The Voyage of the Onopod

Raspen folded the arms of the shirt inward before laying it on top of a pair of jeans, already packed in his duffle bag. They told him he wouldn’t need clothes where he was going, but the gray button-down Oxford and faded jeans were his favorites. And who knew what people would wear a century from now?

He brushed aside the thought that he might not fit in wherever he was going. Or whenever. He wasn’t going to a place but a time--2120 to be specific. He’d do anything to get away from Anna, even hibernate for a hundred years.

The glossy brochure for the stasis program lay on the bed next to his duffle bag. He picked it up and read aloud.

“Welcome to the Onopod program. The voyage of the Onopod will take you on a 100 year orbit around the Earth, and you’ll awaken to a new, improved world.” 

He threw the brochure into his bag and chuckled at his plan to rid himself forever of Anna.

Tall, lithe, and gorgeous, she swept into his life like a rainstorm after a long drought. He smiled again, thinking about when he first met her. He was 32 and had never married. Mavis, his best friend’s wife, had introduced them. One night at dinner at that corner diner they all loved, she showed him a blurry picture on her phone of a woman sitting on a ski lift, her hair covered by a pink knit hat, a snow covered forest reflected in the mirrored lenses of her sunglasses. His first serious girlfriend had dumped him, and he needed a distraction, so he had said yes, he’d love to meet her.

He fell in love with her on their first date and continued in a blissful dream until the day after they married, when she transformed from a sweet, friendly girl into a woman jealous of every smile, nod, or word he offered to any other female. Even spending time with his mom for the afternoon set off terrifying temper outbursts.

Only after she drained his bank account and nearly got him fired from his job did he consider divorcing her. When she saw the papers on his desk, she almost murdered him. But quick thinking and the promise of a new car saved him. He had to find another way out of their relationship.

At first, he considered faking his own death but decided it would be too messy, too complicated, and possibly involve murdering an innocent person. Then he thought about hiring a hitman, but wasn’t that a bit extreme?

He grinned at the exquisiteness of the plan he devised: He would go into stasis. Anna might suspect his sudden emergency business trip. But once the Onopod was in orbit, he’d have the administrator send her a message, telling her the truth. By then, he’d be sealed inside the ship for the next 100 years. 

He finished packing and slid his bag under the bed so he could make a quick escape tomorrow after Anna left for the day, most likely to spend more of his money on a shopping spree.

Anna arrived home early that day, slamming her car door and then the front door when she entered their apartment.

“Raspen,” she shouted. “I know you’re here.”

He crept out of the bedroom and into the hallway. She glared at him, and her mouth twitched. She slapped him on the face.

It stung. He touched his cheek. “What the h--!”

“You’re cheating on me.” She raised her hand to slap him again. “I have proof. You visited some woman’s office the other day.” She held up a fuzzy photo displayed on her phone screen of him standing in front of a nondescript office building next to a short woman with long brown hair--the Onopod’s office trip coordinator--showing him where to park his car on the morning of his voyage. 

Moaning, he stepped away from her, pressing his back into the cool wall of their apartment, and shook his head. Anna had followed him. Again.

“I know you’re sleeping with her.” Anna’s voice trembled. She wagged a finger in his face and jabbed at his nose with a long, red fingernail.

He forced a smile. 

“You’d better tell me the truth.” 

“Ah, well, I did go into her office. I had to, for work. We’re trying to open an account with her company. She flirted with me, but I told her I’m happily married.”

Anna’s eyes narrowed, and she lunged toward him.

He used his arms as a shield and slid to the right. “I thought about you, how beautiful you are. How much I love you. And how it’s time I buy you something special.”

Anna stepped back, her face relaxing, the red fading from her cheeks.

“You’d better buy me the most expensive diamond ring you can find.” 

“I already have one picked out. I'll give it to you after work tomorrow.”

The next morning after Anna left for the day, he rushed to the local jewelry store and bought the biggest diamond they sold. The clerk placed it in a green velvet box and wrapped the box in silver foil. 

On his way to the Onopod’s office, he came home to pick up his bag, which he had hidden under the bed. He walked into the kitchen and placed the box on the kitchen table, along with a note telling her he had to leave on an emergency business trip. He’d call her that night.

