My Space Mermaid

Welcome to The Spot Writers. This month’s challenge is to write a story using these words: leftover paint, mermaid, tide, sun, chilly.

This week’s story comes from Chiara. Chiara is currently in Berlin, Germany, doing her best to catch up with semi-abandoned writing projects. Her YA novel “Mi chiamo Elisa” was published in Italy by “Le Mezzelane Casa Editrice” in September 2020.

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My Space Mermaid

by Chiara De Giorgi

 

  

Photo by Cristian Palmer on Unsplash

No one is ever going to believe me, I thought. They’ll say I hallucinated.

But I knew what I saw, and my eyes are good, my sight has been tested, like everything else. Nobody less than perfect would be sent here anyway – not bragging, that’s a fact. 

 

Since Super-Speed^© was invented, twelve exploring space missions have been launched. Mars is still the most requested destination, being only half a day away – which is actually slow travel, but Super-Speed^© must undergo several adaptations, to go such short distances… It’s complicated, and not something I can explain here. It took me six years at the Academy to learn this stuff, after all.

When I completed my training, colonies on Mars had already been established, and I needed… more. Yes. I wanted something more adventurous, more unknown, more thrilling! So I sent my application for the “Proxima-B Project”. 

 

It was a chilly November day when I received the approval message. I looked up to the grey, wet sky, and laughed. I wouldn’t miss it. Soon I would be able to walk under a foreign sky, to feel the heat of a foreign sun on my skin. I laughed with joy, and started planning my trip. I cancelled my rent, and put all my belongings that were worth anything on sale. I gave away the rest: some mismatched crockery, clothes, even some leftover paint from when I had renovated my living room. I didn’t own much.

I left with eleven other explorers on the first day of Spring. We had spent the previous months training together, and had already got to know one another fairly well: people like us were encouraged to spend the time preceding the trip fraternizing with our new companions, while at the same time slowly letting go of all other relationships. Technically, ours wasn’t necessarily a one-way trip, however explorers rarely went back to Earth.

Three uneventful weeks later, we landed on our new home-planet. We spent the first few months inside the station, collecting data and making simulations: Proxima-B is quite similar to Earth, but “quite similar” may actually mean death, so you want to be extra-careful. Eventually, we were able to identify the best area to set camp, and moved the station next to the North Pole. There was water, and the temperature was a bit cold, but tolerable. With my Space-Breather^© in place (you wear a mask to cover your mouth and put the tiny device inside your nostrils), I took my first step on the surface of that foreign planet. It was the most exciting moment in my life!

The following weeks were an overwhelming succession of discoveries and new developments, as we claimed one inch of untouched land after another. Three of us set camp not far from the ocean, and I’ve been working here since then: I am in charge of collecting data regarding the tides. Fascinating task, that also leaves me with some free time to roam this endless shore. That’s where I saw her for the first time.

 

We took it for granted that this planet is not inhabited – we hadn’t got the smallest hint of it being otherwise. But we were wrong: there are sea-people! When I first saw the mermaid, I was so stunned, I just stood there. The creature must have been as shocked as I was, because we stared at each other for a very long time, before she⁠ dived under the surface of the ocean and disappeared.

I didn’t tell the others. For some reason, I wanted to keep her my secret, hoping she would come back – and she did, every day. Each time we moved a bit nearer to each other. I was fascinated, and quickly became obsessed, until sighting her became the only thing I lived for. So I concocted a plan.

Night after night, without the others being aware, I got up and worked at a modified breather that would allow me to breathe under the Proxima-B ocean water. It took all my Academy-polished skills and one whole week, but I did it.

Tomorrow, I’ll go to my mermaid. What will happen after that, I have no idea. But I don’t care.

 

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The Spot Writers—Our Members:

Val Muller: http://www.valmuller.com/blog/

Catherine A. MacKenzie: https://writingwicket.wordpress.com/wicker-chitter/

Phil Yeats: https://alankemisterauthor.wordpress.com/

Chiara De Giorgi: https://chiaradegiorgi.blogspot.com/