Earth Legend

by Florence Witkop

  I waited for him to leave. Instead, he inspected my face once more and frowned because I wasn't healthy yet. He cast about for something to say. He'd used up the one thing he knew, the red-head comment, but his job probably required that he be friendly. He finally pointed to the nearest viewing port.

  We were high enough that the sky was black and forbidding and I could make out the ships near the space station but I couldn't find the Destiny anywhere. I looked and looked, craning my neck, but I saw nothing.

  "Over there." His bark had a military sound to it though he could be a civilian. I didn't know which security was. His black hair was military short and he had nicely proportioned shoulders and the strong build that seems to be mandatory for all soldier types. So he might be military. Whoever he was, I was screwed if he asked too many questions.

  He was pointing to what I'd thought was empty space. I followed his finger to the dim outlines of something so huge my mind had difficulty accepting that it was a ship. It was so black that it was almost lost against the sky. It was miles long and shaped like a cigar. My eyes went wide.

  He almost smiled at my expression. Not quite, but almost. "Most people have that reaction when they first see the Destiny." There was pride in his face and in his voice. He loved the huge thing out there.

  I had no idea what to say in the face of such pride because I was terrified of the black space ship but I had to say something. "We're going on an adventure."

  I waited for him to laugh at my inane comment. Or leave. He did neither. He stayed beside me, arms folded now that he'd shown me the Destiny, looking over the crowd in the elevator. I began to wonder whether he was sticking to me because he was concerned about my well being or because he suspected something and was merely verifying my guilt.

  I needed him gone before I puked from pure fear, but I couldn't very well ask him to leave so I decided to imitate his impersonal behavior and inspect him as he'd inspected me. Maybe he'd be as uncomfortable under my inspection as I was under his. Maybe he'd leave.

  As I looked him up and down I decided that under different circumstances I'd be impressed. And interested. He was good looking, though judging by the people in the elevator with us, that was a requirement for being on the Destiny. I'd not seen a homely person yet. Lots of muscles and tons of glowing health. Still, even with glowing health and good looks as common as they seemed to be, the guy beside me stood out from the crowd.

  I checked the stripes on his sleeve again. I hoped he wasn't very important but I was afraid he was. If there were any more stripes, he'd need longer arms. "I'm not good at military stuff so I'm sorry to say that I don't recognize your rank."

  It was in his long-suffering expression that I should know his rank, everyone should, which meant he was important. Very important. But all he said was, "I'm in Security."

  "Oh." My voice slid up an octave. His job was looking for people like me. I should get away from him as quickly as possible and then I should avoid all further contact with him. But I should do so politely so as not to make him suspicious. So when I was able to make my voice fairly normal, with only a slight squeak, I asked, "Do you like Security?"

  As I spoke I inched away, planning to stand up soon, as casually as possible, thank him for helping, say I was fine and look for the nearest group to disappear into. But he didn't seem to know that. He leaned back and gazed at nothing as he thought over my question as if the answer was actually important. "Do I like my job? Yes, I do. It gives me the life I choose."

  That stopped me. This ship, this trip was what he wanted out of life? I couldn't believe it. "You prefer a life in space, never to return?"

  "Exactly." Seeing my expression he added, "I like space and I'm not leaving anything important behind." He took a deep breath, realizing I didn't feel the same way and that, somehow, we were in a conversation, so, like it or not, he had to say something. "It's a huge ship. Enough room for ten times the people who are going and I enjoy solitude. I'll get it on the Destiny." His eyes swept over me again and, as the inspection ended, he nodded. I wasn't sick any longer. I wouldn't puke all over him. He could leave. So as soon as possible without looking like he was running away, he nodded politely, rose in one easy movement, and left without looking back.

  I watched him disappear into the throng and was careful to avoid anyone in a uniform for the rest of the trip. After many, many hours of slow ascent, we reached the space station. The doors to the airlock opened and we all trudged across the station without being allowed time to gawk as in that school trip, until we were in the airlock that led to the shuttles that would take us to the Destiny.

  We weren't counted and we weren't asked for identification. We were simply herded into a shuttle and told to sit. The shuttle crew looked as if they were tired of ferrying colonists, which they probably were, and were glad we were the last. Doors were locked, the shuttle was disengaged from the station, and we glided across miles of black space to the Destiny.

  It was an easy trip. It took mere minutes to go from the known to the unknown. From the life I'd expected to live to one I'd never have chosen if there'd been any choice. As the Destiny loomed larger and larger in the view port, terror started in the pit of my stomach and threatened to keep me glued to my seat. Even the space sickness pills didn't help. I was leaving Earth, leaving home, leaving everything I'd known or hoped to know. I was going into space. Forever.

  Chapter Two

  I become a stowaway.

  When we docked with the Destiny and everyone prepared to leave the shuttle I didn't think I'd be able to stand. I was sure I couldn't follow the other colonists down the aisle. I was positive I couldn't enter the small, round, undulating tube connecting the shuttle to the Destiny and I knew that if I did manage to enter the tube I'd faint before reaching the space ship that hung at the far end.

