Hey everybody, well I’ve come to the end of my run in the NYC Midnight short story competition. “The Hole” advanced me from the third to second round and even though the story below, “Choices” didn’t get me to the last round, it did earn me top honorable mention in my heat, so I’m taking that as a win! For any writers out there, the contest at least in my experience, was really well run and a fun challenge. and the feedback from the judges was helpful. Would definitely recommend checking it out!

The criteria we were given for this round was: 1. genre – sci-fi,  2. character – amputee  3. theme – one way ticket

Enjoy!

“You’re sure about this?” General Mitchell rubbed his dimpled chin thoughtfully.

“What choice do I have, sir?”

“Tom, we all have choices.” He leaned forward and rested his forearms on his desk. “We might not always like the choices, but we always have them.”

Tom raked his hand through his hair. “Right, I can actually do something useful or I can what?”

“You can stay, of course.”

Tom looked down at his prosthetic legs and clenched his jaw. If those alien bastards hadn’t taken my legs, this wouldn’t be an issue.

General Mitchell continued. “As long as I’m here I will find you whatever job you want.”

“The job I want is the one I can’t do anymore!” he dropped his fists onto his thighs. Prosthetics had come far, but not on a soldier’s pay. “If it wasn’t for these damn things, I could still be out there fighting. I don’t want a desk job, I want to do something meaningful.”

“I know you don’t mean to say that the people that work in this office aren’t doing meaningful things.”

Tom took a breath to compose himself. “Of course not, sir. It’s just that…” He slumped back in his chair and shook his head.

“It’s all right, Tom. I understand. I really do, but you have to consider what this really means. If you go on this mission, you will not be coming back. This is a one-way ticket, guaranteed. Have you talked this over with Angie?”

Tom paused. “Yes.”

“And she’s good with it?”

Another pause. “Yes.”

General Mitchell crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back. “I can smell bullshit a mile away.”

“Fine. I haven’t, but I will. She’ll be okay with it.”

“Let me get this straight. She’ll be okay with her husband leaving without her so that he can go attempt to colonize another planet and never come back?”

“We need the money.” Tom ran the words together as if they were one. “With all of our son’s medical expenses, we just can’t exist on a desk jockey’s pay. No offense to them or you sir, that’s just how it is. This mission though, I know the money for that will keep Angie and Alex stable until I can get them off of this rock.”

“You’re right. The pay will keep them, even if you,” he dipped his head. “Don’t make it. But wouldn’t it be nice to go to bed with your lovely wife by your side every night? Wouldn’t you like to see your boy grow up?”

Tom sat forward. “Why are you trying to talk me out of this?”

“I’m not, Tom. I’m just thinking of your family. If you go, then that is it, you’re gone. Once you get into deep space we can’t even guarantee we’ll be able to establish a comm-link stable enough to let you communicate with them on any regular basis. I admire your confidence that this will go off without a hitch but the odds are not good. I need you to understand that.”

“I do, sir. But I can’t just sit around and do nothing. I need you to understand that.”

General Mitchell rubbed a broad hand over his wizened face. “I do, son. I do.”

#

“Are you crazy? No! You can’t go!”

Tom sat on the edge of their bed. He slid off one of his prosthetic legs and held it up. “You see this? Ever since I’ve had these, I am useless. I can’t do anything here.”

“There are plenty of things you can do here!” Angie said in a shaky voice. “So you’re an amputee, so what? There are plenty of them working at the base. Have you talked to General Mitchell about this?”

“Yes.”

“And?”

“And…he thinks I should stay.”

“There you go. I…I can’t believe you’d even consider going! It’s a suicide mission!” Her chin quivered and she looked away from him. “Or can you just not stand your family anymore and will do anything to get away from us?”

“Jesus, Angie, no!”

“You know you don’t need to prove anything to me, or to Alex.” Angie wiped the tears from her eyes.

“I know. But I still want to do everything I can to take care of you, to protect you. That used to be fighting in the war, but I can’t do that now. We’re losing that war now Angie, we’re losing it bad and if we can’t find a way out of here…” Tom looked into her red rimmed eyes and suddenly saw everything she’d been through. A young mother dealing with a son who had illnesses that didn’t kill him, but that he couldn’t quite beat. A strong wife, dealing with a husband who came back from a war barely alive and crippled forever even if he did live. And never once did she complain or try to trade in her life for a different one. She met each challenge with a smile and a brave face. She took care of everybody, went to bed exhausted, or sometimes not at all, and met the sun each morning willing to do it all again. “I just want to take care of you. The way you’ve taken care of me and Alex. I want to make something for you that will keep you safe. I can’t do that if I stay here.” Tom looked down at his legs, then back up at his wife’s careworn face. “I love you, Angie.” She gasped just a little. “I know I don’t say it often, and God knows I wish I would have showed you more often too, but I love you. That’s why I have to do this.”

