“A space castaway” is a graphic short story with a soundtrack.

The story consists of 30 short chapters. The soundtrack consists of a double album. Each chapter either comes with a song from “Terrestrial songs (a space castaway – part I)” or an instrumental track from “Andromedan tunes (a space castaway – part II)” you can listen to while reading.

You can either read the full story online, or make it a one month experience by receiving one chapter every day in your mailbox.

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To read the whole story directly online, just click this link.

I’m leaving Earth. I’ve taken off successfully about ten minutes ago and now I can see it all. It’s such a beautiful blue. The big picture is a little deceiving, though: from here you can’t see war, from here you can’t see misery, from here you can’t see suffering…. From here you can’t see the upcoming fall of the human civilization, sooner or later, unless they wake up soon.

But still, there’s also a lot to love in this planet and its incorrigible inhabitants.

After having checked all the flight parameters, I’m preparing for hibernation. Due to the ship engine damage, I can no longer fly faster than fifty times the speed of light, so the journey is going to last about a year, instead of four days.

While my system is shutting down, my consciousness fades slowly with one question in mind: did I make the right decision?

Thank you for reading/listening.
If you enjoyed Andrew’s story and music, you can support it by purchasing his albums on Bandcamp (digital download)

Here we are, this is the D-Day… The Departure Day… I feel emotional, but I don’t know what way exactly.

A significant part of the surrounding villagers are actually here to bid me farewell. I am just wondering whether they are here to say goodbye to a friend and wish me a safe journey, or because they are eager to see me go, if not to see me crash… I’d rather think it is the former…

The checkup is complete, it’s now time for me to get out of the ship, hug Stella, her husband and her friends, thank them for their help and wave at the other people gathered around the saucer… Then I’ll get in again and lock the door, putting an end to my stay on Earth.

Now is the time.

Like we say on υ-And-d:  ΠΘΣ∀ΞΦ

I’m now packing and getting ready to fly back to Upsilon Andromedae. Yes, I’m flying back! I’m so glad…

Unfortunately I had to disassemble some of my instruments, as we needed some of the parts I had built them from. If I ever manage to make it back home, I will probably rebuild them there, and use them on andromedan tunes telling about my adventures here.

It seems Stella’s husband silent presence was helpful. The engine is now supposedly functional again, as well as the main navigation devices, so we’ve decided to make a takeoff attempt. He’s doing the last checks around the ship while I’m getting on board with Stella and one of her colleagues to calibrate the new thrust controller. When he gives me the go-ahead, I’ll pull the lever… Now… Under the cockpit floor, I can feel the gravity cancellation waves starting to flow, and the spaceship gently starting to hover a few meters above the ground: it’s working. I can hardly believe it.

Stella came over with her husband. He is not only a scientist but also a great handyman, according to her… She said he could be of help for fixing my spaceship.

He’s been bustling about the flying saucer since the morning, hammering, riveting, soldering and configuring the latest devices brought by Stella and her colleagues. I stand by him, backing him up the best I can. This reminds me of my past life on υ-And-d: assisting humanoids is what I had been designed for in the first place… Except that this time I’m helping someone who is himself trying to help me. I’m still wondering why he is doing all this, though: is he really willing to help me did his wife asked him to, or is he simply here out of curiosity or for whatever other reason? I’ve spent most of the day at his side and I still know nothing about him. The fact is that he’s not much of a talker. He’s a very secret man. Also, I can’t figure if he is sad as well: his eyes are void of emotion. Is it his way to hide the same sadness as Stella? Or is he the reason why she is sad?

I may never know…

I just spent a full day in town, looking for human warmth.

I just spent a full day in town, but no one could tell: I had made myself invisible to human eyes, to avoid any previously encountered inconvenience. I thought being among the crowd would still be better than staying alone here…

While it is was a quite exciting experience at first to see people without being seen, it quickly turned out to be a somewhat frustrating one as well: it was like I didn’t exist. Anyway, in big cities most of the passers-by behave like others don’t exist, so it doesn’t make much of a difference after all…

In the end, I don’t know how much better it was than simply being alone here.

These are highly unexpected news: after talking to some fellow researchers, Stella told me earlier today it might be possible to fix my ship. However, she implied it may take a while before they come up with a solution to all the challenges caused by interfacing terrestrial technology with andromedan gear, so I may still be wandering on this planet for a bit.

Also, the spaceship won’t be as fast as before though, as some of its engine components can’t be replaced with anything available on Earth, but I don’t care if the return trip is quite a bit longer: unlike humanoids, I don’t age while I am in sleep mode, so as long as I get out of here…

Hope returns…

I’ve never mentioned it before but Stella is sad. As far back as I can remember, she’s always been this way.

She won’t show it, she’ll smile at you and pretend all is fine, but if you look at her deep in the eyes, you’ll see a wounded soul in the inside.

She is so sad.

So desperately sad.

But she won’t tell why.

I wish I could help her as much as she helped me.

This planet really has spectacular sceneries to offer. Sometimes I wander in remote areas, and when I find a particularly enchanting place, I just hover and contemplate the landscape.

This makes me feel better.

This is like some kind of compensation for being stuck so far away from home.