"Poseiden, thirty seconds till launch, over," said a female voice.
"Understood Launch Control, over," a male voice replied.
"John, don't forget to send any messages before you go into stasis, otherwise it'll be several years before you can send them," an older male voice came through John's headset.
"Message received Mark, over" John replied. Adjusting his harness for the last time, John reached over and grabbed the pen he had been using. Anything floating around inside the Posiden's cockpit when the experimental engines ignited was a potential disaster. He slotted the pen into one of the pockets of his spacesuit and checked the clock. Fifteen seconds to go.
"Any last words of wisdom Mark?" he asked.
"The only thing I can think of is good luck and godspeed John, over" came the reply. John smiled and rested his head against the back of his seat.
"10, 9, 8..." said the female voice.
"I'll see you in twenty years, Poseidon signing off," John said.
"5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Engines igni..." the transmission from Launch Control broke up as the Poseiden's engines ignited. John was pushed into the back of his chair as the g-forces increased. Controlling his breathing and with help from what he was wearing, he managed to ride out most of the acceleration until he finally blacked out.
John regained consciousness a few minutes after the engines had shut down. Checking over the screens in front of him he could see that the launch from Lunar orbit had gone well. He noted, however, that there was a slight variance to the course he had plotted and so John spent the next few minutes making the necessary adjustments to the flight plan. If it wasn't corrected then there was a chance the ship would fly off into deep space.
Unfastening his harness, John pushed himself out of his chair and made his way to the back of the cockpit. While the Poseiden was a large spacecraft, most of the ship's size was taken up by the life support systems, the fuel, and lastly the experimental engines at the rear. He had sat through a week's worth of engine design lessons back on Earth, while he was training for the mission. However, he still had issues understanding how they worked. Like most modern-day spaceships, the Poseidon runs on Helium-3, supplied from the primary mine on The Moon. Unlike modern-day spaceships, however, Poseidon's engines were experimental and designed for deep space travel (or at the very least the outer reaches of the solar system). He unconsciously rolled his eyes, remembering the frustration on the faces of the UN's top Scientists as he arrived at the back of the cockpit. John grabbed one of the nearby handrails and then removed the cover from the mirror. There was an enjoyable rip as the two halves of the velcro pads were pulled apart.
Looking at his reflection, John could see the light strip from above reflect off his bright blue eyes. At thirty years old, he was still surprised people thought he was either a teenager or in his early twenties. Much like his parents, John seemed to age slowly. His Dad still looked thirty when he had celebrated his sixtieth birthday. An old girlfriend had compared his looks to two of her favourite 21st Century film stars. One had played Superman and the other had made several Mission Impossible films. He ran his fingers over his brown hair, cut extra short, just how he liked it. Reaching over to the nearby cabinet, John opened it and pulled out his toothbrush and toothpaste. After he had finished brushing his teeth, he reapplied the cover to the mirror and then pushed himself back towards the front of the cockpit.
Arriving at the front a little bit faster than he had planned, John grabbed onto his seat as he abruptly stopped himself. With a grunt, he leaned over to the main monitor and used the touch screen to find his mission briefing. As the recording played out, he moved over to where the stasis pod had been installed. This was another piece of technology that John did not understand. Again, the scientists at the UN had tried to explain the experimental nature of it, how the tests with the prototype had shown that a human body could, for extended periods, be put into a form of metabolic stasis. Remembering some old science fiction films he had watched, John had asked whether or not a human would age rapidly after several years or more of stasis. The answer he had been given was confusing and made him wish he hadn't bothered asking. The part he would sleep in was two metres in length, which gave him just enough room to fit, being 6ft2, and was cylindrical. At both ends were square boxes of machinery, various beeps were emitted as John powered it up. The lights inside the cockpit dimmed slightly as the stasis pod drew power from Poseidon's reactor. After a few minutes, they went back to their normal levels and John glanced at the readout from the reactor, seeing that the power levels were all green.
"Finally, we come to your mission," said the man in the video. "Captain, as you know, more than a hundred years ago, the James Webb Space Telescope was launched. Within the first ten years of its use, it allowed Scientists and Astronomers to see the Universe in ever more detail." While listening, John began to remove his spacesuit, opening the nearby storage compartment and storing it safely. "Twenty years after it launched, during a routine test, NASA found something at the edge of the Solar System. Even to this day, we do not know what the object is. However, the trade war which occurred after the collapse of the EU in 2046, the fall of China, the proxy wars of the 2060s and 70s, as well as the Second American Civil War in 2095, prevented the United States, and in turn NASA, from launching any satellites to investigate."
