Earth Legend

by Florence Witkop

  I checked the comunit again. I had time to saunter into New Rochelle, scope it out and hopefully find something to wear. Would I steal from a clothesline? Did they have clotheslines? Somehow I'd have to find party clothes and hopefully, some kind of food other than fruit to still the rumbling in my stomach. Apples and cherries were great but I'd need more than that to be well nourished.

  Chapter Three

  I figure out how life works on the Destiny.

  Once on the path again, it was a short walk to the village. As I stepped from the protective foliage of the orchard I took a deep breath and headed straight to the nearest store as if I had as much right as anyone to go inside. I wouldn't buy anything, of course, but maybe I could figure out where necessities were stored on the Destiny. Then I could return in the night and steal what I needed.

  I looked around desperately for Wilkes Zander. If he was around, I wanted to wave and greet him as if I belonged. But he was nowhere to be seen. The only person in sight was a little girl of around six or seven with short, blonde hair. She was sitting on the curb and holding a very fat cat. "Do you want a kitten? Gracie will have some pretty soon." She held the cat towards me and pointed to the cat's stomach. "She's pregnant."

  A pet would make hiding more difficult. "I don't think I want one right now." Her face fell so I added, "Maybe next time she has kittens."

  Her lower lip trembled. "There won't be a next time. She shouldn't be having kittens now." Her hands trembled to match her quivering lip until she had to drop the cat to her lap. "If I can't find homes for her kittens, they'll have to be … "

  "No!" I couldn't believe it. The kittens weren't even born and already they were scheduled for execution. "Why?" But I knew why. Because the Destiny had a policy. One pet per family. No exceptions. "I'm so sorry."

  "Please." She held the cat out again, tears wetting her face.

  I shook my head. "I can't. I just can't." I felt awful, as if I personally was executing the unborn kittens. "I wish I could."

  On impulse I picked up the cat and cuddled her. She was heavy, it wouldn't be long before she gave birth. I sent up a small prayer that all of her kittens would be adopted, then I gave her back to the little girl and went into what passed for a store on the Destiny.

  It was more of a supply depot than a store, with racks and shelves of clothing sorted by color, type and size. "Not much variety. I hope they do better when the real storekeepers take over. Whoever chose this stuff didn't have much imagination." The woman who spoke carried an armful of shirts and shorts. She waved her chin towards the little girl with the cat. "I'm sorry Alicia bothered you."

  "I just wish I could take one of the kittens. But I'm not settled yet."

  "I know how it is. This is a busy time for us all." She smiled, but it was a sad smile. "Maybe by the time the kittens are ready to be adopted, you'll be settled in and will change your mind." I mumbled something and pretended to look for a couple of outfits for myself. What I really did was watch the woman to see what she did next. She simply went to the touchscreen panel near the door, held out the items so they could be swiped, then she swiped her comunit to identify who got the items, and left.

  Perhaps I could get some clothes after all. If the comunit was as good as I thought it might be. Imitating her, I found a couple of outfits in my size. I could have carried my new clothes right past that touchscreen and outside and no one would have known any different. The store was empty, evidently the honor system was being used. But I didn't because I wanted to know how well my fake comunit worked. My family is financially well off so perhaps their money had been put to good use.

  So, carrying my own supply of clothes from the store, I imitated that woman and swiped my comunit. I waited for alarms to go off but nothing happened. No blinking red lights appeared. No uniformed policeman came to drag me away to prison. I gave thanks to Betts and vowed to thank her somehow, some day. Then I went outside.

  I meandered around the village square, for that's what it was, a precisely laid out park surrounded by supply depots disguised as stores. I entered several. No one was in any of them. In the grocery store, I chose pre-packaged food that I ate in the park sitting on a bench beneath a dwarf peach tree. Then I dropped the empty containers in one of the recycling bins that were everywhere and went in search of the launch party.

