Temi Oh - Do You Dream of Terra-Two?

‘Glad you could join us,’ said Harry. ‘It’s not breakfast until Astrid arrives.’

‘Why didn’t you wake me?’ asked Astrid.

‘We thought that Maggie would wake you,’ Poppy said.

‘I don’t think Maggie will be doing anything anytime soon,’ Harry said, gulping down the last of his coffee with a grimace.

‘What are you talking about?’ asked Juno.

Harry looked at her with wary disbelief. ‘Because she’s been suspended.’

The words hit Astrid like a jab in the solar plexus. ‘What?’

‘Yeah,’ Harry said. ‘I guess they had to blame someone. Dr Millburrow was supposed to be our psychiatrist when we’re in space. It was kind of her job to know if one of us was planning to, you know…’ He trailed off with a shrug.

‘It’s not fair.’ Poppy shook her head, ‘None of us knew.’

‘True,’ said Juno. ‘But at least the mission’s still going ahead. There was talk yesterday of delaying the launch. Or decertifying us all .’

Harry snorted. ‘You didn’t really believe that, did you? Delaying the mission would cost millions. Everything’s already planned. Hundreds of thousands of people have come to London to watch the launch. There was a lottery for the tickets. The prime minister will be there. What did you think they were going to do? Say, Hey sorry about that, the launch can’t go on because we can’t control a bunch of kids ?’

Astrid supposed it was true. And the public had come to love all of them, were captivated by their personal stories of success. It was part of the reason the programme had accrued so much additional sponsorship from private organizations. Swapping the members of the current Beta for other astronaut candidates so soon before the mission would likely tarnish the reputation of the entire programme.

‘Okay, maybe not that,’ Poppy said. ‘But launching on a mission like this before she’s even buried… it just feels like bad luck or something.’

They were quiet for a moment. The refectory was unusually empty, with very few of the space centre personnel huddled over their breakfast or queuing near the coffee machines.

‘You should get something to eat,’ Poppy said.

Along the opposite wall were vats of juice, hot water for tea and trays of cereal bars. Astrid took a handful and stuffed them in her pockets.

‘It’s a big day, love,’ said the ruddy-faced cook from behind the counter. Astrid flashed her ID and the cook handed over a tray marked with her name. Lots of dried food, toast, chopped bananas – food that was unlikely to turn in her stomach during the launch. The cook winked, and added two oily sausages onto her plate. ‘You’ll need it,’ she said.

‘Thanks.’

The cook smiled, then pointed to the cereal bars, inviting her to take more.

Astrid returned to the table.

‘Think it’s really a good idea to eat all that?’ said Harry, eyeing her plate. Astrid sat down beside her sister, who was nursing only a cup of peppermint tea. Harry’s tall glass was slick with his usual protein shake – raw eggs whipped into a frothy mixture with warm milk, which he used to suck down with a straw before heading out with his rowing team to the river.

‘I don’t know how you can eat anything at all,’ Poppy said, dropping her spoon with a sigh of surrender. ‘Doesn’t your tummy feel all…’ She made a face and Juno nodded.

‘You better hurry up,’ Juno said, glancing at her watch. ‘We’re supposed to stop eating five hours before the launch. Which gives you twenty minutes to get that down.’

Harry looked across the long table to where Eliot sat with two empty seats either side of him. He was paler than usual in the morning light, his lips were chapped and bleeding and he stared down at his plate of scrambled eggs as if he could not understand how they came to be there. ‘He’s got the right idea,’ Harry said. ‘Don’t want to see that breakfast coming right back up again when we launch, eh?’

‘Shut up,’ Eliot hissed without looking up.

‘I’m just saying,’ Harry continued, ‘won’t be so tough in three hours if you’re puking your guts up, right?’

Eliot lifted a fork and flicked a few globs of scrambled egg at Harry, who dodged too late and then cried out in fury as the egg splashed his eye. His expression immediately darkened and he swore.

‘Please!’ Poppy said. ‘Please don’t turn this into another fight.’

‘Tell that to him,’ Harry said, wiping his eye with a paper napkin.

‘Don’t tempt me,’ Eliot said, very quietly. ‘Not today.’

‘Ohh, is that a threat?’ Harry wriggled his fingers in mock horror.

‘I bet you’re happy now.’ Eliot’s eyes narrowed. ‘You never liked her anyway.’

‘ Eliot ,’ Poppy pleaded.

‘It’s all right,’ he said, slamming his fork down. ‘I’m done.’ He stood up and left the room, the squeak of his soles echoing off the walls in the silence that followed.

‘You can be kind of mean sometimes,’ Astrid said to Harry as the door slammed shut.

‘It was only a joke,’ Harry said, glancing down at Eliot’s abandoned plate of food.

‘I’m not sure he knows that,’ Poppy said. ‘He gets really sick in the simulated launches. And I think he’s a little embarrassed about it.’

‘It’s not true, anyway.’ Harry lowered his eyes. ‘About me never liking Ara.’

‘You were always competing,’ Juno said. ‘You were the only two of us who made it to Command School, and then… you know, you were picked to be pilot over her. I don’t think she ever got over that.’

‘Well, I did.’ Harry shrugged. ‘And Eliot’s just upset because flying is something he’s not the best at. It’s not robotics or computing. The guy needs to be put in his place sometimes. He got it easy, and I know you all think so too. It’s never been fair with him. He just waltzed onto this programme and then he gets into the Beta. He doesn’t have to really work , not like the rest of us.’

‘Is that jealousy I hear?’ Juno teased.

‘No.’

‘He was chosen because he’s talented. Even though he’s younger than us. And when we get to Terra, he’ll design and programme robots that we’ll depend on,’ Astrid said.

‘It doesn’t really matter anyway,’ Juno added, ‘how anyone got in. Not anymore.’

‘Damn right it matters,’ said Harry, ‘and now more than ever.’ He took a long drag from his glass and slammed it down. ‘Am I the only one who thinks it’s weird that Eliot wasn’t suspended yesterday too?’ Juno and Poppy wrinkled their brows in confusion. Harry leant forward. ‘He’s lying about something. He and Ara went everywhere together, did everything together. They’re like conjoined twins for God’s sake, and you’re telling me that he has no idea that she’s planning to jump into a river? And yet, he’s “conveniently” close by and finds her body?’

‘You weren’t there,’ Astrid reminded him. Her stomach twisted at the memory of Ara limp as a doll in Eliot’s arms.

‘I didn’t need to be,’ Harry continued. ‘They barely questioned him. He’s lying about something and even if it doesn’t matter down here, with everyone else and space to breathe, up there—’ he glanced at the ceiling. ‘I mean, think about it, except for the seniors there will be no one but the six – I mean, the five – of us for the next twenty odd years. We’ve got to rely on each other. Trust each other. I couldn’t trust a loner like Eliot Liston.’

‘His parents are dead, you know,’ said Poppy. ‘Both of them.’

‘How does that change anything?’ asked Harry. ‘It’s not like any of us can go home for the holidays anymore.’

‘It’s not true, that they’re both dead,’ Juno corrected. ‘His mother died, I heard. And his father walked out on him.’