Weekly Story
“Are there any questions?,” she inquired. John shook his head. “Good, now go grab your suit from the supply room, then head over to port number six.” John thanked her for her help, then went to the supply room. He open the door and looked around. He found a bright-orange suit, complete with gloves, boots and helmet, hanging on the wall. He grabbed them then headed for port number six. He arrived at the large, numbered door and found two others there, dressed in the same kind of suit he got minutes ago. “Hello there,” one exclaimed. He was an aged man, looking to be in his sixties. John greeted him and the other suited man. “The name’s Henry,” the man explained, “And you’re John, I presume?” “Yes,” John answered, “And it’s a pleasure to meet you, Henry. So who is your co-worker over there?” He pointed to the shorter person in the suit. The person had their helmet on, so John couldn’t recognize them. “Oh, you mean Emily,” Henry inquired, “I wouldn’t bother her now, she hasn’t gotten all of her ‘beauty sleep.” Henry chuckled at his own joke, and soon John joined in as well. “And just what are you laughing at,” Emily snapped at Henry. “Nothing, nothing,” Henry said between breaths of laughter. Emily shook her helmeted head and turned to her new coworker. “Well, I suppose I should introduce myself properly. Like that old coot over said, I’m Emily.” “Hello Emily, I’m John,” he greeted. “Well, I suppose we should get ready for takeoff, we’re scheduled to leave by three o’ clock. John looked at his watch, it was two-thirty. The three entered the large vessel, and prepared for lift-off. “Good afternoon team,” the boss’ voice rang from the radio, “good to see you all ready for lift-off. After you pass our atmosphere, you should be okay to set the auto-pilot and engage your cryogenic sleep stasis, as it will take you at least two weeks to reach Belt EASDG-768. Once you become close, your stasis will end, and you will wake. We need you to bag up several groups of Subject-0634a and put them in a cryogenic stasis once you are ready to leave. You will rest again until you start to approach Earth. Are you all one-hundred-percent that you are up to this?” Within hours after leaving the surface, nothing specific except the continents were viewable to John. “Well, John,” Henry approached, “We’d better head to bed. The autopilot will take over from here.” John nodded and headed for a metallic-looking pod. Upon approaching, the hatch opened, allowing him to enter. After doing so, the hatch shut, and a cold mist started to fill the pod. Within seconds, John was literally frozen in place. On the lid of the pod, a monitor showed his life status such as his heart rate, blood pressure, and the like. Henry took a glance at this before seeing that Emily too, has entered a frozen state of “rest.” He then took a walk through the ship to make sure the auto-pilot system was operational and fully functioning. Seeing that everything was fine, he took a stroll back the cryogenic room, and was sealed in the tomb-like pod.
Hours turned to days, which turned into weeks, and the ship was nearing its destination, however, while nothing changed on the ship, the same could not be said on Earth. Over the first weeks of their departure, a strange anomaly had occurred; all of the clocks had ceased to work, rendering anyone’s perception of time virtually useless. The people panicked, the governments sensed betrayal from one another, wars were waged. No one truly understood what had happened, nor why it did. The governments and monarchies, even the modern civilizations, had begun to crumble and degrade. People had begun to lose their minds, had they not slept in hours, or weeks? They didn’t know. Some may say that could have used the passing of the sun and moon to tell, but, due the gaining of moons from asteroids, that way of telling time had also become obsolete.
“Affirmative,” Henry exclaimed boldy. “Yes,” Emily said blankly. It seems like she’s done this trip quite a few times. “And you, John,” the boss inquired. “Uh, yes,” he stuttered. “Great! Well, I will start the lift-off sequence. I wish you all good luck on your journey, and godspeed.” “Nothing like your usual spiel, eh boss,” Emily said in a sarcastic tone. Suddenly, there was a great rumbling, and John watched, as the buildings around him started to escape his view, they were leaving the planet he called “home.”