Henry stared at the numbers racing on the contraption. He grew anxious watching them, but only needed the ‘treatment’ to pass so he could get back to his pod.

He glared at the ceiling, thoughts swirling with apprehension and he almost fell into a vertigo trying to get into the mood. Humanity had gone too far, he thought. Dazed by the cords that hung in the air and fans that ran steady, he sat in his chair, waiting for his emotions to be cleared. That was all the proof he needed, nothing felt right doing this.

His attendant walked to him and slapped the gloves on that he had on his small table. He jabbed Henry’s gums subtly, but Henry did not flinch. He gave him one good stare and turned to the scientists in the room above.

“We’re good with this one. Think we can start the sequence.”

One scientist raised his thumb and the machine roared to life. Henry’s vision started blurring with the blinding light. The clasp that tugged around his neck shot a current through his body, and his nerves started to scream.

He’d endured the pain before, but there wasn’t any getting used to it. He tried sifting through his thoughts to find something he can think about, something to distract him from the pain he was feeling.

There was a girl he met in the cafeteria. Starry-eyed, face beaming with happiness. Thinking of her pulled his thoughts from the horror he was facing and for a moment he felt like there was no pain. There was something about her that held his interest. Her presence in their syndicate, in a different gear, one he hadn’t seen since they last boarded the ship seven years ago.

Her glossy, jet black hair and attire was designated for the Panthers and she wasn’t supposed to be in the cafeteria that morning. Yet there she was, strolling past the Wolves with no care of what could happen to her.

The memory faded abruptly as the treatment took hold, and just like that the treatment was over.

“All good, lets bring in the next one.”

The attendant looked like a doctor out of a reality tv show. Dressed in clean blue attire, making gestures and smiling with a simper that swayed any patient. He stressed his gaze on the machine and pushed the numbers voraciously, finally turning to Henry.

“You’ve done really well this time. Your emotions were cleared successfully.” A feigned smile crept on the attendant’s face. A blank smile no less.

It was time to get back to his pod. The robo-assistant helped Henry out of his seat and lead him down the quiet hallway, taking tentative steps without a word.

Inside his pod was a low glimmer of light. His head throbbed, but not so much as it did when he buckled inside that seat. He stared blankly at the ceiling, not knowing what to feel.

“Notes from the last Galaxy,” he mumbled.

The computer began to narrate the data, a graphical draw-up of the constellations marking the ceiling. The pod dimmed further to a subtle darkness and the only light to be seen was the one made by the stars.

“THE LAST KNOWN GALAXY WAS UNREACHABLE. PEGASUS CRASHED BEFORE IT REACHED THE NEAREST PLANET. NO KNOWN SURVIVORS WERE FOUND ON THE SHIP.”

“Chances of our ship reaching our destination.”

“HIGHLY PROBABLE. ACCORDING TO DONALD TRUMP, WE CAN GO ANYWHERE.”

“I need numbers.”

“THAT SHOULD NOT BE AN ISSUE. I QUOTE ‘DO NOT DESPAIR FOLKS, IT’S GONNA BE HUGE.’”

He sighed. “Return to standby.”

“AS YOU WISH, HENRY”

The lights dimmed and Henry dozed off to a disturbing dream. Trump was steering the ship and they were heading for collision with a meteor.

The next morning, he sat quietly, alone, in the cafeteria, and waved off the robot that tried to pour in some more coffee. You seem tired, it seemed to say, but Henry ignored it nevertheless. His eyes trained on the grey doors to their cafeteria. He wanted to see if the Panther girl would show up again.

People flocked in, but all of them had the same grey garb. The Wolves. Same grey hair, even the men.

He gave up looking, when the last person walked in, and stared back at his half-bitten bagel. He swore he had seen the girl before, but started to think he’d made a mistake.

Could it be that the experiment had been messing with my thoughts? It didn’t seem like it.

He pushed the plate away in frustration. Nothing had made him more enthused than seeing that Panther girl again. That excitement seemed to have been in vain.

Someone sat right across the table as Henry contemplated leaving. Looking up from the table, he saw the girl sitting right across him, staring right into his eyes. There, present, right in front of him, and seemingly out of care she was in the wrong place.

“Sorry but aren’t you supposed to be somewhere?” No greeting, nothing. Henry’s words poured out of him like a leaking container. She lowered her gaze nonchalantly, then continued poking down her bagel. “Panthers are all in the first sector. You’ll be in deep trouble if the security finds you here.”

“There’s no need. They can’t see me.”

Henry frowned at her answer. Looking at the tattoo on her wrist, he saw her name inscribed on it. Yernaya.

“How is it that I see you then?”

“Hmm, I don’t know. Do you happen to like me?”

“I can’t tell. That emotion was erased countless times.”

“Hmm, then they aren’t doing a good job then...” She glanced at his wrist. “Henry.”

He drew his hand from the table even though he knew she had seen it.

“How did you learn to become invisible?”

She smiled. “Perhaps because I learned I could still have something in me after they erased it.”

“How long had you known?”

“Five months?”

Henry couldn’t believe it. How could anyone still have emotion in this place where everyone was conditioned otherwise. His eyes roamed around the cafeteria and noticed no one was paying any attention to him. Why hadn’t he noticed before? He stood and waved his hands, but there was nothing. People just ate their food and paid no attention to him. He slumped in his chair and sighed in disbelief.

“Pretty cool, huh?”

He scoffed. “This is insane!” He grinned like a madman, for a short while. His grin slowly disappeared to a frown. “You don’t have a plan to escape through the shuttles, do you?”

She didn’t smile with her beaming smile that he’d known her for this short while, but she tried to work it in. “I do.”