Journey to Andromeda

“Man, this is bad.”

“Yeah, it’s terrible.”

“I can’t believe people used to watch this stuff.”

I glance over at Laia’s face, catching her gaze and we both burst out laughing, rolling around on my tiny bed. “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” she gasps, exaggeratedly brushing a tear from her eye. “What kind of title is that anyway?”

“I don’t know, but it’s hilarious.  Two hundred years ago, people actually thought this was good,” I say, playing with a lock of her jet-black hair. Laia flashes me that grin of hers that I love so much and leans in for a kiss. “I can’t believe you’re leaving tomorrow,” she mumbles, eyes downcast.

 “Me neither,” I reply, eyes landing on the sleek silver backpack at the foot of my bed, next to the view of the night sky outside, dotted with stars and a glimpse of Jupiter on the right. I have been chosen as a crew member for the expedition, out of thousands of students at the academy, here on Ganymede and I still can’t believe it.

***

The assembly hall seems unnaturally warm. Sweat snakes down my back as Instructor Quinn waits for the noise to die down.

“Good morning.” Instructor Quinn’s voice echoes over the room, and everyone goes silent. People around me squirm in their seats impatiently, looking as nervous as I feel. She drops her eyes to the screen implanted in her wrist. “Today I will announce the students who have been selected as members of the Andersen Research Expedition to Andromeda.”

I swear you could hear a pin drop. Tension hangs over the assembly hall, thick enough to cut with a knife. Beside me, Laia grabs my hand and squeezes it.

If I am selected to join the expedition, I’ll get what I’ve been waiting for my entire life: a ticket off this dry, barren moon. I’ll become a researcher and explore the galaxy to discover new worlds, other communities. I’ll have beaten out an entire academy of privileged students whose parents have bases all over the solar system, who have trained their entire lives for this.

This is the opportunity of a lifetime.

Of course, Instructor Quinn still has to announce the top three students. The ones whose lives are about to be changed irreversibly.

A three-year research expedition to Andromeda, the galaxy closest to ours.

But then there’s Laia, sitting next to me, tugging anxiously on a lock of hair. I need this, but if I’m selected, how can I leave her? She’s never wanted to be a researcher. Laia’s dream is to become an actress on Earth, of all places, where they still have movie theaters and trees. Not a lot of them, but still.

Instructor Quinn clears her throat. “Those who have been chosen to become members of the first expedition to Andromeda are…”

My heart beats erratically against my ribcage. I won’t get picked. What was I thinking? The scholarship kid from the slums on Mars. The one who used to work in the mines before she got lucky and was noticed by one of the instructors visiting the makeshift schools in the slums.  How could I have managed to surpass them in the physical aptitude tests, not to mention the ones about physics in space? Calm down, I tell myself. You didn’t get a scholarship for nothing.          

 Instructor Quinn clears her throat. “Lucia Moreno-Bishop.” The hall explodes into whispers. Lucia, two rows in front of us, grins widely and high-fives her friends. “Yes!” she exclaims.

Lucia’s parents are some of the top researchers in the solar system. They were the ones who discovered the first signs of life on Europa, Jupiter’s second-largest moon. Of course she passed the tests with flying colors.

“Xander Larsson,” Instructor Quinn continues. This time, everyone erupts into cheers, even me. Xander is one of the smartest people I know, but he never brags about it or looks down on anyone. He’s worked so hard to get to where he is now, one of the top students in the academy, and he deserves this.

Laia squeezes my hand again. One person left.  Please be me. Please be me. Please-

“Amelie Calloway.”

Laia screams and throws her arms around me. “Oh my God! You did it, Ames! You’re going on the expedition!”

The only thing I can hear are those three words. I did it, I did it, I did it. My name seems to echo around the assembly hall.

I did it. I’m going on the expedition.

I return Laia’s hug, and I think I can see tears gathering at the corners of her eyes.

Then slowly, people start clapping. I think this is the best day of my life.

***

The Cypress is a sleek, state-of-the-art ship, named for a tree that no longer exists on Earth. Its sleek body is shaped like a bullet, with two retractable wings that jut out from the sides of the ship. It is designed to house thirty crew members, from the researchers to the pilot, mechanics and everyone who keeps the Cypress running.

The ship waits in Ganymede’s spaceport, tiny next to the enormous recreational ships that millionaires living on Earth and Mars park on some of Jupiter and Saturn’s bigger moons.

I can’t help but stare, trailing behind Xander and Lucia as they stride toward the Cypress. I can hear them conversing, paying no attention to me.

“My grandparents own one of these ships,” Lucia tells Xander, “But it’s on Callisto.”

“Really?” Xander asks, sounding only mildly interested.

As we reach the ship, the main door slides open and a man jumps out, wearing a midnight blue pressure suit and a wide smile on his open, friendly face.

“Hey! I’m Harrison, and I’m the captain of the Cypress. You must be Amelie, Lucia and Xander, from Webber Academy, right?”

We nod wordlessly, already anticipating three years of life aboard the Cypress.

“Great,” Harrison says, “Follow me.”

As the captain leads us into the belly of the ship, the screen in my wrist chimes.

Laia: Miss you already.

I swallow, repressed tears threatening to surface. I’ve been so focused on getting myself off Ganymede that I somehow managed to shut out any sadness.

My screen chimes again.

Laia: Call me as soon as you can.

My eyes start to prickle, and I blink the tears away. I cannot cry. Not here, not in front of Xander, Lucia and the captain of the ship I will call home for the next three years.

Harrison shows us into a wide, long corridor with countless doors on each side. “This is the main corridor,” he says before opening one of the metal doors, revealing a small laboratory, with stainless steel tables, high-tech computers and at least three telescopes. Two of the lab’s walls are glass, looking out onto the spaceport, Ganymede’s familiar rocky scenery and the familiar sight of Jupiter on the left. The other wall is a giant whiteboard, covered with notes and equations in different colors.

