I know Molly wants me to write my bad feelings down properly in a diary, rather than writing fiction, but that would be too real. I’d rather escape into the world of Loch & Ness, where there’s Jayden Ness – my favourite person, even if he’s only fictional. There’s kissing in fics too. Lots of kissing, in every Alternative Universe.
I always send my fics to Earth, but I don’t think anyone reads them except Molly. Back when The Infinity was new, before I was born, there was a lot of excitement and curiosity about the launch of such a long-duration mission. Dad used to say that he and my mother were treated like celebrities, but it’s been so long since we launched, everyone must have lost interest by now.
DAMSEL IN DISTRESS
by TheLoneliestGirl
Fandom: Loch & Ness (2042)
Relationship: Lyra Loch/Jayden Ness
Tags: Modern-day AU
Summary: Jayden is Lyra’s knight in shining armour.
Author’s note:
I had a bit of a catastrophe recently. An asteroid nearly hit the ship, but I managed to stop it at the last second. It was … stressful.
Anyway, here’s what could have happened, instead of me trying to fix the problem on my own. Where’s my handsome rescuer, please?
Lyra was texting when she first became aware of the shouting. She looked up to see a car swerving across the street, slipping on the wet tarmac. It was heading straight towards where she was walking.
She froze in her tracks, knowing she should dive out of the way, but unable to make her muscles react. The car was getting closer.
Suddenly there was a pair of strong arms around her, pushing her sideways, and she was falling just as the car skidded past them, colliding with a garden wall.
When Lyra realized that she was uninjured, she let out a breath, relieved and filled with adrenalin. She peered up at her saviour, lying on top of her where they had fallen. It was her neighbour, the hot one from upstairs. He had brown eyes, sparkling golden in the early morning light. There was a quirk to his smile like he was trying to hide his amusement.
“You’re OK,” he said, his voice a low, calming murmur in her ear. “Relax.”
Lyra sagged under his – very solid – chest.
“Thanks,” she said, her voice cracking in an embarrassing way. “I’m Lyra.”
“Jayden. It’s great to meet you, neighbour,” Jayden continued. “I just wish we were meeting in less exceptional circumstances!”
She’d never felt so relieved. The tension in her stomach, which had been building in a tight coil since she’d realized she was in danger, dissolved into nothing.
With Jayden, she was safe.
fin.
DAYS UNTIL THE ETERNITY ARRIVES:
364
My inbox doesn’t contain any voice messages today. Instead, there’s an MP4 file. A video.
I stare, too confused to open it. I can’t think of a reason why Molly would send me a video clip instead of an audio message. NASA have always said that it’s too expensive to send that much data.
Transmissions to and from Earth are sent by laser, encoded in binary. An antenna on Earth conveys the laser beams to The Infinity, where a light array picks up the signal and converts it back into letters, images or sounds. The uplink from Earth takes a long time, and apparently video files just aren’t feasible to send. It takes hours for the antennas to transmit them, compared with the minutes required for audio or text messages. What’s changed now?
I’ve got a nervous tickle in my stomach at the thought of seeing Molly’s face. It’ll be the first time I’ve seen a real human in years. I eye up the file while I eat breakfast, brush my hair and get dressed.
I tell myself that I’ve got no reason to be worried. This is new and exciting. It isn’t scary. That doesn’t stop the itching concern at the back of my mind.
Eventually I sit down, take a deep breath and click play. At first, the screen is black. Slowly it turns grey, and then white. Dark letters that I’ve seen more times than I can count appear.
Loch & Ness
As the familiar theme tune from the opening credits plays in the background, I double-check whether I’ve somehow opened a file from my hard drive instead of the message. But it’s right.
NASA has sent me an episode of Loch & Ness. Why would they transmit an episode of a TV series to me – especially one they must know I’ve already got?
It takes me a stupid amount of time to realize why the first scene seems unfamiliar: it’s a new episode.
Suddenly, I’m grinning. They’ve sent me a new episode of Loch & Ness! A new episode! Molly must have finally found an excuse to send it to me, like I requested years ago.
When I was ten, I asked Dad to ask NASA for more episodes, as I’d just finished the seventh series, which ends on this massive cliffhanger. The characters – two supernatural detectives called Lyra Loch and Jayden Ness – had just kissed for the first time. Unfortunately for me, The Infinity had launched before the eighth series aired, so it wasn’t on the ship’s hard drive.
In their reply, NASA said that they couldn’t send me any new episodes because video files were too large to transmit across interstellar deep space. Instead they sent me a file full of Loch & Ness fanfic.
It’s the single best present I’ve ever received, especially because it arrived just after my parents died. I read the entire archive, and then started writing my own.
I watch the new episode without taking my eyes off the screen for even a moment. Jayden Ness, the puppy-eyed and long-legged mixed-race selkie, and Lyra Loch, the no-nonsense feminist banshee, are trying to track down a fairy selling illegal love potions.
The new series must have been filmed a few years after the ones I’ve got, because Jayden looks a little older – his muscles are more filled out, and there are a few laughter lines around his mouth. He looks good.
I screenshot a few scenes, setting a picture of Jayden as my wallpaper. I replay his best lines, listening to the dialogue on repeat until I’ve memorized his latest witty one-liners.
By the time the credits roll, I’m giddy with happiness and excitement. I’ve already thought of three new fics based on this episode alone.
I’m about to watch it again when I notice the message origin. I shoot upright in my chair, reading it twice just to make sure. The video didn’t come from Earth at all.
It came from The Eternity.
The new ship is talking to me. It sent me an episode of my favourite TV show. Why? Why would they bother using their transmitters for this? It must have taken hours to transmit. And why didn’t they send me an actual message, even just to say hello?
I don’t understand. My gratitude has dissolved into a mess of confusion and nerves. Someone on that ship knows I like Loch & Ness. They know that much about me, when I know nothing about them.
I should reply. I open up a message addressed to somewhere other than Earth for the first time ever.