Earth Rise

Chapter 1 - Escape

The blue blur of hyperspace whooshed past. Leif watched his burning home planet zoom away, blinking into nothingness as they entered deep space. Hot tears threatened to spill, but Leif hurriedly wiped them away. He drew in a shuddering breath and gazed around the ship. 'Trailblazer', Leif thought he'd seen painted on the starboard side before jumping in the ship and evacuating. 

It took Leif a moment for his mind to catch up. His planet had just been taken over by unknown forces. He had been lucky enough to escape the carnage. And now they were heading into the universe with no inkling of what they were doing.

A steady thump was starting to pound in Leif's head. A headache impending. He stood up from the sleek white chair and went into the next room, the swish of the automatic door sliding shut behind him. The cockpit was clean and minimalistic, a huge window spanning the front of the ship. A large man with a short scruffy black beard sat in the driver's seat. Leif vaguely remembered seeing him at the mall where he had been buying an anniversary present for his parents. His parents!

Leif felt a new stab of worry. Were his Mum and Dad ok? His sister? A fresh bout of tears welled in his eyes. Leif blinked them away and swallowed the lump in his throat. He'd think about that later. 

Leif cleared his throat. "Hey kid." The driver said. "Anything wrong?" Leif could name a few things. "What's your name?" Leif coughed out. Yeah, the most of his problems. "Philtran," the man replied, "But you can call me Phil for short." 

"Well, I'm Leif." Leif responded. Leif turned his gaze to the window. He watched as planets shot past and remembered a very important question. "Where are we going?" "Ahhh," Phil inhaled, "We aren't sure yet." Leif was about to reply, but Phil continued. "The rest of the people are two doors down, they're trying to figure everything out." "Oh," Leif sighed. "Ok."

Phil turned back to the front, focusing on dodging between the planets at lightning speed. Leif spun and walked back through the door. A long corridor stretched along at the other end of the streamlined lounge room. Leif walked through the first door on the right, to a large circular room with a crowd of people arguing over something inside it. Leif pushed his way through the group to the centre of the room, to find a huge hologram of the known universe hovering above the people. 

A lady in an elegant white suit called for silence. A hush fell over the crowd. "Sora 79 is under attack. We are not sure who they are, but our planet is not prepared for war." A man at the back tried to object, but she dismissed him with a glare. "For the time being, we must take stock of our supplies, the people and then find a suitable location to rest and prepare for battle." 

Murmurs of discontentment echoed through the room, then died back down again when the lady continued speaking. "There are several hundred in this galaxy, but near us there are only two planets suitable for supporting life." She gestured at the hologram. "One, a planet called Veneficus. It has an atmosphere we can breathe, but it is a few hundred more light years away. Closer is a planet called Terra, or Earth. Rumour has it this planet was once inhabited by intelligent life forms, but it is long since deserted. Earth is slightly radioactive, but with our high-tech lightweight hazmat suits, we will be just fine for a period of time. Long enough to recuperate. It is forty light years closer." She paused for breath, and a woman stuck her hand up.  "Can we vote on it Madam..." She trailed off questioningly. "Ingen. And yes." She swept her eyes around the circular room, "All in favour of Veneficus say aye." About fifteen people out of the thirty or so spoke, some more enthusiastically than others. 

"All in favour of Earth?" Madam Ignen asked. Leif raised his hand. She tallied the votes. "Earth it is."