  None of those things happened. I stood up and walked and then I kept on walking. As I entered the gently swaying tube and felt my stomach knotting, a hand appeared from nowhere and braced the center of my back. Just like before. "It's just a short walk." It steered me smoothly but surely through the tube and then into an unremarkable, square room. Gray and unfurnished, it resembled a prison. My first impression of my new home was prison gray. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"

  I turned. The security guard with all the stripes on his arm was behind me, pushing me forward, but as soon as we emerged onto the boarding deck of the Destiny, his hand dropped and he disappeared. Several men and women in uniforms similar to his but with fewer stripes or none at all on their sleeves came up to him with tablets to be signed and questions to be answered. He turned away from me and towards them as if I'd never existed. Thank goodness.

  "You've got a friend there." A middle-aged woman, a colonist with two children in tow, had watched me cross with the help of the security guard.

  "I suppose so."

  "Cullen Vail is head of Security. He's important." She shuddered. "And he doesn't suffer fools at all. I'd hate to be on his bad side."

  Fighting sheer terror as I realized I'd been hobnobbing with a man who could put me in prison for the rest of my life with no more than a nod of his head, I rushed after the woman and the other colonists who were disappearing through an open door on the opposite side of the room. But I stole a moment to see if he was watching.

  He was. That almost smile ghosted across his face again and sent such a shock through my system that I ended up careening into the back of the nearest colonist who sorely disliked being knocked sidewise by a slip of a redhead. But, with a long-suffering frown, he held his temper and kept the door open until I was though. I heard him mutter something about redheads and why'd they have to be on the Destiny anyway? When I was through he let it slam shut and then he turned away and deliberately ignored me. Good.

  I took a second to lean against the wall and breathe a sigh of relief. I was finally beyond notice of the head of Security and I was on the Destiny, the largest space ship ever built, possibly the largest that ever would be
built. If I wasn't discovered and sent home in disgrace, I'd soon be heading into deep space and a life I'd never have imagined in my wildest dreams.

  No one showed the colonists where to go or gave them any orders, which meant they already knew their way around the Destiny. The media had been full of details of life on the Destiny so I should know all about it but I'd been too busy with finals and orals and writing my doctoral thesis to notice. Now I wracked my brain for any tiny detail I might have noticed on the TV as I passed it on my way to write still another paper.

  There were villages, I remembered that much, ten in all with a thousand people in each. That's what they called the clusters of housing units or whatever the colonists and crew lived in. I also knew that babies could only be conceived as space and resources allowed, a necessity on a ship of limited size and capacity though the ship could hold ten times the number of people going into space. They'd deliberately planned for future population growth. Pets, too, were limited, though they were allowed. Food would be grown on the Destiny but I didn't remember where it would be grown or how. Greenhouses? Terrariums? Container gardens? My knowledge was woefully lacking.

  I followed the colonists and we all headed for what looked like a huge tube that ran down the center of the ship. I remembered reading that the center tube was the part with no gravity so it was used for transportation among other things. Once in the tube, we all grabbed straps and were pulled along at a decent clip. Most of the tube was opaque, filled with cubicles and offices but every so often we'd pass a clear area.

  The first time it happened I almost puked. The ground was miles below. I looked every which way to avoid looking down but even up was down in the tube. The Destiny was huge, ten miles across and fifty miles long. I'd read the numbers but they'd meant nothing to me at the time. Now they did. I swallowed a few times and concentrated on the tube itself and the other colonists and gradually forgot the ground so far below.

  We slowed as we reached a tube that branched off from the main one. It was an elevator. A handful of colonists let go of their straps and drifted towards it. Then they punched a button and it started down. But most stayed where they were. Soon we reached a second such tube and more colonists left. They were all headed to their new homes.

  If I stayed where I was, I'd end up at the other end of the Destiny and there wouldn't be any more elevators to take me to ground level. I didn't know what might be waiting for me at the end and I didn't want to know, which meant I'd have to pick a village and go down the elevator with a group of colonists. I'd have to pretend I belonged and hope they didn't know the difference.

  When we reached the next elevator, I let go of my strap and floated to it along with a few dozen colonists. Rather, I tumbled and was grabbed by a man with a lazy grin who could be my grandfather. "Not got your space legs yet?"

  "Nope." I tried to be nonchalant.

  "It happens. Took my grandson a while to get his, but he made it." He swung me around and plunked my feet on the floor of the elevator and put my hands on the straps that would keep me from flying aimlessly about until gravity kicked in and kept me in place. I couldn't wait.

  He looked like he was enjoying the ride, doing a double somersault before settling down with a strap of his own. He looked like a nice guy. The first I'd met since reluctantly joining the colonists. "You remind me of my grandfather."

  "I remind everyone of their grandfather." He grinned again and held out a hand. "Wilkes Zander at your service and I have three real grandkids waiting for me down there and anyone who needs a grandfather can call on me any time."

  "I might do that," I managed, figuring out why he was there with other elderly people heading out into space. Remembering something I'd read and not paid attention to at the time. That every family and every colony needs grandparents.

