The Eternal

“It’s not easy for me to remember how all of this began…” The man says, finally.
“I’ve had to tell myself these stories… So many stories… Just to keep myself sane
through the long periods of nothing I’ve had to endure as a result of my… condition. I
can’t quite tell anymore where the stories end and where my memory begins… not
without a struggle at least.”
The man falls silent.
“It’s okay,” Says the doctor soothingly.
“Take your time. You’re among friends here.”
“Thank you, doctor.”

Two days ago, the starship Monaco came across a human male floating in deep space: completely naked, but showing no signs of physical strain or abnormality.  He tells them he’s immortal, and so far, the facts do seem to support his claim.
Now, he sits in the ship’s medical lab, sharing his story with the head doctor, Alyssa, as she attempts to ascertain exactly what’s going on with this very peculiar situation.

“Can I get you something to drink… or anything to eat? Would you like some food?”
Alyssa asks,
“You must be starving.”
“No, no…” The man replies quickly, shaking his head
“I gave that up years ago. I have no need of sustenance anyway.”
That wasn’t an answer Alyssa was expecting. Shocked, intrigued, and a little concerned, she asks:
“You’re sure there isn’t anything that you want? Anything at all?”
“No.” The man responds with finality.
“I have no interest in consuming matter and no need for material things. Truth be told, a lot of the actions that were required of me to maintain my mortal life disgust me now. No,”
He shakes his head again and continues:
“No, all I need right now is time. I guess I have plenty of that, too…”
The man laughs then, unexpectedly: a loud, harsh, bitter sound, devoid of any sort of warmth or happiness.
It disturbs the doctor.
As abruptly as the laughing starts, it ends: replaced by a cold and empty stare.
“Five times now, I’ve seen the universe die… and yet, I always remain.”
He mutters.

There’s a long silence.

Eventually, he speaks:
“I used to be a scientist. The when and the where is irrelevant, because as far the present timeline goes that place never even existed…”
He stops for a moment and sighs.
“Anyway… I found a way to cheat death: to force the body to never undergo any sort of damage. I told myself, and others, that it was for the betterment of all mankind, but, really I was just pandering to my own necrophobia…”

He laughs again: a soft, sombre chuckle.

“It’s quite funny really… I used to fear it. Death, I mean. Now, I can’t think of anything else that I could possibly desire more…”

He falls silent once again.

“Do you have any idea what it feels like to be a human being, with no ‘special powers’… no real way of ‘changing’ anything… who just can’t die? No matter what happens: I’m always here. Once, I ended up being caught in a supernova. I felt the pain of burning for what felt like an eternity and just didn’t die! No matter what I do… when the universe ends… it’s all gone, and I’m still here….”
He breaks down and starts sobbing
“Still here…” He whispers
“Still here…”

“It’s okay,” Alyssa coos, trying to comfort him.
“It’s okay.”

“The worst part is, my treatment only seems to work on me! I’ve tried replicating the experiment… changing it… but nothing works…. “ He shouts suddenly, jumping up like a madman and pacing around the room.
“So I can’t even make myself any company! It’s just me and my dying friends… all the way into forever… Forever. Forever!”
Another bitter laugh,
“You can’t even begin to comprehend it until you’ve known what it’s like….”
He falls to the ground, puts his head in his hands and cries.

“Well, he’s telling the truth, near as I can tell.” Alyssa says, speaking to the captain many hours later.
“I tried to inject him with a sedative and the needle just passed right through him. I can touch him, that’s fine, but any time I try to do anything that could be considered even remotely harmful, it just… fails. I don’t understand it.”
“And you’re sure he’s not some sort of alien?” The captain replies, skeptically.
“Well, that’s the strangest part of all,” Returns the doctor,
“He’s human! I can’t detect any difference between him and any of us….”
“Doctor, is he any danger to the rest of the ship?”
“To be honest, captain… I don’t know.”
“Keep him confined to the medical lab until you do. I don’t want anyone to get to hurt.”
“Yes sir.”
“And keep me informed on any new developments.”
“I will sir, thank you sir.”
She returns to the medical lab.

The man sits silently in one corner of the room, holding his head in his hands.
After a while, Alyssa feels awkward and speaks:
“The captain wants to keep you here to run a few more tests.” She says, nervously.
“That’s fine; I don’t have anywhere to go.” Murmurs the man; without looking up.
The doctor peers at him, curiously.
“How did you do this to yourself?” She asks,
“I injected myself with a compound I’d created that would cause my body to regenerate more rapidly. It was supposed to be the first step of my cure for death, but…. The cure worked right away. I know this for a fact, because two hours later my city was wiped out by an explosion: the start of a world war. I was in the middle of the blast radius, and yet, I survived.”
He shrugs.
“The thing is, I looked back on my notes a few years later and found out my ‘cure for death’ was fundamentally flawed from the very beginning: my compound wouldn’t have done a thing. I don’t know how it worked... or why… but I wish I had of died that day.”
Finally, he looks at her.
“Life extension’s one thing… but what I’ve got… It’s torturous.”

A siren goes off outside the medical lab. There’s the sound of the running feet.
“Doctor, “– The voice of captain comes in over the ship’s communication system.
“We’ve encountered two Tysecian battle cruisers. Standby, there may be some casualties.”
The man returns his head to his hands.
“Two?” Alyssa exclaims, shivering involuntarily.
She holds down the communication button.
“U-understood!” She stammers,
Standing by for further orders, sir!”

After a fierce battle, the Monaco explodes, taking with it one of the attacking ships. The survivor pulls away, not bothering to scan the debris.

And there, floating alone in a cloud of mutilated bodies and decimated technology, is the man, doomed for all time with exactly what he wanted.