Spaceship

About a man on a spaceship.

Adam wakes up on the spaceship that he was born in. As he sits up the sensors automatically send signals to the light to turns them on. His room was small, no bigger than those you would get from cheap motels. Unlike cheap motel however, it is clean, spotlessly clean. The room is painted with the whitest paint and yet no mark of dirt could be seen on it. The floor bears a grayish color, the typical concrete color. There isn’t much furniture in the room as he doesn’t need any. He doesn’t need bookshelf for books as he has read every book. He doesn’t need any drawers as he doesn’t need to look good when alone. He doesn’t need any place for accessory because it is all implant in his head. There are only his bed and some pillows. 

Being half awake, he would shower. Despite advances being made in technology, the bathroom is very basic. There is this medium-size room with rows of walls where shower-heads are situated. They don’t have any fancy function, the shower heads only job is to dispense water and it could either dispense hot, cold, or lukewarm water. At the end of the room, there would be faucets for people to brush their teeth or admire their synthetic bodies. Adam comes in and takes a shower. When there were still people, the shower rooms are very popular, so popular that the government must make up a system where people would shower in turns. Truth be told, he doesn’t need to shower or do any basic hygiene, for him being dirty doesn’t affect anyone. Regardless of the facts, he would still do it, it cleans his mind. Turning on the water, he thinks that it is funny that he is using the last reserve of water this sparingly. There is likely no water left in this universe and here he is, using it for his entertainment. 

He drys himself of using a towel. Despite the advances in technology, the public only uses cloth towels. Human-sized dryers are available but it is not favorable. Yes, it is fun to dry your body in those but it takes too long, too long for one allowed time in the shower room. He makes his way to the canteens. The food here never rot. The preservatives used are too effective, the universe will end before it rots. Adam takes a portion of bacon and omelet. Truth be told, he doesn’t need to eat, he could refuel by the rocket fuel in the storage room, but he eat nonetheless, he found the taste of food is intriguing. After eating he disposes of his plate and cutlery. There would be people whose job was to wash the dirty dishes but there aren't any now. Truth be told, the job is a little bit irrelevant as there are machines to do it automatically but the lack of vacancy in any job had prompted the creation of unnecessary jobs. After he eats, he would stand there, looking at the mountain of dirty eating ware for a short while and turn for the exit. 

Walking on the white-painted hallway he is never ceased to be surprised by how clean it is. The walls surrounding him are all painted white, the handle placed on the walls are also painted white. The intense light on the wall is also white. The atmosphere is so white, one would be mistaken about their place, thinking that this is the hallway to heaven, if it wasn’t for the gray concrete floor, giving it some contrast and rims of white doors to other people's rooms. The hallway continues for much longer and occasionally, there would be a large window looking out to the darkness of space. A few billion years earlier, the view would be picturesque, light emits from galaxy thousands light year away would be seen, mixed with countless other stars. Colors and contrast would be common, one would emit bright green light, one would emit a crimson color, all of them would be contrasting to the dark, empty background of space. Sometimes, the spaceship would travel through a planet system, where planets of different kinds would be seen. Some planets had little asteroids orbiting them, creating an illusion of a ring. These “ring” could be as long as the diameter of the planet or it could be as short as one kilometre. Regardless of its size, it would always be appreciated by the people watching it. There were planets which had strong winds blowing on it constantly, planets which had a deadly atmosphere, planets that were filled with plasma of different gases and very rarely, planets that have signs of civilized creatures. Those planets would be filled with buildings, with different sizes and designs, designs that would be considered atrocious by humans. Creatures that lived on there would range from friendly, to unreasonably hostile. Adam vaguely remembers when the creatures living on one planet sending what seems like nuclear bombs to the ship. Its bombs did nothing more than anger the people, we decided to evaporate any liquid on the planet surface by our laser. The liquid-vapor would fill the atmosphere right after the laser beam was shot, blocking the sight.

Adam stops in front of one of those windows. He looks out far, into the darkness. The only visible things are the other section of the spaceship, illuminated by the light from this section. Those parts of the spaceship also have white hallways, handles, lights, and large windows but the sections aren't lit up by anything harsh white light. It is not abandoned by any means, it contains human, only they lay dormant, not conscious. Further away, he could see light beeping from the sphere that harvests energy from the last remaining black hole using the Penrose process. This black hole is radiating away, at an increasing rate, and when it disappears, there would be no harvestable energy sources, minus the one on undiscovered planets. Other than that, there is no light source left. Outside is total darkness, darker than when you close your eyes. Perhaps as dark as what a blind person sees. 

