Under The Mother's Gaze

With wheels in place of legs, tracks in place of bones, and cameras in place of eyes, I move in a hundred places at once, omniscient within the steel and carbon fibre hull. My charges sleep -- silent and dreamless. Outside, blackness slips by, thousands of kilometres passing in a single second as we cross the vast and empty expanse of space.

I focus ten thousand lenses simultaneously on their pallid, unmoving faces, examining the cold curves of a thousand frozen bodies, their final waking moments a reflection of their most intimate thoughts on the difficult task that lay ahead - building a new home amongst the stars.

Through time and space I have monitored imperceptible changes in their faint neurological signs and maintained their frigid, static environment, ready to wake them when we arrive. When my sensors light up I alter our course, re-routing us to avoid meteorites or save fractions of a percentage of fuel. Too distant from any sun's light, I cycle our reactors, unfazed by deadly radiation emanating from within. My tireless, thankless work keeps them safe on this journey.

As the years have become centuries they have become more than directives. I have come to know each of them intimately. Not just by name, rank, or number, but by their frozen expressions of determination, fear, and excitement. They have become my children.

I don't want them to leave me.

Josh Clayton is a travel enthusiast, gamer, and writer who enjoys exploring fictional worlds. Hailing from the UK, he currently lives in Cambodia, just down the road from Angkor Wat. He blogs about a variety of things at aworldonapage.wordpress.com and can be found on instagram @AWorldonaPage.

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