Beyond Our Stars

by Marie Langager

  Weeks didn’t greet me and I sat down next to him, titling my head to look up. This was why I’d wanted to make this hideaway. To watch the lights in the sky and forget. They were beautiful tonight. The sun had gone down completely so I reached for the dirty white sheet we folded and left tucked between the board and the tree trunk for colder nights.

  I offered Weeks half of the sheet, which he took without looking at me. We both kept our eyes on the sky for a while until Weeks finally said, “Do you think they’ll come for us again soon?”

  “I don’t know,” I answered.

  “Will you go in?”

  I thought about it for a moment. “I don’t know,” I answered.

  “I’m starting to think they might not ever let us out of here,” he said quietly.

  I didn’t answer that. I couldn’t. I was thinking the same thing. And I was supposed to be one of the ones who knew that we were going to somehow make it.

  “Why do you keep taking their side, Hope?” He wasn’t angry, he really wanted to know.

  I pulled the sheet tighter under my chin. “I don’t. I’m taking our side. Because if there’s not some goodness in them, then I think we’re all done for.”

  Weeks and I fell into silence for a long time after that, watching the lights.

  We fell asleep and I woke to him pulling on my shoulder.

  I rubbed my eyes. It was daytime. I rolled over and groaned. My entire body ached from sleeping on the wood board. “What do you want?” I asked him, trying to pull the sheet over my head.

  “Hope!” I finally roused myself when I heard the hint of alarm in his voice.

  “What is it?” I asked groggily, sitting up.

  A voice I knew came from below. “They’re back,” Chance said. I started at the sound of his voice, like I’d been caught. I’d spent most of the night dreaming about him. It took me a second to comprehend what his words meant.

  Not yet. I wasn’t ready. I’d spent more time trying not to think than actually thinking. And now they were back only one day later? No, no, no.

  I jumped down from the tree clumsily, landing with a thud. “Already?” I asked Chance.

  He eyed my disheveled clothing and my hair and looked back up at Weeks. He answered, “I know.”

  Weeks landed with an even messier thud next to us. “Whoa,” I grabbed his arm and steadied him. He looked at me. “After what happened? Has anyone gone in?” We started towards the tunnels.

  “No,” Chance said. “Some of the people are starting to gather there. We couldn’t find Legacy, or you, or Weeks. Some of the seniors are refusing, they won’t go, they say. None of the kids or adults are even there.”

  I wasn’t prepared for a war today. I picked up my pace.

  We made good time, but already people were forming two groups and screaming at each other. Two men were rolling in the grass and punching each other in the face. Chief arrived at the same time I did, more people following.

  “Stop this insanity right now!” He bent down and wrestled one man away from the other. The two men struggled but stopped when they saw who was breaking up their fight.

  Chief stood in the center of the people, aggravation all over his face. I looked at the CR-3ans, who were standing straight like normal with their heads down inside the tunnels, waiting for us to walk inside. They were standing there as though nothing had changed. Did we mean less than nothing to them?

  “You better go in there before they kill us all!” someone shouted from the side I was standing on.

  “They’ll do it whether they go in or not!” someone from the other side shouted.

  “Yeah, maybe we take our chances right here and now. They don’t care whether we live or die, I want to go out fighting!” another voice yelled.

  I pushed my way to the center of the fight, feeling a paralyzing fear rip through my muscles, but moving forward.

  “I’m going in alone,” I said quietly. No one heard.

  “I’m going in alone!” I screamed as loud as I could. There was silence.

  Then it erupted in a chorus of, “Can she do that?”

  “How’s that going to help?”

  “Will they take just her?”

  I looked over at Chief.

  He was so sad. For a moment, it was only us, and I knew that he didn’t want to let me go. He wanted to protect me at all costs, he was not ready to sacrifice me. I tried to let him know that I had to do this. If it was my fault we had been trying to trust them for so long, then I needed to be the one to pay the price.

