STRANDED, 3000.

Mr. Brigitte opened the door widely and all the members of SS Andromeda went into the room. There were already 45 people in the room. “Welcome to our space station. I am very happy you made it safe with everyone in your team. We were having a meeting, please have a seat and join us.” Mrs. Brigitte sat next to her husband while the 4 students sat together in a row. “Because some of the teams may be staying here while others will leave straight away, I will introduce about this place briefly. About thousand years ago, people built a space station named international space station. This international space station, also named as ISS, was served as a space research laboratory where astronomers could reside and conduct experiments. However, in 2700, it was renamed YOLN space station and was planned to be served mostly as a villa for the politicians. 2700 was the year when the world war 7 finally ended as you all know. But for the last 200 years, after we discovered the doomsday of earth would come, it was also served as students from ETS to study Kepler-186f and find better ways to improve the spaceships. Their hard work has made it possible for some lucky humans to be here right now. I appreciate them, who are right here in this room probably worrying what will happen. But let’s get excited with this now. We have everything that we need and came farther than any humans in history. Thank you, we will now start the meeting again.” All the 50 people started clapping and sat around in a big circle. Mrs. Brigitte went into the middle of the circle and shouted without a microphone. “We cannot know how long it will take to reach Kepler-186f. We came to YOLN space station the slowest to save energy for our long journey. It was slower than the speed of light. However, you succeeded in making it faster than the speed of light. We only know that if we go as the speed of light, it will take 500 years. However, it must be much shorter than that. I am sure we can get there not too late. We will get moving right away. But because our spaceship Andromeda SS came here late, we will fly a little late after we eat lunch and a short nap, then we will join you. Please get going!” Everyone stood up cheering and left the meeting room except the SS Andromeda team. “Please wait here and the robots will serve you lunch. After you eat, take a nap so that won’t be exhausted from the beginning.”, said Mrs. Brigitte as she left the room. As soon as she went out, 4 robots came in with small plastic bags giving them 3 each to a person. The 3 bags were labelled as spaghetti, cherryade and soup. Kayelin asked Regan, “How are we supposed to eat this? They didn’t give us any plates or chopsticks to grab with.” “Oh, you studied medical psychology. So, we are in space without gravity which means these foods are in bags to make them not fly anywhere. You can see that there is a place to rip on the top part. Open that part and just drink it in then swallow it. It won’t be bad, you’ll get used to it.” Kayelin didn’t say anything and just sucked it and then swallowed it. He was right. It tasted the same or maybe she was the one who was hungry. She smiled at Regan and he smiled back. “Hey, I’ll be right back. I have something to ask Mrs. Brigitte about the plan. Stay here with Jin and Paul.” “Okay, I’ll just have a short nap. Wake me up when you come back.” “Okay”, Regan left the room and Kayelin put off her white gown, put in on the floor to use it as a blanket and fell asleep. “Kayelin, Kayelin, wake up. We are alone in this room.”, Jin was calling her. “What? Yeah, Regan went to see Mr. Brigitte. He’ll be back soon.” “No, then what about Oliver? I haven’t seen him after I woke up. Even the door we came in doesn’t open. We are locked here.” Jin went to the door again and tried to open it but it didn’t move. Kayelin went over and tried to help him but it didn’t change at all. “Oliver? I don’t know him. Are you sure he didn’t go out with the others?” “I am certain. He said he was too exhausted and would take a rest but now he disappeared! How could you not know who he is?! He was in our spaceship! He is my longest friend. I hope he is not lost here.” Suddenly Jin had a grim sense of foreboding. “Oliver? Oliver!”, he started shouting. “Wait. I thought that was Paul. Anyways, be quiet. Listen to that sound.” Kayelin stopped her shouting. It suddenly became too quiet and they could here some kind of machine working. “Did you ever hear that sound before?” “No… That’s not important right now. Where is Oliver? Go! We have to look for Oliver.” Jin started rushing around as if he had remembered something. “Wait. What is that sound?” Kayelin thought for a while. Everything made no sense. She couldn’t remember exactly from when that machine sound was ringing but it sure didn’t feel good. She was also definite that she didn’t hear that when she was