Alone with the stars

David was still sleeping when a loud noise woke him up. He was already used to all sorts of noises but the thing that made this noise set off the alarm so he got up and walked to the bridge. "Sara, what time is it?"

"Good morning David. It's four AM." Sara responded.
"Let's hope it's a good morning. I only slept for four hours and I would like to get another four hours of sleep. Can you shut off the alarm?" Still yawning David asked. The alarm was getting on his nerves. Every damn time something hit the living quarters that annoying alarm went off.

"Yes, David I can." The alarm stopped.

"Sara, what happened? Why didn't the collision alert turn on?" David asked while checking the main console on the bridge. Trying to access the cameras outside the ship where the console reported the damage.

"I do not know David. There are different reasons why the collision alert would not turn on. It would not turn on if the object was too small..." Sara started to list the reasons but David interrupted her.

"Yea...Yea...Yea... I know the reasons. It didn't sound small to me. The noise from the collision is what woke me up, not the alarm. I'll rewind the tapes and try to see what it was." A picture of the damaged area of the ship appeared on the console. It was a large dent in the hull of the ship. An object that could cause such damage would have been big enough to activate the proximity alert. That didn't make any sense. David rewound the recording of the cameras pointed at the dent to a few seconds before the collision happened and played the recording.

All David saw on the recording was a split second of distorted space, then an object propelled towards the ship, making the whole ship sake. After a second, the object, now surrounded by blue energy pushed off the ship into space and disappear. This all happened in five seconds.

"What the..." He watched in disbelief, rewound the recording again and this time played it in slow motion. There it was again. A split second of distorted space as a sphere appeared. He paused the recording. "What the heck is was that?" David was talking to himself, thinking that being alone in space for so long finally got to him, finally made him go crazy.

"My analysis shows that the sphere is one end of a wormhole David."

"So I'm not crazy?" David asked.

"No, David. You are not crazy." Sara answered.

"Sara, do you have any reports about wormholes appearing in this sector?" David asked.

"Let me check the international database David." Every second that passed as Sara was checking the records David got more and more worried. If this sector was full of wormholes there could be a chance the ship could be pulled into one of them accidentally. "There have been no reports about wormholes in this sector David. I will input the data and my analysis into the ship log and the international database."

"Ok, Sara. You do that, I'm going to watch the rest of the recording." David continued to play the recording in slow motion. He started to play from the moment the sphere was still there. He slowed down the recording playback a bit more. In the same place where the sphere was a human-shaped figure appeared, propelled towards the ship. The camera angle wasn't good, it just caught a glimpse of the figure propelled from the sphere that was now disappearing.

David tried to find another camera that saw the figure from a different angle and found one right above the place of collision. It was a bit far away so he zoomed in as much as he could. The recording from that camera showed the same thing, a human-like figure propelled from the sphere towards the ship. The human-like figure hit the ship, put a hand on its head, scratching it, as a normal human scratches it after hitting his head. Blue energy surrounded the human-like figure that put both hands on the hull of the ship, pushed off the ship at an amazing speed and disappeared. "Ok, that's it. I'm hallucinating."

"You are not hallucinating David." Sara said. "My analysis of the collision shows that the object that hit the ship caused damage in the storage section of the living area. At the point of collision, there is a dent in the ship's hull, two meters deep and four meters in diameter." Sara answered David's question thinking that it was directed at her.

"I don't know. I just saw a human, without a spacesuit, come out of a wormhole that suddenly appeared and then disappeared after a split second. Then that human surrounded itself with blue energy, push off the ship at the speed of light and disappear. I don't know if I'm crazy after being alone in space for so long or I'm still in my bed dreaming this." David really hoped he was dreaming. He heard many stories about people going crazy after being in space alone for a long time. Some of them got so sick and paranoid that they ended up killing themselves. 'Please let this be a dream and not a hallucination...'

David actually preferred to solo mission. Al the jobs he took were jobs to deliver supplies to the colonies because such missions did not require a full crew, only one human and the ship's AI. At first, he didn't understand the people that took the solo missions, he didn't understand how somebody could be alone on a ship for such a long time, until he applied for his first colony settler mission. The colony settler missions required a full crew. From the captain to the lowest ranking officers, the company staff and, of course, the settlers who will be living in the new colony. The colony ships were big, but for so many people, not big enough. On such a crowded ship, there wasn't a moment of privacy or a moment to be alone, not surrounded by anybody. After that first colony mission, David understood the people who went on solo missions.

