Voyager

I can see Mars outside my window.

Captain Darling said because its orbit perfectly aligns with our path that we're going to pass by it in a couple days. I can already see the red orb in the distance and I smile, excitedly.

How many people can say they flew past all the planets? How many people can say that they can see Mars from their window? I hope everyone who laughed at me for wanting to come on this trip (my former coworkers) will realize exactly what they're missing, because I don't regret this for one second. This is exactly what I'm looking for.

"Lizzie, you ready?" Willow asks, hopping down from her bed.

"Yeah," I reply, turning away from the window and following her out the door.

We make our way down to the cafeteria for dinner and stand in line. It's only been a few days on flight and everyone had already made friends and sorted themselves into little groups. It kind of feels like high school but more mature. The groups mainly consisted of people who are roommates or live in the same hallway, or people who have the same job.

There's a group of old men that consider themselves fighters of crime, but I prefer to hang out with Willow, Flora, and Kavya.

"Lizzie!" I hear someone yell as I grab my food and look for a table. Callahan waves at me and Willow and I join him at his table.

"Watch this," Callahan says, holding his fork upright with a piece of broccoli on it. He points it towards a man with a head of curly, black hair and flicks it. It hits him in the shoulder and Callahan quickly turns around and pretends he didn't do anything.

Willow laughs when the man angrily turns around and yells, "WHO THE FUCK KEEPS THROWING BROCCOLI AT ME?!" causing everyone in the room to quiet down and stare at him. He grumbles and turns back around when no one answers.

I raise my eyebrow at Callahan, who shrugs his shoulders.

"This guy thinks he's my superior, when in reality, he is not. No one ever gave him that title," he says. "He's a prick and he deserves it."

I've always remembered Callahan West as being a jokester, the class clown type. Back when him and his family lived in the U.S., he always made Flora and I laugh by pulling some pranks on the other neighbors on our street. We always got such a kick out of it.

We were basically all best friends–me, Flora, Callahan, and his sister Nadine. We played in our front yard every single day after school and we even did our homework together. Callahan never liked to admit it, but I always helped him with his work because I was one grade ahead of him despite being younger. All that time spent together and all that time he made me laugh, I developed a crush on him.

By crush, I actually mean crush. I was never in love with him–I was nine, for God's sake. I thought he was cute from the beginning, but when a boy makes you laugh so hard milk comes out your nose, you'll probably develop a crush too.

Callahan was there when the police officers came and told us our parents were dead. We were playing in the yard and when they came and left, him and Nadine took us to their house and we slept over. He still tried to make us laugh with little pranks, but it wasn't the same. One night, he came into our room when he heard me crying and sat with me all night. He told me stories about life in Ireland and all the other places he lived, and it momentarily made me feel better.

He was a good friend.

"Are you ten? I thought you'd be more advanced than this," I say, rolling my eyes. Callahan grins at me.

"You've seen nothing yet, sweetheart," he replies and I laugh.

We eat our dinner together and eventually Flora, Kavya, and one of Callahan's coworkers named George joins us. George is also an engineer for the ship and he can't seem to take his eyes off of Willow, which very much amuses me.

Flora sits down next to me and mutters under her breath, "Don't forget about seeing Oli tonight at eight." I roll my eyes at her. How can I have forgotten?

The six of us get to talking about life and I finally find out what Kavya does–she's a pharmacist. George and Callahan both ask Flora and me what schools we went to and even what my IQ is, but I change the subject back to everyone else.

"My IQ is 400 but the more important question is, what were your guys' lives like on Earth?" I ask. Callahan snorts and rolls his eyes.

"Well, I lived in Ireland for most of my life, but I've lived in ten countries, I believe, since my childhood. Let's see, I've lived in the United States," Callahan looks at Flora and me, "China, Lebanon, Egypt, England, Russia, India, Jordan, South Africa, and...Japan!"

Everyone stares at him in awe. He smiles and shrugs his shoulders.

"The longest we've lived somewhere was a year so it's not like I had much of a life in those places," he explains.

"Uh, I'm just from the U.S.," George says, chuckling. "I studied at Arizona State University and then moved to California and I've lived there ever since." He turns to Willow and waits for her answer.

