Challenges: SciFi Short Stories

The Final Frontier

Somewhere, far away, overlooking the edge of the universe, sails a snail shaped spaceship. Its crew exits nonchalantly sleeping-pods, frost fumes emanate from cryogenized pale skin, gloomy eyes fade under miosis while the tinnitus get eclipsed by the thundering rumbling of the engine.

Standing in the middle of the deck, dressed in humble justeaucorps, the crew scrutinizes silently the monitors.

"Let your senses be amazed !", exclaims one of them on deck's apex, "Pure darkness ahead, no twingly nor shining stars, no gods nor titans, no movements, absolutely no records coming from the probes. I think we finally reached it, the final frontier! Where nothingness reigns supreme!"

Everyone takes its respective places, booting up all systems, the spaceship illuminates joyously, claps, laughs and steps resonate, at last pulled from its twilight slumber, the dawn of new discoveries, the end of their journey.

After a few minutes, an unexpected communication channel opens.

"Hello darkness, this is a test communication, do you receive ?"

The source is unidentifiable, but the voice is. It belongs to one of them, one who is, even now, sleeping. The crew tries to establish a conversation, but the message is always one-sided. In the spur of the moment, they run analysis but ends up with no anomaly, neither on brain activity of the mate, nor in the voice itself.

Progressively, the communication channel get stormed by a continuous flow of voices .

"hello" ... "everything looks fine" ... "engines online" ..."nothing ahead" ... "this is a test"

Each from one crewmate.

"it's me!" ... "you can't" ... "do you hear me" ... "you are aspleep" ... "i'm here"

The tone goes from firm to shaken, we can hear the anguish hanging at their throat.

"stop" ... "go back" ... "love you" ... "this is impossible" ... "be amazed" ... "pure"

Until the last message, "Hurry up! The darkness is moving" that cuts abruptly the channel and lets place to an ominous silence.

Someone shouts in fear, falls on his knees, his trembling fingers point the hallway to the engine. The tiny lights on the walls are swallowed like breadcrumbs, as nothingness advances. The vitals of the mates in the engine room are healthy but none of them answer the desperate pleas.

The spaceship is slowly devoured as its crew, in shambles, sticks on the walls like snails trying to escape the flood.

Seconds feels like eternity, endless rain falls on their bodies, from toes to heads nerves are gently plucked as their physical existence disappears. Last beacon of their life, only their dreams shine as they journey again, and again, into the darkness, hoping to reach new shores.

~

But still, for eons the spaceship is sailing the sea of stars.

But still, the crew is sleeping, trapped in a never ending cycle of decryogenization, haunted by echoes of past memories.

All shackled together by a minor bug, immortals cicadas seeking a new dawn in vain, they wander at the edge of the universe... and who knows... maybe they will reach it... the final frontier.