Draft message to TOM:
"infuriate"
Message sent on: 31 JUL 2148 17:43:12 Expected delivery time: 31 JUL 2148 17:43:13
Received message from TOM on: 13 SEP 2148 08:10:55
"unpack"
Draft message to TOM:
"just"
Message sent on: 13 SEP 2148 08:46:38 Expected delivery time: 26 OCT 2148 23:14:21
Received message from TOM on: 09 DEC 2148 21:30:08
"awesome"
Draft message to TOM:
"dark"
Message sent on: 09 DEC 2148 22:17:03 Expected delivery time: 22 JAN 2149 12:44:46
Draft message to TOM:
"panic"
Message sent on: 11 DEC 2148 11:34:42 Expected delivery time: 24 JAN 2149 02:02:25
Draft message to TOM:
"long time" Message sent on: 11 DEC 2148 15:29:01 Expected delivery time: 07 MAY 2160 07:46:21
Draft message to TOM:
"didn't think" Message sent on: 11 DEC 2148 19:18:52 Expected delivery time: 07 MAY 2160 11:36:12
Draft message to TOM:
"okay another"
Message sent on: 18 DEC 2148 11:47:36 Expected delivery time: 14 MAY 2160 04:04:56
Draft message to TOM:
It's not feasible for me to keep flying down by the surface. These pods were meant to go back, explore for a little while, and return. I don't have the fuel for these repeated missions down; I'm down to about 15% remaining.
I've decided I'm going to put myself into the lowest orbit I can find, wait until there's some sort of disturbance, and THEN investigate closer to the surface. This should allow me to expend no fuel at all and still cover a lot of ground. Now I just hope I can detect something from up here.
As stressful as the situation is, it's kinda of boring in its own way. Not that the outcome doesn't matter -- jeez, far from it -- but there's just nothing to DO anymore now that I'm not even piloting. All I have time to do is sit here and think.
And honestly, more than anything else, I'm ANGRY. Angry that they let us explore something so unknown, angry that I was so reckless myself, angry that I do this at all. Angry that you and I left things on such bad terms. Angrier that you probably are sitting there loving me anyway in that stupidly sweet way you always do, worrying about me and not caring if I said anything insensitive.
It's all so enraging. Be rude back sometimes! Let me feel like MY anger is justified too! Honestly, it's selfish that you don't, it's not healthy to be so sweet and accommodating all the time. I always end up feeling like I'm the one at fault when we argue, even when I'm right, because you're just so darn NICE about it!
I don't even know where this is all coming from. I just hate this. Stuck on this stupid ship in God knows where, with nothing left to do but wait. I don't know, I'm just taking this all out on you, when you don't deserve it. Just like I always do I guess. I'm ending this one before I say anything else worthless.
Message sent on: 21 DEC 2148 03:52:49 Expected delivery time: 16 MAY 2160 20:10:09
Draft message to TOM:
Merry (very belated) 2148 Christmas Eve from the farthest corner of the galaxy... I had a rare pleasant thought today, but it turned sour before I could even get any real enjoyment from it. I was thinking about how I was the first human ever to reach this place, comfortably, and that I might get the wormhole or even this whole planet named after me. That was exciting for a moment, and goodness knows I could use something to be excited about lately.
But then I thought a little deeper about it. There were a bunch of people who found America before Mr. Vespucci. The ancestors of the Mayans and Aztecs and Vikings, sure, but I bet other wayward explorers accidentally stumbled upon it after taking a wrong turn. But it was named after him because he made it there... and CAME BACK.
I don't know if anything is going to be named after me.
Message sent on: 24 DEC 2148 21:36:21 Expected delivery time: 20 MAY 2160 13:53:41
Draft message to TOM:
I know every word we've written to each other by heart by now. I've got nothing better to do than read and reread our communications. I bet you didn't think that "I love you astronomically" would be the last thing I'd ever hear from you, did you? Would you have said something else if you could've, if you knew? I know I would've.
I've been reflecting a lot, and I'm not going to write out some grand speech about something that happened more than a decade ago by the time you finally get this, but I just want you to know that I realize everywhere I took you for granted. I know you weren't perfect either, I'm not saying I'm some villain who was oppressing you either, but I just wanted to acknowledge that.
I don't know. This is silly, I don't know if you'll get this ever. I'm going to stop for now.
Message sent on: 26 DEC 2148 16:57:10 Expected delivery time: 22 MAY 2160 09:14:30
Draft message to TOM:
I figured out what you were going to ask me... you can't be serious right??? I can't believe that. After everything? Or before everything, maybe? I pray I'm wrong, maybe you just wanted to know my favorite flavor of ice cream. the idea that you would still be there waiting for me only makes me feel that much worse.
I don't even have anything else to add for now, I just... I guess I needed to process this out loud. And since you're not here for me to talk to, this is the closest I've got.
Message sent on: 26 DEC 2148 19:01:58 Expected delivery time: 22 MAY 2160 11:19:18
Draft message to TOM:
Well, I'm no quitter, but I think it's time to wrap things up here. I'm not sad or scared anymore. There's nothing here, nothing for me to find, and no one coming for me within a decade. It's going to be okay. I haven't exactly gone through the five stages of grief in any linear way (and I guess I got over the "denial" phase pretty quickly; scientists don't have time for that). Regardless, it's pretty clear I'm at "acceptance" now.
