Intergalactic Cadence 364

1

No one can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say.

Yet every single night, those exact parallels are broken. Blake knows he is ten years old in his reoccurring dream. Every night he dreams of awakening in a nap pod with the LED lights blinking red. He does not hear the robotic voice making an announcement because his ear buds died hours ago. Looking around he realizes all the other pods have emptied. Sliding out of a nap pod quickly takes a certain kind of athleticism. Blake doesn't hesitate but runs full speed as soon as his feet hit the floor, passing each pod in a frantic search but not finding anyone else. He begins to panic. Every sense is enhanced like he has shifted into his highest gear of functioning. The sight of dried tear stains on a pillow case in pod G, the lingering scent of a piece of gum in the air near Q pod, and the blood trail on the floor made Blake "come to his senses". His vision seemed to become crystal clear almost as if he could track a source of heat with his eyes. Yet none strong enough to lead him anywhere, those trails had gone cold before he could ever sense them.

Remembering his mind control training, the young boy was able to overcome his fears enough to think through the next steps: 1) He is the last one to wake up, he doesn't know if he is alone. If he is even on the correct planet, or how long he has been asleep. 2) He needs to find his family. No further steps were uploaded to his mind at the time. He never really wanted that invasion anyway. If it wasn't a requirement for the government to keep everyone minimally surviving on their rations, Blake would never have agreed to the implant, then he wouldn't be in this place at this time.

The small chip embedded in each human before space and time travel would be permitted was just their way of control. Blake knew this even at nine years old when he first boarded the ship with his family. The world he had previously known had been deteriorating at a devastating rate so the planet needed to be evacuated. The plan was for 50 select people to board the “Cadence” ship and live in space until the next habitable planet was available.Their ship was scheduled number 364 out of 500 small vessels planned for travel, yet communication stopped four years ago when Blake’s nightmare originally took place.

The planet the ship now stayed stationary at has been shown to kill every single person that steps outside of the ship's doors. Except the 6 others that have stayed behind or survived somehow, like himself. With only so few bodies occupying the empty ship, they have closed off sections and are maintaining homeostasis until help arrives. IF help arrives. Outside the window, the landscape looks beautiful, if you look past the scattered dead bodies of the passengers that were too eager to explore. Purple skies with lighting bolts in the distance, green fields blowing in the wind, and a magnificent waterfall in the distance makes for a very appealing landscape. Blake could see why the people that left the ship would run into rich beauty and hope. Was his family part of that group? Why would they have left him? Or had there been some kind of attack or mischief on the ship that he was unaware of?

The 6 other survivors on the ship were older than him and very influential these 4 years. Margaret, the oldest, was like a hippie grandmother. She stepped in during his time of need. Jake, the second best man in the ranks, was smart enough to stay in the ship when his crew disagreed and ventured out. He stepped in as a father figure for Blake even though he loathed Margaret for many reasons.

Leslie, the young scientist intern who is barely older than Blake, tends to keep to herself but he had noticed her paintings. Then there is Mason, the electrician, who tries to show off for Leslie at every opportunity. Dr. Drakin likes to read in the evenings and doesn't take shit from anyone, ever. And then there is Yin. The Guinness book of world records keeper, encyclopedia of any detail ever retained, and photo album of most living beings, all in one precious mind. Her passion for science was nothing but a blessing. Her curiosity made her the best debate champion when it came to questioning science. This was who Blake survived his time on the ship with.

Dr. Drakin mainly studied biology, which included all species known to man at that time. He was a medical doctor, scientist, and the calmest of the remaining souls. His voice of reason made him the natural leader of the group. Outside the windows of the Cadence, the world looked pretty habitable but Dr. Drakin made sure to observe the fluorescent pinkish glowing flowers that covered the field they had landed in. He couldn't tell if the plants were predators. He described to the group that they could very well be the cause of the deaths of the other passengers they could see. Almost similar to the venus fly trap, these plants were growing over the bodies and seemed to be devouring them. Whether they were the original cause of death, he was unsure. Maybe they spit venom or poisoned pistols at their targets and that's why some people had made it further across the field than others. Yet this did not explain where all the other passengers had gone. Was it a poison gas that had been released from some unforeseen force? Dr. Drakin believes that the atmosphere is safe because the previous explorers ventured out without oxygen so the testing system must have still been working at that time. The waterfall across the field of flowers seemed to glow iridescent every so often and that was another thought he kept going back to. Without a sun in the sky, time had become fluent and the glow didn't seem to have a pattern the doctor could detect.

Leslie also observed such things and loved documenting the changes with her paint. She spent a majority of her time alone on the observation deck painting in extreme detail. Blake always wondered why she was so quiet but assumed it had to do with depression. She didn't particularly care what the others thought, but had decided early on to not build close relationships with the other survivors. She did allow Yin to sit quietly with her but very rarely made eye contact with the younger girl. Yin didn't seem to mind at all because she felt she was slowly breaking through to Leslie. Yin knew Leslie shared her paintings with Dr. Drakin for scientific reasons but that was only after they were complete. Yin cherished the fact that she was permitted to occasionally be around during the process. Leslie knew Mason tried to flirt with her all the time and she wasn't mad about it, she just struggled disciplining herself in that department because she liked his eyes and his smile. It's not the fear of losing someone that keeps her from getting close to anyone, it's the fear of letting them down, she told herself over and over.

Mason spent most of his time in the fitness center on the ship and if he wasn't there he could be found in the virtual lab. He frequently invited Blake and Yin to join him and sometimes Jake would as well. Jake and Mason maintained everything on the ship together and were currently revising another try on the communications system. Blake would sometimes catch them whispering ideas of how the com's got shut down when they landed. He wondered if it had anything to do with the glowing waterfall but whenever he asked them, they would tell him he shouldn't worry himself about it. He would talk to Margaret about it and she believed he might be onto something, but she was more in love with the sky of this planet than anything else. She often spoke to Blake about her admiration of the lighting bolts that appeared as frequently as a chime on an old grandfather clock. They pondered together about how it all could be connected.

Margaret loved cooking back on the home planet so she tried to keep everyone happy, healthy, and with a full belly. She felt motherly towards the younger passengers and enjoyed spending time with each, but She favored Blake the most. They often worried about rationing but she had kept everyone fed for 4 years now from the hydro garden center, and she didn't seem worried about it. She was creative in making delicious various dishes and the passengers appreciated her efforts. Margaret often reminisced of her wonderful husband and it always brought tears to her eyes. She missed him terribly as they were still so much in love even after 40 years. She dreams of the time they might be reunited practically every night.

Blake spent one particular evening a year in his room alone. No one celebrated holidays any longer but he could not forget the family celebrations they used to have every year they called family day. It was kind of similar to a joint birthday party for everyone but they always had such a great time just being all together for that one evening with no other distractions or interruptions. He missed his family and the time they spent together so he continued the tradition on his own reliving the memories. Was his baby sister with his parents? Had his oldest brother survived through his entry into the wormhole the government sent him to? He had a pretty good grip on his fears and anxiety for only being 14 years old, but this one night a year he permitted himself to let loose. He could make himself imagine that the rest of his family was somewhere safe doing the same thing. If only he had a way to find out.