by Rob Favre
Rick and Gragg got up from the table without a word and left the dining hall through opposite doors.
“Are they going to be okay?” I asked.
Marie shook her head. “They will, but it will take some time. They are much alike, those two.” She took Gabby’s hand. “And now, little one, it is time for us to clean you up. Zoe and Tom have some things to talk about.” She nodded at Zoe and me. Zoe looked down at the floor, but she couldn’t stop herself from smiling.
We did not run out of things to talk about until long after the stars came out.
“They are acting like bunch of goat-headed children.” Rick threw a stone as far as he could. It curved through the damp air in a long arc, then splashed into the black water far out past the breakers.
“My people, or yours?” I asked.
“Both. All of them. Everyone.” He picked up another rock and threw it farther than the last one. “Half the council nearly walked out today because Vlad told them they were putting their heads into soil.”
“He probably said sand.”
“Why sand?”
“It’s just an expression. It means keeping yourself from seeing something you don’t want to see.”
“That makes a bit more sense. I thought he was saying that they needed to bathe.”
“No, he was just calling them stupid.”
Rick laughed. “Some of the Old Ones said stupid things as well. One of them claimed whoever rode in the new spaceship back to Earth would get younger.”
“Well, that’s not exactly true. They just won’t age as fast as the people who stay here.”
You probably already know about how this works, but my dad had to explain it to me like four times. I still don’t understand it, not really, but I can at least explain what he told me. Basically, it works like this: if Mustard was right, that old starship could travel at something near the speed of light. The faster you go, the slower time passes for you, which means if you’re close to the speed of light, time will be close to not passing at all, at least compared to people who aren’t traveling quite so fast. My dad thought that something like twenty years would pass here on New Newton before the ship could get to Earth and back, but for the people on the trip, it might feel like only a few months, or even weeks. He then tried to explain to me why things worked this way, and he used the word “relativity”, and my eyes glazed over, and he stopped. I explained all this to Rick, or tried to. His eyes glazed over, too.
“It is no wonder my people have their doubts when the Old Ones speak. Some of your ideas are very…”
“Hard to understand?”
“Stupid. I would say they are stupid.”
We took turns throwing rocks into the water. Sometimes we talked about what was happening with the council and whether our new home was really going to be incinerated; sometimes we didn’t talk at all. The waves were heavy tonight, piled up on one another by the thick wind. They smashed into the rocks on the shore and collapsed back into sullen foam.
“I told my family at dinner that you and I were going to explore tonight,” Rick said. “Zoe blushed when I said your name.”
In the twilight, I couldn’t tell whether he was smiling or not. I hoped that he was. I also hoped the he couldn’t see that I blushed too when he said Zoe’s name.
“I, uh… Well, I don’t know why she…”
“I know why, you fool. I do not have my head in the dirt.”
“Sand.”
“Sand. Yes. But I see how she looks at you, how you look at her. She is happy when you are around.”
“I’m… she makes me happy too.”
A rock whistled slightly as it flew up into the sky. It was too dark now to see it splash into the water, and there was too much noise from the wind and waves to hear it. Maybe it never came down at all.
“You must not hurt her, Old One.”
“I won’t.”
“Promise me.”
“I promise. I would never hurt her.”
We threw a few more rocks. Thunder rumbled in the darkness out over the water. We knew it was time to go back.
I sat on the blanket alone for a while, looking down from the hilltop to the colony, the plains beyond, the faraway sea. Our entire civilization looked so small and quiet from up here. The anger and raised voices of the past couple weeks seemed far away.
Zoe made her way up the hill to join me. She was wearing a yellow dress that made her hair look like pale gold. She mostly had to watch where she was going to avoid tripping on the rocks, but once in a while she looked up at me and smiled.
Part of me couldn’t believe she was really here, that this was really happening. My crush on Zoe had started basically the moment I met her, back on the Heifer outside her parents’ small home in the storage bay. It felt like five lifetimes ago. We’d spent a lot of time together over the last couple weeks, finding excuses to do things together, swapping chores so we’d have the same assignments, stuff like that.
But yesterday, I’d asked her to come with me for a picnic. A real, certified, official date.
And she’d said yes.
“Now that I am here, I am afraid I am covered with sweat and dirt,” she said, but I couldn’t see any of that. All I could see was her smile.
“These are for you.” I handed her a half-dozen pink roses.
She giggled. “Are you going to be in trouble?”
“So very much trouble. You have no idea.” I wasn’t lying. I’d stolen them from one of my mom’s specimen cases. She’d spent months trying to get the soil just right for them. But this was a worthy cause. I would make it up to her, somehow.
We sat and ate and laughed, ate some more. I kept saying silly things to try to make her laugh, because when she laughed she threw her head back in this certain way, and I would watch the perfect, delicate curve of her neck, and the way her hair tumbled down over her shoulders in a golden avalanche. She laughed at things that even I knew weren’t funny. But I didn’t mind.
