A Different Perspective

Johnathan viewed space differently than everyone else living on the starship Phoebus because he was missing one eye. The unfortunate accident, which destroyed his left eye when he was six, happened too far from Earth for him to be sent back home for a bionic replacement. Until the ship reached Terminus, a journey of twenty-seven years, Johnathan’s only option was a patch.

Being cruel can come second-nature to young kids, especially when they have something as obvious as an eyepatch to pick on. It didn’t take long for many of the other kids to refer to him as Cyclops and Jolly Roger. Johnathan’s parents and his teachers did what they could to protect him, but it was up to him to stand up for himself. It didn’t happen overnight, but eventually he managed to put the bullies in their place and the other kids eventually got used to seeing his eyepatch as a normal part of life.

Johnathan gradually became used to having only one eye and, as his family’s ship continued to streak across the galaxy, he rarely gave the missing orb much thought. That radically changed one morning when the Phoebus was pummeled by an undetected meteor storm. Not only did the rocks not show up on any of the scans but they pierced the ship’s electronic shields like they were made of butter. The meteors did not consist of the usual mineral groupings found coursing through space. These were tiny crystal-clear globes approximately one inch in diameter which radiated a bright light like miniature suns.

The shower only lasted for five minutes and then most orbs moved on across the galaxy leaving several spheres attached to the ship’s surface. Johnathan was now old enough to join the ship’s crew. For a flight this long, it was required that physically able passengers help maintain the craft. He was tasked to inspect the ship’s hull and external telemetry array. It wasn’t his first spacewalk, but they always gave him butterflies. The inspection was going along without a hitch and the ship only suffered minor dents and scrapes. Just before heading back inside, a swirling light caught Johnathan’s attention. He walked over to a vent and pulled the orb out from where it was wedged, placed it in a carry bag and brought it inside.

Regulations require that all materials found in space must be turned in for inspection. Johnathan knew this, but there was something about this small sparkling globe that wouldn’t let him part from it. He slipped it into his coverall pocket as soon as he had his space suit off. The thrill of finding what would surely be the most valuable item in the galaxy was almost impossible to suppress. Feeling like a giddy school kid, Johnathan told his teammates he was suffering from a touch of space sickness and raced back to his cabin.

When he pulled the orb from his pocket it was quite unremarkable. The light emanating from it was flat and lackluster, disappointing to say the least. Then he shut the lights off. The room glowed in brilliant rainbow colors so vivid Johnathan had to laugh uncontrollably. Something else besides the colors caught his attention. If he staired directly through the orb other places and people came into focus. He could see the captain on the bride delegating orders to the crew, he could watch a disaster that was unfolding on Earth as political unrest had reached its boiling point. Most frightening of all was he could see that Terminus was under attack by a race of beings he had never seen before.

Johnathan acted without thinking. He held the orb over the spot where his left eye used to be and slid it into the empty socket. His brain sparked like a fireworks display, and it took several minutes for it to settle down. Now he had to decide who was in control, his mind, or the orb. Whichever it was, he had to figure it out soon. People needed him to act.