The Cosmos

Rocks flew past as a gigantic metal object propelled through the abyss. Twinkling stars reflected off of its rigid cold surface, and the singular word, Infinity, was printed across the outside. Which was the company that manufactured the spaceships. Thrusters shot out of the back, spitting radiant energy. Inside was a crew of five, wearing their assigned suits. A white rubbery cloth covered their bodies. The only thing different about each of them was their heads. Their boots clunked against the ground with every step. They allowed them to become heavier and lighter on each of the various planets they explored. Collar-like devices on the neck of their suit emitted a bubble, appearing from the bottom and slowly traveling upward until their head was encased in a blue translucent sphere. The air was trapped inside and couldn’t escape. Although, they usually had the energy bubble disabled while on the ship.

They didn’t know what awaited them on the next planet. The tension was high. A rectangle glowed on the wall. The shapes created pictures and words; a planet showed across it. The monitor showed a world covered in green. Below it indicated 5388 miles away.

“We’re approaching Planet-Z193,” a younger crew member said.

“I see that, Tyler,” the captain responded, her eyes scanning the planet through the expansive window. From afar, it was beautiful, floating like a cloud in an empty void. The large sphere was a blanket of moss. Tall plants jetted from the ground, their roots buried into the planet’s core. Small patches of heat scattered the surface. From those spots, magma shot into the sky, visible from space. Waves of blue stretched onto the shore, fighting against the lava.

The captain turned, looking away from the mesmerizing green marble.

The captain yelled, “Whatever it takes!”

“Whatever it takes,” three members yelled back in unison

“Oh- uh, Whatever it takes,” the last member said, who was new to the team and unaware of the motto.

“We’ll head to the exploration unit, ” two members volunteered.

They traveled down a corridor, entering the first door they reached. It was a portable room full of supplies. The doors of the chamber closed behind them. In the main part of the ship, the monitor displaying the planet now indicated 849 miles away.

“Activate orbit mode!” the pilot yelled, “Disengage the exploration unit!”

Nina sat in front of the control panels, tapping a screen. The thruster’s buzzing sound died, allowing them to begin orbiting the planet. A few seconds later, the exploration unit launched toward the planet. It was a bullet shooting through the void. “Orbit mode has been activated, and the exploration unit has been sent down to planet Z193. I’ll reroute it’s destination .” the captain spoke to the pilot.

The ship was shadowy with various shades covering the metal surfaces. Control panels sat on the left and right walls of the vessel, ready to command it. There was a ledge with a railing, and three feet below was the pilot’s seat with controls for all movement of the spacecraft. It was front and center of the ship. Can shaped energy cells were propped up against the wall. A long hallway stretched to other rooms in the back, such as the sleeping quarters and engine room. Cameras were littered across the walls, watching the spaceship. Everyone in the crew, except Tyler who was still in training, knew what every button, switch, and flashing light meant.

“Nina,” he paused and frantically corrected himself, “Sorry, I mean, Captain, what’s next?”

She looked at him, annoyed, “We wait for word that the exploration team has made it safely to the ground. It should take around an hour for them to land.”

Tyler turned away, but Nina stopped him, “Tyler, don’t call me Nina.” She said, waving him away.

The steps clicked as he went down to the pilot in his seat. An advanced steering wheel sat in front of him, “Yes?” The pilot’s head didn’t turn, keeping his eyes on the beautiful starry sky in front of him, “Hey, Rowan, I was wondering if you could show me a few controls, just the gist of it, in case of emergencies.” Tyler said nervously.

The pilot, a tall man with short, sandy hair and ocean-blue eyes, finally turned towards him, “No, we're on a mission right now. You know Nina will punish me if she sees,” Rowan whispered, trying not to alert Nina, who was ten feet behind them.

“What if our ship breaks, and you’re not here to pilot it? There were those ships in 2040 that all broke… that was a horrific incident.”

“One, our ship wouldn’t break; we use a stable power source. Two, that was over twenty years ago. Three, Nina knows how to pilot the ship. Now go away before she hears us.” he responded, frustrated but continued to keep a low whispery voice. Tyler took a deep breath and turned back toward the hallway.

“Where are you running off to?” Nina sneered at him as he passed.

“I’m going to go check on the engines, just to help around since there’s nothing else for me to do,” Tyler stopped to speak.

