No matter how advanced a technology is it WILL fail. It is a lesson we often forget in the Twenty Sixth century. Despite the fact that humans have colonized dozens of worlds and flung ourself out to halfway across the Milky Way, things can and do go wrong. I really have to admire our engineers and scientists. Even though there is more traffic between the worlds in a single month than all aviation traffic of Twenty First century earth experienced in a year, we have far fewer accidents and failures. It is easy for us to get complacent.
I admit that I was in a complacent mood as my wife and I traveled on Orion Spaceways flight 432. My company had assigned me to Rigel 4 to open our new branch office. Even with instant telepresecence and the galaxy wide web, nothing could beat boots on the ground. When you were investing billions and sometimes trillions you wanted to shake hands with someone at the end of the deal. A nod and a wave from one screen to another was not enough. Not even a hologram could replace the practicality and universality of a firm handclasp. A physical plant also announced to the local economy that their planet had arrived and was an equal to Earth, Mars, Centari 5 and all of the other planets that grab the headlines on the galactic news.
Melody and I have been married for three years. Oh I know that marriage is so passe. It may be a moribund institution but Melody and I liked dwelling in it. Melody and myself are hopeless romantics. We even had a public ceremony and exchanged rings like our great great parents did. It was fun and a great way to start a conversation with strangers. Most of the folks we encounter have never met a married couple before. Legal pair bonding may be the way the world does it today but we could learn something from the ancients. For example monogamy is NOT a dirty word.
I had no problem promising to be faithful to Melody. She is 167.64 centimeters tall and every gram of her 49 kilograms is to die for. Long black hair and sparkling blue eyes. Wonderful cheekbones amazing tits and legs that seem to go on forever. Melody thinks I'm pretty good to look at as well. Most women and quite a few guys seem to agree with her. Personally I LOVE it whenever I catch some fellow or female eying my wife. It reminds me that I am not alone in admiring her charms and that I should be ever vigilant to make sure that I treat her like the goddess she is so that no one steals her away from me.
Melody's place of employment also had an office on Rigel 4 and they would be happy to have her join their operation in the same city where I would be headquartered. We could not have planned it it any better. We sold nearly all of our possessions on our home world., sent ahead the few sentimental and practical things we wanted to keep and settled into the snug life of a space liner. My company had splurged by buying us a private cabin. It saved our lives when the incident occurred.
Melody and I were relaxing over a cup of tea. I remember the conversation well. Melody and I were both getting a bit horny. I had just taken a long look at the fold down bunk when warning sirens rang so loud they practically deafened us. I saw the emergency bulkheads to our cabin slam shut and then I felt the cabin jettison itself into space. As the cabin somersaulted through space, bouncing Melody and I off its walls I caught one glimpse, out of the porthole, of Orion Spaceways 432 breaking up.
I've read the Galactic Transportation Board's report of the incident. I know now that we hit an errant bit of debris, the exact nature of which remains in dispute, that had not been properly charted. We we also for reasons that no once can fathom, light years off course. Human error is the most probable cause. That was no comfort to us as our cabin turned into a lifeboat. It was programmed to find us the nearest class M planet with a breathable atmosphere. There are no internal controls neither Melody or myself could have piloted a spaceship in any case. It transmitted a constant distress signal and location coordinates. We were at our lifeboat's mercy and cold logical artificial intelligence.
In a few moments the cabin/lifeboat stabilized and we felt the steady thrush of its small but tough engines. We hugged and told each other how much we loved each other. Melody and I knew that the life raft was designed for no more than two weeks of use. If it did not find a suitable planet in that time its life support system would fail and we would suffocate. The prospect of such a ghastly demise filled us both with fear. At the same time there was little worrying could do to save us. Panicked, we'd just up our air more quickly. Amazingly after a few days we settled into a routine. Both of us were asleep when we heard the descent alarms. Our lifeboat landed with more bang than we expected and the hatch blew open upon impact.
The sweet air smelled heavenly, of flowers and warmth. My wife and I gazed out the hatch, The land was lush and green. We were in a clearing amidst towering trees. The sound of insects, birds and other animals were carried by the warm breeze to our delighted ears. Melody and I kissed deeply and passionately. We were saved! Now all we had to do was sit tight in our little nest until the Coast Guard sent someone out to pick us up. Melody pointed out that could be weeks or months away but I countered that our lifeboat could recycle our urine for much longer than that and if we ran out of food there were bound to be fruit tress and vegetables we could eat. Both of us carried portables loaded with data. But most of that was useless since we had no idea where we were.
If things had gone according to plan Melody and I would have spent our days waiting for rescue, a bit bored perhaps and with a limited menu but safe and healthy. It was dawn the next morning when Melody first espied them. They were taller than Melody and nearly as tall as myself. They were quite handsome humanoids. Two eyes, four limbs, smooth skin, pitch black hair but they were red! Red like and ancient fire truck or a modern traffic light. They wore bits of leather and cloth around their pelvises. Their language consisted of grunts and whistles. There were twenty of them and they all carried primitive stone weapons. (At this point I would like to lodge a formal protest against the GTB's "no weapons" policy.) They all seemed very excited to see us. Our choices seemed to be a battle we were sure to lose or cooperation that would save our lives. We chose the latter course of action.