eating lunch. Kayelin said, “We should find the place where that noise is coming out. I’ve never seen your friend, Oliver but it sounds like he is crying” and Kayelin nodded her head. They looked around where they were. Around them, there were 16 different doors and if Oliver was lost in this place, it would be almost impossible to find his way back. The space station too big and complicated and Jin knew this was built like this on purpose. This space station was once used as a maze prison for the criminals. Because on earth, there were so many of them trying to break out of prison, the government had decided to use the space station as a prison. The name of the prison was the ‘Labyrinth 101’ and it was also known as hell because no one ever got out of here unless they were dead. The design of the prison was very successful since the crime rates had rapidly decreased after the construction of labyrinth 101. However, as time went by, the space station needed its role as the science laboratory because of the unusual weather conditions of earth. It was impossible to change the structure, so scientists, astronauts and the students who entered here were given an A.I. robot that would lead the way in the maze. Jin had actually been here 4 years ago when he was the freshman of WSA but couldn’t remember the structure of this building because he came with his team and had a robot back then. He didn’t tell this fact to Kayelin and just stayed silent. “Jin, should we look for him separately? Or…” “Together.” he said. “This place will be more complicated than you can imagine.” They looked around them and saw 8 more doors on the opposite door they came in but didn’t know which door they had to go in first. Kayelin spoke to herself, “Where is the noise coming out from…? I have no clue.” Jin answered to her own question. “I don’t know but I think all the doors were supposed to be connected together at some point. Let’s think about it logically. You have something to write on?” Kayelin opened her bag and took out a small notebook. “Hey, where did you even get that? There wasn’t anyone who wrote with their hands after the robots did it for us.” “Be quiet someone might be listening to us. If you think they are all connected, then let’s go into the first door.” Kayelin and Jin ran to the first door. As soon as they got out of the meeting room, the walls started to move and the meeting room was blocked. The walls were still making noises even it stopped. It meant they couldn’t go back. “Kayelin, can you see that?” “See what?” “The room just disappeared because of the walls moving. I think we are trapped.” “We knew we were trapped.” “Hold my hand. We have to run before it gets too late.” Then Jin accidentally stepped on Kayelin’s shoe laces and her shoelaces broke. Let me tie it for you. Listen. In this place, there are rooms that were made for traps. If we don’t get out of those rooms quickly, we will be crushed to death because of the changing pattern of the walls. However, there are rooms that aren’t. When we reach those places, we will look for him.” Jin tied her yellow shoelaces tight into ribbons. They got up and headed to the door in front of them. “Run!” They were holding their hands tight and went into the door. It wasn’t the end. The wall was moving closer to them and if they didn’t get into the second door, it would mean they would die. “Oliver! Oliver!” they shouted as they were running around to find him but they didn’t hear his reply. They kept running and went to the next door, the next door. It didn’t stop. It was a moving maze. One room led to another room then to another room. One common thing was that each room always had 12 doors and every time they just went into the first door. It was now impossible to get back from where they started and try going into the other routine. Jin couldn’t even remember how long it passed since they started running. “Jin, I don’t think I can make it… I am running out of energy. My legs aren’t moving.” “No! You can. We are almost there and I won’t lose you here.” As they kept running, Jin realized something strange about all the rooms. There was a red number for each room- 4 digit numbers and he suddenly remembered that they had started from room 3017. 