Flash Fiction Anthology

Journey of No Return

The membrane-like door vanished out of my way a split second after the ray of pure white light scanned my face, even as the cool silence of the corridor was replaced by the noise of a heated discussion.

Despite having asked me to come and join them, none of those present noticed my arrival. Moving deeper into the shadows by the door, I hid, bidding my time to reveal myself. I wanted to make up my mind about what was going on here, what was so urgent to make me attend this meeting, before they would try to explain it to me, all at once, creating confusion to sway me and persuade me to side with one group or the other, and decide.

I didn't ask to be selected as their leader, I disliked making the final decisions, dreaded the responsibility of trying to make them all happy... especially when she was involved. Zeya... The most beautiful and clever and frustrating female I had ever met. And loved. But she didn't know that, not yet, these were hardly the times do declare my love to her.

A smile I could not suppress played on my lips as I observed her in their midst, talking excitedly where she stood in front of a giant screen showing the space surrounding the station-- planets, asteroids, nebulas and galaxies swaying in a silent symphony, always moving, shifting, floating through nothingness.

A sigh escaped me as I recalled our home planet, now rendered uninhabitable after a series of natural disasters and diseases, and ultimately the nuclear war, which reduced the population into a couple of thousands of refugees exiled in the space. Refugees who had chosen me as their leader, a person who they trusted to save them, to make their lives better, to find a new world for them, or at least for the children of their children.

I sighed again when my eyes strolled around the small group gathered by the screen-- their smooth, grey, soft scale-covered skin gleaming like silver in the bright, pulsating light spilling from the display behind them, their large, black, almond eyes wide with surprise, their blue hair, collected in many thin braids in the latest fashion, oscillating around their heads with excitement--all of them now listening intently to Zeya as she explained something patiently, her voice tempting them to believe, to agree, to support her idea...

The next sigh pushing its way through my lips attracted their attention. The small circle encompassing Zeya broke into a tidal wave carrying her towards me.

She looked up at me-- I loved when her eyes reflected a fraction of the feelings I held for her-- and she, rendered momentarily mute by the too many thoughts and words struggling for dominance in her mind and throat, laced her long, gracious, grey fingers through mine and dragged me closer to the screen.

The others fell back, pooling along the round walls of the vast room and it was only me and her in front of the display, our bodies highlighted by a halo of white light as she pressed her free hand to the screen, enlarging the picture, zooming in on one galaxy after another until she found the single planet she was looking for.

I looked at her questioningly. We discovered new planets daily, it wasn't an event to be so thrilled about. They were all deserted, and those that looked possibly habitable too far to risk quitting the relative safety of the station to explore. This one, whatever it was, was even farther.

"What am I Iooking at?" I asked, as she simply stood at my side, leaning on her tiptoes to see the slightly unfocused image better, her body thrumming with delight.

"Earth," she said simply, her voice a reverential whisper.

The legendary planet from whose inhabitants we supposedly descended, an event that was said to have occurred, somehow, inexplicably, millions of years ago. The unreachable planet of dreamers, a place towards which the serious space researchers never looked. Apparently, studying Earth was what kept Zeya so busy over the last few months.

"Earth," I repeated carefully, still not sure why she was showing it to me. "Yeah, I like it all blue and green and white...?"

I trailed off, waiting for her to give me some clue of what she wanted me to say, to see, offer me a hint of what all this commotion was about.

"New home?" she prompted.

My mouth popped open as I stared into her eyes, so large and deep, two black holes devouring everything around us, devouring me...

"That's impossible. It's... what, eleven billion light years from here?"

"Twelve," she corrected me. "But our ancestors made it all the way here all those millions of years ago with the technology less developed than ours."

"The technology that we improved and then almost entirely destroyed again," I reminded her, turning back towards the screen.

"There are six billion people in that world..." she mused.

"Were. You do realise that the image we're seeing might not be true any longer? They might all be extinct now, and if they are not, then it might happen before we reach that planet, should we decide to do that."

"I've read so much about it in the archives... It's a wonderful place, its inhabitants have science and technology and..."

"... a penchant for destroying what they don't understand and consider dangerous? For them, we're not their descendants but aliens."

She shook her head, her mesmerising eye dreamy. "They have music and songs... There are nine millions bicycles in Beijing..." she intoned, making me smile.

"There were, once, maybe..."

"Let us go and see," a voice said from the background.

"We can't live in this station forever," another chimed in.

I looked from one grey, scaly face surrounding us to another, trying to overcome my surprise and think clearly. I wasn't going to decide this alone. "Let us vote, and those who want to leave will set out with us, towards Earth. Should we find a closer or more suitable planet along the way, we will settle there if you really want to quit this station."

We are high on a wire with the world in our sight... The lyrics of Zeya's ancient song settled in my mind, insidious like the idea of setting out on this journey, doing finally something instead waiting, hoping, and surviving.

I was dealing with a situation in which it would be easy to do the wrong thing... But what was the wrong thing here?
I needed time to think.

"Go. Gather everyone. They need to hear this and decide for themselves. Whoever wants to can join me and Zeya on our voyage to Earth."

A journey of no return.