He was nearing the 30-hour mark. He watched the ISS pass by again. It was Russian protocol to evacuate after 24 hours of no contact. All of the sections were still intact. They were all still on board. The planet below looked a mess but there were plenty of seemingly safe places to land. They should have ejected by now. Maybe they'd made contact and it was Alfred's equipment that was still malfunctioning. Perhaps he should physically signal them somehow.

He floated over to the control panel of one of the rockets. If he ignited one of them on the side of the ISS for a few seconds it should only adjust his orbit by a couple hundred feet. He waited until he was passing a panel of windows before he ignited the rocket. He couldn't do it for long. He had to conserve fuel for the trip home. There. They should at least know he was okay. They could signal down to base.

All he could do was wait now. He had a copy of the Great Gatsby on his tablet that came free with his pdf app. Not really his cup of tea, but it was something to do. After getting bored with it, he tried some of the arcade games that didn't require Internet on his tablet. He managed to waste an hour until he passed close to the Tiangong's orbit. His only solace from the fear and boredom. When he had time to worry. He had time to panic. He picked up the radio and was able to receive a "Hello" in only 5 minutes.

"Alfred! How are you?"

"The same as before. No contact. How about you?

"I am the same."

"Your English sounds a bit better."

Honda's thick hard to understand accent was still there but the sentence structure had greatly improved.

"I practice when you are away."

"You have an English book?"

"No, a program."

So his version of Google translate was actually working. Hmph.

"Have you seen the crazy stuff happening down there?"

"Yes. It is very sad. Not safe for us."

"So you've been thinking about going down to the planet too."

"No! It is not safe!"

"I've been looking for a safe place to land. If I find one, I'll let you know first. I wish there was a way we could combine resources."

"Do not go! It is not safe! All of them are dead."

"You can't know that. Besides, how long could we last without supplies? I think I have maybe 2 weeks' worth of food up here."

"I will help. I have food. Do not go."

"Then what. We'd die a few months later? I'd rather take my chances on Earth. If I can land somewhere safely, I can build things. I'm an engineer. If I can't land safely, at least it'll be a quick death."

"Please do not. Do not die. Do not make me alone."

Alfred felt guilty for what he said. Honda was just as scared as he was. Maybe more. He thought back to when he first couldn't find anyone on all broadcasts and frequencies. How scary it was to just hear nothing. To not know if there was anyone to hear you or even care. To feel like the last man on Earth. Or well above Earth. As scared as he was and as dire as things were getting. He couldn't leave his only connection alone in the darkness.

"I won't leave you alone. Whatever we do, we'll do it together."

AN: Thanks for the reviews again lol. I've always kind of passively followed the happenings of NASA. I'm friends and the child of Trekkies so I get a lot of exposure to space talk. I wikied some space stations in the works and kind of went from there. The Tiangong is actually real and means "Heavenly Palace" Which is kind of a big plot point. No spoilers lol. But the Astro Charlie is just Military/NASA language for Space 3 and based off of a privately owned space station that will be launched a few years from now.