3017, that was the year they were living in. Whenever they went into the other room, the number got smaller by 1. The room they were going in now was 3004. “When can we stop Jin?” “Kayelin, hold on. I think we are almost there. Got it. Kayelin, listen. There are 12 doors in every rooms. Each room has a red number and I think this means something. We started from 3017, which is now and the 12 numbers were 3016, 3015, 3014, 3013, 3012, 3011, 3010, 3009, 3008, 3007, 3006, 3005. We always went to the first door, 3016. Then from 3016 to 3015, 3015 to 3014 and now we are at 3004. I think every year, a new room was made. There must be thousands of rooms in this place. Only a few of them, maybe the important ones will be the ones that are stable.” “Are you sure? Then what are we supposed to do? The end would be 0?” “I don’t know. But I just remembered that 4 years ago the room I went in to do the laboratory was 3000.” “3000! That’s it! Let’s try the 4th door and check it out. We are almost there.” He looked at Kayelin but she looked too exhausted and the wall started getting closer to them again. He lifted her and carried her on his back and raced to the 4th door. The walls were moving and they could see the yellow door about 10 m away that was shining which meant it would be stable. He was darted as fast as he could but by the time he passed the first door the walls were already touching Jin’s shoulders. Then Kayelin started screaming, “Look, there is Regan! Jin, stop! Regan is there. He might be alive.” Kayelin was screaming and crying on top of him but his head was blank. She kicked his body with her legs so he would stop and take Regan’s dead body into the room but Jin didn’t respond in anyways. Jin only heard Kayelin’s voice thought of it as an auditory hallucination. He couldn’t think of anything else but just had the thought he had to make it into the yellow door before both of them died. As he went into the third door, the fourth door opened automatically and he threw Kayelin into the door so that she could clearly survive. Then he was stuck between the wall and it was closing. Jin thought it was the end and he would die soon. It was true. His eyes were closed and he felt very free. In his head, the people he loved started appearing in front of him and saying it was time to go. Then he heard someone keep calling his name and someone pulling his legs. It was Kayelin. She kept calling Jin’s name to wake him up. Jin didn’t wake up. He seemed to have lost his mind or even dead. Kayelin pulled out her right leg and pulled his entire body and finally, she succeeded in bringing his body into the room and the wall closed. Kayelin put her hand on his heart. She couldn’t feel anything. “No… Jin…” She cried on her knees in front of his hurt body. “I am so sorry. You should have saved yourself. Please wake up. I cannot do anything without you. I shouldn’t have bothered you talking about Regan… He was dead already. I made you die like him. If I didn’t, then you would have saved yourself.” She came close to him and put her lips on his just like when he was unconscious when Aldwin died. His lips were still warm and moist. It felt nice. She closed her eyes. It was something she felt before. She felt something inside her. She kept putting her lips on him and then she stopped because she felt something. She wasn’t doing this alone. Jin was awake. “Jin… You are…” Then he looked at her and pulled her shirt closer to him and kissed her. “What was that?” whispered Jin in Kayelin’s ears. “It is something called love.” “Love?” “Yes. Love. The most precious thing only inside us.” “How do you know it is love? Does the robot tell you that you are in love with someone?” “No, when you fall in love, you just know it. If you love someone, it means you care for them. It is something common between the people you have lots of memories with. When you do something, you just realize yourself thinking that it would be wonderful to be with them at this moment. You might act differently just to them because you actually want to look as a better person just in front of them. You would want to do anything for them and after you feel so proud and happy when you see them being happy. You also always worry about them, if they are doing well, if they are not sick or if nothing is making them stressed. You would feel that you want to be with him or her at any moment in your life and wish you can start and end the day with them. And even if you don’t know right now, you realize that you loved someone after they are gone.” “Oh… That was love… Is that why you saved me first…?” “Yes. Kayelin, because all my life, the only thing we learned was how to get good grades, how to survive in this competitive world. We didn’t experience such things as emotions, especially ‘love’. People say I am crazy. They say I do things I didn’t do and know people that I don’t know. The one common ending of all these relationships is that they end up leaving me or betraying me. But being with you feels like I found myself. Promise me that you won’t betray me in any situation… I might not be that kind of a person you think. An innocent and kind person that is good at everything as you think. I… I mean… I have to tell you… that… I am not… ” He was trying to say something but he kept hesitating and couldn’t finish the sentence. Kayelin just came up to him. “It doesn’t matter because I love you too.” and they kissed again promising not to lose each other not thinking of Regan who died in the maze missing them.