Chapter 7

Astrix sat in a corner of the tiny room. There were no windows. She rubbed her arm where her gyroscope used to be. It was gone now.

On the Independence she used it for sport. She felt her ears. Those upgrades were gone too. She hoped the holes in her ear canal didn’t fill in. It took three months for those things to settle in properly and heal. She didn’t want to go through that again.

But now she would have to. Thanks Gaians!

She changed the magnification of her eyes then recoiled. I should know better than to try that in a small room. Thank goodness they didn’t find those. These are the last people I want operating on my eyes.

There were also fresh holes above her knees and behind her elbows. They cleaned her out. She was just human now. Only human, in this box. Not even a bed, not even a pillow. Smooth cement floor, hard white walls, no windows, just one bare lightbulb in the middle of the ceiling. Not even the door permitted anything to pass.

Astrix picked at her wounds and thought of her father. To die like that in the freezing vacuum. Not even able to say goodbye. Did it hurt? How long did his lungs beg for breath? How long did his hands reach for something to hold onto before they froze stiff? Did he feel betrayed that we didn’t come for him in time? Did he worry about my future?

A tightness formed between Astrix’s eyes and her vision blurred. Hot, salty tears poured down her cheek and onto her tongue.

He was her inspiration every day she woke up in that other box above the Earth. She doubted that she would ever escape. She buried herself in the books and the math problems and the physics puzzles. She skipped two grades ahead. No friends, no playing: she lived in a fantasy world up there. She refused to admit that she wasn’t on Earth.

And now she was. And she was in a box again.

But this box had no view, period, much less one of Earth. In this box she had no mother and no father. And this one was smaller.

In fact, now she had no father anywhere.

The tears dripped down her face again and she sobbed, her chest spasming uncontrollably, the cries jumping from her throat. She had no control.

She’d made it her goal. Sixteen years of single-minded concentration. Dad told me the Gaians would pick me. He believed in me.

But now he’s gone and I’m in another box and I don’t like this box. If I have to choose a box, I choose the one in space with my mother. If I knew it would come to this, I would’ve lived more, had friends and found fun instead of unending and practice.

Something clacked to the hard floor behind her and she turned. A round metal plate with something brown and wet sat in front of the door. How did they get it in here? She crawled over, leaned down and smelled it.

It’s smelled of the recycling room on Independence.

She pushed it away and retreated to her corner. She knew the Gaians were a hard people. She knew they hated her people. But they invited her here. She didn’t expect this kind of treatment. In fact, her friend Marcus was the student last year and he said they treated him very well.

Maybe that was a lie. Maybe it was true they brainwashed you. Maybe Marcus was a spy. Maybe Marcus caused the explosion that killed Dad.

No. She stood up and paced forward two steps then turned and took two steps back.

I am the master of my fate. They can’t brainwash me. I will stand up to them. I will stand up for Independence. I will be a good student again. I will study all they offer me but they will not turn me against my own people.

She stopped pacing and walked to the door. She pounded on it with both fists. “Let me out of here. Open the door!”

Footsteps echoed on the hard concrete floor outside her door “What is it?” a male voice asked.

“I want to get out of here. You invited me here. Why am I a prisoner?”

Metal ground against metal. A screech and then a crash that came from inside the door. It creaked open. Astrix pushed her way out and stepped to the side.

The hallway was narrow. It ran out ahead of her. Windowless metal doors on both sides and, at the end come a bright light. She covered her eyes against the light.

“My dear, I am under strict orders to keep you under lock and key. You had many small machines in your body. I’m afraid our distinguished chairperson is in quite a tizzy.”

“What is your name?” Astrix asked. She did her best to appear meek, cute and fascinated by the graying old man that stood half a meter lower than her.

It wasn’t difficult.

“I am Dr. Hieronymus Herczfeld.” He put his hand to his belt and bowed ever so slightly. “I’m afraid I had no choice but to remove your little machines. We strive to live very naturally here and our leader is feeling a bit paranoid right now.”

“I need to speak to my family right now. My father…,” she paused, looked away and sniffled. “My father, he was killed just as I was getting onto the space elevator and…” She broke out into sobbing again and collapsed to the floor.

“My dear, my dear…” Dr. Herczfeld stepped forward and tried to pull her back up. He grabbed his lower back and stepped back. “I’m just not as young as I used to be,” he mumbled.

Astrix looked up at the old man. The sobbing came easy but she knew she was manipulating him now. It came to her easily. It was unconscious. She didn’t need a strategy. For everything else, she needed one. But not for this.

“Doctor, please. I must speak with my mother. They don’t know if I arrived safely or not and my family… It’s only my mother, my father and myself right now. She’s worrying— Maybe she thinks she lost her whole family today. Please, just let me call and tell her I’m okay.”

“Young lady, I have so much work to do. Please just go back into the waiting room and be patient. I’m sure our distinguished chairperson lowercase this allow you to roam this city freely within a few days.” Dr. Herczfeld turned, looked back, fiddled with his mustache and then sighed. “Now if you will please standup.”

“I feel really sick. Can I go to the bathroom?” Astrix let her body slump and she looked up at her warden, her mouth open and her eyes sad. If this doesn’t work, I’ll have to knock him down and run outside. But I don’t know if I have the energy for that. “Please?”

Dr. Herczfeld rolled his eyes. “Oh, yes alright.” He pointed towards the light. “Last door on the right. Be quick.”

Astrix crawled towards the bathroom.

