When I was little, messages would only take a few months to reach Earth from The Infinity. I was too impatient even then. At least as a kid I had Dad to talk to.
He used to send me letters, when I got really annoyed with waiting for replies from Earth. Letters on actual paper (or rather, an old flattened food packet, which was as close as we could get), which he would hand to me over breakfast. It would always be something silly, like a formal invitation to play a game of hide-and-seek after lunch, complete with scrollwork, calligraphy and a hand-drawn stamp.
Whenever I replied, it would never look as beautiful, however hard I tried.
I miss Dad.
I try not to think about my mother.
An hour after I’ve sent off my message, an email arrives from The Eternity. For a second, I think it’s a reply, before realizing that’s impossible. But they must have sent the message straight after the episode, for it to be arriving now.
From: The Eternity Sent: 26/06/2065
To: The Infinity Received: 26/02/2067
Dear Commander Silvers,
I’m delighted to be opening up an official line of communication between The Infinity and The Eternity, since in relative terms we’re now neighbors. As there’s not an established protocol for how to enter into communications between the only two manned spaceships outside the solar system, I thought that an episode of Loch & Ness would be a welcome opening gambit.
I look forward to receiving a response from you in two years, which is how long it will take to receive a reply according to The Eternity’s computer.
I wish you a safe journey.
Yours sincerely,
Commander J Shoreditch (the guy on the other ship!)
It’s a lovely email. It’s a bit awkward and formal, but then so was my email to him. It’s a thrill talking to someone new.
I’m rereading the message, trying to decide what to say in reply, when I remember that I already sent a reply to the episode of Loch & Ness, addressed to “the crew of The Eternity”. I don’t want Commander Shoreditch to think that I’m ignoring his email, or am too rude to talk to him directly.
I quickly access the transponder, trying to cancel the transmission before it sends – but it’s too late. The message is already gone, shooting through deep space.
I need to send another email explaining, as soon as possible.
From: The Infinity Sent: 26/02/2067
To: The Eternity Predicted date of receipt: 08/06/2067
Dear Commander Shoreditch,
I apologize for my last message – I hadn’t yet received your email when I sent it. It’s very nice to e-meet you.
It’s strange to think that by the time this message reaches your ship, you will only be a few months’ travel away from mine. I hope that the two ships can unite and work together to make our journey as easy as possible.
I look forward to hearing more from you in the future.
Commander Romy Silvers
DAYS UNTIL THE ETERNITY ARRIVES:
363
Today Molly has sent me an email instead of her usual voice message, which catches me by surprise.
From: NASA Earth Sent: 23/06/2065
To: The Infinity Received: 27/02/2067
Hi Romy,
We have some bad news for you. Recently NASA have been finding it difficult to gain enough access to the Deep Space Network telecommunications antennas to send you any large transmissions. Unfortunately, The Infinity has just been ruled a low-priority mission by the international board. This means that using the DSN to transmit high-memory data such as audio files is no longer considered a valuable use of space agency resources.
From now on, only email communication will be possible except in unavoidable circumstances – meaning that I’m not going to be able to send you any more voice messages. Unfortunately, we also can’t send any music or podcasts.
The Advisory Council thinks that this will only be a short-term issue, and it is likely that we may be able to resume our original broadcasting schedule in the future, once the political climate changes.
I’m sorry.
Molly
No more audio. The quiet happiness I’ve been carrying around since I found out about The Eternity drops away.
I had no idea this was possible. It’s a scenario I’ve never even worried about – and I’ve worried about most things, realistic or not. The further away The Infinity travels from Earth, the longer it takes for messages to arrive. I know that. I’ve accepted it. But to get no audio messages at all? It’s all I have.
Why would my mission have been ruled as low priority all of a sudden? Have they decided that, since The Eternity has been launched, it isn’t worth spending any more money on me?
Now that Commander Shoreditch is around – clever, competent and NASA-trained – there’s no point baby-sitting me any more. I know that I’m the worst possible person to be responsible for an interstellar spacecraft. Even if NASA would never tell me that, it’s the truth. They would never have actually chosen me to command this mission. They’ve only spent all this time looking after me because they had no other option.
NASA have always sent me everything I could possibly want to read: the latest scientific papers and newspaper articles; books; blogs; Twitter feeds; medical journals… I could read all day and never get through all the information that comes from Earth. I’ve tried.
Is that over now? Are they slowly cutting the ties between me and Earth completely?
What if I never hear Molly’s voice ever again? What if I’ve lost her, along with the voices of everyone else on Earth?
I should have enough already; I know I should. My hard drive contains every TV show, book and video game made in the twenty-first century, as well as thousands of songs, apps and podcasts. I have nearly every YouTube video – and an entire archive of Loch & Ness fanfic. I have Commander Shoreditch now, too, I remind myself. At least he can still send me episodes of Loch & Ness.
That should be enough entertainment to occupy a human for an entire lifetime. Shouldn’t it?
From: The Infinity Sent: 27/02/2067
To: The Eternity Predicted date of receipt: 09/06/2067
Dear Commander Shoreditch,
I got a worrying email from Earth today. Apparently there’s something happening that means they can’t send any audio files for a while. Did you get the same message? Do you know what’s going on?
I guess there’s no point in asking, seeing as you won’t read this message for months. Hopefully it’ll be fixed before you reply to this, anyway. I just needed to tell someone.
Commander Romy Silvers
I’m so jumpy for the rest of the day that I manage to catch my thumb with the scissors when I’m cutting the top off my lunch packet. Blood spills over the dried noodles inside, and I quickly wrap up the wound in my sleeve, pressing hard to stop the bleeding.
Get a grip, Romy.
I need to calm down. It’s just voice messages. It’s not that big a deal.
I use a first-aid kit to bandage the cut, even though it’s already stopped bleeding.
Afterwards, I eat my noodles, picking out the blood-covered ones as I take a walk through Google Earth.
I click down a street, not really thinking about anything, just absently taking in the trees and street lamps and parked cars, frozen in time in the decades-old recording stored on my hard drive. It doesn’t really make up for not being able to walk there myself, but sometimes, if I’m lucky, I can trick my brain into thinking I’ve actually been for a walk. On those nights, I’ll dream of Earth and wake up happy, stretching out in my sheets, trying to grab on to the tendrils of my dream and keep them. Make them real.