  My plan was to find a corner in the viewing room and sit there all night with an expression that said I wasn't up to conversation. I figured it would be understandable in the circumstances. Leaving home never to return. But I'd have made an appearance, I'd have begun the process of becoming a part of the Destiny community.

  I headed towards the viewing room buoyed by a decent meal and a shower in the washroom of the Laundromat where I'd changed clothes. I'd hidden the beginnings of a stash of stolen things behind a thick cherry bush in the middle of the apple/cherry orchard that was to become my new home.

  I felt optimistic for the first time since entering that elevator, maybe due to decent food in my belly. I lifted my chin and walked towards the viewing room with purpose. I could do this. I could survive on the Destiny. Of course, sleeping might be a bit of a problem. The ground wasn't real earth but was, instead, some kind of manufactured stuff that held roots firmly while providing water and nutrients. Whatever it was, it was hard. Really hard. I'd be lucky to get any sleep at all.

  On the other hand, if I could walk into a store and take whatever clothes I needed, why couldn't I also take a mattress, pillow and blanket? I'd seen them through the window of a furniture store. So, as I joined a group of colonists headed towards the viewing room and the party, I tucked a reminder into the back of my mind to wander by the town square when the party ended. When it was late and the town of New Rochelle was deserted. And to steal some bedding.

  "I don't believe I know you," a middle-aged man said pleasantly as we ended up walking beside each other. My face went stiff.

  "She lives around here somewhere," a woman replied. The same woman whose daughter was trying to give away kittens. "I saw her earlier."

  What to say? As it turned out, it didn't matter. His attention had turned, albeit unwillingly, to an eloquent plea by a small girl to adopt an unborn kitten. The tiny blonde didn't stop talking until he agreed to take one. As she skipped ahead, having achieved her objective, he simply shook his head and rolled his eyes at me. Then someone beside him spoke, he spoke back, and then he forgot I existed.

  By the time we entered the viewing room, more people had joined our group. We were a small crowd as we walked into that place and I was glad because there's safety in numbers. I looked like I belonged.

  I looked around for Wilkes Zander and found him on a couch surrounded by several kids. The little girl with the kittens to give away broke free of her mother and ran to him. He gathered her in his arms and lifted her high in the air. She gave shriek of delight then fell into his lap and proceeded to tell him that she'd found a home for another kitten.

  Then he noticed me. He waved me over and I went gratefully because, being with him, being with anyone specific, was a sign that I belonged. That someone knew me as a colonist. The couch and surrounding floor were filled with kids so I pulled up a nearby chair and settled down to watch the Destiny depart from as close to Wilkes Zander as possible.

  If it left. If the countdown went smoothly.

  It must have done so because in less than an hour, as if on cue, we saw the space beyond the viewing ports shift slightly. Nearby ships appeared to move, inches at first, then more and more until it was clear to all of us that we were the ones who were moving even though there was no sensation of motion.

  "See, kids. I told you it would be okay. You didn't have to brace yourselves." Wilkes Zander stood up on one foot to prove that the Destiny was stable. Then he threw a handful of candies into the small crowd and left them in order to join the grownups. He waved me along and I followed. "I didn't get your name earlier."

  "Elle." I wasn't sure whether I should give my right name be
cause I didn't know if the comunit had been assigned to my cousin Betts or whether it would accept the name of whomever used it. But I had to say something. I decided that if there were questions I'd say Elle was my middle name and I'd used it without thinking, though if that happened I'd probably be in jail and they'd already know all about me.

  There were no crew members in the viewing room, nor were there any security personnel. I asked Wilkes about it. "Too busy. There's hundreds of ships out there saying goodbye and the Destiny is huge. The captain doesn't want any collisions."

  "But where are the security guards?"

