Children of the Stars, Volume 1: The Expedition

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. Yet, from somewhere deep in that mysterious void, I could have sworn I heard in the faint distance or even perhaps echoed from lightyears away, a desperate, deathly cry. One thing I have learned thus far (and my journey is far from over), is that when journeying into space, you must unlearn everything you thought you knew. The math, the science, and the physics you were under the impression of before, is a very limited understanding of matter in the broad scope of the universe. Despite our greatest efforts as a species and despite our progress, we have yet to understand the mechanics of reality itself.

We’ve been in the deep black for nearly two months. Our mission was simple: travel to the moon of a remote planet to mine for a precious metal that was worth ten lifetimes of a fortune back home... and return safely. The mission has grown complicated and proven to be much more difficult- and dangerous than was predicted. Four crew members dead so far, with only three of us left. One of them dissolved right before my very eyes. His body separated into thousands of particles, then to a red gas, then into nothing. The expression on his face as he watched himself disintegrate out of existence has been burned into my memory forever. He was my best friend.

Captain O’Neil vanished last week, and since then I have been controlling the ship. One morning, a couple of days after he disappeared, Sharon burst into the mechanical room hysterically, saying that our Captain was in the window of the front of the ship. Bryan and I went to investigate, as being “in” the window would have been impossible and that she must’ve meant that he was outside the ship, perhaps having been locked out while doing work on the upper vessel. This would have been very unlike the captain to exit the ship alone without notifying anyone. I was eager to understand what she meant. We arrived in the main control room only to join Sharon in her disbelief. There, on the right-side of the window, which measured the entirety of the room giving us a panoramic view of space, was what looked like a very vague albeit living image of Captain O’Neil. It seemed as if his being was imprinted onto the glass, frozen in some suspended state of consciousness. We would move to the right side of the room, and his widely opened eyes would follow us. We moved to the left of the room and his eyes would follow us, with an unchanging horrified expression on his face. We tried speaking to him, but “he” was unresponsive- aside from those terrible eyes. There is still no explanation for the phenomenon. Sharon was Co-Captain and was supposed to course the ship for the remainder of the mission but was unable to cope with the ghostly “living” image of O’Neil on the window next to her. We made a makeshift curtain with one of the bedsheets and hung it over him but even then, Sharon refused to stay in the control room and demoted herself to mechanic. Since then, I’ve been coursing our route and we are to arrive on Moon BR-339 within a few hours.

The faint buzzing sound of the computers keep me company. As the ship moves gently through the void, I am left with my own thoughts to reflect on. The night before lift-off for example. I was on the porch while she cried, head buried into her arms, on the swinging bench. She begged me not to leave, but I could see no future in front of me which didn’t involve me stepping onto that great behemoth of a ship, the “Moth” they called it, and setting out for an expedition into deep space. It’s every boys’ dream at some point in their lives. And of course, now I regretted leaving. I still have the distinct feeling however that if given the chance to make the decision again, it would be the same.

They called the ship “The Moth” for obvious reasons. The enlightened age had come upon us, and all we had to do was reach out and grab it. “We are about to reach the pinnacle of human existence,” is how the president described it. “A New Utopia: No rich, no poor, all equal to all, none greater than the rest”. Is the slogan that was used in how the world came together to promote the expedition. People are stupid for believing it. As soon as we arrive back home (if we make it back home), the elite are going to stage some major crisis or even a war with each other’s countries so they can swallow the excess while the rest of the world continues to starve. Aside from that, they have no idea what we’re truly facing out here. The Yellow Planet is enough to give anybody nightmares, and had we known such planets existed, I’m almost certain we would not have taken the risk for an increase in resources. At this point it truly feels as if not just the ship, but humanity itself is a moth and we’re not headed to any natural, glorious light that will guide us into a new era… but to a bug zapper.

Controlling the ship has begun taking a toll on me mentally. Regardless of my indifference I’ve developed toward the goal of the mission, I now hold the fate of human progression in my palms. I broke down, crying tears this morning. For my Sarah back home, and for my best friend Tom, who I mentioned earlier. The emptiness of space has penetrated the walls of the ship and found its way to the pit of my stomach. Every day I’ve eaten a little less as I fear that my time may be coming soon. Maybe there will be something better on the other side of this life. I’m not sure I can go back to earth and ever be the same person, not after what I’ve seen. I hope that there is something… something out there for me.

