All the astronauts gathered in the dining room of Space Command. We were all scared, despite the fact that we’d been training for this mission for the last two years.
Henry sat next to me, eyeing up the untouched food on my plate and asked, “Are you going to eat that?”
“Take it,” I said and shoved the plate toward him. My stomach was in knots. Even though this would be the last hot, cooked meal I would have for some time, maybe months, I couldn’t bring myself to have even one bite. I watched, trying to quell the nausea, as Henry happily shoveled mashed potatoes and gravy into his mouth.
Soon the captain’s voice came over the speaker, directing us to the embarkation port to board the ship. With our packs strapped to our backs, the ten of us boarded the Santa Maria for the first ever manned, deep space exploratory mission. Humankind was about to travel outside the bounds of the solar system.
After endless checks and counter checks, the Origami Drive spaceship Santa Maria, so named for the way the engines folded space, cleared the dock at Moon Station One and accelerated past the six planets beyond earth. After Neptune, we entered the minefield that was the Oort Cloud, home to lifeless planetoids, rocky asteroids, and icy comets. The Chief Navigator had plotted a course along the clearest path. Nevertheless, the ship vibrated as its outer hull was pelted with debris from the outer edges of our solar system.
Suddenly, as the ship pitched violently, klaxons sounded and the air depressurized. My last thought before everything exploded around me was that I wished I had enjoyed my last meal.