When Forever Ends (Part 2: The Place with No Name)

XXXI

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T h i r t y - O n e

A sound jerked Erin out of her misery. Or, a lack of sound. The engines had shut off.

She decided that she had spent enough time grieving and slowly stood up. Way up. In fact, her feet left the ground and her head hit the ceiling. She started as she realized she wasn't going back down; she was floating! An arm brushed hers. Ryan was floating next to her, as lifeless as ever. The sight almost brought back the tears, but she fought off the wave of grief.

Erin pushed off the wall and went flying over to the ladder. She grabbed hold and started to climb it, but her body was moving up faster than she could climb, so she let go. At the top of the ladder, the tunnel opened up into a small, cone-shaped room. Erin took one look at the space she now found herself in and had to shut her eyes immediately. But she had already seen the disorienting layout of the room. The "wall" looked a lot more like the floor of the room, with four heavily padded seats bolted to it, facing up. But if there was no gravity, there wasn't really an "up".

"It helps if you turn yourself this way," Will's voice caused her to look "up". He was floating parallel to the floor just a meter above her head. He tapped his foot against the back of one of the seats and drifted over to Erin, grabbing her left foot and rotating her so the chairs were upright.

"Thanks," she said. "That's a little better."

She took a second look at the room. The sides of the cone were lined with compartments and drawers, with black, textured strips placed here and there, presumably to provide sure footing, though how that might work in a zero gravity environment was beyond Erin. There was also four large, green cushions attached to the wall, surrounded by straps. A little cartoon next to one of them depicted a person asleep on one of the cushions, strapped to the wall so he wouldn't float away. The four seats bolted to the floor facing the tip of the rocket were also covered in straps and harnesses so the occupants could sit in the chair like normal. Erin floated over to one of them now, awkwardly dragging herself into the chair and securing the straps. Without them, it would have been near impossible to keep her legs and arms from floating up and drifting off.

Maya gave Erin a peculiar look from the next seat and disappeared down the ladder. She wondered whether Maya had told the others what had happened.

A huge window just before the point of the room offered a spectacular view of the whole of space stretched out before them. She gasped at the sight. Just looking at the vastness of it all, with the millions of stars, many with planets of their own, not to mention the enormous amount of emptiness, made Erin realize just how small and vulnerable the rocket really was.

She felt she should say something, but she was so amazed she could only say "Wow."

"That has to be the understatement of the century," Sofie spoke softly from the seat next to her. "But yes, I agree."

"Where's Ryan?" Will inquired.

So she hasn't told them, Erin thought.

"Ryan's-," Her voice wavered slightly and she forced herself to pause and take a deep breath. "He didn't make it." Sofie inhaled sharply and she turned away to hide the drops of moisture that glistened at the edges of her vision. As the eldest present, it wouldn't do to let the others see how shaken she was. As she had thought before, she had to keep it together or they all might lose their determination. She could feel sorrow later, but right now the others needed her. She forced herself to concentrate and looked at the front of the room, purposely avoiding Sofie and Will's eyes.

The rear seats were comfy and all, but the two forward seats were obviously meant for the pilot and copilot, with thousands of buttons and switches and dials and displays. Which brought up a thought that had been bothering Erin since Tarron had fallen off the rocket. She seized on the opportunity to bring the conversation away from Ryan.

"How are we going to get off this thing?" she asked. ""I mean, none of us knows much about rockets, let alone how to fly one."

Will drifted over her head to the front of the room. "We thought that could be a problem," he said, reaching down to lift something from the seat in front of Erin. "And since you're the most technologically savvy, read up!" He pushed a thick book towards her. She let out a huff of air as it thudded into her chest with more force than she'd expected, and glanced at the cover: Instruction Manual.

She groaned in exasperation. No matter how necessary it was, this was going to take forever.