Lotanna
Lotanna
Nov 7 · 4 min read

VOYAGE TO MARS

President Aluko glanced at the clock, picked his notepad and excused himself. He made his way to his private quarters. It was time to depart. He was to travel light, as instructed. He stashed more dollar bills into the suitcase. He believed in the power and security of the dollar, even if it was a trip to space, you never know when the dollar would come in handy.

He gazed once again at the last surviving family portrait; his wife still looked as pretty as the first day he met her. He remembered the last he saw of her, a tragedy. At the height of the infestation, she ignored security protocols. She went unaccompanied to the market, and got the infection. She was quarantined in the private quarters he now inhabited. Her last wish was to see their daughter, a request which was never granted before her demise.

A buzz from his mobile startled him. It was the UN’s Secretary-General. His flight was ready, he was leaving the country his fathers laboured to build. He was leaving Earth, a planet that was developed and regrettably brought to its knees by science and technology. He lifted the mismatching tile at the centre of the room. Underneath was a tunnel that led to his garage. He clutched the suitcase firmly and blinked to get accustomed to the darkness. A few seconds later, he was inside his garage, an armada of luxury, self-driven automobiles. As he tried to fit his frame into the tiny sports car, he felt a firm hold on his thigh, followed by sunken teeth in his flesh. He yelped and shoved the assailant, his daughter away.

For a moment, he had forgotten his infected daughter was on the loose in his abandoned garage. She was a skeleton of her former self, with cracked nails, itchy skin and a discoloured tongue. Those were reported symptoms of the infection that decimated Earth’s population by half. The sickness was an experiment in isolation, mismanaged and gone awry.

President Aluko was saddened that he could not help his daughter, that he was leaving her behind to perish all by herself… that his preparations were probably futile, now that she had bitten him or, weren’t they? He checked… the bite was not deep. No injuries, phew! He heaved a sigh of relief.

The coordinates were already keyed in as he turned on the internet. He was headed for a confidential satellite launch pad, not far from his quarters. The things money could do… Only the elitist and influential were on this first voyage to Mars. The few average citizens who knew about the departure from Earth were promised a slot on the commercial space shuttle, from the next trip. The current voyagers knew there would be no next trip.

Aluko arrived at the strip, to complete the passengers aboard NeoGalactic. In the last couple of months, he had had numerous meetings with these people, but today, it felt like he was with strangers. For some reasons, he thought he was drugged because he lost a sense of time and only woke up days later, as the spaceship began its descent.

He was surprised to find a functional city, with modern infrastructure and technology, waiting to be inhabited. He was a stakeholder; the fund diversions would pay him more than it did his predecessors.

The ride to their suite was fun, but he was far away, in his thoughts. The roads were paved in a different way than he had seen in more developed countries on Earth. Domes and Obelisks dotted the magnificent Rubicon City.

Elites from different States and Countries on Earth commuted singly, to the HQ, to form one nation. The Complex was an ivory tower, made out of the most precious materials found on Mars. For a while, Aluko’s mind was far away from home.

He got into his quarters, a sparsely furnished office space with live-in utilities. It was a makeshift home until they all got permanent residence. It was soon time to get together for dinner — the first-ever on this new home.

Aluko settled in beside Kim Na, the transgender president of South Korea. Aluko had to remind himself that there was no president here, at least not yet. He still felt sick from the flight or drug, or both. They had a large cask of wine at the centre of the table. The noise from the seated guests was getting unbearable. The UN gen sec clinked his glass with his spoon to command attention, and they all looked up. It was time for a toast…. To survival, to a new life, they all jeered.

Aluko was nauseous. He felt a wave of fever creep over him. Excusing himself, he made for the restroom with his image staring at him, a pale figure. He wondered if he had lost weight while aboard the NeoGalactic. Did losing weight have anything to do with travelling at the speed of sound? As length was lost when moving at the speed of light.

He washed his face and exhaled noisily through his mouth. In that instance, he noticed a strange hue…. No, it couldn’t be. Aluko checked again; it was there, he had cracked nails and a strange blue tongue. He cried out in anguish, his wife’s doctor had said something about the heart palpitations following these symptoms. His heart raced and then skipped a beat. He fell to the floor, the world suddenly going blank around him.

    Lotanna

    Written by

    Lotanna

    Fun-spirited and innovative writer with a propensity for photography and media