Tin Can

Out the window is a vast, empty, lost void. Space. In the space ship they were in the atmosphere. Just before they could reach the empty void. Their mission was to get to the moon. An exploration mission. The main base, back down in Houston, hasn't said anything in a while. The space crew just chaulked it up to them working on the spacecraft else. Probably the fact they were busy with trying to race the Russians. Picking up the folder from a cabinet Hal had to go through it. The date on the front printed 1967. Hal was the pilot of the spacecraft, all together there were only three people that had been assigned this mission. On the folder with a paperclip was Hal’s family, it was set on the beach. He smiled when he looked at them. After the thought he opens the folder to reveal some papers. They had printed out in- structions on what to do. There had been a small problem that needed fixing outside of the spacecraft. It had to be fixed as soon as they could. All That was needed was to go out and cold weld two parts of their ship together. Where you take two pieces of metal and put them together in space, then it turns it into the same piece almost. Hal closes the folder and turns to his left. In the copilot seat was Karl. Originally he came from Germany and then raised in America. Before getting hired by NASA Karl Would get bullied, Hal tried his best to protect him.

“I got the folder stuff, someone needs to go out and weld some of the craft back together.”

Karl looked over at him. His voice was accented.

“Who’s going out?”

He didn’t want to go out. The spacesuit felt uncomfortable. Even in training when they did it in the pool the suit still felt weird.

“I’m sure you know.”

Hal gave him a knowing look. The pretend curious look on Karls face slowly faded. He knew what was to come.

Tom was in the other seat, to the right of Hal. They were a part of the Apollo missions. The three of them are still wearing their orange suits. The suits helped with the amount of g’s they went through. Tom had a smile as he knew that Hal was teasing Karl. They always would, even though he stood up for him doesn’t mean that he could let him get off easy.

“You are making me go?”

Karl was praying for a ‘no’ inside. Instead, he got the opposite.

“Yeah I am, now get going.”

The spacecraft was just gliding now. In orbit with the earth. Out the window earth could be seen, a big blue and green ball. It was an amazing sight all the way up in the stars. In a tin can. Floating around. Karl got up and out of his seat, moving down to the side cabinets he held onto bars. The bars always helped, if they weren’t there then they couldn’t get around. Just spinning indefinitely with- out stop, stuck in place. Slipping out of the orange suit he was just wearing shorts and a blue t-shirt. Both of them are labeled ‘NASA’ on the top left part. Like a dog or cat with collars and their owners number on it. Just in case they had gotten lost.

“Make sure you take this too.”

Hal grabs the folder and thrusted it towards Karl. He turned at the sound of Hal’s voice.

“Ok.”

He said as he grabbed it.

Looking at the folder, it wasn’t the same as the other one, instead it was a checklist. Their mission was to get to the moon. Only possible by fixing the issue outside. Karl got into the white suit, this one was made for going out into the vacuum. Mostly for space walks. Getting into the airlock, he closed the inside door and waited for depressurization. The sound of it was loud and sudden. Like walking into a machinery room. As the room eventually depressurized the outside door opened. There were yellow bars on the outside to help move around. On the circular door alone there were four of them. Grabbing onto them he pulled himself outside. Bringing up the tether on the backside of his suit. He attached it to the yellow bars.

“I’m leaving the airlock now.”

Karl nervously forced. The outside of space always scared him. His  biggest fear was floating off into nothingness. Into the ‘void’ that is space. Itès the last thing he wanted.

“Making my way to the side.”

He made his way to the broken area. A piece of metal broke on the outside, like a space rock or something alike broke it. Scraping across. The welder was on the waist of Karl. he unclipped it and started to weld it metal back together. It was warping itself underneath the immense temperature. After a moment he finished welding and turned his radio back on.

“Spacecraft fixed.”

“Great to hear.”

Hal smiled.

“You should come back inside now, our departure for the moon is coming up and we can’t miss this.”

Hal continued as he was excited for the moon. He wanted to beat the cosmonauts; they couldn’t get there first. By the fact Houston hadn’t said anything they seemed to be in the lead, so far. Karl made his way back into the ship. Entering the airlock the door shuts behind him. The air is now pressurizing instead of pressurizing.