"You are not crazy. My data confirms that the collision happened. I have added the data to the ship's log, sent it back to the space station on earth and registered it into the international database." Sara said.

"But if I'm not crazy how can a human come out of a wormhole and be outside in space without a spacesuit?" David asked baffled that something like that could be real.

He went to look at the damage the collision caused. Any damage to the living area was a big risk. If what Sara said was right, damage to the ship's hull this big, could cause major problems in the integrity of the whole integrity of the hull of the ship in the future. David opened the storage area doors and saw the boxes of food, tools and other supplies scattered all over the place. The complete outer wall of the storage area was stretched inwards almost to the point of breaking.

David was a skilled engineer, his field of expertise were engines, power, life support and weapons, not this kind of damage. He didn't know where to start. "Sara, do you have any idea how to fix this damage?" David asked hoping that Sara could help.

"I suggest you remove things from the storage area, move them to the storage area number two and seal this storage area. The strain on the storage area outer wall is too great. In the event of another collision, the wall may break and cause damage to the living quarters." Sara said.
"I thought as much." David said and started to take out the undamaged boxes out of the storage area. When he was finished with that, he started to pick up the damaged boxes and put the scattered supplies in them. Some of the food containers, supplies were damaged. Some tools were so destroyed that even he couldn't repair them.

The supplies in this storage area were for the new colony, currently the farthest one from Earth. He hoped that there were enough supplies left undamaged because the next resupply for the new colony was scheduled for next year. With everything out of the storage area and loaded onto the anti-gravity handcart David started to walk toward the second storage area.

"Raymee, La so mee lalaso tee." David heard a woman's voice behind him, turned around, let out a short surprised scream and almost jumped out of his skin.

There was a woman standing a few feet behind him. She was bigger than him, not higher or more muscular, just bigger, like adults are bigger than children are. She started walking towards him, her hands in the air in a non-threatening position. David just stood in place looking wide-eyed at the human-looking woman, as if he just saw a pink elephant, not believing his eyes. This wasn't the first alien he saw. Humans made contact with a first alien species a thousand years ago, since then they made contact with a few more, but none of them looked like humans.

"La sola sotee mee someelatee tee ray" The woman said coming towards him.

David didn't understand a word she said and remembered that, since he was alone on the ship he wasn't wearing the universal translator. He put his left hand in front of him, to gesture to the woman to stop, took out the universal translator out of his pocket and put it on his ear.
"I'm sorry I didn't understand a word you said. Can you repeat what you said?" David said hoping she will understand him since she didn't look quite like a human.

"You did not understand me? I said I came to apologize and help." The woman said now standing beside David, looking down at him confused.

David was looking up at her face. He was of average height for a grown man, but he only reached her belly button. "Aaaaaaah... No, I didn't understand you. Who are you?" David asked completely confused.

"I am Velmeria Margunis, the daughter of Ermus Margunis. I am responsible for the damage done to your ship." Velmeria answered.

"Ok... Velmeria why did you hit my ship? " David asked.

"I was battling against Morun Batulion, the killer of my father Ermus Margunis. Morun Batulion covered the battlefield with traps, with wormholes, during our battle. As I attacked him with my spear, he grabbed it and threw me towards one of the wormholes. The wormhole he threw me in threw me into your ship. That sly grutus he made his trap wormholes only one-way wormholes. I had to warp back to the battlefield but when I got there he was already gone." Velmeria said with anger in her voice.

"I have no idea what you just said, except that you hit my ship." David said.

Velmeria looked at him with confusion on her face. "Don't you know who my father Ermus Margunis was? Don't you know about the war? You must know if you are in this part of space. " She asked.

"No. I don't know who he or you are. I don't even know what you are." David said.

"What is your name child?" Velmeria asked.

"My name is David Krusnik and I'm not a child. I'm a full-grown human. What are you?"

"What is a human? I am a full-grown deorum." Velmeria said.

"A human is my race, there's a lot of us on our home planet Earth and scattered around on colony planets. We are explorers. Where are deorums from? And if you really are the one that hit my ship, how can you be in space without any protection? " David asked trying very hard to understand what the hell is going on and in what the hell has he gotten himself into.