  "They are around. You may not notice them but they are everywhere." I shivered. "You see them now and then." His eyes gleamed. "You're looking for Cullen Vail, aren't you?" I informed him that the head of Security was none of my concern but he waved aside my protests. "Nice guy, Cullen, though a bit on the stuffy side and he'd make a good hermit." He inspected me carefully as if wondering what Cullen Vail saw in me. "Unless some woman gets her hands on him and changes that." I told Wilkes that Cullen had dealt with my stomach ache and couldn't get away fast enough. He laughed, not believing a word. "I wish you luck if he's what you're looking for. You'll need it."

  Someone produced pop and cupcakes and in a corner there were stronger beverages. Soon the party went viral, with music and dancing and if there'd been an empty table, someone would have been on it. I drank only pop because I couldn't take a chance on getting tipsy though I gobbled enough cupcakes to go a week without food. Then I found a couch as far away from the viewing windows as possible and tried hard not to cry. Unlike everyone else in the room, I didn't want to watch my home slipping inexorably away.

  Eventually the party ended, as much from sheer weariness as because anyone had to be at work in the morning. "Good thing tomorrow is Saturday," someone commented. Someone else answered, "I'll be way too wasted in the morning to go to work." And a third put in, "Shouldn't this become a holiday? Destiny Day or something like that? The day we started the journey of a lifetime." There were cheers and whistles and someone said they'd bring it up at the next village meeting.

  No work tomorrow? That meant colonists had jobs. Just like home. I decided to wander into town Monday morning to see where they went. I should figure out a way to look as if I, too, had a job like everyone else. Then I pretended to fall asleep as the party wound down.

  After the last colonist had tiptoed softly past in order not to wake me and disappeared down the path towards New Rochelle, I rose quietly and followed at a good distance. By the time I reached the town square, it was deserted with the exception of one figure in the darkness. I eased behind a store and waited for him to go home. He didn't.

  I squinted. Darn. It was Cullen Vail, pacing steadily back and forth. Making his rounds. Keeping New Rochelle safe from felons like me. I dropped to my knees behind a voluminous raspberry bush by the store wall and waited for him to leave, which he did after a few moments.

  When I was sure he was gone, I slipped into a store and pulled a lightweight mattress, a pillow and a blanket from the shelves and then dragged them into the apple orchard. I was glad for the artificial dirt because I left no trace behind. But when I was getting ready to turn the mattress into a bed, something stopped me. A sound.

  I froze. Dropped to the ground and lay as still as possible as I waited to be uncovered. I was afraid to look towards the sound, afraid to make any movement at all, so I just lay and waited to be caught. To be imprisoned. The be thrown out the airlock.

  Those are the things I expected to happen. Instead, I heard music. The clear, lovely sound of pan pipes drifted towards me through the night air. I'd heard them before. One of my aunts had whittled a set from reeds growing near her home and bound them together with twine. When she was finished, she'd winked at me and played a melody. I danced and after that I danced every time she played them because she played happy music.

  The songs I heard now were hauntingly beautiful but I couldn't decide whether they were happy or sad because, in a way I couldn't fathom, they were both. I wondered who was making such music and what led to the choice of songs. Was the musician pouring out what he was feeling, what everyone was most likely feeling beneath the public gaity, as the Destiny headed out of the solar system?

  I crawled on my belly without a sound through the cherry bushes until I could make out a form in the dimness that passed for night on the space ship. No moon because there was no need for one. But the darkness was a good imitation of night. It was almost like nights on earth when the moon was new but stars were bright though instead of stars the night sky on the Destiny was a bluish, filtered glow. In that faint light I could vaguely make out the musician's form but not well enough to recognize it. I scrabbled back to my cherry bushes. Then I settled down to listen.

  The concert went on for what I judged to be the better part of an hour. Then, abruptly, the musician rose and left. He passed within two feet of my hiding spot but the bushes were thick and he saw nothing. I said a prayer of thanks for my invisibility even as I wished I could tell him how much I liked his music. How it reminded me of my aunt's songs. But speaking would be suicide and in moments he was gone.

