One

I'm all alone, floating in space. The starships have long since fought, and I have been abandoned. I cannot tell how long I have been floating here, existing without purpose. The stars used to offer me temporary relieve from the engulfing blackness, but they have long since faded, and I cannot figure out why. Darkness and silence are constant - with only the sound of my breathing to keep me company. They told me my suit has one of the most sophisticated oxygen condensing systems ever made - so it will be months before I suffocate. The mixture of water reserves and re-filtered urine are enough to keep me from dying of thirst - but there is no food. One tends to think a lot whenever one is completely alone, drinking one's own piss in order to die slowly of hunger.

One tends to think that there are over 20,000 starships within my sector, each with hundreds of thousands of people on board. That means there could potentially be billions of people looking for me. One also tends to think of the absurdity of moving, and of the need to sleep as often as one can in order to conserve calories, and thus stay alive for as long as possible. But then again, what if I never wake up? I don't know how long it's been - and I can't see my stomach, or any part of my skin while in this suit. What if I'm closer to death than I realize - all skin and bones, and I go into a coma and die? I can't sleep as often as I should because one tends to think of these things. And as one thinks of these things, one cannot sleep. One also tends to think of one's rank, one's one-ly-ness. I am one - one out of billions, so why would they look for me? Am I just prolonging my death? It's not like I'm THE one, such as a fleet commander, or one they would look for; rather, I am just one of many. One tends to think of these things while floating out in space.

The latch is located on the back of my helmet, where I cannot see it. One tends to think of taking off ones helmet to avoid the torture and pain of starving to death. One tends to think of the few brilliant moments when one feels the kiss of absolute nothingness against one's bare face - cold is just a lack of heat, and heat is just moving particles, so therefore cold is a lack of movement; complete stillness. Every atom has elections circling around it at dizzying speeds, no matter what type, and it has been theorized that matter cannot exist without some sort of movement. Therefore complete nothingness is complete stillness. A corpse is still and cold, so it is no wonder that they are the ultimate symbols of death. One of the definitions of oblivion is absolute nothingness, which is supposedly what waits for one in death. One thinks death is so extremely mysterious - one claims that death cannot be truly experienced until one is truly dead. Yet by that definition, one is already floating in death. Whether one is all alone, in a suit, dying of hunger, or floating on a living rock with other ones, everyone is engulfed around death. Everyone, Every one, Every single one, Every single, separate, individual, isolated one. The nothingness, blackness - it surrounds one, and one cannot escape it. When one is engulfed by death like this, one tends to think of such things.

The latch is still there - taunting me, seducing me. Does one dare press it? Does one dare become one with one's environment? One needs to think of other things to avoid this question. The other one's still may come for me. Let's see, what can one think about at a time like this...ah yes! One! One is such a paradoxical, irritating word in the English language. One would think that one would be spelt W-O-N, as this is how it rolls off of one's tongue. However, one would be wrong because won is the condition of victory, which is completely different from one the individual. Come to think of it, in order for one to have won something, there must be other ones to compete against, and someone or many ones must lose. If everyone, that is to say, every one, won or lost, then no one would have really won anything, because one can clearly distinguish between the won/lost concept from the gain/loss concept. Sports are a perfect concept for one to use as an example. Teams - that is to say, one entity, which is actually made of many ones, plays against another one made of many ones, in order to reach an objective in order to have won. So in reality, if one team won, then really many ones won. Is this the purpose of human existence then? Does one need to belong on a team - a collective of many ones to form one single entity - in order to reach an objective? Is this even really possible? Can everyone equal one? Mathematically speaking, we learn that one added to one equals two, not one, yet the word two is a one word that equals one and one, that is to say, two words. In this case, one equals two - how can one truly fathom that?

One person is made of many atoms, yet one atom is not alive. Is this the trick then? Live comes from many ones equaling to one - whereas death is just one complete coldness, one complete stillness, one complete nothingness, one complete space. One IS death. I am alone, floating in space. Therefore I am one - and everyone is one. So that is it then! I am death! We are all death! I am already dead then! I have no need for this helmet!

*click* *whoosh!*