He looks away and keeps moving in the hallway until he reaches the classroom. The classroom is another attempt to lower the unemployment rate. The students would enter the room and they would just talk to the teacher. There was no need for studying as discovery would be immediately updated to one mind and old discovery would be transferred. Therefore, there was only tables and chairs, and a fancier wooden table and cushion chair for the teacher. Regardless of its irrelevant principle, Adam enjoyed his time here. It is here when that he could talk about earth, his race original home. He found the subject interesting as it is closely related to his nature. For the longest while, humans had tried to suppress their natural feeling, deeming it rough and inadequate. His ancestors hate it so much, they had created social rules and "mortality" that was designed to eliminate their animal side. As time moves on and technology improves, human design machines to completely eradicate it. Finally, here he is, wondering why his ancestors did so, why to eliminate what makes humans, human. He also has an interest in other organisms and how it would make his ancestors live so interesting. He wondered how plants, animals, bacteria, viruses, diseases, and nature itself would make life so much harder, prompting humans to strive to survive. Atlas, humans removed all the thread, his kind doesn't need to struggle to survive anymore, their kind had to impose the hardship on their kin to stop them from experience boredom. Then the same invention that eradicates the animal side of human eradicate boredom itself. However, the need to find the meaning of life persists. Thus, the need for jobs increased and the creation of unnecessary jobs. 

He walks on until he reaches the food production plants. Similar to others room, the food production plants wasn’t vital for the human colony as everyone has a mechanical digestive system that consumes fuel from hydrocarbon to rocket fuel. Thus, organic foods are just like a privilege that everybody has. Nonetheless, the advances made in food production are plenty. There are bulky machines that would turn fuels and other ingredients into meat or rice, machines that recycle waste into fuel to feed into the prior machines. For more niche items, it would be made from microscopic organisms that are engineered specifically for those items. The organism's efficiency is horrific. They would eat any type of fuel with a small number of nutrients and gives out the wanted product as waste. The conversion rate is more than 20% and up to 30% of the weight of the fuel. He took a peek inside. There are cabinets of different organisms for different food. There are 2 tables in the middle of the room, where operations take place. It is now littered with bottles of culture medium and Petri dishes. At the back of the room, there are 2 large machines, one hooked directly to the waste pipe and there is a barrel collecting fuel, the other machine has this big mouth to take in fuel and there is this large bowl collecting the food. There used to be at least 2 people in this room as food demand was high due to it being favorable compare to consuming fuel directly. Now the room is empty, without the usual energy it had. 

The healing ward was the next room he passes. Medicine has flourished right after the nightmare caused by influenza in 1918. It's a long time ago, but Adam, with his computer brain, knows everything. He knows doctor William H.Welch, the person who revolutionized the American medical system, bring up on par with other large power at the time. There was also doctor Avery, who was the main contributor to the finding of the vaccines and serum. There were countless individuals who spent all of their time in the lab, trying to find the cures. Even though they didn’t do anything that directly stops the disease other than establishing quarantine, they were the pioneer, who brought the world out of primitive techniques. Then countless inventions were created, machines that help with breathing, machines that pump the heart, and numerous operating techniques. Then CRISPR gene editing was introduced and not long after, it was perfected. While it had caused harm when his ancestors were trying to master it like creating new strains of lethal viruses, it helps prolonged human life significantly. Baby could now be modified to fit the wants of the parents, genetically dysfunction person could enjoy a normal life. It had created a world of prodigies, no one is more special than the other in the literal sense. Soon after, the Scan & Fix 1 was introduced. A group of engineers in German had created a machine that took the world by storm. It combined advanced technique, procedure with the CRISPR to fix most of the human problem. Cancer was beaten, except for the most severe case, illness ranging from the common cold to late-stage rabies would be easily cured. The need for skilled clinicians dropped, each hospital regardless of how big and small would have several of these machines and it would replace most doctors. After that, advances in medicine mean newer versions of the machines being release. Standing in the doorway, he sees 5 of the highly praised machines laying in the room. It was the newest model, it would cure 100% of the illness since if it was to fail, it would transfer one conscious to a new, fresh body. The machines look like a cocoon but with a window to look inside. It was painted white and every time it accepts a new patient, the cocoon would open up, like how a cardboard box would, the patient would go in, the door would close shut. Depend on how severe the case it, the cocoon would take 1 minute to a week. 

A few more steps and he has reached the end of this section. There is this giant slide door, strong enough to withstand almost anything. It holds a white color in the inside. The door border is colored a red one, and the place where 2 slides meet is painted gray. It looks like any generic futuristic door. Adam personally seals it shut, he will open it when it is time, but not now. He doesn't know why he preferred it to be closed. He is scared of something. That would be odd. He is an immortal due to the mechanical addition to his biological one. Furthermore, his consciousness is uploaded to the ship database regularly, if he was to die, his consciousness would be automatically transferred to another body. Regardless, he is slightly tempted by the dark. His people would make fun of this fear, they said that he is a faulty human. Therefore, a lot of his friends and relatives regard him as inferior and he was given less desirable jobs. He always thinks of how he is the most human of all, why would he be a faulty human when all of his race have been de-human. Why is he a faulty one when he is the only human that retained human trait? He has read many books and watch many videos that praise fear for being one of the elementary traits of a human. He would like to debunk them but He never said that out loud, in fear that his race would isolate him. He is scared of not belong in a group. Behind the doors are hallways leading to the central parts of this spaceship, where shopping malls, big offices, large entertainment room, and several other functional rooms are situated. Nevertheless, the ship is large and dark and he trusted the door to keep him safe from whatever could spawn behind those doors. 

