The Law of Mother

“Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say,” Taley argued, wiping their greasy fingers together over the plate of fries before them.

“No, there's no way of hearing the scream,” I retorted, “But you can see the regret on their face every time!”

I mimicked the terror, my eyes bulging into a comedic epitaph of the frozen forgotten I'd seen pass through to space. Taley and I laughed out of pride and disdain for the people we’d seen lost to space.

It had only been three weeks since the last Airlock Ejection, but we were itching for another. Both candidates for Mother's Brigade, we knew another criminal was being sent to space today. I was telling Taley as we filled our ravenous bellies how I wished we could hear the last thoughts of every con man to cross the gate before the pressure got them.

“What does your father say happened this time, with the criminal?” Taley asked. “Did he give you the ol’ water cooler gossip?”

“I don’t think they call it that in the First High General’s Office,” I rolled my eyes, smug, and stretched my arms up behind my head. “Father hasn’t been home in weeks, anyway. Not since the last one. They must be onto something.”

“Maybe they found the mole,” Taley remarked.

“There’s always a rat to trap on this godforsaken ship,” I said.

“Famous words of Second High General Murdock Gaines, I’m guessing?”

“You know him so well.”

Taley chuckled. “When’s the sendoff of our latest Bad Guy? Can’t wait to see his eyes pop.”

I tapped my wrist, and a digital clock appeared beneath my skin. “In ten. We ought to go down anyway. Beat the crowds.”

Taley shuddered. “I hate walking among those peasants, Garen. Can’t your father get us special access to the Top Booth like last time?”

I shrugged, shoving my own plate of food toward the floor, where one of the Bots would clean it up. “Like I said,” I replied, with a little more edge to my voice than I meant to, “Father hasn’t been around.”

Taley, ever my faithful servant, dropped the subject just as quickly as they shoved their own food to the floor. I stood, staring down my nose as the SweeperBot arrived, its clawed, automatic clasps grabbing napkins and food from beneath my feet. I watched as it carefully picked up our wasted fries, one of Mothership’s most desirable daily meals.

Though a plate of fries was nothing to the likes of us, some of the Lower Deckers worked their whole lives and never got such delicacy. I made sure to eat them twice a week, sometimes more, just because there was nothing stopping me. Father said I ought to watch what I eat, and maintain my masculine stature so I don’t give the rest of the ship the wrong impression about what we did Up Top.

But I couldn’t care less what Lower Deckers thought.

The SweeperBot picked up the fries one by one and dusted them off. “Hey Bot,” I said. “You know where that belongs. Don’t go handing out that delicacy to any of the Lowers, or I’ll have Taley here dismantle you piece by piece.”

The SweeperBot froze, turning to Taley with a placid digital smile across its screen. Aiming a kick at the Bot, I said to Taley, “Let’s go.”

We headed down to the transport pad, which would take us to The Common Ground three decks below.

“You ought to keep an eye on those bots you maintain at the Academy,” I said to Taley. “Make sure they’re upholding the Law of Mother.”

Taley smiled nervously and replied with a terse, “Damn right." They waved as I vanished, coming right after.

Within seconds, I reappeared in the widest part of the ship, a well-lit arena with towering walls covered in black screens. The cold, echoing hymn of the Mother’s Anthem played on speakers below the metallic subfloor, echoing Her Word over and over beneath the footsteps of a thousand people. I straightened my jacket and Cadet Badge and stared off into the throng before me.

Airlock Ejections were mandatory attendance for all Mothershippers, everyone from Up Top to the Lower Deckers. It didn’t happen often - maybe a few times when I was a kid - but lately these events have been increasing in frequency. I credit my father, being Second in Command to the High General and all. He must be well into the thick of this mystery. There was always some petty crime happening on the Mothership, but only a few crimes were unforgivable. Murder. Theft of Resources. And Treason against Her Law.

Father always said witnessing the Ejections ensured that the Law would be upheld. He always taught me that fear of punishment is the greatest deterrent, and he was right.

I watched the crowd while I waited for Taley to find me. I saw a child clinging to the sleeve of its mother, wearing patched, “natural” fabrics from Old Earth - the surest sign of a Lower Decker. I smirked at the child, but as a Mid-Walker woman strolled past, I paused. She wore hilarious regalia that looked like an attempted couture mixture of Old Earth fabrics, standard ship tactical gear, gems, and wild, spiky hair. She painted a phrase on her back that read, Are You Ready To Leave?

“What a babe,” Taley said sarcastically, coming up behind me.

Only those with little going for them would do so much to stand out in this crowd. “She must be trying to catch the eye of some Up Top Officer to go home with or something.”

“She should try catching fewer eyes, I think,” Taley said. We laughed at the Mid-Walker woman as I spun on my heel to join the moving crowd.

I immediately knocked shoulders with some small, frail body. Some old coot covered in glittering dust was shoving his way in the opposite direction with a raving look. He tumbled over as we collided, regained his footing, and barked at me before restarting his journey with a renewed, manic rigor.

“Watch it, filth,” I said. “I ought to report you to the – !”

But the man was gone. I looked down at my arm and I thwacked my hand against my sleeve. The man’s strange, opalescent, sparkling dust bounced off of my navy Cadet’s jacket. “Ugh! He’s gotten his Lower Decker dirt all over me!”

Taley helped brush some away. “He must work in the Underbelly. Don’t see too many of those these days. Wonder where he’s headed?”

Underbelly workers were those who were judged by the Law of Mother for committing crimes that were heinous, but not harsh enough to be sent to the void of space. Father wouldn’t tell me what they did down there in the Underbelly, but I always guessed it was some hard labor with the engine.