The next door opens out into another hallway, leading into our cabins. “The other crew members are having lunch in the dining room,” Harrison tells us. “I’ll show you your cabins after lunch.”

Another door leads to the dining room, where the rest of the crew members are having lunch, laughing and chatting at a long table. Three walls are glass, and a small plant grows in a pot next to the far wall, where an alcove leads to the kitchen. A man balancing a dish on his head and four on his arms dashes out of the kitchen. My mouth starts to water. I don’t exactly know what the food he’s carrying is, but it smells delicious. Why did I skip breakfast this morning? I’m starving.

The man’s hair is dyed a vibrant shade of purple and horn-rimmed glasses perch on the tip of his nose. “I didn’t know glasses still existed,” Lucia whispers to me, her curly chestnut hair brushing against my face. “They do,” I reply, “For people who can’t afford implants.”

For some reason, her face turns bright red.

I used to wear glasses when I was younger, before one of the Instructors at the academy was kind enough to pay for my implants. My glasses were no longer adapted to my vision, being one of the older models sold in the markets in the poorer part of Mars.

“They have a plant,” Xander says disbelievingly, staring at it, emerald leaves and pink flowers incongruous in such a place.

“It’s called the Cypress,” Lucia says matter-of-factly. “The ships named after plants almost always have one on board.”

Xander just keeps staring at the plant. I don’t blame him. He’s from Mercury, the only planet unable to harbor Earthen plant life, even genetically altered. He probably hasn’t seen a tree in his life.

Lucia’s family is one of the wealthy Earth families, one of the first to leave Earth when things started getting really bad. They were the ones who settled on planets like Mars, then Mercury. They then had the idea to try some of the larger moons, even after an asteroid slammed into Earth’s moon around a hundred years ago.

“Everyone,” Harrison says loudly, “This is Xander, Lucia and Amelie, from Webber Academy, right here on Ganymede. They’re joining the research team!”

The crew members cheer and clap for us, all smiles.

“Sit down!” Harrison motions for us to take our seats, and people slide over to make room for us. I end up sitting next to a girl with a choppy blond bob and at least four clips in her hair. “I’m Sage,” she says, “And you’re Amelie, right?”

“Yeah,” I reply, “Nice to meet you!”

I meet the crew members as I shovel food into my mouth.

There are eighteen people on board, including Lucia, Xander and I. Three mechanics, the captain, the pilot and thirteen researchers, handpicked from elite schools across the solar system.

Adrian, Remy and Pax are the mechanics. Adrian and Remy are twins from Mercury. They both have angular features, pale skin, and freckles scattered across their nose and cheeks. The only way to tell them apart seems to be their height, Remy being at least a head taller than his brother, a fact that appears to be a constant source of conflict between them.

“I jumped into a volcano once,” Adrian brags. Remy rolls his eyes. “Yeah, on a video game you stole from Grandpa,” he mutters, and the entire table bursts out laughing.

Pax, the third mechanic, is energetic and friendly. Her dark skin seems to glow, and her hair is styled into box braids that cascade down her back like a waterfall that I saw in a movie once.

Pax has been travelling around the solar system with her parents since she was little, selling valuable parts for ships of all kinds. She regales us with tales of crowded marketplaces, underground cities, artificial forests, even the last natural landscapes on Earth.

Harrison tells us that Elif, the pilot, is busy readying the systems for departure, so we’ll get to meet them later.

The ten other researchers are from academies on Callisto, Mars, and even Earth.

Anouk and Callum are from the Flores Academy in Callisto. Anouk tells us she would like to journey to the many exoplanets beyond our solar system and search for signs of life there, playing with her iridescent earrings as she talks. Callum explains that he would like to restore the polluted nature on Earth and hopefully make the most damaged parts livable again.

Heloise, Fletcher, Edie, and Sage all come from different places in the solar system, but they all go to the Rainn Academy on Mars, the most prestigious one of them all. Heloise’s and August’s families are some of the wealthiest in the solar system, Heloise’s family being the first one to establish a community on Mars and August’s the one who discovered how to harness cold fusion more than a hundred fifty years ago.

Heloise has a cobalt side shave that complements the color of her eyes, and a tattoo of the sun on her left biceps. “I want to become a writer,” she says confidently. “My grandparents told me that when their parents were alive, paper books still existed. Obviously, those are never going to be brought back, but I still love writing on paper.”

“Wow,” I mumble to myself. I wish I had that kind of confidence.

Sage and Fletcher both want to build their own ships someday and lead the same kind of expedition as the one we’re on. “I love traveling because there’s so much to draw,” August confesses. “I want to discover new worlds, maybe get an art gallery someday.” Her hazel eyes flit around nervously, as if seeking out an unknown danger in the dining room.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Fletcher not only wants to construct a ship and lead an expedition, he also wants to become a pilot.

Edie doesn’t say much, hiding behind her curtain of white-blond hair. She timidly explains that she would like to be a part of the team of scientists who are currently working to install research bases on the surface of Uranus and Neptune, maybe even Pluto and the dwarf planets.

Halfway through lunch, Harrison leaves to pick up Sofiya, Winn and Casper, who are arriving slightly later than planned due to air traffic on Earth.

He returns an hour later with the new crew members in tow, then disappears into the cockpit to give Elif the signal for departure.

Suddenly, soundlessly, the Cypress begins to rise. Gasps echo around the dining room as the Cypress slowly leaves the surface of Ganymede.

“Hey everyone, this is Harrison, your captain speaking,” Harrison announces over the intercom. “We have officially embarked on our journey to Andromeda!”