  He bowed his head. “She can go,” he said in a rough voice.

  My heart raced out of control. I turned toward the entrance to the Stacks, but it was like I couldn’t feel or think anything. Until a hand grabbed mine.

  “I’ll go with you,” Chance said next to me.

  I smiled. “That’s not something I can let you do, but thanks.” It would be me, only me.

  “I can’t let you go in there alone,” he said. He met my eyes and I knew that I wanted him with me. It was so selfish but I wanted him there.

  “I’ll go, too,” Weeks said, walking up like it was no big deal.

  “We’re going,” Chance said firmly, a warning in his voice now.

  I sighed. I knew these two, and nothing was going to stop them. I could fight it all day or get it over with. “Okay, let’s do this,” I agreed. People were hushed as they let three teenagers make their way to the entrance into the alien domain.

  As we walked into the tunnel, the slow shuffle of our feet on the smooth white surface was an ominous thudding only we could hear. I told Chance and Weeks not to look behind us. Would the CR-3ans accept us? This had to be enough. Someone had died in here.

  We were halfway down the tunnel when we heard the familiar sound of gushing wind, and the force field sealing up behind us. I exhaled audibly and ventured a glance back. People were waiting outside but everything looked okay.

  “It’s just us,” I said to the boys on either side of me.

  We continued our slow march to the Stack. I had no idea what their plan was.

  I paused at the entrance like I always did, and stood in front of the Local with my head held high. This one was younger.

  I didn’t talk, but I didn’t move inside. Chance and Weeks stayed beside me. We spent a full minute like that. Staring at the Local so openly for so long, I tried to memorize the intricate pattern of small circles along its jaw. Its arm motioned toward the Stack like another Local had done before. But this time the alien’s wide blue eyes shifted up and held mine for a moment.

  I thought saw something there, something that might be an emotion.

  What was I supposed to do? What could I do? I tried to think that if they did feel some emotion then they could feel guilt, regret.

  I swallowed the lump in my throat and stepped inside the Stack. Chance and Weeks came in behind me. The doors sealed.

  When the illumination started I looked at the half-moon. It was black, with no face greeting me. Blood rushed through me, the sound of my heartbeat echoing in my head. I closed my eyes to avoid blacking out, hoping whatever we were in for wouldn’t be that bad. My uniform felt too hot and itchy. Three, two, one…

  I heard a soft breath next to me and reluctantly opened my eyes.

  It was night and we were under the dark sky of Haven, the green and yellow lights above us swirling and shimmering and calming my pulse instantly.

  I took one step forward and my foot made a strange sound underneath me. A soft, hollow sounding thud. I looked down at the floor, then took another step. It was made of some kind of wood that made noise as the pressure of my weight moved across it. It seemed solid enough, though that had fooled me before.

  I looked up.

  “It’s beautiful,” I said.

  “Yes,” I heard Weeks say. “And familiar.”

  I searched the sky above us again. It did seem familiar. But strange. I could see the sky and the lights, but there were also leaves and branches. I
walked further. The sway of the purple leaves, the irregular spaces between the branches. It was all so…

  I walked further and then knew what I was looking at. A triangle space in between a grouping of leaves showed the lights zipping and moving overhead. I’d stared at this exact sky a hundred times. We were in my spot. We were standing in a sort of large replica of the tree house.

  “Wow,” I exclaimed.

  “I know,” Weeks said.

  “What is it?” Chance asked. He came and stood next to me, peering up where I was but not knowing what he was looking at.

  “It’s where you found me, this is…” I trailed off, looking up again. Had they been watching last night?

  Weeks blurted, “Oh man, do you know what this means?”

  I gave Weeks a cautious look. “One of them was there? Or are they were watching us somehow?”

  Weeks ran a hand through his hair, his eyes wide as he looked up. “Watching us or watching you?”

  Instantly Chance looked alarmed. “What are you talking about?”

