(Loosely based on the novel The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James, which isn't a great book, but it got me thinking)
The screen flickered to life, providing faint illumination to the habitation pod she had been living in for the last twelve months.
"Living" in was a bit of a stretch - she existed within it, a deep-space communications monitoring station. It wasn't beautiful, it wasn't glamorous, it was a job, and she got to be alone which was a rare thing these days for most people. She hadn't minded the isolation. She still didn't mind the isolation. Her relief was still 12 months away - they left the same day she arrived at the station, giving her two-years worth of supplies to keep her happy and healthy.
Despite working a communications station there wasn't anyone to talk to - her transmissions to earth took months to arrive, and she was supposed to be monitoring, not making chatter herself, reading near-endless computer readouts as they scrolled across the screen, identifying the correct protocols for information, making sure no clandestine transmissions were being sent through her array and keeping an eye out for any "WOW!" signals - anything that broke across the regular human spectrum.. i.e. anything extraterrestrial. Nothing since they WOW! signal of 1977 had anything even close been seen. She knew it was arrogant to think she'd be the next one to see it.
She squinted at the transmission. It was directed to her. It was timestamped 3 weeks ago.
Whoever it was, was close. Ish, I mean.
It was short "Man Quaternions are fucked. Do you have any idea how complicated space travel is? I can't wait for this trip to be over."
She typed a quick response.
"Who is this?"
****
6 weeks passed in agonizing slowness.
Space spun lazily around her. She was in a distant orbit around a white dwarf star - her room was perpetually angled away from the star so she wouldn't get burned to death by the intense light. The station was close enough to draw an enormous amount of solar power from the star, necessary to rebroadcast the transmissions she received.
Finally, her screen flickered to life.
"I'm your replacement, haha. I'm still a long way out but I was looking for a way to pass the time, and it's faster to talk to you now than it is to send transmissions to Earth. I should see you in 10 months, give-or-take."
She looked out her one window. Direction was almost meaningless out here. Space was everywhere and featureless. Stars here looked the same as stars everywhere else. She touched a button on her screen and it brought up a display on her window - Earth, and her replacement, were almost directly in front of her, though almost an unfathomable distance away yet.
She shut off the display and just looked, not sure of what to write back, if anything.
"Cool?" "Thanks?" "See you soon?" nothing?
She typed a few curt responses, deleting them all before hitting the dreaded "send" button.
She went back to work.
****
A couple of days later her screen flickered back on.
"Hi sorry I think I sent that without thinking it through. My name is Aaron. I think I'm just getting anxious to get off this shuttle, you know? Stretch my legs in what sounds like.. well, not much bigger than what I'm in now. Don't reply if you don't want to, I know I'm a total stranger and we'll only meet briefly while the shuttle dumps the supplies and picks you up. Anyhow - please write back unless you don't want to."
Curiously, she did want to.
"Hi - I didn't send this after the first one, sorry. I haven't talked to anyone in almost a year - my last transmission to earth went to my parent's just after arriving here. I'm a little out of practice with social niceties." She paused and looked at it for a few minutes. "I am pleased to meet you, Aaron. I'm Cynthia." She hit send.
****
5 long weeks passed. Cynthia wasn't sure why but she was looking forwards to hearing back from Aaron now. Maybe she had missed communication. Maybe she was just getting a little stir-crazy in her pod.
Finally, her screen lit up. Her face did, too. Obviously, it was from Aaron.
"Cynthia, hi! Nice to meet you, too! Man it's really good to hear from you. I'm always worried I'm going to be... well, awkward. I am on Earth, and in person. That's part of why I took this assignment, you know? Bad interpersonal skills. But hey, birds of a feather am I right? Sorry I'm making presumptions."
Cynthia read the message, and re-read it. He certainly did seem a little... eager to please? Probably a little stir crazy. She could sympathize, if not empathize, with his situation. She had another year of space travel ahead of her heading back to Earth, she realized, after the shuttle arrives. And so the great machine continues forwards, she mused.
She mused for a while, lost in her reverie. Her screen flickered to life again.
"Hey again sorry - I hit send without thinking, I think. I was wondering, like, it's nice talking to you, but I was kind of hoping I could put a face to the name. Do you think you could send me a photo? It beats just picturing you as a screen with some letters on it."
Cynthia was taken aback. She wasn't sure what to make of this. She turned off her screen and scuttled back to her bed and pulled the covers up.
****
A few days later, her screen lit up again.
It was Aaron, again. Obviously.
She didn't open the message immediately. Her monitor blinked at her, expectantly.
She hit 'open'.
She was met by a photo of a scruffy young man. His hair was unkempt, he was sporting some not great facial hair. All in all, not astounding. Not threatening either. She wasn't sure what to expect but this fairly well fit what she had imagined, she reflected. Awkward. Someone who might not get along with people in person. She felt bad for judging him. In his own way, she mused, he was kind of cute.
Under his picture was a quick message - "Sorry I didn't want to wait for you before sending mine - it would have taken two months. If you didn't send one that's ok - I get it if you're shy."
****
She sent him her photo later that day.