Letters From Space: An Epistolary Astronaut Adventure
A short story started by Yao using the Letters From Space: An Epistolary Astronaut Adventures storyworld.
Scenario: “Letters From Space: An Epistolary Astronaut Adventure”
Game cards:
Setting: “Explore & investigate: the Alpha Quadrant”
Tone: “In this dark tale…”
Beginning: “… you set out in search of new life…”
Ending: “…and you find a new home.”
Cast:
Xiaobai is Rayan (Engineer) • 2199 words
Dudu is DJ (Science Officer) • 1118 words
Yao is Mark (Commander) • 1205 words
Act 1 Scene 1
Scene cards:
Place card: “You see nothing but stars and darkness”
Challenge card: “Communication systems aren’t working properly”
Success card: “Teamwork pays off!”
Setback card: “You fixed a problem, but created another.”
Character Bonds
Rayan is DJ’s Family friend
DJ is Mark’s Childhood Friend
Mark is Rayan’s Neighbor
Mark (Yao) played their Strength card “Hard-working” and wrote:
The adventure all began when NASA sent three astronauts on a new mission. They would travel on a rocket named the Adventurer. The mission, however, was not so cheerful as the name. They were expected to explore the depths of the unknown Alpha Quadrant as NASA called it. Anything could happen to the brave astronauts.
Mark ran down the aisle of the corridor. He had been expected at six o’clock, but had spilled his coffee, delaying himself twelve minutes. He skidded to a stop at the control room, walked in and sat down next to one of the employees.
“Well, did you find anything interesting in the Alpha?” he asked.
“Our radar picked up a few signals, sir. But probably just meteorites.”
“Okay, but if you got anything to tell me, put it in my mailbox.”
“ Yes sir, and enjoy your dinner.”
It was only a day before the mission, and he was the commander! He was supposed to tell the group what to do! He was not gonna’ have a nice dinner.
Mark took his files into his room and shut the door. He grabbed a chicken sandwich and sat down in his chair while perusing through the files, and finally got the page he was looking for.
“Ah, mission enemies, just the page I need,” he murmured.
He started reading. “Enemies vary greatly, but you will likely see meteorites. Meteorites strike great damage and you must avoid them. Since your ship does not have a pilot, the rocket has an autonomous piloting machine. It will zigzag through through these flying rocks, but does not know how. You must speak to it, and it will do as you say. Another enemy will be the Miro Gang. Bases are located on several planets, and they will try to stop you. They have weapons that we could not dream about. They will send out huge battle droids, with hundreds of blasters in the body. Those are main enemies, but black holes are very dangerous, too. It can suck up your ship into unknown universes. Remember, do not do reckless things. The piloting machine will obey every command. Even to blow itself up.”
Mark (Yao) drew the Strength card “Confident.”
Mark (Yao) wrote a Flashback, playing their Bond card “Neighbor”:
One day in early May, two years ago, the bunk next to Mark’s was empty. The original occupant had retired from NASA. A new roommate was needed. After a few weeks, a young engineer moved in. His name was Rayan, and had come from Georgia. The two became friends and soon assigned to the same crew.
Mark (Yao) drew the Bond card “Best friend.”
Rayan (Xiaobai) played their Strength card “Experienced” and wrote:
My Dearest Mum,
Today I just started my journey to space. It’s so quiet up here. All I can see is darkness after darkness, scattered with sometimes blinking sometimes dimming stars. Remember my roommate Mark? He is our commander now! Our piloting machine mainly follows his voice order (and sometimes mine, too), and you know what? Just after breakfast he asked our cleaner bot to “Clean the LOO, Please!” and all of a sudden Adventurer started to loop a loop without any warning! I should probably clean its “ears” from now and then.
Mum, while I am sitting here with myself buckled up nice and comfy now, we actually just came back to our feet and pulled ourselves up from a battle. Don’t worry, everything is fine now. The Adventurer was flying through a belt of bright stars when suddenly the radar detected a signal, getting closer and closer in no time. There were tons of unidentified objects, oh, with blasters, all over their body. They were – for sure – the Miros. The files should have warned us of the bright belt as it was Miros’ charging station!
