Benny Cole is strapped into a chair in the executive area of the Zephirx ship. This part of the ship is almost as large as the engineering room and is dedicated to the comfort of our VIP guests.

  Benny invited his spiritual guru John Middleton and a younger woman who is either an assistant or paid companion for Benny. I'm not sure where the woman is, but John is sitting closer than I'd like behind me, playing a game on his tablet.

  I'm holding myself in the air right now as Captain Delcroix explains the entire situation. I'm back to the next part of this memory. What a treat. At least I'm me again.

  It's infuriating that as Captain Delcroix is describing potential dangers, Benny is nodding his head and scrolling through his tablet reading what I assume are emails. I can tell he's not paying enough attention because he keeps scowling or breaking into a short smile as he flips through his messages.

  It's funny, he's still dressed like an Eastern guru, but the fact that he's sitting with one leg crossed over the other in an actual spaceship reading business emails is something else.

  "I think this isn't necessarily a bad thing," Benny says as he looks up from his tablet. "If anything, this might benefit us. I'll get Sol to run me through the whole thing again later, but if Sol isn't concerned, I don't think we need to be."

  "There's no reason to worry," John yells from his seat. I don't acknowledge him, and neither does the captain.

  "Once you see the full report," Captain Delcroix says, "You'll realize though that once we exceed, 1.7 million km/h we're in some potential danger."

  "I understand, but we can turn off the engines." Benny swipes a few times on his tablet. "No one is going to die for the record, worse case I'll maybe run some corporate espionage on Breach's space program. For the record, though, that's a joke."

  John giggles from behind me and Captain Delcroix.

  "No really though, that was just a joke," Benny says as he actually attempts to make eye contact with us. "If there's some freak accident, I don't want it coming back to me."

  "I understand," Captain Delcroix says. "As part of our mission charter, I will need you and the guests to sign off on this. The crew took it to a vote and decided to go ahead as long you all gave the okay."

  "You had a vote?" Benny asks. "Unanimous?" He asks me directly.

  "Engineer voted no, Captain and I voted to continue under caution," I reply.

  Benny gives me a real long look. "Engineer voted no?" He releases his tablet and it floats where he left it before he rubs his chin. "What's the exact issue? You got my attention now."

  "Well Sol is still running diagnostics, but he recommended we run a full physical. Only problem is we'd have to wait until we're coasting to check the lines," Captain Delcroix says. “Or, kill the engines early.”

  "We're close to coasting time, right?" Benny asks.

  "Yes, but the closer we get to max speed, the riskier it gets," Captain Delcroix says. "Engineer Ramirez recommended we shut engines down now, do a full walkthrough and then restart."

  "But that would scrub the mission," Benny says.

  "We can't just scrub it," John yells from behind us. I turn to look at him for this one. John is dressed sharp and professional but is still playing around on his tablet.

  "Well could we maybe deduct the time-out? Would that work?" Benny asks. "Are we even allowed to do that?"

  "I don't think that'll work," John says as he looks around. "Sol, would the speed record still count?"

  The ship trills and Sol1 answers: "While the record could still be documented and claimed by Plastivity, there is a real credible chance that consumers would react negatively to this kind of fuzzy reporting. I predict that such an event would lead to a catastrophic public relations disaster. Depending on outside factors, I predict a 93% probability of memes being used that would tarnish the image towards Plastivity. These memes are predicted to last 3-6 months."

  "Benny," John calls out. "That's not good."

  "That's not good, Sol," Benny says.

  "It's worth noting that these risks are completely mitigated should the record be achieved or in the event of failure, acknowledged publicly in a humble fashion," Sol1 says. "I predict that consumer confidence would not be impacted by the mission's failure as long as there were no financial or human casualties."

  "Fuck," John says. "Does he not think financial casualties would happen?"

  "Sol," Benny asks as he rubs the bridge of his nose. "Can you predict the probability of engine failure if we keep going?"

  "I am unable to accurately determine this. I am tracking fuel usage and speed increases to identify records outside of the acceptable ranges. I will unfortunately require more data, which will take real time to gather as it happens," Sol1 says.

  "You were good with this?" Benny asks me directly.

  "I voted to continue," I reply. I don't feel like adding anything else.

  "You voted to go ahead," Benny says as he slowly nods.

  "What did I tell you, man?" John asks. "This part of the test."

  "Right," Benny says as his face lights up with some unforeseen understanding. “That’s interesting.”

  "Exactly," John says. "But he says yes, that's going to mean something right. I mean, it's all there. It wants this to work."

  "I'm sorry," Captain Delcroix asks before I can. "What are you talking about?"

  John smiles wide. "Can we even tell them?"

  Benny crosses his arms. "I'm not sure they'd get it. Have either of you thought about what's going to happen next? Like holistically, with the entire human race?"

  I'm not sure how to answer. I don't think Captain Delcroix does either. We exchange a couple of glances.

  "I'm not sure," Captain Delcroix finally says before trailing off.

  "It's okay, don't worry about it," Benny says with a grin. "But once we reach our destination, we'll chat all about it! Think about humanity and the capability for advancement.”

