Beyond Our Stars (2 page)

“No wait, Grim first,” I said, struggling from his grasp to help him tie a rope around the boy's waist instead.

“I can do it,” Grim protested as he fumbled with his small hands over the thick rope.

“I know,” I muttered softly as I helped secure him to the pole as swiftly as possible.

I knew that Chance had no idea if tying off was the right course of action. The other Specs saw what we were doing and as they gripped parts of the ship for support everyone slowly inched their way toward the middle of the deck and the tangles of rope.

“Handcuffing ourselves to the ticking bomb is, mmm, zee best option?” Weeks asked me through gritted teeth as he worked a rope around his arm and struggled to keep his balance. I shook my head at him.

“What else can we do?”

He nodded. Whenever Weeks was serious it made me extra nervous.

The sea was getting more and more violent and I wondered if they planned on capsizing us. That had never happened before, but there was no telling what the Locals were going to do, what they wanted to see.

Grim was secured so Chance moved on to me. The boat lurched.

“Hope!” Pilgrim cried as I slid down to the side of the ship that was tipping toward the sea.

I braced myself for the gush of water just as the ship began to level. I managed to stand again.

“Get back over here now!” Chance yelled to me. I could hear the worry in his voice.

“Tie off, I'll be right there!” I yelled.

He hesitated but began securing himself as he watched me make my way back over.

That's when I saw it. A stream like a geyser under the surface of the water. And it was gaining force.

I looked back at the group. The ship jumped and fell violently but I saw that everyone else had managed to secure their ties. I was the only one who was left sliding around with nothing to cling to.

But that wouldn't be for long. I grabbed onto a pole and made my way toward Chance. His eyes traced every thing I held on to, every place I put my foot.

Then the ship began to rise higher than before, higher and higher into the air. I gave Chance a panicked look.

Before I could think about what was happening the ship crashed down, leaving me in the air.

I landed on the deck with a thud and felt a searing pain shoot through my knee. There was no time to regain my bearings before the ship started another swift tilt and I began crashing into poles as I slid downward. I tried to dig my nails into the wood of the deck and layers of skin were ripped from my fingertips as I felt myself go overboard. I hit the green water and it sucked me in and pulled me down with such force that fighting it seemed pointless.

I fought anyway. It was hot and getting hotter. I kicked, trying to figure out which way was up and push myself in that direction. It was all darkness. My lungs began to scream for the air I knew they wouldn't get.

This was it, the end of me. I kept kicking, trying desperately to live.

But I had to breathe in, I had to, I had to…

White light flashed. The session vanished.

And I was lying on the floor of the Stack, still kicking. I breathed in air in long gushes, savoring the relief. I put a hand out on the ground and it stung the raw flesh of my fingers. I turned to my side and saw that Chance was kneeling a few feet away, his hands pressed to the sides of his face, terror in his eyes as he stared at me.

I turned away from him and thought,
well, now I know how it feels to die that way
.

The Reflection was a major vessel. That meant it had more than five thousand people aboard. I was glad to be on it instead of one of the minor vessels. Those people were stuck with the same five hundred to a thousand people for the whole five-year trek to Haven. I was barely keeping boredom in check with
this
many people. A smaller vessel might've caused me to simply eject myself out into space.

What was making us all excited and giving everyone more energy than they'd had in a long time was the approaching landing date. Only five weeks to go and we'd be in our new home, finally.

There would be a lot to do of course. Our classes had reminded us of nothing else for the last five years. But it would also mean that I could go out exploring, go lie in the grass, and smell dirt.

There was nothing I wanted to do more than to smell dirt. It would be a painful reminder of my home, of the home we'd all lost, but it would also mean that we really did have a future. That living might start to be more than surviving.

Everything was a reminder of home anyway, on purpose. Most of the Gov officials had died in the cataclysmic failure of Earth that had come suddenly after twelve years on the precipice. The Gov that remained, who were few, named everything as a way to remind us and make us better next time.

