— Outer Kuiper Belt

  Between the giant asteroids of the Kuiper Belt, where the starlight flickers like tired embers in a deep-black ocean, a deep-space cargo ship drifted on its long route back toward the inner system. Behind its primary crew sector, are elongated yet bulky hull that stretched row after row of cargo bays surrounded by thick rings, each packed with raw ores and rare-earth chemicals mined from the surrounding belt. The vessel had been out here since the Christmas fourteen years prior, hauling its lonely freight through a region most people only ever saw on classroom maps. Even from here, the nearest human station, the Neptune Orbital, was still two months away at their fastest.

  “Captain, we are spotting something strange in the distance, about forty thousand kilometres, 45 degrees on our starboard side.” A woman’s voice cut across the quiet bridge just as an old man with a white beard stepped through the sliding door, rubbing the cold from his hands while almost blinded by the red light shining into his face. The bridge was dark, as most of the crew should have been napping, but what the giant radars on the bow detected triggered the red lights automatically.

  “Can we get a visual on that?” the captain asked, moving toward the central platform.

  “On screen, magnifying.” A male crewman rapidly typed codes into his console as the main viewport magnified on a strange object in the corner of their eyes. But there seemed to be nothing except a block of shadow that they could not tell whether was a shadow cast onto the asteroids or shadow existing on its own.

  The captain squinted. “So… what am I supposed to be looking at?” He stepped closer, boots echoing softly on the metal floor. “There is nothing.”

  “Maybe it’s a freezer-freezer.” A crew joked to his neighbour.

  “But our sensors are picking something, strange, let me read it more carefully.” The woman quickly explained as she begin reading the words line by line when the captain stepped even closer, head just inches away from the glass when he sees it. The distant shadow felt, too rectangular, too fixed for a random shadow.

  She lifted her head up and met the captain’s gaze.

  “The strange thing is, our sensor this time isn’t receiving any frequency back, specifically on that direction.”

  “Did it disperse into the vacuum or anything nearby?”

  “No sir.”

  All the bridge crew stood up from their post as they approached the viewport. On that same corner, they saw the shadow, this time from an angle clearer, it looked like a sphere mixed with rectangle, fully dark…not reflecting any light back.

  “What is that?” A crew muttered under his breath, not even blinking once as if a second of break would cause the thing to disappear.

  “Try hailing them,” the captain ordered, his voice suddenly unsteady.

  “You mean they might be…” the woman glanced at him.

  “Just in case, we are not alone.”

  The bridge fell into silence, no sound except their breathing and the beeping of the communicator.

  “I’ve tried all frequencies sir, no response of any kind.”

  “Do you think we can take it with us back to Earth?” A crewman questioned.

  “No, it is too large to drag, and we do not know of it’s purpose, or even what it’s made of.”

  “It could be radioactive,” the computer said. “Based on the readings available, one logical and reasonable possibility is that it involves dark matter—“ the voice glitched briefly. “stabilized by forces we don’t yet understand.”

  “Can we get a sample of it perhaps?” the captain asked, urgency edging into his voice.

  “I advise against it, captain,” another crewman said, shaking his head. “We don’t know what it could do. Our scanners are inadequate to get an accurate reading on it. Our best choice now is to send it back to Earth officials, and leave with the readings we have.”

  “Can our drills or mechanical arm lock onto it?” He stepped closer to the glass.

  “No, sir. Let’s leave it.”

  — Earth, Washington Interplanetary Launch Bay.

  — A month later

  The spaceport is never a place of silence. It is always full of random people like mere codes of reality, all repeating similar things. Some sitting on their own, some kids teasing attendant robots, honestly, some kids that went too far should be put on a leash. Aric thought to himself, but think back, who wasn’t a chihuahua at eight? And glanced towards the other side, just by the security check was a young couple kissing each other goodbyes, beside them is a father hugging each and every one of his children before clinging to his wife at last.

  What if I had someone? He often asked himself. Would I still long for space? And what will my life look like? Maybe he is a bit old for adventures…but there is no going back, and it is his dream after all.

  The summer was not over yet, when he looked out the giant glass window all he sees is the bright reflection of yellow sunlight off the terminals. In the distance are long rails made of metal frames, launching spaceplanes one by one like toy cars jumping off a raised track after gaining great speed.

  Suddenly his neuron chip sent a ringing sound only he could hear in his mind again.

  “Put it on,” he said in his mind. He only needed to meditate slightly to a state of speaking inside his mind will keeping touch with the outside world. It was difficult on his first try, but once you get the first time, second time would be a piece of cake.

  “Hey, Aric,” Soren’s voice came from the other side. “Have you boarded your plane yet?”