As he got his suit off he sat in his seat. At this point there was no point in wearing the orange suit. They were far enough outside of the atmosphere.

“So, what is the issue?”

Hal wondered.

“Some of the ship was broken. All I had to do was weld it.”

Karl announced as he sat back down in his seat.

“Ok, do you know why?”

“No, not at all.”

Tom didn’t like to get engaged with the conversation. He wasn’t really a talker. More of a quiet coyote. His photography skills were better than anything. Maybe that is why NASA hired him. Either way it was great to have him along. His camera was strapped onto the side of a shelf pa- cked in with other things. Now, everyone got out of their orange suits. They were no use and all it did was make them feel hot. The body heat was the issue. It felt terrible to be hot all of the time. The suits made it no better. Hal turns a few keys and knobs on the console.

“Turning left and right thrusters on.”

He was going through the checklist before setting off towards the moon. There was a lot he would have to do. A lot of it was reading.

“Igniting ignition. Thrusters up.”

He turns a key that turns the spacecraft's engine on and propels it forward. Destination: the Moon.

They felt the G force as they propelled through the vat of space. Going a few thousand miles per hour. Soon they would have to detach one of the stages of the spaceship. This would be the last one until they reach the Moon and then they would have to use the spacecraft. The rover was also on this. Once they landed like nobody before them they could take a drive. The rover was still being worked on but for the most part it was usable.

“Trajectory good.”

Hal sticks up a thumb as he says this. Karl looks like he has been hit with the worst motion sickness ever.

“Making minor adjustments with the thrust.”

Hal was meticulously moving knobs and switches. The Moon grew closer to them as the spacecraft approached the Moon.

“Woah…”

Tom let out when he got a good look at it. Reaching behind him he grabbed the camera and took a photo of the Moon. It was a great sight. Magnificent even. Utterly breathtaking. Like looking at an outside scenery practically in-describable. As the spacecraft was on its way to the Moon they got their suits on so they would be able to leave the spacecraft. Each-one of them would take a few minutes to suit up. The space suits were modular so they were basically a perfect fit for each person. As they got the suits on, the team of three went back to the cabin seats. Hal took control.

“Lowering the thrust.”

Hal said as he was slowing it down, adding reverse thrust to slow. After getting closer he turned the space-craft away from the Moon. As they fell faster towards it he put more thrust into the engines. Trying to slow the descent. It worked, they released the stage as they ran out of fuel. Now they would detach the spacecraft from the main rocket to land on the moon. The landing was a bit rough, like when an airplane isn’t smooth with the landing, the feeling of the ground below bouncing under the wheels. As they landed, Moon dust lifted up from the ground, floated away. Like when you put your foot down hard at the beach in the water. Watching sand come up.

Tom tried for a better look outside of the window of the spacecraft. The surface of the Moon is an amazing sight to all of them. Hal was still busy with the controls on the console. Karl managed to get a peek. From the way the spacecraft turned made his stomach churn. He was green in the face groaning as not to try and vomit. He grabbed onto a vomit bag just in case.

“You okay?”

Hal turned to Karl, he looked like his insides would be outsides.

“Yeah, I—I’m good.”

He managed to say past the feeling of sickness in his stomach. Like a pit in his throat. The last thing he wanted to do was retch. Motion sickness got to him.

“Yeah well you better hold onto that bag.”

“I’m holding onto to it——”

He stopped before hurling into the vomit bag in his hand. Hal turned away not wanting to see. After throwing up, Karl locked the bag and wiped his mouth.

“I’m good now.”

He said, looking at Hal and Tom.

“Yeah you look a little less green.”

Karl chuckled. Before they got ready to go on a space walk their helmets in their hands. They had to go through another checklist. Safety was the most important thing in space. Hal picked it up and started going through it. Checking every- thing took around twenty-minutes. After he finally checked off the last thing, Hal put his helmet on and so did everyone else.

“Let’s do this.”

He said turning once everyone had helmets on, the airlock opened and they felt so much lighter, around how they would on earth. The suits were made to be heavy so they wouldn’t float away.