He drove to the Onopod’s office and parked in their secured underground parking site. From there, he’d take a shuttle to the launch site. He marveled at the technology required for this journey. How was it possible for a spaceship to stay in orbit for a century? It didn’t matter, really. He’d finally be free of Anna, and in a hundred years, he could start over as a single man.

Three passengers waited in the idling shuttle when he arrived. The woman who sold him his stasis pod told him there was only room for five passengers, including himself. One more passenger was flying in from the east coast, the driver announced when he pulled the van onto the interstate highway.

Almost an hour later, they approached the site. The steel shell of the Onopod rose in the distance. Its curved metal sides reflected the cloudless sky and shimmered like a mirage. He glanced at his fellow passengers. An older couple clasped hands in the seat across the aisle. They looked happily married, judging by their age and the way they snuggled, like ancient love birds. Maybe they hoped some advanced, future de-aging technique would give them more years together. The man in the back of the van wore an oxygen mask that whooshed every time he took a shaky breath. He probably hoped for a cure for whatever disease was killing him, poor guy.

The driver pulled next to a small white tent and stopped. The other passenger had been processed, he told the four in the van. They could go inside and he’d load their bags onto the ship. 

He entered the tent. Raspen waited on a metal bench with the others. First, the doctor called the couple and then the man with the oxygen tank. Finally, the doctor checked Raspen’s vitals, asked a few perfunctory questions about his health, slapped him on the back, and wished him a safe voyage.

The woman from the office greeted him at the ship’s ramp. His feet clanged on the metal grate as he followed her upward into the ship’s maw. The air around him grew cooler. He shivered and cursed. He’d forgotten his jacket, and where was his bag? It might get cold in stasis in this thin exam gown.

“Oh, you’ll be nice and warm and cozy,” the woman said. She smiled. “Everyone seems to be worried about this today. These pods are climate controlled.”

“Everyone?”

She shrugged. “The older couple asked, and so did the guy with the oxygen tank. And that obnoxious lady who said she’s from New York.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “I could swear she didn’t have a New York accent.”

“Who does these days?” Raspen asked. 

“And she looked familiar to me. I know I’ve seen her before.”

A chill crept down Raspen’s spine.

The woman put a hand on his shoulder. “We’ve tested this out on different mammals and even non-human primates.” She raised her eyebrows. “We’ll have someone on the crew checking vitals and for signs of pod failure.”

“But how does the crew stay alive? It’s a hundred years.”

“Oh, they take turns in stasis. Five years in, one year out, for a century.”

At the top of the ramp, the woman turned right down a white paneled passageway, white lights shining and blinding him. The woman took his arm and led him to a small, dimly lit room lined with six clear pods. Four of the pods were sealed with their occupants inside, the people who had traveled in Raspen’s van. The last two in the row were empty.

Raspen swallowed. They reminded him of coffins. Coffins made from clear glass. 

“What keeps the pods from breaking?”

“Oh, they’re not breakable.” She gestured to the pods. “They’re made with a new glass and plastic combining technology.” She winked. “It’s classified.”

“Why is that one empty?”

“You know that crazy lady I told you about?”

Raspen nodded.

“She refused to get on board until all the other passengers are in their pods.” The woman pointed to one of two empty pods at the end of the row. “I think she’s some kind of celebrity, the way she’s acting. She was a last-minute passenger and paid big bucks for this baby.” She patted the side of the pod. “And she insists on being in this one.” She shook her head and pointed to a number 5 emblazoned on the lid in silver. “And you’re in #6.”

“Who’s in the first pod? I didn’t see him on the van?”

“That’s the second crew member. His partner is flying for the first year. The pilot will be in constant radio contact with Earth. Then they’ll switch.” She looked at her watch. “We’d better get you settled. It’s almost time to lift off.”

She helped him into the pod, where he shifted until he lay in a comfortable position.

As she began closing the lid, he held out his hand.

She rolled her eyes. “Yes?”

“So, how does this work?”

“It’s in the brochure.” 

