Starbound

6 - Starships

Zach

The first night with everyone here was borderline chaotic. I had sat back at dinner and watched as groups clashed, the snobbish twins from my dorm room telling almost everyone off for eating incorrectly. Until that night, I hadn't even known that there was an apparent correct way to eat, it was ridiculous! Afterwards, we'd been told to go back to our dorms until morning and almost everyone got lost on their way back. Except for me since I had already been here for far longer than them and could easily navigate between the dining hall and the dorms. I'd slipped away quickly before anyone else, content to leave them to find their own way back. But just as I had spread out on my bed, a shadow slipped into the room and climbed into the bed beside me. Initially, I'd been surprised that Charlotte had found her own way back until I'd realised that she'd probably followed me. I'd also come to believe that perhaps she wasn't as brainless as the others after all.

At precisely 8:00 am everyone's schedule band goes off, reminding us all of the day of training we have ahead. I groan, burying myself beneath the covers of my bed. I can hear the others mumbling to themselves as they claw their way up from their blankets and out of bed. I can hear them moving about, trying to find where some fresh clothes are until they figure out that there is a drawer beneath their beds. I wait as they prepare for the day, exiting the room to get dressed in the bathroom down the hall before returning and packing their clothes away. I wait as Jordan and Aliyah leave in their usual cheer, as the Opesque twins speak about the Pair behind their backs. They voices begin to fade away, followed by the click of the door as it closes. I push the covers off of me and sit up. 'Thank God they're gone,' I mutter.

'Thank God?' Charlotte turns to me with her head cocked to the left, and I realise I'd forgotten she was still in the room. 'I haven't heard that one since my grandmother was still alive.' Her tone is sorrowful, she clearly loved her grandmother as most children do. I shrug at her, not many invoke God's name anymore, not since Earth began to die. Those who once believed turned their back on him, as many did with their other deities. Religion began to fade away, leaving very few people who kept their faith. My mother was one such person, having been taught about God from her great aunt who had raised her instead of her parents. So my mother had taught me too, taught me to still believe when no one else did, to still hope when the world turned its back.

'What are you still doing here?' I ask to change the subject, not feeling up to telling her my story. Or hearing her grandmother's. I drag myself out of bed beginning to get my clothes from the drawer beneath the bed.

'I'm waiting for you,' she answers as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. 'Pairs are required to go to and from the dining hall together to prevent one person from getting lost.'

I frown at her. How does she know this? I don't recall anyone telling me this rule or ever reading it. Shaking it off, I pick up my clothes. 'Okay, I'm just going to go change,' I go to leave the room but she stops me, reaching out and grabbing my arm. I turn to her and she shakes her head, telling me not to go.

'There's no time to go to the bathroom, change, come back and then go to breakfast,' she says. 'You'll have to change in here.'

I raise an eyebrow at her. 'Change in here with you?'

'No,' she replies, blushing. 'I'll be waiting outside for you.' Without another word, she leaves. I don't waste time, changing into a white shirt and grey pants just like everyone else is wearing, pulling on a pair of black boots which has also been provided for everyone. I put my clothes in the drawer and run a hand through my hair in an attempt to untangle to knots in it as I make my way to the door. Sure enough, Charlotte's there waiting for me when I open it.

'Hurry up,' she tells me, grabbing me by the arm and pulling me along behind her all the way to the dining hall. I am almost surprised that she can find her way to the hall without any guidance, until I remember that she actually absorbs a lot more than I think she does. Upon arriving, I see that we are the last Pair to enter the room as everyone else is either piling food onto their plates from the buffet set up at end of the room or beginning to eat. The blonde girl continues to drag me until we reach the buffet where she finally releases it and reaches for a plate. I copy her actions, spooning small mounds of scrambled eggs and bacon onto my plate, food I only ever got to dream about until now. The LOE pamper their chosen ones a great deal, probably because they believe that if they spoil them enough, it makes up for the fact that the Pairs are about to be sent to their deaths. Plate in my hands, I follow Charlotte to an empty table and sit down opposite her. We dig into our food in silence, not bothering to engage in conversation. Or rather, I don't bother to engage in conversation even though I can see that she is saying to break the silence. From what I've observed of her so far, Charlotte Desquita is a conversationalist, always feeling the need to speak with someone. That need to always speak is adding to the reasons why I hate her, even though she restrains herself around me. I almost feel bad for her, being Paired with me even if it is only for a few days. We are complete opposites; she's a people person while I'm not, she wants to leave Earth while I don't and she has a family who loves and cares for her while I have no one left, not anymore.

...

The hangar is officially the largest room I have ever been in. It is packed with transport ships designed to carry small groups of people to and from their starships. After breakfast, one of the trio who usually follows Angela around had arrived at the hall to escort us to the hangar where each Pair would be assigned a starship and transporter. Standing beside Charlotte, I watch her as she glances around in absolute awe. Although I don't share her appreciation for spacecraft, I can still tell just how impressive they are. Of course, it is expected for the LOE to have the best of everything, especially when it comes to spacecraft.

'Listen up please,' the man at the head of the group says. I still haven't yet learnt his name but I recognise him as one of the trio. 'I'm about to assign each Pair a starship and transporter, please follow me through to the virtual hangar.' I see many of the Pairs around me exchange confused glances, clearly unsure of what the virtual hangar is. I am too but I don't let it show, instead staring straight ahead as I follow the man to a door at the end of the hangar. On our way through the hangar, I watch as people in orange move about the transporters, darting in and out of them or working on external panels. They're aeromechanics, just like my mother was. I turn away, finding that I am next to walk through the door.

Inside the room reminds me of the control centre we were shown yesterday from the dim blue glow filtering down from the lights in the ceiling. Aside from that, the rooms are totally different. The virtual hangar is exactly that, a room of holographic models of starships. I wander through the rows of them with the group, examining each starship. I notice that Charlotte is no longer at my side, instead she has drifted away and is moving from starship to starship, looking at each one with the same level of excitement as the first. I turn back to the holographic starship in front of me and glance over it. After the first few starships I saw, they are all beginning to look exactly the same with sleek noses widening out into a rather narrow but long triangular body with a wide window at the front of the ship and rockets in the back. I vaguely recall something about no two starships being the same but to me, there is no difference between them.

'Gather around in your Pairs and remember the name of the ship I assign you,' the man calls from the centre of the room where there is a space between all of the holograms. I move with the others, shuffling towards him. I search the crowd for Charlotte as I do, only to find that she has reappeared beside me without a word. We stand together amongst everyone else, waiting to hear what the man has to say. He begins to call out Pairs one by one and the name of their starship.

'Zachary Oscow and Charlotte Desquita,' he announces. 'Your ship is the Starbound.'