Battle for Earth

Dreams

A day had passed and both boys caught and recovered from fevers. They figured it was from whatever new substance Black had injected into them.  Black didn't come the next morning, but there was something waiting for them when they woke.

"Cato."

"What." Cato has his nose in a book and didn't look up.

"Look." Alex said. Cato looked up at Alex.

"What-" He noticed the paper in Alex's hands. "What is that?"

"Read it." Said Alex, handing the paper over to Cato. It was a thin sheet of paper, and even though he'd seen the Grey Coats use it before, he hadn't held a piece of paper in years.  As a sixteen year old on the Reacher, every person in your dorm must make the decision to join either the cavalry or the Grey Coats.  This is a requirement.  You must choose between the two options and inform the Grey Coat in charge of your tests three days from today.

"Wow." Cato said.

"Yeah, what do you want to choose?" Alex asked.

"Is that even a question? I don't want to stay on this huge ship and torture kids for the rest of my life."  Cato answered.  Alex was silent for a minute while he thought about Cato's words.

"Hey,"  Alex sounded unsure.  "Do you think we'll ever go back to earth?"

"Doubt it."  Cato read the second paragraph of the letter.  If you choose to join our cavalry, you will train for as long as needed before being sent to one of our battle stations.  At the battle stations you will wait for your first assignment. You will be expected to follow every direction given to you.  If you choose to become a Grey Coat, you will take a class once a week to instruct you of your duties.  When you are deemed ready you will spend one day following a Grey Coat and learning first hand.  "Wait.  I wonder where they plan to send us."

"Well if we're going to be waiting at a battle station, probably to a planet.  Maybe earth."  Alex said.

"Don't tell me you want to try to go back there?" Cato asked.

"What if my family is still alive? I want to find them. I need to know why they sent me away on the Reacher in the first place.  I might have a brother or even a sister.  I don't know, but I want to."  Alex said.  Cato thought about his comment, but just then something came to him.  He suddenly felt dizzy, and sat down on the edge of Alex's bed, clutching the paper.

"Cato?"  Alex asked, concerned by his sudden movement.  "You look pale, are you alright?"

"We're sixteen."  Cato said.

"Yeah.  I know."

"We've been on this ship for thirteen years."  Cato was whispering now, not able to make himself talk any louder.

"That's why I want to get home.  I don't want to be stuck here forever." Alex said.

"I don't remember my mothers voice."  Cato replied quietly.

"Me neither."  Alex said.  "I remember what she looked like though.  She had long dark hair and green eyes."

"Mine had- no, has. She has to be alive.  She has blonde hair, but the tips were dyed green.  And she has blue eyes."  Cato said.

"Do you have any siblings?"  Alex asked.

"Yeah, I have a younger sister.  Her name is Kathleen.  She was born a week before we left."

"Wow, I don't have any that I know of."  Alex said.  The boys sat silently for a moment, remembering their past.

"I remember when I broke my leg.  I tripped and fell off the edge of the sidewalk."  Cato laughed at his memory, and Alex laughed with him.

"One time, I was playing tag with one of my friends and I was running backwards.  I ran into a tree and slipped into a nearby pond."  Alex said.  Both the boys doubled over in laughter.

"I keep imagining three year old you falling into a pond!"  Cato said.

"I was only two."  Cato laughed harder as Alex weakly protested.

"Ok," Cato said after he had calmed down. "I'm with you, lets try to go back."

"What?"

"Lets try to get back to earth."  Said Cato

"That's insane." Alex said.  "But I've never done anything insane before, so why not?"

The boys spent the next hour preparing for what they were going to attempt.  They decided that they'd both have to ration their meals and save parts of each one to bring with them.  Then they made a list of the tools they'd need.

"Ok so we need to bring water."  Alex said.

"Yeah and all our extra clothes."  Cato added.

"And some sort of weapons."

"Books are a necessity."  Alex rolled his eyes and both the boys started laughing.  "So what are we going to save our food in?"  Cato asked.

"I can make an airtight container, it'll take me at least a day though."  Alex said.

"Ok, while you do that I'll try to read up on the cavalry and learn as much as I can."  Said Cato.

"We'll probably be brought to the battle station, and from there..."  Alex said.

"We'll hijack a ship and head for earth?"  Cato questioned.

"Yeah that sounds good.  So how do we plan to get all of this stuff?"  Alex asked.  "Are we gonna steal it?"

"Yeah, how else are we going to get everything we need?"  Cato asked.  Suddenly he remembered the room he'd been in a few weeks before.  He stood up and tried the door.  Locked.  "We'll have to wait until morning and hope that Black comes."

"Ok, yeah."  Alex nodded.  "Wow I'm nervous.  See you in the morning."  He crawled into his bed and turned to the wall.

Cato paced the room for a few minutes, trying to figure out if they'd missed anything big.  When he was certain he had a mental list of what they'd need, he sat down to read for a moment and calmed his nerves.  Then he changed into his night clothes and got into his bed, clicking off the light.  Cato tried to sleep, but his mind was drawing him away from it.  Instead he lay awake facing the ceiling, thinking about home and their plan to escape.  What if they got caught?  What if they couldn't get out?  Now that he so desperately wanted to get home would he be able to stay here?  There were so many thoughts running through his head that Cato was beginning to get a headache.  He slipped out of his bead and climbed down the ladder as quietly as he could.

He walked over to the bookshelf and looked for a book about the Reacher's cavalry.  He found a book about the history of the ship shoved among the other history books on the shelf.  He pulled the book off the shelf and turned on the lamp next to the closest chair.  He sat down and started to read.  He quickly skimmed over the pages, looking for anything relating to the cavalry.  Finally, about halfway through the book he found what he was looking for. 

The Reacher's cavalry was assembled one year after the initial liftoff of the ship.  It was created after the discovery of a group of ship raiders focused on taking the large ship down and taking its supplies.  The Reacher was originally meant to hold the children of the next generation, because of a disease that threatened to wipe out the whole human race.  Fortunately a cure was discovered within only a month after the outbreak, and the disease was contained.

Now he knew a little about the history of the ship.  He told himself that he'd done everything he could.  Then he climbed back into his bed. He rolled over and stayed still until he eventually drifted off into a restless sleep.