We watched Cordelia slowly sink behind the mountains, the sharp black shadows stretching out across the patches of white snow, now glowing orange with the dying of the day.
“Tom, do you remember the first time we saw Cordelia?”
“Of course. Back in the Obstick. That’s when we learned that the world was going to end.”
“It seems we learn that a lot.”
We were sitting next to each other on the blanket. She rested her head on my shoulder. Her skin was warm against mine.
“Do you think it is true? Will this all burn away?”
“Yeah. I guess I do.” Her hair smelled like flowers and mystery.
“Do you think the Council will find a solution?”
I wanted to say yes, of course they would, they were all smart people, but I was surprised to hear myself say “I’m not sure. They can’t seem to agree on anything.”
“No, they cannot. Neither side trusts the other, and neither side is listening. They shout at each other louder and louder, and only grow more certain of what they already think.”
“Maybe it’s not a big deal. Maybe nothing will happen after all.”
“The last time the world was ending, Tom, you tried to pretend it was not.”
“Yeah. That didn’t work out so well.”
“What if… what if there was something we could do? What if we could save the world, you and I?”
“How would we do that?”
I looked into her eyes and saw the reflection of a thousand stars that dotted the purple night sky.
And we made a plan.
When we’d said all that we could, or all that we needed to, we looked down in silence on the yellow lights of the colony. I put my arm around Zoe and pulled her close. I leaned toward her and before I knew it, we were kissing, warm and soft and gentle. I fell into that moment, stretched and twisted, came out changed on the other side.
“What do you say, Old One? Will you save the world with me?”
I smiled.
They had known this was a possibility for a long time, of course. The five-phase plan been in place for years. The earlier phases had been about making preparations, stockpiling food stores, preparing underground living space. Each family was assigned space in a Safe Home, so when Phase Five finally came, things went smoothly. There was no panic, no scrambling, nobody fighting over the last blanket or the last jar of beans. The boys did not know what was happening, or why. None of the children did. There had never really been a reason to tell them.
Will had already packed – all his important toys and drawings, some school projects he didn’t want to throw out. Now he was yelling and jumping off the couch. She almost scolded him for damaging the furniture, but caught herself – they were never going to be using that couch again, one way or another.
But Marka was crying. She knelt beside him, gave him a hug.
“What is the matter, sweetness?”
He just looked down, with big wet tears rolling down his cheeks.
“Are you sad to be leaving our home?”
He shook his head. “I’m scared.”
She froze. Did he know? He was so small, nobody had told him. How could he have figured it out? But she held it together, showed nothing but warmth and comfort. “What is making you scared, sweetness?”
His voice was small and quiet. “There are monsters underground. I’m scared of monsters.”
Relief washed over her, and she squeezed him tight. “You don’t need to be afraid, Marka. There are no monsters down there, I promise. Now get your things. There’s going to be a big feast once everyone is down there, and we don’t want to be late.”
She helped Hal pack the rest of their clothes, then took his hand. “There is one more thing I need to do before we go down there.”
He nodded. “I know. Good luck.”
“You go ahead with the boys. I will come find you.”
She stepped out into the howling dust storm. This was going to be a long walk.
Chapter 12
I thought about sending the message to their devices, but that felt a little too impersonal. This was something that needed to be handwritten, on paper. It took some looking, but I found an old notebook full of my mom’s notes about some kind of grass and tore out a page that only had writing on one side. I hoped it wasn’t important.
Writing with a pencil felt strange. It had been a long time since I had written anything by hand. I left the note on the small battered table in our tiny living room, tucked under a faded picture of me as a toddler that Mom liked enough to have brought it here from Earth. I hoped she wouldn’t cry, but I knew she probably would. I hated the idea of hurting my parents, but this was something I had to do. Hopefully they would thank me for this later, when they weren’t dead.
I stepped out into the night. It was getting cold. I thought about pulling the jacket out of my bag, but then I’d have to pull out all the stuff packed around it and re-pack everything. There wasn’t all that much in there, considering. A few shirts, a few pairs of pants. Yes, some underwear. Didn’t seem like be enough clothes for a trip this long, but I was going to have to make it work.
We were going to have to make it work.
I jogged over to the dining hall, keeping to the shadows. I wasn’t sure who I was hiding from, exactly. Maybe some part of me worried that if anyone saw me, they’d talk me out of it, or I’d lose my nerve.
Maybe I just didn’t want anyone to know I was stealing a bunch of food.
I filled as many bags as I thought I could carry, mostly stuff that would keep for a while, like bread and nuts and dried fruit. Where we were going, I wasn’t sure if there was going to be a refrigerator. I left all the cheese. I felt guilty packing all of it up, I really did. But it was for a good cause. Hopefully they would thank me for this later, when they weren’t dead.
I had one more item to collect before we left. Luckily, I had a pretty good idea where to find him.
Mustard was all alone in the dark in Central. He was facing the wall when I found him. In the dark, in the silence, it was a little creepy. I tapped him on a rubbery tentacle.
“Mustard.” My voice was barely a whisper. “Hey, Mustard. Wake up.”
