Apocalypse: A New World

Chapter XIV: About Earth

"Wait, what?" I exclaimed, as I turned around. "You found actual life?"

He nodded.

"Inconvenient timing!" I groaned. "Why couldn't we find it? We were moving faster than the speed of light!"

"Wait, what?" said Apollo, surprised. "Your pilot sounds even more stupid than I thought."

I looked up at him, confused.

"Look," said Apollo. "If you're moving faster than the speed of light, you won't be able to see anything, because light will not reach your eyes when you've moving at that speed. You would be able to see black holes because things behave differently around it. Anyways, what are we waiting for? We have to take-off. Or would you like to do the honour? You clearly have more experience on space-related things."

"Hmmm," I said. "I don't know how spaceships in this universe work. You do it."

"Oh, alright!" said Apollo, with a slight smile. "Would you like to watch, though?"

"Wouldn't miss it," I said.

The inside of the ship was slightly different than the ones I had previously travelled on. It was more roomy, and there were computers in the control room.

Phoenix was not here. Apollo turned on the computer right in front of us.

"Well," I said. "This is fancy."

"Your spaceships weren't like this?" said Apollo.

"Well, we didn't have computers for all this!" I said.

"Oh, damn, you really had it easy."

"Did you just..."

"What?"

"Say -?"

"Oh, come on, don't tell me you're like that!"

At that moment, it occurred to me that he was a lot more likeable than me. Phoenix would have preferred him as his brother. Then I remembered he was most likely dead, so I concentrated on blocking my thoughts. But I couldn't.

"Hey," said Apollo, looking at me. "Something wrong?"

"No," I said, tonelessly. "Nothing."

"Good," he said. "Does your wheelchair have a seatbelt?"

"Yes."

"Buckle it. I'll just tell the others that we're about to launch."

I did. He walked away to alert the others. Right then, a computer turned on and I heard some strange music playing as its ringtone. But that wasn't the weirdest thing to me.

On the screen, in the purple background was one name written in yellow letters. It said "ATHENA DRAKOS" in capital letters. I stared. How much more sadness was this nightmare going to bring? I didn't know what to do, so I just went back in to tell Apollo and Phoenix about the call.

"Oh right!" said Phoenix, and he and his brother ran to get the call. I followed them and so did George.

"This is weird," he muttered to me. I nodded. This was the weirdest experience I had ever had.

"Hi?" said Apollo.

"Hey, son," said a voice I had not heard in so long. "How're you doing? Hope neither you nor Phoenix broke the sample!"

"Yes, Dad, we didn't!" said Phoenix, perhaps a little angrily.

Alex Drakos laughed.

"Anyways," said Apollo. "There's something extraordinary going on here. You won't believe it, and I don't know how to say it, but-"