He shrugged. “Can you review it with me?”

“A few minutes after the lid closes, you’ll hear hissing. That’s the gas that makes you sleepy and happy.” She smiled. “Like laughing gas at the dentist’s office.”

He pressed his lips together to stop himself from screaming. He’d die here in this coffin-like contraption. He should have hired a hitman. Or faked his death. 

“Then you’ll hear some relaxing music just before a needle sticks you in your arm.” She touched the inside of his right arm with a fingernail and goosebumps erupted on his skin. “It hurts a little and injects a freezing agent, which is reversible and makes you sleep for 100 years. It’s continuously pumped into you until two days before you’re set to wake.”

“What happens to my blood?”

She waved an arm in the air. “Oh, that? It’s carried away by another tube and frozen and then slowly warmed and re-pumped into you a day before landing.”

“And there’s enough of that ‘freezing agent’ to last a century?” He looked around the room at the pods. “For all of us?”

She held up her right index finger and thumb about an inch apart. “It doesn’t take much, only a little. Too much, and the deep freeze will be permanent.” She snorted and began closing the lid. “Ready?”

He sat up, bumping his head on the lid.

“You’re messing up our timeline.”

“So, you’ll send my messages? To my boss, mom, and wife?”

The woman pulled a tablet out of her bag and tapped on it. Her forehead wrinkled.

“That’s weird.”

Raspen grabbed for the tablet, but the woman moved away. 

“Sorry, this is confidential.”

“But it’s about me.”

“I don’t want to lose my job.”

“You will if I climb outta here.”

“We got a call to cancel the message to your wife. But the other ones are still a-go.”

“Who cancelled that message?”

The woman shrugged. “Lemme see.” She studied the tablet for a moment, tapping on the screen with a stylus. “Ah, looks like it was your secretary.”

“Beverly?”

“Yeah.” She smiled and put the tablet back in her bag. 

Dazed, Raspen lay back into the cushioned pod. He hadn’t asked Beverly to call the Onopod’s office. He’d kept his plan a secret from everyone at work in case Anna spoke to any of his co-workers if she called his work phone.

The woman shut the lid before he recovered. He pushed on the lid. It was locked.

“It only opens from the outside,” she said, her voice muted by the clear metal. “But don’t worry, there’s an emergency button you can press to open the pod in case of a critical power failure.”

She turned and vanished from his sight.

Critical power failure? His heart rocked in his chest. Pools of sweat broke out on his face and under the thin gown he wore. What if he had to go to the bathroom? What if the power failed and the pods didn’t open, or the ship careened into an asteroid . . .

A shrill laugh reverberated through the pod’s thick siding. Raspen shifted his head to the left and saw a group of people escort a woman into the room and walk toward his pod. He strained to make out her features through the pod walls, which were now fogged by his panicked breaths. Something next to his left ear hissed, and a cool puff of air hit his face. 

The woman’s voice drifted through the glass-like material. He watched as she lay in pod #5, but a pall of fog obscured the pod’s walls. He wiped it away.

Anna stared at him, an insane grin on her face, her long blonde hair tucked under a pink knit hat. He had to get out of his pod. He pawed at the lid, pressed the small plastic emergency button, banged on the inside of the lid, but nothing happened. The hissing grew louder. She blew him a kiss.

His vision blurred. That couldn’t be Anna. This gas made him hallucinate, that was it. She’d seen the ring by now and taken a selfie of it to show all her friends. Maybe she had recovered from the startle and called his office to demand the details of his sudden business trip. By now, she would have uncovered his lie. Would she guess where he had gone?

In the distance, he heard the tinkle of instrumental music. Something stung his arm. He floated upward, buoyed by what felt like clouds. Why was Anna’s face hovering next to his? 

The Onopod blasted into space, its thrusters sending it into a one-hundred year orbit around Earth, but Raspen didn’t feel the shaking of the ship through the thick walls of his pod as it broke free of the planet’s gravitational field. All he felt was a little shaking, a minor tremor barely noticed by his hazy brain. When the Onopod landed, the world would be different. Everyone he knew now would be dead. Everyone except the one person he never wanted to see again.