  “Not yet, I am still waiting,” he chuckled. “Glad you’re not calling me doctor Cole again.”

  “Of course, doctor Cole.”

  He stared at the ceiling. “…I walked into that one.”

  She laughed softly. “Anyway, did you see the news today? On the federal threadsite?”

  “Yeah,” He rose, walked to the giant glass wall, then returned to his seat, eyes fixed on the departing plane. “The cargo ship did find something strange, and it seems like their angle within the Kuiper Belt aligns perfectly with the Oort Cloud where you received the signal.” He said as the distant plane locked its tires onto the long metal track, then as the magnetic track picked up speed, it launched the plane into the air through a great climb. “Apparently two of their satellites from that sector was also destroyed on that day.” He turned around and returned to his seat.

  “Yes, and I have news you don’t know.”

  He turned slightly, “Which is?”

  “Are you actually on your way?”

  “Boarding soon, yes, Kael has already traced the source of the prime number signals, he said he prefer to show me in person when we meet at your friend’s secret base.”

  “That is great to hear, so the news is…” her voice hesitated slightly. “the federal government saw my livestream that day, and now they have sent their fastest vessel to search for it.”

  “What?!” Aric almost screamed out, his breathing almost paused. “But…but they can’t even agree on something small like the price of organic lettuce, now they are mobilizing starships?”

  “I know, it is equally shocking to me too when I heard about it, but when the entire humanity’s sake is tied to one boat, perhaps the crew won’t be as divided over little things as they used to.” She waited for a few seconds before clearing her throat. “They have send humanity’s fastest and most experienced deep space starships, Enterprise and Challenger, and with their top speed, it would take roughly six weeks.”

  “That’s no good.” He muttered as he sees a green light sparkle on his terminal. He quickly grabbed his bags and entered the tube connecting the space plane. “I’ll need a transfer on Mars. Best case, I’m there in two weeks.”

  “Then let’s hope they don’t run max drive the whole way.”

  “Which one is each after?”

  “Well, as far as my position can access, Enterprise is investigating the dark-matter object, likely will return to Earth before heading for the Oort Clouds, while Challenger is on her way to the destroyed satellites, closer to the Oort Clouds.”

  “Oh great,”

  Aric slid through the narrow tube connecting the terminal to his assigned spaceplane, the soft hum of the docking locks vibrating beneath his boots. Inside, the cabin smelled faintly of ozone and heated metal, a mixture that always made him feel like he was stepping into the future as a child.

  The attendants barely noticed him, faces focused on the last checks before launch, their movements precise, almost ritualistic. He buckled himself into the sleek, reclining seat, the restraint harness clicking into place with a satisfying sound. Outside, the sprawling metal rail glimmered under the intense sunlight, glaring as if made specifically to blind his eyes.

  The countdown began, low and steady in his ear, and the magnetic track roared to life beneath the plane, or a tickling time bomb if to a dark perspective. With a shudder that ran through the hull, the space-air-hybrid-craft surged forward, sliding along the rail faster than he had remembered from his last flight, sunlight streaming in from the panoramic window as Earth fell away behind him.

  For a moment, time seems to have paused, sound silenced, or the force of takeoff was simply too uncomfortable to talk in. Aric felt the familiar stomach-lurch of liftoff. The plane first engaged its ion thrusters, breaking the sound barrier with a deafening pop as it reached for the space, and then, suddenly, gravity released its hold, his body suspended in weightless silence. He floated briefly, though still tied to his seat thanks to the safety belt. He begin staring out at the vanishing continents, before the plane’s graviton dampers engaged, tugging him gently back into place. Gravity returned as the craft levered off into a stable orbit, and its hull begin rotating on its own.

  Aric allowed himself a quiet smile. For the next few weeks he may not be able to sleep well, eat well or even take showers as the water is carefully managed by the crew. He’s going to shift from planes to some dirty carriers to orbital stations then vice versa, until the slingshot of planet’s rotation shoots him towards Jupiter at last.

  But he must be swift, before the federal ships found the source first.

  — Jupiter Orbit

  On the shuttlecraft gliding towards Jupiter’s orbit, after days of flights and trains and other means of transport, for the second time Aric felt like throwing up in a spaceship. His first puke was also the first time he had gone out of the atmosphere on a school trip.

  Throughout the entire journey he overheard people all over the place discussing the recent findings on the outer rim. There were scholars debating if the signal, black object and the destroyed satellites were connected, and children telling each other about some imaginary space monsters out there devouring planets that are just violating their understanding of the fundamental science. However, more scholars believed the satellites simply entered a domain of physical anomalies, but no one could be sure just yet.

