Eclipse: Hope

My life is boring. I am 24 years old. I have reached nowhere in life. I feel like a complete loser. All day I have to do the same boring job, at the same boring desk, staring at the same boring screen. It’s a wonder that I haven’t shot myself yet. I had no friends. The one's that didn’t count as social interaction were the calls from an ex girl friend complaining about how her current boy friend is not as satisfying as I was.
It was as if the Nazi’s had taken over again. But unfortunately they are the good ones. They control the world . Everyone on the street was a suspect. The Elders suspected that someone was after them. Mankind has been divided into two. The one with the power and the one without. Poverty, hunger, greed… they were creeping everywhere.
I have had enough.
I wanted to do something. I wanted to do a lot of things. I wanted to tell my ex girl friend to get over me and to stop pretending to be a good person. It’s her fate. It can’t be changed. I wanted to tell the people at work that they all are a bunch of mindless idiots working like ants for no reason at all. One day they all are going to get fired, no matter how hard they work.
I wanted to tell the world that the Elders are a bunch of old goons deciding on how fast the Alliance is tumbling to doom. It’s not one of us that’s planning on attacking. It’s them. Years of depression has made them grow hungrier.
And I have always wanted to fly. I wanted to be free. Without any rules and regulations binding me. Without guilt burning me. I wanted to be free of my sins. I wanted to change the world.

*****

I never thought that I would be saying this. But for many of mankind left back on earth, me and my crew are gods. I know I am chasing a fairy tale. But I have billions of prayers to answer to. And if there is a god, I have my share of praying to do.
When I signed up, I thought it was for flying school. Within a year I was flying everything in the military arsenal. At that time a huge war was approaching. The Alliance was gearing up for an apocalypse. They were testing all new possible weapons. Any advantage over the Grid was helpful. The Elders were trying everything they could to stop the threat. They were scared.
Bombs, missiles, force field enabled nuclear war heads. Nothing stopped them. All of what was earlier called Asia and half of what was left of Europe had fallen to the hands of Grid. They are gaining on us. The word had leaked that the Alliance was attempting to formulate an Elixir of life. The Grid was after the Elixir. They called it Am-rut. It were the Elders who proposed the idea of cheating death.
They say that while the Elders were meditating, they saw a vision. A vision of a tree, hidden far away in an unknown planet. The Elders called that planet Paradise. They believe that answers to mankind’s survival are on that planet.
They are a bunch of fools. They don’t realize that the problem world is facing is over population. And the earth cannot sustain breeding immortals. Grid and Alliance. They were the two powers on earth. Battling each other for centuries. The normal life span of a human is 400 years. With advanced weapon technology, even causalities in the battle field have been reduced. Isn’t it bad already that we are fighting each other for 500 years?
But I had to carry out my orders.
I am Wing Commander Ted Johnson, Commander of the HOPE. The pride of Alliance Force.
My girl here is the toughest, meanest and the fastest ship that is ever to be built. And tonight it was gliding through space. On authority for the Alliance, the Elders have ordered me to find Paradise.
I could trust everyone in my crew. I handpicked them myself. They were the best in the force. They knew we were on a suicide mission. But they also knew that maybe they will be responsible for the survival of human race. Mutiny is the last thing that I wanted. Being in space for long can make your mind do crazy things. I couldn’t afford that.
I have this kid on the team. His name is Antonio Lucas. He is the weapons guy. He personally designed the defense systems for HOPE. Rachel Fox was the medic on board. She patched us up whenever we fell apart. I have scars on my body that speak of Rachel’s grandeur.
Apart from them I had Scot Freeman and Katy Peterson. Freeman was on the force for 5 years. He had started out a year later after I was pulled out from the academy and put into training for this mission. For Peterson I am guessing that her father wanted a boy. She is the best in strategy and tactics.
We have been on move for 12 years. The earlier radio transmissions that Freeman managed to capture suggested that war had broken down on earth. The Alliance was losing badly. And any day from then we were waiting to hear the worst. We were stuck between the two worlds. The one we left behind and can never hope of returning to and the one we seek in hopes of being welcomed. The Alliance had fallen.
We had started out on two ships. CHANCE was HOPE’s twin sister. They were specifically built to withstand the harshness of the outer space. The core fission engine could go on without refueling for 30 million light years. They were also equipped with the most advance shield systems and guns. Just in case the Grids decides to show up at our doorstep. HOPE was the fighter and CHANCE carried the genetic samples in case they find Paradise.
We had lost communication with CHANCE five years ago. We still had a chance of finding Paradise. But unfortunately we have had no communication from the earth either. Our last communication was a distress call from the Alliance Space Station. Seems like we are the last surviving unit of Alliance Force.

*****

I had a dream. There was this woman. She was beautiful. She was naked. I was naked. But somehow I didn’t feel ashamed. I didn’t feel the need to cover up. I felt free. She was my companion. We ran around happily in this garden. I only knew that we were not allowed to eat from one particular tree. An apple tree. I knew only to obey to his will. After all he created us.
There was a serpent. It could talk. More like hiss. It tried convincing her to eat from the forbidden tree. Before I could stop her she had already bitten the apple.
I woke up.
The Garden of Eden. God forbid Adam and Eve from eating from the tree of knowledge. When Adam and Eve had feasted the fruit, they were banished from the Paradise. The Garden had to be hidden from mankind forever. The tree of life had the solution to our problem. Paradise was our only hope. God hid the tree of life from mankind. He feared what we would have become if we had the power of life. After all we were created in the likeliness of God himself.
We were hoping to crawl back into the Garden of Eden, where it all began, to find atonement for our first sin and to ask god for a second chance. Man was wrong in attempting to be God. The only way to enter the Garden of Eden again is to wash away all our humanity’s sins. And to find salvation for our souls we had to be reborn and undo our wrong.
If you come across this message, I am Wing Commander Ted Johnson. This is a trail for you to follow. I have found Paradise. A new home awaits you.God bless you human. For we are HOPE.
Radio Silence.