Voyager

"So, what brings you here?" asks a firefighter named John. We're about two hours into flight and as we sat and watched as we entered space, we realized we were hungry. So after about another hour of staring at the Earth and the stars as they went by, everyone decided to eat and socialize in the Main Hall.

"Oh, you know, once in a lifetime opportunity," I say, chuckling, taking a sip of water. He smiles and nods.

"I'm John, I'm a firefighter," he holds out his hand.

"Oh, I know."

He gives me a weird look.

"I mean, I just noticed the faded burn marks on your hands as well as that one on your neck," I point to it. "And I just figured..."

Situations like these go two ways: he'll either get weirded by me and walk away or he'll be impressed and ask me more. John laughs and I'm relieved. He seems nice and I don't want him to dislike me for eleven months just because I can't help but profile people.

"Okay, I gotta know what you do," he says, still laughing.

"I'm a profiler for the FBI."

"That...explains everything!"

We laugh until I hear someone say, "You're in the FBI?"

I turn my head and a guy is walking towards us, looking at me. I already know from the way he walks and the pretentious look on his face that he's a police officer. He stops in front of us.

"Yeah," I nod.

"Wow, you look a little young, Agent. I wonder how you got it..." he looks at me up and down. Is he insinuating that I slept my way into the FBI? From the standpoint of an FBI agent, police officers are either really nice and cooperative, or they're assholes. And this guy is an asshole.

"It's Doctor," I say, calmly.

"Yeah, you tell him!" says an Irish voice belonging to a man that I can't see. The officer rolls his eyes.

"I wanna know the story," John pipes up. I can't tell if he's genuinely curious or if he's also annoyed by Officer Asshole. Either way, I'm too pissed right now to even take the high road and walk away. I never talk openly about my life to people, but I got eleven months left to live and I don't have time to deal with idiots who think they're better than me because they don't believe a woman can achieve the same as a man. It's 3074 and sexism still exists. If I have to make an enemy on this ship, then so be it.

"Well, long story short, I graduated high school when I was sixteen so by the time I turned twenty, I was done with college and applied for the FBI and a PhD program. I was officially hired by the FBI when I was twenty-two and I earned that PhD when I was twenty-six," I say, haughtily. My cheeks turn red and so does the officer's.

"Whoa, are you a genius or something?" John asks, but I don't answer him.

Officer Asshole walks away, grumbling to himself, and another man approaches, yelling after him with a thick Irish accent, "Yeah, fuck off!"

I stare and he turns around, grinning.

"Lizzie Lane!" he exclaims. I raise my eyebrows. Am I supposed to know him? "You don't remember me, do you? Callahan West. We used to be neighbors and you called me Cal, even though I loathed that name."

It hits me.

"Oh, my God..." I laugh. I haven't seen Callahan since I was nine years old. He only lived next door to us for about a year and Flora and I loved playing with him. He always made up the silliest games and never failed to make us laugh. It even made me have the smallest crush on him.

"I never thought I'd see you again," I say, still in slight shock. "Seriously, you left, like, out of the blue."

He nods his head and says, "Yeah, my dad got relocated back to Dublin and me mum said it would be easier if we didn't say goodbye to anyone. Nadine was pretty crushed, she loved you and your sister. Speaking of, how is Flora?"

"Oh, she's here," I look around, but I can't find her. "She's probably making friends, but she's good! She's a nurse now."

Callahan smiles. "Wow. A nurse and an FBI profiler. You two have done really great with yourselves."

"What about you? What do you bring to the SS Voyager?" I ask.

"I actually work for the ship. I'm an engineer," he explains, pointing to his name tag. It's different from mine. It says,



"Isn't anyone gonna miss you?"

"Nadine sends me pictures of her kids every day, so I'm good. Plus, how cool would it be to talk to them from a whole other galaxy? They'd worship me even more," he replies, laughing.

"Your sister has kids?!" I exclaim, but before Callahan can answer, my sister appears.

"Lizzie, hey, I need you," she says, hurriedly.

"Flora Lane!"

She looks up at Callahan for a brief second and says, "Hi, sorry, I just need my sister for a second," before pushing me away. I give Callahan a wave goodbye and he returns it with a laugh.

"Flora, what is going on? You do know that that's Callahan West, right? Our hot neighbor from when we were nine?" I say as she takes me up the stairs.

"Wait, it is?" she asks, turning around. Callahan disappeared and she says, "Oh. Wow. I didn't even see if he got any hotter..."

"He did," I nod my head. Flora laughs and takes me to a hallway that isn't ours. I look around and we stop at Room 259 and she knocks on it. The door opens to reveal a man with a stethoscope around his neck and I turn my head and glare at Flora.

"Flora, you said we didn't have to do anything about this until later. Two hours after take-off isn't later!"

"Yeah, well, I lied," she says. She turns to him and exclaims, "Hi, Oli!"

"Hey, Flora," the man says, smiling. He ushers us in and Flora makes me sit on the bed. I'm glaring at both of them. How am I supposed to enjoy my first night in space like this? How can I enjoy any of this with a man poking and prodding at me? I already told Flora that I don't care about seeking treatment but she insists.

"Lizzie, this is Dr. Olivier Dujardin from my hospital. He's the neurologist that I told you about," Flora explains.

"Hi, Lizzie. You can call me Olivier or Oli," he says, holding out his hand. He's one of those tall, dark, and handsome types. I wonder if him and Flora have ever had a thing, but she's never mentioned anything about him before. I shake it and he continues, "Your sister is one of the best nurses at our hospital. She's actually my favorite, which is why I couldn't say no when she asked me to help you."

"Is that why you're here on this ship?"

Olivier chuckles. "No, it has to do with my husband's ashes more so than my medical abilities."

"Oh, I'm so sorry..."

"Don't be," he smiles. "But I do want to help you, Lizzie. There may not be a definite cure for brain cancer yet, but I have the drug that can work. There's been success in several trials."

I shake my head. "I don't want to spend my last year stuck to a bunch of tubes pumping an experimental drug in me. I came here so I can die having seen everything in the universe, literally..."

"Eliza, you promised," Flora says, crossing her arms. I roll my eyes at her full-naming me. One of the concerns I had about my sister coming with me on this trip is because she'd guilt trip me into getting treatment for one of the only cancers left that doesn't have cure yet. When I told her that I was going to Earth 2.0, she immediately said that she's coming with me without a second thought. She came home from work the next day, saying she quit and that she knows someone else going on the trip who can get me treatment, because 'Why give up when you have a year to live?' so I promised her I'd try.

"Okay, fine," I say. Flora smiles at me. She's going to be the only Lane left, both on Earth and Earth 2.0, so I have to give her something.

"Great!" Olivier says. "We can administer the treatment every Wednesday in my room, keep it low-key. And I've convinced the medical staff to let us use their full-body scan. That thing is amazing, by the way. It'll detect anything and everything wrong with you. We can do that this Wednesday too."

"Every Wednesday. Okay," I nod.

"I'll make sure she gets there," Flora says. I shoot her a look but she grins at me.

"Okay, are we done now? I almost made some new friends down there, you know," I say, hopping off the bed.

Olivier smiles, despite the fact that I think he's supposed to have used that stethoscope on me today, but he nods his head.

"I'll see you on Wednesday, Lizzie."