  He felt restless, almost unable to sleep the entire trip, dwelling on the possibility that the federal vessels might discover the truth before he did. That would mean this chance too, the chance to ever achieve something, had slipped past him. The first was the college applications way back in time, in which he had not poured much attention and effort into. What if this was his last chance, and he fails?

  But as he stared out the main viewport’s glass, toward the stars, where the brightness of the sun hadn’t overshadowed them. Strangely enough, nearby light can drown out distant stars. But just because the closer light is bright, doesn't mean the distant stars aren’t the same if not brighter, only they are further therefore stuck in the background of our system. To us they may be winking eyes on the night sky, only decorative, but for perhaps some other beings, it is what their life depends on. But even then, they still manage to shine ever so brightly when the sun isn’t there.

  This is the same feeling that hit him when he was in middle school. It was a night with clear sky, and the next day was the exam for the state. Thinking back, he was extremely stressed for days leading up to it, often studied until midnight yet feeling like the knowledge and that A++ result felt just like the stars in the sky, visible but forever out of reach. That night he felt an inevitable doom, whether it is because he’s naturally dumber or inferior in brain evolution, the time he poured into it probably was not worth the result.

  That night he climbed onto the roof. The night sky was clear of clouds, from any remaining light of the sun. And the sky was lit with stars, purple, white, yellow, red, like hidden gems that always get overlooked because of a nearer gem. But think about it, the stars he was seeing were only a tiny fraction of how many there are in the universe. Yet it already seemed countless.

  The universe is vast; it is harsh, it can freeze you, burn you, radiate you from inside out. And the chances of those happening to you are just as likely as the number of meters in the cosmos. But so are the possibility of the good, of you surviving, thriving, finding planets and people just like you, finding someone that is worthy of the sufferings and waits.

  He remembered pointing a finger onto a distant purple star and whispering: “Out of all the stars, I chose you.” Then he was suddenly relieved of his anxiety, considering just how big the universe is, how much possibility there is for everything, the exams tomorrow is nothing.

  'Yeah, I was right,’ he thought to himself. ‘The universe is far too big to concern itself with a personal failure. No failure too big, no achievement too small.’

  “What are you thinking about?” Soren asked with a slight worried face. “You look pale.”

  “Just…a bit plane-sick, I’ll be fine once I board the big ships though.” He quickly cleared his throat. “So, how big is the Odyssera?”

  “Perfectly 300 meters, sir,” Jax chirped from behind. “By the way, I know you had the ideas and Soren drew the blueprint, I am the one who made it to reality, and I did tweak a few small things.”

  “That’s alright, I highly appreciate the personal sacrifice you put into building her.” Aric smiled as he held out his hand. “Also just call me Aric. I prefer that.”

  “You better be thankful, dreamer, because I did ninety percent of the work,” he said quickly as he shook Aric’s hand while Soren gestured him to change his words. “Eh, well you are about to see the Odyssera relatively soon anyways.” He put up with a slightly awkward smile.

  The shuttle drifted into the shadow of Jupiter’s magnetosphere, the cabin lights dimming automatically as the planetary colossus swallowed half the stars outside the viewport. Bands of swirling amber and wine-red clouds shifted like the breaths of something asleep and dreaming beneath a veil of storms.

  Aric felt the weight return gradually as the ship synced with the artificial gravity well of the orbital dock. His stomach settled a little, not fully, but enough that he didn’t feel like he was about to donate his lunch to the recycling vents.

  Jax leaned closer to the window, tapping the glass with a knuckle. “There,” he said, excitement fizzing under his words. “Give it a second… you’ll see her.”

  At first Aric saw nothing except only the thin silver scaffolds of the construction ring and the blinking hazard lights marking the perimeter. Then, from behind the curve of the ring, something enormous drifted into view.

  “This was originally a side project of the federal government for a makeshift shipyard, but I was amazed Clarke would hand it over to me once they abandoned the project.” Jax chirped. “Soren, your boyfriend is really generous.”

  “Clarke is not my boyfriend!”

  But Aric’s attention was locked, absolutely welded, onto the ship suspended inside the ring-shaped construction frame. The metal lattice stretched past the asteroid base’s ship-bay doors, like some half-born extension of the shipyard reaching out into empty space. And in the dead-center of that frame floated the vessel of his dreams — motionless, silent, as if she is the purple star he have picked from years back, waiting all these years only for him.

  “Well, I gotta get it out of the interior,” Jax muttered, tapping a few controls. “The gravity fields in there make the final assembly a nightmare.”

  As the shuttlecraft drifted closer, Aric finally saw it. The bow: long, elegant, almost needle-thin… except for the circular aperture at the tip.

