Nova

I sat across from the small oval window I looked out of everyday. I speculated the cosmos moving that were passing my eyes. I wondered what life had been like before all of this. What was it like for our grandparents?

“Imagining the world beyond here?” My best friend Marlow laughed as she took her usual seat beside me in the common area. I just smiled back. The truth is… 

I was imagining the world beyond here. I was born on a flying piece of metal that was orbiting a dead planet. A planet that no longer could provide for human life. In school they taught us about the nuclear war a hundred years ago today that sent Earth’s radiation levels through the scale. A group of three-thousand astronauts from across the country got on the spaceship that they built and I’m sure you can assume what happened next. 

My parent’s generation was the first to ever be born in space, obviously reproduction didn’t stop with them. Even though it should have. 

“Seriously Nova, what are you thinking about?” 

“Have you ever wondered what Earth was like?” I asked her. 

“Well, I had never really thought about it…” 

Exactly, she had never thought about it. Like most people my age, nineteen and shaped by the system they were born into. I had thought beyond that, I had thought beyond our world. I felt the oceans crashing at my feet like that of my ancestors. 

I wanted to watch the sunset rather than living in a constant of constellations. Seeing birds fly from the trees in the morning, instead I am met with floating rocks that could end our existence. Always in orbit with the unknown. No one knew what was actually down there, were there any humans who survived? Were there animals roaming around? Did anything survive? 

These were questions I would probably never get answers to. 

“Nova, seriously are you okay?” Marlow pressed on beside me. “I know that since your mom has passed away you’ve been kind of… spacey.” 

When a person dies, we eject them from the compost area. I watched my mother float through the open universe as we left Earth’s orbit, as we only do when someone dies. 

“I’m fine.” I lied. “It’s just… I can’t continue to sit here everyday looking at pictures of lands and oceans, it’s depressing.” I sighed. 

“I understand.” She sighed back. “You dream of sand between your toes and you hope for Earth’s revival.” 

I gave her a tired nod as I watched the circular planet spin slowly. It was blue with patches of brown and bits of green here and there. 

“Our ancestors fought wars that scorched the Earth, there’s nothing to go back to.” She said in hopes of convincing me to see her point of view. “I don’t imagine myself there because there is nothing left, I’ve pictured what the plains of mars could look like, red soil with iron sanded streams, I’ve wondered what type of people there could be on Saturn, would they welcome us, would they understand us?” 

“You’ve never mentioned it before.” 

“Filling the space with what ifs and half dreams are not really my thing.” She mumbled. “So what if we spend the rest of our lives on this spaceship!?” Marlow asked as she stood from her seat. “You might want to sulk about it but there are so many things we get to see that our ancestors probably were only dreaming of!” She said with a smile on her face as she grabbed me by the hand. 

She began pulling me down a long glass hallway before we came to a sudden stop right in the middle. She turned her body to the vast emptiness. I mimicked her actions. 

“Our great-great grandparents went stargazing under the moon so that they could get a better view of this,” She said as she waved her hand showing me the dark sky with the distant glow planets being illuminated by the sun. “To you this might look like nothing, but to them this was the beyond, just a conspiracy theory spoken about freely.” 

I was starting to see life from her eyes. 

“Lets get to bed, maybe you can pray to whatever is out there for some type of miracle but until then try to find the beauty in what is rather than what was.” She smiled as we began walking again. 

The walk to our pods were silent as we passed by other people residing on the spaceship with us. We stood in front of our pods as we waited for the camera to recognize us and slide open the door. Without another word we entered our pods simultaneously as we stepped inside. I was alone now as I walked over to my twin sized bed and sat on top of it. 

The only view I had was of the empty dark sky. The sky that was said to appear blue to our ancestors. Maybe on Mercury the sky was glittered with specks of purples and copper colors. I sighed as I changed into the same pajamas I wore every night. 

I let my blankets caress me as I thought about the what ifs and the half dreams. I tossed snd turned for hours before I could get properly comfortable. I felt stuck here, like there was never going to be an adventure waiting for me. 

As I started to close my eyes I heard an alarm blaring from the hallway. It took me a minute to realize what it was but it was an emergency meeting. Something was happening. 

As I got myself out of bed to see what was going on, I took a quick glance out of my small oval window. We were leaving Earth’s orbit. 

I rushed to the door and placed my hand on the DNA scanner attached to the wall. For some reason I felt anxious. No one has sounded the alarm in twenty years when an asteroid was going to be coming close to the ship, my mom said that they had watched it miss its chances of hitting Earth by centimeters. 

The pod door slid open to people running through the halls. Marlow stepped out of her pod as her eyes met mine, she had fear drawn across her face. We quickly made our way to the common area together. 

When we got there we were met to the large crowd of 150 people who were apart of Block B of the ship. One of the Block leaders began to speak. 

“Today history has been made, our scientists have been working toward this discovery for over fifty years and it is with pleasure that I get to be the one to tell all of you,” She began gracefully. “There has been a planet discovered in a further galaxy close to ours, it’s similarities to Earth make it so it is said to be able to sustain human life as we know it.” 

Her tone was hopeful. I was skeptical of her theory and I could tell by the faces in the room others were too. 

“Although this galaxy is close it will take us three-hundred years to reach it, and another three-hundred to reach Planet X,” Whispers began as she raised her hand to silence them.

“We are fortunate enough to be able to provide each and every person under the age of thirty the technology to see this new planet.” Her words caused whispers to spread across the room again. Marlow shot me a concerned look. “Through scientific technology we have created CryoSleep pods that will freeze your muscle tissue, think of it as hitting a pause button.” She smiled, there were some people smiling with her, others didn’t seem like they wanted any part in this. 

“Of course each and every one of you has a choice, if you’d like to live out your days here you are more than welcome to, if you’d like a chance to preserve yourself for the future, please follow me!” She finished excitedly as she began leading a group of people down the hall. 

“Are we going?” Marlow asked me quickly. 

“Should we?” 

“This is your chance at more.” 

“What about you?” 

“If you thought I’d let you experience a blue sky without me you’re crazy!” She laughed. 

Without another word we followed the small crowd to a large room with human sized pods. There were wires and cords that people were already starting to be attached to. Marlow stepped into a pod quickly, I took the one next to her. 

“I guess I’ll see you in six-hundred years.” Marlow smiled as they started attaching the wires to her. I watched as her door closed and gasses filled her pod. They moved on to me next. 

See you in six-hundred years.