Mum, my heart was about to burst, but then I suppressed all my fear and panic and shouted, “SHIELD ON!” Expecting to have the laser-proof shield all around the bodies, we instead witnessed the shoulder being mantled automatically. Obviously, the Adventurer needed a new hearing aid. “SHOULD ON!”, “SHOOT ON!”, “SHOE ON”, … Eventually, shields were on, and you know what? A laser beam had ricocheted and shot one of the Miro droids.
DJ soon identified the problem in the communication system, and I was sent down to fix it. I crawled into the lower deck and a wire was decoupled from a chip. Using my mini-welding torch, I managed to connect the two in a few seconds.
With the shield on, the Adventurer was finally out of the showering beams from the Miro blasters. However, the shield slowed us down by quite a few hours. We needed time to recover before Adventurer could gain full speed again. Without the ability to fly at full speed we might not escape from the blackholes… But they are really RARE!
Mum, 5 minutes till my next shift. I have to go, for now. Luck always lies in me. Talk to you soon. Take care!
Love from Your Dearest Son,
Ray Ray
Rayan (Xiaobai) drew the Flaw card “Unlucky.”
DJ (Dudu) played their Motivation card “Avoid conflict” and the scene’s Success card, “Teamwork pays off!,” and wrote:
Dear Mum,
I’ve just started my journey to space. It’s just stars and darkness up here but it’s so cool. And you remember Mark? He’s our captain. We also have a little pilot robot who take orders from Mark (and maybe Rayan).
Mum, just then, while you were probably sleeping, there was just a battle. It was serious but funny at the same time. We were passing through a bright belt of light when the radar picked up millions of unknown objects – but they turned out to be millions of Miros. Rayan shouted
“ SHIELD ON “ but, instead automatically, the shoulder was mantled. It was so funny seeing the look of confusion and frustration on his face. I have to admit I was as confused and frustrated as he was but oh, his face was so funny. Eventually, the shield was on and guess what？A laser beam had hit a Miro droid.
But good news sometimes comes with bad news. In the battle, a Miro hit some of the of the wires and damaged the communication system which was a threat of losing contact with earth forever. But we worked together to fix the communication. Soon after the battle, we started to work on it. Before long, I had detected the problem and had sent Rayan down to fix it. After a few minutes, Rayan’s head popped out and said the wire was dissociated from a chip and it would take roughly 30 minutes to connect it. He also said they would have to repair all the other ones if they were going to escape the nearing black hole. Now we have escaped from it, we have to keep a lookout for black holes ( we were lucky that we escaped) or Miros. I think that’s Mark calling me. Gotta go. I’ll write to you as soon as I can. Wish me luck!
From your dearest daughter
DJ
Act 2 Scene 1
Scene cards:
Place card: “You see asteroids”
Challenge card: “Navigation systems aren’t working properly”
Success card: “You find just what you needed!”
Setback card: “You overlook some important information,”
Rayan (Xiaobai) wrote a Flashback, playing their Motivation card “Break the rules”:
Dear Mum,
It has been days since I wrote to you last time. You must have been checking your mailbox several times a day by now. I wrote a few words at a time and was always distracted or interrupted when I did. You could never imagine those things could have happened. Once our alarm went off, as some shower gel over spilt and wafted out from the cabinet. We were called upon by Code Red to block all the exits before the gel could sneak into our navigation system, which is THE guide that can take us home. Another time, my food was overheated and burnt as we flew too close to the Fornax, another burning star.
Mum, Mark’s files already warned us of meteorites, the naughty flying rocks. I am gonna tell you one thing that was way scarier than meteorites – the asteroids. They are the mums and dads of meteoroids. They are bigger and faster, and for most of the time they come in groups in the shape of a belt. How could the Agency not put asteroids down at the top of the danger list so that we can take some precautions?
