Gracie’s Touch

Chapter 3-4

Three years after crash landing

Gracie moved quietly, stalking her prey. It was a small creature not much bigger than a squirrel. She didn’t know the names of any of the creatures on the moon she had crashed on—in truth, she didn’t care… at least, not at first.

Gracie had woken up three years ago to the alarms sounding and a terrible headache. She finally managed to shut off the alarms resounding through the supply ship. She was amazed she was still alive.

When the computer indicated the supply ship had crashed on the surface of an unknown moon it took Gracie a minute to realize that something strange—besides not being dead—had occurred. It didn’t matter how hard she tried, the response from the computer system came up the same—unknown. Gracie shut everything down except life support, even though the system verified the atmosphere was suitable for her life form.

A week after she landed she was finally so sick of being confined to the small supply ship she would have fought a bear to get out of it. Her first step onto an alien world should have been filled with trepidation, but Gracie was beyond that.

She was alone. She no longer feared death, but welcomed the possibility. A part of her knew she was grieving the loss of Chance. It took almost six months for her to finally talk herself into moving forward, and to begin stretching out of her comfort zone.

The first six months she stayed close to the supply ship. She focused on finding enough food to supplement the MREs Crocker had stowed aboard the ship. It was strange, but it was almost like he’d expected her to need them. Gracie didn’t need much. She had gotten used to living on very little during the years they’d lived in the subway system.

As the months turned to years, she’d learned to hunt, gather, and forage for most of her food supplies. She often wondered if this was what early humans must have done and felt when they fought for survival. The moon had a few predators, but Gracie learned to avoid them. For the most part, they were primarily just small mammal-type creatures like the one she was hunting now. She made sure to only seek them out a couple of times a month so she would not reduce the population, although they seemed to be plentiful.

Gracie aimed the bow she’d made and let the arrow fly. It had taken her over a year to get any good with one. Gracie grimaced as she approached the dead creature. She still got queasy when it came time to kill and clean them though. It was only because she had no other choice that she did it. It was that or starve to death, which she’d come very close to doing.

She swung the bow over her shoulder and walked over to pick up the dead ‘squirrel’. She would have protein tonight. Working her way back to the supply ship, she marveled at how fast the plants on the moon grew.

In the three years she had been on it, there’d never really been a winter. The coldest it seemed to get was in the thirties, if she had to guess. Not near as cold as a New York winter, Gracie thought before she could stop herself. She fought against the wave of sadness that flooded her. This is why you shouldn’t think about it, she scolded herself.

Quickly, she pulled away some of the vines that threatened to cover the platform door before she walked down to a nearby stream. The water was good as long as she boiled it for at least five minutes first. She neatly and efficiently cleaned her supper and set it in a large container she used as a pot, to cook over the open coals of the fire she kept burning. Laser guns were good for starting fires, she’d discovered after several failed attempts to do it the Girl Scout way and in a fit of temper.

Several hours and one full stomach later, Gracie turned the supply ship’s power on. She did a systems check at least twice a month to make sure the fuel cells were not leaking and to check for any communications in the area.

She felt comfortable that the moon was uninhabited except for her and the few creatures she saw. In three years, not a single space ship nor communication had been seen or heard. She figured she must have traveled at least a fifty-mile radius from the ship, and there was also no sign of additional life.

Turning on the power, Gracie set a random pattern for the computer to scan for any type of signal. She leaned back and carefully pulled the last picture of her with the guys out of the protective sleeve she kept it in. Gracie smiled and gently touched the tip of her finger to Chance’s cheek. She wondered if they were all okay. She liked to dream Chance had found her parents and sister and moved on.

Perhaps the Earth was now free, and Chance had married someone else. He could have a child by now … one that looked like him. She imagined sitting with the guys, her and Chance’s son or daughter on her lap, while the other guys cooked barbeque and drank beer. She remembered her parents having friends over and she and her sister playing with the other kids. Gracie was so focused on her daydream it took a moment for the sounds coming through the communication systems to register.

Gracie sat up straight in shock as the voices came over the system again. She didn’t understand them, but she might be able to figure it out eventually. It sounded just like the chatter she used to listen to between the ham-radio operators. Her fingers trembled as she set the computer to record.

Gracie listened to the traffic for almost an hour before she made a decision. She could hear the different cadences and even laughter. Laughter was good, she kept telling herself. Looking around the small supply ship, she figured she had two choices—die alone on this small moon or try to find a way off it and back home. Either way, she would eventually end up dead.

Pushing the transmission button before she could talk herself out of it, Gracie leaned forward and began talking softly, hesitantly at first. “This is Gracie’s Touch reaching out to anyone who can hear this. I am currently stranded on an unknown planet or moon. If you can understand this, please respond. I repeat… this is Gracie reaching out to touch any friendly ship who could offer assistance. If you receive this message and can respond, I need assistance.”

Gracie repeated the message over and over before she felt she needed to power down for a while. The solar cells could power the supply ship’s systems for a short period, and she wanted to conserve the power as much as possible. She would listen and try again tomorrow once the sun was up.

“This is Gracie’s Touch saying goodnight,” Gracie said before she shut down the system.

Her heart was pounding as she realized she had either done the smartest thing she would ever do or the dumbest. Only time would tell. Looking out through the front view screen at the dark forests slowly devouring her little home, she knew there was no going back.