He had arrived at the asteroid alone. The darkness here was far more complete than anything that he had experienced on earth. He would have said that it had an oppressiveness, a malignancy but that was human nonsense. It was a merely a complete vacuum, a vacuum that was cold, dark, alien. His co-occupant of the asteroid arrived later that day.

How long did they sit huddled here together, one minute, one hour, one day? "Yes", and "No", to all of them. Days and hours and minutes marked the rotation of a distant planet that had no relevance here. They did not even know if that planet still existed.

His companion switched on a torch. Eyes at full dilation were instantly blinded by the meagre light source and attempts to shield their eyes were made ineffective by the convex face shields of their helmets.

As their eyes adjusted to the light they stood and turned to face each other, the reflecting face panels providing each man with only the distorted view of his own helmet where the other’s face should have been. Here was the greatest of all ironies. They may be the last two human beings. In fact, if the current state of the search for extra terrestrial life was to be believed, they might be the last two living things, if one excludes bacteria they were carrying and will die with them.

The last two living things and they could not see each other. They will die here together, each not knowing what the other looked like. Was this a malicious god playing his final card? That card that proved his existence by the display of his knowledge of man’s greatest need and hence his greatest weakness; the need, in the last minutes of your life, for human companionship; to be able to see a face, to feel a touch.

The light from the torch was slowly fading and their eyes dilating, it could have been because of the darkness or because of the fear. Huddling down, they clutched each other, but they could feel nothing through their suits.