Anyway, I started my shift early yesterday. I was still rubbing my eyes when the radar screen was swarmed by dots, dots after dots. I almost thought I forgot to wash my eyes for days! When I tried to steer Adventurer away to circumvent the “things”, it just didn’t work. What you are thinking is right – the things are asteroids! Our spaceship bumped and jumped, thudded and thumped, diving into the belt and squeezing through those gargantuan flying stones as if it were one of them!
Mark and DJ were with me in less than a minute after I pressed down the Code Red button. Mum, I can tell you that from today on DJ was short for De-Jam, as she could literally pull us through from jams every time. She figured out the problem in a few seconds – this time using her nose! Following the fragrance, she opened the gear box of the navigation system and nipped a tiny blob of washing gel that blocked the distance sensor of the navigation system. “Found you!”, we all cried with great relief. With a fully functioning navigation system, we moved away from the asteroid belt metre by metre, dodging and ducking from all directions.
Mum, I am so excited now that I cannot fall asleep. Mark announced that we are very close (only a few hours away) to Timas, a planet from which we received messages. Remember our mission of the trip? I am ready to meet some new friends. Will they look very different? Will they understand our language? Will they be friendly? Tomorrow is a new day. Tomorrow might be a remarkable day!
Talk to you soon, getting a bit dopey now…
Love,
Ray Ray
Rayan (Xiaobai) drew the Flaw card “Afraid.”
Rayan (Xiaobai) played their Flaw card “Unlucky” and wrote:
Dear Mum,
It has been days since I wrote to you last time. You must have been checking your mailbox several times a day by now. I wrote a few words at a time and was always distracted or interrupted when I did. You could never imagine those things could have happened. Once our alarm went off, as some shower gel over spilt and wafted out from the cabinet. We were called upon by Code Red to block all the exits before the gel could sneak into our navigation system, which is THE guide that can take us home. Another time, my food was overheated and burnt as we flew too close to the Fornax, another burning star.
Mum, Mark’s files already warned us of meteorites, the naughty flying rocks. I am gonna tell you one thing that was way scarier than meteorites – the asteroids. They are the mums and dads of meteoroids. They are bigger and faster, and for most of the time they come in groups in the shape of a belt. How could the Agency not put asteroids down at the top of the danger list so that we can take some precautions?
Anyway, I started my shift early yesterday. I was still rubbing my eyes when the radar screen was swarmed by dots, dots after dots. I almost thought I forgot to wash my eyes for days! When I tried to steer Adventurer away to circumvent the “things”, it just didn’t work. What you are thinking is right – the things are asteroids! Our spaceship bumped and jumped, thudded and thumped, diving into the belt and squeezing through those gargantuan flying stones as if it were one of them!
Mark and DJ were with me in less than a minute after I pressed down the Code Red button. Mum, I can tell you that from today on DJ was short for De-Jam, as she could literally pull us through from jams every time. She figured out the problem in a few seconds – this time using her nose! Following the fragrance, she opened the gear box of the navigation system and nipped a tiny blob of washing gel that blocked the distance sensor of the navigation system. “Found you!”, we all cried with great relief. With a fully functioning navigation system, we moved away from the asteroid belt metre by metre, dodging and ducking from all directions.
Mum, I am so excited now that I cannot fall asleep. Mark announced that we are very close (only a few hours away) to Timas, a planet from which we received messages. Remember our mission of the trip? I am ready to meet some new friends. Will they look very different? Will they understand our language? Will they be friendly? Tomorrow is a new day. Tomorrow might be a remarkable day!
Talk to you soon, getting a bit dopey now…
Love,
Ray Ray
Rayan (Xiaobai) drew the Flaw card “Thoughtless.”
DJ (Dudu) drew the Strength card “Good instincts.”
DJ (Dudu) played their Strength card “Good instincts” and wrote:
Dear Mother, 02/02/ 2020
So much has happened since I last wrote to you. Gosh, I don’t know where to start. For starters, we flew straight into an asteroid belt. They’re like meteorites but bigger, stronger and faster. I don’t wanna get hit by one or we’re dead. Another time some shower gel spilled and somehow nearly got into the navigation system. After I tracked down the shower gel, Rayan started being a real pain in the butt by calling me De-Jam. Also, once when we neared the Fornax (a burning star – like the sun) his food overheated and burnt. Serve him right for calling me De-Jam!
