Peter David - After Earth

“Made what?” the man next to her asked. He was brown-skinned and clearly a stranger to the woman, but he was making conversation, which was better than most of the people crushing them. There was a feeling of resignation and sadness that hung like a thick fog over the people. Lily, though, was more excited about the prospects ahead of her; that is, when she wasn’t weepy about leaving others behind.

“Seven continents!” the woman declared and let out a laugh. “As soon as I received my notification that I made the cut, I booked a series of trips. I wanted to visit every continent while I still had the chance. Got here last night, making this the seventh.”

“Impressive,” the man replied in a deep voice that Lily liked. “Of course, that didn’t leave much time for sightseeing.” He sounded like an actor or pod commentator.

“What about you? How many you see?”

“Well,” he said to fill the gap as he thought. “Born in Africa, studied in Europe, and took a vacation to Brazil, so that’s three.”

“And this makes four, not too bad,” she said. “Corinne Levy.”

“Glen Mosri,” he replied.

The two chatted amiably as the line slowly fed them toward the ship. Their conversation was interrupted as Lily’s father tried to squeeze by them. “Sorry. Excuse me. Trying to reach my family.”

“Slow down, son,” Mosri said. “They’re not leaving without you.”

“Sorry, there’s some sort of problem behind us,” the man said, still scanning the masses ahead of him.

“Right here, Dad,” Lily said reassuringly.

“Oh, she’s a pretty one,” Corinne said, helping herself to a hunk of Lily’s pale blond hair. She stroked it in a friendly way, and Lily let her even though it sort of creeped her out. She’d been feeling this way for the last few weeks; suddenly every little thing bothered her as they prepared to leave their home and come to Antarctica for The Departure.

Her family got word three years ago they were among the precious few selected to leave Earth aboard the ark program. A transport ship would carry them to a docking station just outside of Earth’s atmosphere. There countless ships from every continent would form the six massive arks scheduled to leave the solar system behind and fly for a century to a new world. A new chance for humanity. Lily would be long dead before the ship arrived at the world they named Nova Prime. But her children or grandchildren would be alive and set foot on an alien world they would call home. The remainder of her life would be spent living on the Denkyem , whatever that meant. Her mother kept giving her the translation, but it never stuck in her head.

Paul finally caught up to them, craning his neck to see past Rebecca to ensure their two boys, Max and Zach, were in sight. He made a satisfied sound and fell into step beside his daughter.

“Caught you,” he said.

“You would have found us eventually,” Lily said.

“I know, but I want us together until we’re settled. This is chaos.”

“Actually,” interrupted Mosri, “it seems as orderly as you can expect. No protestors, no panic, not much weeping and wailing.”

Paul looked around once more, absorbing the sight of hundreds of men, women, and children, representing countless cultures and countries, all united for a chance at survival. Lily also took it all in, a sense of awe slowly replacing the discomfort she’d felt moments before.

“That’s thanks to the Rangers, I think,” Paul said. “They’re everywhere. Good thing, too, there are others desperately trying to cut the line.”

Lily saw the brown-uniformed men and women of the United Ranger Corps nearby. They stood at the edges of the gangway, spread out every few yards. The arrival of the Rangers more than a decade earlier meant a unified police force to ensure the ships got built and the selected passengers made it safely to the remote continent and aboard the transport ships.

“What got you the golden ticket?” Mosri asked.

“The what?” Lily asked

“Sorry, the invitation to join the exodus.”

“Oh,” Paul said, still sounding uncertain. “I’m a network engineer and my wife’s a teacher.”

“Secure roles, needed roles,” Levy said. “I’m a botanist. They tell me I am running a hydroponics bay, and I can plant a whole square yard of whatever I please.”

“Wow, that sounds great,” Lily said, finally ready to join the conversation. “What about you?”

Mosri smiled and said, “I am a physicist. They want me working in the astrometrics section, studying this wormhole space.”

“Maybe you can explain it to me, then,” Lily prodded. “I know we’re going faster than light, but how does that work?”

“Magic,” Levy said, and laughed a little too loud for Lily’s taste.

“Feels like magic, doesn’t it,” Mosri said, his voice dropping a notch, sounding like one of her teachers. “The Lightstream engines will warp the space around us. You see, the engines will generate a powerful wave that can compress space-time in front of the arks and expand space-time behind it.”

“Space-time?”

Mosri laughed and paused to consider his answer. Lily shifted the backpack on her right shoulder, trying to find a more comfortable position for the weight. It felt far heavier than it was; her hopes, fears, and memories were packed in there, all weighing her down.

“Okay, you know about the three dimensions.”

“Length, width, and depth,” she said.

“Right. Now imagine space having three dimensions.” He paused and Lily nodded, tucking a stray hair behind her left ear.

“Now scientists like me consider time having three dimensions as well. While space has dimensions that work side by side, time’s dimensions happen one atop the other so space-time combines the two into a singular formula we use to calculate all sorts of things.”

“You lost her,” Paul said. “She’s an artist.” Lily made a face at her father.

“I bet she’s going to see all sorts of new inspiration when we leave the system,” Mosri said.

“So you’re compressing the space in front of us,” Lily said, trying to keep it all straight and refusing to let her father know how right he was. This was just more information than she was really ready to absorb, but it beat standing silent like so many of the others around them.

“Look, it’s like the prow of a boat slicing through the water and creating a wake,” he said. “Can you visualize that?”

“Sure,” Lily replied. That was easy, especially since she loved going out on the family boat every summer. She was going to miss that—the warm sun, the gentle breeze, the sea water, things she would never experience again—so she tried to press the memories like flowers in a book for permanence.

“The arks will actually be floating in a bubble along the wave being generated, literally surfing through space at a speed faster than light relative to objects outside the bubble,” Mosri concluded.

“Wow,” Paul said. “That’s the first time I heard anyone explain Lightstream in a way that makes sense.”

“You’re welcome, all part of the service,” Mosri said.

“Yeah, thanks,” Lily said. The boat imagery really did help her sort of comprehend how they would travel in space. The idea that the trip would last a century, even at those speeds, boggled her mind.

“Mister…”

“Call me Glen,” he said with a broad smile.

“I’m Lily,” she said.

“Nice to meet you.” They briefly shook hands.

“If we’re traveling faster than the speed of light, and the arks will travel for a century, where exactly are we going?”

“Interesting question,” he said. “We’re living along the fringes of the Milky Way Galaxy, on one of the spiral arms. We’re heading inward, toward the galactic center. I’d estimate we’d be about thirty-two parsecs from here when we get to Nova Prime.”