  “That’s the launcher for dimensional-twisters and neutrino torpedoes,” Jax said, like he was talking about a kitchen appliance. “Aren’t you glad I made your little dimensional-twister thing real?”

  Aric didn’t answer. Didn’t blink. His whole face was just… set. Like he was afraid even a breath would distort the moment.

  Where the construction frame guided the eye inward, the hull thickened smoothly, wrapped in layered silver plates that caught the starlight in ripples. On the bow’s upper and lower edges, he spotted the singular-quantum-variator banks: two above, two below, one on each side, three in the aft, all shaped like a metallic droplet with its head being crystal-clear. The frame split into two curving ribs as it approached the middle, arching out horizontally to the sides as it formed a hollow circular space.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  “That’s where the core reactor and the shield-field generator will ignite,” Jax added. He scratched his cheek. “I ran out of cash for the advanced venting system so, I think it also fits your aesthetics to put it on the outside to cool.”

  “Wouldn’t… if something hit it… wouldn’t it explode?” Soren whispered. All three of their faces were pressed toward the glass now.

  “The moment the reactor lights,” Jax said with a little laugh, “it generates a specialized field bubble. Space folds around it. Any projectile just… curves away. Like it refuses to hit.” He shrugged. “It can field the whole ship too, but that burns energy like you wouldn’t believe.”

  “But fielding tech is still experimental…”

  “Well,” Jax said, spreading his hands, “I don’t gotta play by their rules. Not like they accepted me into their jail even just to preach me their rules. And it’s not like it hurts anyone’s planet out here.”

  Aric’s gaze followed the ship’s body, meter by meter. As the hollow centre closed into a smooth ring, the surrounding hull swept together again, continuing the spear-like silhouette — sleek like a javelin built for gods. Only the stern broke the symmetry: shorter, flattened, a crisp, sharp line like someone had sliced the tip clean off with a blade. Another circular launcher sat inset at the aft, mirroring the bow, and the same array of duo-quantum-variators lined the upper and lower hull.

  “You might not have noticed,” Jax said, almost proud of his own subtlety, “but I stuck two antimatter turrets on each side of the ring-core structure. They’re tiny, indeed, but they can bite.”

  The shuttle rotated slightly, thrusters whispering, and the rear hangar of the ship came into view — tucked beneath the flattened stern, its opening glowing with soft guide-lights. The plating around it looked newer than the rest, almost a little bit too clean, like the metal hadn’t tasted vacuum yet.

  As they glided in, the hangar swallowed them whole, a cavern of shadow and faint blue luminescence, smelling faintly of ionized air and half-finished wiring. It was tucked so far into the ship’s body that the sharp bow felt like a different world. Here, everything was quieter. The hum of power conduits vibrated through the shuttle’s hull as they touched down.

  Aric exhaled, finally, and for the first time since seeing the ship, he blinked.

  “This is magnificent!” Aric burst out, grabbing both of Jax’s hands like he was about to propose. “You… you built all this on your own?! She’s beautiful!”

  “Of course not completely on my own, though I should be credit the most amongst them,” Jax laughed, soaking in the praise like a starship-charging panel under twin suns. “I had my three brothers helping out, Fax, Tax, Dax also a few hundred bots of every shape and IQ level, mostly scrap rejects from other yards, and a handful of volunteers and part-timers.”

  Aric blinked. “Who the heck named your brother Tax?”

  “The online naming AI,” Jax said proudly, as if that explained everything.

  As they entered the white corridors, their feet begin lifting from the ground, then their whole body, floating in the air until one of their hand grabbed the rails that are present on the walls and the ceiling.

  “So… you said you’d be our engineering representative. Are your brothers coming too?”

  “Oh yeah,” Jax replied. He pushed himself forward, drifting into the corridor like he’d done it a thousand times. The hallway lights flickered awake one by one as they approached. “My brothers, loads of robots, by the way Odyssera herself is basically one giant computer brain anyway, highly computerized. Plus, we’ve got a few workers who wasted half their lives chasing meaningless degrees they never finished. And they hope to do something with their life.”

  “I can understand that, welcome them in then,” Aric smiled as he ventured deeper into the clean hall.

  Soren let go of the rail and floated after them, kicking softly to keep momentum. The ship’s interior smelled faintly of cold metal and untested circuitry, a scent like rain inside a machine. Panels on the walls pulsed in soft lines, as if breathing.

  “Did you remember to make personal rooms for them though?” Soren whispered to Jax, though Aric obviously can hear that.

  “Of course,” Jax snorted. “I may be mainstream crazy, but not cruel and lazy.”

