Supernova 1

Chapter 1

Part 1
Nemo's POV
1 month till liftoff
The ground began shaking. No sooner had it started than it had stopped. This tremor was much worse than the one yesterday. I thought to myself.
Currently our planet, Earth, is at the end of its lifespan.
All of the plants stopped growing, water was scarce and the air was just about the same as breathing in a sandstorm.
First, it was the coughing fits the young children suffered. Next was the dried up lakes, water reservoirs, and even the oceans. This all led to the downfall of the farms, rainforests and plant life as we know it. By this point, we already knew that this planet was facing an inevitable death. 
Lacking the resources that we needed, my brother, Lucas, decided to take charge of Mission: Restart. A relocation process for what is left of the human race.
Just outside of the Milky Way, in the Andromeda Galaxy, there are a series of planets that is said to be able to support human life. During the relocation, we will apparently get put to sleep into a Suspended Animation Chamber or S.A.C.. Putting us in a paralyzed slumber, causing no aging and little side effects. An AI robot will direct us to the most habitable planet and will automatically wake us up.
        Breaking from my thoughts, I focused my attention back on the documents of human history I need to save for Supernova 1.
Ah, yes. That is what my brother named it, our new world is to be called Supernova 1. Honestly, I think the name isn't unique in the slightest, a mere copy of the original star process.
           My brother is in charge of the whole mission. Quite scary and stupid if you ask me. Letting a genius 21 year old plan the future of the human race probably wasn't the best idea, but it's too late now.
As the younger sister of said genius, my assigned job was to save all of the important data and documents from Earth's database and upload them to the Supernova 1 database. Quite a daunting job for an unqualified 15 year old if you ask me. But it's out of my hands.
        Even though we still have quite a little bit of time to go, people have already started the S.A.C. process. I don't have an opinion on whether or not I should sleep early, but Lucas told me I should wait so I can finish my job. Either way it'll happen at one point or another.
I was snapped out of my thoughts once again by a loud thud and the shutter of papers. I looked through the doorway to the hall, where the noise had originated from and saw Lucas's assistant sprawled face-down on the floor surrounded by hundreds of falling papers. The assistant let out a loud groan before sitting up on her knees and started picking up the papers one by one.
        I walked over and kneeled down to where the young assistant was sitting and helped her pick up the scattered papers.
She looked to be in her early 20's, with short blonde hair and thick glasses. When we were done, the assistant gently took my hand and shook it gratefully. "Thank you," she muttered. Cheeks red from embarrassment, she scuttered down the hallway as I watched silently.
"Do you like my new assistant?" a sly voice said behind me. I calmly turned around to see my brother with a devilish grin plastered across his face. "You no longer scare me." I said flatly and added, "She's looking for you, y'know." "I know," he answered with an abundance of immaturity and a slight chuckle." I looked at him with my usual blank face. He waited for a reaction, but got none. "Oh, come on Nemo, that was funny. You should learn to lighten up a bit." He said with his casual amount of playfulness in his tone.
"Aren't you supposed to be working on..." I pause thinking for an excuse to leave.  He eyed me curiously. "Something" I say quickly, avoiding an inevitable awkward conversation.
We haven't talked much since he took control of the mission.
His smile partly subsided. "If you don't want to talk to me, that's ok" he muttered. "I'm going to work on that something I have to be working on." He turned and quickly walked down the hallway after his assistant.
I lowered my head. I know I did something wrong, I just don't feel anything. Empathy is not my strong suit. If anything, I am quite apathetic, in better words. My emotions are about as intact as a 10,000 piece puzzle. I already cried all my tears when Mom and Dad died five years ago. They weren't the best parents but they were all that me and Lucas had. They were killed during a major earthquake, collapsing the building they were currently in.
I walked back to my desk and let out a casual heavy sigh. I have a large stack of papers piling up and they aren't going anywhere, that's for sure. I look at the clock. It's about 21:00 hours. I close my computer and head to the cafeteria.
I smelled it before I saw it. Today it seems like they're serving meatloaf once again. But the worst part is, it's a frozen meal. Frozen meals contain synthetic meat that was frozen before the world went to shit and was later heated up for consumption. I look at the brown-gray colors of the slimy textured "food."
Gourmet food was nothing but a myth because of earth's current state.
I took a small portion of the so-called "food" and took it back to my quarters.
When the oxygen in the air dropped to a dangerously low level, everyone on the planet was moved to the relocation facility. It sucks living with everyone left on the planet. But the population isn't what it used to be. About a decade ago, when the true toll of the human race began to reveal itself, the population began at roughly ten billion people. About five years ago, it was five billion and in a matter of months, the population was reduced to a mere 120,000. As Earth's conditions got worse, the more people died per day, killing off the weak and leaving the strong.
I finished the artificial meat in a matter of minutes. Not because it was delightful but because I wanted the stomach churning taste to go away as soon as possible. I honestly think the government could use this as a torture method.
I placed the dirty tray inside the cleaning slot and watched it quickly slide down the chute to the kitchen and turned my head to the side, slightly catching a peek of my unsightly reflection in the large mirror leaning against the wall.
Standing before me was my own reflection. A grotesque thing at that. The only thing I could name more stomach-churning than the food here was my disgusting reflection.
An eyesore with uncut hair stretching down to my ankles. My most "unique" feature, as Lucas calls it, is a physical mutation called Heterochromia. One of my eyes is a golden brown while the other an icy blue. My hair starts at a hazelnut brown and fades into a dyed deep blue. My eyes caught the middle of my body looking at it in full view. Although I don't weigh anything over 120 pounds, the little voice in my mind always screams, 'it's not enough.' The voice was always my mothers. She was a bitch, no denying that. The moral part of me that was left always forgave her up till her death. By then I finally realized I was free from her.
I quickly look away. I wish they would remove that mirror from my quarters. I submitted a report almost a month ago. Unreliable.
I reach down to the first braid to my right and undo the small hair tie keeping the braid intact. Once this was done to both braids, my hair draped down and swept the floor with the ends. I only trimmed it once it reached the floor. I don't like it when it picks up dust because that means I have to clean it more often.
        I slipped a pair of standard white PJ's over my head and flopped onto my hard mattress. I reached to my wrist and pulled off the leather watch Lucas gave me. I got it for my tenth birthday. I clearly remember it, he worked overtime for a month to be able to pay for it. The watch was beautiful with a silver lining and a leather latch.
        We were very poor and usually homeless. Often,we had to steal food. Even though Lucas worked three jobs over the weekends, we still couldn't get enough money to keep us afloat.
The only reason Lucas is the Commander of this mission is because he stayed in school and got a scholarship to NSEP, (National Space Exploration Program). Of course, he topped the class and later went on to plan the mission and is currently seeing through with it.
The most frustrating part about this mission is realizing there is no second chance. If we screw up, that's the end of it, no redo or delete button, and humanity will have ended by the name of Lucas Walker.
        I look over to my tiny box alarm clock. It read 21:36 August 19, 2617. I slipped the paper thin blanket over my head and drifted to sleep.