  I crawled to my mattress, slid onto it, pulled the blanket over me, shoved my face into the pillow and eventually fell asleep, the first night of my new, unplanned life. But the lovely melodies of pan pipes floated through my sleep and were a comforting counterpart to dreams of the formidable, sculpted face and shoulders of Cullen Vail. In my dreams, his figure was intimidating and frightening as we headed away from everything I'd ever known. But because of that unknown musician those dreams were interspersed with the memory of beautiful music. I clung to those remembered notes because somehow I knew they'd keep me sane in this new, totally insane life.

  Chapter Four

  I receive phony papers.

  I hung around the apple orchard Saturday and Sunday, exploring and getting to know the trees, bushes and other growing things. Monday, after a breakfast of cherries and apples I set off for New Rochelle to see what a day in the life of a colonist was like so as to better know how to imitate that life. What I found was an almost empty square. Only one person was in sight. The little girl with the kittens, in the same place as before, holding her very pregnant cat and trying to find homes for the unborn kittens. She saw me and waved. "Can you take a kitten yet?"

  I dropped to the curb beside her. It felt right to do so. In fact it felt more like the small town I'd grown up in than a gigantic space ship. The designers were genuises. In a few days I'd forget that I wasn't really in a peaceful farming community. "Not yet."

  "I saw you at the party." She looked me up and down. "My name's Alicia."

  I held out my hand. "Elle."

  "I know. I heard you tell my grandfather."

  "Wilkes Zander is your grandfather?'

  "He's also the Mayor of New Rochelle." She cuddled her cat. "He's important." She stroked the cat and it purred loudly. "But not important enough to save the extra kittens if I can't find homes for all of them."

  "I'm sure you'll find homes for every one of them."

  "If you take one I'll bring food every day."

  I sighed, stroking the cat's plush fur. "I wish I could. I had a cat when I was a kid. But I can't right now."

  "She was pregnant when we moved here. I sneaked her on board. She'll be fixed after the kittens come so she won't be a problem after that." To Alicia, boarding the Destiny was as simple as a move to a new town. "I didn't see you yesterday. Do you live in an apartment? We live in a big one."

  I stopped petting the cat and rose slowly so the movement would seem casual but I wanted to get away before she asked a question I couldn't answer. This little girl who talked nonstop asked a lot of questions. "Yes. That's where I live." What excuse would get me away? "I should go now and get to work."

  "Everyone else went to work hours ago." She looked at me suspiciously.

  "Not that kind of work. I meant that I need to unpack. Bo
xes all over the place." She understood that and nodded, bending her head over her cat. I started away. Then I stopped and changed my mind about leaving. Perhaps I could ask questions of this child that would arouse suspicion if asked of an adult. "What do your parents do? What kind of work? Maybe I work with them."

  "They're farmers. Almost everyone in New Rochelle is a farmer. Aren't you a farmer?"

  "Uh… yes." How to defuse the suspicion beginning in her eyes? "A special kind of farmer. I'm a botanist."

  "What kind of farmer is that?"

  "It means I went to school to learn farming."

  "My family didn't have to go to school. They just know how."

  "Good for them."

  "Were you harvesting apples in the orchard?"

  My heart began thudding in my chest. This small child knew where I was from. My safety was already compromised. Worse, if all of the residents of New Rochelle were farmers, how long would it be before they harvested the apples and uncovered my hiding spot? "I wasn't harvesting them, not yet. I was checking on them. They are coming nicely. Almost ripe."

  Alicia looked at me as if I was an idiot and it hit me. Of course! The trees had blossoms and green fruit and ripe apples all at the same time so fruit could be harvested continuously. Genetic manipulation at work. "I mean there are a lot ready right now. Enough that it'll be worth harvesting them any day now. I enjoy harvesting. Do you?"

  She nodded and pointed to a building across the square that looked just like all the other buildings in the village. "Did you sign up yet? You have to sign up before anyone else if you want to harvest the apples in that orchard."