Neutral Zone
Soaring through the stars was only worthwhile for Eliza if she had someone beside her. She wasn’t sure she did anymore.
Cracked vases. A few broken plates. That’s all the physical evidence there was. No record of the screaming and tears. She wished she could forget, but as she started to sweep up the broken glass, she glanced at a picture of them in happier times. Why couldn’t they be like that again? They were young astronauts then, chosen for a ten-year mission into space, only starting to fall in love. Where was the passion they once had?
Hearing footsteps, Eliza stood alert. Lionel leaned against a balcony, his eyes red from crying. “Are you all right?” he said, not unkindly.
“Are you?” His face was pale, and his arms trembled. Though he’d never admit it, she knew their fights were worse for him. Instead of answering her, he glanced away—at the control room, at their starmap. Anywhere but the broken glass that reminded him of their shouting match.
“I don’t know,” he said, turning up the temperature in a vain attempt to combat the chills racing through his body.
“How about we go to a less dangerous destination this time?” she offered. A shy smile crossed his face. This is what they had fought about, what they always fought about. Lionel joined the mission for a danger-light scientific expedition. Eliza could never forgive him for that. The most valuable data could only be gathered on high-risk planets, she’d said. Their superiors were always instructing them to travel to bizarre, unpredictable worlds. This did not, however, explain her eagerness to embark on such perilous adventures.
“There’s this tropical planet I’ve been wanting to visit for years,” he said. “Blue water, silver sand. There’s this uncatalogued variety of algae growing there, so it wouldn’t be a total vacation, but we could spend a few moments lounging in the sand.”
“Sounds nice. Let’s alternate trips. You pick this one, I’ll pick the next one.” Kissing her, Lionel raced to the controls and charted a course to the planet of his dreams. Eliza searched through the spaceship’s library for a book to read. It was going to be a boring week.
***
Though she brought Anna Karenina in all its 1000-page glory, she finished it in three days. There wasn’t much for her to do after collecting algae samples. Most of the work came in cutting open the samples and running esoteric scientific tests, and much of that was his responsibility. She spent long hours traveling around the barren landmasses, bored and lonely. Though she searched for natural phenomena, there was nothing of note on this planet except the algae. Sure, it was quaint and peaceful, but she wasn’t the kind of person who could sit for hours in the sand, watching foamy waves crash against the shore.
Three days before they were supposed to depart, she pleaded with Lionel to leave this planet. The smile dropped from his face. “Aren’t you having fun?” he asked, but as he studied her sullen eyes, he knew she wasn’t.
“This isn’t what I want. If I wanted to lounge around all day, I would have stayed on Earth.” When he drew back, she added, “Sorry. I know you’re happy here. If you don’t like the planet I choose, tell me. I want this—us—to work. But give it a chance. Please.”
On the planet she chose, geysers of sulfur erupted from lava-filled valleys. Unyielding gales scoured the marshy plains. But the mountains in the distance were majestic and strange. Atop the highest peak were the remnants of an ancient meteor the planet’s atmosphere had turned radioactive-green. Grabbing a sail-size leaf from an S-shaped tree, she leaped into the valley. The winds caught the leaf and carried her to the peak.
A squid-like monster flung itself at her, but when she shot it with a taser, it froze before retreating into the stale, slimy embrace of its mountain cave. She reveled in her surging adrenaline while holding the meteorite aloft. “Did you see that, Lionel? It must have had sixty eyes. Imagine what they’d think of that back on Earth.”
She looked for him, but he hadn’t come with her. He hadn’t moved at all. When she returned to the spaceship, meteorite in hand, he scowled. “You could have died,” he said. “I don’t want to lose you. Why do you keep doing this to yourself?”
“We have to. It’s our mission.”
“You always say that, but there are dozens of other teams floating around the galaxy. Why do we always have to be the ones risking our lives?” Before she could respond, he added, “It’s because you love it. This is just a big adventure for you. But what if you die? What if we both die?”
Eliza denied this, but he didn’t speak to her again until she said, “We can leave now.”
***
After several quiet, solemn weeks, she tapped him on the shoulder, waking him. “What are you doing?” he asked, yawning.
“Just come with me.” Eliza led him into what had been an unused bedroom. It was now divided into two different simulations. On one, there was a beach chair, the sun glittering on the waves, the song of seabirds. On the other, there was a rock-climbing wall, a countdown timer, the rumbling of volcanoes. They stepped into a narrow corridor, gleaming white, between the two halves. “One side’s for me, the other’s for you. And this is the neutral zone, for both of us.”
“This is what you’ve been working on?”
“Every morning.” Staring into his somber eyes, she said, “I know it doesn’t solve everything. But we both can live out our fantasies, and then we can choose missions that are like this neutral zone. Ones that work for both of us.”
“Are you sure this can work?”
“I’m not sure. But we have to try.”
Joshua Fagan is a writer and critic currently residing in Colorado Springs. His work has previously been published in venues including Daily Science Fiction, 365 Tomorrows, and Plum Tree Tavern. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of the literary speculative fiction publication Orion’s Belt. His YouTube channel has received over 1.3 million views.