by Anthology
The sun was just cresting the horizon, flooding the planet below with a warm arc of light. The autopilot was handling everything, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t a bumpy ride dropping down through the atmosphere. This shuttle wasn’t big enough to absorb and suppress the vibrations. The cabin slowly ratcheted the pressure up to prepare her for the increased gravity on the planet surface. Kendree had watched instructional videos about this, but she had never felt it herself.
She had asked Elissa for the coordinates of the country house a few months ago when Elissa had first mentioned it. Kendree had accessed the maps her father used for his remote sensing studies and imagined visiting Elissa there. The maps were based on satellite imaging and were used to search for promising archaeological sites, but they worked just as well to view the terrain on the surface.
“Kendree, what are you doing?” Her mother’s voice burst through, loud and frantic over the ship-to-ship comm-link. She was grateful there was no video. Kendree considered just ignoring it, but her mother wasn’t going to give up.
“I’m just going down to pick up Elissa. I’ll be back in a few hours.”
“You can’t do that. Turn that shuttle around. It's too dangerous.”
“I’m not turning around. In fifteen minutes I’ll be on planet at their summer house. I bet they won’t even have unpacked yet.”
“You can’t! Kendree…it isn’t safe.” She faintly heard her mother calling for her father, her head probably turned away from the microphone.
“You said that they were in a safe place. So it will be safe for me, too.”
“There are reasons we don’t go down to the surface of this planet, Kendree. Your body has no immunity to their illnesses. And you already have enough to deal with without getting sick.”
Kendree didn’t respond. She was watching the planet below speed toward her. To the east were the battlefields. So many soldiers in battle armor that glinted in the rising sun. Had they been marching all night to get into position?
The shuttle turned and she got close enough to see some of the large battle machines on the ground. Huge, hulking, and dark, they towered well above the heads of the troops. The largest one lumbered forward, jostling soldiers who clambered on its surface adjusting things she couldn’t see. She hadn’t realized how close to the battle zone the auto-piloted route would take her.
“It’s going to be fine.” She wasn’t sure if she was telling herself or her mom.
“You can’t open the doors when you land. You have to just relaunch. I am so sorry.”
“No. Mom, that isn’t an option.” The shuttle was now flying over the heart of the capital city. She could see the rolling countryside coming up fast.
“Kendree?” Her father was now on the line too. “Honey, I know you don’t want to hear this, but you could be a danger to your friend, too. She might not be immune to everything you’ve been exposed to.”
“Dad, we’ve been here for almost a year. That is a long enough quarantine for anything we might have brought with us. Or should I say brought with you. You never let me get exposed to anything.”
“There is a reason for that, dear.” Her mother sounded sad. Kendree knew that the life of isolation they led was to keep her immune system from being challenged. “I’m sorry,” she added quietly.
“I know you are. But I’m twelve. I’m not a little girl. Don’t worry, I have a good plan.”
And with that she shut the communication link down and watched the woodlands and fields unfolding below her. The shuttle cast a moving shadow as she flew west away from the rising sun.
She braced herself for what turned out to be a gentle landing on a fairly flat patch of grass.
Kendree reached down and disengaged the latches that had held her chair in place. With practiced deftness, she rotated 180 degrees and guided the motorized chair to the storage compartment where she had stashed her helmet and gloves. She hadn’t wanted to wear them for the flight down because they restricted her movement and sight lines, but she knew her parents were right. She was convinced she was no danger to her friends—but she knew that her immune system was compromised enough that they were a very real danger to her.
It had been hard getting into the suit without her parents’ help—but she had managed. She had only cursed once, and that time under her breath so she didn’t wake her parents before she had effected her escape.
They had had her suit custom made, her legs resting together inside the bottom half of the suit. There was no need for separate legs in a suit for someone whose legs didn’t work. For someone who couldn’t walk. When she put it on the first time, she had felt like a mermaid. She pulled on her gloves now, hating the loss of dexterity and sensation.
