We loved ships. We travelled from one port to another, calling none our home. Luke, my brother and I had been travelling on ships for months. Luke worked as an engineer on board and I helped as activity coordinator.

One day while we were in port, we were looking out at a sleepy French town when we saw a young man racing crazily on board. It was obvious he wasn't a passenger and Luke wanted to call security.

Somehow I sensed the young man was like an animal cornered, and I wanted to help set him free. I reached out and stopped him, "Hey, are you looking for something?"

The young man in tattered shirt and torn pants turned around abruptly; his eyes reflected fear that he felt to the heart. He said shakily, "Ah, is there a washroom I can use?"

"Of course, come on." I lead him into the ship's main floor.

Half way along the corridor, he grabbed my elbow and asked threateningly, "Where is your room? I need to go to your room."

Terrified I pointed him towards my room at the end of the corridor. He dragged me along, and went into the adjointed washroom. He closed the door and locked it. Through it, I could hear his muffled voice say, "Don't let anyone in. If they ask just say you are sleeping."

For some reason, I did as he bade. I waited for him to come out, and when he did, he looked much better. He had washed up a bit, but his exhaustion was still very evident.

"The ship had left port." I told him.

"I know." He said sitting down next to me, "Hey, why did you listen to me? You could be in a lot of trouble you know."

I smiled.

"Listen, I know I was really rough dragging you in here. I am sorry. I was worried. I need to tell you something. I can sense you are nice and you want to help. Right? Would you not tell anyone? Please.

"My name is Francois. I am from the northern France. I worked for a research team in a chemical factory. We were searching for a liquid detergent strong enough to remove very strong stains, and what we discovered was a mercury-bromide derivative that was strong enough to dissolve anything."

He continued to explain how the substance worked, but I tuned him out, because I couldn't understand him at all. Finally, I said, "Wait a second, okay. Let me get you something to eat."

I left my room and searched out my brother. After being yelled at for being stupid, my brother's scientific curiosity overcame his distaste for the situation and so he came with me.

Francois looked terrified at my big, strong brother, but said nothing as Luke pulled up a chair and faced Francois. "So what's this my sister is blabbing about a detergent?"

Perhaps sensing a lack of choice, Francois told his story to Luke with many scientific details. The only thing I knew was that his company discovered a very powerful substance and the government contracted them to mass produce the substance. Francois tried to stop the project knowing how dangerous the substance was and was now on the run from the government.

Luke and I sympathized with Francois. We helped him get a job on the ship as a waitor and nothing was mentioned for months, during which all three of us became very good friends. I thought I had found another brother.

Our ship sailed into French waters again the next spring. Francois was very uncomfortable and we understood. He didn't want to go outside and other than working he stayed in his room the entire time.

On the day the ship was going to leave the last French port, Luke and I went off the ship to do some shopping. As we were about to return on board, we say two police officers holding Francois up on both sides.

Francois was all beaten up, and a third officer slapped Francois again. We couldn't hear what Francois said, but we knew he refused to do something. The only thing that could be overheard was the officer demanding for the formulaire.

The officer reached into his pocket and withdrew a little bottle that looked like eye-drops. He opened the bottle and Francois started to squirm in the other two's hold. But he couldn't escape. The officer had a sinister smile and he dripped a drop onto Francois. The other two officers let go of Francois immediately. Francois started to scream in agony, and Luke and I began running over to help.

We saw Francois disappear in front of us. In a matter of seconds, Francois turned from a health young man to bare flesh, then to a skeleton, then disappeared all together. All that remained was a white mist of vapor.

When Luke and I reached the deck, Francois was gone. The officers saw us and our grief-stricken appearance. The head officer said in French, "Their friends. After them." He pointed to Luke and I.

Luke's reaction was much faster and he grabbed my wrist and we started running. We tried to lose the officers amongst the crates in the port, and then amongst the people in the market. But we couldn't lose the officers.

We had entered a residential area and we knew were in trouble. After all we didn't know the area and we were bound to be caught. Luke wanted us to split up, but I wouldn't. I knew he let himself be caught so that I could escape.

As we were running, we bumped into a huge woman. She was quite offended at our behavior, and muttered about how young people nowadays were all on drugs. Instead of running forward as we would have done, we had been stopped and we noticed the doors to a private research institute half hidden behind the large oak trees along the side of the street.

Luke opened it and pulled me through.

"Calm down. Follow my lead. Okay?" Luke asked me and I just nodded.