  They continued drifting down the long, narrowing corridor. The walls sloped inward slightly, shaped by the ship’s aerodynamic hull, and the deeper they went, the more the hum of systems whispered beneath their feet… well… beneath where their feet would’ve been, if the graviton damper was on.

  Soren finally asked what Aric had been thinking the whole time. “Uh… why are we floating? The blueprint I drew included stationary graviton damper.”

  “Oh that?” Jax said, waving his hand dismissively as he grabbed a rung overhead and swung himself through a circular hatch. “Gravity won’t be on until the core reactor is lit. I told you the reactor venting was too expensive but I wouldn’t ignite it without your guys here first. And the same pricing goes for stationary graviton damper. Artificial mass these days are not cheap, and not reliable for safety.” He stared into Soren’s eyes.

  “But it is suggested by standard starship blueprints to have emergency stationary…” just as Soren begin explaining Jax cuts her off.

  “I understand of its purpose, but I do not have the same level of funding as those big corp’s projects have.”

  “Well, the hangar had gravity,” Aric pointed out, bumping lightly into the wall as he turned. “We walked in there just fine.”

  “Yeah, because we keep many explosives there,” Jax said. “I do not want to risk having them flying all around.”

  They drifted through the final hatchway, with countless black boxes floating in the hall right before their faces, and finally the bridge opened before them — a wide, panoramic dome of glass-black reinforced crystal, the stars spilling in like a sea. Consoles circled the chamber, each one dark, silent, waiting for power: navigation panels shaped like crescents; engineering consoles built into the walls; tactical stations with smooth, glowing ridge lines like dormant serpents.

  Tiny lights shimmered on the consoles and the screens circling the ceiling.

  “You can also connect your neural chip to the control systems, but you’d need super focus for that to execute properly.” He chirped. “I also have our medical officer in the hospital tubes, you guys might heard of her before, doctor Elen Avaris, one of the most popular medical theorists and doctor.”

  “How did you convince her?” Aric frowned slightly.

  “Well, she thinks medical advancement of humanity is stagnating, and wondered if any aliens would give her a breakthrough.” He swallowed. “And she said her life was a bit boring.”

  Suddenly Aric saw a sleek private spaceplane cut across Jupiter’s golden light, gliding toward Odyssera with the kind of elegance that made the spaceplanes he took to arrive here look like scrap haulers. Well, they kinda are. Its silver hull caught the sun in sharp, clean flashes as it rolled gently toward the aft hangar bay. The bay doors parted, gravity shimmered, and the craft dipped inside, initially failed, but after several tries it finally managed to reach a slow but relatively stable landing. After a series of isolated depressurization and oxidation of their landing zone, the hatch slid open with an unimaginable loud “bang!”, and Kael stepped onto the deck, well, more accurately, rolled his way off the stairs of the plane.

  The three immediately raced down the corridor onto the hanger bay, where Kael was trying to ask a small cleaning robot painting the floor where everyone is. Beside him is Melanie, for once in her life did she manage to wear a more formal grey shirt and tie her hair. But to Aric’s surprise, there was another skinny young woman with dark hair on his left, who was exceptionally tall, like at least six foot-two, but walking with hands gripping the side as if the gravity of the hanger could crash her to squash. Melanie immediately spotted them as she called for the other two to approach them.

  “Aric, this ship, is a work of art. But the flight here was a disaster, flying is for drones not for people, that I still believe in.” Kael exclaimed as they shook each other’s hand. “I am telling you, on the flight here, I almost crashed into Jupiter’s atmosphere if not of the computer’s guide, and the fuelling station on Mars was crazy too.”

  “I know man, I know,” Aric smiled, he authentically felt happy to true see Kael here. In his eyes, Kael is no longer a government worker, no longer a father of two, no longer a robot of his job, as if even his appearance have returned to that of his high school version. “How long did it take you to get here? On a private plane.”

  “How long did it took you?”

  “Two and half week.” Aric gestured a puke. “I did not get a single second wasted during stations. Usually it would take about two three months depending on the era of transport. Antimatter fusion drive has been a great saviour of time. You?”

  “Well, no spaceplane can fly this further than Earth to Moon, so I had to get on several public ferry carriers, and it took me, I believe only slightly longer than you.” Suddenly his attention seems to shift onto some other robots in the background assembling circuits. “But is building such a thing here even legal? I mean this is…”

  Aric puts a hand onto Kael’s shoulder, cutting him off. “Kael, you’re no longer working. Just enjoy it.”

  Kael blinked, then nodded, a sheepish smile tugging at his lips. “Right… of course. By the way, let me introduce Mira Brooks. She’s my intern, really eager to be here. Specializes in communications, languages… and, well, mostly that.”