“No… Only I’m permitted to enter the engine room. If you want something to do, go to your room and stay there.” Nina turned back towards the front, watching the pilot steady the vessel.

As Tyler walked down the corridor, he could feel the indents of the wall run across his fingers. His arm out, he slowly dragged it across the carvings. The cold metal gave shivers down his spine. Tyler was short, so short in fact that he was barely skimming the minimum height for the team. He had milk chocolate hair and similar eyes. He always seemed to have a smile on his face, until now, his eyebrows furrowed, and his mouth drooped down. The excitement of his first mission faded. The team was obviously not accustomed to their new member yet. He went past the sleeping quarters but didn’t stop. His heavy feet continued down the hall. He wanted to ensure the engines were in pristine condition, and honestly, he wanted to know why Nina was the only one allowed inside.

Finally, he reached a wide door, he placed his hand on a something glowing. It traced around his hand with a sky blue line and turned green. The door slid open. He stepped inside, the door closed with a thump, and he jumped into the air. The place was an old attic that hadn’t been cleaned for decades. The room was murky, with long cords hanging onto the ceiling. Fabric layed itself across dusty boxes waiting in the corners of the room. Light stretched out across the floor. His shadow moved and elongated onto the floor behind him as he faced a gigantic glowing sphere in the center of the room. Rings orbited around it, absorbing the energy from the inside. It looked almost alien. Wires connected from the core to the engines on the room's walls. It powered the whole ship. He thought it was strange that they had an alien object. I Might as well do something useful… He thought to himself. He grabbed an old rag off the ground and began cleaning the room. I don’t want any of this dust to get in that energy core, it might damage it… He was wiping dust off the objects until he reached one. It was an energy cell. He inspected it, realizing it was an older one, it was rounder and had a smaller frame, different from the other ones in the ship. A small sticker labeled “Infinity” peeled off slightly, and something was under. Curious, he grabbed the sticker, peeling the rest off. Under it was another label, “Theory.” His eyes scanned the word, not recognizing what it meant for a few seconds. He stared, and rubbed his eyes, thinking he was seeing something. Thoughts ran through his mind. The company, Theory, which was labeled on one of the power cells, was the same company that used the unstable alien energy source. The same one who caused dozens of spaceships to explode and killed hundreds of people. Then he had another realization, what if they had been working under them without knowing this entire time? Same company, the same energy, and the same morals as the last one. He stopped and thought, Is this why Nina didn’t want me to come down here…? Did she know…? No… She couldn’t have… unless…?

He knew they didn’t care about them. He got up, and the realization fully set in. While he went towards the door, a camera turned, following his movements, a red light blinking. He opened the door and ran back through the hallway, his feet heavy with each step. The walls were closing in on him more than before, his heart racing. He was frustrated and really hoped it was just a coincidence.

“CAPTAIN, DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS-” he froze; as he reached the front of the vessel, he saw Nina, she was standing next to Rowan, and his neck snapped in his chair.

“I’m sorry,” Nina looked down at the pilot and back up at Tyler, “Whatever it takes…”

Tyler looked down at Nina, “What… What did you do? WHAT DID YOU DO?” he screamed at her.

“They told me you knew. The company, Theory, our company, Theory. They told me to get rid of you, all of you. To start fresh with a new team, they saw you on the cameras. They're always watching,” she said, not showing much regret, “I do what they tell me. Whatever it takes.”

Tyler finally recognized why none of them had discovered the company's dark secrets. Nina had been there the entire time to keep the lies going, she was the captain of the whole ship, and nobody saw who she truly was. He was sure all the other ships out in space had a captain that covered up these lies too.

“And what happens when the rest of the crew comes back from the planet and sees me and Rowan’s bodies dead on the ground?” Tyler questioned.

“Oh, Tyler, they're already gone; I redirected their exploration pod into a volcanic area of the planet.”

Tyler’s eyes widened. His mind cleared, entering fight or flight; he knew if he didn’t take action, he would be the next victim. Tyler glanced around quickly, looking for something to attack with. He knew that if she ran at him, he only had a few seconds to move. He saw a chair and instantly sprang into action, sprinting towards it. Nina began moving, too, attempting to go after him. She made it up a few steps when Tyler threw the chair toward her, hitting her in the upper body. Her body soared backward, hitting the ground. But she didn’t stop there; Nina crawled back onto her feet, a thick red liquid dripping from her head. She groaned from the pain. Tyler turned around and ran; as he made it to the engine room door, he slammed his hand onto the scanner and entered. He quickly ducked behind a pile of boxes in the room's far corner. He heard the door slide open with a swoosh.

