off of the moon while stars added to the splendor. Her eyes seemed to be looking into my soul as I slept. It felt like a lucid dream, like I was in complete control. She walked up to me and smiled, and held out a leg for me to grab. I reached out, grabbed it, and she simply nodded. I nodded as well, even though I was lost on the meaning. I opened my mouth to ask her something, but words failed me. The pony merely placed a hoof to her lips and shook her head.
“Rest, my dear subject,” she uttered. “Tis not everyday that I get visitors. Please, do not tell anyone about my existence. I doubt anyone would believe you, but I am in here for a reason.”
I merely nodded. The pony smiled and pointed a hoof towards Earth.
“Your race is a smart people. One of the first to visit my planet. I wish that I could come with you to Earth, but alas, I am trapped here, only with the sounds of my voice to keep me company.”
I merely nodded again.
“Ah, yes, you cannot speak. And you’re about to wake up, since your crew mates are going to feed you. Please, do not think that you are insane. You are far from it. You’re merely lucky, as am I, since I finally got a visitor after all these millenniums. Good ‘morrow my subject.”
That was when I woke up. No matter how many times I slept or napped, she never appeared back in my dreams. It was a one time deal, a one hit wonder.
So… there you have it. I was saved by a deep blue pony, a goddess who’s stuck in the moon for all of eternity.
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Yes… I’ll take the pills. Same time next week?
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Thought so.
Author's Note
So yeah... this is one of the stories in my Story Swap, written at the same time as NaPoWriMo. It was getting to a point where I couldn't add anything else to it, and it's just a regular one shot that I didn't want to touch anymore. So here it is. Quality is not promised.
