The Cargo Hold | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: The Cargo Hold | Previous Challenge Entry
By dub W
05/09/11
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We watched the earth clock for no other reason than it gave us a reason to sleep, wake, eat, and so on. I am told that the clock was set at U.S. Central time because the person who set it up was from Missouri or Kansas or the like. And, so we sat on a makeshift bench, and stared at the clock. The digital numbers clicked 8 a.m., which meant somewhere breakfast was being served. For me, breakfast was little more than a machine created protein bar and small bottle of nutritional liquid. Both were provided to keep all of us, crew included, alive and well while we journeyed through uncharted space. It was our one and only meal of the day, although we got an ounce of water at 4 p.m. This had been our routine for nearly a month but still all we seemed to encounter was more ‘space.’

Exactly one hundred and thirty seven days ago scientists discovered a hole in the atmosphere, which seemed to extend into space and beyond. Not exactly a wormhole, or a black hole, just an un-categorized opening in the space surrounding earth. And, it appeared to have no end.

There was nothing incoming from this space, and unmanned probes sent rocketing into the space simply disappeared only to reappear in the earth’s atmosphere as if they had made a u-turn. Everything outgoing became incoming.

The decision was made to send explorers into the hole to determine what our probes could not tell us. But my presence was pure accident – of fate, it you will. Technically, I was a highly paid light bulb changer. My job was to insure all of the little lights, LEDs, and other illuminated things worked properly.

While the ship’s flight crew was going through their many checklists my crew and I were on board going through all of the routine light and electrical checks. Somewhere along the line, we were NOT told to leave, so while we sat in the cargo hold waiting patiently for the door to open and be ushered out, the ship left the launch pad. We bounced around for a while, and then finally crawled onto a maintenance walkway, ergo bench. Thankfully the cargo hold was pressurized. There we held onto cables and netting until the ship settled into it’s journey.

Once the crew discovered we six “stow-a-ways”, there was little they could do. As I understood, the crew immediately started planning to abort the mission, but discovered they couldn’t. Apparently, the ship was not in their actual control. Indeed, nothing leaving the planet heading into the hole could be guided by anything designed by humankind. At least it seemed that way to me, but I’m just a light bulb changer sitting on a makeshift bench in the hold of a space ship as I write this.

Part two of this saga. Remember, everything fired into the hole over the first one hundred and six days always came back. The fact of the matter is that we have not. That is to say, we have not made the same curve back into earth’s atmosphere. We are, as I said, ‘outgoing.’ And, there seems to be nothing that can be done about it.

Finally, I offer a bit of philosophy. If you are reading this, it means that our ship, or some portion of it, was found, albeit without me, the writer and light bulb changer. However, you see, as a Christian, that’s okay.

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