The Last Wish of Hermes

Prologue

Hermes was dying and he knew it. His engines were overheating and there was nothing anyone could do about it. He drifted through space. So this is how it would end. Leaving this world without Bianca. Without his navigator. So far from home.

He felt guilty about how he'd left her. It was the first time he'd lied to her. But it was only to save her. She deserved to live, even if it was without him. Even if she would need to find her way in life alone.

When the accident happened, he had told her to go to the repair shuttle to try to help him, even if he knew it wasn't possible. His hull had been too damaged. But she didn't know it then, so when he told her to leave for the shuttle, to help him from outside, she had gone. The chances of her surviving were almost zero. But still, there was a chance.

Had he been wrong in his next actions? There hadn't been any logic to them, but he just wanted to die with the hope that Bianca would be okay. When she'd reached the shuttle, he'd shot her as far away from him as he could. He hoped she would be safe now, that she would find her way.

Hermes. That was his name. Not a machine, not a simple spaceship with a computer's mind that had been programmed to have feelings and to care. No, he was a Dreamship. A living, feeling being. Silly, even for being a Dreamship, but it didn't matter. His name was chosen to connect to his past, to his ancestors, and to that first space shuttle that had left Earth's gravitational field such a long time ago. Together with Bianca, they had travelled through The Dream.

But no more... Where was she now? Was she on her way? He hoped so. One of his engines caught fire, and he knew it was time to leave. His last thoughts stayed with Bianca as he brought all the powers to his engines. And for the last time, he travelled to The Dream. The place where he was born.