Her satellite made one full orbit around planet Earth every
sixteen hours. It was a prison that came with an endlessly
breathtaking view—vast blue oceans and swirling clouds
and sunrises that set half the world on fire.
When she was first imprisoned, she had loved nothing more
than to stack her pillows on top of the desk that was built
into the walls of the drape her bed linens over the screens,
making a small alcove for herself.
She would pretend that she was not on a satellite at all,
but in a podship en route to the blue planet.
Soon she would land and step out onto real dirt,
feel real sunshine, smell real oxygen.
She would stare at the continents for hours and hours,
imagining what that must be like.
Her view of Luna, however, was always to be avoided.
Some days her satellite passed so close that the moon
took up the entire view and she could make out the
enormous glinting domes on its surface and the
sparkling cities where the Lunars lived.
Where she, too, had lived.
Years ago. Before she'd been banished.
As a child, Cress had hidden from the moon during
those achingly long hours.
Sometimes she would escape to the small
washroom and distract herself by twisting
elaborate braids into her hair.
Or she would scramble beneath her desk and sing
lullabies until she fell asleep.
Or she would dream up a mother and a father, and
imagine how they would play make-believe with
her and read her adventure stories and brush her
hair lovingly off her brow, until finally—finally—the
moon would sink again behind the protective
Earth, and she was safe.
Even now, Cress used those hours to crawl beneath
her bed and nap or read or write songs in her head
or workout complicated coding.
She still did not like to look at the cities of Luna; she
harbored a secret paranoia that if she could see the
Lunars, surely they could look up beyond their
artificial skies and see her.
For more than seven years, this had been her nightmare.
But now the silver horizon of Luna was creeping into
YOU ARE READING
Cress
Teen FictionTheir best hope lies with Cress, a girl trapped on a satellite since childhood who's only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she's being force to work for Queen Levana, and she...
