Beloved

INTRO

In the history of space flight, no country has ever reported any of their astronauts, cosmonauts or whatever titles they go by lost. While this seems to make it seem that the space programs of the various countries are fairly safe, it is simply a cover-up to provide this illusion. The truth is, a long time ago when humankind first started to travel to space, there were flights that were lost but never reported. They were simply covered up to protect governments and keep funding going to flights that would lead to further exploration. Because of these "forgotten" flights, some people reported as simply "dropping off the face of the Earth" really did that and were lost in space. For two of these brave space travelers, however, they managed to find each other and the happily ever after they never got on the Earth.

1.

Early on during the Great Space Race of the 1960s, the United States was in a desperate battle with their well-known Soviet enemies to reach the Moon and new frontiers in space before one another. They were constantly sending up men, animals, satellites and whatever else could be imagined. At this time, however, they had never sent a woman up into space. Initially there was no concern but some of the physicians at NASA began to discuss among themselves about the possibility that the female anatomy would be affected differently than what they were seeing in the male astronauts returning from space missions. At the same time, members of the intelligence community were reporting that some of their higher-placed informants in the government of the Soviet Union had begun to hear rumors that there was a program to recruit female cosmonauts to begin training for space travel. Not to be outdone by their enemies, who already sent the first satellite and first man into space, the U.S. decided they were going to be the first to put a woman into space and began the secret program to recruit this remarkable individual they believed would be going down in history.

Before they could send this woman into space, they had to find her. The first problem they came upon was that while many of the male astronauts in training were military officers who had been fighter pilots during the recent wars and also worked testing top-secret aircrafts, regulations meant that women were not allowed to hold these roles in the military. Additionally, they could not find any aircraft manufacturers that had a woman as a test pilot. The women they found who held pilot licenses were not seen in the eyes of NASA recruiters as being the material needed for space travel, leading to the idea that maybe the program was a waste of time. Running out of options, one of NASA's engineers made a suggestion that if they couldn't find a pilot, why not find someone with a background with technology or engineering and train her the basics of flight. With nothing to lose, they began to look for women serving in the military that had a background in these areas and soon came across a possible candidate, a young female Naval officer who worked extensively with computers and received high reports about her work and good personnel records. A few NASA recruiters met with her and after a couple informative meetings, she volunteered to be the first female astronaut in history.

With their candidate found, they soon had to begin the process of training her. Because of concerns about a woman being sent into space, due in part to the role that women played in American society at the time, it was decided to train her in secret. A cover story was created that the Navy had loaned her to NASA to work on some issues they were having with a few of their computers. While she was seen doing these tasks on occasion to throw people not knowing her true mission off guard, the majority of time she was going through the same training program that the males were going through.

She did not fail to notice that the trainers and the male astronaut candidates, rather than being angry that there was a woman in the program and trying to bully her into quitting, seemed to enjoy her being there, although they spent most of the time staring at her. She wasn't really surprised, since she was one of the few females serving in her role in the Navy and had gotten used to it long ago. Additionally, she was known as quite a beauty, tall and curvy, with dark hair and olive skin, just over 30 years old. It did not matter that they only ever saw her dressed in either the NASA training suit or her Naval uniform (neither one particularly flattering), she still drew their attention. A few times while she was training with the flight instructor to earn a pilot's license, she swore his hand was on her thighs for reasons not related to the training. While the attention was sort of flattering, she did not really pay it mind, focusing on her training and duties instead. Besides, none of the guys were really her type.

NASA could not have picked a better woman to put into the program. She excelled in the training, keeping up the pace with the male candidates and even doing better in some of the areas due to her background with technology. Before long, she finished the program and was proud to call herself the first female astronaut, although it was still being kept top secret until she actually went into space.

2.

With her training completed, our astronaut waited for her orders into space. As NASA leaders felt that having her go up with a crew that was otherwise male would provide a distraction that may reduce productivity, it was decided that she would go up in one of the original ships that was meant for one. That meant she would not be able to stay in orbit as long, but that did not matter as all NASA was concerned about was getting a woman up there. She was informed that she would be flying three weeks after completing her training and awaited the official announcement and press conferences. When they did not come, she asked and was told that NASA had not actually informed some of the higher government officials that they were trying to launch a woman into space. The official story was that they were going to launch a satellite into space and while she orbited they planned to use a new television camera that would allow them to interview her live as she flew around the Earth. That way no one would be the wiser and they could surprise the world saying they had put a woman up there. While the astronaut felt she was losing some moments of glory, she obeyed her orders and prepared for the date she was to fly from the Earth.