I kept dusting my sleeves as I led the way forward, Taley close at my heels. I saw some other Cadets in the crowd and they waved, ushering me to my spot as the head of their group.

“Garen, got any news from your old man about what’s going on up there?”

“Weird seeing you down here, don’t you normally sit in the Top Booth?”

“Garen, what’s General Gaines say about this one?”

“So many Ejections have been happening lately! You must know what it’s about!”

I raised my hands to silence their questions. “I can’t give away all my Father’s secrets, Cadets,” I said with a grin. “You’ll just have to wait and see.”

A few of the Cadets clapped me on the shoulder and laughed when the glittering dust flew off my sleeve once more. It was never ending! I groaned and turned away from them to clean myself of the strange old man’s filth, but it stuck to my hands like glue.

“Look,” one of them shouted. “It’s starting!”

The lights around us dimmed as the screens covering the walls lit up, one by one, showcasing the logo of the Mothership - two shooting stars, crossed behind a silhouette of a beautiful woman. The crowd, cottoning on, gasped and quieted as Mother’s Anthem slowed to an eerie silence. The screen flickered.

“Finally,” I said to the Cadets around me, and they snickered appreciatively.

A man with a bag over his face stood in the airlock, wearing only torn Lower Decker pants and handcuffs. Two Mother's Brigade Officers in space suits stood at the ready on either side. The man's chest was red with bloody cuts and bruises. Nothing about him was distinguishable - he seemed like every other demonic criminal who’d been sent through the airlock: only the most horrible, pathetic types of men would dishonor the Law of Mother and the rightful ways of our people.

“You are gathered here today, Brethren of the Mothership, to witness a most venerable retribution. It is by the Law of Mother that you stand before us today, after so many hundred years leaving our Old Earth toward a New Land, a Promised Land. A land where we could be free of the former abuses of mankind and move forward under the light of our new sun. It was Mother who brought us on this journey. It is Mother who will lead us through. And to dishonor Her Law is to dishonor us all.“

Something was off. The voice on the loudspeaker was unfamiliar to me. For one, it was a woman’s. Normally my father would be the one making the announcements.

“Who is that?” Taley asked. “She sounds funny.”

I didn’t respond. I squinted up and behind me, to the Top Booth, where I searched for my father. I couldn’t see much of anyone in the Booth from this angle, though, and sighed.

“Garen, where’s your pops?” one of the Cadets nearby whispered sarcastically. “Did he give up being Second in Command, or what?”

“Maybe he’s busy fucking your mother,” I snapped. That shut him up. The woman's voice dragged on.

“As you well know, today is a sad day for the Mothership. When one of our most unforgivable crimes is committed, there must be atonement for these sins. The Law of Mother has brought you here today to witness a most shocking revelation, a most terrible betrayal, and a most sad departure.”

“Oh, get on with it!” Someone in the crowd shouted.

“Send the bastard out!”

The crowd echoed the sentiment viciously. I joined in, along with the Cadets, laughing all the way. Someone threw their hat at the screen. A hundred more stomped their feet. Someone started singing Mother’s Anthem, and everyone sang along - a riotous chorus united those Up Top and the Lower Deckers in a bloodthirsty rage.

All we wanted to see were the terrified, bulging eyes as this latest criminal to succumbed to the vacuum of space.

As the chorus reached its end and the crowd started to cheer, I watched as the shoulders of the bruised and bloody man on the screen shook. It looked as if he were laughing.

“Sure seems calm for someone about to suffocate horrifically,” I whispered to Taley.

“Maybe he knows something we don’t?” Taley said.

“You heard the crowd, Lord Magistrates. Reveal our Criminal to the Good People of Our Mother's Ship.” The strange woman’s voice rang, barely audible above the din.

I watched as one of Mother's Brigade Officers on the screen hesitated slightly. I held my breath as I waited to search his ugly face for answers, to know that he was wrong, because the Law of Mother was always right.

"Do it! Do it! Do it!" The crowd chanted.

And the officer, with what seemed like a resigned determination, snatched the bag off the bruised and bloody man’s head.

The wildest cheer yet started to ring – and immediately stopped.

Where there once was outrageous celebration, an intolerable, deafening silence sat heavy on the shoulders of the Mothershippers.

“Here is your criminal,” the woman’s voice said into the silence. As if breaking a spell, the crowd broke into conspiratorial whispers left and right. I only caught snippets.

“But that’s –”

“It couldn’t be –”

“Is this some kind of joke?”

My fellow Cadets turned around, looking for answers. But I didn’t have any. I didn’t know any more than they did. It didn’t make sense. We were meant to be in the Top Booth. He was Second in Command to the First High General, and he always did what was right by Her Law. Because fear of punishment was the best deterrent, and the Law of Mother was greater than any one man.

I pushed forward, unable to stop myself. I couldn’t believe it.

“Today you will witness the Airlock Ejection of a once-honorable man of our Brigade, the Second High General Murdock Gaines, tried and found guilty of Treason.”

They opened the airlock without any last words.

"WAIT!" I cried. But it was too late.

The two guards watched on, their magnetic boots holding them in place. Nobody reached out to save him. Nobody spoke up. The crowd parted around me, but I didn't see them. All I could see was my father.

The camera followed his face as he flew into space. He only had 15 seconds before he was sure to pass out. The air left his lungs.

But he didn't scream the way we so often saw on the faces of those sent through Airlock Ejection.

He wasn't afraid. He was calm. He was furious.

He laughed.