A Spaceship Crew Faces Doom in This Surprisingly Tender Sci-Fi Story

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Final Meal Aboard the Awassa

by Kel Coleman

Gardener ladled dark-purple porridge into her major digestion sac, staring absently out the viewport at black area and the distant smudge of the planet they’d come to check. The easy meal and the gesture it represented soothed her after a protracted, thorny morning in a piece of the expansion bay that was in full flower and had wanted hand pollinating. Although the opposite crew members across the mess made do with the same old break time assortment, Prepare dinner had steamed and spiced osard grains only for her earlier than going off shift to nap of their rooms.

When the 2 of them joined the crew as a pair, roughly 4 solars in the past, Gardener had frightened the particular therapy proven to her from the kitchen would result in resentment. She had heard it might get lonely on a protracted haul if you happen to made a nasty impression, particularly on a tiny ship the place everybody knew one another’s households, had vid night time sleepovers within the observatory, and will depend at the very least a handful of birthdays and Infinite Nights aboard. However in contrast to Gardener, this hadn’t been Prepare dinner’s first lengthy haul and he or she’d quickly researched the crew’s dwelling planets and ports, monitoring down household recipes, fashionable road meals, and pageant treats. The crew of the small science vessel have been instantly smitten together with her, and Gardener discovered herself warming to them because of this.

She completed her porridge, scraping the bowl clear, however lingered on the desk to—

The audio system mounted across the mess blared three pressing tones.

The opposite crew members scattered at tables and behind the serving counter dropped what they have been doing and moved to readiness. For Gardener, like many bipeds, this meant standing together with her limbs at her sides. She turned towards the closest display screen, which had already switched from Union information to video from the bridge.

The captain’s wings have been tucked near their thorax, their 5 eyes reddened and quickly blinking. In all 4 solars of her time aboard, Gardener had by no means earlier than seen them fearful.

“Crew of the Awassa, that is your captain talking.”

Gardener’s delicate listening to picked up all of the ear dots across the room overlaying the phrases with translations. Her personal ear dots not solely translated the captain’s phrases however amplified issues like pitch modifications so she can be much less apt to mistake one tone for an additional. They have been frightened, however with a tinge of anger maybe?

“As a few of it’s possible you’ll already know, we misplaced contact with the staff despatched to Gulsan-6 two hours in the past. This occurred shortly after they despatched a probe into the gasoline big. Following evaluation of footage, scans, and probe information, we are able to conclude with excessive certainty that Gulsan-6 is, fairly than a planet, an unknown species. It’s able to surviving and navigating the vacuum of area. And since exiting dormancy, its measurement has grow to be incalculable as its form is ever-changing. It’s able to lowering matter to its smallest items, and I remorse to tell you your crewmates Engineer Ulli and Physicist Andel, together with their shuttle, have been consumed by the alien. With equal remorse, I have to inform you the alien is now on a course to intercept and devour the Awassa as effectively.”

As her hearts’ paces fell out of concord, Gardener discovered she might now not type out the feelings behind the phrases. On the faces round her, although, she learn the captain’s pragmatic hopelessness relating to the state of affairs. As they continued talking, a time-to-intercept countdown appeared within the backside of the display screen. They ordered three senior crew members to the bridge and advised everybody else to name their family members. So . . . there was nothing helpful for her to do besides discover Prepare dinner.

• • •

Prepare dinner was within the hydroponics row, pinching leaves off of herbs and dropping them right into a handwoven basket. Her darkish, easy pores and skin was riddled with planet-orange hives and her voluminous whiskers have been drooping.

“Prepare dinner?”

She didn’t cease pacing or search for.

“Nailo? Did you see the captain’s—”

“In fact,” Prepare dinner mentioned. She gestured on the herbs and fruits tumbling round within the basket like that was rationalization sufficient.

And for Gardener, it was. The 2 of them wanted few phrases.

Prepare dinner would do what she cherished till the top. She was already gliding across the nook to the following row, and if she had been the identical species as Gardener, she would possibly’ve heard her utter a time period of endearment, one which didn’t translate effectively to many different fleet languages.

An endearment near that means beloved, one her caretaker had known as her usually. An endearment that had journeyed together with her when she left her lush world for Outpost 9. An endearment that stored her and her seedlings heat regardless of the depressing chilly exterior the outpost greenhouses. An endearment that had come together with her on a trip the place she received crater-sloshed with a slick-skinned touring chef within the backroom of a Meat Meet Meat. An endearment that had accompanied the each of them to the Awassa, the place they have been swept up in all of the drama and mutual care of a giant household that Prepare dinner had missed and Gardener found she might tolerate when she wasn’t flat-out loving it—the shift-change gossip, the hugs, the too-loud music shoving via skinny partitions, her first spacewalk accompanied by Engineer Ulli . . .

Her hearts skipped.

She pulled herself out of her ruminative state and joined Prepare dinner in one other part of the bay, the place she was snipping blue flowers from climbing dewdrops. Gardener gently took the shears from her. “My job,” she mentioned. “Simply inform me what you want.”