#

“Five…four…three…two…one.” The voice in his ear cut off and then it seemed as if the whole earth moved. Gravity pulled at the ship, trying to persuade Tom and the rest of the crew to stay, but the powerful thrusters pushed them away from the earth and everything they knew, toward the unknown. They broke the grip of their home and were soon wrapped in the darkness of space. The pilot set the controls and they all moved to the pods where they would sleep for the next ten years.

Tom strapped himself into his pod, one strap across his chest and one across his waist. The strap for the feet remained empty. The team lead, one of the three trained astronauts of their ten person crew, sounded in everybody’s earpieces. “All right people. We all know what’s at stake here. I just want to say to each and every one of you that I’m damn proud of the sacrifices that you have made to do this. No matter what happens, it’s been an honor.”

Silence followed. The intent of the little speech wasn’t lost on Tom, but remembering the heart wrenching expression on his boy’s face when he said goodbye made him feel small. No matter how noble a deed this was, it wasn’t without its losses. He buoyed himself with the last words his son had said to him. Daddy, you’re a hero!

“Prepare for stasis. When we wake up, we’ll be waking up to a whole different sunrise.”

Whole different sunrise indeed. Sweat broke out on Tom’s skin. Suddenly the straps holding him down felt too tight. His breath made little puffs of steam on the clear plastic of the sleeping pod. He closed his eyes and to shake the sudden feeling of claustrophobia. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes again, but darkness was already clouding his vision. The last sound he heard before he fell asleep was the team lead’s voice. “Sweet dreams.”

#

“Number one has expired. Please respond.”

Tom opened his eyes. He felt like he was in slow motion. The robotic voice of the computer continued its monotonous string of words. At first he didn’t realize what that meant, but slowly it all came to him. Number one. That was the team lead. Expired?

“He’s dead!” One of the other crew members said.

“It’s all right.” The deep, calm voice of the number two commander, Colonel Bluford, came over the earpiece. “We all knew this might happen. I’ll take over.”

“Where are we? Are we there? Oh God, are we going to make it?” The same panicked crewmember said.

“I’m going to need you to calm down. I don’t know yet,” said Colonel Bluford. “Everybody just stay put for now.” He opened his pod and walked to the controls. He scanned the computers and was suddenly thrown to the floor. All of them were violently tossed around in their pods.

“Impact detected,” the computer droned.

“No shit.” Colonel Bluford pulled himself up on the control panel and continued trying to make sense of their situation. “Looks like we’re almost there.” He glanced through the clear panel before him and pointed. “Home sweet–” Again he was slammed to the ground.

“Impact detected. Artificial gravity failing.”

Several voices sounded at once, but they were all cut short by another impact. Colonel Bluford held onto the control panel as his body floated above it. “Asteroids. Everybody get out of your pods and get to your seats. We need to take manual control of the ship.”

Everybody complied. Colonel Bluford attempted to steer them out of their current location as quickly as possible, but the controls weren’t working properly. He pulled up a damage report on the screen in front of him. “Damn. Engineer James, come with me. Commander Fisher, take over controls.”

Tom stared out of the glass panel. A planet loomed in front of them. He couldn’t see much for the lack of light, but what he did see didn’t look at all like he thought it would. The planet appeared to be a brownish color. There were clouds which indicated water, possibly life, but what kind? They’d been told it was a young planet, that it was not inhabited by sentient beings, but what if they were wrong? What if it was inhabited? What if they were hostile? Tom clenched the arms of his chair so tight his fingers ached.

“Engines failing. Evacuate ship.”

Tom expected panic, but everybody remained silent.

“Everybody to the escape pods!” Colonel Bluford called as he pulled himself back into the room.

Tom shook his head and put up his hands. “But the escape pods don’t have any supplies except for minimal food and water. We’d get to the planet, but once the supplies ran out, then what? Everything we need to colonize the planet is on this ship!”

Colonel Bluford nodded at him. “Got that covered, Chief. I’m staying. I’m going to crash this ship with the remaining engine power.”

“Alone?”

“That’s the only choice.”

“There are always choices. You may not like them, but they’re always there. You go. I’ll stay.”

“Why would you do that?”

Tom looked at the crewmembers. Two astronauts, two engineers, three scientists, a doctor, and himself; an amputee soldier. He thought of his son’s face and words. Daddy, you’re a hero. “I have to.”

“But–” Colonel Bluford started.

“It makes no sense for two of us to stay! Show me what I need to do and go.”

#

One by one the pods fired away. When the last one had gone, Tom let out a heavy breath. The engines had just enough power left to push the ship down to the planet. It would hit near the coordinates of the escape pods and hopefully most of it would be salvageable. He pulled a picture of Angie and Alex out of his pocket and kissed it before tucking it back in place. There was no guarantee he’d die in the crash, but certainly no guarantee he’d live. He placed his hand on the control and got ready to move the ship forward when light flooded the glass in front of him and he saw the first beams of this whole different sunrise. Tom smiled and hit the throttle.