The Last Ghost: A Space Ghost Short Story

By Brandy Woldstad

All the crew members of SS Vagabond believed Herman, the ship's ghost, existed. Everyone except for Captain Jessie.

When Herman "disappears" the crew blames her.

How can she prevent mutiny?

Enjoy a ghostly hunt in space.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brandy Woldstad
• Release date: Nov 18, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201246341

Book preview

Introduction

Ghosts in space. Sounds plausible. Growing up, my mom told me stories about a ghost named Herman that haunted her parents’ restaurant. Anytime something went wrong, Herman got the blame (or credit).

In this story, the crew members of SS Vagabond believed Herman, the ship’s ghost, exists. Everyone except for Captain Jessie. When Herman disappears the crew blames her. How can she prevent mutiny?

Chapter One

Never put the SS Vagabond into high speed. The ridiculous order was given to Captain Jessie Lee when she took over the leadership of the exploration ship. The former captain told her if the ship went faster than normal, Herman (the ship’s ghost and the crew’s invisible talisman) could get lost.

At the time, Jessie snorted at such an outlandish superstition. How could a crew of twenty highly trained engineers, pilots, and scientists believe ghosts existed? 

Proof of Herman’s existence showed up in the ship’s status updates in the form of technical issues suddenly working after engineers puzzled over a solution for hours, or a spill in the eating area getting cleaned before the people involved gathered the cleaning supplies. Jessie never challenged the reports but thought of them as strange coincidences.

Now, Herman was allegedly missing. Jessie's crew blamed her maximum speed maneuver she used to avoid the space pirates in the Theta-27 zone. 

Jessie huffed. Her ponytail bobbed as her running shoes thumped along the treadmill of the exercise dome. The dome provided nearly a 360-degree view of space around her. 

The dome functioned as Jessie’s thinking spot. Jogging usually stimulated her brain, but after forty-five minutes, her grumpiness remained. She had no idea how to find a ghost she did not believe existed.

Jessie slapped the red stop button on the treadmill. Her metal water bottle squeaked as she turned the top to gulp the water. Her gaze focused on the view of the star-speckled blackness, which was normally