A Spaceship Crew Faces Doom in This Surprisingly Tender Sci-Fi Story

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Final Meal Aboard the Awassa

by Kel Coleman

Gardener ladled dark-purple porridge into her major digestion sac, staring absently out the viewport at black area and the distant smudge of the planet they’d come to check. The straightforward meal and the gesture it represented soothed her after a protracted, thorny morning in a bit of the expansion bay that was in full flower and had wanted hand pollinating. Although the opposite crew members across the mess made do with the standard break time assortment, Cook dinner had steamed and spiced osard grains only for her earlier than going off shift to nap of their rooms.

When the 2 of them joined the crew as a pair, roughly 4 solars in the past, Gardener had apprehensive the particular remedy proven to her from the kitchen would result in resentment. She had heard it might get lonely on a protracted haul if you happen to made a foul impression, particularly on a tiny ship the place everybody knew one another’s households, had vid night time sleepovers within the observatory, and will depend a minimum of a handful of birthdays and Limitless Nights aboard. However not like Gardener, this hadn’t been Cook dinner’s first lengthy haul and he or she’d quickly researched the crew’s dwelling planets and ports, monitoring down household recipes, widespread avenue meals, and pageant treats. The crew of the small science vessel have been instantly smitten together with her, and Gardener discovered herself warming to them because of this.

She completed her porridge, scraping the bowl clear, however lingered on the desk to—

The audio system mounted across the mess blared three pressing tones.

The opposite crew members scattered at tables and behind the serving counter dropped what they have been doing and moved to readiness. For Gardener, like many bipeds, this meant standing together with her limbs at her sides. She turned towards the closest display, which had already switched from Union information to video from the bridge.

The captain’s wings have been tucked near their thorax, their 5 eyes reddened and quickly blinking. In all 4 solars of her time aboard, Gardener had by no means earlier than seen them fearful.

“Crew of the Awassa, that is your captain talking.”

Gardener’s delicate listening to picked up all of the ear dots across the room overlaying the phrases with translations. Her personal ear dots not solely translated the captain’s phrases however amplified issues like pitch modifications so she could be much less apt to mistake one tone for one more. They have been frightened, however with a tinge of anger maybe?

“As a few of chances are you’ll already know, we misplaced contact with the group despatched to Gulsan-6 two hours in the past. This occurred shortly after they despatched a probe into the fuel big. Following overview of footage, scans, and probe knowledge, we will conclude with excessive certainty that Gulsan-6 is, somewhat than a planet, an unknown species. It’s able to surviving and navigating the vacuum of area. And since exiting dormancy, its measurement has turn out to be incalculable as its form is ever-changing. It’s able to lowering matter to its smallest items, and I remorse to tell you your crewmates Engineer Ulli and Physicist Andel, together with their shuttle, have been consumed by the alien. With equal remorse, I need to inform you the alien is now on a course to intercept and eat the Awassa as effectively.”

As her hearts’ paces fell out of concord, Gardener discovered she might not type out the feelings behind the phrases. On the faces round her, although, she learn the captain’s pragmatic hopelessness concerning the scenario. As they continued talking, a time-to-intercept countdown appeared within the backside of the display. They ordered three senior crew members to the bridge and informed everybody else to name their family members. So . . . there was nothing helpful for her to do besides discover Cook dinner.

• • •

Cook dinner was within the hydroponics row, pinching leaves off of herbs and dropping them right into a handwoven basket. Her darkish, easy pores and skin was riddled with planet-orange hives and her voluminous whiskers have been drooping.

“Cook dinner?”

She didn’t cease pacing or search for.

“Nailo? Did you see the captain’s—”

“After all,” Cook dinner mentioned. She gestured on the herbs and fruits tumbling round within the basket like that was rationalization sufficient.

And for Gardener, it was. The 2 of them wanted few phrases.

Cook dinner would do what she beloved till the top. She was already gliding across the nook to the following row, and if she had been the identical species as Gardener, she would possibly’ve heard her utter a time period of endearment, one which didn’t translate effectively to many different fleet languages.

An endearment near that means beloved, one her caretaker had known as her usually. An endearment that had journeyed together with her when she left her lush world for Outpost 9. An endearment that saved her and her seedlings heat regardless of the depressing chilly exterior the outpost greenhouses. An endearment that had come together with her on a trip the place she received crater-sloshed with a slick-skinned touring chef within the backroom of a Meat Meet Meat. An endearment that had accompanied the each of them to the Awassa, the place they have been swept up in all of the drama and mutual care of a big household that Cook dinner had missed and Gardener found she might tolerate when she wasn’t flat-out loving it—the shift-change gossip, the hugs, the too-loud music shoving by skinny partitions, her first spacewalk accompanied by Engineer Ulli . . .

Her hearts skipped.

She pulled herself out of her ruminative state and joined Cook dinner in one other part of the bay, the place she was snipping blue flowers from climbing dewdrops. Gardener gently took the shears from her. “My job,” she mentioned. “Simply inform me what you want.”

• • •

After they have been completed with harvesting, Cook dinner agreed to present prep over to uninitiated however enthusiastic crewmates so she might name her household. Gardener lay in mattress, blankets holding down her jumpy limbs, and tried to dam out Cook dinner’s murmurs two rooms away. She set the updates from the bridge to a quantity excessive sufficient that it triggered her some ache.

