The Astronaut To Exoplanet X

DISCLAIMER

This is a work of fiction. Unless otherwise indicated, all the names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents in this Story are either the product of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental and unintentional.

He was floating in space and crying.

That is what he has been doing for the past few months.

Floating in space and crying. Until he had no more tears.

Just regret in his mind and despair in his life till eternity.

Only there was no soul out there to hear him or help him or console him.

A few months ago:

The Astronaut, known only as Astronaut Alpha leaped up with excitement when he heard the long beep.

The long beep and the flickering red light indicated that the spaceship that he was in along with his second-in-command, Astronaut 'Beta’, had developed a technical snag.

Though he tried to control himself, Astronaut Alpha was both happy and excited. For the technical snag meant that he, the senior-most, had to go outside the spaceship and correct the problem. This was something that Astronaut Alpha had been training for so many months and had become an expert in solving any kind of technical and engineering problems.

It was just the opportunity that he was waiting for and though no one, either in the spaceship or back home in the control room, wanted it to happen, they had prepared for it thoroughly.

As per protocol, Astronaut Alpha now had to step outside the space station, do the space-walk, and fix the problem.

Astronaut Alpha put on his spacewalk gear, double-checked the instruments that he would need, and as per his habit, checked that the vital vial containing the antidote was in its proper place in the freezer, stable at the sub-zero temperatures. 

The sight of the critical vial itself was soothing to Astronaut Alpha who was on an extraordinary mission. A mission which no one in the history of mankind had ever attempted before.

It was the stuff that science fiction stories are made up of!

So fantastic and unbelievable was his mission, his voyage, that a few years ago it had been almost impossible to believe and even more impossible to achieve.

But the one injection and that advancement in molecular biology, genetics, and technology had ensured that today he was living the life that scientists and visionaries had only dreamed of!

He was off to EXOPLANET X!

One of the furthest planets from our home Earth and was on an adventure beyond compare! An exoplanet planet is a planet outside the Solar System and though scientists had so far discovered several exoplanets, very few could support human life.

Until Exoplanet X was found!

A tiny planet, floating just outside our solar system, was found to revolve around another equivalent sun and when it was discovered that it could support human life, the decision to colonize it was taken immediately.

Very little was known of EXOPLANET X, which is outside the edge of our solar system. Though scientists and researchers had tried their best to collect as much data and information that they could about EXOPLANET X, it still contained many mysteries which are waiting to be unveiled. When scientists decided to colonize EXOPLANET X with humans, they encountered various technical and engineering challenges which they had managed to solve, over the years.

Now the most important problem that remained was ‘Time’.

The time required to reach EXOPLANET X from Earth, using even the most sophisticated spacecraft would be at least 80 earth years and then 50 more years would be required to colonize EXOPLANET X. Which meant that the astronauts had to live for at least 120- 150 years to achieve this. Since human life had till then not extended beyond 100 years, this mission was humanly impossible.

Until the miracle injection arrived!

And it changed everything!

Man’s greed and thirst for more knowledge and adventure were one of the main reasons for executing this daring mission and of course, the miracle injection was the trigger that set off this mission on the path of probability.

The ‘longevity injection’ that it was nick-named, was certainly that, for it promised to increase man’s longevity!

Years and years of painstaking research had finally paved off and the medical fraternity was now ready with their miracle injection.

Scientists had managed to identify and extract the genes responsible for the longevity in tortoises and had created an injection from it. This would ensure that the human injected with it would live the longevity of a tortoise, which roughly was around 800 earth years! Now the astronauts to EXOPLANET X would get ample time to do their job.

The injection ensured that this mission to EXOPLANET X, which had been confined to mere theories and fantasies, took shape and in record time, the mission was set in action and completed.

When the miracle injection was developed, it was followed by the next moral, legal, social question which accompanies every breakthrough and path-breaking research: ‘Who would be the recipient of the injection?’

The list of probable people who would love to volunteer was endless….for the rich and the famous, the celebrities and the commoners, millions wanted that dose of longevity injected in them. But then who would decide who gets the injection and who does not? By what criteria? Which scale?

So it was unanimously decided that this important invention would be kept ‘top-secret’ and it would be used only for research purposes. And the obvious first choice and first recipients were the astronauts who were to be sent to planet EXOPLANET X. Needless to say, Astronaut Alpha and Beta were the first recipients of the miracle injection. But that was done discreetly. Without any fanfare or public announcements.

There was another catch in this!

After the astronauts reach the planet EXOPLANET X and colonize it, what do they do for the remaining years? What if they too live up to 800 years like the humble tortoise? What will they do to keep themselves preoccupied? What if they get bored and don't want to live on, once their mission is accomplished?

The scientists had thought of that too...

So they had prepared an antidote for their miracle injection and programmed it such that once one takes the antidote, he would die slowly, naturally, painlessly, within the next few months.

This antidote was a matter of great relief and confidence for the astronauts for no man had lived beyond 140 years in recorded human history and humans simply did not know what to do after they reach 140!

So Astronaut Alpha had taken the ‘longevity injection’ only after he was assured that the antidote to this ‘longevity injection’ had been created and the antidote vials were issued to them.

So the sight of the antidote vials, secure and safe, in the freezer in the space station, was something that assured Astronaut Alpha every time he looked at it. Checking it had become an obsession with him, something that Astronaut Beta, always ridiculed him about.

"I will keep an eye on the antidote vial while you are away" Astronaut Beta, laughed at him good-naturedly, as Astronaut Alpha, exited the space station and let himself out in the huge dark space, to correct the technical snag.

Astronaut Alpha had been working with full concentration on the problem at hand when it happened.

And before he could gather his wits, it was even over!

And he was left, floating alone in space, watching his space station and all that it contained…go up in flames!

Astronaut Alpha’s ordeal had started with the bang, a bang so big that he could hear it even though he was wearing a sound-proof helmet. Within seconds, before he could react, it was all over for him. The spaceship from where he had emerged just a few minutes ago, had been hit by a small asteroid or space debris, creating a huge fire in the process and destroying everything, the spaceship, his colleague, and only occupant of the spaceship, Astronaut Beta and with that the vial.

 

The antidote vial!

 

The only thing that had assured Astronaut Alpha that he could die after injecting it and not continue to live like the tortoise…up to 700 or 800 years…was gone!

Simply disappeared or burned away in flames, in space!

Astronaut Alpha did not know what to do, so numb was he with shock and with the impact and gravity of the accident.

He had now lost all contact with his control room on earth, who must have thought that he too had been killed or swept away by the asteroid attack.

With the antidote gone, gone where his hopes of a planned death and he grieved more for the loss of the antidote vial than for his colleague Astronaut Beta or the spaceship or the mission.

Astronaut Alpha panicked when he realized that with the loss of the antidote vial, he was destined to float, aimlessly, hopelessly…in the vast blackness of the space, far away from his home Earth….somewhere between Saturn and Jupiter…for almost an eternity…or at least 700- 800 earth years!

The suit that he had been stitched into, was programmed to absorb the solar energy and convert that into life energy, which would automatically get absorbed by his body, and he could sustain himself without food and water for years…or almost till eternity.

When he realized that he could neither tear off his spacesuit nor terminate his life and so now he had no choice but to just keep living and surviving and floating in space….forever...he had cried inconsolably.

Now and forever, Astronaut Alpha would be found floating alone in space and crying.

Until he had no more tears.

Just regret in his mind and despair in his life….till eternity…or till 800 earth years!

Only there would be not a soul out there to hear him or help him or console him.

And he would continue floating aimlessly and hopelessly, in the darkness of the space, engulfed in such loneliness and helplessness…that no human has ever known before!