You know how I mentioned the asteroid belt, well we bumped into it at a very bad time. We bumped into it at 3:00 in the morning. The Adventurer was just flying along when it was suddenly tossed about. Not quite the best wake up call. After the battle with the asteroids, we were all battered and worn-out. Even our spaceship was too! That was when the shower gel spilled.
Rayan pressed the Code Red button. Me and Mark dashed to his side. Then I tracked down the shower gel all the way to the navigation system’s gear box. I nipped a small blob out. Phew! If that blob had stayed there, we would have no guide home! But that was the moment Rayan first called me De-Jam.
Mum, I am so excited. We are nearing Timas. Timas is the planet we received messages from. I wonder if there is any life form there. I hope there is, because we’ll be the first to find it! Oh, I think that’s Rayan calling me that stupid name De-Jam. I need to go and shut him up!
From your dearest daughter
DJ
Mark (Yao) played their Strength card “Confident” and the scene’s Success card, “You find just what you needed!,” and wrote:
Dear Dad, 2/3/20
So much has happened on this mission. But now, my biggest goal is to keep Rayan and DJ apart from tearing each other’s heads off. They are the two members of my crew, and they hate each other! There was once a shower gel spill, and Rayan woke us up at 5:00 a.m. to fix it. DJ solved it by sniffing the gel out! But now, Rayan’s calling her De-Jam for always getting us out of jams. And then DJ laughed at Rayan when his food got burnt when the Adventurer neared Fornax, a burning star. I swear, they will kill each other if I allow them to.
It’s hard work being commander. I have to drive, plan, and do most of the work around the spaceship. Yesterday, we landed on the planet Timas, the planet we were assigned to. DJ was so excited, she started jumping up and down. Rayan told her she looked like a dancing pig. Hey, I’m not so sure if pigs can even walk. But anyway, the two started fighting and I had to separate them. Really, they’re getting too old for these petulant and childish acts! Well, I better go. I think I ought to go outside and check on those two. I sure hope they’re not fighting with BLASTERS this time. Blasters, Dad.
Your son,
Mark
Act 3 Scene 1
Scene cards:
Place card: “You’re approaching a previously undiscovered planet”
Challenge card: “Your water supply is running low”
Success card: “You find new lives on the new planet”
Setback card: “You all feel homesick.”
DJ (Dudu) drew the Motivation card “Prove someone wrong.”
DJ (Dudu) played their Motivation card “Prove someone wrong” and wrote:
Dear Mum, 15/3/2020
Rayan has gotten more and more annoying since I last wrote to you. He even had the nerve to once call me a dancing pig! The cheek of it! He is just plain annoying. I feel sorry for his mum… it must be hard for her.
Anyway, there is another something on my mind. Our water supplies are dangerously low so there is a chance of us dying of thirst out here but right now we still have the chance to live. Now back to Rayan being annoying. When we landed on Timas, I jumped up and down so hard that Mark said I would pop off the top of the Adventurer itself! But then “very surprisingly” that was the moment Rayan said I was a dancing pig! Mark said he didn’t think pigs could dance but Rayan still insisted that I looked like one.
We have explored Timas already but we can’t really find anything except rock and dust. But I’ll take some samples of rock to study. I really hope that we can find something interesting here though because we’ll be the first to find it! But the first task is to find out if there is any life form on here. Speaking of tasks, the hardest task in here is not losing my temper with Rayan! I do hope he will shut up one day. If he doesn’t, then I myself will sew his mouth shut with a needle and thread! And if he still does not shut up, then I will go bananas. Ugh! I think I can hear the “ DJ is a dancing pig “ song. Rayan says its the best song ever. What do I think of it? I think the complete opposite. Let me just get at him. I need to go. Bye. Write to you soon.
Your dearest daughter,
DJ
Mark (Yao) drew the Strength card “Experienced.”