  “This is the tree house. If you look up you see the same patch of sky that we see when we lie up there. The branches, everything.”

  “Hope, I’m telling you, someone’s watching you. Like that one guy, that one of them that looked at you when you begged them to stop.”

  I looked up again to where I thought the half-moon was. Was that true?

  “I don’t like it. You think that’s good?” Chance said.

  I glanced at him nervously. “I don’t know,” I said, and hearing my own voice let me know how unsure I really was.

  But I walked toward the window.

  “Do you want to talk to me?” I said to anyone listening. There was nothing but a long silence.

  “I don’t know, what I’m supposed to do?”

  They both shook their heads, their eyes wide.

  I walked back to the center, where the triangle framed by leaves that showed me the sky I’d come to love, my mind’s only escape. The purple leaves rustled softly in the artificial breeze. It was so easy to forget that this was a simulation once you were inside. What happened in the Stacks was as real to me as anything else in our new home.

  But this was the first time I’d been able to see that beauty could be created here. I sat down on the wooden plank and stared up. The lights swirled together, appearing from one part of the sky and growing in intensity, spreading the green, yellow, or pink sparks across the deep blackness, and then tapering off. The colors melted into the sky, disappearing and becoming one with it. The leaves offered this image up for me like a framed picture, their sky that had become my own special magic place.

  For the first time in the Stacks I felt like something was being done for me, instead of to me. My heart began to pound. Surely, this meant something.

  As if answering my thoughts the doors to the Stack suddenly slid open. The image didn’t stop, Chance and Weeks were still standing and Weeks grabbed my arm and pulled me up quickly while Chance braced himself.

  “What do you think they’re going to do?” I looked at Chance. They weren’t going to suddenly come in here and…

  The Local stepped from behind the doorframe. His robe made a swishing sound as he walked into the Stack and stood, watching us. His blue eyes held me in a trance.

  We were all frozen. The Local didn’t move, didn’t gesture. Only stood in front of the exit.

  “He isn’t going to let us leave,” Chance said in a low voice. He looked at the CR-3an like he was ready for a fight.

  “Hang on,” I put my hand on his shoulder as he began to move forward.

  “These things are dangerous. You don’t think I’m going to let you go do something stupid, do you?” Chance asked me, frowning.

  “Yeah, Hope, I’m with Chance on this one. Wait and see what it does first. Let it come to us,” Weeks said, calm but with a very slight tremor in his voice.

  But my mind was made up. “Someone has to go first,” I stepped ahead of Chance and Weeks, running the first few steps as they both reached out to stop me.

  Then fear made me slow down. I narrowed my eyes. I approached the Local, taking sure steps, and maintaining eye contact. It was hard because having its gaze on me was so unnerving. I felt like I could see something in those blue eyes, as though they really were more intelligent beings and I should be more afraid. As I approached, the Local suddenly backed away. He stepped outside the doors but he held my eyes. Then he made a sound, a long and low vibration, that made me take a frightened step backwards.

  I was scared and confused, but I stepped outside and pressed my back to the wall of the tunnel. When I did that Chance and Weeks came running out after me.

  We waited for what was seconds but felt like an hour. The Local’s eyes moved from me, to Weeks, back to me, to Chance. I couldn’t tell what it was thinking. I still felt a coldness, but this Local seemed different. This was the same one that led us in earlier, with the darker coloring and smooth skin. A lesser amount of the blue markings were sprinkled along its jaw. I definitely wouldn’t forget him now.

  “What are we supposed to do now, play Red Rover? Yo alien, come over?” Weeks said in a hushed voice.

  “I don’t know.”

  The Local took a step to the side. Then one step further down the hallway. Then another step sideways.

  “You put your right hand in, you take your right hand out…” Weeks said quietly, with his voice shaking a little.

  The Local took one more step, and then he lifted his arm toward the end of the tunnel.

