Major Tom

 

Rating: PG
Genre: weird
Setting: space
Main Characters: Benji

Note from the authoress: this is based on the song space oddity, by David Bowie. Oh…and its odd. Very odd!

 

Part 1

*Note* No muses were harmed in the making of this story

 

There comes a time in every muses life when they dream of space travel. No one is quite sure why this is, but it is assumed it is something to do with a giant lump of broccoli lodging itself in the tender and delicate minds of the muse. The muse cannot be blamed, nor the muses author. The only thing to blame is the broccoli. It is all harmless fun for the muse, unless disaster strikes.

 

Ground Control to Major Tom

 

Benji crawled out of his basket. He yawned widely. He had been having a wonderful dream. He wasn’t to sure what it involved. As the small tiger ate breakfast, a healthy helping of a cereal shaped like rocket ships, his dream slowly came back a bit at a time.

 

Ground Control to Major Tom

 

He felt sure he was supposed to go outside for some reason.

 

Take your protein pills and put your helmet on

 

He sauntered outside, before stopping short. In the middle of the garden was a spaceship. Benji bounced up and down in excitement. He had always wanted to hijack a spaceship. Without thinking the muse ran up the gangplank and settled into a chair. A countdown started just as he was settled.

 

(10) Ground Control (9) to Major Tom (8, 7, 6)

 

Benji started in astonishment. He was beginning to feel that this was a very bad idea. He clambered clumsily out of his chair and ran for the door.

 

Commencing (5) countdown engines (4) on. (3, 2)

 

He panicked as engines roared into life all around him. He tripped over a wire in the floor. Gazing in despair as the door shut of its own accord. He scrambled to his feet and ran to the door, rattling its handle frantically in a futile attempt to escape.

 

Check ignition (1) and may Gods love be with you. (Lift off)

 

And the spaceship took off. Benji was thrown to his back, and he wailed in panic as the home he loved became smaller and smaller, until he could see nothing of his home.

 

This is Ground Control to Major Tom, you’ve really made the grade, and the papers want to know whose shirts you wear. Now its time to leave the capsule if you dare.

 

Benji sobbed as the moon loomed closer and closer. Suddenly he remembered his psychic powers. He focused on pulling the rocket to the moon, and it landed with a crash on the moons surface. With a gasp of relief the young muse used his psychic abilities to unlock the door, and it swung lazily open.

 

This is Major Tom to Ground Control, I’m stepping through the door, and I’m floating in a most peculiar way, and the stars look very different today.

 

The lack of gravity took its advantage, much to Benji’s shock and terror. He floated away from the moons surface. He cried out loud and scrambled, willing himself to get back to the rocket. He had to use his psychic abilities to make it back before floating away into space.

 

For here am I sitting in a tin can, far above the world. Planet Earth is blue and there’s nothing I can do.

 

He closed the door behind him and curled up in a miserable ball on the floor of the rocket. He sniffed miserably, missing terribly. He wished Eiko and the others were there to help him.

 

Though I’ve past one hundred thousand miles, I’m feeling very still, and I think my spaceship knows which way to go. Tell my wife I love her very much. (She knows).

 

He sobbed, feeling miserable. He missed Eiko more than he could say. He even missed Skye. He wished he had never boarded the rocket, curled up in a ball, on a cold lump of rock, drifting through the timeless echoes of space.

 

Ground Control to Major Tom, your circuits dead, there’s something wrong.

 

He felt so cold, so alone. He felt faint. His bowl of cereal seemed merely like a distant memory. He closed his eyes, feeling weakened. His mind blackened.

 

Can you hear me Major Tom? Can you hear me Major Tom? Can you hear me Major Tom?

 

Benji? Can you hear me Benji? A soft voice called his name. He must have died on that cold lifeless rock. But he felt warm. He felt someone stroking him softly. He heard the voices of his fellow muses. Slowly he opened his eyes.

 

Can you hear…Am I floating round my tin can? Far above the moon? Planet Earth is blue and there’s nothing I can do….

 

Had it all been a dream? Or had it happened. One thing he felt for sure, he would never enter a spaceship on his own again. But will other muses fall victim to the unknown force that tortures muses to board strange spaceships? Is it really the broccoli that manipulates them? Will we ever know?

 

THE END