Space Dementia

The metallic clucking sound of a door echoed through the chamber as the two astronauts enter the space shuttle aptly named “The Voyager”.

“Still can’t believe they won’t come with us.” One astronaut proclaimed as he removed his helmet.

“Welcome back, boys.” Said one of the crew members aboard the shuttle.

“Thanks” the young astronaut answered with a solemn voice as his comrade removed his helmet revealing a delighted smirk spread across his face.

“Always back to stand on solid floors!” the older man as he made his way across the brightly lit hallway, “We won’t be having any visitors tonight. They refuse to leave their planet.” He continued while itching his head.

“Yeah, they don’t want to leave their home, even though we’ve told them they’ll die in a few hours.” The younger astronaut reinforced the statement made by his comrade.

“Aye, Archer, cheer up, you’ve completed your first mission successfully and you’ll get to watch just how bloody mighty mother nature can be tonight!” the older man remarked.

“Cheer up? Are you kidding me, Stein? People will die down there! We should’ve saved them, man, not let them die.” The younger astronaut shouted with obvious irritating at his older comrade who seemed eerily aloof to the situation at hand.

The third man in the room interfered the conversation, “actually, your mission was to warn and offer them a place on the Voyager. That you’ve executed perfectly.”

“Thank you, Samuels,” Stein remarked as he continued his careless stroll down the hallway.

“Really? You too? Are these not people down there? Do they not deserve to live? We should’ve saved them… We…” Stein made a sharp tone and marched with a stern look in his eyes towards Archer, stopping him mid-sentence.

The older astronaut grabbed his younger comrade by the back of the head, stared him into the soul and quietly told him, “Listen here, kid, I’ve been doing this for two decades now. Some people just don’t want to be saved. They were trapped in their cultural crap.”

“But…” the younger man tried to interrupt.

“They thought we’re gods. Us; humans. These things, these creatures that levitate and have enough arm strength to snap us like a twig thought we were their superiors because we came in a shiny little plane they couldn’t figure out.”

“I can’t…” Archer tried to interrupt again.

“You can, and you will. Trust me, lad, enough trips and you’ll learn to accept them some things are better left untouched.” Stein finished speaking and let go of Archer’s head.

The younger man could only sigh as he had to accept the unpleasant fact that the life forms he had just encountered were about to be wiped out by an asteroid impact.

“Hey, Samuels, where’s Turk?” Stein inquired.

“He’s glued to the window. Staring at the asteroid like it’s his favorite brand of booze. Pretty sure you could trace his drool marks all over the glass.”

An elderly voice cackled through the walls of the shuttle; “Twenty minutes to impact, my broken gentleman, brace yourselves for now comes the realization of how insignificant we all are here!”

Both Samuels and Stein burst out laughing while Archer remained solemn.

“That mad old bastard!” Samuels chuckled before tapping on Archer’s shoulder, “cheer up, kid… Let us enjoy some space dementia. Trust me, it’s an experience you won’t forget.”

“I guess” the younger astronaut sighed with no other choice but to accept the invitation to observe planetary destruction.

The three astronauts made their way towards the command bridge of the shuttle immediately after.

“Three minutes to impact”, Turk mumbled into a microphone enchanted by the blinding brightness of the burning gigantic rocky sphere making its way through the gases of the planet below his shuttle.

“We’re here, Jon! Now stop making out with the glass and make some space for us too”, Stein said as he came to embrace his elderly comrade. The two embraced and Turk apologized for being so zoned out.

“It’s just so beautiful.”

“Sure is!”, Samuels retorted.

“I wonder what it’s like down there,” Archer questioned.

“Hah, imagine a star falling on you…” Turk answered.

“Wow” the young astronaut responded with genuine surprise in his tone.

“A few times hotter!” Turk finished his sentence.

“Holy…”

“Yeah, boy… that’s how bad it should be.” Samuels said, “Reminds me, are we even far enough to be safe, Jon?” he continued.

“Should be,” Turk responded.

Archer just stood there in complete shock, stunned by what the other men had told him. In his eyes, the massive space rock was moving eerily slowly towards its final destination, while in reality, it was descending at a great speed of few hundred thousand miles per hour.

“Seconds to midnight…” Stein whispered under his breath.

Archer looked around the room, his three older comrades seemed to be frozen in place. Their eyes, almost devoid of all emotion, were glued to the sight in front of them. A sense of dread crawled up Archer’s skin. He thought something was about to go wrong. Even though his crew was small, the three older men were usually lively and rowdy but at that moment they seemed almost not there.

“Uh…” he blurted out before a bright flash of light averted his attention to the window once more.

The massive space rock collided with the planet below them, producing a rapidly expanding crater made up of boiling soil in the form of magma. The asteroid had torn through the crust of the planet like a hot knife through butter. The impact was so forceful it sent pieces of the crust flying beyond the planet’s atmosphere and into outer space.

