Temi Oh - Do You Dream of Terra-Two?

He knew that Juno had found Astrid, earlier that day, crouched like a mouse in the warmth of the engine room. It seemed likely that the siren was less audible there, but Jesse could not picture Juno herself seeking out solitude amongst the dim light of Igor’s devices.

His watch said he had two and a half minutes left, and so he went back on himself around the lower deck. Back up to the middle deck, where the warning lights reflected manically off the walls in a way that made his head spin. As he ran he heard the pounding of Harry’s bare feet behind his.

Back into the greenhouse. At the opposite end, on the far side from the radiation shelter, was a tiny module called the Atlas. Jesse headed towards it in one last search for the missing crew member. When the hatch slid open, and he stepped in, Jesse found her. Juno was curled up on one of the chairs, and Earth was large in the window. It hung above them in a way that gave Jesse the unsettling sensation of falling. But for a moment his fear vanished, and he was transfixed. He could see the Antarctic, South Africa and the Southern Lights, iridescent curtains of red and green light rising like steam off the hot bubble of the atmosphere. He had never seen them before.

As the doors closed behind him, the sound of the alarm disappeared like water sucked out of a drain. Jesse leant over to wake Juno, but paused. Her frizzy hair wafted with static electricity, her sleeping face eerily lit by the Aurora Australis. Jesse remembered that he had seen her the night before the launch. Emerging like a shadow from a briar, wearing a thin bathrobe, which, in the dim light, made her look like a visitation. The soft edge of a breast delightfully visible. The cord of her robe cinched tightly around her waist. It was an image that lingered with him.

Jesse Solloway , she’d mouthed. It had been hard to miss the distant look of disappointment on her face. The same disappointment he’d seen in all the Betas’ eyes when Professor Stenton had introduced him, as if they’d hoped for someone else.

Me. I made it after all , he’d thought.

‘Juno!’ Harry yelled, throwing the hatch open behind them. Juno started awake, her eyes wide and vacant as a recent dreamer. The sound of the alarm crashed like a wave into the small capsule and Jesse realized, to his horror, that they had only thirty seconds. Harry grabbed Juno’s arm and half-dragged her out of her seat. ‘You’re hurting me,’ she cried. They stumbled over each other in their rush to get out. Twenty seconds. The other end of the greenhouse had never seemed so far away.

Jesse saw Astrid’s terrified face peer from behind the closing door. ‘ Hurry! ’ she screamed, the fear in her voice sharp as a blade. Jesse bounded towards her, but even as he did the door was sliding closed, the red ‘Lock’ light flashing. Astrid pushed her fingers through the gap in an attempt to keep it open. Jesse’s lungs were on fire. He thought he could make it, but he was a metre away when the door slammed closed and he heard the hiss of mechanics as the hatch locked. It bit Astrid’s finger as it shut and she let out a howl of pain, which, in a moment, was silenced.

Jesse slowed, panting. Harry and Juno were at his heels. He had never seen Harry look so terrified. Harry reached out to Juno as if to shield her, her thin body sliding into the hollow of his chest, but Jesse knew that the gesture would do little to protect her from the invisible storm of particles that were, even then, tearing through their bodies. He almost thought he could feel the burn, on his exposed skin, in his lungs. Feel his eyes growing cloudy with cataracts.

This is how it happens , he thought with numbed disbelief. He had escaped Earth only to die here, on the first night. He dropped to the ground, his knees no longer able to hold him.

There was another susurrus of locks and hydraulics and Jesse turned to find the door of the radiation shelter slide open once more, revealing a tearful Astrid, cradling her hand. Eliot threw up his arms as if to shield himself from an explosion. Igor strode out before the group.

‘What are you doing?’ Harry said.

‘You’re all dead,’ Igor said to the three of them. And Jesse looked up in confusion. He realized that Dr Golinsky’s look of terror had vanished.

‘What?’ Harry asked.

‘You’re too slow,’ Commander Sheppard said. Igor pressed a button on a remote he was holding and the alarms fell silent, leaving a ringing absence in Jesse’s ears.

‘It was just a drill,’ said the doctor.

Jesse wasn’t sure whether to feel relieved or angry. He’d been given his life back. His heart was still galloping in his chest, and his legs felt weak under him.

‘Juno.’ Sheppard turned to her, his brow furrowed. ‘What were you doing? When you hear the alarm you come straight here.’

‘But,’ Jesse protested, ‘she couldn’t hear the alarm. She was sleeping in the Atlas module. It’s not her fault. The speaker must be switched off in there.’

‘Good to know. We need to get that repaired tomorrow,’ Sheppard said. ‘That’s the reason we do drills. To learn about hazards like that.’

Harry clenched his fists. ‘I didn’t know we were scheduled a drill. I’m commander-in-training. I should have been informed, at least.’

‘Oh?’ Igor growled, marching forward. ‘I’m a six-time Mars veteran. I can tell you that when there’s a technical failure, a hydrazine leak that leads to a fire or when you are hit by a meteor, when the pressure goes down, there’s no prior warning. No one informs anyone, even you. Disasters can happen at any time and no email is sent round in advance. You kids think that now you’ve made it up here you’ve got to the safe part. That you’re in the home stretch. But I can tell you that the danger has just begun. Don’t get too comfortable.’

He spat the last sentence through gritted teeth, his own fists clenched. Solomon Sheppard put his hand on Igor’s shoulder and laughed into the silence.

‘Okay,’ he said, ‘that’s enough. Is everyone all right?’

Jesse looked around at the shell-shocked crew. Both Astrid and Juno had tears in their eyes. Eliot was clutching his stomach as if he was about to be sick, and Poppy was leaning against the door of the shelter as if it was all that was keeping her upright. Solomon Sheppard smiled sympathetically.

‘I think we all learned a few lessons to take away. I want you to think about how we could have made that evacuation more successful and come to our tutorial tomorrow morning with three recommendations. But, for now, crew, get to bed.’

27.05.12

IT WASN’T THE FIRST of her Terra dreams.

When Astrid opened her eyes, her cheek was pressed against wet sand and the sunlight burned. Above her head shone one amber sun, big as a dinner plate. The other, an ivory speck, small enough to cover with a thumbnail at the end of an outstretched hand.

When she sat up, the roar of the waves filled her ears. She watched them crest and then crash against the beach, sending tepid foamy water up the backs of her calves and sucking the sand back to sea. The smell of the water and the silver light glittering across it was no surprise. She had been here before. She had swum right along this stretch of beach, wriggling in delight as colonies of red anemones recoiled from her touch. And, even this afternoon, as she climbed unsteadily to her feet, it was as if she had dug her heels into this shore before.

Across the stunning expanse of water, she could make out the rings of distant planets, arcing against the sky like crescent moons drawn in chalk. After almost a lifetime on the ship, it was a relief to see a horizon. Water vapour rose up off the surface of the sea in billowing clouds and behind her vegetation waxed. Green and yellow plants sprang up in the shadows of alien trees, their hanging vines heavy with strange, beautiful fruits that ripened in the shade.