1 Deep Space Fools

In the stellar year 2200, human civilization started to compete in space exploration. Our crew, the 156th squadron of the United South East Asian Front, was set out to explore the Messier 63.

What triggered this desire to explore the vastness of space? Over-population on Earth? Unending war? Natural catastrophe? A pandemic? No. It is just that human greediness wanted to harness the power and establish authority on a galactic level. Childish to hear, was it? However, that is the reality. There is an insurmountable amount of dollars and a boundless supply of weaponry resting in deep space. So they say. And those who sit above would love to put their hands on it.

But it is all science fiction.

I know that extraterrestrial planets exist. That is an objective truth. However, extracting its natural resources? The only achievement that I take pride in as a human was the completion of this warp drive. Yet, despite this 'advancement' in space travel technology, I wonder why they haven't fully explored the depths of our own oceans? Why spend billions of dollars to fly outside the planet, to find this renewable energy that they speak about when there is a whole lot more mystery swimming in the ocean's abyss? I would love to know whether Atlantis really existed or not. But with all that chit-chat, who am I to gripe?

After years of hibernation, the crew woke up without the melancholic echo of metallic loneliness in the dark blanket of glimmering stars. Everything is as vibrant as a dream. Down to the floor and up to the ceiling. I went to the nearest computer beside my chamber, wobbling side to side. The stars were truly breathtaking, but there are no planets around. Did our hibernation chamber have a malfunction?

A siren reverberated in the hibernating chamber. "Red warning, all crew standby!" Hell's gaze filled the white room. The ship's AI kept on wailing that there is danger, but what could it be? This predicament made my heart want to race back to Earth.

"Dr. Mendez," Commander Lim called me out with an extreme gaze. "Please tend the other crew who still had a hard time moving around."

"Aye, C.O!" I quickly replied to her. Without wasting any second, Commander Lim and two of her pilot dashed to the cockpit.

I started observing the other crew. Five of them were still troubled in finding their balance so I let them rest in the ship's medical room. The other three crews on the other hand are already finding their way to assist the Commander.

Fifteen minutes has passed and the AI's warning was still ringing in the cabin. Nothing has happened, and as far as I am concerned with the medical equipment in this room, nothing has been out of order. But that only lasted for a fleeting moment.

The whole ship trembled in fear. I quickly leaned my back against the wall. The five crew who was resting tightly gripped their bedside. Gazing at the far window in front of me, I saw the stars collapse in fluidity.

Fear began suffocating my chest. I am getting curious to see what is in front of us, but my knees are so frightened to take a step. There is no such way that we encountered an alien ship. Although when I was a child, I was dreaming of that day to come. Now that I am in an almost similar situation, it is no laughing matter.

Despite my cowardly knees, my curiosity makes me want to move. The room's door slides open automatically. I kicked the floor to stiffen up my knees and started running to the cockpit. The more I get closer to it the more I can feel the ship's anxiety. I have never felt more nervous about opening a door. It was more nerve-racking than opening a surprise present when I was a child. The tension that suppresses my head vanished as I placed my hand on the lock sensor. As if opening Pandora's Box, the gradual opening of the door stirred my emotions.

It was not the twinkling stars who greeted me in the cockpit, nor the distortion of space that I saw back at the medical room. The one who bid me welcome was an ominous blackness that swallowed the vivid light that my eyes are perceiving. I cannot comprehend its distance from the ship, but all I know is that it is more massive than the sun. It was silent, but I can see its cold silver wrath writhing around it with such speed.

One thing entered my mind. Death. I can vaguely hear Commander Lim and her desperate strategy to save us all, but one thing is clear to my ears. Death. My eyes have seen it past the infinite blackness of that thing in front of us crystal clear. Death. The turbulence that slithers down my spine was very unambiguous. Death. The only smell that lingered in my nostrils. Death. And as the dripping sweat from my head touched my lips, it was the only taste that I savored. Death.

In the middle of my dwindling hope, Commander Lim grabbed me by my hair. "What are you doing here?" she yelled at me. And as if I woke up from my deep slumber I only nodded back. Her two pilots were already behind me, running as if it would save them. "Get yourself together!" she slapped me forcefully with reality. It weakened my knees and dropped to the floor.

"There is nothing we can do, this is the end of us," I sighed. My eyes became heavy and blurry. And as I try to look up and face the void in front of us the weight in my sight trickle down and total doom became clear as day.

The Commander sat beside me. "Clinging to hope is the most unrealistic thing to do now," she told me. Not in the slightest bit did it comforts my soul. "Holding on to hope, the laziest thing that humanity invented. In dire situations such as this, it is the most foolish thing to do."

She laid down on the floor laughing like a total manic. I could not even recognize her. Yet it lighten up my heart for a bit. Hoping may be a foolish thing, but who would have thought that laughing would spark a tiny bit of hope? I guess humans are just born to be fools. So I laid down with her and started laughing. The shadows of the void are swallowing the whole cabin. We started to succumb in darkness but I hope that our laughter will prevail in this desolated vacuum of space.