Going Home

The champagne fizzed and bubbled to the brim of the glass. Lorenzo twisted the stem back and forth between his fingers, staring at the pale yellow liquid before downing the entire contents in one gulp. He sat on the floor of the dining area feeling small. The space was meant to accommodate 50 people, tables and chairs were bolted to the floor in case the artificial gravity faltered. But that was probably the one thing that hadn’t gone wrong. Lorenzo was the last living crew member of the Freedom Expedition. 

He was wearing his navy crew coveralls with the Freedom Expedition eagle emblem embroidered on the left shoulder, and had been for the past week. He probably stank, but if there was no one around to smell him, did he really? He had fashioned a party hat using one of the pages from the commander’s personal journal. Lorenzo had ripped out September 21st, 2043 specifically as it marked the day everything started going to shit. He pushed himself up off the floor, leaving the empty bottle where he sat. The party hat sat askew on his mop of brown hair, and he straightened it before sauntering off to get another bottle of champagne. There were plenty of bottles available, enough for the 50 crew members and 100 people in cargo. They had been meant for celebrating the mission completion at their new home world. Lorenzo grabbed one at random and made his way to the cockpit. He had the main computer screen on a world clock showing all of the different time zones back on Earth. He plopped down in the commander’s chair and popped the cork. He watched the Pacific Time clock since he was from California and counted down.

“Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Happy New Year.” He didn’t bother with a glass this time as he slung the bottle back. A week ago he had dehydrated his last crew mate. Now that he thought about it, it was probably Christmas day, but Christmas didn’t matter. That was the whole point of this expedition. Everyone on board had been an atheist, seeking a new planet without religion. Even if no one on board was religious, it still felt wrong to eject corpses out into space. When the first handful of crew died from botulism from some home canned peaches one of the engineers just had to share, they were not prepared for the bodies. Eventually, they settled on jerryrigging a human sized dehydrator with spare parts for the water system meant to pull moisture from the air. Once the crew member was dried out, they peeled back the wall panels and stuffed their friend inside, essentially making the ship a giant catacomb.

But botulism wasn’t the last of the problems. One of the wealthier of the cargo had paid an exorbitant amount to bring his pet mice on the ship. They obviously didn’t love him as much as he loved them because they got loose and gnawed through the wiring that kept the life support system going for the 100 people frozen in cargo. It had been round the clock dehydrating after that, and some of them had started to smell before it was their turn. 

Next there was a murder on the ship. Brutal and bloody, Tim, the navigator, had been stabbed repeatedly in his bed. No one confessed, but no one really looked into it too much. It was no secret that Tim pissed everyone off. Damn, that man was annoying. 

Several crew members were killed in a space walk during an asteroid storm. One of the computer engineers choked on a piece of meat that didn’t rehydrate fully. Then the captain had a heart attack. The ship’s doctor said it was probably from the stress. Soon thereafter the doctor offed himself. The ship’s therapist said it was probably from the stress. 

After the asteroid storm, the ship had been sent off course from the predetermined planet. Since Tim had been justifiably murdered, there was no one on board that could get them back on track. The three biologists on board (Lorenzo included) sent a probe down to a planet they had observed close bye that looked like it might have liquid water. When the probe came back with its samples, the water was indeed liquid! Under a microscope the samples were observed, little bacteria swam around in the liquid gold. Life! But the glass plate holding the sample began to dissolve. The last thing Lorenzo observed before the sample splashed onto the lab table was one of the bacteria looking lifeforms multiplying at a rapid rate. It wasn’t long before flu-like symptoms infected the crew.

Lorenzo wasn’t feeling too good himself, but he seemed to be pulling through. Part of him wished he would just die from the bacteria like everyone else. The bottle slipped from his hands as the ship shook like it had just hit an intergalactic speed bump. Champagne soaked through his coveralls. 

“What the-” Lorenzo looked down at his now wet crotch. 

“Get out of my chair, Lorenzo,” an only too familiar voice sounded from behind him.

Lorenzo jumped out of the chair and whipped around to face the captain. “Commander Arnold, I. You. You’re dead!” Lorenzo quickly added up how much alcohol he had consumed. There was no way he’d drunk enough to be hallucinating. 

