A Hitch in Space

The narrator serves as a crewmate on a routine circuit of orbital beacons with a colleague who develops an imaginary companion modeled on the narrator. At first amused, the narrator grows uneasy as the colleague alternates idolization and harsh criticism of his imagined double, prompting awkward attempts at corrective talk. During a final servicing, the colleague attends to the phantom companion and fires the ship's ionic beam unexpectedly, accelerating away while the narrator remains tethered outside. The narrator improvises ropework to anchor to a flimsy hull instrument and endures a dangerous, slow drag that tests practical skill and the strain of solitude and altered companionship.