Project: New Earth - Part One

"Hello. Welcome to New Earth training. My name is Jacinta Essie, and I will be your personal guidance counselor whilst you prepare for the journey on A.P 2689. To start, please enter your name below."

I lean my head in my palm, tired despite it only being morning. Blue light from the computer screen in front of me is the only light source in the room, the windows covered in reinforced steel to shut out the light of our dying sun. The face of a woman, with black hair pulled tight into a bun - Jacinta Essie, she said her name was - stares at me expectantly from the screen.

I type in my name with one hand, slow and painstakingly.

Ellie Craddock

Beep.

Loading...

After a second, the screen changes, showing me a home page. The symbol of Insolo, the organisation leading the Earth relocation and resettlement program, is in the top right corner. A table of contents runs the length of the left side of the screen, with little icons to guide me through it. Jacinta pops up in a box on the bottom right corner of the screen. She looks so real, but knowledge of our worlds significant development of AI gives me the common sense to know that she is a program, nothing but zeros and ones, created for the convenience of others.

"You are now signed in as Ellie Craddock, age 18, daughter of Marissa and Jamie Craddock of Perth, Australia. ID 29846937. Is this information correct?"

I'd never bothered to memorise my ID number, despite getting yelled at repeatedly when I was at school for not knowing it, so I glance at the tattoo on the underside of my wrist to see if the number she said matches up.

29846937.

Yup.

I lean into the screen and press the microphone button that appeared at the bottom of it.

"Yes."

"Excellent. In this training program you will..."

I zone out, already knowing what she will say. She will tell me how this training program with aid me in preparing for my relocation to New Earth. When Insolo discovered a planet inhabitable for humans, the current Earth's ruling government had seen it as a solution to the problem we had been facing for several years. When the first probe had been sent to the surface of the sun in 4897, it discovered that the suns estimated age count was off. Way off. By nearly 6 billion years. Turns out Earth's past scientists were crap at their job and had miscalculated the suns age, and scientists now believed we only had a thousand or so more years until it died. So, for the last thousand years, the whole world has been rushing to advance our technology and find a suitable New Earth. And they found one. Four galaxies away.

I stare at the blocked off window in my study room at Insolo University. No one is allowed outside. The suns intensity has become too great for humans to handle. All light is now created artificially, and all the buildings of the city are interconnected by tunnels, both above and below the ground.

I want to know what the sun is like. I imagine it to be beautiful and golden, like a flower. It would be warm, like a hug. I want to know what the outside looks like when illuminated by real light.

I turn back to my computer screen. Jacinta has finished talking, and in the centre of the screen is a blank box. At the top of the box, it reads;

What does Project: New Earth mean to you?

I groan. The year 5906 and we still have to answer questions like this. It's ridiculous.

Project: New Earth to me means a new start at life and gives me the privilege of being able to serve my planet by helping to conserve human life for thousands of years to come. I am honoured to have been selected by Insolo to help carry out this mission.

I don't mean a word of it. It's just what they want to hear.

Another beep.

Loading...

Jacinta's face appears again.

"Thank you for your response. Insolo deeply appreciates your time and effort. The theoretical component of your training is about to begin."

I rub my eyes. The dim light from the computer strains my eyes, and I long to know what it was like when people were free to open the bloody window whenever they felt like it to let sunlight in.

The screen on my laptop changes again, this time to an article for me to read.

"This article explains the process of how you will be transported to New Earth." Jacinta says. "Please read."

I groan again, this time louder and drop my head to the desk with a thump.

"Gee, you look excited."

I turn my head to the side to look at the girl standing in the doorway to my room. She wears a silver skin-tight body suit and boots, just like me. Her blonde hair is tied back into a high ponytail, with wisps of escaped hair framing her face. A name tag on her chest says Tisha Brubaker.

"Hey Tish." I say. "How's it going?"

"Better than you, to say the least." Tish says with a smile. "Ooh, what's your trainers name? Mine's Sally Reese." She crumples her nose in disgust. "It's such a boring name."

"That's actually not too bad. Mine's Jacinta Essie." I reply with a smile. "They're both better than Noland's. I heard his is Priam Rander. What sort of name is that?"

"A doofus name for a doofus guy training another doofus with a doofus name." Tish says.

"He's not a doofus." I snap.

"Someone's protective of her boyfriend!" Tish wiggles her eyebrows as she speaks. "It's not my fault he's a doofus."

"Your just touchy coz he gave you that nickname yesterday. A-Tish-oo!" I cackle, earning a pillow from my bunk flung at my head.

"Your doofus boyfriend is mean." Tish says sourly.

