Jane and the Exodus (Stargazer Series Book 1) Read online

  Everything in Vista was oriented around the park in the middle of the space station, which had trees and grass, flowers and shrubs, and basically all the things you’d expect to see in a park in the middle of a city. Surrounding the park were places to eat, buy clothes and toiletries—there was even a coffee shop and a bar, where the residents could start and end their day. It was a simple setup, and especially for the younger generation of people living on board, it was mostly boring, but Vista was a remarkable feat of engineering.

  All of Vista was supported by the work in the laboratories, which were tucked behind the park and the small quarters that people called their own. Inside the labs, everything to sustain life was manufactured—plants were grown, oxygen and water purified, and due to the remarkably efficient filtration system, there wasn’t even much waste in the waste.

  This thought was particularly disgusting for Jane. On the handful of occasions when she found herself checking in on the researchers who happened to work toward that end of Vista, she couldn’t help taking shallow breaths to avoid the smell, even though she didn’t want it to look like she was.

  The dome, which spanned the top of the park and the rest of Vista, was as high-tech as the rest of the station, but it wasn’t made of anything transparent, for fear that it would be too delicate in the unforgiving vastness of space. Researchers had determined long ago that a person’s ability to live and work on the station was directly related to how “Earthy” it was. This meant the residents needed a twenty-four-hour day with sunlight and darkness, daytime and nighttime, and the ability to feel like they could go outdoors, even though they couldn’t. To do this, the entire inside surface of the biodome was engineered to project holographic images of natural life on Earth—sunrises, sunsets, the sun tracking across the sky, clouds and blue skies—and they could even conjure wind and rain storms.

  At night, after the holographic sun had set, the dome was set to reflect the actual space outside of Vista. The residents siting in the park could see the billions of stars around them, unobstructed by the lack of atmosphere. Unlike on Earth, however, where people would watch the moon in the night sky, the residents of Vista would watch Earth pass overhead.

  Nighttime was Jane’s favorite time to be in the park. Even though the daytime projections on the dome seemed real, she knew they were fake, so she preferred the night sky and seeing outer space and Earth for what they were.

  Even so, the projected image of space couldn’t compare to the reality of space as far as Jane was concerned, which was why she liked her window. Space, through the window in the exercise facility, was unfiltered. It was bleak. It was cold. It was black. But in spite of these things, she couldn’t help but wonder what else was out there. On Earth she felt small and powerless, and she knew if she had to live out her days as most of the population did, her days would also be met with despair and death. Up here, Jane still felt small and even more powerless, and she knew death was a very real possibility, but the thought of the adventure that awaited her also made her feel terrifyingly alive.

  Jane pounded out another mile and stared out the window. The sweat running down the back of her neck was soaking her shirt, and the sweat from her arms dripped down her wrists, leaving the treadmill speckled and getting wetter by the minute.

  She heard the glass partition behind her slide open and caught the reflection of the familiar face in the window.

  “Hey, Jane,” came the young man’s baritone voice. “Gettin’ a few miles in, huh?”

  “Hey, Adam,” Jane responded between breaths. “Yeah, just a few.”

  Jane liked Adam. He was something of a prodigy and was only a few years older than she was. He worked in one of the biologics labs on Vista and was a biologist, or a geneticist or a physicist, or did some kind of -ist work that went way over her head. He was a nice guy, though, and sweet. He wasn’t what she would call classically handsome, but he was good-looking in the way really smart, really nice guys are good-looking, and she found herself liking him more and more, the more she got to know him. This was precisely why she refused to spend any amount of time with him if she could help it.

  There was a reality about being a colonist, which everyone recognized, but nobody talked much about: for the colony to survive on the new planet, it would be necessary for people to find a spouse—if they didn’t already have one—and to start families, and there wouldn’t be a lot of people to choose from. Jane’s dad hadn’t said a word about this situation to her, and she knew he would never push her to marry someone she didn’t love, but she also knew her dad liked Adam. The truth was that she would marry someone sooner than later, it would probably be Adam, and they would certainly have a number of children.

  On most days, Jane supposed she was okay with this. She knew Adam had a thing for her. He tried to play it cool, but the fact that he’d find opportunities to talk to her—like now in the exercise facility—and the fact that he’d always greet her with a friendly smile, despite her coolness toward him, were dead giveaways. She couldn’t afford to lead him on, though—not yet anyway—so she was often either mean or indifferent to him. Being mean to him always made her feel bad—really bad. She thought that one day she would explain why she had been so tough on him, if they ended up together. She hoped he’d understand and figured he would. Maybe he already did understand, she sometimes wondered. That would certainly explain why he hung around her even though she never gave him much of a reason to. He was complicated, or maybe she was making it complicated. Jane didn’t know which.

  When the time came for a relationship, and then marriage and kids, she knew she would be prepared to deal with it. She felt like Adam could be the right guy, but she certainly wasn’t ready to deal with it now. Jane was too young for that kind of trouble. She wanted to keep her distance.

  Adam walked around to face Jane and leaned up against the wall next to her window, his hands in his pockets.

