Dream.
I.
Captain John Vaughan was on a solo mission to the large lonely sun on the outskirts of the galaxy. His small spacecraft sped silently through space until he reached the solar system of the large sun. He slowed the craft down and inspected the planets in the sun's orbit. He was looking for planets that could sustain human life. Of the three dozen planets that were circling the large sun, he found two that could sustain life. They were in close proximity to each other.
He orbited these two planets and found signs of primitive life on both their surfaces. There were no signs of humanoid life. Plant life flourished in abundance, and so did primordial animals. He relayed this information to his Space Station, which was located in a galaxy far away. Then he maneuvered his craft towards the sun, in order to accumulate more information about it. He was particularly interested in determining its probable lifespan.
He orbited the sun at a safe distance, and started a series of tests from within the craft. He accumulated the initial information that he needed, and fed it into the computer to be processed. He was pleased with the result as the computer returned the information. This sun would still be ablaze for thousands of millions of years. He relayed the results from the first series of tests to the Space Station.
As he was working the spacecraft was slowly drawn into the gravitational pull of the large yellow sun. When the Captain realized this he tried to pull out of the gravitational field of the star. He increased the power of the ship to maximum in an effort to get away. The engines failed and burned out beyond repair.
His craft floated in an ever-spiraling circle as it was slowly being pulled in by the star's gravity. The heat from the sun became unbearable inside the craft and the Captain slowly burned to death in his spacesuit. The craft was slowly drawn into the star, and piece-by-piece, it started to disintegrate from the super intense heat. As it fell into the sun it was obliterated into vapor long before it reached the fiery surface of the sun.
The ancient solar system lay in the silence of space once more. The planets circled the mighty sun slowly, and life evolved over the eons under its warm glow.
II.
An error signal from Captain Vaughan's craft was picked up by the Space Station. They tracked his spacecraft's decent into the fiery sun. They knew that they had lost the craft and its Captain.
They could not let the pubic know about this disaster, it was against company policy. The Captain was quickly cloned from DNA material of his, which was kept specifically for situations like these. The clone was ready within two months, and once he was constructed, he was fully convinced that he was indeed Captain John Vaughan. He had all the Captains memories and traits. Once the company was satisfied that the transformation had been a success, they released the cloned Captain back into his normal life.
He was met by his wife after his supposed return from a successful mission. They met at the Space Terminal. She was overjoyed to find her husband so well after his return from space. They went home and the children and dogs were very pleased at his return. He relaxed into the routine life of John Vaughan, and for all intents and purposes, he was John Vaughan.
During the day he went to work at the Space Corporation, and weekends and nights he spent at home with his family. The life of the Vaughan's was complete and unchanged. The mission was a success; mankind had found new worlds to inhabit. John Vaughan was a national hero, and a household name.
Despite his success, life went on much as it always had. He went to work, and spent his off time with his family at home. The days and the years followed each other in natural sequence. Life went on as normal.
III.
The man known as John Vaughan lay in his bed sleeping one night. He was in a deep and blissful slumber. He dreamt deeply, and deeper, and deeper into his dreams his sleep took him.
He dreamt that he was piloting a small spacecraft. He was circling a mighty sun, and performing a series of test. Then something went wrong. He was pulled into the gravitational field of the star. The spacecraft was slowly being pulled in by the sun. He tried to escape by pulling away with craft, using all its power. The engines failed and burned out.
In his dream his craft floated helplessly in the pull of the mighty yellow sun. As the craft was pulled into the sun, the heat became unbearable. He dreamt that he slowly burned to death in his spacesuit. The craft was slowly drawn into the star, and piece-by-piece, it started to disintegrate from the super intense heat.
As it fell into the sun it was obliterated into vapor long before it reached the fiery surface of the sun. The clone awoke in sweat from his dream.
The End.
Copyright ' JP Brown ' 11/08/2006.