“Good God, young lady! Surely you are not in such bad shape. Stand up already.”

Astrix sobbed, coughed and used a nearby door handle to pull herself up. Her shoulder banged the door and from inside came a deep howl. The door banged back at her. She fell away from it and looked up at the doctor, her eyes wide.

Something changed in the doctor’s face. He smiled down at her and shook his head. “You really are quite hopeless, aren’t you?” He walked over to her, crouched down and helped her to her feet.

Her legs unsteady, she bumped the door next to her and a screeching sound came from within. She recoiled and bumped into the doctor, almost sending them both to the floor.

“Relax, my child. They’re only our experimental apes. They’re securely locked in. In any case, I thought you were interested in learning about animals. Isn’t that why you are here?”

He escorted her to the bathroom door, reached in and flipped on the light and pushed her into the tiny cement block lavatory. “Will you be alright from here?”

“Those are animals? May I see them?” She stood in the doorway. This water closet was luxurious compared to anything she’d found on Independence.

The doctor looked away, annoyed. “All in due time. All in due time.” He pulled the door shut behind her. His steps echoed away.

Astrix inspected her face in the mirror. She’d never seen herself so clearly. Dark circles under her eyes, her face swollen. Her skin, too white, sickly. She ran cold water. It refreshed her hands. She leaned down and splashed it on her face. Her strength was returning.

She opened the door and walked towards the light. She found a light wooden door, pushed it open and stepped out into the bright midday sun. She closed her eyes and angled her face up at the sky. The warmth soaked through to her insides. Her stomach began to calm and then a ravenous hunger returned. The trees spun around her and her stomach clenched. She fell to her knees.

A pair of sandals appeared in front of her and she vomited green goop on them.

“What––” the owner of the shoes cried.

Astrix fell backwards and looked up. It was the same man who met her when she got off the elevator. He wore an angry expression now and stared at his shoes.

“You are supposed to be in quarantine,” he mumbled to Astrix. “Dr. Herczfeld!” he yelled.

“I need to speak to my mother. Please.” Astrix vomited again and Damian took a quick step backwards.

“You will speak to her very soon indeed. You’ll be returning to Independence within the hour,” said Damian.

“I need to speak to my people now. They know how to restore my strength. Unless you want me to continue vomiting everywhere?” Astrix looked up at him with her sad eyes but she didn’t think that would help. These were hard people and they didn’t like her.

“Dr. Herczfeld!” Damian yelled. He pulled a handheld radio from his pack and held it out to her by its long antenna. “Be quick.” He climbed the steps to the house.

Astrix knew these devices. They used them several times on Independence when the power systems failed. She hit the transmit button on the side of the black box. “Astrix Volkov calling Space Station Independence. Please come in.” She took her thumb off the transmit button and waited, only static reaching her ears.

Inside the house, Damian and Dr. Herczfeld yelled at each other. The animals echoed their mood.

Astrix hit the transmit button again and a voice broke through. She took her thumb off the button.

“This is Gen. Javal of Space Station Independence. Who is calling?”

“They’re sending me home.”

“Astrix? What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. They removed all my upgrades, they put me in a windowless room and now they said they’re sending me home.”

“Listen very carefully, Astrix. I’m very sorry to tell you that your father is dead. There was an explosion. You remember Marcus? He was lost, too. We still don’t know if… but it doesn’t matter. We need access to the planet. Remember where you come from. You cannot come back home.

“Represent us well. Plead for our problems. We’re running out of food and clean air. We lost an awful lot of water to that explosion. People are dying up here and you are the only one who can do something about that. We must have access to the planet.

“If they won’t listen to reason. If they won’t do the right thing, tell that new chairperson that our radioactive power sources could fall out of orbit and crash to Earth, effectively polluting the environment across millions of square miles.”

Astrix closed her eyes and lay down in the soft grass. A bug zipped around her ear but it barely registered. She just wanted to go to sleep, wherever she could - be it Earth or Independence.

“Astrix! Did you hear me? You cannot allow yourself to be sent back. If you return now, you’ll be the death of us all. Astrix, do you copy? Astrix?”

Astrix opened her eyes and pushed herself up onto her elbow. She found the transmit button and pushed it. “They’re sending me right now. I’m so weak. I’ve never been this sick before. I don’t know what to do.”

“Tell them we will drop radioactive waste on the planet, in the middle of their precious animal preserve. Unless they allow us to use the space elevator to replenish our supplies of soil, water and air. Do you understand?”

Astrix pulled herself to her feet and walked towards the building. She pushed through the creaky screen door. She found a seat across the room next to a small window and let herself fall into it.

“She’s not ready to travel!” yelled Dr. Herczfeld.

“The chairperson considers her a security risk. And in any case, the final days are approaching,” whispered Damian.

“Guys? Can I get some food?” asked Astrix.

Damian and Dr. Herczfeld turned to face her. “I’m taking her right now,” said Damian.

“General Javal, you know the guy in charge of Independence?” She looked up from the floor to make sure the pair of men were giving her their full attention. “He says that if you send me back and if you don’t allow us to come down and get soil and the water and other stuff, that he’s going to bomb the animal reserve with radioactive material. So maybe we can go and talk to that lady again?”

“Excuse me?” said Damian.

Astrix closed her eyes and slouched down in the chair. “I really… don’t have… the energy… to say it again.” Her breath came harder now and she could barely hear what Damian said next.

“Put her back in quarantine,” said Damian. “I have to talk to the chairperson right now.”