  Aric froze for a moment, processing the new arrival. She was a young woman with long raven black hair and somewhat pale skin. Then, he leaned slightly closer and whispered, “Since you’re already here, welcome aboard, Mira. I don’t usually use Mister or Miss unless it’s necessary. Nice to meet you.”

  “Nice to meet you too,” she said brightly, shaking his hand. Her smile was quick, but genuine, and Aric felt a faint warmth at her enthusiasm. “And… thank you for accepting me.”

  Kael muttered, a little embarrassed, “Well, she asked at the last second. I thought you were mid-flight to Mars and communications might be down. Should’ve asked sooner. Sorry, pal.”

  Aric waved him off casually. “It’s fine. No harm done.” He turned to Soren and Jax, one was patiently waiting for them to finish and the other scrolling through notes on his tablet. He turned and nodded. “Meet Soren and Jax. Biggest contributors to Odyssera’s birth.”

  Then he glanced at Melanie. “How are you feeling?”

  “To be honest… a bit overwhelmed,” she murmured, her eyes sweeping the gleaming corridors of the Odyssera.

  “Well, you’re mostly going to be a spectator, for now.” Aric said with a faint smirk. “Keep your eyes open for wonders, that’s your mission.”

  “By the way Aric, I have a detailed report from the primary threadwork radar you asked about,” he pulled out a small green chip. “All in here, the precise coordinate and relating informations.”

  “Thank you, we shall examine it in the bridge later in depth together.” He points a finger towards the ceiling, stopping Kael from stepping closer or continue his chatter. “And we might as well have our first test flight before we view it, just flying for five minutes or so.”

  Kael tilted his head, “So… are you the captain right now?”

  Aric froze, slowly, he turned to face the group. “That’s… a good question. I don’t think we’ve decided yet.”

  There was a brief pause, and then Soren leaned forward. “I believe I can speak for the logic, of everyone here.” She met everyone’s gaze. “I believe Aric deserves the place of captain.” She paused for a second and checked everyone’s reaction, but lucky for her, no one seemed to openly reject her proposal. “Let’s all be true to ourselves, he is the sole reason why we are all here, why the Odyssera was born.”

  Aric’s cheeks warmed. “But… as you guys already know, my achievements on paper are, well, they’re probably the least qualified in this crew.” He looked down a little.

  Jax scratched the back of his neck, half-smiling, half-chuckling. “I was tempted to claim captain myself, as the builder of this wonder. But I can barely fly a shuttle without giving someone a heart attack. Chief of engineering, sure. Leading this? Not my field. You, Aric, you inspire the madness here, and Soren trust you. Because of her, I trust you, at least for now.”

  Soren smirked. “Exactly. Captain Cole it is, then.”

  “You can just call me Aric, I like that.”

  “But that wouldn’t be formal, without a clear hierarchy of some sort the crew wouldn’t function well.”

  “Then I guess…sure, Captain Cole.”

  Suddenly Kael whispered to Aric’s ears.

  “Well, forgot to mention, I brought two other guys here…you might not like but I must.” He whispered as Aric’s face instantly shifted from happiness to confusion, then to slight stress. His experience tells him that, if Kael say you might not like something, you most likely will hate it.

  Only meters behind Kael, off his silver spaceplane walked down a metallic robot painted in orange and black, its head shaped somewhat like a camera. On his chest plating written four big letters in bright white: United Earth Federation Department. The last thing Aric wants on this ship, on this mission. And behind the robot came down a young, tall men with dark hair.

  “Clarke?!” Soren almost screamed and fainted seeing the young men hopping down the stairs. “What are you doing here?”

  The young men looked up at her with determination in her eyes. “I simply want to make sure you are in good hand, Soren.”

  “Excuse me, I am Aric Cole, captain of the individually owned Odyssera, who are you guys?” Aric asked as he frowned and stood between Clarke and Soren.

  “My name is Clarke Petrov, member of the Pluto Station II, specialize in starship weaponry and personal armaments.”

  “Okay, I am not here to read a resume,” Aric cuts him off brusquely, then turned to scan the rest of the crew, behind them a man and a woman in construction suits just came out of an elevator with a floating box of gears that followed them wherever they went.

  “Please sir, I just don’t want Soren to be devoured by the coldness of space.” Clarke pressed further as he stared directly into Aric’s eyes, but not in a threatening or overpowering way, but in more of pleading way.

  “Are you sure he’s not your boyfriend?” Jax whispered to Soren in the background, the moment the words left this mouth Soren lifted her palm and made a move that looked like she was going to slap him hard in the face if he continues.

  After a moment of silence, Aric nodded to himself. “I am…not entirely certain of your relationship with Soren. But I could use a hand, for our chief in defence I see no others more appropriate for that role.” He turned to Soren. “What’s your call? Is he legit?”