The little IV drip we have has kept me alive for a while, and it's amazing at recycling nutrients, but even it has limitations. My only option is to enter cryogenic suspension and hope that can keep me alive for longer. Maybe if I happen to drift close enough to the wormhole, the interference will interrupt the process and I'll wake up anyway. Who can say, this is literally uncharted territory, and even then that's the longest of shots... but a full-court, backwards, blindfolded heave is the best odds I have right now. I think this is goodbye.
I don't know if you're reading this. In fact, I hope you aren't. I hope your AstroComm is collecting dust somewhere, forgotten in the dark corner of a closet, in a shoebox you won't open until you move in another decade. I hope it broke years ago and you didn't bother to fix it, since you weren't expecting to hear from me anyway. I hope you chucked it in the ocean in a fit of anger and never bothered to fish it out.
If you ARE reading this... I'm sorry. I never wanted to do this to you. So I'm going to do the only humane thing I can think of: I'm breaking up with you. I'm not giving you a choice and allowing you to hang on thinking it's the noble thing to do. You've wasted too much of your life on me already, and you deserve better. Move on. Please go enjoy your life again... for me. I don't know if you've spent more than a decade clinging to a thread of a possibility, but if you have, then that's the worst thing I've ever done. I take solace now knowing that it won't happen any longer.
I'm not coming home Tom. I'll always love you.
Message sent on: 31 DEC 2148 23:59:59 Expected delivery time: 27 MAY 2160 16:17:19
6:26 PM
Anna awoke surrounded by fuzzy whiteness everywhere she looked. After so much time in the omnipresent obsidian night that was outer space, it was blinding.
Is this Heaven? she thought. Do I deserve Heaven anyway?
As her eyes adjusted and her surroundings came into focus, she realized it wasn't Heaven at all. She was surrounded by four walls and large pieces of equipment, and she herself was hooked up to a machine she didn't recognize.
Kidnapped by aliens? she wondered. Probably not, this looks like a human hospital. Did the U.S.S. Callister or some other ship finally make the decade-long trip to me? Or has it been hundreds of years, and someone stumbled upon me by accident?
As Anna tried to process everything, an older woman in a white lab coat came in holding a clipboard. "I just got the notification you're finally awake!" she said with a genuinely chipper demeanor. "We were hoping you would, but I wasn't exactly sure. You were in pretty rough shape."
"What... what happened?" Anna stammered, with her brain still slowly waking up as well.
"Well, they found you," responded the doctor. "It took a little while, but they were able to go in the same way you did, but they marked the path home and were able to return the same way.
"I know this is probably going to be a lot for you to take in. Trust me, they're going to want me to run all sorts of tests on you, but I'm going to make sure we go at your pace. I'll be here when you're ready for me, just hit that button by your right arm. In the meantime though, maybe your visitor there would be a friendlier face to catch you up to speed."
Anna wasn't sure what she meant, but as she sat up a bit and followed the direction of the doctor's gesture, she saw a man sitting slumped in a chair in the corner behind her and to her left, with a hat covering his face so he could sleep.
"She's awake!" the doctor said loudly, causing the man to stir, before she exited closing the door behind her.
As the man sat further upright himself, his hat slipped down onto his lap, and Anna was shocked to see Tom's face staring back at her. His eyes were red and he was clearly older than the last time she'd seen him, but he was still a young man overall.
Anna was hit with a wave of emotions all at once. Relief, love, longing, regret, guilt, sadness, gratitude, and exhaustion rushed through her body, and the only thing she could do was start sobbing.
In an instant, Tom went from rubbing the sleep from his confused eyes to kneeling at Anna's bedside and cradling her in his arms.
"It's okay baby. It's over. I'm here. They brought you back to me, and I'm never letting you go again. You're mine, and you're safe now."
Anna burrowed deeper into his chest and let out everything she held inside without saying a word. Tom absorbed it all, rubbing her back and continuing to coo soft words of affirmation in her ear, assuring her everything would be alright.
Suddenly, a thought struck Anna like lightning, and she pushed Tom away. "When is it?" she gasped out.
"Uh... 6:32? Sunday??" Tom answered quizzically after a quick glance at the clock.
"No... when?" Anna repeated.
Tom nodded, understanding a little better now.
"It's March of 2153," he stated calmly. "You've been gone for almost five years. You sent me that panicked last message, and then ASF told me the broad details of what happened. A few years later, they told me they had the information necessary to go find you, and then they called me again when they did."
Anna heard nothing but the first four words. "Do you still have your AstroComm?" she ventured.
Tom blushed a bit, and sheepishly reached into his jacket pocket to pull it out. "I haven't left home without it since your last message. I was always hoping against hope that I'd hear from you... I'd protect this thing with my life."
In one swift motion, Anna snatched the device from Tom's outstretched hand and hurled it on the floor, shattering it instantly. Tom fixed his gaze on the ground for a few seconds, and then swiveled his head back up to face her, truly dumbfounded.
"Trust me," Anna said. "You don't need to know. That was for future Tom anyway."
Tom still had no clue what she was talking about, but he couldn't help but chuckle in bewilderment.
"Okay my love," he purred warmly. "I guess I don't need that anymore when I have the real you right next to me anyway. And you respond a lot faster too."
Now it was Anna's turn to blush a bit, but Tom wasn't quite done. He took her hand in his, carefully avoiding the tubes inserted into her wrist, and locked eyes meaningfully with her before speaking again.
"Let's go make OUR future together," he said with a half-decade full of repressed emotions brimming right beneath the surface."
Anna was too overwhelmed to respond properly. There was only one thing she was able to utter.
"Message received."
Inspiration primarily from Voices of a Distant Star and slightly from Interstellar