A Burned Out Star

earth skills - 2

I was born in space. I've never felt the sun on my face or breathed real air or floated in the water. None of us have. For three generations, the Ark has kept what's left of the human race alive, but now our home is dying, and they are the last hope of mankind, a hundred prisoners sent on a desperate mission to the ground. Each one of them is there because they broke the law. On the ground, there is no law. All they have to do is survive, but they will be tested by the Earth, by the secrets it hides, and most of all by each other.

I sit spinning in a wheelie chair at a desk in the monitoring station. Raven and I have been assigned to this case, to help better the situation. It's been a few hours since we found out, and Raven has calmed down a bit. My dad apologized but I understand the stakes.

Abby has not sat down once since the bodies started piling up. Another man I don't recognize joins us in the room. "Talk to me, Jackson."

"Rumors are spreading. Witnesses saw a dropship launch. It's only a matter of time till the people figure out that we sent the hundred to the ground." 

Jackson is leaning against a counter with his head in his hands. Everyone's anxiety levels are as high as can be.

"Let the council worry about the people. I need you focused on reestablishing communication with those kids." Griffin looks at us, this is our job. Figuring out how to contact the 100. She's counting on us. Which makes it ten times worse. "How many dark tiles?"

"Twenty-three. We've been losing them at a steady rate all day. Abby, these are different. Vital signs spike for a longer duration before flat line; It looks like a pain response. This is what we'd expect to see with exposure to radiation."

"I know what it looks like, Jackson, but there's another explanation. We just haven't found it yet."

"Yeah, another explanation is that you just killed a hundred kids." Raven mutters under her reath so only I can hear her. I put my hand on her thigh in reassurance.

"Are you sure?" I ask, "I mean-" "Chancellor on deck." a guard interrupts, voice rumbling throughout the room.

"I thought I told you to go back to bed." Oh, another thing. Apparently, Jaha was shot. I guess that's why he was so frail when Raven pushed him. And, they've identified the shooter. Someone named Bellamy Blake.

"They are more important matters at hand than lying in bed all day."

"Yes, but I'm sure that being shot gets you a get out of jail free card." 

"Abby." The chancellor's face is grim and filled with disgust. "My son. We sent them down to die."

"No. We sent them down to live... To go to Earth to see if it was survivable so that all of us could live."

Kane cuts in. "Abby, stop. I know this is hard, but we don't have time for false hope. This space station is dying, and Earth is not survivable. That is what the wristbands are telling us."

Dr. Griffin's eyes shift to the ground. She can't accept defeat. She can't accept the fact that she sent her daughter to her grave.

The doctor stands a little straighter and makes long strides towards Jaha. "We don't know what they're telling us yet. Thelonious, listen to me. Please trust me. For all we know, those kids could be perfectly fine, including Wells."

"I'm sorry. But the fact is, we sent those kids there to die. Intentionally or not."

And with that, Abby storms out of the room. I look at my blueprints and ask Raven if she'll come down to the garage with me to look for parts. She nods and we head in that direction.

"We need to talk." is what Dr. Griffin said to us as soon as we stepped foot in the garage.

"Were you waiting here for us?" Raven asks.

"Yes, but that's not important now. What is important is that the council is planning on voting for a culling and I am not very confident that I'll be able to sway the votes."

A culling? This is bad. Very bad. "What can we do to help?"

"Thank you for offering Amelia. I have ten days to prove that Earth is survivable or they're gonna start reducing population. Three hundred and twenty innocent people will be killed."

"But how can we help? I mean we are just kids anyway?"

"Raven, you're the youngest zero-g mechanic on the Ark in fifty years."

"Fifty-two. But so what?"

"I'm giving you two nine days to fix this pod for me."

"God, what a piece of junk. They must have found this thing when they salvaged in twenty one oh two. You want us to get a hundred-and-thirty-year-old escape pod ready to stand up to the inferno of re-entry in nine days?" I ask in disbelief. She is insane. This woman is insane.

"Can you do it or not?"

"Hell, yes, we can do it, but I'm going with you and so is Lia if she wants to. You're not the only one with someone you love on the ground. Those are our terms. Take it or leave it."

Griffin hesitantly nods and we immediately get to work. This piece of crap is going to need a lot of tender loving care. 

"I'm going to go down with you guys. I need to make sure Monty and Jasper are ok."

"Ok, but please know what you're getting into."

I nod, and Raven smirks. She slides back under the pod with a wrench as I focus on the wiring inside the inner panel of the pod.

Hi everyone! Now I know this was a very short chapter but there isn't a lot going on on the ark in this episode and Amelia and Raven have literally just been sitting at a desk the whole time. I'll try to bring more entertainment as we go :)