“Just take one sip. It’s Thanksgiving, Naomi,” he says.
Naomi takes the glass, winking in my direction. “Okay,” she says, playing with them. “One drink.”
Hugh’s eyes light up, and Roy stumbles over to watch. They’re both too drunk to know left from right.
Naomi starts the count down. “Three, two,” she says.
But she doesn’t finish.
Pausing, she holds her glass in the air. “Before I drink this bubbly, I want to make a toast,” she says.
Roy’s gravity wavers from side to side. “Boo,” he yells.
“Drink! Drink!” Hugh cheers.
Naomi ignores the buffoons. “Look, we’ve been through a lot.”
“That’s an understatement,” Roy mutters.
“You’re right. We lived a nightmare. All this time, we were traveling through space for nothing. We should be angry, but I want to point out something. We’re not angry anymore. We are ready. We’re celebrating a new day for us.”
“And for Earth,” Hugh says.
Emotional, she clears her throat and forces a smile. “I don’t know what we’ll find when we get back home. But I do know one thing. We were all leaders,” she says. “And maybe no one will recognize what we did, but we’ll always remember.”
“Cheers,” we all chant.
Hugh and Roy tip their glasses, and Naomi tosses the contents of her glass over her shoulder. “Mm,” she says. “Cheers.”
It’s something else to see this unfold. Camaraderie like this is not natural. It is something unique to humanity.
They hold the ability to understand what one goes through, to think about their actions. There are those that turn a blind eye to their own evil. But there is always the way of growth.
On this day, I feel blessed.
While the three get together, laughing about the absurdity of life, I stare through the window of Fassbender’s cot. I try to count the multitude of brilliantly shining stars.
The universe is endless, and light always finds a way. That is why love can never die.
Earth is wondrously blue, and the terrain is covered in small lights. Humans, signaling to the universe they are alive. They are here, and their stories will be heard.
Inside Earth’s orbit is one singular moon, innocent compared to the three that orbit Avalon.
I stare through the window, and a month passes me by.
Before I know it, we’ve made orbit.
We made it. Mission accomplished.
A glowing energy beam wraps around the planet.
Roy shifts from being to sleep to kneeling on both knees, staring at the planet he once knew as home. “What in God’s name? It’s so different.”
“We’ve gone intergalactic,” Hugh says, also stunned.
“Welcome to the future,” Naomi mutters.
Roy adjusts his headset. “Yeah, but what year is it?”