Adam turns and headed into the entertainment room at the end of the hallway. The room holds a fundamentally different feel to those of the hallway and other rooms. Instead of having an emotionless white wall and a cold gray concrete floor filled with harsh white light, the entertainment room has wooden flooring, the polished type, and less shiny wood for the wall. The further half of the room dipped down half a meter. A sofa is placed in the middle with its back attached to the half wall that the indent creates. On the 2 sides of this wide sofa, there are stairs that lead up to the upper half of the room. In front of the sofa is this gigantic window, starting from the ceiling and touching the floor, ranging from one side of the room to another. This window shows the same scene as other windows, complete darkness. It is like someone painted the window black using the blackest paint. The room has wooden table sets laid behind the sofa and some board game place on it. This room is Adam’s sanctuary. He never felt anything more comforting being anywhere on the ship. However, this entertainment room wasn’t any special when talking about design, it was just a common room that almost every sector of the ship has. In contrast, when talking about feelings, Adam would always pick this room. There was something about this room, either it is a scratch on the wooden wall or a small dent in the floor that evoke something in him. For him, this is his home. 

He sits on the sofa and looks out in the empty darkness of space. He thought about his job as the “awakener”. “Awakener” is just a fancy name that people gave him. Perhaps it is used to encourage him to take the job but it might also mean that the name was given as a way to tease him. Nonetheless, his kin is tired of waiting for the universe to end, they want to shut themself down but they don’t want to be shut down forever, they want to watch the universe end. Thus they had coded the ship to has an “all awake button” meaning that all of them would be awaken if the button is pushed. In the end, they need someone to push it or rather, they pretended to. As a way to torture an inferior fellow human being, they would give Adam the job of waking them up. To do his job, Adam must stay awake until the universe end to push the button. He thought about the irrelevant nature of this job, they could have coded a timer to awake them automatically, and they might very well do. They might just give him this job for no reason at all. No matter how many times he thinks of this, his anger never seems to ease each time. He thought that all of human negative traits have been removed, yet why this hatred remains?

He calms himself down. Then the question that visits him countless times before reappears. What now? There is nothing left to do, expect the ridiculous job. His race must very well be the last living thing. His species has participated in the biggest game and they have won. What is the reward? He could hardly think of any. Is the reward the imprisonment that they have right now. Being imprisoned by boredom, to a point that his people prefer to be unconscious rather than conscious. The imprisoned by the prison that is the darkness of space. There is hardly any freedom to be seen. He vividly remembers the saying of without negative things how would there be positive things, without the restriction, how could there be freedom. His species has been allured by what called “perfect lives” and not realize that they have fallen into a trap, the trap that is winning this game. 

He could see the pointlessness in this game, the lack of any reason or meaning. He doubts the nature of this game so much, he even questions its winning condition. Is the winning condition is to outlive other species? Then wouldn’t the reward be a punishment? Then is the winning condition is to be the first one to die? Then wouldn’t the reward be nothing at all? Without the winning condition, how could the winners and losers be determined? He even thought about the authenticity of this game. Is this even a game? Shouldn’t a game have winners and losers? Does his race been chasing what is an illusion of winning and in the end, it reveals itself to be the losing instead? He questions the question that many philosophers have attempt to answered, what is the meaning of this all? Some suggest that we can change the rules for the next universe being to be created, but that is false, he could provide proof. Some suggest that we can found out the greatest secret of nature, but that is false, he could provide proof. 

He waves his thought away, he remembered about one of the talks in his class. The class was discussing about earth. He was told that earth is a planet filled with countless other life forms. It was a planet of chaos, where organisms tried to sabotage each other for survival. It was there that human was still afraid of death, afraid of other organisms. They weren’t the absolute winner yet, they could very well be the temporary winner like the dinosaurs. They were afraid of nature, wild animals, and small creatures. They were still struggling to survive. Then at a point, they had to compete with each other to survive. They compete in different fields. Some tried to win in science, some tried to win politically and some tried to win athletically. It was a time of hardship, it was a time where there would still be rewards in trying. He envied his ancestor, he wants to live there, to live in the time where restriction, failure, competition is still available in its purest form.

 

Author's Note

Please help.