Obiora’s Heart

“Damn this ship! Obi, please yiza apha, the panels are acting up again!” Lerato yelled over the comms channel. Lerato Mbeki and Obiora Chibuzor were a couple alone in the stars. They met nine years ago at the Calabar Institute of Cosmic Exploration. Their courses were selected for them based on a personality-based aptitude test. Would you imagine they were both placed in the exact same classes? 

Their romance started in Intro to Interstellar Cartography, as soon as Obi laid eyes on her he was stuck in awe. She walked into the lecture hall, jet black french curl braids half up half down, head covered by a beige scarf she used to keep out the sun. School cadet jumpsuit on which filled her out deliciously, dark brown skin, she glowed like the sun with a black coffee tint. But it was her eyes he fell in love with, her almond shaped kohl smeared captivating eyes. When she looked up to inspect the room she seemed almost feline, he gasped and his breath flowed away. It seemed she heard him for when she turned her head she smiled a big white smile, and floated toward the seat directly behind him. “Take a picture, it’ll last longer” she said to him as she signaled toward his drool. She laughed, crossed her legs and waited for the lecture to begin. From then on he was stuck to her like pollen sticks to a bee, dropping sweet nothings in the hive of her mind and watching the honeyed words fall from her mouth. He never left his bee queens service, striving in every way to make her happy. 

No children yet for them, and that was okay. They wanted to be the first people to travel to and chart Alpha Centauri, this would be a story they tell their little ones. They had been on this journey for 4 years and 3 months. At the speed they were keeping, they would only remain on it for 4 more months. They loved this old supply ship, so much so that they rechristened her when they bought it. Her name was Mama Celeste, she lived up to her namesake too. 

Obi’s mother, Celeste Chibuzor, was a beautiful and haughty woman. She was full of life and cared for Obi since he was less than a year old. He was found on the steps of the Afri-Saharan Coalition Embassy in New York. She was working late one beautiful July, and as she was leaving she saw him swaddled on the fourth step in a bright akwete cloth, with a note attached to the fabric. “Dear you, If you are lucky enough to find him, please, protect him. His name is Obiora. He is a special child with a gift the world is not yet ready to accept. Care for him in the way I could not. Shield him from those things life throws at people unexpectedly. Treat his illnesses and worries. When he is old enough he will seek me out and find me, even if he doesn’t know it. Love this child, teach him to love himself. - Y”  

She cared for him just like the letter asked, and in turn he took care of her. He made her proud, he was kind and respectful. She loved him with everything, and when he found Lerato she realized his heart had found another. This new heart loved him and cared for him just as much as she did. She knew he was in good hands and that this girl had things for him, she would unlock his potential. Celeste died the day after her darling son's wedding. Her last words to him were “Go to your good thing, she will love you and show you the way. Look to those stars in the sky nwa m nwoke, there you will find your destiny.” His whole life changed, it was then that Obiora Chibuzor decided he would live in the sky.

He pressed the little button on the intercom made out of titanium alloy saying “Lele the shit is fine, stop obsessing over the radiation panel and get down here! I cannot believe you left in the middle of a game.” They had begun a new game of Go Fish, one that Obi was currently losing. “Voetsek, nothing here is fine, come look at this!” Obi, with a large sigh and no hope of redemption in this battle of cards, he left the observation deck and made his way to the bridge. Decent sized ship, living quarters included five bunk beds, captains quarters, and an ambassador room (a space they made spit and glue style for their nights of carnal pleasure). The observation deck was next to the kitchen which was next to the airlock. They had four storage areas, two of which they hadn’t stepped foot in for three years.

As Obi approached the bridge he saw what she was so worried about. “ Obi, something on this ship is emitting a ridiculous amount of Beta Radiation. It all lit up at once. I don’t know what it could possibly be. We’ve been in a warp field this entire time, no elements that we know of could enter it, at least not through the shielding in place. Haibo, it’s moving. Look man!” 

