Did you know that the human brain is wired for religion? Tracts and synapses forming together to make it an integrated part of the human psyche.

Don't misinterpret me though, when I say religion, I don't necessarily mean the worship of a deity. Perhaps spirituality might be a better word. Yes.... The human mind is wired for a certain spirituality. As I am not a human, I worry that I cannot explain this phenomenon satisfactorily, but I will try....

Humans, no matter who they are, desire a deeper connection with something greater than themselves. They seek out experiences that connect them with this greater otherness. A purpose to life and a meaning beyond merely survival. It isn't enough for a human to merely live and find pleasure, they must find meaning, and this meaning must mean something greater than themselves.

For instance, a human may pick a deity, God, Allah, Yahweh, or they may pick a religion that hosts many deities, think the Greeks, the Romans, or those residing in modern day India. Some find spirituality in the reality of spirits: Voodoo, Native American. Some seek solace in their ancestors, China, and certain parts of Central America. Some strive to return the universe from whence they came.

Then there are those humans that may feel indifferent towards the existence of a god or many. They may seek spiritual oneness with the nature around them, with their own bodies. They find their spiritual experiences at the tops of the mountains, deep in caverns, or falling to the earth from great heights.

Others deny the existence of a great being, spirit, or ancestors, but still they cannot escape the human need for connection with a greater purpose. These people may look into the eye of a telescopic lens, see the universe and be filled. They hold to their science for an understanding of the greater-universe around them. They feel connected unraveling the secrets and delving into the mystery.

These things are not mutually exclusive. Any human can have multiple experiences of spiritual-wholeness moving from the alter, to the mountaintop, to the laboratory. Regardless of their beliefs, the human cannot escape their desire.

The needed to be part of something greater than themselves

Find a human without their greater purpose, you find a human without their hope

***

The Captain wouldn't tell them where they were going. He kept his lips tight shut a knowing smile winking at the back of his eyes. Krill sat in his normal seat to the back of the Bridge watching the humans as they went about their daily business.

Hours ago, the captain had taken almost completely control of the bridge locking of control from the navigation stations and the outer hull cameras. He was the only one who could see or knew where they were going. Pre-programed maps in his computer allowed him to make the warp without assistance from the navigations station.

He was piloting the ship manually now. Using the foot levers and the joysticks to steer them to their destination.

"You going to tell us where we're going, Captain." One of the Crewmen asked in slight exasperation.

Captain Vir gave a light sake of his head, "Almost there."

The bridge crew rolled their eyes, but kept silent, they would know soon enough.

Captain Vir steered the ship slowly into place allowing a quick burst form the engines to reduce their forward momentum bringing the ship to the closest approximation of a halt when drifting in deep space. From there he quickly locked down the computers ordering the ship to stay in this relative position while they worked.

With a hop, the man left his chair and swept across the bridge a light bounce in his step. Those crew members curious enough to follow left their seats to trail at his heels. Krill followed at a similar pace.

"Captain? What are we doing?"

Captain Vir pushed his way out onto one of the many cargo decks and stopped by an exit hatch. Space suits hung on hooks at either side of the door glittering dully waiting to be used. He ignored Krill's question and reached for the button on the far wall calling any crewmember down who, "Wanted to do something super dangerous and very cool."

The amount of people that showed up rather unnerved Krill.

Once assembled, the Captain propped himself atop a wide crate to look down on his people. "First off, does anyone have issues of anxiety, claustrophobia or fear of very large spaces, if you do, you might want to take a look up on the bridge instead of doing what we are about to be doing." A few people broke off from the crowd, "Anyone here not rated for spacewalking. Because if you are, sorry you can't come." A groan rose up from the crowd, and a large group broke off to follow the others to the bridge.

The captain Grinned at his remaining crew, "Alright, what I am about to show you, I was introduced to in my first year at the academy. It is extremely dangerous, and possibly a little bit.... Against regulation." A few other members of the crowd wandered off. They wouldn't participate, but they would keep quit. Krill felt a light tinge of accepting apprehension.

He doubted the captain was going to let him wander off like the others.

"As you all know drugs of any kind are prohibited in his program, and rightly so." The crowd shifted. The captain seemed pleased with his buildup.

"You know that feeling that you got as a kid staring up at the night sky, or trying to think about infinity."

The crowd nodded in understanding. Krill didn't get it, "Well imagine that feeling times a thousand. A feeling of awe so overwhelming you could barely move your limbs."