  “I guess, it’s fine.” She muttered back, pressing her lips together. “It’s fine, he can stay.”

  “Well,” Aric turned back and held out his hand. “Welcome aboard Mr Petrov.” Clarke offered back a quick smile as he shook Aric’s hand and left for Soren.

  “We were on the same ferry carrier, the one from outer orbit of Mars to interplanetary route 3.1.” Kael muttered almost in a whisper to Aric. “Melanie and Mira thought he looked very pure in intention and seemed desperate to find his,” he lowered his voice even more. “His girlfriend on Jupiter’s orbit, the same coordinates you gave me. But he didn’t have a shuttlecraft and the next public transit would be next week, I couldn’t just leave him there.”

  Aric squinted his eyes slightly. “But who the hell gave him the coordinates?”

  Kael only shrugs his shoulders.

  Then his attentions focused on the orange-black robot.

  “And what are you?”

  A small outlet-shaped thin rectangular box on the robot’s face where the mouth could have been begin flashing with lights. “Designation: Anomie 17. Function: Federal monitoring unit. Mission parameters: Observe all civilian spacecraft possessing armaments exceeding standard plasma-class ordinance. Compliance and data transmission protocols active. Acknowledgment required.”

  “Can you talk human?”

  “My identity is Anomie 17, a federal agent bot, I am assigned to monitor all civilian vessels with any weaponry beyond standard plasma gun.” The robot responded in a mechanical tone, the type of voice when your computer screen lit up as you entered the room and say good morning to you when it is night.

  “Now they want to interfere with our private business too?” Aric whispered back to Kael.

  “Well, I mean I worked in the government, gotta let them know what we are about to do.”

  “What?! You didn’t have to…alright, fine.” He turned back to the robot. “Anomie 17, you can come aboard, as long as you don’t actively interfere with our mission or stare at me when I am asleep, you can join us.”

  The robot said nothing but to walk into the corridor as if it knows where the bridge is.

  “You really didn’t have to bring that bot here,” Aric muttered, eyes flicking to Anomie 17. “But fine… let’s assign roles.” He scanned the faces around him. “Soren, you’re our pilot. Jax, engineer. Mr. Petrov, weapons. Ms. Brooks, communications. Kael, diplomat and major assistance. And Melanie Baker… watch and learn.”

  Before they could head back toward the bridge, Jax stepped into the corridor, blocking their path. He insisted on playing a recorded message—one left by his former professor, the man who had provided much of the funding and technical support during the ship’s construction.

  It wasn’t until the screen flickered to life that they realized the hangar bay wall itself was a viewport.

  Light washed across the metal as the image stabilized. An old man filled the display—long white beard, bald head, deep lines carved by time. He sat in an office chair that looked more like it belonged in a living room, positioned beside a rain-streaked window. The sound of rainfall outside was faint, felt nostalgic to pretty much everyone present, knowing it might be years before they hear it again.

  After a few seconds of pause, he began to speak.

  “My name is Professor Locke, and I played a small part in the construction of this magnificent vessel.”

  He looked directly into the camera—so directly it felt live, as though his gaze passed straight through the screen and into their souls, in a comforting way.

  “If you are watching this now, humanity holds its first true starship—one capable of exceeding the speed of light. I may not live to see the day when such ships become ordinary, when they are no longer miracles but infrastructure.” A faint smile tugged at his lips. “But I believe she will be a key to unlock the unknown. A blade to cut through the darkness of stagnation. A vessel, for each of you to prove your worth, to defy the world’s rigid measurement of one’s value.”

  Melanie leaned closer to Kael and whispered, “No wonder it looks like a key… or a sword, from above.”

  Locke continued.

  “Humanity has come a long way—from the primitive minds of antiquity, through the wars of the last few centuries, through the Third World War, and into this seemingly peaceful, post-scarcity, post-dictatorship present.” His voice slowed, heavier now. “We still have far to go. But I believe one day we can achieve a society where schools are no longer filters, where achievement does not place one human above another, where worth is not measured by possessions, and where power is no longer a tool for control or violence. Instead, all of our human values are used to discover the unknown, to learn about the wonderful world given to us and love one another as ourselves.”

  He rose from his chair and leaned closer to the camera, his face filling the screen.

  “Aric Cole—I do not know who you are. I do not believe in chosen-one theology.” A pause. “But I do believe the world always needs more thinkers.”

  He straightened, hands clasped behind his back.

  “And so, I entrust the Odyssera to you. To open an era of odyssey. Thank you all for watching.”

  The screen went dark as suddenly as it had come alive.

