“To the Sun”

Author’s Note: This is a Take Ten to Write story and has not been proofread for errors. If I feel inspired or if there’s interest in the story, I’ll post a revised, edited, and extended version at a later date. Happy reading!

Prompt: “Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.” — Samuel Smiles

The sun is so close, yet so far at the same time. Maybe it just feels that way because we we’ve been travelling for fifteen years already to try to reach the sun.

I wish, for once, that our stupid ship would fly into an asteroid or something and that would be it. Smack. Dead.

But no, the glorious Federation gave us the newest tech to ensure that we made it all the way to the sun. Why they would give a bunch of criminals the most expensive ship in the galaxy I’ll never know, but I can say that they really wanted to get rid of us.

I guess I don’t really blame them. The best option, really, for an overpopulated planet is to stick all your problem people on one ship and catapult them toward the sun. Which they did. So I guess I agree with their methods, in a weird twisted way.

Alright, I won’t lie either; being in this little metal can for fifteen years with a bunch of people more messed up than you is a bit therapeutic. Every day, I realize something new about myself.

Take yesterday, for example. I learned that maybe I’m not such a bad person after all. So there was this big fight in the cafeteria and some part of my brain just took over and I stood up and helped one of the little guys escape. Of course, now, the guy responds to my every command as payment for me saving his life, but the strange this is, I didn’t do it to gain his servitude. I did it because I felt like I had a duty to protect the ones who can’t protect themselves.

Being on this ship for so long is definitely doing things to my head. Still, I kind of like where the new me is going. I’d go so far as to say that I’m maybe starting to feel hopeful that things will get better. Maybe I’ll be able to contact someone back home and show them that I’m a different person and that I’m ready to reintegrate into society.

Or maybe we’ll collide with the sun first. Who knows.

Final Comments: I don’t really have anything to say about this one…

Overall Rating: 🙂