series / Space Cadets

Another Planet

Chris Hall19 Comments

glimmering lights

previously…

The floor is weirdly spongy underfoot as I make my way to my seat at the ship’s console. I strap myself in and grasp the arms of the chair. They seem solid enough. Calming my breathing, I close my eyes and focus. The ship is part of my imagination; the ship exists by the power of my mind. I hang onto these thoughts, visualizing the surroundings with which I’ve become so familiar.

Gradually I steel myself to open one eye. The ship has ceased shimmering and the walls are solid once again. I open the other eye and stamp my feet on the floor. All seems as it should be. The ship has stabilized. I let out a long sigh of relief.

I remind myself I’m in a cargo hold on the Millennium Falcon. I stare at the blank monitor in front of me, trying to piece together what it looks like. I see racking and boxes and a chocolate bar wrapper. I’m looking down at Han Solo, Chewbacca and my two crew-mates. I watch as they disappear through a hatch at the far end of the cargo bay.

I flick the switch for the outside monitor, only to find it’s already switched on. Why is the screen blank? I flick the switch repeatedly, while behind me I hear the swish-thud sound of the outer hatch closing. Then it occurs to me.

It wasn’t my imagination that created this particular voyage. It was Harris’s. Right from the start. I was just a passenger. What if…?

I cut off the thought and feel in my pocket for the communication device that Han gave me before he took my crew members on their tour of the his iconic ship.

… if Harris’s imagination is busy filling in the details of the Millennium Falcon and Stevens is busy sustaining them, where does that leave me? I’m not part of that story-line anymore!

The screen flickers into life. The cargo hold has gone. The Millennium Falcon has gone and I’m on the surface of a barren planet. The same barren planet where we first found ourselves on this ship?

Have Harris and Stevens been left behind in a galaxy far, far away..?

Then two figures appear on the edge of the viewing screen. As they get closer to the ship I recognise them. It looks like I’m still in the same Universe as the boys after all.

R2D2 and C3P0 on a barren planet's surface

What’s happened to Jemma’s crew-mates? Are they still on board the Millennium Falcon? Will Han Solo come to her rescue? Or will it be up to her new friends to try to help her?
Tune in next week for episode 7…

And if you we’re wondering what on earth (or off-earth) is going on,
you can catch up with the entire first series of Space Cadets here

Image credits: Md Mahdi on Unsplash and thefactsite.com

19 thoughts on “Another Planet”

  1. Jemma’s gone and warped the imagined reality now, and almost imagined herself out of the Cadets’ shared existence! EEEK! Luckily help appears to be close by… by all accounts!

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  8. I like the way Jemma recaps how their travels happen. It helps new readers get on board and reminds us seasoned – readers the magic of the story. Wow. We learned we need to factors to maintain that world travel: Create and Sustain.
    I would think that a craft as big as the Millennium Falcon could use another person to sustain the details, but maybe not. I want to see what ideas the “friends” have, now that she’s on the planet.

    Nice one Chris

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    • Our gallant Space Cadets are certainly weaving a tangled web. I think we’re going to need outside help to explain what’s going on!
      Thanks, as always, for your lovely feedback, Darnell 🙂

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