“I see it Lele, I’m going down to find out what it is.”

“Hey, take this.” she reached under the bridge's control console feeling for the plasma rifle that was locked to it. “Be careful, if that thing is as irradiated as the system says you’ll grow horns like some old mythological creature. Take the Radiguard suit. Also,” she got up from the console and walked over to him to plant a kiss on his lips “I love you, don’t take any risks.”
“I won’t, Ugonne’m. It’s probably just some debris.”

He departed down the steps of the bridge and located the Radiguard suit next to the airlock entrance. Shoving himself inside he realized he’d lost a lot more weight than he thought, and then decided he’d just have more protein rations. Lele likes a bit of meat on his bones. “Radiguard suit is on. Lele do you read me?”
“I hear you, husband.”
“Current location of the radiation?”
“Hangar bay 3, west of the entrance point.”
“Copy, moving toward target”

Off he went, past the airlock, and the kitchen, and the observation deck. He passed Hangar bay 4, it was there he saw a glimpse of the thing that would change his life. A bright glow shone through the doors of bay 3. He pulled down the visors on the suit, and what he saw was a humanoid figure. It stood tall, at least six foot three, the entire frame was seemingly on fire by this glow which made his jaw drop. “Lele, the radiation…i’m seeing a person.” 
“Obi, what the hell does that mean? There’s no possible way a person could be on this ship, much less emitting that much Beta Rad without already being dead.”

Obi knew the science, he knew the facts and logic of the situation. This did not blind him to the possibility that he was looking at something extraterrestrial or otherworldly. Obi was very much aware of the gray areas in the universe. He knew that humans had not believed that the old shamans and sangomas knew what they were talking about. Spirits, Orishas, Duppy, whatever you call them, they exist. They just don’t reveal themselves the way one would expect them to. Nor do they communicate or exist in the way one would expect them to. They don’t conform to the limitations we have put on our minds, there are things beyond the earth and beyond human comprehension. That Astro Spiritual Studies course he took in Sophmore year really did a number on him, and Mama Celeste always taught to keep an open mind to otherworldly happenings.

Lerato, on the other hand, did not suffer anything she couldn’t see, touch, or scan. Many things were black and white to her, and she knew that no human could be in this situation and live. Believing that an untouchable force would exist and allow such evil things to occur in the history of man was not feasible. If you have power, then use it for the betterment of a people. What’s the point of allowing wicked things to happen unless you yourself are evil?

Obiora, I am yours.

A voice, a distant whisper crept into Obi’s mind. “Lele, did you say something?” 

“No, why? What did you hear?”

Claim your birthright, claim your power. 

Obi felt a pull of emotion, suddenly his whole body knew that he needed to step into that Hangar. It was necessary to reveal this shining specter's true purpose. 

“Obi, what did you hear?”

He ignored her, her voice was drowned by the figures' bewitching chant. She continued to scream “Obi! Obiora Chiduzor, what is happening? ANSWER ME!”

Claim your birthright, claim your power.
Claim your birthright, claim your power.

The closer he got to the figure, the louder the voice grew. Then suddenly it changed, he heard his Mama Celeste. 

Look to those stars in the sky nwa m nwoke, there you will find your destiny.

Now he and the figure were face to face and the feeling was warm and bright even through the Radiguard suit. Obi knew what he had to do. He began to remove the armor meant to protect him from the radiation knowing that it would no longer be needed. 

He placed the plasma rifle on the ground allowing the suit to drop. Lerato chose not to stay on the bridge and grabbed her own equipment. If anything was going to try and harm her husband she should at least try to kill it first. She decided against the suit, radiation be damned, and grabbed a disruptor pistol. Now she was running through the corridors, panting but determined. She reached Hangar Bay 3 as soon as it happened. Obi was consumed by the light filled entity, or it was consumed by him. That light grew brighter and brighter, until Obi was nowhere to be found. 

TO BE CONTINUED