  "Right," Delcroix says. "Thank you, gentlemen." He waves me over and turns to leave.

  If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  I follow him as we make our way up through the roof access to the common room, before making our way back into the cockpit. We're quiet the entire way.

  We finally get into cockpit and settle into our chairs. We exchange one last glance before I finally break the silence.

  "That was weird, right?"

  "Yeah," Captain Delcroix says with a sigh. "Those two freak me out. Sol: question for my private records."

  Sol1 beeps and answers: "What would you like to ask, Captain?"

  "What were they talking about down there?" Captain Delcroix asks. "It was, well, I uh didn't understand the context."

  "I see," Sol1 replies. "Are you familiar with the writings of John Middleton? He's known for his works such as The God Machine, Electron Whispers, and Transhuman Migrations."

  "Oh, it's a kooky thing?" I ask. "Off the record question, of course, Sol."

  "John Middleton's Charge System is a highly complex, universally accessible concept that aims to unite mankind through their technological and philanthropical endeavours. I would be happy to expand on this topic, if you’d like," Sol1 says.

  "I see,” I say. "Are they tax exempt too?"

  "Sol," Captain Delcroix interrupts. "Don't answer that please." He looks at me says "I don't trust that people won't access the private logs. Not this crowd."

  "Good point," I say, but I can't really help thinking of more questions. "Sol, why was it so important that I voted yes? That seemed to change the room a bit, so to speak."

  "Based on crew selection, you were given a higher safety rating than both Engineer Ramirez and Captain Delcroix. It was predicted that should a situation arise; you would vote towards mission abandonment at a higher rate than your colleagues."

  "Should it be worse if the Engineer voted no, then?" Captain Delcroix asks. His attention has definitely been captured.

  "I am only able to infer based on my direct observations within this ship, but perhaps they felt it was a good omen that both pilots voted to continue."

  The cockpit console starts to beep. I remember this part. I hate this part.

  Engineer Ramirez tries to call us, while the console starts beeping faster. Sol1 trills through the speakers.

  "I am reporting a critical fault in Engines 2, 3, and pre-critical conditions in Engine 4."

  "What the hell, Sol," Captain Delcroix says as he floats off his chair and moves to put on his suit. "Why are we only hearing about this now?"

  I follow the captain's lead and jump up and fly to my own suit. I immediately open the back and step in. I lock my helmet in next and it lights up with my own little Sol onboard.

  "Hello Commander," miniSol says. "I am connecting to Sol1 now. Please let me know how I may be of assistance."

  I make a motion with my eyes to close the menus. "Open relays."

  "You can hear me?" Captain Delcroix says through our connection.

  "Got you," I reply. "Where do you want me?"

  Engineer Ramirez buzzes our station repeatedly.

  "Let me think," Captain Delcroix says as he looks out the window, then at the cockpit console. "We're going way too fast. I think we're leaking fuel, or engine's combusting. Sol, can you kill engines?" His own miniSol answers him, I can't hear it. "Shit. Can you head to engineering? Help Ramirez and set up the room's flight control system."

  Captain Delcroix finally patches Ramirez to the cockpit. Ramirez’s voice broadcasts into our helmets.

  "We've got critical! I repeat 3 engines critical here. We need to -" Ramirez says before he's cut off. The ship is beeping and our consoles are lighting up like fireworks.

  "I'm on my way," I say. "Sol open the way." The doors between the cockpit and the engineering door simultaneously open.

  I grab my seat and move behind it; I place both feet against the chair and kick off. I jump off hard and as a result I fly through the common room and crew quarters before finally whipping into engineering. I miss a roof handle and end up tumbling against the bulkhead at the back. It doesn't hurt but it takes a second to re-orient myself and straighten up.

  Engineer Ramirez is hooked to a wall as he's using a ratchet to open a panel on the wall. "I told Captain to cut engines. Why isn't he? I got no control here."

  "Cockpit can't shut it down either, we're doing manual," I reply.

  "That's what I'm doing. Ratchet's in the cabinet. Get that panel over there and start pulling wires if you have to," Ramirez says as he points to a cabinet.

  I grab the ratchet and float my way on the opposite side of Ramirez. I start loosening bolts on my panel.

  "What am I looking for?" I ask as I loosen a bolt that floats off.

  "There's going to be a green fuel additive line, don't break that," Ramirez replies. He's out of breath and stressing. "There's going to be a red line, that's the power line, and you'll see a few gauges. We shut power down to the red line, cut it if we have to but it'll shock us, then we can turn the fuel feed off. So don't cut green. Might be a white one, cut it if that doesn't work, I guess. If nothing else works, we cut green, separate the ship, and possibly die."

  "Roger that," I reply as I keep working.

  "I almost got my panel off, so I think we'll be good. My side is feeding 2 and 3," Ramirez says as he pulls the panel off.

  The Zx ship, Sol1 and my miniSol all beep at us. They all start yelling at the same time.

  "Hull breach detected in Engineering," the voices say as the engineering door closes.

  "Was that me?" Ramirez asks as he's pulled towards the removed panel. The ship's atmosphere pushes him into the open panel.