Mark (Yao) played their Strength card “Experienced” and wrote:
Dear Dad, 16/4/20
I know it has been a long time since I wrote to you. I have so much work to do. And, our water supplies are running dangerously low. We only have two weeks to go to the nearest space station if we want to live! We explored Timas, but saw no intelligent life forms. However, we did hear a few little sounds. I taught them how to handle blasters just like you once taught me how to load a hunting rifle. They did excellent, but DJ kept dropping the fluid magazine. Rayan kept forgetting to hold the clip after the magazine was put in.
Dad, I am writing to you from the ship. We have closed in on a weird undefined object according to the radar. I am thinking the crew might be depressed. Rayan usually looks homesick, while DJ keeps looking at the picture of her mom. I miss your lasagna, and my kid brother. Are things going well for him in high school? Well, the radar signal is probably just a new planet. But if we want to survive, we’ll have to find a water source somewhere. Our best hope is this new planet, because the nearest space station is 5,000,000,000 miles away! My crew might have to learn survival skills, which means teamwork and cooperation. But I think none of that is going to work with DJ and Rayan. They hate each other. No, I’m not joking, Dad. If they don’t start being friendly to each other, I don’t think we’ll survive.
Dad, I have to tell you something. It was so funny. Well, not exactly. Here, listen. So, yesterday, Rayan told the servant robot to grab DJ. It shot out a mechanical arm. DJ, however moved, so it hit the table. After the bang, I came quickly to see what the bonkas was goin’ on, when the arm grabbed me and threw me on the wall. Then, it grabbed Rayan and did the same thing. DJ was laughing so hard she almost fell down. Not surprisingly, we learned that she had changed the system, so she could control the robot using a joystick! She decided to play a prank. I think I’m transferring to Rayan’s side.
Love,
Mark
Rayan (Xiaobai) played their Flaw card “Nervous” and the scene’s Setback card, “You all feel homesick.,” and wrote:
Dear mum,
Guess what, DJ and I have finally stopped arguing, for goodness sake. I guess if we have kept doing this, Mark would go bonkers, or even worse, go bananas! DJ and I eventually reconciled, and we are all in a team again. I guess we shouldn’t have made up so soon, as everybody seemed to forget about home when we were teasing each other …
For days, we only had one cup of water as our daily ration. Lips cracked, burning throat and migraines. Water was needed urgently. But how? Well, we have had some ideas. DJ thought about melting ice from the freezer, but we have a frost-free freezer. Mark thought about condensating vapour from the air, but we didn’t have a dehumidifier.
At this moment, was it worth taking the risk, the risk of being blown up? I mean, we all knew oxygen and hydrogen could make water, but the energy it blasted out could be catastrophic. DJ, as her name suggested, which I was forbidden to reveal, saved us again. She simply re-routed the ignition chamber so that water was kept and collected while the hydrogen was lit with oxygen. The funny thing was that whenever we needed water, Adventurer was accelerated. We had to remind ourselves to hold the cup tight and not to spill the precious sap of life.
But we all knew that the hydrogen-oxygen-energy-water thing couldn’t be permanent. We still needed a lot more to survive comfortably. We decided to land on a planet far away from the Fornax to try out our luck. Mum, I was not joking, when we detected the large ice cube, Mark was literally over the cloud. We dig and dragged two humongous cubes back to Adventurer.
The two ice cubes are lying in our freezer now. Whenever we felt like having a drink, we took our chisel and had a cuppa. Mum, you could skip the rest of this if you want. But I am writing this down anyway. Today Mark went and found a velvety finger with purple and curly fingernails inside. We not only found some life, but also brought them on board with us already. We dare not wake this one, so we start checking the other cube – another velvety toe was found!
Mum, we decided to head back as we were not sure how long the two were gonna stay hibernated. We have been drinking the hydrogen-oxygen-energy-water a lot so Adventurer was pushed and pushed. Wait a sec, isn’t that the Pluto? Yes, it is. Mum, I have to go and spread the good news to my mates!
See you soon (and this time I mean it)!
Your dearest son,
Ray Ray
Epilogue
Rayan (Xiaobai) drew the Motivation card “Make a new friend.”
