Samantha kneeled down on the surface of the asteroid, and the readout on her instruments told her what she already knew.
Samantha used her intercom to talk to Larry inside the spaceship, "Well the instruments confirm it. This section of the asteroid is covered in a layer of cotton. But I just don't know how this is possible."
Larry laughed and said, "Cotton? But how?! This asteroid is in interstellar space. There's no star to provide light for photosynthesis for cotton to be able to grow."
"Larry. That's not even the strangest part. This cotton covering this section of the asteroid isn't a grouping of cotton plants, but instead, it's... fabric, cotton fabric."
Larry took awhile to say anything and then he said, "Samantha, I know we've been traveling out here in the deep for two years without finding anything to show the investors back home and that we really want to prove ourselves to them and everyone else, but you're telling me you think you are seeing a gigantic swath of cotton fabric?"
Samantha sighed and said, "I'm not crazy! This is no hallucination. And this isn't wishful thinking either!"
Larry cleared his throat and said, "Well. It says here there's nothing wrong with the mixture of the air in your suit, so that's not what's making you loopy. Have you been sleeping ok?"
Samantha scrunched her eyes shut tight, slowly counted to five, and she said, "You know what. I'm going to explore the asteroid some more and gather more data."
Larry consoled her, "Good idea. Good idea. Some exercise should do you a world of good."
Samantha started walking, but that didn't make the cotton go away. Samantha wished she could take her glove off and stroke it. She hadn't touched cotton since before they left on this exploratory journey. Samantha thought of luxurious cotton sheets, soft cotton underwear, and of her favorite weekend jeans. All they had on the ship was polyester.
But Samantha knew the instruments couldn't lie. One hundred feet. More cotton. Two hundred feet. More cotton. Three hundred feet. Cotton.
Samantha couldn't think of any possible explanation for this weirdness. No human had ever been out this far past the Oort cloud of our solar system, so that meant no human could have set up this elaborate prank on this rogue asteroid that was meandering through the Milky Way.
Samantha gave up collecting data and walked back to the ship. The naysayers back home were going to love this. They thought she and Larry were going to lose their minds with only the two of them to talk to for years.
Samantha stopped, looked at the spaceship, blinked, and looked at the ship again. "Uh Larry, did you know that the ship is leaking something?! Any idea what it is?"
Samantha thought Larry sounded cheerful when he answered, "Don't worry! It's just our fuel. I'm just about done pumping out the last of the fuel."
Samantha inhaled sharply, held her breath, finally remembered to breathe, and asked in a small voice, "Why?"
Larry responded joyfully, "Because the voice in my head told me to, silly."
Samantha panted deeply and imagined being stranded on this asteroid. She didn't know how long they could last out here and the prospect of any rescue was extremely slim.
Larry went on, "It's so amazing, Samantha, the asteroid is talking to me. Inside my head! And you know what?"
Samantha played along, "No, what?"
Larry shouted in her ears, "The asteroid is alive! It isn't an asteroid at all. And get this. It's been stuck out here for centuries, because it needed food. It had to go into a state of hibernation in order to sustain itself."
Samantha began to wonder what was really going on here. There had to be a rational explanation, for the cotton, and for Larry hearing a voice that told him to strand them here.
"Larry, I'm coming in."
"Good idea. We're about to leave anyway. In fact, you may want to hurry." And if that didn't make Samantha move faster, then the sudden rumbling of the asteroid sure did.
Samantha was thrown left and then right by the shaking of the asteroid. Was it an earthquake? If so, then how? There was no way an asteroid could have tectonic activity like this.
Samantha was nearly at the airlock and she said, "Larry, talk to me."
Larry sounded distracted and said, "I can't. I'm talking to the asteroid. Wait. Or am I thinking to the asteroid? Ah. You know what I mean."
Samantha cycled through the airlock and took off her spacesuit. All the while, she watched Larry who was nodding along, making faces, and gesturing like he was talking on the telephone. But there was no telephone.
The ship rocked violently, and Samantha cut her cheek on a console as the ship flipped completely over.
Alarms went off everywhere. There were so many warning lights, Samantha didn't know which one needed her attention the most.
Samantha yelled, "What's going on?!"
"I told the asteroid where it can find more food. You know. A couple of weeks ago we came through that cloud of hydrogen. It's going to take us there. It's a win-win. It gets food and we get to refuel up on hydrogen."
Samantha had a hard time believing this, but whatever doubts she had were forgotten when she looked out the window. The asteroid was no longer shaped like a huge rock. Now it was shaped like a winged bird who was wearing a red cotton shirt and was holding their ship in its beak.
Samantha watched with awe as the bird beat its wings and carried them impossibly fast through space.
Samantha checked on the alarms and warning lights, and she was relieved to find there was miraculously only minor damage done to the ship, damage that was fixable.
Larry bellowed, "It's excited! It sees the hydrogen cloud," and shortly after they arrived, the bird let them go and it began to gorge itself.
Samantha put a hand on Larry's shoulder and told him, "I'm filing us up now." She laughed, "Is anyone going to believe us?"
Larry nodded and said, "You bet they will."
"I mean how could they not, but how can you be so sure?"
Larry looked like he was just informed that he was getting extra presents for Christmas, and he told her, "The bird wants to come back with us and see Earth!"
Samantha liked the sound of that, especially if the bird carried them in its beak, so they could get home quicker. Samantha just adored the idea of skipping the two year trip to get back home.
Samantha grinned from ear to ear and said, "There's just one thing I want to know. Where'd the bird get a red cotton shirt?"