Blast Off

Saying the ring was intact was being generous at best.  The metal surface of the ring was warped, and there were black scorch marks everywhere.  It appeared as if several explosions had occurred.  I picked up a piece of unbreakable glass that had fallen from one of the destroyed buildings.

"No ordinary weapon could have broken this."  But who could have made such a weapon?  That was a critical question.  Unfortunately, I didn't have anybody to ask.  Then it came to me!  Newton....  Where was our living God?  How could he have allowed this to happen?  Newton was immortal and very powerful.  But he also isolated himself in his own sanctuary.

"How hard could it be for me to get there?  There's no one to stop me from entering heaven."

Newton's realm was usually guarded by soldiers and robots.  But even the robots hadn't survived the blast.

Out of curiosity, I found a place where I could get a good view of Earth.  I was shocked to find that whatever was left of Earth was just a pile of loose rocks orbiting each other.  To break the very Earth would have required a power I couldn't even imagine.

"If Earth has been destroyed, then our other colonies are most likely gone too."  Venus and Mars were very prominent colonies with huge population.  But looking at the scope of what had happened....

"This looks like the end of times."  Hadn't Newton written in one of his memoirs that he had foreseen the apocalypse?  I certainly felt as if I had read something on that one time.  

First thing's first, I need to find a working spaceship to fly out of Kepler's Ring.  But where would I find a functioning ship in all this mess?  I wasn't sure where I should look first.  And there was no means of quick transportation either.

********************

Three Earth days later...  Not that there was any Earth to speak of.

Inside an old emergency shelter, I had found an old spaceship.

[And when I mean old, My Friend, I mean really old.  The thing didn't use any modern technology.  It wasn't powered by plasma, and it didn't have an A.I. guidance system.  How the hell am I going to use something like this.]

The spaceship resembled an old white jet.  The body of the jet was incredibly thin.  There was a bubble for a single person to sit inside and manage the controls.  I spent time studying a manual I had found nearby that explained how the ship worked.  The problem was that the ship wasn't powered by plasma.  It seemed to be powered by something called "gasoline."

"What the hell is gasoline?"  Looking at how the engine worked, I determined that I needed a liquid that was flammable at the very least.

"I wonder if I use a chemical reaction inside the chamber....  I could end of blowing the whole thing up."  But there was no way I was going to stay stuck on this ring for the rest of my life with no one else to talk to.

[Now I know what you're thinking.  I hate people.  And yes, that is true.  I really do hate people, especially places with huge crowds.  But that didn't mean I wanted to be alone.]

I looked at the globe that I had been carrying around.  

"I wonder if I can find a golden coil in this mess."  It would probably take me a very long time.  And after already traveling a thousand years in the future, did I dare use it again?

"Nitroglycerin, perhaps?"  A possible combination of chemicals I could use to cause an explosion came to mind.

"Might as well try.  Die trying at least."  I spent the next several hours locating the chemicals I needed.  In addition I had to position the ship so it was pointed towards Newton's sanctuary.  

Now I was sitting in the pilot's seat, saying my prayers to our Lord and Savior.

I turned the small switch to ignite the engines.  But the engine didn't turn over; instead, there was a massive explosion at the bottom half of the space.  The spaceship was torn in half, and the upper portion was propelled upwards.  The energy from the explosion was enough to launch me outside of the gravitational field of the ring.  The force of the blast was so hard that my body slammed into the console, and my face was smeared against the glass dome that was protecting the cockpit.

Once I entered space, there was no gravitational force to keep me from propelling forward.  Newton's sanctuary was right in my trajectory.

Heaven - otherwise known as Newton's sanctuary, was a large golden sphere.  It was located between Earth and where the moon used to be.  

But the problem was that I was going too fast.  The spaceship was set to crash directly into the mouth of the sphere.

"Luckily for me, I brought a parachute."  I just need to calculate the right time to eject.

I needed to be inside the gravitational field of the golden sphere.  In addition, I needed to land at the small hole that allowed spacecraft to enter.

[Yes, My Friend.  It was all planned.  Though I couldn't have foreseen the tail half of my craft blowing away.  But I was still a genius.  I must admit it.  This was the perfect plan.]

I pressed the Eject button on the console.  The glass globe opened, and the seat shot out.  Since I couldn't repair the seat chute properly, I was also haphazardly flung away too. 

I slowly counted to three and waited.  Then I pulled the string on my parachute.  I felt a tug at my shoulders as I was shot up for a few seconds until I settled into a slow downward drift.

Right through the hole and into the landing dock.  The spacecraft, or rather what remained of it had already crashed into the dock.  There was a huge explosion and a burst of flames.

"Don't parachute into the giant fire, now."  I carefully steered myself away and landed softly on the golden dock.  I quickly took off my parachute and ran to the golden elevator.  There were more explosions from the spacecraft as I entered.

I smiled at myself.  I had never met our living god.  I had heard so much about him.  And finally, I was going to see him for the first time.

"He's sure not going to be happy to hear about what happened."  That was the soul thought I had as the golden shaft lifted me into heaven.