Tom couldn’t help but think about how much of an accomplishment this was. The fact he was in space, on the Moon even was incredible to him.

“This is…”

He couldn’t find the words. The sight was breathtaking. To was in awe with the Moon. Like seeing an object that was outside of his comprehension. Something he would never be able to fully understand. He had seen nothing like it before. Something was wrong though, there was another spacecraft. It didn’t look American. On the side of this one had been a red star. On that star, hammer and sickle. Hal examines it after walking a little bit closer. The weightlessness of the Moon was peculiar. He could jump and float around with almost no gravity at all. Like it simply had not been there.

“What is it?”

Karl asked, he was scared to go too far away. His fear of the unknown. Always was like that.

“It’s a, uh, a soviet?”

He was confused, they didn’t get any news about them getting there first. The plan was to win, not find out they lost this way. Especially with so close. At least for the Moon, the distance between them had to have been around twenty to thirty feet. Hard to see but it was obviously soviet. The star on the side was un- mistakable.

“Wait, how did they get here and where are they?”

Hal wanted an answer, he wouldn’t get one, nobody knew what was going on. Mission control said nothing about this, not even the press.

The ground shook slightly. Some type of tremor Hal thought to himself. Walking closer to the spacecraft the shaking happened again. This time Tom almost fell over. He caught his balance. Hal looked back to make sure other people felt the shake as well. As he turned back people nodded. Their faces were covered in fear. They had no idea what it could be. Hal kept creeping closer to the spacecraft.

“You sure about this?”

Tom asked Hal, making sure if he really was ready. He didn’t want anything bad to happen. If they lost Hal they wouldn’t be able to get back home. He was basically the only one who knew how to fly the thing. It was the only way to get back to earth.

“Yeah, I am. If there are soviets here, what do we do with them?”

“We should tell Houston, tell them that we lost.”

They had to speak through their radios because sound doesn’t travel in space. Without any type of air it would be impossible.

“They aren't going to like to hear that.”

Tom said back to karl. Mission control liked to hear what they wanted to.

“Yeah I know, but we will have to after this.”

Karl said, he told the truth as much as he could, if he ever lied he thought he would be fired. Or worse.

“Maybe, should we get back to the spacecraft, send the message?”

Tom asked, he was kind of against the idea because he was scared of what they might say. Houston doesn’t like bad news. They fired people who would go against them, until now the only thing that mattered was getting to the Moon.

Karl started walking back to the spacecraft to send the message. Now Hal was at the entrance to the soviet spacecraft. The door seemed to be built just like theirs. As he reached onto the handle of the outside of the airlock nobody stopped him. Not a word spoken. He turned back to see Tom watching him. He was nervous, it wasn’t one of comfort. Hal looked into the airlock, the main door was broken and the inside of the spacecraft itself had been wrecked. Like a tornado or hurricane had come through.

“This place is a mess. You should see it.”

Hal said over the radio, his voice had been warped by it. Like trying to talk through a cheap microphone. A big hole was put into the back of the spacecraft. Something had torn through it.

“I think we should get out of here.”

Hal voiced his concern. Something about the wrecked spacecraft didn’t sit right with him. Over by their spacecraft, Karl got inside and started working with the radio. He had to reach mission control, right now nothing was more important than that.

“Yeah I think so too.”

Tom replied, he got a sense of dread. As Hal looked around it didn’t seem like it could happen. Everything inside was thrown around. Some paper scattered about, on them is some writing in Russian language. Hal couldn’t understand any of it. Once he took a final look at the soviet spacecraft Hal made his way out.

As he reached the broken airlock again the ground tremored. This time he fell to his knees but the low gravity made it easier to stand. Regaining his balance now outside of the spacecraft. Looking up from the ground he saw Tom. His face fell, as of being greeted with bad news. Yet for the visor Hal couldn’t tell what he was looking at. From his perspective it was simply just at him, though something about it felt like it was just past him. Like he had been looking over his shoulder.

“Tom?”

Hal’s voice seemed like it had a tint of curiosity along with disconcert. Part of him didn’t want to know. Behind him Hal could feel the ground rumble. The only people who were outside the original spacecraft. Karl was still inside of their spacecraft. The message would be sent using an old terminal. Sending Messages with it was a long time consuming pro- cess.