I'd made it onto the Reflection without anyone by my side. Despite my parent's optimism about Earth's environmental downturn, they'd only had me. They were being responsible, they said. They died in a fire that sparked from lava flow through Northern California. I was twelve. That smell of sulfur would never leave me, sometimes I woke up at night smelling it.

I'd walked the remaining hundred and fifty six miles from Lassen National Forrest to Reno, Nevada alone. So, now that solitary little girl had grown up on a spacecraft headed toward planet CR-3 to start a new life.

I was on my way to class, Intermediate Agriculture, when I ran into Chance. His hair always looked different under the incredibly bright corridor lights of the ship, turning it from a brown to a bright buttery color.

“Hey, I was looking for you,” he said. “You gonna come over around eight? I borrowed a portable so we can watch a movie. How's that sound?” He gave me a slow smile.

I sighed and rolled my eyes, returning his smile. “Yeah, fine. See you then.” I knew we'd be doing plenty more than watching a movie and he knew it too. And I won't lie, it didn't sound awful.

I wasn't really solitary anymore, even though that felt kind of strange. I had Chance. We'd met only days after we left Earth behind because the orphans were all housed in the same area. We'd been kids then, we didn't start dating until last year. But it felt like we'd known each other our whole lives. Everything now revolved around ship life and Chance had been there for all of that. No one wanted to think of the past.

I hadn't wanted a relationship with anyone. I had no interest in the matching, pairing off process that everyone else our age accepted as normal, now. But Chance won me over. He'd known from the first day he met me, that's what he said. Me, I was a good deal more standoffish than that. I'd grown used to my independence and I didn't like the idea of needing anyone. But Chance…he was a natural fit. His laugh, the witty comments he made hoping to impress me, the light in his eyes. That look of complete and total infatuation he had when we kissed. Somehow, I felt like he couldn't be denied. I starting feeling as though he belonged by my side.

I went to class and sat through a lecture on seeds and fertilizer and growing conditions for pumpkins, of all things. Like of every choice I had, all the plant life we'd brought along with us, I would someday think,
yes, I want to eat a pumpkin today
.

After that was my last class, Repopulation, one that I was so grateful Chance wasn't in. Having an adult talk to you about the necessity of procreation, managing your fertility, and the compensation that would be provided for each child you had, it was too much. And not something I intended to follow through with. After years of watching my parents chastise anyone who had more than one child, the thought of helping society by having baby after baby was a foreign one.

Finally, Pregnancy-for-teens ended and I made my way to the cafeteria for dinner before I went over to Chance's quarters. He had one more class to go. I piled my tray high from the self-serve buffet they laid out three times a day and went to find Houston. She got one of the names after big cities that people wanted to commemorate in case Earth…well, in case what happened, happened. New York, Brooklyn, Angeles, or any city or landmark, really, became one of the top names in 2058.

The cafeteria wasn't fancy. It had about as much ambience as a sterile hospital. Bare bones, only what was necessary. We had tables with black plastic tops and metal chairs. Our usual table had been taken over by some seniors. Not like high school, the gray-haired kind. Seriously, the elderly that had made it onto the ships had gotten crankier and ruder than I'd ever known them to be on Earth. Like there was some unspoken agreement between all of them that this was all our fault, the young people were to blame, that they deserved better in their twilight years. Lectures from some grouchy, pissed off old-erly hunched over on a cane were not uncommon. ‘Respect your Elders,' they said. Like they wanted to teach us, to impart their wisdom before it was too late. But in my book it already was too late.

I felt bad for thinking that as I ran into Chief Engineer Upton on my way to go find wherever Houston had found a place to sit. Chief Up was an old guy, but not like the rest. He was old in a way I did respect. He paid attention to people, and he counseled sometimes, but not lectured. He was really smart, and thoughtful, and he'd told me once that the best trait a person could ever have was resolve. I'd liked him from that moment on.