It was awkward getting her helmet on with her gloves in the way, but she managed it. She engaged the helmet lock and felt cool, sweet air begin to flow from the pack mounted on the back of her chair. Inside her mermaid space suit she was safe. She planned to keep herself quarantined in her room on the ship as long as the girls stayed with them.
Kendree opened the shuttle door and rolled down the ramp to the grass outside the small house. She approached the door to the small wood house slowly. The sun was up, but it was still early. The ground in front of the building was covered in gravel. She turned on the sound feed in her helmet to hear it crunch as she drove the chair across.
There was no sign of activity inside. She looked for some sort of intercom or button and saw none.
She was able to get close enough to the door to knock with her gloved hand, but there was no answer. She knocked again, this time as hard as she could. She waited, but still no answer. The doorknob didn’t turn. Of course it was locked. They were hiding and trying to be safe.
Kendree backed away from the door and surveyed the building more carefully. It was two stories, with two broad windows on the lower floor and four smaller windows spaced evenly across the upper level. She imagined that the girls’ bedrooms were upstairs. The windows were covered by curtains, but the window all the way to the left had a small plant balanced between the curtain and the windowpane. Elissa was obsessed with growing things. She would have brought her latest project with her and scouted out the window with the best sun in her room.
She needed some way to get her attention. The gravel at her feet was ideal, but it might as well have been a mile away. Her suit was not designed for picking up small objects on the ground. Luckily she remembered the grabber she always kept strapped to the side of her chair. She managed to use it to transfer a small pile of the rough grey stones into her lap. Her first try at throwing them was an utter failure. Gravity was weird. If she had been on the ship, with the gravity turned super low so it was easy for her to maneuver without using much leg strength, she could have tossed them the entire length of the ship’s central hallway. Here they landed barely beyond her feet.
Her second throw was no more successful. She stared thoughtfully at the tool leaning against her leg. She lifted it and put a few rocks in the scoop and carefully rotated it over her shoulder. Holding as tight as she could with both hands, she snapped the rod forward. The rocks went flying. They clunked against the wide wood door and fell onto the doormat. It took four more tries before she got the rocks to clatter on the window on the second floor. After her second hit, the curtain moved and there was her friend’s face. Kendree waved, then worried that she was just frightening Elissa. The curtain fell back in place quickly. Kendree held her breath until the door opened.
Elissa was shorter than Kendree had pictured. Getting to know someone just from their torso on a screen would do that, she guessed.
“Elissa.” Kendree suddenly realized Elissa couldn’t hear her. She toggled on the speaker in her helmet and called out again quickly. “It’s me! Kendree!” She hoped that Elissa could see her smile through the helmet from her spot shifting from foot to foot in the doorway. “I’m here to rescue you.” She gestured to the shuttle behind her.
“What?” Elissa peered out at
the driveway and up at the sky before stepping out the door. She had fuzzy slippers on her feet and a red nightgown covered in yellow stars. “How did you get here?”
“I flew the shuttle.” Kendree sat up a bit taller. “I’ve been taking lessons for more than a year now. And the autopilot did most of it,” she admitted. “Get your stuff, we can’t stay long.”
“I can’t go with you.” She didn’t sound so sure. Elissa looked past Kendree’s chair at the shuttle. “How many people can fit in there at once?”
“There are seats for six.” Kendree waved her forward. “Come look.”
“I can’t believe you are here.” Elissa's skin was olive, and her long black braid glinted in the morning sun as she picked her way across the gravel in her slippers. She stopped right in front of Kendree’s chair looking thoughtful. Kendree had never told her about being confined to chairs in gravity, but Elissa didn’t seem surprised. “Can I hug you through that?”
“I think so.” Kendree leaned forward a bit and Elissa wrapped her slender arms around the bulky suit. Kendree couldn’t feel anything, but her friend so close and holding her suddenly made her eyes feel leaky. She couldn’t cry. No way to wipe tears in here and she had to see to get them back to the ship safely. When Elissa stood up, Kendree took a deep breath and let it out slowly before speaking. “Is it just you and your sisters here?”
