A Burned Out Star

the dropship - 1

I feel the sun on my face. I see trees all around me, the scent of wildflowers on a breeze. It's so beautiful. In this moment, I'm not stranded in space. It's been ninety-seven years since a nuclear apocalypse killed everyone on Earth, leaving the planet simmering in radiation. Fortunately, there were survivors. had operational space stations at the time of the bombs. There is now only one station forged from the many. We're told the Earth needs another hundred years to become survivable again. Four more space-locked generations, and man can go home, back to the ground. The ground, that's the dream. This is reality.

"Lia, wake up! We are late for work! Come on," Raven shoves me back and forth, violently shaking any sleepy cell out of my body. "You are not getting us in shit again. I swear, I've had enough of your laziness, next time I'll get a siren!" She grabs my foot and yanks me out from under the covers, off of my bed, and onto the cold, hard floor.

"Alright! I'm up! God, do you have to be so loud?"

"Yes, she does because you never get up unless we drag you away from any couch, chair, or bed. Hell, you'd probably sleep on the floor if you felt like it." My dad says. 

His name is Jacapo Sinclair. I guess you could say he's important around here. I think so, I mean he IS the head engineer. And now I get to be his assistant! 

Before, I was just simply an engineer, working with Raven on the architecture of the ark, and how we can improve it. But now we both find ourselves taking on bigger projects. It is a bittersweet feeling for both of us though. 

Raven's boyfriend Finn was sent to the skybox for wasting oxygen. It was accidental and he was trying to give Raven a fantastic spacewalk experience, but that doesn't matter in the ark. On The Ark, every crime, no matter how small, is punishable by death unless you're under eighteen. And once you turn eighteen, the clock finally stops ticking. 

Which is why this is also bittersweet for me. You see, my friend Monty was my father's apprentice for a long while, in fact he was probably my dad's most promising student, but him and his friend Jasper got themselves tied up in a situation that my dad tells me involves drugs and theft. I choose to believe that they meant no harm. Because as you can clearly tell, they didn't but the council would never put that into account.

I reluctantly pulled myself together and got ready. It took like two minutes. Brush teeth, brush hair, get dressed, go. When I walk out I see a big crowd and a woman named Callie standing in front of them. She looks tense and is trying to calm the people down. 

"I saw a ship launch not more than twenty minutes ago," one man states. "Who was on it? Was it the prisoners?" another one asks. "They're just kids!" "Are they going to Earth? Has something changed?"

"Folks, as I said, at this time, we cannot confirm or deny anything," Callie says which clearly doesn't reassure anyone. But if I were a parent in this situation I'd be freaking out too.  My dad users us away from the crowd to the department division. 

I immediately walk to the blue print of the dropship they asked us to design and build a few months ago. At that moment, I didn't think anything of it. But now...I don't know. The council wouldn't risk that many resources unless it was important. But I don't understand why they executed the prisoners by sending them down to earth. It just doesn't make sense.

"What was that about?" Raven blurts out, her dark eyes full of confusion and worry. 

"Raven, Amelia, I have to show you something and you're not going to like it." My dad explains, leading us to the control room.

I see Marcus Kane, Abby Griffin, and Chancellor Jaha, all huddled up urgently discussing something. What the hell is going on?  "What are they doing here?" Kane asks.

"I brought them here," my dad starts "they created the dropship, they deserve to know the purpose of it."

"Absolutely not. This is a breach of security. They are not authorized to even be in this room!" Marcus does a double-take when he sees Jaha's face. "You are not actually considering this, are you?"

"Abby, go show them the tape. Girls, if you share any of this information, that is a criminal offence and will be treated as such. After you are shared this information, you will not speak of it, you will not even think of it. Understand?"

We both nod hesitantly, as Abby begins to direct to a separate room to the side. "This way, girls." I can hear Mr. Kane scoff in disbelief as we walk away from the diplomats.

Abby pulled out some chairs for us and grabs a monitor, after she rolled it over, she put a tape in the player and gave us the remote. She just left the room and now all we have to do is press play.

Raven picks up the remote and I put my hand over hers. I give her a look that asks "Are you sure you want this?" She nods and looks into my eyes knowingly. She presses play and I grip her arm.

A picture of Jaha is being displayed. He's speaking to us. "Prisoners of The Ark, hear me now. You've been given a second chance, and as your , it is my hope that you see this as not just a chance for you, but a chance for all of us, indeed for mankind itself. We have no idea what is waiting for you down there. If the odds of survival were better, we would've sent others. Frankly, we're sending you because your crimes have made you expendable. Those crimes will be forgiven, your records wiped clean. The drop site has been chosen carefully. Before the last war, was a military base built within a mountain. It was to be stocked with enough non-perishables to sustain three hundred people for up to two years. Mount Weather is life. You must locate those supplies immediately. Your one responsibility is stay alive."

 My grip on Raven's arm tightens with each word. We have friends down there. Family. 

Raven storms out of the room towards Jaha, and shoves him. He stumbles and seems more affected by it then a normal person would. He grunts as she starts screaming in his face, tears rolling down her cheeks. "You just sent my friends to their death, you asshole! The love of my life was in that dropship and you abandoned them like they are dirt on your shoe!"

Guards storm towards her and restrain her. She is fueling with rage, fury, and hate. You would only be able to see the true heartbreak in her eyes if you are close to her.

"Why? What gain do you get from this? Because the only thing that I see are some mass murderers and a loss of supplies." They look at me, with solemn expressions. I can feel my voice start to raise. "In fact, one of those innocent teenagers you sent there was arrested for wasting supplies. So why don't I see you cowards in cuffs, hm?"

"The ark is dying, children. Those delinquents are our last hope at survival. We lost all communications, total system failure. They were put off course, and they only connection we have with them right now is the wristbands, which are telling us their vitals."

Raven and I sprint past the chancellor after hearing this information, to the giant screen with each prisoners face and heartbeat being shown. As soon as I see that Jasper and Monty are alive, I let out the breath that I've been holding.

Suddenly, a kid's face turns red, then another, and another. A loud alarm starts ringing in my ear as I see innocent children die one by one. 

Dr. Griffin pushes past us and starts pressing a whole bunch of buttons and flipping any switches. "No, no, no. This doesn't make sense. They were all healthy and fine. If it was radiation they would have showed signs."

Kane cautiously watches the moniter. "Abby what's happening? They're dropping like flies."

"I- I don't know."

I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter of this new exciting story! There will be lots more to come :)