‘Visit to Planet Helmeria’

A short story by Harry Riley

(This story is fiction and resemblance to anyone living or dead is coincidental)

It’s the year of our Lord 3,012 and Captain Marcus Benedict has just recorded the final chapter of an incredible four and a half year journey to and from the Planet Helmeria, below is an abbreviated account of their voyage as written in his own hand.

Tomorrow is my birthday and tomorrow I die. I am perfectly fit in body and mind. I have committed no crime known to man and yet tomorrow my time is up. I am the last of my crew to die. Since I was a young boy I had dreamed of one day becoming an astronaut and travelling to the far reaches of the universe to find new life on distant planets. I had eagerly devoured old archive films of man’s exploration of the Moon, and our first landings on Mars. I knew without any doubt that would be my life. When the opportunity came to trial for the biggest and most dangerous mission into outer space, I immediately threw my hat in the ring and was finally accepted as captain.

We had been travelling for just over two years, frantically dodging space debris and feeling totally lost when we noticed a distinct change in the environment. Before we knew what was happening an intensely painful bright light filled the cabin and we had to close our eyes to prevent blindness, this was followed by a deafening roar that knocked us all unconscious. We awoke to the sound of a metallic voice speaking to us in our own language. It insisted we had violated Helmeria’s Sovereign Airspace and they had taken control of our ship. They knew exactly who we were and where we had come from and that our intentions were peaceful. We would be guided into an alien docking station to await official examination.

This was staggering news and we couldn’t wait to see what our new friends would look like. In the event, the first beings we encountered seemed to have evolved very much like ourselves.

Their physical size and structure was similar to us. They each had two arms and two legs. The men appeared to be all of the same size and physique and all were identical clones. They had no facial hair and their heads were somewhat larger than ours. Their complexion was of a dark hue, possibly owing to their climate being exceptionally hot. We were fitted with air-controlled suits to cool us down. A woman introduced herself as the chief spokesperson on our arrival. The females were very exotic looking specimens of much smaller stature and all of a uniform shape and size.