Dodo Birds in Space

An unfortunate story written under a strict time constraint.

Once upon a time on a faraway spaceship, there were only two humans within a 100 lightyear radius. And one of them was only mostly human. Most humans didn’t have the ability that Patricia did. She had the ability to communicate telepathically. Which was very convenient seeing as the second human (this one fully human) was a baby who had not yet developed the ability to speak. The baby didn’t have a name either. She was part of an experiment to see how the aging process could be slowed but not stopped completely during long-haul space travel. To this end, the baby lived in a bassinet and was alternately in cryo-sleep, normal sleep, and awake and communicating telepathically with Patricia.

Patricia’s job was simple: She was to monitor the aging process of the baby, make sure the spaceship was functional, and collect rock samples from any asteroids they crossed paths with that were larger than 200km across. This was because The Company was always interested in opening more Graygan-4 mines because that meant more money for them.

All of a sudden a gigantic asteroid came across the view screen of the spaceship.

“Lookie, lookie!” Said the baby telepathically.

“Yes, I see it.” said Patricia, also telepathically. “You wait here while I take the shuttle down to the surface and collect some rock samples.”

It was a bit of an inside joke. The baby would not join Patricia on the shuttle because she couldn’t walk and would, therefore, be of no use whatsoever for collecting rock samples.

Patricia landed safely on the surface of the asteroid. She took out a small drill and started to take a core sample from a large rock. To her surprise, the rock split down the middle and the two pieces fell away to reveal a tunnel. Patricia was shocked. She was even more shocked when three dodo birds climbed out of the tunnel! They each squawked at her in turn and ran away.

Patricia pulled out her phone to take a picture. The Company would never believe this! Unfortunately her phone was an iPhone 24GS and it exploded. Bits of the shuttle and of Patricia floated over the dodo bird’s heads. It was very gross.

Unfortunately, this meant that the baby was now on her own in space. Fortunately, the spaceship was on a pre-programmed flight path and it was equipped with AI designed to feed the baby and eventually teach her to speak so that, in approximately 872 Earth years, the baby and the spaceship would reach their destination: a colony on the planet Earth 4. The baby, having slowly aged to 18 years of age, would then be able to tell people about her journey.

The End.

Written for Jonathon Sawyer’s Medium Day Mega Mashup. It was not written the day of because I was too distracted by the banter (both audio and text) to be able to write lol. My submission is late, but here it is anyway. Tagging others who were there: Sieran Lane and FJCMontenegro and Diana Thorland. Story written in 30 mins, then took an extra 20 for the tally box, this message, and the image.

Tally box: 
Patricia has a super power (telepathic communication) - 2 pts
a baby in a bassinet - 1pt
the iphone (and Patricia and the shuttle) explode at an inopportune time - 1 pt
the asteroid is inhabited by dodo birds - 1pt
story takes place in space - 2 pts. 
I'm not sure if the ending is a twist, I'll let Jonathon decide.
Is it a twist that the baby will carry on alone?? 🤷‍♀️