Rayan (Xiaobai) played their Bond card “Family friend” and the scene’s undefined card, “undefined.” The epilogue begins with the game’s Ending card, “…and you find a new home..” They wrote:
Dear Josh, 08/02/2120
I am so glad to hear that you were admitted by NASA today. That reminded me of myself nearly 100 years ago. That ambitious and audacious young man, entering the then-superlative spaceship – Adventurer…
I am going fishing with Mark later today, who was our commander and is running a manicure and pedicure shop now, to help people trim and file fingernails and toenails, especially the curly, irregular-shaped ones. His business is booming – every time I go and see him, I can see a long queue in front of his shop. We will then pay DJ, my colleague and scientist at NASA, ah visit, who became a real DJ – diamond jeweller, which was her dream from childhood. Good for her!
It’s sometimes melancholy to think that my friends and relatives are leaving me for good. I am kind of used to that now. Luckily, I still have Mark and DJ to talk to, to tell jokes with, to play pranks on and to hang around. I guess the only reason we three are still around is because of the sigma-iota radiation we were exposed to near the Fornax. Time seems to be prolonged infinitely. Whether it is a blessing or a curse I don’t know… I think I am feeling a bit tired now…
Now that you are in NASA, I hope you keep your interest and passion in the unknown world. I hope you will try and read the letters I wrote to my mum or your great great great-grandmother and I hope you will be inspired by the brave and witty astronauts who accompanioned me to explore the Alpha Quadrant. I hope you will remember me. The earth is filled with people who have velvety toes and fingers with purple curly toenails that need constant trimming and filing. I do hope you go and find the solution to the ever-growing nails. The answer should be in the space where it came. The answer must be there.
Oh, and talking of that, I am seriously gonna have to go. Mark and I have some really, really funny pranks on DJ up our sleeves. These things are always like an itch on the back. You will have to scratch it.
Seeya,
Great Great-Grandpa
Rayan
DJ (Dudu) drew the Motivation card “Make a new friend.”
DJ (Dudu) played their Motivation card “Make a new friend” and wrote:
Dear Lara, 1/3/2120
I am so glad that you have decided to follow my footsteps as an astronaut. It’s a hard job surviving out there. But if you use teamwork and co-operation you will survive (I got that off our commander, Mark.). But that doesn’t mean you can’t play a prank or two. You’ll also find Josh there, Rayan’s great great-grandpa. Be sure to tell him how annoying his great great-grandpa was!
Rayan once also said that I could talk the hind leg off a donkey! Well I soon told him he could talk the hind legs, front legs, head and tail off a donkey! (Make sure that if Josh makes a comment about you, always make a stinging retort back to him! That’ll show him!)
Also, If you wanna be a good astronaut you’ll wanna follow these tips.
1) Always listen to your master.
2) Don’t let anyone else boss you around except your commander.
3) Always co-operate （Even though I wasn’t the best at that）
4) Anything else you can think of.
I think that’s all I can say. Seeya soon duckling.
Great Great Granny
😉
Mark (Yao) drew the Strength card “Loyal.”
Mark (Yao) played their Bond card “Best friend” and wrote:
Dear Sarah, 1/19/2121
I am so glad that you followed in my footsteps, Sarah. You know, I can almost imagine myself 90 years ago, boarding the Adventurer. I was scared of course, but I heck did get an adventure. You remember those stories I told you, 20 years ago? My adventures were based on those, and may you have the same adventures as well.
TIPS:
Be friends with Josh.
Boss people around if you are the commander.
Stay away from Lara.
Don’t let Lara control the servant robot and then try to kill you and Josh. That was one of the things DJ did to me and Rayan.
Always call Lara as many mean names as you can. Nice example: De-Jam. [ DJ used to go rats when Rayan called her that.]
If Josh and Lara start fighting, make both of them clean the space toilet.
And of course, don’t run out of water.
Well, that’s it for now. Have a nice trip! And trust me, the tips will be very helpful. TRUST ME.
Best Hopes,
Great Great Grandpa
The End