Deep Space Distress Signal

The flickering lights illuminated her face. The strobe had the effect of stretching the images into horrific twisted shapes. The darkness burned the last seen image upon the retina’s, into her brain. The fragile eggshell of her shelter from space shuddered and the sound of fatigued metal sang it’s death song to her. She heard none of it. The sound of her own hammering heartbeat was all that she could hear. That, and the static of an unresponsive communications link.

“Hello? This is

Can anyone hear me?”

“I need help”

“Oh puleease please please....dear GOD please help me”





What is it about the very concept of a Deep Space Distress Signal that seems to access the most primitive of fears in the human psyche?

The fear of being left behind. Forgotten. Left to die. Abandoned.

The fear of not being able to be self sufficient. Or, to put it another way,

The fear of not being ABLE to take care of oneself.

That, my friends, is true, fear.

Throughout the course of our lives, we will face this fear, over and over again. Like a Demon it will return to frighten us, usually when we feel least able to fight against it. But that is, after all, it’s nature.

There are so many openings in our lives where this Demon may try to sneak in and make us doubt what we should never doubt. From something as simple as the ultimate stress of being put into the light, under the glare of judgment, a test, a performance, a trial, or a rite of passage....to the extreme of learning how to function in the absence of a loved one. A separation or a death.

This Demon is like most other Demons. It is a Demon until we master it’s lesson. Once we overcome our fear then we have the ability to see that the Demon is really an Angel, an Angel who has come to teach us that one single thing. The most important of messages we will ever know.

The lesson that no matter WHAT happens..................................We can do it.

It may not be pretty, we may not get style points, but we can it make through to the other side.

Like an angry drill instructor our Angel will mercilessly corner us in our fear until we accept that vital piece of information.

We can do it, and we WILL do it.

We will do it or deal with the wrath of a very pissed off Angel whose job it is to punish us with our fear until we have had enough and turn to face it.

So the next time you feel the chilling cold of deep space, and nobody answers your radio, I want you to remember that as the fear mounts and your voice gets caught in your throat, and your heart starts hammering to the point where it feels like it will explode, that what you are feeling is your Angel. I want you to know that he is hard core. Old school. Fucking MEAN. That fear you feel is his pitchfork, goading you. Pushing you. Challenging you. He wants you to turn around and face that fear and scream at him to step the hell OFF.

Because you can DO this. By YOURSELF if you have to.

And he and you both KNOW it.

As any seasoned Soldier will tell you, two of his oldest friends are fear and pain.

Both will keep you from ever being truly alone. Both will keep you alive.



“This is Alpha Omega responding to received distress signal.....over”