Major wolf prodded his clawed grimy nail into the console and regally laid back on his plush leather lounge. He lifted himself a little for the leather made a chugging noise as he slid on it. The overhead panel made a noise that was akin to what you hear issuing from a tap (back on planet earth) before water makes its long journey through the pipes and burbles out in the vent.
The hot-iron red of the panel glow bothered major so he held his hand up. But this was not going to work. So he reached for the console and pinched a knob clockwise. The red light dimmed and now the inside of his cockpit had the look of a womb so much so that major wolf went to sleep right away. A crackle woke him up. What was it? He looked about him. Major wolf was not the type you woke up in the middle of a dream. He noticed the green agleam on the speaker so he roused himself from the leather lounge and paddled in a daze toward the crackle and making a good fist, thumped on the instrument.
The crackle died. But, in its place came the streaming blue dots on a slate of white. A man’s face adjusted himself in the slate; he had a bald head, save for the slick of hair that now flopped on his forehead, he really had nothing on the spire. A welter of lines across the monitor slathered, powdered and puckered over the man’s face as he twisted his mouth. Now the reception cleared and the zigzag lines erased themselves out. The brooding little face with a snub nose and large mouth spoke.
Major wolf was not very pleased with what he heard. The man said that as soon as major wolf landed the ship on this new planet tri-moon (named so, for it had three moons), he ought to pull the lever on radio dish which will identify the location of the nearest sun. The bald man from ground control wished the major goodbye and was about to explode into tiny blue dots again in a leisurely manner as in the past but the major raised his brown-haired hand to thump on the slate before that happened. All that remained was the faint echo of a voice as that of a drowned man sidling into a deep pit.
Major wolf checked the space-time coordinates and a look of satisfied grin crossed his face. The cockpit doors hissed as he elbowed the button to his left. Over his shoulder, he checked the lips of the door that had acquired a sort of a crooked look on the edges what with his kicking, head-butting and elbowing all the time. He sashayed down the creamy white tiles and into the great hall where he noticed his fleece all over. The place needed some cleaning, he thought, as he reached with his nails to pry grit between his teeth. Satisfied, he hunched his shoulders and cracked the bones of his back in a lengthy draw, a yawn that pulsed through his chest like a reverberating machine.
He was alone in this mission but that did not bother major wolf. He went into the bathroom and slapped water on his eyes. His facial hair now looked like a welter of seaweed, wet and knotty, frilled even. Dribbles of water cascaded from his eyes and made him look like he was homesick. He pressed his flat palms on the forehead and kneaded his temples. The gravity inside the ship was fluctuating; there must be a glitch in the system, for now he had that headache again. He squinted at himself in the mirror and looked sideways to see if the image observed him. He smiled and planted his hands akimbo.
He was pleased with his chest, a bulging balcony of chest he had, square and ominous. In the refrigerator, he rifled through the leftovers for something precious. He was a scavenger in his own ship. He was hungry but the food supplies were all but over. Where was the damn tri-moon planet, he thought as he lowered himself into the gravity deck. Here, he fiddled with the controls to see if anything was amiss. The place had the reek of fetus; it was as though all the plastic integuments of the ship had morphed into a living thing and now pullulating with plastic embryos. What was the smell; he found it so repugnant he slipped out of the deck before he grew nauseous and elbowed a thing or two.
The bald man from ground control hosed himself into the slate monitor; following a brief crackle, the voice issued out. It was the voice of panic. The bald man instructed major wolf to check his body vitals. Could he be so kind as to sit himself down on the haunch-shaped saddle? Major wolf considered this request. Why would he do such a thing, he asked himself, to sit himself down on that saddle which funnily wiggled under his haunches? The bald man said it was important he did. The ship was humming as if he was trapped inside a stiletto instrument of an orchestra. What was going on? He might as well sit himself down. The covers under him melted and he dropped down into open space.
Now he was floating, the ship agog and aquiver over him. What was above and what was below in space, he thought as the haunched-saddle carried him away from the ship that buckled as if it was being sucked into itself. The sound of metal snagging and snapping trilled in his ears until such time as he considered the impossible physics behind his hearing. In space, you won’t hear anything. If this was a movie, it would be a silent movie. And then, the stars blurred; their sharp features hazed and they seemed joining each other in great wing-like arcs, as if the dark space were a coffee mug and the white stars cream drops that once spooned, made spools and mixed.
Now, he was buoyant and afloat inside himself. It was as though his internal organs were buoyant or rather he was rid of them so that he felt numb-bodied and vacant. The hair on his chest was bristling and stiff. Something inside him moved like a probe and slid along the walls of his guts, landing like a piece of lean at the very bottom. His chest was gaining weight and blood seemed to revoke its persistent cyclical drivel to nowhere. There, there now! The hooded eyes of the bald man greeted major wolf who wore a quizzical look and looked about him. The bald man made such a face; the slate-monitor zoomed in and a buzz of blue dots flashed across the monitor. Connection was terminated. Major wolf unbuckled himself from the haunch-saddle that made a ripping sound as he roused himself with his elbow hooked to a side of the knee. He reached for the knob and turned it round so the bald man pottered about in the screen before reading out the details of major wolf’s hallucinatory experience.
Major wolf feelingly scratched the panel door with his nails as if to confirm that the irritating screech noise of the nails meant he was alright now. How long had he been hallucinating? He read the puerile scribbling he made in the pad he had been carrying all along belted to his right flank. Now that he was alright, he thought he should check where he was. Oh, what a nice thing to see! He was already there, on the planet. He shaded his eyes and breathed hard. No, he was not hallucinating. No, he was not! What a marvelous sight, he thought as he checked the auto-pilot signature. The ship had piloted itself to the planet. What a marvel, he thought, as he slipped the space suit on and elbowed himself out of the ship onto the planet tri-moon. It was cold and there was a light breeze indicating the atmosphere. His helmet ears were catching snatches of sound from the left. What was it?
He tottered closer to the sound but it was only his ship. Leave it be; he thought as he waddled away noisily, through the inch deep mud, like a child, heaving himself up and down in the lesser gravity of the planet. The night sky was star-spangled; a bright monster moon in the middle and two finger nail moons obediently, obsequiously even, observed him from the sides. Breeze stirred a bit of mud that caught some dirt and slapped on his helmet. He laughed. What a thing, this was the planet greeting him. Yes, it was. There it was again, that annoying sound of hum and hiss. Now, there was more mud from behind him; like a gale, the mud rose up ominously. He turned around and faced what was to leave him dumbfounded. His ship made a crunching sound as the legs lifted and clucked shut inside.
Door closed; the black-rubber like lips puckered and the spire acquired the red glow as it briefly hovered above him and off it shot itself into the dense black. All was black now, only the red blinking glare that whorled itself into the spiral arm of yet another hazy-stars-spattered sky…
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