“Yes.” Elissa looked back over her shoulder toward the house. “I don’t know if we can talk them into going with us.”
“Sure we can.” Kendree smiled at the ‘us’. At least Elissa had decided to come with her. “Wake them up and get everyone dressed. We have to go fast. I think that some of the soldiers on the battlefield might have spotted me on my way in.”
“Oh.” Panic flashed in her friend’s dark eyes. “Okay. Wait here,” she said needlessly before turning to run back into the dim foyer.
Kendree waited. She watched birds wheeling in the sky overhead. The sky was so wide and blue. The trees so tall, taller than the house and shading it with their leaves. Kendree spent a lot of time looking at photos and watching videos of things she couldn’t easily get to in the real world—but the perspective of looking up was strange and unsettling. And kind of magical. She had spent most of her life looking down. Down from hospital windows. Down from the ship’s viewports.
Elissa reappeared dressed in a grey jumpsuit and carrying two dark bags. Her sisters, one older and one younger, were with her.
“Kendree,” she started out formally, “this is my older sister, Ruth, and my little sister, Vali.” They both shared Elissa’s coloring, though Ruth’s hair was cropped short and Vali’s hair was down to her shoulders and loose, waving in the morning breeze. Kendree wished she could feel the wind against her skin.
Ruth stood tall and looked almost grown up. Kendree remembered she was supposed to start at the city university in the fall to study linguistics. Vali hid behind Ruth’s legs. She was eight, four years younger than Elissa. They wore the same style grey jumpsuit.
“Are you ready to depart?” Kendree tried to sound formal and serious, even though she was bubbling over with joy inside. It was going to work!
“I can’t talk her out of it,” said Ruth bluntly, gesturing at Elissa with her chin. She kept a hand on Vali’s shoulder. “I’m not letting her go alone. And I can’t leave Vali here without us. So I guess we’re all going.” She hauled a huge backpack onto her back and grabbed another smaller bag with her right hand. She held out her left hand to Vali and then headed toward the shuttle with the smaller girl in tow.
“Okay.” Kendree turned her chair and accelerated to catch up. “Come on Elissa!” She called out, hoping her friend was right behind her.
The chair reached the ramp at the same time Ruth and Vali did. Ruth stepped back to let Kendree maneuver up and into the shuttle. In moments they were all aboard and figuring out how to strap down their bags at Kendree’s direction.
As soon as everyone was safely strapped in, Kendree closed the door and went through the pre-launch checklist again. She felt everyone watching her every move. Her mouth felt dry. She wished for a way to drink some water, but the helmet had to stay or she might as well not have bothered with it in the first place.
And then they were lifting off. The auto-route back to the ship was the default navigation program.
The shuttle wheeled back to the west toward the city.
“We shouldn’t be flying this way,” said Ruth, “Can’t you re-route us?”
“Umm..” Kendree took a deep breath. “I haven’t learned that yet. I’m sorry.”
They watched the city grow large before them. The shuttle gained altitude. Then they could see the battlefield.
“Are we going to fly right over them?” Elissa asked nervously.
Ruth started to murmur something. Kendree thought it might be a prayer, or some sort of private little song. Vali was silent, but Kendree was afraid to look at her tiny face.
“When I flew in they ignored me.” Kendree tried to sound bright and confident. “It’s going to be okay."
“I’m sure it will be.” Elissa backed her up, reaching across the space between them to put her hand on the arm of Kendree’s suit.
They could do nothing but watch. The field was even more full than when Kendree had flown in at dawn. Less than an hour had passed, but now the sun was at full strength, glinting off armoured suits and large war machines.
The shuttle rose and now all they could see was sky. Kendree had started to relax when the loud blaring of an alarm filled the small cabin.
