The curse of immortality

I feel the G force grow stronger as the ship gains speed. The computer calls the stats but I don’t even hear them, my thoughts are already on earth. I have been away for little over a decade. How are the people I love and how has the world evolved?

I found immortality but I don’t feel it’s impact yet, I suppose I won’t for another century or so. When you have lived way past your expected age, yet haven’t aged a day, that’s when immortality really hits you. I never dared to hope for actually finding Elandos, The lesser-known planet on which I found immortality. It started out as a too ambitious treasure hunt but turned out to be the journey of a lifetime.

The computer voice stops as I feel how breathing is getting easier. The ship comes to halt and when I look out the window the beautiful blue Earth stares back at me. Over the radio a human makes contact. “Unknown rider, identify yourself immediately.” A little confused I grab the transceiver, they should recognize my ship. “This is The Nemesis requesting permission to land, over.” A too long silence. “Identify yourself and your mission captain.” “I am captain Rowan Brown, returning from my mission to find Elandos.” “You have permission to land at Washington Station of Intergalactic Travel. We will send the coordinates over now.”

I see the map on the screen in front of me move to pinpoint a location. The engines revive and the trajectory of the landing is shown on the screen. I can feel the vessel grow warmer as the friction of the atmosphere effects my ship. A loud rumble of the landing module breaking free. I close my eyes and await the rough impact on the water. After what seems like an hour it finally comes and I immediately pass out.

I wake up in a hospital bed. A little device on my wrist shows my vitals. I only now notice the beeping sound that comes out of it. A second later three doctors and two men in black suits rush into my room. The doctors start checking my wrist, canula and their iPads. The two men stand at the end of my bed.

“Hello Mr. Brown. We are here because something happened to you. When your vessel landed, it crashed into the ground and exploded. We pulled your body from the wreckage. Nothing could have survived such a crash and yet you did. And there is something else. Your vessel crashed because it was never designed for our landing platforms. You see, this model of spaceship has not been made for over 200 years. All the old ships are gone, but yours wasn’t. Your mission is a large part of our history books. You see it left 250 years ago and was never seen since. It was the mission which made private space travel illegal.” I don’t know what to say. I should have been gone for just a decade but it has been 250 years! Everything I know, it’s all gone.

“We would like to run a few test on you.” “There is no need for that. I can tell you why I survived the crash and how I ended up 250 years in the future. My mission was to find the little-known planet Elandos. There was a legend about a mystical cave with great power, which was ought to be on this planet. Only a few knew what lay within the cave, the secret to immortality. I found it within a decade and learned the secret, which is why I survived. As for the traveling to the future, for me only a decade passed. I flew to the planet found the cave and came back, but time moves different when you travel faster than the speed of light.”

The men look at each other. “If you really know the secret to immortality you will have to give it to us.” “I am afraid I can’t. You need to be in the cave to became immortal.” The men leave without another word. After a week of observation and little contact except more questions, I am free to go. They bring me to my relatives. My closest relative is 7 generations younger then me and already 90 years old! I live with them but I don’t fit in. The cities aren’t what they used to be, nothing really is.

Most of the time I wander outside looking for things that may not have changed, hoping something like that exists. On one of my walks I met a women. She was just like me, fond of the past world. We would walk together often and she showed me books about my time and asked me things about it. I loved how I could talk to her like that world was still my reality. Like I was taking a walk down memory lane waiting in my spaceship knowing I would be there again, soon.

Years passed and she grew older while I did not. “How come you don’t age like I do?” she asked one day. “I have never told you why I was traveling, why I lost so much time speeding through space. I think it’s time for you to know. I know that I can trust you and hope you won’t tell another soul. You see, I was on a mission to find immortality and I found it. I don’t age because I am immortal. And I am telling you because you can be too.”

Tears stream down her cheeks. “Why would you ever want to be immortal. Everything you know and everything you love will die and change. Everything you can do, you will have done one day and what will you do then? Immortality is a curse. To take away the promise of death is to take away the reason to live.” She was right immortality means loss over and over again without an ending.