Apogee Perturbation

In the late nineties, scientists conducted the Distant Snake Experiment. The experiment consisted of putting a one-man-capsule in a distant orbit around Earth. They would be suspended in solitary confinement for two months, logging their mental status and their physical status during that time. However, the experiment was shut down shortly after it was created due to strange complications. The experiment puts a man inside a vessel, then puts that vessel in a 400,000 kilometer orbit around earth. After failing to get any vessels far enough into space their first two attempts, on the third try they had managed to do it. Astronaut Duncan Vanguard was sent into a distant orbit around Earth. While reaching 400,000 kilometers he had full contact with Earth. However, once he had reached his orbit the station would no longer respond to any of his messages from space. No matter what Duncan said while up there, none of the scientists could legally respond. A full orbit would take about a two months, but the mission only lasted twenty-nine days.

Everything went wrong when Duncan Vanguard went behind the moon. The moon orbits Earth at about 385,000 kilometers. The scientists planned for the moon being there. Something the scientists didn’t realize, though, is how fast the moon would come back around and block out communication between him and Earth. Because they were only a few thousand kilometers away in orbit, Duncan’s transmission was blocked out for three days. Scientists couldn’t communicate with him during that dead zone that occurred on day twenty-four and ended on day twenty-seven. He never made another transmission after coming out from behind the moon. Two days of silence passed until the government shut down the Distant Snake Experiment. Experienced pilots remotely piloted the spacecraft out of orbit and back down to Earth. Only to find that Duncan was no longer in the spacecraft. Duncan’s blood was found smeared along the inside of the cockpit as well as multiple notes he presumably wrote to log his mental status while communications were lost. After reading Duncan Vanguard’s notes, they concluded that his mental stability dropped rapidly during the time he was behind the moon.

Even though he was thousands of kilometers away from the moon, he could still see how massive it was. Duncan watched everyday as the moon crept closer and closer. He commented about it multiple times in his audio logs that automatically transmitted back down to mission control. On day twenty-four the moon completely covered up Duncan’s visibility of Earth, blocking out all communications. He had officially lost the ability to transmit audio logs. Any time he turned the transmitter on he got static so he left it off. His shuttle was about the size of a bathroom. He had two porthole-type windows, one facing Earth and one facing the endless void of space, it had a small bed, a desk, and a light on the ceiling. On the desk there were multiple pieces of paper and some writing utensils in case of boredom. The moon was so close to the shuttle, it blocked out all light from the Sun. The only light he had was the one above his head. All he could hear was the sound of his beating heart, the humming of the light, and the ominous creaking of the vessel.

Duncan was alone with his thoughts for hours as he stared out at the stars. He wondered how far out space went, or if it ever stopped. Hours past with nothing happening, and Duncan figured that’s how the next few days would probably be like. Suddenly, the transmitter turned on, creating an eerie static sound. Duncan walked over to the transmitter and flicked the switch on and off again. The static remained playing. White noise hung in the air like thick fog. He couldn’t get the noise to stop. He realized that he would probably have to live with it. He also hoped he could still log transmissions and that the machine fixed itself once he came out from behind the moon. After a while, Duncan began to feel tired, he had no way of telling what time it was besides that when he felt tired, he slept. He shut off the lights and sat in bed for what seemed like forever. Finally, he fell asleep.

He was woken up by a horrible, distorted scream coming from the transmitter. He shot out of bed and turned on the transmitter to speak. The scream was deafening.

“Hello!?” he yelled into the mic. “Hello? Who’s there? Are you okay?”

The screaming stopped, leaving only the white noise of static. Duncan could hear ringing in his ears and feel his heart thumping out of his chest. The staticky, distorted voice spoke again. “Help.”

“Do you need help?” Duncan questioned as fear and curiosity rattled his bones. “I can help you. Who is this?”

Static played through the transmitter.

“Nobody can help,” the raspy voice spoke again like an injured man, pausing between each painful word.

“I can help you! Even if I can’t, I could get someone to help–”

“You,” the static voice interrupted.

White noise sat inside the vessel with Duncan. “What?”

