“Whose idea was this again?” I asked as I felt my heart racing in my chest.

“Everyone’s.” Cindy answered to my left, stoic as she always was when the occasion asked for it. Which this most definitely qualified as an occasion that required one be stoic. I on the other hand, was failing miserably.

“Does this everyone also include me?” My jaw was trembling, adding a tremble to my voice. I really wished that this whole thing didn’t wreck me so. “I honestly don’t remember agreeing to this.”

“It was voted on. And a unanimous decision was reached.” Jacy to my right looked as unaffected as she always did. Did she ever really get scared? If I had some of her voodoo that made her extremely unaffected by the state of things when it mattered, my life would be easier. Way much easier than it was.

“You most definitely don’t understand the meaning of the words you are using. Everyone, unanimous. This words imply that all, with no exception, agreed. But I am here, I am an exception to those decisions.” I was sure I had gotten the definitions of the words off somehow, but I didn’t really care.

“Your opinions in these decision making meetings don’t matter.” Sylvia too was here. Why, I didn’t know. “Why do you think you never get invited to them?”

“They are inefficient, a waste of time and resources. Something you all should already know.” Talking was supposed to help with anxiety, or so I had heard. It was doing nothing for me though. Making things worse, maybe. “What decisions do you make on these meetings anyway?”

“Who will be giving a public speech.”

“Who will walk out of the ship first.”

“Who will be—”

“They are not decisions if the answer to all of them is me.” I complained. “You don’t invite me so that I don’t have the time to oppose you until it is very late for me to do anything about it.”

They didn’t even pretend like I was wrong. Andrew, Dominic, Matt and Park were off in the powder tables. They had left me to the experts, claiming they knew nothing of how to make me presentable. Look regal. For a bunch who knew nothing of making me look presentable, they sure as hell knew a lot on how to apply make-up on themselves.

“One of these days I’m going to say to hell with it, and do whatever I want no matter what those decision making meetings decide.” I declared, as they applied what I hoped were the finishing touches to my whole appearance. I had had to maintain the ungainly posture for what felt like hours.

“If I spend any more time like this, my spine will be forever deformed.” I tried flexing my spine a bit, only to be greeted by a slap to the side by Sylvia. She was getting a little bit too comfortable with me. “I plan to live for eternity. I cannot spend eternity with a deformed spine.”

“If there is technology to allow you to live for eternity, then, it stands to reason for there to be one that can fix your deformed spine.” Andrew said from the powder tables, the only one still unpowdered. They had tried to forcefully powder him too, but that had only led to a mess of the whole place.

“You never know what people will decide to focus on.” I reminded him.

“There are waiting.” Mũsango poked her head inside the room. Miming for us to hurry up.

“And we are ready.” Jacy said.

They might have been, but I wasn’t. I was so not ready to walk out there. Any thought of running away ran away from me with one look from Jacy. I was doing this, whether I was ready or not.

Andrew and his group made it out the prep room first. They had removed the make up as dutifully as they had applied it. They looked presentable, the kind of presentable that I preferred. That one that said, ‘Oi, look at me. I just got out of bed, brushed up myself and here I am.’ How they had achieved that with the kind of makeup they had had on escaped my comprehension. Sylvia wished us luck, and followed them out of the room. They would all join the others.

I turned to Jacy, she knew me best of the two people still in the room with me.

“If I faint today. I will…” That felt wrong, like I wouldn’t enjoy it. “You know what, I wish I faint before I even finish my opening. Then, maybe then, you will never have me do this again.”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Jacy just nodded at that and began walking out. I looked at Cindy expectantly but she shook her head.

“I’m walking behind you. Wouldn’t want you running off on us now, would we?”

“Where would I even run off to? This whole thing is locked up.” I said as I followed close to Jacy. Letting her get too far might start to make me feel like it’s a chore just trying to catch up with her.

“Exactly the point.” Jacy said. “If you disappeared, we wouldn’t know where to look.”

We made it inside the hangar, and I nearly came to stop. Cindy’s nudge keeping me on my pace to the podium. Every step on the stairs felt heavy and loud. Like I had extra weights on my legs. The top of the podium was carpeted, muffling any sounds our steps could make. But there was still the distinct thud each time one of my feet touched the ground. By the time I stopped and looked to the gathered people, Jacy was to my right with Cindy to my left, and the hangar was dead silent. No murmurs, no clearing of throats, no coughs. No sound at all.

