Last Trip

I spent quite a good amount of money renting an expensive six-star hotel room, but it didn’t really matter to me. I had a card that the space program back home gave me that has basically unlimited credit. I slept for a while and woke up to sirens blaring.

"Asteroid approaching bridge. Asteroid approaching bridge. Please get into emergency stations or escape pods located around the station. Asteroid approaching bridge…."the mechanical voice of the station droned on and on. I heard the whining of machinery as the station readied its powerful laser cannon. The cannon was the only defense against asteroids and such that was headed for the station.

I met Dercham at our ship with the rest of the crew and we immediately powered up our ship. Luckily the ship had already been refilled with food and fuel and Trey had already gone over it. We blasted out of the station, seeing a huge red laser beam slice through the gigantic asteroid approaching the station. Most of the asteroid missed the station, but small chunks of it ripped holes into parts of the Pluto Station. One particularly large piece blew up docking space B14, which was where our ship was. It almost seemed like God was trying to prevent us from finding and using up a new Earth. Since I knew that everything would be fixed up and running within the hour, it didn’t really matter to me.

"Hey Barker, doesn’t it seem coincidental that a pretty large piece of the asteroid landed in our docking bay?" I inquired.

"Edaw, you really should stop being so superstitious."

"Come on, it doesn’t seem coincidental to you at all? I mean our ship would have been destroyed and the search for a new Earth would have been delayed."

"I’m serious Edaw, you really should stop being so superstitious. It’s not exactly like I’m going to be scared that some stupid asteroid destroyed our docking bay. Docking bay B32 was totaled too, right?"

"Well, yeah…."

"So just be quiet and live with it Edaw, God isn’t trying to kill us".

"Ok… I’ll be quiet now.

It just seemed a little too weird for me. I have been known to be highly superstitious, but this just blew the roof off. Ok, ok, so I am paranoid. Can you blame me? I’ve been in space for over 10 years, so this could have been a side effect. I really don’t care just as long as I don’t die.

"HEY EDAW! GET YOUR BUTT UP HERE! WE’RE ABOUT To CRYO-FREEZE!" bellowed what seemed to be Dercham.

"OK, OK! I’M COMING SO STOP YELLING!" I yelled back.

"HURRY UP, I’LL GIVE YOU TO THE COUNT OF 10!"

"OH, SHUT YOUR MOUTH!"

"YOU SHUT UP!"

"YOU!"

"Why don’t both of you shut up, you’re going to yell yourself hoarse and it’s not helping my ears," complained John Barker.

"Ok, let’s stop now then," I said.

"Sure, just get in your tank, Edaw," Dercham said.

"Fine, I will."

"Fine".

If the Potentate of Earth could have seen us, then he would have sighed with exasperation. After all, he was going to be sending us out into space to find a new Earth, and we might even be meeting new life forms. Oh well, I really didn’t care. As long as I always won our arguments, I would be happy.

I stepped into my cryogenics tank and prepared for a very long sleep. After all, our telescopes one Earth though they had detected a new Earth with very primitive life forms on it and we were still 20 light-years away from there. I just hoped I wouldn’t wake up to sirens again….

As I expected I woke up to sirens.