Helping Hand story
Astronaut Alexandria Stephens attends to a faulty satellite in Earth's orbit. During a spacewalk, her old-model EVA suit is hit by a stray screw from orbital debris, casting her hopelessly adrift with only 14 minutes of oxygen. She seals the upper left arm of her suit using her watch strap, then removes the left glove, exposing her left arm to the vacuum of space. Throwing the glove pushes her back toward the satellite, but she narrowly misses grabbing hold. As she drifts back past her beaten-up maintenance vehicle The Anthem, she decides to break off her now frozen left forearm and throws it in the last-ditch attempt to make it back to her ship. Back on board, she performs emergency self triage then radios Bill, her ground controller, who asks with relief if she "still needs a hand". Cast: Elly Condron as Alexandria Stephens, Chris Parson as Bill Directed by: Jon Yeo. Story by: Claudine Griggs.
4 total · 2 choice · 2 major
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| personal practical dilemma | choice | The story posits the following dilemma: would you, and could you, voluntarily maim yourself if it meant a slim chance of survival when death was otherwise certain? After debris damaged Alexandrina's spacesuit and pushed her out into space, she sacrificed her own arm in order to generate momentum to get back to her spacecraft. |
| stranded in outer space | choice | Space debris damaged Alexandrina's spacesuit and pushed her out into space. She sacrificed her own arm in order to generate momentum to get back to her spacecraft. |
| astronaut occupation | major | The story centers on the astronaut Alexandria Stephens' spacewalk gone terribly wrong. |
| facing death | major | Space debris damaged Alexandrina's spacesuit and pushed her out into space. She was left drifting with 14 minutes of oxygen and no chance of being rescued. After entertaining the grim prospect of dying by asphyxiation, she sacrificed her own arm in order to generate the necessary momentum to get back to her spacecraft. |