Beyond Our Stars (Excerpt)

Chapter Five

T.D.

“We’re entering the atmosphere,” a voice said over the ship intercom. It was six a.m. and I was in my quarters by myself, holding my blanket. Sort of as a comfort and also so I had something in my hands to pull on and try to rip as my nerves threatened to spontaneously combust. Like I thought the ship might do. If we all died I would die alone. Now was one of those times I wished I had some family, somebody to be with me. I wished I had Chance.

“Make it through, make it through,” I whispered out loud to myself.

And then there was a jolt, and then a bounce the opposite way. I put my hands on the edges of my bed to keep myself steady. Then a loud rattling that I really didn’t care for. The Reflection was leading the fleet. We would be the first ones to land.

“It’s okay,” I said out loud as my voice vibrated with the ship. I closed my eyes. It was a good thing my mirror was bolted to the wall. I’d put all my belongings in my drawers under the bed the way Chief had advised us. He knew this would be a bumpy ride.

He wouldn’t be at the main deck right now. He wouldn’t be standing at the helm. He’d be in the engine room, sweating and working with all the others to make sure we made it down in one piece. I imagined our fleet of ships all descending onto the planet and wondered who or what was watching.

The rattling got louder and went from a worrisome shaking to a different, unnamable sound that could only be described as coming-loose-at-the-bolts-terrifying-we’re-all-going-to-die noise.

“Ooohhhh,” came out of my mouth. Not as a word but a sort of hollow groan that echoed and bounced around in my room as the ship shook violently and I struggled to hang on. Then we were catapulting forward. I was flung from my bed into the wall. I curled into the corner of my room, trying to hug the floor.

But then the furious ride started to slow and the ship started to feel normal again. “We’re through and final descent begins in 5...” the countdown began and a blaring alarm sounded, blasting down the halls and into my room. I pictured Chief Up to try and make myself feel better. He’d be working on whatever the problem was right now. He’d know what to do, he could fix it.

“Make it, make it,” I prayed, sitting up and talking aloud to myself again. The voice continued the countdown over the intercom.

Then there was a sick lurching feeling in my stomach and I knew we were descending. When the alarm suddenly stopped, I expected another lurch forward, something else bad.

Instead I felt the jiggling, jostling feeling of colliding with a solid surface. “We’re here,” I whispered. Seconds later I sat bolt upright. But what now?

***

Chief sent out armed men from the Reflection as a perimeter defense. We waited to be attacked. But nothing came. After a while Chief gave the order that we could disembark the ships. People walked outside nervously. Our landing site was a maze of ships. We’d landed the sixteen major vessels and twenty-eight minor ones into high grass; massive ships settled in fields of grass growing higher than your head, in fields with tall stalks of unfamiliar plants, smaller ships in patches of root vegetables or in the spaces in between orchards of tall trees.No one was eager to wander far from the ships but we could see a little ways in most directions. On the east side of the Reflection were more of the same crops and trees. The maroon leaves of the trees to the east dotted the landscape all the way into our landing site. It was a sea of purple. To the south were gold and brown colors stretching far into the distance behind us. To the west and the north was the green patchwork quilt, different types of vines and leaves growing in a highly organized profusion of food. We’d landed in the morning and the wisps of deep green and wavy yellow skylights were still visible, though muted by the planet’s sun.