Closing the storage compartment, John pulled open the draw by his legs and then took out the medical injector stored inside. With the injector floating just in front of him, John unzipped his undersuit and pulled both arms out. He reached over to where the stasis compound was floating, grabbed it and then activated the injector once it was pressed against his left arm. He felt a small prick as the needle pushed itself in and John watched as the compound left the device. Once the vial was empty, John released the button and removed the injector from his arm. A small droplet of blood drifted away as he placed the injector back into the draw. Before it could land anywhere, John reached over and caught the blood, smearing it on the leg of his undersuit.
"With the Unification of Earth in 2115, interest was renewed in what the James Webb Space Telescope had found. As you know, a Satellite was launched thirty years ago, sadly it went dark shortly after arriving near to the unknown object, located 45 AU from the Sun, close to the edge of the Inner, main region of the Kuiper Belt. We don't know what went wrong, it could be battery failure or a hundred other things." Bending forwards, John pulled down his undersuit and attempted to kick it off his feet. After a slight struggle, he finally managed to remove it. Grabbing one of the arms before it floated away, he folded it neatly and placed it into the compartment below the stasis pod. As he floated next to the stasis pod, he looked at his naked body. John could see the light reflect off his toned muscles, the shadows formed on his flat stomach, with just a hint of a six-pack. While he had never tried to be a muscly guy, he was proud that he had managed to keep his weight in check and that he could see his muscles.
"The Poseidon was built with the sole purpose of getting an astronaut safely to the unknown object. As you are aware, a lot of the equipment onboard is experimental, and while all tests, theoretical and practical, have shown that the ship should get you there safely, it is still a high-risk mission. That is why the recruitment program was specifically designed to find a man or woman, who was single with no dependents and had the mental fortitude to set out on their own, towards the unknown object." John rolled his eyes as the man on the screen continued to speak, who wrote this stuff? he asked himself.
"With Poseidon's engines, it should take you roughly ten years to get there. You have enough supplies for a two-year mission once you arrive, and then you are to make your way back home. You are to enter the stasis pod shortly after you launch and set the computer to wake you shortly before each of your scheduled burn and manoeuvre points. There is enough stasis compound onboard for both the outward and return journey." John leaned over to the pilot computer and accessed the flight plan, displayed in front of him was the solar system and the route the ship would be taking. He could see where he would need to wake to perform the scheduled burns and manoeuvres. Mainly slingshots around some of the planets and the Sun.
"Captain John Lawrence," said the man on the screen, it caught John's attention and for the first time, he looked at the monitor. "On behalf of the UN and the entire world, I wish you godspeed and good luck." The recording ended and showed the symbol for the United Nations, a stylized picture of the solar system with Earth at its centre. Switching off the monitor, John pushed himself away and headed back towards the stasis pod. He punched in the code to release the door and pulled himself in. Using the internal command panel, John activated the stasis sequence and pulled the door shut. Closing his eyes he slowed his breathing and drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
*****
"Captain?" a female voice called out. A few seconds went by, "Captain?" came the voice again, along with a knock on the door. After a short while there was another knock at the door, "Captain Ema, you need to get up," said the female voice. With a grunt of frustration, Ema let go of the pillow she had been holding against her chest and rolled out of her nest. Pushing herself off the floor she stood on her unsteady digitigrade legs, her tail trailing behind her as she stumbled over to the door, fumbling with the door controls. After a few seconds, the doors to the Captain's Quarters slid open. With a hiss, she shielded her eyes as the light from behind the door pierced the gloom of her room. Standing in front of her and a foot shorter was her 'aide'.
"You're naked," her aide said to her while looking up. The light from the grey corridor beyond the door was shining off the smooth and shiny, cream coloured scales of her head and hood. Ema looked down into her aide's eyes, hidden slightly by the shadow created from her hood and the different light levels. What little light emanated from inside her quarters reflected off her red eyes.
"As ever, your powers of observation are impressive," the Captain replied sarcastically. She turned around and walked back towards the recess on the floor where her nest was. Her tail coiled itself around the pillow she had discarded and passed it to one of her waiting hands. Holding it against her chest again, Ema half sat on a nearby couch.
