Event Horizon

“Come, Davis, you wanted to know what makes this experience so special. Come look out the window,” Lee offered. Fighting his feelings of uneasy frustration, Davis moved towards the cockpit. They seemed to be floating just above the Earth. Davis looked down at the stunning colors that popped against the black vacuum of space. Slowly, a new light appeared just beyond the Earth, creating a halo of bright white. It offered a sharp contrast against all else around them. “This is going to be your last sunrise for a while, Major Davis.” Lee chuckled softly and didn’t seem to notice Davis slipping away.

As shockingly beautiful as the image was, it only deepened the anxiety inside of him. He couldn’t help but picture the tears in his wife’s eyes as he left her to start his two-week preparation process. Not just for missing him and wishing him safe travels, but she had had some sort of nightmare that set her on edge. Her doctors had warned him that this new medication could make her dreams more vivid and seem real, but something about her fear struck a chord in him. He felt now that perhaps her disorder was contagious and he had brought it on board with him.

There had been nothing wrong with the tests or connections. There was nothing detected in space that could potentially be a problem. Each time he sent out a comm buoy to the ground station, they came in clear, and all systems were a go. But realizing he was truly in space and there was no going back now, no more time to heed his wife’s warning, made him almost more uneasy than he could handle.

Davis saw to the ship's maintenance and logged their flight patterns over the next few weeks. Despite Lee’s attempts, Davis didn’t engage in much conversation. Davis found himself more than a little irritated that Lee would take everything so lightly. True, this mission was just a ‘precaution’ against the deterioration of Earth. But the instability of Earth was real, and if not now, soon they would need to know if there was something else out there. Somewhere else to call home. He spent most of his time checking and monitoring the warp-field generator - the first generation of our newly developed technology. Rationally, Davis knew he did not need to worry, but he still felt that if there was a problem, it would be with the new technology.

“Lighten up a bit, Davis. You act like we are on a suicide mission,” Lee announced between bites of his packaged food. He shoved a protein pill in his mouth and sucked it down with our bagged liquids. Davis chewed slowly, dreaming of his wife’s cooking. No amount of time or practice could get him fully adapted to space food.

“It’s not a suicide mission, but this is an important mission to discover potential help and resources. You seem to think this is some sort of pleasure curse to enjoy the aesthetic of space,” Davis mumbled.

“Nothing wrong with enjoying the ride or the view while we do our jobs. It does mean I’m not taking this seriously,” Lee answered. Davis looked at him sharply. “But the chances that we can’t fix Earth and really need to venture outside our atmosphere are slim to none, especially in our lifetime.”

“So we leave the problem for the next generation?” Davis questioned, sounding harsher than he intended. Lee frowned.

“We’re out here, aren’t we? We are searching. You’re doing a damn fine job with the logs. If we find something, obviously, we’ll investigate and report it. But I’m not going to be made to feel guilty about enjoying the experience along the way.”

Davis sighed. It had been altogether a quiet and interesting experience. He had always wanted ASA to send him to space and to float amongst the stars. Now he finally had the chance. He hadn’t meant to be so bitter and cold, but the fear sat like a cancer in his stomach.

“You’re right, I’m sorry. Nothing wrong with enjoying the experience.” Davis choked down the last of his food and tried to cover the taste with this bagged water.

“How about I take the logs for a while and you head back up to the cockpit? Let the stars clear your mind,” Lee offered. Davis nodded and headed out after clearing up his space.

Davis got himself buckled in and started reviewing their settings on the console. He tried to relax his mind and let go of the anxiety. He watched the flow of stars floating around him and the different colored cloud masses swirling as if in a dance. It was mesmerizing. He slowly closed his eyes and let the deafening silence consume him.

“Davis, Davis, wake up.” Davis woke with a jolt to see Lee standing over him with a concerned expression.

“What’s wrong?”

“Where did you take us?” Lee asked, unable to hide the edge in his voice.

“What are you talking about? I didn’t change the course.” Davis looked at the control panel and saw that the warp-field generator had shut down after registering higher than expected output. Emergency protocol had dropped the ship out of warp. A warning chime was going off, adding to Davis’s ever-growing anxiety. The stars and system around them looked unfamiliar. There were smaller moons somewhat off to their left and clusterings of stars to their right. Ahead of them looked darker than usual, as if all the stars were avoiding that particular area. Star patterns didn’t typically move like that, however, though this was an entirely new experience for them. Perhaps farther out into the nothing of space, stars moved differently. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what happened. I didn’t mean to fall asleep, but I swear I didn’t alter the course.”

“It’s okay. We just need to figure out where we are and get back on track. I can’t reach the ground station. So we have to do this on our own.” Pieces of what Davis’s wife had told him about her dream echoed in his mind. The fear and panic had returned with greater force.

Davis got up and got his computer to track where they had been and their movements in relation to the stars. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been asleep, but they had somehow traveled farther than they originally thought possible with the warp-field generator. Davis could only suspect that the generator worked better than anyone could have anticipated. Another alarm started to sound violently - the master alarm. The same piercing bell scream they had heard in training. Abruptly, Davis heard a guttural scream from the cockpit. He moved towards Lee as quickly as he could.

“What? What’s wrong?”

“We have to get out of here now. I don’t give a fuck what direction, we can figure out home later, we need to get away before it pulls us in!” Lee ordered in a strained full-captain-mode tone. His voice cracked several times as he continued to shout.

“What are you talking about?” Davis cried out, but he didn’t need Lee to answer. He looked up and noticed it wasn’t a lack of stars or an alteration in the star pattern. It was darker than that - more ominous. They were staring down an immature black hole.

Davis found his body locked and his mind frozen. All the training he had went out the window. All the preparation he had meant nothing in the face of true space and danger. All he could do was hear his wife’s warning. Lee fumbled frantically with the console, moving the ship slightly away, but they weren’t turning fast enough. Lee was screaming desperately at Davis to move and help him alter their course. Davis could barely register the sound of his comrade over the echoing warning of his wife. All he could think about was the process of spaghettification.