Glow

Chapter 1: Proposal

The other ship hung in the sky like a pendant, silver in the ether light cast by the nebula. Waverly and Kieran, lying together on their mat­tress of hay bales, took turns peering at it through a spyglass. They knew it was a companion vessel to theirs, but outhere, in the vastness of space, it could have been as tiny as a OneMan or as immense as a star— therewere no points of reference.

“Our ships are so ugly,” Waverly said. “I’ve seen pictures, but in person . . .”

“I know,” said Kieran, taking the spyglass from her. “It looks like it has cancer or something.”

The other ship, the New Horizon, was exactly the same misshapen design as the Empyrean. It was egg shaped, covered with domes that housed the different ship systems, making it look like a Jerusalem artichoke, the kind Mrs. Stillwell always dropped off with Kieran’s family after the fall harvest. The engines released a bluish glow that illuminated the particles of the nebula, causing the occasional spark to fly when the heat of the engines ignited a pocket of hydrogen. Of course, the shipswere accelerating too quickly to be harmed by these small explosions.

“Do you think they’re like us?” she asked him.

Kieran tugged at one of her dark brown curls. “Sure they are. They have the same mission as we do.”

“They must want something from us,” Waverly said, “or they wouldn’t be here.”

“What could they want?” he said to reassure her. “Everything we have, they have.”

Inwardly, Kieran admitted that it was very strange they could see the ship at all. By all rights, the New Horizon should be trillions of miles ahead of them, considering it was launched a full year before the Empyrean, forty-three years ago. The ships had never been close enough to get a glimpse of each other. For some reason the New Ho­rizon had reduced its speed to allow the Empyrean to catch up. In fact, given the distance and the velocity at which both ships traveled, it must have decelerated years ago—a radical deviation from the mission plan.

The other ship was a source of excitement aboard the Empyrean. Some people had made large welcome signs with big, exuberant letter­ing and hung them in the portals pointed toward the other ship. Others were suspicious and whispered that the crew must have some disease, otherwise whywouldn’t the Captain let them come aboard? Captain Jones had made an announcement soon after the ship appeared, telling the crew not to be alarmed, that he and the other Captainwere in nego­tiations and all would be explained. But days had gone by, and nothing had changed. Soon the feeling among the crew had changed from ex­citement to restlessness and finally to fear.

The New Horizon was all Kieran’s parents talked about. The night before, Kieran had quietly spooned vegetable soup into his mouth, listening to them chatter about it.

“I don’t understand why the Captaindoesn’t make another an­nouncement,” said his mother, Lena, running nervous red fi ngers through her dark gold hair. “The Central Council should at least tell us what’s happening, shouldn’t they?”

“I’m sure they will when they understand the situation,” Kieran’s father replied irritably. “We don’t have anything to fear.”

“I never said I was afraid, Paul,” Lena said with a look at Kieran that communicated just how afraid she actually was. “I just think it’s strange, is all.”

“Kieran,” his father asked in his firm way, “has Captain Jones mentioned the ship to you?”

Kieran shook his head, though he had noticed the Captain seemed more preoccupied lately, and his palsy was worse—it made his hands tremble all the time. But he hadn’t said a word about the New Hori­zon’s mysterious appearance. “Of course he wouldn’t say anything to me about it,” Kieran said.