“Tyler… come out. I won’t hurt you,” she spoke in a psychotic tone.

He could feel his heart pounding through his chest. He tried to make his breathing slower and quieter, but in doing so, the opposite effect happened. Footsteps echoed through the dark room. He peeked around a box slowly, looking for Nina. He spotted her. She was pushing boxes out of the way, hoping to find him behind one. Next to her was the energy core, glowing its bright energetic light. He knew he didn’t have much time. He ducked back behind the boxes, straining to devise a plan. Suddenly, a package was thrown aside in front of him. Nina stood there, she lunged at him, and he quickly threw himself to the side. She hit the floor. Tyler kicked her while she was on the floor, but she responded by grabbing his leg and pulling him to the ground. She dragged him towards her, but his boot slid off, and he was free from her grasp. He crawled away and got to his feet. Nina did the same. The energy core glowed between them. They were now on opposite sides of the room. They stared at each other; Nina’s scar across her eye made her even more menacing. His mind was a stormy cloud.

“Why would you work for people like this,” Tyler questioned her; he just wanted an answer, “Because I helped them find the alien energy cores we're using in all the ships. I’m very high up in the company, I follow orders, but I don’t work for them,” Nina replied in a low petrifying voice.

Tyler knew that he wouldn’t regret what he was about to do. He ran around the edge of the energy core, grabbing Nina by her torso. She pushed him away, but he ran back at her instantly. He threw her onto the ground, the spherical energy core glowing above her head, The rings spinning around it nearly missing her hair. He looked down at her.

“What’s the point of all this? What’s the point of using these unstable energy sources to power the ships?”

“We couldn’t find anything else powerful enough to power the entire spaceship, artificial gravity, and our space stations; we decided it was worth the risk,” Nina admitted with a frown, “Space travel is essential to the human race so we took a prototype of our ships and traveled to a planet with advanced extraterrestrial life. Then we took everything from them. We risked it all… If we couldn’t power the ship with those alien energy cores, we would’ve never gotten off that alien planet; it was a one-way trip there with the amount of energy we had.”

Tyler looked at her with disgust. She exploited space travel, destroyed an alien race, and killed dozens of people to fulfill her agenda. His hand swung down, grabbing her by the arm. She flailed wildly, trying to escape his grasp. The light suddenly blinded her. Tyler pushed her body into the energy core. There was a flash of light, like staring into the sun, and she was gone. Disintegrated, burned, absorbed by the energy core. Tyler stumbled backward, realizing it was over. He fell to the ground and sat there. He had killed someone. He had to live with that now. He tried to comfort himself, She was a horrible person. She would have killed more people… But it didn’t help. He left the engine room, walking to the front of the ship. He was the last one left. He looked around at the empty rooms. Before he did anything, he grabbed a wrench,went to each camera and smashed them to pieces. He reached the sleeping quarters and looked at the beds inside. He saw their belongings, and pictures of their friends and families taped to the gray walls beside their beds. He stood before Nina’s bed, staring at her flower pot on a shelf. His eyes began to fill with water, he screamed and threw his arms forward, the wrench flying towards the flowers. It shattered into pieces and fell onto the bed below. He tightened his grip on the wrench and continued hitting it against the blanket full of the shattered clay. He stopped, and drops of water falling from his eyes. He put the wrench down. His mind cleared finally, his anger suddenly passed. He hated Nina but he knew he needed to survive himself.

He needed to learn how to use the ship. Theory would be sending other ships to come after him any day now. He knew he had a few weeks at most. He grabbed an instruction manual, comparable to the size of a dictionary, and began reading. There was a ten-year food supply, and the ship was orbiting the planet safely. He began reading, and day by day, he began learning the controls and movements of the spacecraft. When he started using the thrusters, he slightly moved the ship. As a week passed, he figured out how to steer, reverse and go up and down. Soon, he could steer his way out of the planet’s orbit. He put his hands on the wheel, spinning it in circles dozens of times. The ship did a sharp turn. He slammed his foot on the boosters, the ship launching out of the planet’s atmosphere. He was now in the vast infinite universe. He knew that any day that alien energy core might explode. So, he forged his own path, he went out in search of a safe energy core and to warn others of the dangers of the company.