The scenery immediately enchanted the young astronaut.

The crater continued expanding to a continental-size in front of the eyes of the astronauts who were by this point almost entranced by the scenery before them.

Planetary debris flew out of the planet in all directions some rocks flying right in front of the shuttle’s windows but the crew remained unmoving.

“Are we safe, Turk?” Samuels questioned without ever being able to remove his eyes from the planetary destruction unfolding before him.

“Should be.”

“Good…” Stein responded without looking away.

The crater kept on expanding further and further while a massive cloud of fire started rising out of the impact spot in the shape of a fiery dome.

“Oh…” Archer muttered while his eyes became fixated on the devastation unfolding before him.

Vaporized rocks began flowing in all directions out of the crater and slowly made their way across the relatively unaffected soil of the planet turning into an ever-expanding blanket of hellfire.

The shuttle’s crew stood there, motionless, speechless for minutes that slowly turning into an hour, and then another.

Some debris thrown out into space began making its way back towards the planet by this point. One rock hit the shuttle sending a violent vibration throughout its protective shield.

“I thought you said we’re safe, Turk,” Archer remarked, his eyes still locked on the destructive display of nature below.

“We are, boy. These rocks ain’t got nothing on us.” The older man retorted in an uncharacteristic tone.

“Maybe we should head out,” Stein remarked.

“I agree…” Samuels seconded his comrade.

“Party poopers.” Turk scoffed, still unmoving and rather emotionless in his speech.

“Just a tad bit more…” Archer noted.

“I’m surprised, kid, you remember there are people there? They’re ‘bout to turn into fried shrimps.” Stein remarked. Even though his voice remained monotone and his body language was none existent, everyone realized he was teasing his younger comrade.

“Heh” Turk let out a dry chuckle.

Archer sat down on the floor, his eyes never leaving the ever-growing hell-storm gnawing away at the surface of the planet before saying, “Yeah… I know… It’s just so…”

“Terrifyingly cathartic…” Samuels noted as he sat down beside his younger comrade.

“Yeah…” Archer agreed, “It just reminded me of how everything is so much bigger than I am, and that feeling it’s scary… but at the same time, it reminded me of how none of this is really important. So, I guess, it’s less terrifying… I don’t really know…”

“Well yeah, once you realize a giant piece of petrified space junk could turn you into dust any moment, your problems seem small, whatever they may be,” Stein noted.

“I’m scared, man… but also alleviated at the same time… It’s all so confusing.” Archer responded dropping to his back, finally breaking his gaze away from the window.

“You’re having space dementia, boy, welcome to the club!” the words bubbled out of Turk’s mouth while he was visibly in a different place mentally.

“You definitely have that, old man!” Archer cackled as he noticed Turk’s absent gaze.

Another piece of debris hit the shuttle, this time shaking it slightly, jarring the four men out of their entranced state.

“Wow… it’s about time we head out of here.” Turk mumbled, as if he’s drunk, to the amusement of the other three men.

Archer glanced one last time at the window, thinking that it’s a strange universe he lives in, where a cloud of fire and death can be so beautiful it’s almost impossible to look away from it. He felt an arm on his shoulder, turning around he saw Stein smiling at him, with a proud paternal grin on his face.

Archer smiled back.

Another rock hit the shuttle, shaking it once more.

“Gotta go, boys, the meteor shower is about to be a wild one!” the already distant Samuels called out.

“You did good kid!” Stein proclaimed.

“Thanks…” Archer responded as the older astronaut began making his way to his position, following him, the younger astronaut quirked as they walked, “Hey, how long do you think they have down there?”

Stein turned around, with an almost wicked smile on his face, “A few hours, maybe a day. I kinda envy them, you know…”

The response caught Archer off by surprise, prompting him to stop in his tracks and ponder what is going on inside his comrade’s head.

“They will go down quickly, probably without even noticing. They’ll just internally evaporate and potentially mummify before the vapor even reaches them. Better than getting old and having your joints ache because a breeze blew five feet away.” Stein elaborated.

“Oh… for a moment there I thought… I thought something was wrong with you” Archer eased up.

The older astronaut chuckled at the remarked before responding, “I am space demented after all, boy!”

Archer darted past the older astronaut teasing him, “That you are, old man!”

“This old man can still whoop your ass if he wanted to, kid!” Stein barked with an amused tone in his voice as he picked up his pacing speed.

A stabbing pain ran across the left part of Stein’s torso accompanied by dizziness. The sensation prompted him to slow down while the room and mutter under his breath, “I wonder just how much longer I’ve left. Just when I started liking those bastards… Would be lovely if I could stick around for a few more years…”