Stanley had fears just like everyone else. Unfortunately, unlike everyone else on the Merrimack at the moment he didn’t have a professional to talk to at the moment. His particular phobia was one of space. Not the traveling through it. Just the vastness. The unending endlessness of it all. So today he had made himself take a very light meal consisting only of a few pineapple chunks in a small bowl and went to the fantail lounge to, of all things look out the window at the emptiness of space as it fell away behind the ship.

At first, he had sat there with his eyes closed unable to even think about opening them. Finally, though he took a deep breath and opened his eyes enough to spear a piece of fruit and lift it to his mouth before whispering to himself, “Physician, heal thyself.” Then as he chewed on his pineapple, he looked out the window at the vastness of space. He felt his stomach start to do odd things and his hand start to shake. “Sin Meido! “He chided himself

Doctor Stanley Wong