“I am dead, but I’d still appreciate it if you would stay out of my chair.” The captain walked in front of Lorenzo to claim his spot.

Lorenzo stood there with his mouth agape. “Look, I knew you would be in shock, but that’s really not a good look for you,” said Commander Arnold.

Lorenzo snapped his jaw shut. Maybe this was the final stage of the bacteria? None of the other crew had mentioned hallucinations before they passed away, but then again they had all been pretty much catatonic in their final hours. He pictured himself lying on the floor, staring into nothingness. But he felt real. He could sense his muscles, the heat in his cheeks from the champagne.

The commander cleared his throat and broke Lorenzo’s reverie. “It’s real, Lorenzo. Turns out we were wrong. There is something after death.”

Lorenzo opened his mouth as if to speak. Instead he turned and ran out of the room. His heart was racing as he entered the dining area again, and his blood ran cold at the sight before him. The dining area was full of deceased crew mates and even those from the cargo hold. Some were off in groups chatting and laughing, raising glasses of champagne to toast the new year. Others danced to music he couldn’t hear. He dug his fingers into the nearest wall panel and peeled back the plastic. Ashy skin and the smell of death greeted him. The corpses were still there.

“We all had a hard time coming to terms with it.” The commander’s voice sounded from behind Lorenzo. He let the wall go, covering up the deceased once again. “Yes, we were all so sure there was nothing after death. And yet here we are. The worst part is we’re trapped here on the ship. I never thought I’d have to spend an eternity with Tim. Damn him.” Lorenzo just looked on, still trying to come to terms with what he was seeing. The commander sighed.

“Let me explain this scientifically. You felt that shockwave awhile back?”

Tim nodded.

“Right, well that was a type of particle wave we’ve never known before on Earth. It’s reflecting off of the light in a way that allows you to see what you normally couldn’t see until you die. Spirits interact with this wavelength all of the time, but the living are unaware of it. The ship has entered the center of the universe. There’s an energy source here that radiates this wavelength. With me so far?”

Lorenzo nodded again. His mouth had once again opened.

“Right, okay. We don’t have much time before you leave the range of this wavelength and we lose communication. When you die you feel a pull. There’s a place in the universe where we are meant to go after death.”

“Heaven?”

“No, I wouldn’t call it that, but it feels like home. But all of us on board just know we need to get there. Problem is Earth is located pretty close to this home. Dying way out here in space the journey for our spirits would take far too long. Souls just don’t travel that fast. We’ve had the engineers on board calculating this. With the time it would take, we all just decided to stay on board the ship. It’s better to spend eternity with some company here than alone in the void of space trying to get home.”

“And that’s where I come in!” A lanky man with pale skin and thick rimmed glasses sauntered up behind the commander. The commander’s face instantly darkened.

“Ugh, hi Tim,” Lorenzo said. 

Tim continued, totally unaware that his mere presence pissed off everyone around him. “I’ve been able to calculate the coordinates of this “home”. He stuck up his index and middle fingers on both hands to make bunny ear quotations. Lorenzo rolled his eyes. “And now that you can see us I can coach you through setting the ship’s course.” Tim beamed at him showing off his obnoxiously large teeth.

Lorenzo was a logical guy, and he was pretty sure everything happening to him was real. If he died out here, he would spend eternity on this ship. Not only that, but the rest of the spirits on board would probably hate him for wasting their only chance to go home. Whatever that was. He nodded in agreement.

Lorenzo pressed the last keystroke as directed by Tim. The autopilot for the ship engaged. It would still take 2 years 7 months and 6 days to arrive, but that was nothing compared to forever. The commander came up from behind and nodded his approval. 

“Thank you, from all of us,” he said. Lorenzo just closed his eyes in acknowledgement. He was feeling ill. A fever had began, and he felt cold and clammy beneath his clothes. “Listen, we are approaching the edge of the wavelength concentration. Remember that you’re not truly alone.” The commander walked away and sat in his chair. The ship jerked violently, once again hitting a space speedbump. Lorenzo gripped the control panel to keep from falling. The commander’s chair was now empty. He walked into the dining hall and was greeted by absolute silence.

“Happy New Year, everyone.”