The voyage ahead would be Captain Brendan Utnytter’s last. The thought played over and over, the soundtrack to his life for a fortnight plus. It blared from speakers all around him as he brushed his teeth. As he was served his lunch. As he ran on the treadmill. As he rode the elevator. 

This one is your last. 

Not because he was retiring or quitting or being fired. He was in his late thirties and felt like he was in the best shape of his life.

This voyage would be his last because it would see him grow old. It would see his bones disintegrate into dust. He would remain awake while the rest of the crew and a civilian cargo would enter into stasis.

Despite the sense of foreboding he leaned deeply into his obligations. Preparations for departure were well underway and he oversaw every detail. It was his duty and his role to undertake. But he was beginning to wonder– why should it be his sacrifice? 

Utnytter had served in the Space Corps. He was a test pilot before serving on several tours and gaining command of a small vessel. He had the honour of leading the furthest voyage from Earth. However when he returned with his crew a lot had changed. He became weary as cutbacks to the Corps scuppered his next voyage. He sat and watched as changes in government altered their obligations. They were no longer focusing on exploration, but defence. 

By fate or happenstance he came across a talk in a community hall. Leader Royal Svikari had drawn him in with his confident, friendly manner. Welcoming them to the dingy hall, he stood on the brightly lit stage in his colourful pristine robes. “They tell us that we are now restricted to Two Continents. But, my faithful– I see amongst the stars above, Hundreds of Worlds.”

His eyes were opened and his life was changed. His experience in the Corps afforded him a meeting with Royal Svikari himself and, once he had completed a lengthy induction period, a discount to gain entry to the first of multiple inner circles.

He was given command of their sole spacecraft, the Kaytanossa, and organised her maiden voyage. It wasn’t to the standard of the Corps, but it had him back in space, more on his terms. Upon their successful return things had once again changed. 

A larger ship –the Sorbernash– was under construction for a much more serious task. Utnytter would instead command this ship, and take along with him the rest of Hundred Worlds– a number of large groups scattered across the Two Continents that would come together for a week of celebratory festivities before setting off for the Stars.

The occupants of the other centres began to trickle in during the weeks leading up to the departure. It began to exacerbate his feelings, his anxieties about his involvement. About the path he’d travelled. The choices he had made. He had been afforded multiple luxuries that a lot of the Hundred Worlds had gone without. He had been granted a ship and the adventure he had craved. But at what cost? It had become evident that the cost would be his life.

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