Binary Star

Chapter One: Initiation

Binary Star

By Alexandria Francetic

Chapter One: Initiation

"Spica, you have to go!" Mother's desperate screams rang in my ears as I clawed out to her and Father. I wanted to touch them, but they were just barely out of my reach. The escorters had me locked in their clutches, trying to drag me onboard the S.S. Lillium. I squirmed and thrashed to no avail. "But I don't wanna go! I wanna stay with you and Father!"

Father reached foward and gently stroked my cheek. His eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot. He forced an awful, despairing smile. "Spica, listen to me. You have to go on the ship. You have to escape. There isn't enough room for your mother and I. You can't see us anymore. From now on, you need to learn to live on your own. I want you to help Berenice, and I want you to protect and watch over little Chi, understand?" I sniffled hard, biting my lip until it bled. "But...Father..."

"No buts," Mother said. She narrowed her eyes as if to appear angry, but I knew she only did it to mask her fear. "Listen to your father. Go with your sisters. The nice people on the ship will help you and take care of you, okay? You're going to find a new home, a better home. You and your sisters have such a long and bright future ahead of you...I wish your father and I could be around to see it. When you get older, whatever happens, don't ever give up. I love you, my little Spica."

She leaned toward me and planted a small kiss on my cheek before the escorters yanked me away. They dragged me onto the loading dock alongside Berenice, who clutched a perpetually crying Chi

in her quivering arms. Her pink eyes were swollen with tears. She looked as though she wanted to scream, but no voice would come out. I reached out to my parents one last time. "Mother...Father...PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME!"

Those words reverberated in my brain as the airlock doors sealed shut, enclosing me in a windowless prison of steel. That was the last I ever saw of my mother and father. The escorters pulled my sisters and I along, deeper into the bowels of the S.S. Lillium. The metal floors beneath my feet quaked and shook. I felt that the entire structure was being propelled or lifted upward. My ears popped, and I began to wobble, so I swallowed to regain my balance. A sharp pain sliced deep into my gut. I felt sick to my stomach.

Faster and faster the ship ascended, ever increasing the hellish pressure. A pair of nurses arrived to take little Chi and whisk her off somewhere, while a few of the escorters took Berenice to our room. I would have come too- if it weren't for the gush of fluids rising up in my throat. I wrestled away from the escorters, collapsed to my knees, and vomited all over the shiny, buff-polished steel floor. "Spica!" Berenice exclaimed. Despite her struggles, the workers kept pulling her away.

Meanwhile, I coughed and hacked on my own fluids. Dripping tears and running snot mixed in with the vomit, creating a sickening slurry. I trembled all over. I couldn't make myself stop crying. My throat ached. Weakly, I staggered to my feet and turned my head, gazing out of the main window. It was a heavy, impossibly thick pane of glass that stretched across the entire length of the ship. I stumbled toward the window and pressed my face against it.

Lillius resembled a tiny, glowing blue sphere in the distance. Behind that hung an ever-growing, white-hot ball of light. My home planet was barely a pinprick in front of it. Our sun, Spica, the star I was named after- was now merging with its smaller sister. The smaller star was sucked toward, rapidly consumed and swallowed into its harsh nuclear flame. The closer they merged, the larger and larger Spica grew. I stared on in a mix of terror, disbelief, and pure awe. How could something like this be happening- to my own home, no less?

In school, I was taught about events like this, but they all seemed so impossible to actually be real. Even if it were real, it would never happen to us. There was no chance. As a naive child, that was what I thought. But here it was, happening right before my eyes.