Space oddity

What if an astronaut traveled all the way to a distant planet, but didn't dare leaving his capsule?

"Commander? Can you hear me?" the radio crackled as ground control tried to reach their interstellar pilot. "Commander, this is ground control speaking. Come in, please."

No answer.

"Are you experiencing technical difficulties? On our end, everything appears to be fine. You've got the green light. Now it's time to leave the capsule if you dare."

Sweat dripping off his trembling lip, Commander Chris looked at the dead, dry landscape his one-person spaceship had landed on. Nothing. No delicious air, no water, no sunrays. The thick gold-grey layer of chemical dust that engulfed this side of the planet blocked out all illumination, but an eery glow, reflected from dark and polished-looking rocks remained.

CC: "Yes, uhm this is Commander Kriss. I have landed on T31."

GC: "Roger that , Commander Kriss. You're good to go."

CC: "Roger. There seems to be a problem with the door. It does not open."

GC: "A technical difficulty with the main door, Commander?" Alison, the head of communication at Ground Control back on Earth seemed irritated. Commander Kriss could feel her checking back with the team and opening her HUD to check the machinery from afar.

GC: "Commander, we've checked the circuitry. Everything seems to be working fine. You have spend more time that anyone working on the ship. Can you identify any mechanical obstructions?"

Commander Kriss knew his ship better than anyone else. He also knew better than anyone that there was no electrical  or mechanical obstruction, he didn't even need to check. He was buying himself time. Time, just to have time. Because he knew that once his ship's door opened, there would be no more time. Once that door opened, time would cease to exist for him. He would be left with maybe 15 seconds. 15 seconds of horribly painful deprivation of air, warmth and atmospheric pressure.

He knew there was a tiny fracture in his suit. A tiny rip in the fabric that compromised the protective properties of his space suit. It had been his responsibility to perform a last check-up of his equipment. He had made a mistake. He did not notice the leak until two hours ago. Two hours ago, when he began decent onto T31, the tiny hole appeared in the corner of his eye. He had no idea how this could have happened, how this could have escaped his  eagle eye.

The how and why was unimportant now. Only the fact that he had screwed up counted.

There was no way he could admit this mistake to Ground Control. This project had been in the works for 10 years, the funding was immense, he was the only person in half a light-years radius. The only way for him was to go down as the first person stepping foot onto T31 and as the first person to die on T31. It would take years before the next crew would arrive and, at least until then, his enormous life insurance was secured and would be paid out to his family. He would rather commit real suicide than commit career suicide by returning with his tail between his legs. He would die on his knees, blood boiling, eyes popping, skin melting with his body dry freezing to broken bits - but he would die as a martyr of exploration and for the human race.

CC: "I found the problem. I removed the obstruction." the Commander answered with a stern voice, his eyes and forehead relaxed, gazing into the gloomy horizon. "I'm leaving the capsule now. Over."

GC: "Roger that. May God be with you, Commander."

He pressed the button and with a hissing sound the door began to lift...

Author's Note

I'm a native German speaker - grammar, punctuation and syntax corrections are welcome.

What do you feel/think while reading the story?

Reviews

[History_Birdman]

Fantastic! I love the idea of getting to the goal only to be doomed... You`ve effectively communicated the captain`s feeling of impending doom. It`s definitely a great start and I`d love to see more. (No grammatical errors I could see) Best of luck continuing writing!