On the day of her mission, our astronaut was up early, excited she was about to go into space. She did feel a little fear that something would go wrong but this did not get to her as she was ready for her flight. She dressed in her space suit and with little fanfare made her way to the launch pad. She was strapped into her seat and with a wish of luck the hatch was sealed. She sat there as she heard the countdown began. The smell of burning rocket fuel was evident and the sounds of the engines beginning to fire. The rumbling of the rocket getting ready to take off almost muffled the final numbers of the countdown and she barely heard the fateful words "lift off." Soon she could tell that she was going up and up and was going faster with each passing second. The roars of the rocket's engines covered her screams of excitement as she flew up.

The feelings of excitement were soon replaced by concern. She felt she was picking up speed too quickly than they had told her to expect before the mission. She also felt that she was not following the course that she was supposed to. She tried to take the controls to correct it the way she was trained but was unable to; the force from take off made the ship unsteerable. She was helpless until the speed of her ship slowed and she could pilot the rocket herself. Unfortunately she was soon to find herself losing consciousness due to the force she was flying under and would not be awake to track where her ship flew in the meantime.

Back on the ground, the launch crew were desperately trying to radio the astronaut to check on her, with no response. They could not figure out what had happened and were desperately checking on the systems to see if they could figure it out. Her heart rate was up, most likely due to stress of the situation, but she seemed okay otherwise. They tracked her ship hoping that as soon as they established radio contact they would be able to give her coordinates to help her fly back into Earth's orbit and land. They were able to track her but she soon had flown past their ability to locate her. They tried desperately to radio her but before long it appeared she had left the range needed for that. For two days they tried to find and reach her, hoping for any signs she could be found but eventually concluded she was lost forever in space, fate unknown. The government then let out a cover story, stating the "satellite" was destroyed once it left the atmosphere. At the same time, the astronaut was listed as having been washed overboard on a ship the Navy had sent her on an assignment to and was presumed to have drowned with her body not recovered. On Earth, life went on as if nothing happened and the Space Race continued.

3.

What the people at NASA could not have imagined was the truth that our brave female astronaut was still somehow alive in her ship. The life support systems were able to sustain her during the period she was unconscious. After a while, she woke up, not sure of how long she had been out and having no idea where exactly she was. She looked at the stars hoping to pick out a system she had studied during her training but did not recognize any. She figured she must have been out for longer than expected and was well beyond where anything humans had ever launched into space had traveled. She tried to radio for help but could not reach anyone. She desperately tried until the batteries powering the radio failed and her instruments were no longer able to give her a reading to an exact location, she simply gave up and sat back, waiting until her oxygen ran out and she drifted off to sleep one last time for good.

While she had planned to die floating in space, the astronaut did not figure that before she ran out of oxygen her ship would run out of fuel, which is exactly what it did. She found herself floating in the vast emptiness of space, still waiting for her oxygen to be gone. While drifting she had time to think and look around her. For some reason, she started to feel a calmness she had never felt before. It seemed peaceful to her up there all alone. She was more aware of her surroundings and enjoyed the solitude that it brought. She thought how nice it would be to stay up there all alone, just her forever. Since her supply of oxygen was limited, she believed that was going to be the case.

Before long, she noticed that it seemed her ship was being pulled towards something. She did not know she had entered the orbit of a planet hidden by a clouded atmosphere. It was not visible until the ship pulled through the cloud barrier and she could see the surface. She knew she was going to crash and her instincts kicked in to brace for impact. As she got closer, she was able to see that she was flying over some sort of forest. The bottom of her ship clipped the tops of the trees and the whole cabin rumbled. Her ship was crashing through the trees, allowing the speed to decrease enough and cushion the impact enough to make this a survivable crash. The ship impacted into the ground, coming to a stop with a violent halt. Despite the nature of the wreck, our astronaut was okay, just shaken with a few bruises and scrapes, nothing broken. She unstrapped herself from her seat and managed to force open the door, stepping out into the vast unknown that would be her mission's final destination.

4.

The astronaut looked around the planet's surface and was taken aback by what surrounded her. This new planet shared many similarities to Earth as she saw trees, grass and other plant life around her. She must have landed in some sort of forest, but none of the trees were like ones she had ever seen on Earth. It was quiet and peaceful as she took her first steps around. The forest seemed to be the perfect temperature, as she was neither hot nor cold. She looked around but saw no other signs of any life besides the plants. Because there were plants she wondered if they thrived on oxygen like she did. Deciding to risk the consequences, she slipped her helmet off and took a deep breath. The clean air filled her lungs and she knew she would at least be able to breathe on the planet. With that, she decided she should set up a camp at the ship since she would be there for quite a while.

While our astronaut was able to breathe, she knew that the supplied water and food would not last long. They were only put in there in case she crashed into the wilderness of Earth to sustain her until the Army could send a unit to find and extract her. At most it would take a couple days for that in NASA's mind. Since she did not know where she was, she figured that NASA didn't either. She knew that if she was ever rescued it would be a while but she planned she would be on that planet for the rest of her life. Since she did not want to die of dehydration or starvation, she started to make short trips away from her camp to look for a source of water. As she walked she listened as the lack of animal life made it quiet. Not too far from her ship's wreckage, she heard a trickling of water she spent several hours tracking before finding it was coming from a natural spring. Letting her risky side out again, she tasted it and discovered it was just like the water on Earth, only it seemed to be more refreshing and seemed to really rejuvenate and energize her more. She began to think that she just may be able to live on this planet after all.