The bridge crew had discovered rather a lot about “the vapor” and the way it consumed the group and the shuttle. They have been in a position to acquire this knowledge when the vapor altered its course to eat the second probe they despatched to investigate it. They nonetheless couldn’t cease it or outrun it, however they estimated that they might purchase a number of extra hours with the remaining probes as decoys.

When she received off the decision, Cook dinner was weirdly happy with the information. “Extra time to prepare dinner,” she defined. A couple of minutes later, with bottles of one thing clear she’d been “saving for an important day” cradled in her arms and a nuzzle in opposition to Gardener’s cheek, she was off to make a feast for his or her crew, their beloveds.

• • •

Gardener didn’t usually file movies unrelated to her duties. She smoothed down the fur round her eyes and cleared her throat.

“That is Gardener Ketri,” she started. “A hostile member of an unknown species is bearing down on my ship, the Awassa, and I don’t have anybody to say goodbye to who isn’t in the identical boat . . . besides you, I suppose, whoever sees this.”

The dread dripped steadily by her bloodstream now, however she imagined the individuals who would watch this, particularly the youthful ones, and he or she didn’t need them to really feel afraid for her.

“As an alternative of goodbye, although, do you thoughts if I let you know what it’s prefer to be a gardener on a long-haul science vessel?” She discovered a smile, displaying silver-specked herbivore’s enamel. “It’s unbelievable. I like my job. On daily basis, I coax issues to life. I assist them develop. I spend my shifts with filth below my toes and light-weight on my pores and skin. Generally my accomplice, Cook dinner Nailo, brings me a germination problem, normally a particular request from a crewmate lacking dwelling cooking, and typically I get the water and light-weight and vitamins excellent on the primary strive. Not usually, however these are good days.”

She might already hear music thumping from the observatory. Scientists that they have been, everybody wished to look at the vapor’s strategy. It was an undeniably cool technique to die: eaten by an area monster. There could be papers written about it for many years, they usually solely regretted they wouldn’t be those to write down them.

“In the event you’re contemplating becoming a member of the fleet, go for it. Don’t let our unhealthy luck cease you.”

• • •

By unstated settlement, all of them adopted the gown code for vid nights, which had no necessities however private consolation. A number of crewmates had moved empty crates from the storage bay to make a protracted desk for a “family-style” meal. Gardener wasn’t accustomed to family-style, but it surely appeared to imply an inconceivable quantity of meals being handed round chaotically till everybody proved, below menace of extra heaping spoonfuls, that they have been bodily incapable of consuming one other chew.

The meal was a showstopper, after all.

Dewdrop blossoms full of fungus, tied closed with the plant’s delicate vines, and fried to midnight blue. Thick, smoked leaves used as wraps and plates to boost taste. A fruit platter with every little thing from further bitter, underripe kio to candy, waterlogged berrymelon to bitter, gritty seeds Gardener hadn’t even recognized have been edible earlier than right this moment. Roasted frog and tomatillos inside corn patties, served with yellow rice. Uncooked tentacles, sliced skinny, alongside a dry dip that was such an indignant crimson she knew it could ship her to the med bay if she touched it. A vivid, purple gradient of osard, from the sunshine raw grains nonetheless on the stem—good for digestion—to the steamed variety excellent for lunch to an almost black pile of pebbly bread rolls. Smoking papers full of calming herbs and tightly hand rolled. And people bottles of suspiciously clear liquid. And extra. And extra. One thing, a present, for every member of the crew.

What adopted was an evening of dancing, imbibing, embracing, some prayer, extra consuming, the revelation of juicy ship secrets and techniques, and 4 rounds of “Lunar Penny” by everybody with the components to sing or stomp or howl.

Midway by the night time, they watched the final probe disappear into the vapor. Gardener was at Cook dinner’s aspect, resting a furred cheek on her easy shoulder, their fingers clasped tightly sufficient to chop off circulation.

Somebody cheered awkwardly, intoxicated. Just a few extra cheers went across the group like nervous laughter. Then it was silent . . .

Gardener stunned herself by shakily beginning one other spherical of “Lunar Penny.” The crew joined her heartily, turning away from the top and again to their social gathering.

In regards to the Creator

Kel Coleman is an Ignyte-nominated writer whose fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in FIYAH, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Solarpunk Journal, The Finest American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2022 and 2024, and others. Kel is a Marylander at coronary heart, however they at the moment dwell in Pennsylvania with their household, a stuffed dragon named Pen, and a group of unusual and frivolous collections. They are often discovered on-line at kelcoleman.com.

Please go to Lightspeed Magazine to learn extra nice science fiction and fantasy. This story first appeared within the September 2025 concern, which additionally options quick fiction by Jake Stein, Cadwell Turnbull, Filip Hajdar Drnovšek Zorko, Bogi Takács, C.Z. Tacks, Isabel J. Kim, Stephen S. Energy, and extra. You may look ahead to this month’s contents to be serialized on-line, or you should buy the entire concern proper now in handy book format for simply $4.99, or subscribe to the book version here.

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