  I’m flying backwards towards Ramirez while I swing my arms around. I keep the ratchet in my hand, and by a miracle it hooks onto a ceiling handle. I grab it and look towards Ramirez; he's struggling to push away from the hole in our hull. I'm not sure how big it is. Worse so, there’s a hole on the back of his suit and globs of blood are bubbling out.

  "Ramirez, hold on," I say through our radio. "Atmosphere should shut off soon."

  "I got it, I'm stuck," Ramirez says with a pant. He’s talking like he can’t catch his breath. "Give me a second, going to," he cuts off. Captain Delcroix is yelling at me through my helmet but I can't pay attention to him right now.

  I watch as Ramirez (in spite of the rushing atmosphere), pulls a way a bit, but he suddenly gasps and a bright light appears in the open panel. I'm not sure, but I can only assume that he somehow broke the green line, then either broke the red line or sparked something. In either case, the contents of the green line ignited.

  A fire drastically grows around Ramirez and he screams.

  "Evac!" Captain Delcroix yells in my headset. "I'm separating the ship," he cuts off. "VIP area. Secondary piloting station."

  The fire grows around Ramirez like a circle. Fire behaves so much differently without gravity. It grows like a star, a perfect orb that consumes whatever it touches. My own suit beeps as it adjusts its internal temperature to compensate for the heat in front of me. I hear nothing but Ramirez wailing as he attempts in vain to pat the fires away.

  "Sol," I yell into my helmet. "Release the fire suppressant!"

  White smoke leaks from the vents and flows outside the hull breach. Most of it misses Ramirez and escapes the confines of the ship. I can actually see the hull breach now. It's a fairly large hole.

  "Crew member Ramirez is in critical condition," Sol1 or miniSol or someone tells me. There's nothing I can do. "Ship separation imminent. Make your way to the exit."

  "Sol vent all the atmosphere, everything," I order.

  The inner atmosphere blows from all directions around me. All the gases, oxygen and everything is vented out into space. Everything keeps beeping but eventually it's steady enough that I can move again. Even with a gigantic hole in front of me.

  I let go of my ratchet and swim my way to Ramirez. "Ramirez, you with me? Come on, answer me. Please."

  The fires that surrounded him have gone out. There's no more oxygen to feed the flames.

  "Sol," I ask as I approached Ramirez's charred corpse. I keep a hold of a nearby handle. I'm afraid of what will happen if I touch him. "Is Ramirez, what's his vitals?"

  "Commander, it is pertinent that you make your way to the VIP section. The ship will separate in 30 seconds."

  I take a look at Ramirez's body one last time and the odd stillness that's left in the room. There's a sizeable hole that someone could potentially fit through. It looks like the heat of the fire or engines melted something and it grew from there. It’s strangely peaceful now without the atmosphere, there’s no more wind pushing me and the hole is just there.

  "Copy that," I reply as I monkey-walk handle-by-handle to the engineering door. My helmet is nonstop beeping at me, but I refuse to listen to any of it.

  I reach the engineering door. I'm too depressed to ask for Sol to open it for me, so I turn the lever myself. I can’t help but forget a crucial step again, I’m just here for the ride.

  The door hisses as it unlatches. Sol lights up my display and yells at me: "Commander - there's -"

  The door slaps my entire body and throws me backwards. I fly directly against the rear of the room as items from the crew’s quarters rush in with the rest of the atmosphere. The air pulls and beckons me up and towards the breach in the wall.

  Ramirez's corpse is gone, lost to space. What have I done? I’ll never forgive myself for this.

  "Sol, turn off atmosphere on entire upper deck," I somehow manage to say. I struggle to move, my body hurts.

  "Acknowledged," Sol replies. "Commander, you are under the minimum amount of time needed to reach the bottom deck."

  "That's it?"

  "I'm very sorry, sir," Sol says. "If it's any consolation, you have truly performed in a valiant and heroic manner."

  Thanks, I guess. I steady myself against the back wall. I reach for my helmet and start to unlatch it. The first latch sets off an alarm.

  "Commander," Sol yells at me. "There is still a high probability of your survival after separation. I recommend sheltering or forming a ball with your body."

  I don't know what else to do, so I follow this terrible advice. I curl down in a ball and try to grab on to something. The entire ship suddenly jolts and I'm flung against a wall. Then another one. Another wall for good measure. I can't focus. I'm starting to lose consciousness. It's like little specks of black entering my vision, broken up by the occasional adrenaline rush that lights my eyes up before they creep their way back.

  The last thing I remember is falling out of the hole into the blackness of space. I'm dashing away from the upper-half of the Zx ship as it flies away without me. I can’t even see where the bottom deck is.

  I'm moving so fast and erratically that I'm going to be sick. My helmet beeps and my miniSol kicks in.

  "Administering anti-nausea agent."

  "No," I say as I feel the injection in my leg. My head is woozy. I think I might have a concussion.

  "This shouldn't cause any adverse reactions," Sol says in my helmet as I start to lose consciousness.

  "Commander?" Captain Delcroix's calls out to me through my helmet.

  The black specks occupying my vision multiply and expand. I pass out before I can answer him.