Starbound

11 - Breathing Underwater

Charlotte

'I might have lied when they interviewed me.'

I frown at him. Why would he lie? Our interviews and exams helped to determine everything about our futures. The point of them was to find a path for us which we would be suited to and enjoy. This order and organisation is what keeps us alive. It was the first thing we learnt at the Academy. I remember the day I first stepped into on of the classrooms and the teacher explained it all: the reasons why the LOE choose our paths, the reasons why we have to keep so organised and the reasons why we send people off Earth in search of a new home.

I also remember my interview. I remember almost every word of it from the moment I walked in to the moment I left.

'What do you want to do with your life, Miss Desquita?' The woman in charge of my interviews asked and noted down all of my answers.

Even all the way back then, before the Pairing was explained to me, I'd still dreamt of the stars. As a young child I'd wanted to explore and be apart of something more. When I was told I'd be studying computer engineering, I was disappointed. Tunnelling like my brother did had kind of appealed to me at the time because he got to go underground in places other people never went. But after I started computer engineering at the Academy, I knew that it was right for me. I enjoyed it, found excitement in solving the puzzles of code and wires brought before me. I realised that the LOE had chosen the right thing for me and my dreams of the underground tunnels vanished.

But if Zach lied, they would have sent him down a path he wouldn't enjoy.

'And your exams?' I ask him.

'Left mostly incomplete.'

'You didn't even try? But why?'

He shrugs. 'I don't think it's up to them to take away my free will. I don't want to be exploited.'

I open my mouth to argue with him when the person leading the group calls out.

'Listen up everyone, we're splitting you up because our training facilities aren't big enough for all of you to do the same exercise at the same time. So some of you will be in class rooms, hi gravity training, VR training or water training and then rotate over the next week,' he tells us. 'The following pairs will start in the classrooms. Hayley Johnson and Jackson Rhodes...'

He rattles off the pairs in the classrooms and directs them towards their rooms before he moves on. Soon, there is only around twenty people left. The man looks over us and smiles. 'And the rest of you will be in water training,' he says, opening the set of doors behind him to allow us to file in.

A wave of heat hits me as I step inside the room and the smell of chlorine burns my nostrils. The water training room is big, larger than all the rooms in my parent's apartment put together but still tiny in comparison to other rooms in the LOE, maybe only a fifth of the size of the dining hall. On the right hand side of the room there are three rows of benches lined with SCUBA equipment. A pool in the middle of the room takes up most of the space. Excitement bubbles up inside of me until I feel like I'm about to burst.

'Wow, there really is a spaceship in there,' Aliyah whispers in my ear. I glance over my right shoulder to see her eyes full of wonder and the same expression mirrored on her Pair's face behind her.

'Told you,' I reply, scanning the group for Zach only to find that he's standing on my left. I spend a few seconds watching has face for a reaction to the training facility, only to find that his face doesn't change. I look away, thinking that maybe he's just reacting on the inside. I'm almost afraid to see the day he shows his emotions externally because it will be such a big change for him.

'All right!' A woman I haven't seen before calls out from beside the pool. 'If all of you could seat yourselves on the benches in your Pairs, we can get started.'

She waits as we file over towards the benches and sit before speaking again. 'Okay, I believe there's around twenty-two of you so we'll all do the theory and then the first six pairs will go in the water for about thirty minutes while the other five pairs will learn about how water training will help you out in space. At the end of the twenty minutes, the groups will swap and do the opposite activity for another thirty minutes,' she explains. 'But first, you'll all need to change into the wet suits we are providing for you.'

We are each given a wet suit and told to leave our underwear on when we change before being directed to the closest bathroom. When we all return, the woman goes through what we need to do to stay safe while diving and what we'll actually be doing when we're in the water. Then, she announces the group which will be diving first. I perk up when I hear her call my name.

'So, can group one please stand and move over next to the pool where your diving instructors will join you in a minute,' the woman tells us. I stand, moving with the rest of my group.

Three diving instructors join us, telling us that they will be looking out for two Pairs each. Zach and I are put in a small group with Aliyah and Jordan. Our instructor, Alexis helps us put our equipment on and explains how everything works, as well as teaching us how to communicate using hand signals. We get into the water with all our gear and run through how to clear water from our mouths, how to find our mouthpieces if they fall out for any reason and how to get water out of our masks for about fifteen minutes. Finally, we are able to go down to the ship and begin exploring it, familiarising ourselves with it in preparation for later water training missions.

I dive off the little platform only about a metre from the top of the water, down towards the spaceship. It's smaller than the spaceships we'll be taking when we leave Earth, but still large enough to be impressive. I separate from the rest of my group and circle around the top of it, getting used to the feeling of moving through water like I weigh nothing at all. I haven't been able to swim in so long, not since we were taught how to in the Academy and never once have I been able to swim freely like this. The Academy was always orderly and the LOE is the same, but leaves a little more room for exploration. For that, I am glad.

The water feels strange against my bare feet, hands and face. I can feel it dragging through my hair, pulling it away so that it streams in a thin line behind me. I take long, deep breaths from my oxygen tank even though I know I could easily breath normally. Maybe a part of me is subconsciously treating every breath as my last.

As I continue to explore the exterior of the ship, I get closer and start going down deeper until I've seen nearly all of it. I swim around to the side of the spaceship I haven't really seen yet, dodging around a few people swimming in the opposite direction. I see Zach ahead of me, slowly gliding through the water with his eyes fixed on the spaceship. I slow down, watching him as I approach. His face is blank as usual, but I watch it as it changes. One second, he's swimming along peacefully and the next he's stopped, staring at something on the ship. I follow his line of sight to see the words written on the panel.

ILLYRIA OSCOVE.