"Who's a doofus?"

At that moment, Noland sticks his head in the door. He wears the same outfit as the rest of us.

"No one." I say, just as Tish says, "You are."

"Ah Tish, so much resentment in such a young soul. I pray for you." Noland clasps his hands together, closing his eyes. "Lord, save our dear Tish, whose words and mind are tainted by so much anger. We beg of you."

"I swear to God, I will slap you." Tish growls.

"Also, banish her violent tendencies. Let us all see the teddy bear beneath the grizzly." He adds peeking out of one eyelid to see her reaction.

"You're a dick." Tish forces out through gritted teeth.

"Oh, come on, you love me! I'm the life of the party!" When he sees Tish's expression doesn't change, he says, "Admit it, if I died, you would cry. You be all like," He shifts his voice to a higher octave. "Oh Noland! Why did he have to die? He was so funny and smart, not to mention handsome! Why did someone so awesome have to die? Boo-hoo-hoo! OW!"

Tish punched him hard in the stomach.

"Come on, no back up?" Noland says to me with strained words, doubled over whilst clutching his stomach.

"Mmm, I gotta admit, you were getting kinda bigheaded there. I'm on Tish's side." I reply.

"Thank you." Tish says plainly.

"Wow, some girlfriend I've got. So nice and supportive." Noland says straightening up and walking over to me, leaning against my desk.

"I am nice and supportive. I just know when to admit that you're being...what Tish said. A dick." I say shrugging.

"Yeah, ok." Noland laughs, placing a kiss on my temple.

"Ew, gross." Tish cringes.

"Really? That's gross? How about this?" I grab Noland by the shirt collar and pull him down to my mouth, kissing him slow and deep.

"Christ, give it a break! I just had breakfast! I'll throw up, I will!" Tish cries.

Then an alarm sounds.

It's shrill and pealing, overlapping with the voice that begins speaking through the intercom.

"Attention all trainees and staff. Please report to the Launch Dock immediately in a single file line. Do not run."

We run.

In the hallway outside my room, it appears no one else has listened to the announcement either. People sprint all in the same direction, the Launch Dock.

I pump my arms and legs hard, making myself practically fly down the hallway. Noland and Tish are on my left and right, flanking me as we weave through the panicking hordes of people pushing us forward.

An explosion sounds behind us, making the ground tremble. Everyone stops running, and silence descends on the hallway as we all stare at the streak of fire that burst a hole in the outer wall of the building. Then someone - a woman - screams, and the chaos starts again, this time even more frantic than before, if that's even possible.

More fireballs begin to rain down on the building, and our run becomes even more challenging, weaving left and right in an attempt to escape them. Ahead, a sign hangs over the crowd.

LAUNCH DOCK 1.

We head straight for it, only stopping when the crowds choke the docks entrance so much that elbows and chests jostle me from all sides. Panic swirls around us, in whispers and screams, almost tangible. A fireball explodes ten metres to my right, sending the three of us flying backward. Ringing sounds in my ears when I stand, and through the hole made by the fire I can see the sun.

It's nowhere near as calming and nice as I imagined. It's an angry light in the sky, red and yellow and orange and white-hot. It flares outward in long streaks, stretching across the sky like a monster's hand trying to envelop the earth. Balls of fire rain down from the sky, which has turned a pinkish red from the sun.

"Holy shite." A man with a scruffy beard and thick Irish accent next to me stares at the sky in terror. "Dat ain't somet'eng you see every day, Lassie!" He adds to me.

"No, it isn't." I reply.

"Come on, Ellie!" Noland grabs my arm. Tish is in front of him, elbowing her way through the people packed so tightly together. She makes it to the front when a voice calls out.

"ATTENTION EVERYONE!"

Everyone ceases their conversation and turns to where the voice came from.

At the end of the first Launch Bay stands a woman with deep red hair piled on top of her head, standing with her hands clasped in front of her. She wears a blouse with a tight knee-length skirt. Her name is Sloane Keegan. She is the director of Project: New Earth. Her lips are pursed in anticipation.

"For those of you unaware, it seems the sun has ended its life even sooner than we calculated. This means that the start of Project: New Earth is effective immediately." The chatter starts up again, hushed, panicked whispers. The crowd ripples with tension, and a woman next to Noland yells, "We just started training! What are we meant to do? We know nothing!"

"You will be given a brief training session on board the A.P 2689. We are due for Launch in two hours. It does not seem like much time to do so, but it is all the Insolo board will allow as the situation grows more dire. Now, all trainees are required to step forward in a single line, ready for boarding."