  “So,” Adam started, again trying to pull a conversation out of her. “Are you going to the park to hear your dad’s big announcement?”

  “Yeah,” Jane replied, again between breaths. She continued to look out the window, giving Adam just a glance but no head turn. “You?”

  “Sure. I’m heading down there in just a few minutes,” Adam replied with a smile. “I’m happy to walk you down … if you want me to wait.”

  “No, that’s okay,” Jane replied. “I need to get cleaned up first. Thanks anyway.”

  Adam nodded and looked down at his shoes, blushing a little and now looking mildly embarrassed at being rejected.

  Jane felt lousy, again, but ran on, doing her best to keep looking out her window and not at him.

  Adam turned his side to Jane and gazed out her window, still leaning against the wall. He obviously wasn’t ready to give up his moment with her just yet.

  “Do you ever wonder what you’re going to do on the new planet?” Adam asked Jane’s reflection in the window. “You know, after you get settled.”

  Jane looked down at the readout on the treadmill. She had run enough. Waving her hand over the display, it quickly powered down, bringing her to a standstill. Still trying to catch her breath, she put her hands on her hips and looked at Adam. “What do you mean? You mean, like work?” she asked him.

  “Sure, for work,” Adam replied, turning his head away from Jane’s reflection and toward her.

  Jane thought for a second, but nothing came to mind. “I really have no idea,” she said, still trying to catch her breath but breathing easier now that she was off the treadmill.

  “I don’t know that I ever thought about it before. It’s not like anybody has a lot of options down there on Earth. You don’t really get to make a choice, and I always had it easy, with my dad being who he is and all. I guess I always figured I’d work for him.”

  Adam was quiet for a moment. “You know, you get to make a choice about it now, though—on the new planet,” he said casually. “Working for your dad is what you thought you were going t
o do, but what would you like to do?”

  Jane was in unchartered territory. It had never even occurred to her that she would get to make a choice about her future. She could do anything she wanted to do—be anything she wanted to be—but what?

  Jane must have had a confused look on her face, or perhaps a thoughtful one, because Adam said nothing. He just turned to face her directly, still leaning against the wall with his hands in his pockets, waiting.

  In the moments that followed, wave after wave of ideas flooded her mind. It was almost like Adam’s question unlocked a door she had never known existed, and in walking through it, she saw her life in ways she hadn’t before. She could be anything—do anything—with her new life. Would she choose to be a scientist in one of the labs? How about a teacher to the children in the colony? Maybe she would be a gardener on the new planet, or a rancher, or a historian, or a judge. Maybe she would be the one to fly shuttles back and forth between Earth and the new planet. She didn’t know.

  Jane’s breathing had slowed, and she had stopped sweating. She was calm, looking away from Adam and back out the window at the terrifying awesomeness of space. Then she knew. It was obvious. Speaking almost to herself, she said, “I want to be an explorer.”

  Adam smiled.

  Jane turned to look at him and smiled back. “I’m an explorer,” she said, a little spark of confidence lighting her tone.

  “I’m not surprised in the least,” Adam replied with a nod.

  Jane felt an exhilaration and a peace she hadn’t felt before.

  Adam and Jane both stood quietly, enjoying the moment, and then Evelyn broke the silence over the intercom. “Jane, your dad is making his announcement in twenty minutes.”

  Jane snapped into the moment, still feeling the excitement she had found. “Thanks, Evelyn, I’ll hurry,” she said.

  “Guess I’d better let you go get cleaned up,” Adam said, pushing away from the wall and walking toward the door, still with his hands in his pockets.

  Adam was almost through the door when it occurred to Jane she was curious about something too. “Well, wait a minute,” Jane blurted. “What about you? You can make a choice too. What do you want to be?”

  Adam turned to look at her and smiled, pausing just a second. “I want to be a lumberjack.”

  Jane snorted out a laugh; she couldn’t help herself. A little embarrassed, she put her hand to her mouth, and Adam started laughing with her.

  “You know, you’re kind of the opposite of a lumberjack,” she said as matter-of-factly as she could, even though she was still chuckling.

  Adam smiled and shrugged his shoulders. “Hey, a guy can dream, can’t he?”

  Jane blushed and laughed again.

  Adam started to turn out of the doorway, into the hallway, and then he paused, looking back at Jane. “You know,” he began as an afterthought, “I’m going to miss this when we get there.”

  “Miss what?” Jane asked.

  Adam’s smile took on a slightly mischievous look. “You, flirting with me in the gym like this,” he said with a wink.

  Jane blushed again.

  Adam smiled again. “See you in the park, Jane the Explorer,” he said, nodding to her. Without waiting for a response, he walked down the hallway.

  “Jane the Explorer. I like the sound of that,” she said, still smiling. Jane stood still for another moment. “Dammit,” she whispered, shaking her head at herself. She liked him a little bit more.

  DESIRABLE

  The long gray corridor was empty, and Jane walked quickly. She didn’t have time to take a shower now, but it didn’t matter to her much. She had cooled off, the sweat had dried, and she would be in the park anyway.

