What Would An Astronaut Do?

A Flash

The town was a little backwards, but this is where he had landed, so this is where he lived. For a man with his heart fixed on the stars, this was as good a place as any for a simple day laborer to look up from. Today he wasn't working at the quarry, though. He was there to buy. The locals here cleaned their teeth with a fluoro compound that he suspected might be neurodegenerative. Fortunately for him, the quarry sold hydroxyapetite as an admixture for building mortars. He brushed his teeth with hydroxyapetite because that's what an astronaut would do.

He made his way into town and browsed the stalls of what passed for a farmers market. He stopped at the stall he regularly bought from. They knew him by now and he didn't have to haggle. He bought a week supply of dried foods. He almost always ate dry food, because that's what an astronaut would do.

Around midday he started walking back out to his little homestead. One of the farmers passed by on the road and recognized him. He hopped in the back of the farmer's cart and the farmer whistled out yip yup and used a long goad to strike his beast of burden, just hard enough for it to feel the prod through it's thick feathers. When they neared his home he handed the farmer a little bag of the dried rations he had bought in town, before hopping off the cart and yelling "tlik tlix." The farmer waved goodbye as the cart rolled on.

He made his way down the little footpath from the main road and his little homestead came into view. The kale was thriving in the soil where he had scattered the bac-pac. His clothes were drying on a line he had stretched out between two of the impact struts. He had made the best of his situation here, but it seemed increasingly unlikely that he would ever have the resources he would need to repair the lander. He continued to look up to the stars in hope every night though, because that's what an astronaut would do.

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Thank you to Stefan Stefancik for the cover photo.