Noland, Tish and I all step forward and take our place behind the growing line of trainees. Once we are all lined up, Sloane presses a button on a panel behind her.

A deep grinding noise comes from somewhere below us. Then, two doors I thought to be a wall slide apart slowly. They open to reveal something that for the third time in half an hour, makes everyone go silent.

A massive rocket double the height of a skyscraper and five times as wide looms over us all. Sleek and white, it shines in the light of the dying sun. Windows wrap around the rocket in strips, and I can only imagine how thick they must be to be able to survive space. Its nose is long and pointed, sticking directly up in the air at the sky. Along its side in grey letters are the words A.P 2689.

Fire rains down all around it. I wonder how it doesn't hit the rocket when I realise there is a thick glass dome closing us and the rocket in. I lean around the people before me to see the front of the line.

A boy my age stands there, at the edge of the platform. Then from somewhere below him, a metal bridge is lifted up by pulleys and secured to the end of the platform he stands on. It stretches all the way across empty space to a door in the side of the rocket. The boy, beckoned to by a figure on the other side of the bridge, steps onto the metal structure tentatively, before gaining confidence and striding across the bridge.

The line begins to move, and before I know it, I'm following Tish - who's in front of me - onto the bridge. My boots ring out against the metal, but I hardly notice it, instead still focused on the rocket looming before us. Then I'm on the other side of the bridge, being greeted by a man and a woman flanking the door to the rocket.

"Hi, I'm Ava" The woman says, cheerful despite the fire balls streaking through the sky behind her. "Ethan and I are crew on the A.P 2689. Please take a vest and find your pod corresponding to the number and letter on it."

I take the vest, nodding at Ava. I slip it on over my suit and follow Tish into the depths of the rocket.

When we first enter the rocket, we find a lobby-like area lined with elevators, six on the left wall, six on the right, and seven on the back. We take the fourth one on the left, piling in with five other people. The letter on our vest is H, so Noland presses the button in the elevator with the same letter.

When we reach our level, the elevator dings, and the doors slide open. Because Tish, Noland and I entered the rocket one after the other, we all got vests with pods next to each other; H19, H20, and H21. We find our pods and draw the safety straps across our chests. My own pod is directly across from a window, and through it I can see the steady flow of people boarding the rocket, the university building, the city behind it, and beyond that, the fiery sky, and the streaky sun.

It takes another hour and a half for the rest of the crew, trainees and anyone else coming to board the rocket. Then an announcement comes through the speakers on either side of my head.

"Attention A.P 2689 passengers. I'm Captain Jason Hunter. Momentarily, you will be injected with sleeping serum. This serum will last the duration of the flight, which is roughly six years, eleven months, and fourteen days. During this time, you will not need to sleep, eat, excrete or exercise. Your cells and their processes will remain dormant. Thank you."

Just as the message finishes, I feel a sharp prick in my neck. I whip my head to the side to see a syringe with a needle attached to it retracting back into the side of my pod.

I feel it's effects immediately. My eyelids begin to droop, and my body feels like lead.

"Ellie." Comes Noland's tired voice from beside me.

"Mmm?" Is all I can manage.

"I won't be able to say it for nearly another seven years, so I'm gonna say it now. I love you."

"I love you too." I reply, smiling a little.

"Just a reminder, I'm right here." Tish says. "So, ew."

I laugh softly. "Goodbye, to you too, then."

"s'not g'dbye. T's'see ya later." Tish slurs sleepily. The serum is working faster on her than it is me.

"Fair enough."

I look back out the window at the dying sun outside. At the earth. At the place where for thousands of years, humans have been born, have lived, have died. And now this is the last anyone's going to see of it.

I wish we could see it as it once was. Beautiful, green, happy. Bright. Not chaotic and scary. Not with fire raining down on it. Not with the haze of pollution obscuring the view of the city almost entirely. Something that has so much history, so much life, does not deserve to be remembered like this. This is what they will tell people it looked like on New Earth. They won't bother to tell them of what it once was, how beautiful and expansive and unknowable it was. They will tell them that this was all there ever was, and that would ever be, and that was why they moved to New Earth.

I curse the dying sun. The dying sun, with its balls of fire and streaky light, destroying everything. Destroying the hard work our Earth took billions of years to make and nurture with angry force. Some may say the dying sun has a fierce beauty to it, but I only see what it destroys, the people it kills.

As the rockets engines begin to rumble with power below me, and the serum begins to drag me into a deep, heavy sleep, I make a vow to myself.

I will tell people what earth was once like. I will describe to them the pictures I saw in my history books, of rolling green hills and sparking blue oceans.

Pictures of beauty.