  There wasn’t any wasted space on a space station, and this corridor was no exception. It was lined with the residents’ quarters, most of which were built to occupy one or two people. Her room was at the opposite end of the corridor, and just like her quarters on the shuttle, her space wasn’t any bigger or better than anyone else’s. Under normal circumstances, she would expect to see a handful of people coming and going along the length of the corridor, but for now it was deserted. Everyone was already in the park, awaiting her dad’s announcement about Exodus.

  Jane rounded the corner and walked down the hallway toward the park. It wasn’t but a five-minute walk from where she was, but it felt longer. Maybe it was the anticipation of the moment or the excitement about something finally happening—which she had been expecting for so long—but the seconds passed slowly, and she almost felt like she was walking in slow motion.

  Jane walked a little faster. As she got closer, she could feel the energy in the park, and she found herself jogging the rest of the way, just to get there faster. Jogging past the shops on the outskirts, she slowed down to a walk as she saw the crowd gathered ahead.

  It was quite a sight. From where she stood on the edge of the park, it looked like a mob. Every one of Vista’s seven hundred-plus residents had gathered to hear her dad’s announcement. She didn’t know what she was expecting, but this was more.

  Jane took up a spot alone under a tree, far behind the back edge of the mass of people. She couldn’t tell what they were feeling, but from their jittery movements, expressions, and the occasional animated burst of laughter, Jane suspected that most of the people there were somewhere between nervous and excited. Even though everyone in the park knew what her dad was going to say, the anticipation of the moment wasn’t lost on anyone.

  Jane lifted her gaze from the group of people to the glass catwalk hovering above the storefronts and above the crowd. Though there wasn’t anything special about the catwalk, it connected the ends of the park and ran to Vista’s command center. It was an exceptionally good place for her dad to make announcements to the residents, utilizing the natural acoustics of where it was positioned relative to the park below. The intercom system certainly worked for announcements too, but some moments needed a personal touch. If ever there was one deserving of such, Jane figured this was it.

  The murmuring in the crowd died off quickly as her dad emerged from the command center. Jane noted that he still hadn’t changed his clothes after arriving on the shuttle earlier that day. He had on the same slacks, dress shoes, and dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and he still hadn’t put on the suitcoat or the tie. He looked completely relaxed.

  The park was quiet with hardly a whisper emanating from the mob. After just a step or two, her dad held up a hand to wave at the crowd, and he smiled. As soon as he did, the crowd responded first with clapping, then with some cheers, and then with great applause. It was almost as if the crowd finally felt they had permission to be excited.

  With his hand in the air waving as he walked, Jane caught her dad’s eye, and though it might have been imperceptible to everyone else in the room, he winked to her, smiled a little bigger, and wagged his finger, almost pointing to her.

  Jane blushed a little at the attention and for a moment felt almost like she was a little girl again—special in the way only a father can make his daughter feel.

  Seconds later, her dad stopped along the railing and raised both hands to signal he was ready to speak.

  The cheering from the crowd died down.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” her dad began with a smile, “friends and family—our time has come.”

  The crowd cheered again, and Jane watched her dad smile, allowing the cheering to go on for a moment. Then he waved them to quiet down.

  Her dad continued. “After years of hard work and preparation, we are on the eve of embarking on a journey to discover a new world, a dream that may have been thought impossible a generation ago … perhaps one that many people on Earth still think is impossible, even today. But through the sacrifices and dedication of all of you here now, and many others who are not with us today, we are ready to make that dream a reality. It is time for Exodus.”

  The crowd cheered, and Jane’s dad let them enjoy their moment, allowing the applause to die down
naturally.

  “All of us have our reasons for wanting to be a part of this historic journey. For some of you, it’s because you have a sense of adventure. For others, it’s because you want a fresh start in a new place. For others still, it’s because you want to leave something behind. But whatever your reason, we are all going to be making sacrifices to be a part of this team, and though I know we all want to celebrate at this moment, I feel a responsibility to remind you of what is at stake and what you are risking to be here.”

  The crowd remained quiet, hanging on her dad’s every word. Jane felt the tension too and rolled her shoulders a little to loosen up. His expression started to take on a more serious look.

  “As you know, the leaders of the world below have taken almost everything they can from the people. They have taken their joy. They have taken their freedom. They have taken their families. In some cases, they have taken their lives. And all of us, up here and down there, have watched all of the ugliness and corruption unfold before our very eyes.

  “Years ago, when I made the decision to leave, I didn’t know what that would look like, but I had every intention of leaving and never coming back. I was ready to wash my hands of this world and the contemptible people who have been responsible for destroying our country, our heritage, our communities, and our families.”

  He paused, the crowd still silently listening. “I know now that that’s not possible for me. That is not what I want. I cannot just leave, abandoning the good men and women—and children—of this world, leaving them with no hope. Many of you have expressed similar sentiments to me in our time together … that when we leave, we must not leave people feeling abandoned … we must leave them with a sense of hope.

  “For this reason, tomorrow morning I am going to make an announcement to the entire country about our plans to leave, and I’m going to make the people an offer—that one day, after we have found our new world, we will return, and if they are also willing to risk everything, they might also leave this world behind.”