• • •

After they have been completed with harvesting, Prepare dinner agreed to present prep over to uninitiated however enthusiastic crewmates so she might name her household. Gardener lay in mattress, blankets holding down her jumpy limbs, and tried to dam out Prepare dinner’s murmurs two rooms away. She set the updates from the bridge to a quantity excessive sufficient that it brought about her some ache.

The bridge crew had realized so much about “the vapor” and the way it consumed the staff and the shuttle. They have been in a position to accumulate this information when the vapor altered its course to eat the second probe they despatched to research it. They nonetheless couldn’t cease it or outrun it, however they estimated that they might purchase a number of extra hours with the remaining probes as decoys.

When she received off the decision, Prepare dinner was weirdly happy with the information. “Extra time to cook dinner,” she defined. A couple of minutes later, with bottles of one thing clear she’d been “saving for a special day” cradled in her arms and a nuzzle towards Gardener’s cheek, she was off to make a feast for his or her crew, their beloveds.

• • •

Gardener didn’t usually file movies unrelated to her duties. She smoothed down the fur round her eyes and cleared her throat.

“That is Gardener Ketri,” she started. “A hostile member of an unknown species is bearing down on my ship, the Awassa, and I don’t have anybody to say goodbye to who isn’t in the identical boat . . . besides you, I assume, whoever sees this.”

The dread dripped steadily via her bloodstream now, however she imagined the individuals who would watch this, particularly the youthful ones, and he or she didn’t need them to really feel afraid for her.

“As an alternative of goodbye, although, do you thoughts if I inform you what it’s wish to be a gardener on a long-haul science vessel?” She discovered a smile, exhibiting silver-specked herbivore’s tooth. “It’s unbelievable. I really like my job. Each day, I coax issues to life. I assist them develop. I spend my shifts with dust underneath my ft and lightweight on my pores and skin. Generally my accomplice, Prepare dinner Nailo, brings me a germination problem, often a particular request from a crewmate lacking dwelling cooking, and typically I get the water and lightweight and vitamins excellent on the primary strive. Not usually, however these are good days.”

She might already hear music thumping from the observatory. Scientists that they have been, everybody wished to observe the vapor’s method. It was an undeniably cool approach to die: eaten by an area monster. There can be papers written about it for many years, and so they solely regretted they wouldn’t be those to write down them.

“When you’re contemplating becoming a member of the fleet, go for it. Don’t let our dangerous luck cease you.”

• • •

By unstated settlement, all of them adopted the costume code for vid nights, which had no necessities however private consolation. A number of crewmates had moved empty crates from the storage bay to make a protracted desk for a “family-style” meal. Gardener wasn’t aware of family-style, however it appeared to imply an inconceivable quantity of meals being handed round chaotically till everybody proved, underneath risk of extra heaping spoonfuls, that they have been bodily incapable of consuming one other chew.

The meal was a showstopper, after all.

Dewdrop blossoms filled with fungus, tied closed with the plant’s delicate vines, and fried to midnight blue. Thick, smoked leaves used as wraps and plates to reinforce taste. A fruit platter with every thing from further bitter, underripe kio to candy, waterlogged berrymelon to bitter, gritty seeds Gardener hadn’t even recognized have been edible earlier than as we speak. Roasted frog and tomatillos inside corn patties, served with yellow rice. Uncooked tentacles, sliced skinny, alongside a dry dip that was such an indignant purple she knew it will ship her to the med bay if she touched it. A vivid, purple gradient of osard, from the sunshine raw grains nonetheless on the stem—good for digestion—to the steamed variety good for lunch to a virtually black pile of pebbly bread rolls. Smoking papers filled with calming herbs and tightly hand rolled. And people bottles of suspiciously clear liquid. And extra. And extra. One thing, a present, for every member of the crew.

What adopted was an evening of dancing, imbibing, embracing, some prayer, extra consuming, the revelation of juicy ship secrets and techniques, and 4 rounds of “Lunar Penny” by everybody with the elements to sing or stomp or howl.

Midway via the night time, they watched the final probe disappear into the vapor. Gardener was at Prepare dinner’s facet, resting a furred cheek on her easy shoulder, their fingers clasped tightly sufficient to chop off circulation.

Somebody cheered awkwardly, intoxicated. A couple of extra cheers went across the group like nervous laughter. Then it was silent . . .

Gardener shocked herself by shakily beginning one other spherical of “Lunar Penny.” The crew joined her heartily, turning away from the top and again to their get together.

Concerning the Writer

Kel Coleman is an Ignyte-nominated writer whose fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in FIYAH, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Solarpunk Journal, The Finest American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2022 and 2024, and others. Kel is a Marylander at coronary heart, however they at present reside in Pennsylvania with their household, a stuffed dragon named Pen, and a group of unusual and frivolous collections. They are often discovered on-line at kelcoleman.com.

Please go to Lightspeed Magazine to learn extra nice science fiction and fantasy. This story first appeared within the September 2025 challenge, which additionally options brief fiction by Jake Stein, Cadwell Turnbull, Filip Hajdar Drnovšek Zorko, Bogi Takács, C.Z. Tacks, Isabel J. Kim, Stephen S. Energy, and extra. You possibly can anticipate this month’s contents to be serialized on-line, or you should buy the entire challenge proper now in handy book format for simply $4.99, or subscribe to the book version here.

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