“Nobody can help you.”

The volume of the static increased as Duncan tried to speak. “What does that mean?”

The voice never responded. He felt sweat roll down his forehead. Moments passed as he stood,
waiting for a reply. Suddenly, the static voice screamed, piercing his eardrums. He covered his ears with his hands. The sound brought him to the floor, wincing in pain. The lights flickered rapidly as the scream grew louder. Duncan screamed in pain, but it couldn’t be heard over the transmitter. With the sound of an explosion, everything went black. Duncan lay still on the floor with his eyes closed, hands still covering his ears. Moments passed until he finally gathered himself and opened his eyes. Not that it mattered, he could barely see anything. The light in his room and everything else electronic had completely shut down. He sat as his eyes adjusted to the darkness before standing up. The static had stopped.

Duncan sat on his bed, wide awake. He reached underneath his bed and pulled out a cooler full of canned food. He chose the most appetizing one for his breakfast, canned peaches. He hated peaches, but he hated broccoli more, so he chose the peaches. He grabbed a piece of paper and a pen from his desk. As he ate, he began writing down his experiences because the transmitter was no longer an option. Duncan felt as if he could still hear the scream. He’d never felt so much pain and anger and sorrow in one voice.

Duncan sat at his desk, staring out the window and into the stars, lost in thought. He sat for hours, changing positions from lying down in bed to sitting on the floor. Occasionally, he would think he heard the static again. The voice would haunt him for the rest of his life and, according to the voice, his life wasn’t going to be very long. He tried to not let it get to him, but it sat in the back of his mind, lingering.

Duncan found himself staring out the window again, the stars stared at him like dead eyes. As he examined the stars, he felt uneasy. Duncan watched carefully, feeling an anxious buildup in his stomach rise. Then he saw it, a single star disappeared. Duncan thought he’d officially gone crazy, but he knew what he saw. A single star with seemingly nothing special about it, except for the fact that it was no longer there. Duncan’s train of thought was interrupted by a knocking sound coming from the door of the shuttle.

Knock, knock, knock.

Duncan fumbled away from the door in shock, questioning what he had just heard. He stood in the center of the dark room, staring down the door. The sound of nothingness was so thick, it seemed as if his heartbeat was deafening in his ears. Then it happened again, the same as before.

Knock, knock, knock.

He felt like he couldn’t breathe. He shook off his confusion, leaving only terror upon his face. “That’s not possible,” he whispered to himself. “H-How can this even be happening?”

Knock, knock, knock.

Wiping the sweat from his forehead, he tried not to panic. Eyeing the door, he looked out of the porthole. He saw nothing except space filled with stars, along with one missing. He didn’t dare speak, he had no idea what would happen. He couldn’t see what was out there, but he could feel it.
He could feel it begging to come inside.

Knock, knock, knock.

Duncan watched as his hand rose up towards the hatch of the door. He forced his arm down to his side. Why would he even think about opening the door; it would kill him. The knocking seemed to be beckoning for him. It seemed rude to not open the door. He wouldn’t let himself do it. He stood in the darkness for what seemed like ages, the knocking seemed to have stopped. Slowly, he crept over to the porthole, the star was still missing and he still felt a presence.

Duncan slowly crept towards the door and put his ear against it. He heard nothing. He realized he had been holding his breath and he exhaled.

Knock, knock, knock.

Duncan fell backwards onto the floor, startled. He had felt the vibrations of the knocking on his face. He knew it was no illusion. He sat up on the floor and angrily spoke towards the door. “Who are you?”

Knock, knock, knock.

Frustrated, he ran up and slammed his fist against the door. “What do you want from me?” he yelled.

Silence filled the cabin. Duncan’s clenched his teeth with anger as he stared down the door, daring it to respond. Moments of silence passed with no response. Finally, it knocked again.

Bang!

Duncan’s arms fell to his side in shock as the color ran from his face. “Did you just… Copy me?” he spoke under his breath.

Bang!

