Faster than thought

Faster Than Thought

A SciFi short by Christopher S. Silva


The communicator grew cold in my grip. My ship was lost. The escape pod had been my last resort. The only way to destroy the alien was to deploy the ship's self-destruct mechanism.

No easy decision. Piloting the good ship Tesca had been my honor. Losing her was more than I could bear. But it had to be done.

I record the circumstances for posterity.

The alien was a monster: we had emerged near a pale blue dot of a planet with a bright yellow sun. I'd beamed to the surface to take some core samples. At first, it was a pleasant experience: cool, alien atmosphere, blue skies and strange mountain ranges white-tipped with di-hydrogen oxide. Beautiful and frightening.

I finished sampling and sent them via halo back to Tesca. I was next.

When the particle shift came — dizzying and numbing as usual — a dark figure, low and fast, skidded into the field with me.

The shift continued and I landed in dock with a slap. Beaming is always a tad painful.

I almost lost balance as I reformed. The alien scurried between my legs — a graceful blur of speed and agility — and disappeared, moving freely into my ship.

I raised a communicator alarm and ran as fast as I could to quarantine the area.

But I was too late. Sensor readings in the dock indicated no life forms. It had escaped.

My communicator shrilled. Eaan screamed about a monster. There. So fast. It was on the move. I headed for the globe, knowing Eaan would be switching the autosync. She must have sighted the beast there.

The globe was its usual blue and soft hue and, sadly, empty. Eaan was gone.

The beast let out a high-pitched sound behind me. That's when I dove into the escape pod and hit the charger. My existence flashed before my eyes, and I prayed to Those Who Know that the beast had not followed me into the pod.

Safe. I scanned the immediate area. The nearest planet had a reddish, dusty surface. Within moments, the pod settled itself on the planet, and began beaming a distress signal. I'd be rescued soon enough.

I retrieved the communicator, and Eaan came to screen, mumbling about the self destruct. Not long to go.

When it happened, I would lose my beloved, but the alien would never invade our world.

I watched the screen, waiting for it. Eann looked ready to fight the alien. It stood nearby, small and multi-colored, with oval eyes, two pointy ears, and four legs. Behind it trailed a fifth appendage that swayed back and fourth.

Eaan moved to strike it down with one of her danglers, but I feared she was too slow. The alien roared a, "Meoww", but Eaan's dangler began stroking the alien's fur, and the beast released a sound like none I have ever heard before: "Puurrrrrr — "

— A single flash. The communicator went dead.


I sat for moment, the pod feeling small and I alone. After sending the distress signal, I climbed into the Cryo-bin and hit the button — delivering darkness and dreams.