Interlude 04 | Aestas ¤ The Yellow Balloon

Lilit floated into the mess hall looking for something to calm her frazzled nerves. Even though she knew by heart every single prepackaged meal, snack, and drink that came out of the dispensers, she still went looking through the bins hoping to find a surprise. Eventually, she settled on a pouch of the same weak decaffeinated green tea she had chosen dozens of times before and cracked the built-in heating element at the bottom to get it somewhat warmed up—though certainly not hot. Watching her flexible carton slowly begin to reheat, she wondered how long ago it had been originally brewed before it was vacuum sealed. Sadly, she had a pretty good idea that it had been at least several years, and it did not make her look forward to choking it down, especially considering her upbringing on almost entirely fresh food.

With her package of lukewarm tea in hand, Lilit headed towards the seating area to find a spot to settle into. While some people found the idea of having chairs and tables in an environment lacking strong gravity to be a ridiculous waste of space and resources, at times like these Lilit was glad for the familiarity they provided. Although she could not be grounded physically, she hoped that partaking in a simple ritual from her long-discarded previously normal life would gently help mollify her free-floating emotional distress.

At this hour of the night—according to the clock they had chosen to live by on the ship—the mess hall was usually completely empty. However, to her surprise, delight, and relief, she saw one table with two noteworthy men at it. They appeared to be intently discussing one topic or another as their arms flailed in every which direction. Of course, she instantly recognized the bickering companions, even from this distance. Who could possibly mistake them for anyone else?

Knowing them as she did, Lilit was quite sure that what they were deliberating was unrelated to their current mission, which was exactly the type of effervescent distraction she desperately needed, too. Feeling overjoyed about running into the duo at that particularly low moment for her, Lilit swam over to join them. En route, she started smiling to herself as she wondered how these two had become her best friends in the whole universe and her most loyal co-conspirators. It wasn’t that long ago that she had the rather ordinary existence of a young woman living on Aestas and not as the interplanetary criminal she had transformed herself into—one who was definitely guilty of everything they accused her of. With a huff, she resigned herself to their higher purpose. Everyone aboard this vessel was in the exact same boat, so to speak.

Upon approaching their sitting place, Lilit did a somersault in the air and performed three rotations before making a near-perfect landing in the chair. Strapping herself to the seat so that she did not drift away, she pushed the interior straw up out of her terrible beverage, took a sip, winced at its abysmal flavor, and then finally inquired, “`Sup, boys?”

“Must you always take such risks?” chided Ahmad. “Why can you not just take a seat like a sane person and perhaps avoid bashing your head? Do you know how hard it is to corral blood in microgravity?”

“Give the lady a break,” Durojaiye rebuked his tablemate. “It was not such a dangerous thing, and we all need to keep our spirits up on this long journey between worlds. A little fun is not a bad thing every now and then.”

Lilit chuckled as Ahmad and Durojaiye squabbled with each other as they always did, even the first time she had met them. Oh, they pretended they were always at each other’s throats, but it was obvious to her how much love they shared. And she was so happy and fulfilled to be a part of that love, as well. Just being in their presence had an instant calming effect on her, granting her permission to compartmentalize her trepidations and anxiety away and just enjoy being with them. For a little while, their company would allow her to forget about the troubling message she had received so that she could remember why it was worthwhile to be alive despite having to go through all this anguish.

Delving through her own mind, Lilit wondered how this state of being had come to be. Suddenly, that line of thought made her recognize a failing in her own relations with Ahmad and Durojaiye, something she couldn’t believe she didn’t already know after almost five years together. She decided that she would rectify that oversight right then and there.

“You know, I just realized this,” Lilit seamlessly segued, interrupting the debate that they had picked back up after greeting her, “but I don’t think you guys ever told me how, exactly, you crossed paths. I mean, I obviously know where it happened, but what were the circumstances, how did it actually happen? When we all met for the first time, you told me that you had only known one another for a couple of weeks.”

“Ah, this is a tale I must tell,” Ahmad declared, “because he would recall it wrong and make a bunch of things up. I remember and report the factual events perfectly, unlike certain people I know.”

“Fine, fine,” Durojaiye conceded, “you tell the story. But I am going to provide color commentary and correct you when you are wrong.”

“I am never wrong!” Ahmad declared. “However, I will allow this, for the sake of peace.”

Lilit’s heart lit up at this exchange. This was the type of stuff she adored about them and why these two had become central to her life. “Alright,” she said, “I’m listening. Go on already!”

“I will if you two will stop interrupting,” Ahmad censured. Once he appeared satisfied that their mouths would remain zipped shut, he cleared his throat and commenced the account.

The above piece is an excerpt from the speculative hard science fiction novel Aestas ¤ The Yellow Balloon by J.P. Prag, available at booksellers worldwide. Learn more about the author at www.jpprag.com.

As humanity begins to tame the stars above, at what point do a group of colonists turn into a unique, indigenous people who will band together to protect their homeland... no matter what?

Lilit Sarkisian was an average young woman who made a living welcoming new immigrants to the floating city of Aestas, soaring high above the clouds on Venus. Then, one day, she met her new clients Ahmad Al Zaheri and Durojaiye Yakubu. From that moment onward, her life irreparably changed and forever altered the course of the place she had always known as home. Somehow, these two became her best friends in the whole universe, and her most loyal coconspirators.

Aestas appeared to be a successful colony, much more so than places like Mars where terraforming had ultimately failed. Yet the powers-that-be, both on Venus and Earth, refused to do anything to alleviate the pressures caused by its exploding population. To fully resolve these issues, Lilit found herself evolving from an unknown civil servant to the leader of a revolution to a dangerous interplanetary symbol. Her story did not end there, though, nor did the machinations of those who had other plans for her birthplace.

With the help of her most trustworthy companions Ahmad and Durojaiye, was Lilit able to save the irreplaceable Venusian society from forces far more powerful than her?

Aestas ¤ The Yellow Balloon is a work of mixed fiction and nonfiction elements. With the fiction elements, any names, characters, places, events, and incidents that bear any resemblance to reality is purely coincidental. For the nonfiction elements, no names have been changed, no characters invented, no events fabricated except for hypothetical situations.