We walked through a beautiful courtyard full of plants and entered an office area. A young lady approached us enthusiastically and exclaimed, "Hello! You must be the new engineer and research assistants that Ben mentioned was coming."

"Yes, yes we are." Luke said.

The young lady introduced herself as Susan, and said, "Oh, I didn't know you knew each other. This is great. Come on in, Ben will show you the rest of the laboratory."

By some stroke of luck, the real engineer and the research assistant never showed up. Luke and I were grateful for this gift from heaven.

With some extra work, Luke adapted quite well to institute. Despite my lack of education, I found that the job of a research assistant wasn't too difficult if I was to ask for help.

The project of the private institute was simple: to create a pod that will put humans in deep sleep and send humans out into space with enough food to last them their natural lifetime. The pod is designed to open only when it has reached an environment that can sustain human life.

Luke worked on the launch pad controls and I researched on the research for the minimal conditions for human survival. Weeks passed and we settled into a quiet routine with a dozen engineers, technicians, and researchers.

Ben was the head engineer but he also owned the place. He became fast friends with Luke. I often wondered if Ben suspected that we were imposters; however, Ben never said anything and neither did we.

One day, the project was nearing it's testing phase, and everyone was busy at their poste. I wanted to talk to Luke and left my poste in the offices to go deeper into the labs to the launch site.

But before, I said anything to Luke, we heard excited shouting outside. We ran to the windows and saw five, six officers holding three of our co-workers captive. Our co-workers were screaming in agony and we saw the mist that remained. Obviously, they had used that substance on one of our friends already.

Ben came running in.

"Damn it, Luke, help me close these doors." Ben exclaimed.

Luke ran over and helped Ben. The heavy doors closed with a bang.

"What's going on outside?" I asked.

"I don't know. Those guys just stormed in and began taking captives. The head guy," Ben pointed at one officer through the window, "keeps on saying that we are hiding refugees and that he wants some kind of formula."

"Ben, we have to tell you something."

Before Luke could continue, we saw two more of our friends turned into vapor.

"Luke, we gotta help them." I said tearfully.

Ben caught my arm and said, "I know. You guys don't stand a chance. They'll just kill you, too."

"Ben, they want us. We aren't.."

"I know. But this isn't the time to explain. The head officer wants the formula for that liquid he has in that little bottle. My guess is that's all he has, and the substance seems very reactive so he can't analyse it to reproduce it." Ben considered.

Luke said, "Yes. I.. I .. have the formula. Our friend, before he was killed, told me one night. I have it in my head."

"And they probably know that you are their last chance at discovering the formula. That would make a very powerful weapon." Ben continued, "You have to leave."

"But we are trapped in the launch site." I said.

"No, we can be launched out." Ben pointed out.

"Luke, if they catch us, they will kill us. Right?" I asked, "Then let's go."

Luke was indecisive and said to Ben, "But someone has to remain behind to dial-in the launch sequence."

Ben said, "I know. You two go. I don't know the formula, but I know this launch sequence."

"They will kill you." Luke pointed out.

"Yes, but they won't be able to kill the rest of the world."

At that, Luke and I crawled into these white cocoons. They were tiny, with a small glass viewing screen that allowed us to see what is directed in front of our face. Once inside, I couldn't even move.

I couldn't see Luke any more and I began to panic. The cocoon began to rotate so that we were vertically pointing towards the sky-lights. By then, I could see Ben dialing hurriedly at the console. I felt so helpless.

Then I saw the doors behind him starting to smoke and I realized the officers were using the mercury-bromide derivative to vaporize the double steel walls. Ben was entering the last few digits, and just as he punched the execute button, the room lit up to show launching was about to behind.

Through a heavy mist of vapor, the officers came through and grabbed Ben by the arm. One of the officers were trying to shut the launch down, but couldn't figure out the controls. They hit Ben a few times and were threatening him with the liquid again.

Just as the sequence ended, and I felt the first burst of power beneath my feet, I saw Ben being vaporized as well.

Then I saw a flash of color as my pod and my brother's probably, shoot past the now open sky lights. We were travelling at an awesome speed, but I couldn't feel excited. The project worked. Except I realized that I wasn't in deep sleep. I wasn't in the peaceful realm of dreams.

I felt a stab of fear. I couldn't move my arms or my legs. I couldn't blink, or move my mouth. Suddenly, I realized that despite that my body was in deep freeze, my soul remained awake.

As we flew past the last layers of atmosphere and enter the black darkness of space, I realized I would be spending eternity alone in a pod helpless.