Now that her water situation had worked out, our determined astronaut began figuring out what to do for food. She began to study the plant life around her camp more. She took note of how the plants looked and checked their scents to see if they could tell her anything. Trying small bits of each plant, she found that none seemed to be poisonous and was starting to determine which ones she liked more than others. As she learned the lay of the land more, she ventured out enough to find trees that produced fruits that she learned to love and seemed to provide enough nutrition to keep her going. She was now believing that she would thrive on this planet and would be able to make it a home she could fall in love with.

With plenty of food, water and room to roam and explore, our astronaut was very happy in her new world. She enjoyed being able to make her own schedule and go and do whatever she pleased. She was at peace in her new surroundings. While almost all was perfect to her, there were times the solitude was a bit too much. She had found no other signs of life on this planet, not even a single animal. She was content for the most part being on her own, but at times would look up at the vast sky and wish that she had a companion to share this with.

5.

The astronaut soon lost track of the time she had been on the planet, not knowing that it had been several months since her crash. She was enjoying her life there so much. Recently, however, she had been more careful in what she was doing. In the past she had not been afraid to explore and wander clad only in her t-shirt and panties but lately had gone back to wearing her full spacesuit. The modesty relaxed her because she could not help shake the feeling that somehow she was being watched.

After all the months spent traveling to the spring for water, a trail had started to be worn between there and where the astronaut had made her camp. This helped her realize she may not have been this planet's sole occupant. Going in a different direction from the spring than her own, she saw what looked to be another trail. She followed it wondering what she would find at the end. If this was a trail, it seemed to be an older one and may not have been used recently. She found the mystery of what was at the end when she reached a creek the trail lead right into. She was unable to see where the trail had picked up on the other side. Disappointed by the dead end, she turned and went back to her own camp.

After finding the old trail, she soon started to notice there were signs that whoever, or whatever, made the trail may still be on planet with her. Once, as she stepped away from the fire she had going at her own camp, the wind shift brought the faint smell of smoke from the opposite direction, causing her to look for the unseen evidence there was another fire going. Other times, as she picked fruit from the trees it would seem that some of the branches had lost some fruit without them falling to the ground, as if something else was picking there too. When she would be out exploring the planet away from her camp, she would occasionally hear on an otherwise silent world what was almost certainly the rustling of the bushes.

Our astronaut's suspicions were soon confirmed with a physical piece of evidence that could not be explained as a coincidence. Returning from one of her long hikes to check out a distant lake spotted from a mountain, she had stopped by a stand of trees to pick some fruit to snack on while resting. As she leaned against one of the trees, she looked at the one opposite and noticed that to the sharp bark something clung. She crawled over to get a look at it. Whatever it was, it was fairly shiny to her. She touched it and realized that it was not something natural. What she now held in her hand was cloth with one side reflective. She knew it had not been there a couple days earlier when she had been traveling through. Something, or someone, had been through here and left this scrap of material on the tree. She was now positive she was not alone.

Shaken by this revelation, she hurried back to her camp. When she got back, she was about to go back into her wrecked ship to unpack when she looked down and saw a human footprint. While she would walk around barefoot on her own, this looked too small to be her's. Quickly pulling her boot off and comparing it to her bare foot, she confirmed this. Something that seemed to have human feet had been there. A search revealed nothing missing, but it seemed a couple storage cans had been moved. She thought what to do, now that whatever was out there knew where her camp was. She didn't plan to start running to let it chase after her. Instead, she set out on an adventure to find it for herself.

6.

Finding the direction the intruder had gone was not hard. Whatever it was, it had left several good footprints on the ground showing its direction of travel. She was able to set off after it. She came across a trail leading deeper into the forest. She followed the trail, seeing the intruder's footprints as she traveled along. She walked for a few hours, entering a place she had not traveled in her exploration. She found more of the fruit bearing trees and more evidence that something besides her had been gathering fruit. She followed the footprints down a hill and climbed to the top of another. Looking down, her eyes could not believe what she saw. What lay before her appeared to be another spaceship!

She made her way down the hill to investigate. Large portions of the ship were intact but not enough to allow her to recognize it. It had been there for some time based on the layers of dirt and dust on it. She thought that there had been some recent disturbance but for the most part it looked abandoned. She tried to figure out where it came from and soon saw markings partially buried. She worked to get them uncovered and look at them better. They looked familiar to her, although she could not understand what they meant. She thought it looked like something similar to Russian papers she had once seen.