Chapter 3

Luis strolled serenely down the gunmetal walkway, eyes downward as he reached into his mind. His coat swished through the cold and stale air as he pulled his collar closer to his neck. The temperature was perceptibly dropping. At least he wasn’t being subjected to -273 degree temps out in space. However, he might have enjoyed the seclusion of an oil black abyss. He wouldn’t have to deal with the problems of everyday life. No people to interact with, no more deadlines for research, no parameters. But he knew he would miss Angie.

“Angie…” he whispered.

What was he going to do? He needed Angie for this project and they both knew it. In a way he felt betrayed. Angie had always been there; through thick and thin. Why was she so concerned? By the way she acted; it seemed as if Luis had committed some kind of heresy. The frustration was whirling through his head as he calmly sat down and ordered a cup of coffee at the Astro-Diner.

“Joey should be here any minute,” Luis said to himself as he gazed up at the sky dome. All these years on a space station and the stars (those soft gems of an infinite night, woven in the black fabric of space and time) still amazed him. As a kid he would spend hours in the orphanage’s observatory wing. He used to look for his parents in those burning stars; wishing that someday he would finally brace them in his arms. If fate never allowed him to find them, all he had to do was look into the sky.

“What’s on the menu tonight?” Joey spouted as he lowered himself into the booth.

“Apple pie with a side of agony,” Luis replied sarcastically.

“Where’s Dr. Carter?”

“Excellent question…I doubt that she’s coming.”

“Why not?”

“Eh…she just hasn’t been herself lately,” Luis replied with a sigh.

“Well that’s a shame.”

“Yup…”

“Well let’s get down to business!” Joey tried to revive the mood.

“Hold on Joey, I need my coffee in order to function properly.”

“Bah, you and your coffee.”

The waitress arrived with the steaming cup of brew and the conversation continued.

“So did you get an accelerator lined up for us yet?” Luis inquired after taking a reviving slurp of coffee.

“Actually, yes. I made a holocall to an old friend of mine on SSG21. Turns out they just finished up an experiment on their elliptical accelerator and said it’s all ours if we can get a sufficient power supply.”

“I knew there was a catch,” Luis added.

“It gets worse; that accelerator is cutting edge. Which means it uses an antimatter combustion system to operate.”

“Antimatter! Where the hell are we going to get antimatter?!” Luis couldn’t believe it.

“Calm down Luis; I know where we can get enough antimatter to last us a lifetime,” Joey replied with a bright grin.

Luis’ eyes shot open.

“As you know, I was involved in the discovery of the God Particle. In fact, I headed the damn project. Well one of the by-product of our experiments was antimatter. As each quantum particle collided with its elemental counterpart, trace amounts of antimatter were created. We collected those particles in a special stoic vacuum chamber. Over time, we collected a good amount of the stuff. Having no use for it at the time, I hid it. Since I had the highest level of security clearance, I’m the only one who knows where it is now.”

“Where is it?” Luis was astonished.

“If I told you-”

“You’d have to kill me?” Luis finished.

“Ha- no. It’s hidden on a moon of a giant gas planet in the Gliese 783A System. It orbits Hipparcos and has a period of about 81 days with a 10 eccentric orbit. The moon’s name is Uttu and its gravity is about half that of Earth’s. It’s about 44.78 Astronomical Units away. We should be able to reach it in a couple days using hyper drive.”

“So when- what was that!?” Luis interrupted himself.

“What was what?” Joey looked at him cock-eyed.

“You didn’t feel it?”

“Uh…no?”

“What’s going-”

“Attention all personnel: commence emergency evacuation procedures immediately. Please make your way to the nearest escape pod as quickly and calmly as possible. Attention all…” declared the smooth computerized intercom voice.

“What the hell just happened? EVACUATION?!”

“Oh my-”

The sky dome above them exploded into a million shards of silicone dioxide that were immediately sucked out into the empty vacuum of space. Everything seemed to slow down as the air from the two men’s chests was wrenched out and their terrible screams reduced to whispers. Luis was able to grab onto the table top and resist the black monster above. Joey, not even having time to react was twisted from his seat and flung against the iron frame of the dome window. A second later the airlocks were initiated and the oxygen came flowing back into the Astro-Diner. Joey was gone. Luis was alone, lying face down on a table, heart throbbing, lungs bursting; eyes wired shut, as blood trickled down his lifeless face.