The Stellarball by Jose Diaz

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His lips moved ever so slightly, as if he were saying a silent prayer.

"Sir..." Mr. Karon said.

"Yes, Mr. Karon?" Captain Gideon enquired, obviously annoyed.

"What course, Sir?" Mr. Karon replied.

"My apologies, Mr. Karon; towards the star," the captain said, looking at the giant star; the gravity of which they had already felt.

The entire bridge personnel turned to look at the captain, perhaps thinking that he had taken leave of his senses.

"But, Sir—"

"Mr. Karon, towards the star," the captain repeated.

Mr. Karon set the coordinates and the ship turned towards the star. The Ball immediately started gaining speed when the pull of the star increased as the ship released its tug against it.

"Switch all power to the forward engines," the captain ordered.

"Have you gone crazy?" Mr. Karon exclaimed. "Sir!" he hastily added.

"Marian, take Mr. Karon's command and switch all available power to the forward engines," the captain insisted.

"But Jousen, it will be just a matter of minutes before the outer hull starts melting," Marian replied.

Looking at Marian with murderous eyes, the captain got up from his seat and walked towards Mr. Karon. He stopped in front of the man.

"I apologize, Sir!" Mr. Karon quickly said.

"Execute the order, Mr. Karon," the captain said firmly.

Mr. Karon's eyes reflected the effort he was making to avoid the captain's insistent stare. His fingers glided over the symbol plate. "Done!" he announced after a few seconds.

Immediately The Ball started shaking as the old engines objected to the sudden burst of power. The noise inside the vessel became deafening as the nuclear engines whined like gigantic whistles as the ship struggled to reach boring speed without the aid of its solar engines.

The heat started rapidly becoming unbearable as they got closer to the giant star.

"What's going on up there?" the intercom broke in. "We're frying down here. Did someone turn the power off on the temperature control?"

"Captain..." Marian said softly.

"We need all available power for the forward engines," the captain replied.

"We're suffocating down here!" the intercom cut in.

"Marian, turn all communication off," the captain ordered.

All communication throughout the ship was turned off and only those systems that were absolutely necessary for the operation of the ship were left functioning.

Sweat poured out of the entire crew and the weaker among them began passing out over their computer terminals. The ship barreled down at a dizzying speed towards the surface of the flaming star and sure death by calcination was in the mind of those still conscious.

Suddenly the trembling of the ship intensified to an extreme degree and those who still stood, held on to whatever was available in order to stay upright, while those that had passed out rolled and tumbled all over the bridge's floor along with everything else that wasn't fastened down.

Still the ship's shuddering increased. And more crew members fell unconscious.

Until only Captain Gideon stood to be a witness to the success or failure of his daring plan to save the lives of everyone aboard his precious ship; everybody else tumbled about unconscious on the steel floor.

The captain's eyes began to close as his fingers slowly pressed symbols on a computer terminal. Then the captain's eyes closed completely just as the monitor flashed the words: BORING MODE ENGAGED.

Abruptly, unbelievably bright flashes of light started occurring successively one after another; then, even the indomitable captain toppled over and was unconscious.

The gigantic ball of steel hurtled through the uncharted space of universe 17Q. With an infinitesimally small chance of ever boring back to universe 1A, its now colossal crew searched for a home among the stars in the alien universe where they had found sanctuary.