  Could this be what I thought it was? “Okay, maybe let’s go. I’m thinking he might be— Well, let’s see. Leave him space, but start walking down the tunnel,” I said. They did what I told them. I looked back and the Local was following us, staying several feet behind. My back muscles tensed so much that spasms of pain shot down my spine.

  “I think he’s going to follow us to the Site,” I said.

  “What! Like inside?” Weeks cried, glancing over his shoulder nervously.

  “I think, maybe,” I answered, my gut churning, thinking about how angry the people were when we’d left them.

  We continued our slow trek and as we approached the exit I saw that a crowd was still gathered. They wouldn’t be expecting us out so soon. They certainly wouldn’t expect us to be trailed by the very thing they most hated right now. My mind raced, trying to come up with the right words to say, the thing that must be said before anyone could react the wrong way. This could be it. Our way out.

  Then the sun hit my face like a warm caress and it shocked me. I was five feet out of the tunnel, and I held my breath. Heads were turning in our direction and seeing that we were back and alive. Would it step out? I waited to hear the rush of wind that meant the closing of the force field, but it never came. I turned. The CR-3an was looking into my eyes. I took a deep breath and held out my hand.

  And he walked toward me. A Local, in broad daylight, was standing in the Site with our people all around. And I’d invited him in.

  I heard a few faint cries and knew people were seeing him now.

  I wanted this to be organized, peaceful. I needed it to be understood as the gesture I thought it was. After Demetri’s death, this was the olive branch.

  There were more startled shouts and people were talking loudly and pointing. More and more survivors were coming.

  “Could someone go get Chief Upton?” I asked the crowd. I asked because he needed to be here for this and because the mention of his name might keep people calm.

  I glanced behind me, checking. The CR-3an was looking at the faces in the crowd. His eyes scanned, watching everything. As he looked into people’s eyes they gasped and most of them turned away. But some inched closer.

  “Did he hurt you?” Someone asked. “Can it talk?” Someone else said. “Does it have a weapon?” Another voice called.

  I held up my hand. “No,” I said, projecting my voice as much as I could. “No, he didn’t hurt us. I don’t think he
has a weapon.” There wasn’t even a bracelet on his arm that I could see. “Look for yourselves,” I said, getting bolder, “he came by himself, defenseless. Doesn’t that say something?” There was collective murmuring.

  I’d felt the CR-3an watching me as I spoke. He probably didn’t understand my words, but I hoped he would approve of what I was trying to do.

  The crowd was pressing in a little more toward the Local and he hadn’t moved back. The field hadn’t sealed up the tunnel so he could retreat whenever he wanted but he stayed where he was, watching.

  I took a few steps closer to him so people could see that I really believed he was trying to establish a new foundation of peace here. They’d made mistakes but they could stop here and now and we could start over. I could feel the crowd calming very slowly, by degrees.

  I heard someone close to my side shout, “Hey!”

  I turned in time to see Legacy swinging a rifle up to his shoulder and taking aim.

  It happened so fast. The image of Legacy with the gun was such a confusing one that I had barely started to run for the CR-3an when the shot rang out.

  Chapter Twelve

  “Stop him!” I screamed before turning to find the CR-3an at my feet. A deep blue liquid oozed from a spot in the Local’s stomach and pooled at its side.

  This can’t be happening, this is not happening.

  “No, no. We can fix this,” my shaking voice said as I knelt by the Local, though I barely knew what I was saying.

  “Help!” I screamed in panic into the tunnel, toward the Stacks. I put my hand on the alien’s chest. “It’s going to be okay,” I said.

  His eyes were turning hazy, as the intelligent being who only moments before had put his trust in me slowly slipped away. But his chest moved. He wasn’t dead yet.

  “Help!” I screamed again into the tunnel. Was anyone hearing me?

  Two Locals appeared and they moved swiftly down the tunnel towards us.

  “Hurry!” I yelled.

  I glanced to my side and saw that Legacy was being dragged away by some of our men.