  As gravity took hold, my stomach settled and I began to think I had a chance after all. The elevator sides were clear, I could watch the ground rushing towards us and I held my breath because it looked just like home. Like Earth. Green growing things as far as I could see and fruit trees in bloom. It was beautiful.

  "Lovely, isn't it?" Wilkes Zander looked proudly around. "No place on the real Earth is prettier."

  "It's just like home."

  "It is home, girlie. It's your new home and you'll never be homesick for Earth as long as you're on the Destiny."

  All that green would sicken and die if I wasn't there. But I was there so it would remain green and healthy and the colonists would live. I knew that as surely as I knew my own name.

  As the elevator hit the ground with a slight bump, Wilkes Zander added, "A few normal trees would be nice, but these bushes are almost as good."

  What looked like normal trees from the elevator were actually bushes or dwarf trees. As a botanist I knew they required less food and water and produced just as much fruit or nuts as a normal sized tree and as much oxygen. As I looked around, I realized that every bush or dwarf tree in sight bore something that could be harvested and eaten, as did the very grass that grew along the path that stretched before us. The Destiny was one huge farm. I was sure that there was a blueprint somewhere with every bush and tree on it, along with exactly how much oxygen it should create and how much fruit or nuts it should produce.

  I'd make sure that those carefully selected plants would do what they were supposed to do. I'd make sure the harvest was on time and bountiful. I'd keep the food alive that kept the colonists alive even in the dead of outer space. But first I had to find a place to hide.

  "You coming?" Wilkes Zander was waiting. Everyone else had gone on ahead. "We should get going. Check in and do whatever else there is to do." He held out a hand.

  I froze. I couldn't check in. But neither could I take a chance and alienate this man. I put my hands on my stomach. "In a little while."

  "Still feeling sick?" I nodded. "It takes a while with some people."

  I leaned against an apple tree, carefully fitting myself between two low-growing branches. The tree nicely made room for me and I thanked it silently. "I'll be along in a bit. I just need to sit a moment."

  "Sure. I understand." He started away. "I, on the other hand, want to get all that paperwork over with, but I'll come back when I'm done to make sure you're okay. You might need to take something for a while. A week or so. My grandson took pills for two weeks before his stomach settled down."

  "I'm sure I'll be fine in a few minutes."

  "I'll check back anyway. Wouldn't want anyone to be sick when the Destiny gets going. That'll be something. Don't want to miss it."

  "Soon?" I pretended interest.

  "Don't know when, exactly. It's not as if we are on a schedule. We'll leave when everything is ready. When the countdown is done. Maybe tomorrow, maybe next week. Or maybe tonight. We're all staying up late just in case. Even the kids, we're taking them over to the viewing room. What about you?"

  "Sounds like fun."

  He looked me over. "You don't look good. Are you sure you're okay?"

  "I look worse then I feel. Don't worry about me." I made a shooing motion. "Go fill out those papers and find your grandkids."

  With a guilty look, he took me at my word. "Join us tonight if you feel up to it. Lots of people, good food and drinks." He scampered after the handful of colonists heading towards a nearby cluster of buildings. The village. There was even a sign. New Rochelle. Whoever designed the Destiny went to great lengths to make it resemble a series of rural communities. He waved as he followed the path into the thicket of cherry bushes between New Rochelle and the elevator that was cleverly hidden in an orchard so as to add to the rural feel of the place. "See you."

  I took a deep breath and leaned against that dwarf apple tree and wondered what to do next. Then I moved because I was on what was probably a well-traveled path and the last thing I needed was someone else coming along and asking questions. So I stepped off the path and into the orchard and started walking.

  As soon as I left the path I was surrounded
by trees that had to have been planted as soon as that section of the Destiny was closed in from space in order to have grown to their present size. Apples hung ripe and ready for the picking. I plucked one and knew I'd not starve as long as I could wander around the huge farm that was the Destiny.

  I took another step and several cherry bushes closed behind me. I was well hidden. What better place to take stock and plan my next move? And check out whatever Betts had shoved into my pocket back on earth.

  I took it out. It was a comunit. I slapped it on the back of my hand. After a few seconds of adjustment, during which it did whatever comunits do, it disappeared, replaced by a tiny, multi-colored tattoo similar to the ones worn by every legitimate person on the Destiny. Small enough that my bare wrist hadn't been noticed but I sighed with relief that I, too, could now pass a close inspection.

  The comunit was better than anything I'd ever owned on earth. The Destiny had gotten the best of everything because out there in space, if something went wrong, they'd need the best of the best in order to cope and stay alive. For now, though, with my new and very funky comunit, I could link to the Destiny's mainframe. I relaxed against the apple tree trunk and pulled up an index of the kind of information I'd need to survive.

  First things first. Where was I? Where could I hide best? In moments I realized I was probably already in the best place though I'd have to get water, clothing and other things from the nearby village. New Rochelle.

  I decided to sleep in the orchard hidden by thick bushes, but other than that, I'd be well advised to mingle with colonists until they got so used to seeing me that they thought I was one of them. Wilkes Zander already thought I was a colonist. So did the man who hated redheads as did the scary Cullen Vail but Wilkes Zander had invited me to the launch party. It would be wise to accept and begin the process of mingling.