"Um, well, I lived in Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius," she says. "It's very populated and sometimes, the humidity is too much to handle, but I loved it. My whole family lives there. We used to go hiking all the time and travel to different districts, like a family day every month. I would not have minded if I stayed in Mauritius my whole life..."

I smile at the look on her face.

"I would have minded if I stayed in DC my whole life," I reply. "I've always wanted to see every country on Earth, but I've never stepped foot outside of the United States. I guess that's part of the reason why I'm on here."

"I figure since I've seen most of what Earth has to offer, why not see what Earth 2.0 has to give me," Callahan says.

"It's a once in a lifetime opportunity, it's very hard to say no to that," Kavya replies.

We finish dinner and Callahan and George make their way back up to the third floor and waves goodbye to us. I tell Willow that I'm going to hang around for a bit and she leaves me be. Kavya and Flora also leave, but with a stern look from Flora.

"I'm going," I say, rolling my eyes.

I wait a few minutes, making sure no one I know can see me, before I head up to the third floor. Olivier told me to meet him outside of the medical center, but I've never been to the third floor so it's going to take me a bit to find out where it is. Eventually, I do find it. It has the words MEDICAL CENTER emblazoned on the doors, and Olivier is already standing outside of it.

"Doctor," I say.

"Doctor," he nods at me. We smile at each other and he leads me inside. There's machines everywhere, some currently being used, and Olivier leads me to the biggest one–the body scan. I stare at it, slightly scared.

"I feel like this is going to zap me into another dimension," I say.

He laughs.

"This'll only take thirteen seconds," he says, waiting for me to lay down on it. It really does take thirteen seconds because before I know it, Olivier tells me to get up and he punches something into a keypad on the side of the machine.

"That's it?"

"I told you it'll only take thirteen seconds," he smiles.

We head down to his room on the second floor and I keep checking over my shoulder, but everyone is either down in the Main Hall or the cafeteria, or in their rooms. We enter Olivier's room and I sit down on his bed while he opens up a briefcase. Inside it are little bottles of a clear liquid–the "experimental" drug, I assume.

"Do you have a roommate?" I ask, looking around his room. There's only one bed and I never noticed it before.

He shakes his head as he pulls out his phone. He's looking at it with slight amusement in his eyes and he says to me, "Your body scan looks great. You don't seem to have any mets in places that need emergency assistance–like your heart. So, that's great, no surgery!"

I didn't know that surgery has always been an option, but I guess I'm glad that I don't need to have it.

Olivier pulls a metal stand with an IV-thing attached to it toward him. He fills the bag with the contents of the bottle. I've only seen stuff like this on TV so I'm not sure exactly what's going to happen. I'm assuming the drug is going to be injected into my veins–kind of like chemotherapy.

"Okay, you ready?" he asks, holding out a needle. I nod my head. "This is going to take only a half an hour to administer, but some of the side effects of this drug includes temporary blindness, headaches–"

"–muscle spasms, paralysis, and even death, I know," I nod my head.

"Okay, if you experience any of these, you come to me immediately, okay? I'm going to program my number in your cellphone so that you can just hit a speed dial and I'll be there."

"Okay."

Olivier sticks the needle into my arm and I lie back. I can't feel anything but I know the drug is being pumped into my veins. I stare out the window at all the stars and even at Mars and I'm feeling a little anxious. I keep thinking about all the places Callahan has lived in and how I'm never going to be able to achieve that. I've done so much with my life–graduate early, earn a PhD, become an FBI agent–except for being able to do what I've always wanted to.

My parents died and I had to live with my aunt who never wanted to have kids in the first place. I focused so much on going to school just so that I didn't have to think about the reality of the situation I was in. I never stopped to think about what I really wanted.

This is it. Going to Earth 2.0 is the most selfish decision of my life and I'm glad that I'm doing it. And Flora is right–this drug is my best shot so that maybe I can have a life on Earth 2.0.

I look at Olivier, he's reading a medical magazine and I notice that there's a silver urn on his desk.

"Hey, Oli?" I say.

"Hm?" He looks up at me.

"Thanks for being so nice to me and giving me this drug."

He smiles and says, "Of course, Lizzie."