"We are from a planet that was destroyed eons ago by the race superi, our mortal enemies. Morun Batulion, who I was fighting, is a superi. They are a deviously evil and violent race that will stop at nothing until they kill all of us deorums and conquer this part of space. We have been at war with them for eons, trying to stop them from destroying other worlds." Velmeria said.

Velmeria looked at David with a concerned look. "If your race is in this part of space you will soon be a part of our war. The superi have conquered eight solar systems so far. My father Ermus Margunis single-handedly freed one of them from their clutches. That just made them even angrier and now they are thirsty for revenge and blood. We have an alliance with nine planets now, so we have the upper hand, but if your race means to stay here you should warn them and form an alliance with us before the superi come for you." Velmeria said firmly.

"Yeah... I don't think my people are going to listen to me. You see, I just deliver things from planet to planet. I don't have any influence amongst my people." David said, with a weird smile on his face, scratching his head.

"I will take you to your people. They will believe me." Velmeria said taking his hand.

"How?" We are light years away from my planet Earth, It would take us at least a year to get there." David said puzzled.

"Show me where your planet is." Velmeria said. David took her to the bridge and showed her where Earth was in relation to the ship. "Alright, I will warp us there. We will be there in a matter of minutes."

"Ok... Warp us there? You mean with the blue energy around you like you did from my ship?" David asked.

"Yes, that is my energy. It gives me strength during battle, the power to warp faster than the speed of light and many more powers. Humans don't have their energy?" Velmeria said.

"No... We don't." David said still trying very hard to understand what the hell has he gotten himself into.

Blue energy surrounded Velmeria and then David. "Hold on tight." Velmeria said, with a smile, the energy started to glow and in a split second both of them were gone.

All David could see was a few minutes of stars rushing next to him at such a speed that they looked more like lines than dots. After the wild ride through space finally stopped, Velmeria and David were still in space surrounded by the blue energy, orbiting Earth.

"Where is the leader of your planet?" Velmeria asked.

David just pointed towards a spot on the planet, vomiting. It felt like he threw up everything that he ate this week. If he didn't feel so sick, he would definitely be in awe and enjoy the feeling of being in space without a spacesuit.

Velmeria headed towards the location that David pointed out, dragging David behind her. David gave here more directions as they were approaching the surface of the Earth. They landed near a big white house and in an instant, a few dozen men with weapons came out of the building and started shouting at them. Velmeria looked at David and asked. "Are these your people? Why are they shouting? Is this a custom on your planet? What do I do now?"

Still feeling sick David said. "Give me a minute. I'll sort this out." He went over to the armed men and talked to them. After a while they put their weapons down, David came over to Velmeria and said. "Come on, let's go."

They went into the white building and the men from outside guided them to a room where a man was sitting, David introduced Velmeria to the man and told him who he was and what had happened to his ship on his way to the newest colony and that Velmeria will explain the rest. Velmeria explained everything about the war in the part of space where the newest colony was and the man called the staff to bring Velmeria and David food and something to drink while he called the company in charge of the colonies.

Velmeria ate enough food and drank enough beer that would feed a dozen men. David was still sick from the warp to Earth so he only drank a glass of water, he had trouble keeping even that down.

When the people from the company in charge of the colonies came, Velmeria repeated what she said earlier. The people from the company didn't have a choice, they couldn't abandon the colony because they would lose billions of dollars, so they made an alliance with the deorums.

After all that was over Velmeria found David and said. "Come on, let me take you back to your ship and undo the damage that was done to it."

"O no... Are we warping again?" David said with dread on his face.

"Yes. We are warping again. Why do you ask?" Velmeria asked confused.

"Ahhhhhhh... No reason. Let's just get it over with." David didn't want to repeat warping, it felt awful, but he had no other means to get back to his ship. The good thing was that he threw up everything he ate the past week so this time he'll probably just feel sick.

Velmeria took David's hand and warped them back to David's ship. David didn't vomit this time he just felt sick. 'Called it...' David thought to himself.

David took Velmeria to the storage area where the damaged hull of the ship was and she used her blue energy to fix the damaged part of the hull of the sip. After that, the hull was as good as new.

They said their goodbyes, Velmeria warped out of the ship and David was finally alone again.

"Good evening, David. Welcome back." Sara said.

"Let's hope it's a good evening. At least let's hope it's better than this morning." David said.