“Who’s ready for outrageous flavor?” He was only using his normal voice, but I jumped as if he’d screamed.
“Shh! God, Mustard. You’re going to wake everyone.”
“Oh, hello, Tom!” He sounded genuinely excited to see me. “How’s your relish level? Relishistic or relishtastic?”
“Um, the first one. Listen, Mustard, you remember that thing we talked about yesterday? Me and Zoe?”
“I remember.”
“It’s time. We’re doing it.”
“That’s radical, dude!” He waved several pairs of tentacles in a clapping motion. “You have everything you need? You won’t be able to come back.”
“I’m as ready as I’m going to be. Let’s go.”
We slipped out of the dining hall into the cold darkness and headed for the mountains.
I set my bags of clothes and food down on the dusty hangar floor. Mustard set down the bag I’d asked him to carry. None of the food was for him, of course, but it made him happy to be useful.
I ran my hand along the smooth belly of the starship. “So, you can get us into this thing?”
“Sure thing, dude! Just stand back a little and let me work.”
I stood back. Mustard proceeded to do something, but it didn’t look much like work. He just stared at the starship for a few seconds, and the outline of a door appeared in the side. With a hiss of escaping air, it slid back, and five glowing, translucent steps the color of sunlight appeared, forming a stairway up to the door. An expectant hum of energy crackled in the air.
Mustard held up an undulating tentacle. “High five!” I tried to touch it, but the tip was waving back and forth. On the third try, I connected.
“So, I just… step on those?” I touched the bottom step with my foot. It felt solid. I put my weight on it. It didn’t budge. I jumped up the rest of the steps, hoping they wouldn’t disappear as suddenly as they’d appeared. And then, I was at the top. I was through the door.
I was standing in a starship.
Of course, I had been in a starship before. I’d spent most of the last thousand years of my life in a starship much bigger than this one. But this was as different from the Hope/Freedom on the inside as it was on the outside.
The inside of the ship was a single open chamber. There were no chairs, no control panels, no windows. The floor was covered in textured rugs, woven in a pattern of lavender and scarlet. The walls were not metal, or even the smooth substance that made up the outer hull, but something that looked and felt like polished wood. There were paintings at tasteful intervals, subtly lit from an unseen source. Their style and subject matter were both impenetrable to me, but some of them used a shade of blue that I kind of liked.
It was like being in someone’s living room, right before they moved all their furniture in.
Mustard stepped up from behind me. “Pretty sweet, huh dude?”
“Yeah, it’s… not what I was expecting. How do you, you know, fly it?”
“Don’t worry about it, dude, that’s my job. All you have to do is sit back and relax.”
“Yeah, great. Where am I supposed to sit, exactly?”
A couch appeared from nowhere, right in front of me. It was made of the same humming sunlight as the steps I climbed to get up into the ship. I cautiously tried putting my weight on it. It was surprisingly comfortable - warm, firm but with just enough give that it didn’t feel like sitting on a solid slab of… light. Energy. Whatever this stuff was.
“Mustard, what is this stuff, anyway?” I pushed at the light with my finger. It was like pushing into a warm marshmallow.
“Dude, that’s solid awesome!”
“No, I mean, what is it made of?”
“Dude, that is what it’s made of. Solid awesome. I mean, if it was liquid awesome, you’d be sitting in
a puddle on the floor, am I right?”
I gave up. This line of questioning was not going to be productive.
I looked around and felt a knot in my stomach at the thought of spending the next few months in this little cabin. But it was the right thing to do. The Council was deadlocked. They weren’t going to be making a decision any time soon. And even if they did manage to come up with a plan and get everyone to agree, it would be too late to actually do anything. Someone had to act, and it had to be now. Someone had to take this ship and go find help from somewhere else in the galaxy. If we left right now, there would just be enough time to make it to Earth and back before things started melting. With any luck, we’d be able to bring back some way to stop the melting, or a big enough ride to get everyone safely off the planet before it was too late. But it meant staying here in this tiny room for the couple of months it would take to get there.
Months to us, that is, as we traveled at nearly the speed of light. Back here on the colony, it was going to be twenty years before they saw us again. Things were going to be very different by the time we got back. There was no way around that. Our friends and families and pets would all grow up and live their lives without us. By the time we got back, we might be the same age as our friends’ children.
We were sacrificing a lot, but it was the hero move. Which, of course, is why Zoe had thought of it in the first place.
The knot in my stomach melted away. Spending months in this room wasn’t going to be so bad if I got to be with her.
Mustard’s tentacles shot straight out like fingers on a huge hand, then curled back to their normal position. He started for the door. “I have to go, dude. I have an appointment. Have fun on the couch.”
“Wait, what appointment? We need you to fly this thing!”
“I have to bring her back here before I can fly it, dude.”
“Oh, okay. But you have to hurry. As soon as she’s here, we need to leave. I don’t want to wait around.”
“Roger that, Tom. I’ll be back before you miss me.” He undulated down the steps.