The sun, though large, was not quite large enough to end it’s lifespan with a bang. Instead, Sol would end its life with a grand expansion, and then a slow fade, a whisper in the galactic sky. As the sun expanded, it would consume the planets, the Asteroid Belt, the Kuiper Belt, and the Oort Cloud, inflicting on them temperatures fifteen times hotter than the surface of the star would usually be. Then, once it had fused all of its hydrogen into iron, the layers of gas would peel off slowly, until all that would be remain was a small, super dense white dwarf. Left behind would be a planetary nebula, known for its round shape and beautiful, inky, vibrant gases.

  Yu knew this, of course, and Allister had quickly become aware. Knowing and seeing were two different things though, and as they stared out the window of the Manet Vivus, looking upon the pinks, the purple hues, the blues and the little white dot at the center of it all, out in the blackness of far space, in a sea of stars, they couldn’t help but feel small.

  The universe, it turned out, was a big place. This much had seemed obvious, but one couldn’t truly know, they felt, until they were deep within its depths, staring at the tombstone and epitaph of their home star.

  Holding hands, Allister and Yu felt wave upon wave of grief, though they both remained stoic. Perhaps it was shock, pain, or loss, perhaps it was all of it, and it weighed on them like a mighty mountain residing on their chests. They thought of the people they’d left behind: Yu thought of her father, her friends on Earth, her mother who she’d hardly known, Serena, Gorsin, all of them; Allister thought of Thomas, and Shishone, and Yarns, her neighbors on Ceres, Itomi, Sergei. The thoughts of billions of innocent, unsuspecting lives, snuffed out in a moment, all lost to the echoes of time floated throughout their minds.

  They were the last ones left.

  There was a guilt to it. A shame. That they’d been the ones to survive, that they were the ones chosen by fate to see the grave of everyone they’d ever known, their ancestors, and their children.

  But… there was also relief. Hope.

  Hope. The word echoed in Allister’s mind.

  The Manet Vivus carried not only embryos, but incubation chambers. Supposing this planet they were headed to could support them, humanity itself had a second chance, away from the horrors of the creatures, the tholins, the plague that had so violently interrupted their lives. The only problem was, Zeol sat in the far reaches of the galaxy, thousands of light years away.

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  When they had made the jump, they had done so due to a quantum entanglement with the Voyager II satellite. Apparently, all those years ago, even then the governments of Earth had suspicions about deep space. They’d placed a secretive transponder on the Voyager II, a transponder that only now that the Manet Vivus was built had a receiver.

  This was all to say, they could only jump once.

  Deep in the sea of space, in between stars, they were on a course with destiny. But that course would last her lifetime and more. She wasn’t sure how to bring this up to Yu.

  Yu seemed to be holding it together well, Allister thought, squeezing her hand. Yu squeezed back, thinking about the future, as well as the past. Where they’d come from, and where they’d go.

  She turned to Allister, reading the grief and pain on her face, and pulled her in for a hug. The embrace was too short, no matter how long it lasted. Yu shushed Allister gently, who took a long, deep breath, and shakily let it out.

  The embrace broke, and the two looked at each other softly. Allister offered a small smile, which Yu returned.

  “I guess it’s over,” she said.

  Yu nodded. “It’s over.”

  “What do we do now? We’re not gonna survive for thousands of light years.”

  The AI chimed its little chime, and said, “May I be of assistance? I believe I have an answer to your quandary.”

  “Sure,” said Yu.

  “If you would follow me.” Small pinpoint green lights on the floor lit up, leading them down the hall in a line. Allister and Yu followed, stopping at the door the lights dead ended at. Here, the AI opened the door for them, revealing a small room, inside which were four pods leaning against stands on the wall. Each pod had a gel bed within it and wires and tubes connecting it to what appeared to be computer servers.

  “What is this?” Allister asked, entering the room.

  Sol chimed. “These are cryogenic storage units. You can sleep in these until we arrive.”

  Yu brushed her hand over the glass of one of the pods. “Cryostorage? I didn’t know we had that technology.”

  “It is cutting edge technology,” Sol said. “Very new. But don’t worry, plenty of experiments have been done on these units. They are as safe as can be.”

  “As safe, or safe?” Allister asked.

  “Safe,” replied the AI. “I will monitor your vitals at all time. It will be as though you died, but I will reanimate you once we arrive at the destination.”

  “And the driving?” Yu said.

  “All handled by me,” said Sol, almost proudly.

  She nodded, and looked to Allister. “Should we?”

  Allister chewed on her lip for a moment, the weight of the… world, on her shoulders. “Yes,” she replied.

  Reading her face, Yu sighed, and said, “You gonna be okay?”

  Allister shrugged. “I’m not sure. But I’m hoping for the best.”

  “Good,” said Yu, offering a soft, sad smile. “I’ll see you when we get there?”

  “You will,” Allister said. She looked away, and tried to say more, but couldn’t find the words.

  With that, they climbed into their pods, right next to each other, and the AI sealed them closed. Allister, as she laid there, thought of home, and Yu, settling in, thought of the future. Together, as the tubes connected to the canisters on the wall filled with gas, they slept.

  The AI chimed.

  Onward the ship flew, its massive engines continuing to accelerate it to velocity. It flew toward a future. Toward second chances.

  Toward hope.