Gaia's Blessed Children

Towards the Future

Past and future seemed to blend into one.

Aurora stood there watching the time of her birth, like a mirage she tried to reach for it, but it remained at a distance - untouchable - she heard the love and regret in her mother’s words as she spoke her name…

Then she saw her father and mother sitting on the floor staring out the large glass window at the stars; a time before she was even a thought in their minds… Her mother playing a metallic flute, engravings of Earth’s mythical dragons engraved on it. More images flashed of people talking and having fun, like a movie it played before her.

Suddenly she found herself thrust into the future - everything was flashing before her and the images she could make out or commit to memory were few in between - the chancellor, Darius, discussing plans to land the ships. How she ended up in the briefing room only Council members and the ship’s Captain was allowed access to without permission, she had no idea because she didn't remember leaving the viewing deck.

She saw as hundreds of people… thousands closed their eyes never to open them again… including her father and her friends...

“We could have saved them! There were several sections that could be perfectly isolated, hundreds of escape pods and cruisers that we have used and modified to give them a chance to survive!” A Council-member, one of lesser standing that was kept in the dark, cried out - but the scene change again, always before it could reveal specific crucial information.

Tears blurred her vision as more scenes made itself known before she found herself back on the viewing deck holding her father’s hand as the Star Fire inched closer… was it all a dream?

“Daddy… did you see it?” She asked and he looked at her full of worry.

“The Star Fire? Yes Cupcake I saw it.” She stayed quiet; clearly it was only herself that saw the illusions.

The river of dancing lights passed through the station screams of panic could be heard as the memory of ‘that’ time was still fresh in their minds.

“Don’t let it touch you.” Her father warned pulling her away when a strand had crept around from behind her, but it seemed to anger the lights, as though they… it… had a will of its own.

The Star Fire gathered around the pair, father and daughter, enveloping them together in its embrace. She felt its warmth, she heard It whispering in her ear… unlike her father that was trying to fight it off, trying to get them out of it, she felt ‘calm’ as she closed her eyes, her breathing slowing down… she could hear her heart beat slow and steady lulling her deeper into sleep…

…

She frowned, her one hand going up to rub the sleep from her eye. A sticky face the only remnant of her sleepless night, dreams of the past keeping her from getting some well-deserved rest.

“Daddy… just a little longer…” She moaned she didn’t want to wake up.

“Come now Aurora, you are going to be late!” She felt her father pull her up by her arms out of bed and lowering her till her feet touched the floor. He was no stranger to her crying silently in her sleep, but he learned early on that she didn’t seem to remember anything from her nightmarish dreams… either that or she stubbornly refused to talk about it with anyone.

It’s been four, almost five years since they entered the black hole, they arrived on the other side safely; there were no lives lost, though everyone seemed to have a gap in their memories…

When she came to, she saw the blue planet briefly before the station shifted and she saw one of the other ships in the far distance.

In the confusion, as people left their rooms, they made their way back to theirs.

In those four years she had been a pain in the Council’s backs, if it wasn’t going out on unauthorized space-walks (three times and each time caught and brought back in within seconds... less than five minutes... then it was surging satellites when she was teaching herself how to hack into electronics and if it wasn’t bad enough she developed a love for flammable and explosive experiments…

“Aurora Rhapsody Draco... No skipping class this time!” Her father used her full name... almost full name (Names were very structured on the ships, he skipped over some names that he didn't feel was actually a name and more like a serial code for record keeping).

He eyed her as she paused by the door, turning around with a smile, he shook his head. She hated ‘school’ mostly because the Council had sorted her into history, language and arts studies… When she wanted to be a mechanic and an engineer!

She rounded the corner taking out a tablet, it used to be her mother’s; she had disconnected it from the station and all the ships.

“Herold, perfect timing.” He rolled his eyes.

“I’m not helping you break into the station’s control room again.”

“Come on!” She pleaded.

