“Don’t leave us. Don’t go.”, she said.

“Why shouldn't I? What have I to lose? What difference will it make? Nobody needs me here. In fact, by accepting this mission, I’ll be doing all a favor.”

“What about your fiancée? You promised her a lot. How can you just let her go?”

“You know that was a big mistake, she’ll manage. Well if was.. Nevermind! You’ll never understand and neither will she. I’ve got to go now, time’s running out.”

“You know that you are on a suicide mission. You may never see us again. They’ve not even guaranteed that you’ll reach that lousy planet alive.”

“Don’t say that. You know the statistics and the probability. I was lucky to be chosen for this mission. They selected one person each from the 25 planets in our solar system. I was the lucky one from our planet. Not anyone else. It was “ME”.

“You think so highly about yourself then Go. And…. Let it be. Bye and take care.”

“Good bye”

I packed my capsules. All the stuff that I owned, including my trusty gyrosphere and my tracerbeam – a big mistake.

Our spaceship took off for, as she said, that lousy planet – Earth. We were chosen, not because we were lucky or special, but because we were targeted as “rejects” by the Hydro computer. It’s a computer that tries to make our world perfect. “We” were the ones spoiling the balance of our home planet and hence were exiled, in the name of a better future for the planet. Fate plays her own game. At times, she cheats the undeserving and helps us low lives. As Fate had it planned….

Seconds before we could enter hyperspace, to reach Earth, I looked back at our “perfect” planet. Tears rolled down my eyes as I saw a fleet of Raoaytrnsus ships descend on our solar system. A member of our crew shouted, “Noooo!!! This can’t be happening they have no chance to fight. They cannot defend themselves.” And another cry out “Why did we destroy all our weapons? It did bring us Peace but at what cost? The Raoaytrnsus will enslave all our people. They’ll destroy everything.”

And I thought to myself “This is it, we were damned---damned to die—but now we’re damned to survive. What use is a lonely life?”

But Fate had different plans…..as she gently kissed me and said “Everything has a meaning. You just gotta find yours.” Was that the last I’ll ever see of her? Only Time will tell.

This was a part of my story. The story of Howard Otto Paul Elmqvist – HOPE.