“What does that mean?” Ruth shouted over the noise.
“I think…” Kendree clumsily flipped through the alert screens. “I think someone fired something at us from the ground.” She found the switch to change the view shown on the large main screen. Now they were watching the battlefield receding quickly behind them. In the center of the screen was something glowing, round, and getting closer to them as they watched.
“What do we do?” whispered Elissa.
“We go faster.” Kendree swiveled her chair and realized that she couldn’t type on the keyboard with her gloves on. “Elissa, I need your help.” Kendree rotated the pilot’s keyboard toward her friend. “I can’t type with these,” she waved her heavy gloved hands, “but I can tell you what to do.”
“Hurry it up.” Ruth said, still watching the screen.
Kendree talked Elissa through the menus as fast as she could. The shuttle began to accelerate, pushing them all back in their seats and slowly, so slowly, pulling them further ahead of whatever the soldiers had shot at them. Moments after their shuttle broke through the atmosphere, the missile exploded in a bright burst of yellow and gold.
“That was too close,” said Elissa. “I can’t believe it didn’t catch us.”
“Switch us back to autopilot,” Kendree sighed. She wanted to laugh or cry or hug someone, but she was still in her mermaid suit and strapped to her motorized chair. “We’ll be at the ship in just a few minutes.” She flipped the view screen back using the big switch, one of the few things she could manage with her gloves on. The sky changed from the blue of atmosphere to the darker background of space, with the ship already growing larger on the display.
The girls from the planet watched the ship open its hatch for them, gaping at the machinery and the wide reach of space beyond until they were swallowed by the dark docking bay.
The final step of the autopilot sequence disengaged the door and lowered the ramp. Kendree’s parents stood just outside.
“I told you she was wearing it!” her father elbowed her mother and pointed at Kendree’s space suit. “Well done!” he called to her.
“Kendree…” her mother choked out before she ran to her side, taking one of her bulky gloves in her hands.
“I’m sorry,” was all Kendree could manage before her face was wet with tears. “I couldn’t leave Elissa down there. I knew I could go get them.”
“We understand,” her mother
responded gently. She took a deep breath and turned to their guests. “Welcome to our home, the TIRS-OLI.” Kendree had explained months ago to Elissa that her parents had named the ship for old Landsat satellite technology that was first used to map Earth from space, but from the confused look on Elissa's face, her friend had forgotten, or maybe was just too worried to remember.
“Our parents…” Ruth began.
“Not to worry,” Kendree’s father reassured her “We sent them a message the moment you cleared the atmosphere.” He turned to Kendree. “A little close there at the end, wasn’t it?”
“Yes,” she nodded, tears now dripping off her chin and pooling in the bottom of her faceplate. “I told Elissa how to speed us up. I couldn’t with these.” She waved her glove-encased hands before clumsily disengaging her chair lock and moving to her father’s side. He put his broad arm around her shoulders. “I’m sorry,” she said again.
“Let’s get everyone settled,” her mother said cheerfully. “Girls, right this way.”
“Kendree, come with me,” said her father. “We need to get you into quarantine.”
“Quarantine?” asked Elissa, “Can’t she take all that off now that she is off the planet?”
“Her immune system is very poor, Elissa,” Kendree’s mother explained. “I know you and your sisters don’t seem sick, but just being in contact with you could make Kendree very ill. She is going to have to stay in her own zone for most of your stay. Besides,” she added more sharply, “that’s as close as we can get to grounding her on this ship.”
Elissa ran to Kendree, looking a little surprised at how light on her feet she was in the reduced gravity. Leaning down she put her forehead against the top of Kendree’s faceplate. “Once you are out of that thing, I’ll have them show me how I can talk to you.” She placed her hand on the glass over Kendree’s cheek. “Thank you for rescuing us, you crazy person.”
“You’re welcome.” Kendree smiled, the skin of her cheeks crackling from her dried tears. “Wait until you see the view!”