The Stars In Her Eyes

Lorain Space Station, 3572, AD…

Brody Fisher pressed the button on his desk and watched the image before him change. They had begun to study unexplained solar phenomena and wormholes. He was fascinated by the theories of space travel, time travel, and inter-dimensional travel. The possibilities were infinite. No one really knew one way or the other what happened when one flew through space. It was all so vast and uncharted. They had perfected planet to planet travel long ago, but so far, every planet they visited was uninhabitable.

They had spent the last five hundred years searching space for an inhabitable planet after the ancients had succeeded in destroying their own. Earth, once a planet of vast oceans and lush forests, had been raped and plundered of every natural resource, the land and waters poisoned. Countless species were extinct, the forests and jungles were destroyed in the name of progress. The oceans were tainted with oil until no life could be sustained.

The ozone had been destroyed, and the air became thin and dangerous. The world had been plagued by violent and constant storms on land and sea. Before long, the Earth had become a vast wasteland of desert and death.

Five hundred years ago, those remaining had evacuated, the wealthiest and smartest, and the strongest of their armies had left their home in search of a new planet to colonize. In the new order, there was only room for two kinds of people; soldiers and scientists. Humanity hand no use for anything else. Either you explained and searched the universe, or you enforced and explored. Brody himself was partial to science through his parents and brother were soldiers and wished the same for him.

He hoped to one day help his people find a new home. Brody wished to better understand wormholes. Travelling across space took so terribly long, and if it were possible to shorten the trip using wormholes, he would find a way. One day he would find a new home.

***

Genesis Science Ship, 3593, AD…

Brody Fisher watched the holographic screen. He had spent the last thirteen years of his life working on the Eden project. Thirteen years of compiling data and simulations of theories and proposals. He headed up his project with the theory that distance and space travel need not be linear. That a wormhole could actually bend the very fabric of space, and that a ship could enter in one end and seconds later emerge thousands of light-years away; that the human body could survive the trip without spending generations travelling or the need for cryogenics.

Years ago, his team had sent out probes to search for wormholes in which to test his theory. The problem was finding a wormhole stable enough to travel through. Most did not last for more than a second and never appeared in the same place twice… except for one. After five years of searching and they finally found a wormhole stable enough to pass through.

“Fisher,” a harsh voice called to him. He turned around to see Commander Jerald Wicker, a man of fifty years and a General in the new army. He was the acting Commander of the vessel, and the end all be all of the authority on the ship. “I have spoken with the council on the Lorain Space Station; they have green-lighted your test,” he said with a smile. His dark hair had begun to gray at the sides, and his face and eyes showed his age and the stress of his job. He was a man of meticulous order and dedication, and it showed in his uniform and the way he ran his ship.

They had been waiting almost two years for permission to go ahead with the next step of their project. They had sent unmanned probes through the wormhole and received back faint, distorted signals, but signals nonetheless. The next step was to send someone through the wormhole, and if they made it, they sent back data. It was the first attempt at sending a living person through a space anomaly they barely understood. It was risky and dangerous, and why Brody himself had offered to go.

He had been sure that the council would reject the idea, deeming it far too risky, but his people were sick of roaming the vast space of the universe and getting nowhere, of being lost and wandering a never-ending void of uninhabitable celestial bodies. They wanted results, and Brody’s work was cutting edge and promising. To risk one man for the greater good was a price they were willing to pay for progress. It was a price he was willing to pay for his vision.

“That is great news,” Brody said as his team cheered. He had trained them well. Worked side by side with every man and woman in that lab, and he trusted them each with the tasks they had been assigned. He had spent the last four years training his mind and body for the rigour of this one particular test. He was at the top of his game, both physically and mentally, to make the trip. There was no accounting for what may happen, and he had to be ready.

“When can you be ready for launch?” Commander Wicker asked.

Brody raked his fingers through his jet black hair as he looked around the lab and thought it over. They could prepare the ship with everything he needed and test the equipment… “Two days,” he estimated. “I can be ready in two days.”

“Very well, make it so,” Commander Wicker nodded and left the lab.

Brody turned and looked out the window as the wormhole vanished and reappeared. “Two days? Are you sure?” Winston Peters asked, coming to stand by his side. Winston and Brody had come up through the academy together and shared the same dream. His blonde hair was long and shaggy, pulled back in a ponytail. He was a thin man with a thick beard. “You are rushing it, Brody. This is dangerous enough; to go before we are ready would just be insane.”

“Winston, old friend, I have been ready for this trip since I was ten. I could not be more ready. Think about it. We could cut our search by thousands of years if this works.”

“Yes, and you could be crushed inside that hole or spat out the other side into a star’s gravitational pull. We don’t really know what is on the other side of that thing,” Winston argued.

“The pod keeps sending back signals, so I’m sure there is no pull into a sun.”

“It sends back broken random signals; there is still no telling what is on the other side or if you can even come back through once you are there.”

Brody smiled and patted his friend on the back. “This is hardly the time to be second-guessing ourselves,” he said, making sure everyone knew their assignments once he was gone.

“I’m not; I am just saying we should not rush it. It will not hurt to take a few extra days to prepare,” Winston said, following him out of the lab. He had to go and help ready the ship in the flight bay.

“We can do it in two.”

“We could, but that does not mean we should,” Winston argued.

Brody stopped and looked at his friend dead in the eyes. “I’m going in two days’ time. You can either use that time to argue or to make sure everything is as it should be,” he made it clear his mind would not change on the matter. “I’m going.”

Winston shut his mouth and frowned. He did not say another word. He knew there was no changing Brody’s mind once he had set it to something. Winston headed back to the lab and Brody to the flight bay. He spent the night and better part of the next morning stocking the ship with food and water and testing the life support, engines and other electrical components.

When he could not keep his eyes open another moment, Brody headed to his quarters to sleep. His head hit the pillow, and he was almost asleep when he heard the beep that alerted him someone was at the door. “Come in,” he said, sitting up trying to fight off the need to sleep. The door slid open, and in walked Lt. Susan Tomas. She was a soldier and a pilot and a fair-looking one at that. They had been in an on-again-off-again relationship for two years. Her moods were volatile, and they often fought over whose position was more important, a soldier or a scientist. They did not see eye to eye on the matter, but she was dynamite in the sack.

“I hear you got the go-ahead for your test flight,” she said, taking the clip from her dark hair and letting it fall. Her smile was seductive as she came to his bed. “This may be the last time I see you.”

“So little faith in me,” he teased. “You taught me to fly better than that.”

“But only you would fly into a wormhole,” she teased, unbuttoning her uniform. “I just got off duty, and I thought I would come to say goodbye,” he grinned as she laid him back against the bed and mounted him. He did not need sleep. Hell, he would sleep when he was dead.