Journey

Lorelei: Darkness

Darkness. That is our first lesson when we are young. It is the name of the ship we are sitting on. Most people are scared of the darkness. They think it's eerie. Our ship was named Darkness because we are expected to land on Cambaar in the nighttime. Usually it's not very important but day on the planet is estimated to be two hundred years. Night is only one hundred years. My people have been sitting on our ship for six hundred years. Or we will have in two weeks. My dad is the commander of our ship. That makes me the next commander of the Darkness. That doesn't make him interested in me the least bit. My mom says that she gets more affection from the robots who clean our rooms than my dad. She says he used to be different. A romantic. I have a hard time believing that though. People don't change that drastically. Anyway he's never home. It can be weeks before I see him. I honestly don't care. He doesn't love me and the feelings mutual. I could care less. Maybe if he payed more attention to me I would feel differently but he doesn't so I don't. My mom on the other hand. I love her. She is the easily the nicest and most amazing loving person in the history of everything. She pays attention to me and loves me enough for the both of them. That's why I was so shocked to see my dad at our table instead of my mom.

"What are you doing here?" I ask him.

He glares at me.

"I live here. And I would prefer if you call me sir," He says.

"Whatever," I mutter.

"When did you get an attitude?" he asked.

"I've always had an attitude. It's one of my defining personality traits but of course you wouldn't know that because you have been missing my whole life," I spit.

He looks mad. It doesn't matter to me if he's mad. He deserves everything I tell him.

"What did you do to mom?" I ask.

"She asked me to watch you while she picks out your birthday present. If it was up to me you wouldn't get a birthday present because of your attitude," He explained.

His voice is still as cold as it has always been. No remorse. I had forgotten about my birthday. I don't like to celebrate it. It just reminds me of something my mom and dad once had. That vile thing shouldn't be celebrated. My mom would be better off with literally anyone else. I tried to get her to divorce him but she wouldn't budge.

"Yet again why she is a better parent than you are," I explain.

"Hey, I did this out of the kindness of my heart and you act like its such a bad thing," He barks.

"Oh yes, because it's such a hard thing to do. Hang out with YOUR kid. And yes it is a bad thing. I act like its such a vile thing because you are a vile person." I say to spite him.

"Than why do you still live here?" he asks.

"Is that even a question? Mom is a much better person than you," I yell.

I walk out. I have seen enough of my dad for the month. I storm through the lower decks. I stop just short of the elevator. The elevator leads to the upper decks. The only people allowed up there work on the bridge and in the control room. They don't allow people up there because they know how long we have until we land. They don't want that kind of information to get to the lower decks. I continue to stare until my best friend comes up to me.

"Happy birthday cousin!" She yells.

"Thanks Alivia," I tell her.

We call everybody on the ship cousin because we are all related after a few hundred years. They created a special DNA modification thing that prevents consequences of incest onboard.

"You don't look very excited about your birthday," Alivia frowns.

"Why should I celebrate something toxic?" I ask.

"Your birthday isn't toxic,"

"You're right. My birthday isn't toxic. My parents marriage is."

"Why do you hate your dad so much?" Alivia asks.

"Because he hates me,"

"Come on. I'm sure he doesn't hate you as much as you think he does." She says.

"This morning he said I shouldn't get a birthday present because he provoked me into saying something snappy at him," I said unwavering.

Her mouth forms a little "oh". I nod.

"Do you want to go to the star chart room?" She asked.

I nod. We walk down several flights of stairs to get to the Star Charts. They used to be actual Star Charts on tablets but we upgraded over the course of time. I love the Star Charts room because of the dome that displays thousands of little stars that seem to dance across the screens. I also love looking at Cambaar. It is so beautiful. It is twice the size of Sol Earth and has a hundred times more colors than Sol Earth too. When we get there I say what I always say.

"Allura Star System."

The screens change and morph into a star systems that kinda looks like Sol's. Instead of a Orange-Red star in the center there is a gleaming white star and in the outskirts of the System is Cambaar. If Sol Earth was this far away from its sun than it would be frozen. The only reason Cambaar is so far away from the sun is because it is a white star. The hottest star in the universe. That we know of that is. I stand there gawking at how gorgeous the colors blend together. There seems to be a mix of every color in the planet. I stand there all amazed looking at the planet. Thinking that we might have a chance to actually see this beautiful thing. Alivia breaks the silence.

"I think we need to leave,"

I heard it to. Footsteps. People aren't really welcome to know the stars. I think it's absolutely ridiculous. We sneak into the air vent. I'm startled to see my dad and his first shipper walking in. I look at Alivia. My dad looks mad and the shipper looked frightened.

"How did you mess up the simplest thing?" He asked angrily.

"I'm sorry sir. It won't happen again," he stammered.

"The thing is it has already been the worst act of betrayal that has ever happened on this ship,"

"It's just one girl. We can just float her,"

My heart stops beating in my chest. Float her. They would send a girl to her death for knowing to much? Than I remember, its my dad. Of course he would.

"That's the thing. It is one girl but that one girl has a huge mouth and even if we do figure out who she told we would have to float them too. People would get to suspicious and the power would shift," My dad explained.

I don't want to hear it anymore. His words echoing in my brain. He would float everyone who knows if it didn't raise suspicions. Alivia and I crawl through the air vent until we are far away from the Star Charts. We finally stumble out and our hearts were beating up a storm.

"Happy fifteenth birthday Lorelei, your dad is a murderous freak." Alivia said sarcastically.

"Please I already knew he was evil."

"What are you going to do?"

"We're going to find out who knows something they shouldn't."