"Poseiden, thirty seconds till launch," said a female voice.
"Understood, Luna Control," 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," John replied. Adjusting his harness for the last time, John grabbed his pen. When the engines ignited, anything unsecured inside the Posiden's cockpit was a potential disaster. He slotted the pen into one of his spacesuit's pockets 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," 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 Luna Control broke up as the Poseiden's engines ignited. John was forced into the back of his chair as the g-forces increased. Controlling his breathing and with help from his anti-g suit, he managed to ride out most of the acceleration until finally blacking out.
John regained consciousness a few minutes after the engines had shut down. Checking over the screens in front of him, he saw that the launch from the Lunar orbit had gone well. However, John noted a slight variance in the course plotted, so he spent the next few minutes adjusting the flight plan. If he didn't correct the fault, then there was a chance the ship would fly off into deep space.
Unfastening his harness, John pushed himself out of his chair and went to the back of the cockpit. While the Poseiden was a large spacecraft, most of the ship's size consisted of the life support systems, the fuel, the prototype reactor, and the experimental engines at the rear. Pausing at a nearby control panel, John flipped several switches and felt the ship shudder as its two large solar panels unfolded from their storage bays. Moments later, the readout above the control panel informed him that Poseidon was receiving additional power.
Pushing himself away from the control panel, John thought about the training required for the mission. He had sat through a week's worth of engine design lessons on Earth while training for the mission. However, John still had issues understanding how they worked. Like most modern-day spaceships, Poseidon runs on Helium-3, supplied by 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 solar system's outer reaches). 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 removed the cover from the mirror. There was an enjoyable rip as he pulled apart the velcro, holding it in place.
Looking at his reflection, John could see the light strip from above reflect off his bright blue eyes. At thirty, 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 celebrated his sixtieth birthday. An old girlfriend had compared his looks to two of her favourite twenty-first-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 the nearby cabinet, John opened it and pulled out his toothbrush and toothpaste. After brushing his teeth, he reapplied the cover to the mirror and then pushed himself back towards the front of the cockpit.
Arriving a bit faster than planned, John grabbed onto his seat and grunted as he stopped abruptly. Rubbing his arm, he leaned over to the primary monitor and used the touch screen to find his mission briefing. As the recording played out, John moved over to the stasis pod. Just like the engines, this was another piece of technology that he needed help understanding. 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, enter 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 the Scientists gave him was confusing and made him wish he hadn't bothered asking.
The part he would sleep in was two metres long, which gave him just enough room to fit, considering his height of six foot two, and the pod was cylindrical. At both ends were square boxes of machinery, emitting beeps 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 returned 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, the James Webb Space Telescope was launched over a hundred years ago. Within the first ten years of its use, it allowed Scientists and Astronomers to see the Universe in ever more detail." While listening, John removed his spacesuit, opened the nearby storage compartment and stored 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 twenty forty-six, the fall of China, the proxy wars of the twenty sixties and seventies, as well as the Second American Civil War in twenty ninety-five, prevented the United States, and in turn, NASA from launching any satellites to investigate."
Closing the storage compartment, John pulled open the drawer by his legs and removed the medical injector. With the small device floating just before him, John unzipped his undersuit and pulled both arms out. He reached where the stasis compound floated, grabbed it, and activated it once pressed against his left arm. He felt a slight prick as the needle pushed 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 tiny droplet of blood drifted away as he placed it back into the drawer. Before it could land anywhere, John reached over and caught the droplet of blood, smearing it on the leg of his undersuit.
"With the Unification of Earth in twenty-one fifteen, NASA resumed its study of what the James Webb Space Telescope had found. As you know, they launched a Satellite thirty years ago. Sadly, it went dark shortly after arriving at the unknown object's location, forty-five AU from the Sun, close to the edge of the Inner, main region of the Kuiper Belt. To this day, we still do not know what happened to the Satellite."
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, John folded it neatly and placed the undersuit into the compartment below the stasis pod. He looked at his naked body as he floated beside the stasis pod. 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 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 single man or woman 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. You are to enter the stasis pod shortly after you launch and set the computer to wake you before your scheduled burn and manoeuvre points. Enough stasis compound is onboard for both the outward and return journey."
John leaned over to the pilot's computer and accessed the flight plan. The monitor displayed Poseidon's route through the Solar System. John 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, grabbing John's attention, and for the first time, he looked at the monitor. "On behalf of the UN and the world, I wish you Godspeed and good luck." The recording ended and showed the symbol for the United Nations, a stylised 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. John activated the stasis sequence using the internal command panel and shut the door. Closing his eyes, he slowed his breathing and drifted into a dreamless sleep.
*****
A door chime sounded. Seconds later, the chime returned, and then a third chime. A large purple eye opened, and its vertical pupil adjusted to the purple gloom of its owner's room.
Someone knocked on a door, shortly followed by a second and third knock. A second and equally large purple eye opened. After the fourth knock, the eyes narrowed as their owner frowned.
"Captain?" said a muffled yet female voice, "Captain Ema, you need to get up," said the voice.