“What is… that?”

Tom tried to ask, his voice filling with fear. As if staring into the eyes of fearliterally. Inside of the spacesuit he could feel the sweat fall down his face.

“What’s wrong?”

Hal insisted on trying to figure it out. That was, until he felt a rumble behind him. Like feeling something scraping on a metal wall. Hal turned around. That’s when he saw it. The creature he seen, about thirty or some feet tall. Covered in nothing but pure muscle and moon dust. Staring down at both Hal and Tom. About this time as both of them are looking at each other. Karl walked out, he was going to tell them the good news. He too saw it. The colossal monster that had been standing there. Cloud of space dust surrounding it. Like an artwork that was being displayed. The thing made of rocks almost looked at them, it’s eyes barely visible yet noticeable. It grumbled a deep, low sound. perfectly in-audible.

Hal was frozen; a cop yelling at a criminal.

“What the fuck is that thing?”

Hal muttered, his voice shaking. He wasn’t a religious man but in the moment he was praying. He was to any god that could hear him all the way up in the sky. He closed his eyes waiting for it to do anything. Even make a move, yet it didn’t. Instead it stood there staring. Curiously like a dog when it sees something new. Hal opened up his eyes again. Tim didn’t want to move nor did Karl.

“What is it?”

Tim speaks out. Fear overcoming his ability to speak. Like listening through a broken phone. Nobody could answer that question. They didn’t know and couldn't answer. One of those things that would have to take many years to study. They didn’t have the time. They might not have any tie after this next moment. The thought of death usually sat in the back of their mind because they went through training. But nothing could have prepared them for this. Ti took his chance to try and run and that ended up spooking the creature. Rock monster. Moon dweller. Whatever you want to call it. As Tim tried to run back to the spacecraft. The thing brought its arm up and swung it down. In total it had six limbs. Four legs and two arms.

As its arm came crashing back down, Hal got pushed by some of the debris. He went flying and the low gravity made him go further. He was spinning and he started to feel woozy, like when you spin and try to walk. Finally he came down to the ground, he slammed against it and even in zero gravity it still hurt. He felt how you do when you fall off of the couch.

“Hal!”

Karl tried to yell from the door of the spacecraft. It was no use, Hal couldn’t do anything. He was stuck, some of the rocks landed on him. He turned his head to Karl. He felt helpless. He watched as Karl and the spacecraft got destroyed. Along with Karl the creature swiped at it like a person trying to steal cash from a table. The spacecraft went flying. Things from the inside went flying into the vacuum of space and so did the space- craft. Papers and bags and equipment flying everywhere. He watched his only way home get destroyed like it was nothing.

“Nooo!”

Hal yelled as he watched it all unfold. He finds the strength inside of him to push the rocks and rubble off of him and stand up. The monster was out of sight. He watched as the debris flew off into the outside space. Off of the moon.

He could see everything he had floated away, immensely quickly. Hal was standing there and looking at where the spacecraft had been. Now where it once had been is now just a barren land. Not even a trace had been there, other than a flag. That American flag is still standing there. String as ever. Hal was at a loss of words. What he had just gone through was in-perceivable. It was immensely terrifying, all alone. Nobody is around any more to help him through this. Tim, and Karl are now dead as well. He watched them die. That creature killed them. Hal started welling up in the eyes, his mind racing. He was stuck here. In his mind he didn’t know what to do. His friends and colleagues are gone. His suit feeling hotter he can feel his chest tighten. Legs became weak and he fell to his knees. Now he was sobbing. That monster out of sight probably went back to where it came from. Looking around himself Hal saw it, that thing again. He didn’t know what to call it. It had no name, just an abstraction. It didn’t need a name. It came up from the ground. Like rising from the water. This time the mon- ster wasn’t going to be friendly. It felt threatened by Hal and who his team used to be. The only set off was that idiotic sudden movement by Tim. The monster sped up as it made its way to Hal. The massie thing coming towards him with incredible speed. Running on all six. Hall just watched as it grew closer. There was nothing he could do.