Space Dreams

Chapter 1: Redo

Warning major spoilers for my other e-book Change at the last two pages!!! This is its sequal, which I am cowriting with my husband.

Veda's POV:

I blinked.

Everything looks different. I was talking to Rose in the coffee shop and next thing I am here in this strange empty room. I try to orient myself. The floor, walls and ceiling all look the same. It is making me feel nauseous. I look closer; the surface looks like a see through mirror with wiring behind it. Where the f*ck am I?

The room is gigantic. I turn around. There are other people standing in the room as well. All separated at exactly the same distance. About 50 meters in between.

This is so strange. Where am I?

First the kidnapping. Now this. FML.

The others look as surprised as me. They look around and turn to orient themselves.

No windows or light bulbs. Where is the light coming from? I look to the floor again, there seems to be illumination behind the wires.

I turn around again and see a red-haired woman standing a few feet from me. She is looking at me and is waving. I wave back. Stupid, but I can’t think of anything else.

She starts walking towards me and within a few seconds is next to me.

“Hi, I am Kira. What is your name? Do you have any idea where we are?”

I shake my head. “No, I have no idea. My name is Veda.”

More people are forming groups. A huge older grey-haired man comes over to us. “Hi there, I am Xavier. Do you two have any idea were we are?”

We tell him that we don’t know.

“Let’s join the others over there”, Kira proposes. All smaller groups start to join others. We join a bigger group of people. Tessa, a black older woman, who is holding hands with a child about the age of 5.  I kneel down. “Hey, what is your name?” I ask the little girl. “Lara”, she answers shyly and she tries to hide behind Tessa’s legs. “I am her grandmother” Tessa answers my questioning gaze. “Hi, I am Taylor.” a blonde man about my age says. “And I am Tate, and yes we are twins.” an identical man smiles.

A loud intercom-like voice clears his throat. “Hello everybody. Welcome. You are safe. Please proceed to the door.” He instructs.

What door? A section of one of the walls slides open and reveals a brighter room.

I look at Kira. “What shall we do?” I ask her. She shrugs “Well, there is not much else we can do.” We walk towards the opening in the wall where all groups aggregate in one bigger one. People are talking to each other and some are looking frightened.

“We all seem to be American.” Xavier says.

The intercom buzzes again. “Good morning. I am Artie, the ships’ AI. You all have been selected by the Common Countries to embark on a voyage to Terra. Terra is a world we have just recently discovered and that is almost identical to earth. You are currently in one of the spaceships that are located above North Africa. In the following 3 years we will transport a third of the world’s population to Terra in convoys. You are the first 20 people to arrive on the current ship, not including the crew that is already stationed here. When your name is spoken aloud, you will proceed to the crewmember stepping forward. He or she will be your mentor for the trip. Children will accompany their family.”

I looked around. There were 3 other children ranging from barely walking to teenagers. In addition to the 20 adults.

I waited for my name to be called. “Veda Williams”. A man of my age dressed in a dark red uniform with grey stripes on his shoulders stepped forward. I walked up to him. Oh my, he was striking. A bit on the lean side but I didn’t mind that.