  The entire hanger bay stayed in silence for what felt like half-an-hour.

  Kael exhaled. “I like that professor.”

  They drifted back toward the bridge. Anomie 17 remained in the corner, completely still—if not for the soft hum of its optics, casting faint photons into the air, it might as well have been a powered off statue in the shape of a robot.

  “I’ll get the lady started,” Jax said, floating out through the corridor, his hands dancing over invisible panels as the ship’s systems hummed awake. Before he left he engaged a cheap stationary graviton damper as they could finally stand on their legs, though their weight felt a quarter of its weight on Earth.

  “Alright. Set course, for space,” Aric commanded. He touched the captain’s chair lightly, then, suddenly without hesitation, stepped away, standing at the centre of the bridge.

  “Is something wrong?” Soren asked, eyes flicking nervously toward Clarke.

  “No,” Aric said firmly, scanning every face. “You guys built all of this for me. You’ve given up parts of your life for this mission. I was elected captain by you, yes, but I shouldn’t sit here like I’m above you. At the core, I am equal to all of you.”

  Kael let out a quiet chuckle, the kind that comes from knowing a friend’s soul too well.

  “Captain,” Soren said with a wry grim, “we understand your intentions. There’s an old saying—as a monk, if eating meat is purely biological, not spiritual, you are free from guilt. But if your heart desires it, yet you pretend it didn’t… it is a sin to the soul.”

  Aric’s lips curved into a faint, fatherly smile, nodding at her. Soren’s grim softened into a small laugh before she returned her gaze to the viewport.

  Aric returned to the chair briefly, running his fingers across the fabric, brushing away dust that wasn’t even there. Then, he sat. His eyes swept across the bridge, taking in every station, every face.

  “Bridge to engineering: is primary ignition ready?” he asked firmly and loudly, voice steady, staring out the viewport at the perfect alignment of Jupiter’s rotation. The extended dock opening faced directly toward the Oort Cloud on map.

  “Yes, sir,” came Jax’s chirpy voice from engineering. “Prime ignition commencing in… 3, 2, 1, zero!”

  The ship’s circular hollow core—at first empty—began to stir. Thin threads of yellow light traced the inside of the ring-structure hull, weaving like golden veins to the centre. Slowly, the hue shifted to deep blue, and the threads thickened, converging into a bright sphere that floated, suspended in the very centre of the ship’s hollow core. This immense yellow-blue glow spilled outward, bathing the surrounding void in a brilliance that felt like a newborn star awakening in the darkness.

  Power surged through the Odyssera. Gravity engaged, tugging their feet to the deck in full weight. Interior lights flickered on, revealing the sleek lines of the bridge, and exterior floodlights illuminated the hull, highlighting the silver lettering: Odyssera. Aric’s chest swelled with quiet pride as his feet trembled in excitement.

  “External thrusters ready?” he asked, voice calm but commanding, slightly shaky in the end. Blue plasma flared along the lateral thrusters, ionizing the surrounding particles in streaks of electric light. The centre back—the hangar bay—begin to close off as the metal tiles rolled down from the top.

  “All thrusters green, sir,” Jax confirmed.

  “Then let’s leave the dock.”

  With a low hum that gradually became a roar, the Odyssera slid forward. The side thrusters glimmered, and the ship accelerated, cutting through the vacuum of space like hot knife through butter. The shipbank’s interior lights reflected off the ring structure, now fully alive with energy, as the sphere at its centre pulsed with latent power.

  In an instant the entire crew felt extreme nausea and pressure on their chest as if they could not breathe, as if their organs were being ripped away from their sockets. It came to the point that Melanie and Kael straight up vomited into a plastic bag they prepared, and Aric could barely open his eyes. However, though with his visions blinded, he could tell that Clarke and Soren felt relatively more comfortable. I guess formal training by the system does help.

  “Soren, how’s our speed?” He asked, rubbing his forehead while squeezing his eyes.

  “About 30,000 kilometres per second sir, 10% of light speed.” She reported as the inertia seems to begun to soothe out with every second.

  “Then we must accelerate even further to catch up.”

  The Odyssera shivered as the engines bled more energy into the void, the ionized thrusters along her sides painting the blackness with streaks of electric blue. The stars themselves seemed to stretch, warping into long silver lines as the ship pressed forward, leaving Jupiter’s amber storms far behind. Through the panoramic viewport, the distant ice giants and scattered moons blurred, dissolving into a shimmering tapestry of light, while the endless darkness ahead swallowed everything whole. Aric felt the hum of the ship under his fingertips, a living heartbeat propelling them toward the silent frontier of the Oort Cloud, where the universe waited in quiet menace and infinite possibility.