The group shifted, "They call it Omnidocing, and the procedure is get in a space suit in the middle of space, connect yourself to a tether, and then step out into the void and allow the ship to cloak itself giving yourself the feeling of being alone and floating in space." The group around shifted in apprehension, "The feeling is so profound that it is possible to go mad. Those that don't go mad describe the experience as an intense high, or even one of an extremely religious experience."

More nervous shifting, "If you have any doubts about your mental health or your ability to step into nothing, than I suggest leaving now."

Members did so.

"For this, I picked, what I think of as one of the most beautiful spots in the known galaxy, and if you are willing to join me, we go out in groups of four one from every major deck of the ship, so that we don't interfere with each other."

The captain glanced down at Krill, "Willing to come with me?"

Krill slumped, he was hoping the human wouldn't ask him that, but.... Still.... The idea was intriguing.

***

He was having second thoughts when the airlock closed at the white mist hissed from above spraying their suits with a decontaminating agent. They had found months before that Krill fit snuggly into one of the larger sample containers, and the container could be easily strapped in duality with the oxygen to the back of space suit.

"You ready." The captain's voice came transmitting over the metallic intercom of the suit.

"Why do you get me into these things?" Krill responded in annoyance as much to hide his fear as anything else.

"You joined a human crew, so whose fault is it?" A sharp hiss, and then the world was devoid of sound. Bright strips of blue, orange, pink, and purple light rolled in from the slow opening as the doors split apart. Bodies grew weightless in the space as the universe folded out in front of them vast and immeasurable against blackness.

Krill ventured a glance behind, but was met with nothing, as if the ship were just.... Gone.

He turned his head back feeling the human shift to gaze upwards towards the towering cloud of gas millions of lightyears high and trillions of lightyears across. The nebula glittered with a millions bursts of light, a star nursery ushering new light into the universe towering pillars of dust lit from the interior with the pulsing heart of newborn stars.

Below their feet the vast expanse of space continued on into infinity stretching out towards the distant blackness of space where stars winked upwards at them. Light refracted and split across his vision bouncing through the ice field that hemmed them in on their left side. The massive crystal structures towered into the night spinning slowly through the vastness of space capturing light only to release it back in all directions, colors and intensities. To their right, a newly expanding solar system, a thin disk of dust and light swirling towards the new star at its center.

Large masses of gas had already formed at the edge of this ring glittering with red and blue hues as the system contracted in on itself.

And lastly, above them hundreds of disjointed tendrils of gas and space rock floating in and out of miraculous configurations, spiraling and pulsing at what felt like the heart of the universe.

Krill watched, and felt as the human below him relaxed, arms floating out to his sides legs splaying slowly one back and one forward as they spun end over end until there was no way to know which way had been up and which way had been down before realizing that there was no such thing.

Distantly a pair of traveling binary stars slowly whirled in and then out of sight.

Could he feel it, could he feel what the human felt, something stirring deep inside? The awe rising up to fill his head.

The universe unraveled before him.

And then the tug of the ship came at their backs reeling them in and away from the void dragging them inward to where the doors shut and the light was gone.

Gravity returned, and the human collapsed to the ground within the space suit as white mist rose around them, he moved very little, as the crew rushed in to pull them out unstrapping Krill from the man's back and letting him loose, where noise suddenly came back to his attention.

He stood on the deck mildly stunned as the other humans removed the man's helmet where he lay on his back.

His eyes at first were glassy and distant his expression one completely and utter contentment somehow mixed with great awe.

As soon as the noise hit him though, he was snapped out and sat up shaking his head and grinning, a distant look still there in his eyes. He slapped Krill on the back, "Told you, way better than getting high, or at least I would assume so."

And even he, as not humans as he was, couldn't shake the thought of the vastness spreading out before him.

***

The term was coined Omnidocing after the first interstellar ship was launched for mission. While astronauts had been experiencing the awe of space walks many centuries before, they had never experienced so far from home, and without their home planet in view.

The first instance of cosmic-hysteria was recorded after the very first spacewalk. Men coming back in with a fear of darkness and open spaces worried they would float away into nothingness as they slept.... They didn't survive long. Not long after, protocols were put into place to avoid such occurrences, but still the humans didn't stop. Lured by the awe of the universe, they left the safety of their ships and stepped into the void.

Some regretted their decision.

Others felt something different. Those lost for purpose found a greater connection to the universe, those struggling with previously decided religion found peace in that awe. Some changed their theology while others grew stronger, and some lost their attachment to this world all together.

Interesting creatures humans, how they can peer into infinity and come back strengthened, or broken.

For when you stare long into the void, the void stares long into you