“No!” He walked away, his father was Councilman Jason, and she had once had him steal his father’s ID to get into the main computer, not to mention having him help sneak her into the control room twice now, there wouldn’t be a third time… He was fifteen now and it meant that he could be arrested for criminal acts  now, acts exactly like breaking into the control room – he was caught both times, she too, thankfully she was able to hide her mother’s tablet and retrieve it later, meaning the Council was still clueless as to what it was they were doing in the Control Room, or even how they were able to sneak in with so many people going in and out. But that they found no incriminating evidence on them other than them being in a restricted area, they were let go with a very long lecture and some mild punishment like cleaning the mess hall and scrubbing the viewing deck's floors and cleaning the windows. 

“Fine…” She stormed off.

“Hi beautiful!” Felix saw her about to knock on Dione’s door.

“Dione’s at school, like you’re supposed to be.”

“Felix, do you know how to connect to the mainframe without getting to the control room?” She asked.

“You’re not planning on stealing more classified schematics, are you?”

“No, I need to get my hands on the records for the planet we’re orbiting.” Felix was one of three of her friends that were aware of the truth, that the Council had the station orbiting a planet, always keeping the viewing decks facing away from it, or closing it to prevent to citizens to know about it. Those that had to do maintenance outside the station were all briefed and surveillance making sure they kept their mouths. 

Her ‘space-walks’ ended before she was able to get a chance to see the planet once again. But she was still being monitored all the same… how else was the council able to catch her in the act so fast?

“Is it regarding your conspiracy theory again?” He asked, his brow raised questioningly.

“While I’m at it, I’ll try and find footage or recording proving my theory!” She grinned.

“Fine, but I’m nowhere near when you start!” He lead the way to a vent, not intent on scolding her or reasoning with her, because it never works - she had even nearly landed him a month in a cell when she experimented with glycerin and some acids, and he not a chemist but a mechanic accidentally caused the gel she was messing around with to explode in flames - he never though water could be so dangerous...

“Follow it, go straight, the third passage to your right, will lead you to a panel board. You can tap into the entire network for the station there, including the Control Room, you have should have eighteen minutes before they realize they’ve got a guest. The sixth wire from the left and the second from the right.” 

(She'll learn sooner or later won't she? That she couldn't continue being so reckless? - He thought hoping she'd start growing up sooner than later)

“Thank you!” She got to her knees and he lifted the vent cover watching her crawl in.

“Careful not to make too much noise, sound travels far in there.” He warned before he lowered the cover and left to report to his work station.

It didn’t take her long to get to the panel. She readied a timer, giving herself only fifteen minutes.

She rushed through the various folders, downloading what she could onto her mother’s tablet.

“Planet SK-23-7” She read the file name, crossing her fingers that it was what she was looking for she quickly unplugged herself from the network once the file was downloaded.

Quietly she made her way back, careful to take note of anyone that might be in the hallway before exiting.

“Safe!” She grinned as she rounded the sixth corner glancing back to make sure she was still in the clear while getting to her hiding spot…

“Safe? From what, if I may ask?” A voice spoke up and she snapped her head back around.

“Chancellor Darius…” She nervously smiled.

“Skipping class again are you?”

“No… I was just on my way…” She turned around ready to head back down the hall, the ‘school’ sector towards that end.

“Not so fast!” He gripped her shoulder and turned her back around to face him.

“Your tablet, please?” She flung her bag of her shoulder and dug out her tablet, handing it to him.

“You know the rules Miss Aurora all tablet must be connected to your wrist watch.”

“Which is connected to the station, to monitor my health for my own safety being a Touched… I know, but there’s all my ideas on it, my personal thoughts…”

“We don’t monitor your personal stuff, so long as the digital filters don’t pick-up on any triggered content, we will not even bother to think about checking your tablet.”

“But what is considered ‘triggering’ content? What if a design for a kinetic shield triggers your filters? Then that means you can just get your hands on my inventions!”

“We won’t do that, besides if it does and it looks plausible we’d actually lift the ban on you for touching chemicals, mechanical and other electrical equipment, considering you work under supervision at all times.”

“Fine…” She sneered as she watched the man re-connect her tablet.

“Now then if you will?” He motioned for her to lead the way to her class.