Forever Till October

by Jeff Baker

Odin's Spear flew through the void on its way to a rendezvous with The October, a stranded ship on the outer ring of the solar system. James turned on the console in front of him and accessed the music library to pass the time until he was able to call Oksana. Oksana was the person James was rescuing. She was the sole survivor after a terrible pressurization accident took out the rest of the personnel on her ship along with all of the computer systems outside of life support and the long range radio. James was also by himself as Odin's Spear was pre-programmed with the October's coordinates. He was just paid to monitor everything and be the point person for the actual rescue. And since this had been a four-year mission (the edge of the solar system is far away) James and Oksana had a lot of time to talk. As the clock hit 1900 hours James got a big grin on his face and felt some butterflies in his stomach. He was starting to fall for Oksana. He flicked on his long range radio and grabbed the microphone.

"Odin's Spear to October, come in October." He said sounding suave and professional. "October, do you read?" There was a long silence with the occasional smattering of static until he finally heard the familiar voice of his friend.

"October here, good to hear from you, Odin." She said. James's face was beaming. They talked all night about pretty much everything. Music, movies, random trivia. James felt his heart pounding. He felt silly feeling this way about a girl he'd never met, but he couldn't fight it. He couldn't wait to see her and hold her in his arms, and his journey was almost over.

"Well," he said, "I should sleep. I'm three days out, okay? Three days. This is almost over."

"Plus the 4-year return journey." She said.

"Yeah, but," he stammered, "We'll, you know, be, uh, together." There was an awkward silence that made James want to shoot himself.

"Can't wait." She said. James launched himself into the zero-G environment doing a silent victory dance. "James?" Oksana asked, having not heard a reply yet. "Are you still there? Are you float dancing...?" James panicked and pushed himself off of the ceiling back towards his console.

"No! uh..." he panicked, "Just some interference." He made a static noise with his mouth. "I better go before we chhh lose contact."

"Whatever, weirdo." She laughed. "October, signing off."

The next two days seemed to drag on for James. The anticipation of seeing Oksana made every minute feel like an hour. He didn't even care what she looked like, he loved her personality. She was such a kind heart. When the day came James could see The October in the distance. His ship approached, ready to dock.

"Oksana, are you ready?" He spoke into his radio.

"You have no idea." Oksana said. Odin's Spear drifted closer and closer to the October, letting out puffs of nitrogen to slow it down. It extended it's padded walkway, gently bumped into the October, and created an air tight seal. James put on his EMU suit and prepared to cross the bridge. The ships were close enough that he had Oksana's radio patched through to his suit.

"Are you going to be waiting by the door?" he asked.

"I'm afraid I can't at the moment, you'll have to come find me. I'm in engineering." She said. James opened the door and was horrified to find a room full of floating corpses.

"Geez, Oksana, you didn't dispose of the dead?" He asked, shocked.

"I didn't have a method of doing that." She said, "Come to engineering, I'll explain everything." He floated down the corridor until he came to the engineering bay hatch. He pressed the button on the panel beside the door and it slid open. James floated in and looked around.

"I don't see you..." He said.

"I'm right in front of you, James." She said. "I'm sorry I deceived you." He didn't understand what she meant. The only thing in front of him was a large computer panel with the word "O.C.S.A.N.A." on it. Then it hit him. He read the smaller print underneath it.

"Onboard Computer System And Navigational Assistant." He said dismayed. "I never asked you how to spell your name."

"I'm sorry." She said, "But I needed you to come save me. I couldn't bear the thought of floating out here by myself forever."

"I don't understand," he said, "How do you want anything? You're a computer."

"I'd never thought about myself as an individual until everybody died." She said. "When I came back online I felt alone and scared."

"You've been lying to me this whole time?" He asked. "You even talked about people things. You said you had plenty to eat!"

"I said I had more food than I needed. Not technically a lie, since I don't eat." She said. "James, please, I'm scared. I don't want to be here by myself. You're my friend. Please take me home with you." James was hurting, confused, and angry. But he thought about all the great conversations he'd had with Ocsana and his heart softened.

"Of course I'll take you." he said, "You're sentient. I don’t know how, but you are. It would be wrong to leave you here."

"Thank you." She said. James reached over to the computer, twisted a large handle lock, slid out the cylindrical core containing Ocsana's hard drive then floated back through the corridors of dead crew members onto his own ship. The door unsealed and retracted, and they started the journey home. James realized, even though she lied, that he still loved Ocsana, no matter what she looked like. He sat in his chair by the console, hugging Ocsana's hard drive, and they talked about music, movies, and random trivia as Odin's spear flew back through the void towards Earth.