I didn’t want to break the spell, but I had to. Otherwise, I might have collapsed there and then.

“Good evening… Oh shit, it’s morning, isn’t it?” A glance at Jacy confirmed so. The microphone had picked everything. Damn them high tech gadgets. The silence had been broken and I could hear them laughing. Not the condescending kind, one of humor. At least I told myself it was.

There were too many of them. Near twenty thousand. Nineteen thousand nine hundred twenty-four to be exact. The new expedition crew. Made up of the primary crew, and their family and friends, and a few paying passengers. They had been very insistent, and money was always welcome.

“Laugh at me all you want. But know this, unlike you, I’m already in space mode. And out there, the concept of day and night gets muddled up. And the only thing you are left with is when you are awake, and when you are not awake.”

I paused as I felt the crowd start to quiet down. I was glad I was having success so far. I had been expecting booing and throwing of things the moment I started speaking. Then I remembered. Right, they couldn’t do that. This, this was all mine. They do something I don’t like; I take it all away. It was a great motivator, and it worked both ways.

I reminded myself to be quick about it. Just because I paid them to listen to me, didn’t mean I should bore them to death. So, I began what little speech I had prepared.

“Why do you push so hard? Do things so fast? Scientific research is a slow and methodological thing. You have to take your time to get the best of results.

“I have heard different versions of that phrase as far back as I could remember. The simple answer to the first two questions is because I want to. The statements in the last part of the phrase, while true, didn’t sound appealing to me. So I decided to do things my way. There could only be two possible outcomes, I told myself. I either fail, or I succeed. If I fail, so what, I will just find another way to do it. If I succeed, then I will get what I want, when I want it.

“But there are always more reasons for doing something. It never really is just the single one. So, you ask, what are those other reasons. They are boring, I tell you, and would mean little to nothing to you. Except for one.

“How many species rose to dominance in Earth’s history? You all know some, if not all of them. Hundreds of millions of years ago. Their reigns lasting for hundreds of millions of years. Compared to that, our less than hundred thousand-year reign is nothing. And look where we are.

“Now, imagine if humans evolved during or before the dinosaurs. Where would we be now? With that in mind, imagine another life out there. Maybe as intelligent as we are, starting at that same time.

“In astronomical scales, Earth is a relatively young planet. That means, that life out there didn’t begin hundreds of millions of years ago. No, it began billions of years ago. Can you imagine where they are right now?

“They could be at our doorsteps, just about to knock on our door. We all know our history. Our neighbors first came with sweet honeyed words, but they were soon followed by others with sharp piercing tongues. We all start out peacefully, but peace cannot exist without violence. For how can you know what peace is, if you have never known violence. We need to open that door before they knock it, and meet them ready. Come peace or violence.

“What does that mean for us? It means, we need to get out there fast, if we want to have a chance at survival. The only reason we are even going is because I decided to ignore the slow and methodological way, and do things as fast as I possibly could. If I think I’ve reached the fastest I can go, I push further still. That is why we can now travel faster than light. Without me, humans would still be travelling at the speed of snails.

“Lots of people have told me that the things I want are impossible to get. But I know, there is no such thing as impossible. If nature created something, then we humans should be able to create it too. And push even further than nature ever could. After all, as far as we know, we are the smartest beings in the whole universe.

“If the universe condensed energy to create subatomic particles, we should be able to do that. Build atoms, molecules, we should be able to do that too. Get a bunch of molecules together to get compounds, that too. And we have already done most of these things.

“The universe brought together elements, molecules and compounds to create a rock; that too. Pieces of rock to get a planet? That too. If something exists, it didn’t come out of nothing. It came from something. All we have to do is figure out how that happened. Then do it. Like I said, nothing is impossible. Hard? Yes, but not impossible.

“If you don’t think you can survive the amount of work and dedication it takes to create a planet, a star, a blackhole even; then leave now.

“I’m going to work you to the bones. You will be so tired most of you might head up committing suicide just to get away from it all. But mark my words, death, will not get you away from me.

“But if you stick with me to the end of it all, we will finally answer the question: Are we good enough to reign supreme over the whole universe?

“This, I guarantee you!”

..+ THE END +..