He hated feeling like a coward, and he wasn’t the cowardly type, but he wished he was home. He didn’t want to be in that God forsaken shuttle any more. That thing outside his shuttle wasn’t just some weird phenomenon, but whatever was out there could learn. Every few minutes the noise came again, asking to be let in.

Duncan crawled into bed, facing the door. He sat for hours listening to the banging and eating, he was too scared to sleep. Eventually, his body got the better of him and he fell into an uncomfortable sleep.

He woke up to the banging. It was never a lot of banging at once, just one knock every few minutes, but it drove him insane.

“Did you stay up all night to knock on my door?” he spoke sarcastically.

Bang!

“I’ll take that as a yes,” he groaned as he rubbed sleep from his eyes.

He grabbed some food for breakfast, he hated broccoli, but it was all that was left. As he ate, he logged what happened the previous night on a sheet of paper. He looked over to the transmitter and the transmitting light was on. He got up and walked over to the machine. The power was still out in the cabin, yet the transmitter was on. Its green light seemed blinding in the dark room. “What are you doing on?” he spoke to himself.

After listening closely he realized that the static had filled the room, he just hadn’t noticed until now. He wondered how long that had been going on without him noticing. The transmitting light had definitely not been on that whole time, he knew that for sure.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

“Open,” the static spoke with its own voice.

Duncan was petrified. He glanced at the door and back at the transmitter. Terrified, but curious, he walked over to the door. The knocks had seemed angrier than before. He stared quizzically at the door.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

“Let us in,” the voice hissed through the static.

“I’m not letting you in,” Duncan whispered. Although, the urge to open the hatch made his hand twitch. Even though he knew he shouldn’t open that door.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

“Let us in!” it screamed.

“What do you mean, ‘us.’”

The transmitter made a horrifying crackling and scratching sound. Duncan went over and looked out of the window to find that all of the stars were disappearing one by one. The transmitter began filling with thousands of staticky voices, all of them different. They were all wailing and screaming to be let in. Banging came from every side of the shuttle. The feedback from the radio was deafening. Thousands of voices, male and female, all screaming and wailing, together they sounded just like static. Perhaps he had been hearing them screaming from a distance all this time, and now that they were outside his shuttle the noise was painful.

Duncan’s nose and ears began bleeding uncontrollably. The urge to open the door pressed on him like never before. He walk as far away from the door as possible, his hands were covered in his blood. He stood on his bed and pressed against the wall, trying to get as far away from the door as he could. A force he couldn’t explain caused him to walk towards the door. With his face covered in blood and his eyes filled with tears, Duncan leaned against the cabin door. The screaming was unbearably painful, emotionally and physically. All the voices pleading that the door be opened, and the constant banging coming from every wall filled him with fear and depression. He felt bad, what if they actually needed his help.

He closed his eyes, flicked the switch, and the door shot open. Blissful silence filled his ears. Shortly, he realized that no vacuum had pulled him outside of the ship. Opening his eyes, he saw the blackness of space without stars. He stepped outside of the ship to find that he could stand on the nothingness that was space. He walked out a few feet and looked around, the moon was gone. There was nothing but emptiness. Duncan heard the shuttle door close behind him. He turned around simply to find that his shuttle was far in the distance. Examining the area around him, he and saw thousands of people standing at different heights in space, wailing and screaming. They were scattered around like stars. In the distance, he saw himself inside the spacecraft, with the colossal moon blocking the sun from hitting it. He saw himself looking out the porthole of the ship. Suddenly, static filled Duncan’s ears and he felt a presence with him, an evil presence. Whatever it was, Duncan could tell it wanted to hurt him, it would laugh at the thought of him being frightened. He couldn’t hold still, he needed to get away from the being that lingered behind him, breathing down his neck.

Duncan ran towards the the shuttle, it felt like we was running for miles. The sense of evil felt like it was getting closer every second. He finally reached the spacecraft and he tried to open the door. It was locked. He tried to scream, but he couldn’t. Duncan wanted nothing more than to get away from that the terrors that lay outside the shuttle. He began to slam his hand into the shuttle door in an effort to escape the nightmare.

Knock, knock, knock.