He nodded at my tray, “Gonna' grow today?” he asked me. I had gotten way more than my share of food. It wasn't policed or anything, but we were supposed to take only as much as we needed.

“T.D. is almost here, feels pretty good doesn't it?” I said, partially to distract him from my shame of giving in to hunger in front of him. T.D. was Touchdown Day.

He smiled at me knowingly, but answered, “I couldn't be more relieved. It's been no easy feat, keeping this girl up, you know. Unbelievable. Cost cutting on materials the one time they shouldn't have been doing that.” He shook his head reproachfully, but I knew he was losing some of his bitterness now that we were almost there. Several of the ships hadn't been built the way they should've been. They fell apart slowly during the journey and the people who built them had neglected to equip us with the necessary technology to transfer people from ship to ship. There was one vessel, the Retrospect, that had one section ripped off by an asteroid and everyone and everything on board had frozen. I pictured the Retrospect still floating somewhere, an icy tomb for someone to find some day. A few of the ships had simply gone missing, lost somewhere out there.

It'd been really hard on Chief Upton and the Chief Engineers on every ship that had made it, but now he would be a hero. Chief Up was basically our captain and he was regarded as the leader of all the vessels. There were Gov people who had tried to take titles in the beginning, but off of Earth and away from any kind of system we'd ever known, the Government had lost power in favor of trained people who could get things done.

I nodded to Chief Up and balanced my tray so I could pinch his arm affectionately. “Gotta go, found Houston,” I said, looking at the raven-haired, overly made-up girl waving effusively at me. He glanced at her, but didn't walk away so I stayed where I was.

“When we get down there I want you to find me when it's convenient. I want to make sure you have every opportunity on Haven.”

He knew I didn't want to get down there and start pumping out babies. I had so much that I wanted to do in our new home before that happened.

I did want children one day. The thought of being able to do that with someone, to make a family, it wasn't wholly out of my comprehension as something I might enjoy.

Someday.

“I will,” I said evasively, turning away.

“Let me help,” Chief said, shaking his head at me. “Occasionally, you have to let people help you.”

“Okay,” I gave him a half smile. Then I hollered so everyone could hear, “Chiiiieeeef Up!!”

“Biiiig Chief!” a chorus of voices answered loudly. This was the usual salutation for him, our way of showing our gratitude and respect. He nodded at the crowd and narrowed his eyes at me with a playful glint, then walked out through one of the sliding doors.

I hurried over to where Houston was waiting for me, her fingers drumming impatiently. She was sitting with a smallish, skinny blonde whose cheeks got rosy as I approached. I didn't know this girl. Though with only so many of us aboard, I'd likely seen or bumped into her at some point. She was sitting sort of hunched over with her head down. “You meeting up with Chance tonight?” Houston asked before my butt was even in my seat.

I gave her a weary look. “Yes,” I answered slowly. She grinned at me. “It's not gonna' be that… I mean, we haven't talked anymore about that.” She was always impatiently awaiting the loss of my virginity. She'd lost hers a few months back and couldn't wait for me to join her. Especially since I had a full-time boyfriend and all.

Chance and I did a lot of things, but that wasn't one of them, yet. There was still birth control provided on the ship since there wasn't much room for new additions, but I had an uneasy feeling it might be harder to come by after we landed. This meant that a lot of the girls were taking their opportunity now. Probably not what the ship's medics had intended.

“Okay. But I say, get it while the getting's good, Hope.” She gave me an authoritative stare down.

“Yeah, thanks for the advice. Are you going to keep being rude or introduce me to your new friend?” I nodded warmly at the new girl, who looked back at me with wide, slightly crazy looking eyes.

“This is Marseille,” Houston announced. “She's American, but she's helping me learn French! Her mother was from France isn't that cool!”

“Yes, very cool,” I answered, giving Marseille a smile she didn't return. Learning languages was a hobby for some of us. When we landed it would be nice to be able to communicate with every survivor.