“Unidentified spacecraft approaching.” Orion’s monotone voice announced. I stood up immediately as the hairs on the back of my neck stiffened. “I just know at this point I’m hearing things,” I thought.

“Orion, repeat.” I highly doubt that any advanced species of organisms out here are approaching us to strike up a conversation, and one rule to always follow in these kinds of situations is to prepare for the worst. Especially after what we encountered on the Yellow Planet. I needed confirmation before I announced to my small crew that deep in the void of space, where there is supposed to be nothing but space, an unknown ship with unknown lifeforms is about to either blow us up… or invade.

“Unidentified spacecraft approaching.” Orion repeated.

“Orion, alert the rest of the crew and activate magnetic shield!” I rushed over to the main control panel and flipped every defense mechanism switch on. The lights across the entire ship all turned off, leaving only a few red emergency bulbs on along the corridor walkways and along the control panel. The redness which lit up the room was then countered by my gun as I set it to 'blast', and it radiated a purple glow from the fluorescent chamber above the barrel.

Bryan and Sharon arrived to the control room shortly after the announcement with their guns in hand, sweatshirts already drenched in sweat.

“What is it??” Bryan shouted as he ran in and readied himself into firing position next to the porthole.

“We’re about to find out.” I said calmly as Sharon took her position right behind me, opposite Bryan. She was really shaking.

“Orion, update.”

“Unidentified spacecraft approaching. 600 meters. 590 meters.”

“There’s someone out there??” Bryan’s voice yelped in an increasingly panicked tone.

“580 meters. 570 meters.” Orion continued.

“Orion! analyze the spacecraft’s size!” Sharon called out, trying to compose herself.

“Spacecraft is approximately 65 tons in weight. Origin unknown. 550 meters from contact. Approaching the starboard section of the ship. 500 meters.”

“It’s speeding up!” Cried out Bryan.

“Stay calm! Orion, activate all…” VROOOOM. A loud drone interrupted me as all the remaining red lights powered off. Only the purple glow from our blasters lit our faces as the ship also shook for a brief moment.

“Oh my god, oh my god, what’s happening??” Bryan shakingly said as he was now becoming hysterical.

“Mr. Chavez, I need you to remain as calm as possible.” I said to him quietly, waiting for Orion to give us the next update.

“Breathe in.” Sharon tried calming him as she herself also spoke with a certain fear in her voice. “Breathe out.”

“Orion?” It felt like I was speaking to a ghost.

There was no response as the darkness of the room felt darker and darker as every second passed.

“Error.” Orion responded.

“Orion, elaborate, what do you mean, ‘error’?”

“Error Code 001. All systems down.”

“That’s a code red.” Sharon said as quietly as possible, as if attempting to stay hidden from whatever was out there.

“Activate magnetic shield!” I whispered as sweat dripped down from my forehead.

"All systems down."

"Orion, status of the UIS.” Sharon demanded under her exhalation.

“Unidentified spacecraft is approximately 1 meter from the starboard entrance.”

Just as Orion announced this, the ship suddenly jolted violently as if something rammed into it. His calm humanly programmed robotic voice has never sounded disturbing until now. I remained as collected as possible but inward I was frantically pacing back and forth trying to map out the events of the next several minutes. Scenario after scenario played out about what we could possibly do to escape or fight back, but each scenario led back to the same conclusion: all we could do was wait for the unknown to enter through that door. Everything that happened up to this point had prepared me to meet any kind of death imaginable. But what was it outside of our ship? What could it possibly be?

My muscles stiffened as the ship shook once more following a loud bang coming from the other end of its darkened halls. I thought of Sarah as I began bracing myself for what could be my final moments. The regret, fear, guilt and adrenaline were all so overwhelming, I'd never felt anything so stimulating in my life. What felt like minutes passed when Orion finally announced what we had been dreading and hoping wouldn't happen.

"“Ship has been breached. Starboard entrance has been compromised.”