‘Spoons!’ Reuben rushes forward and hugs the spider then leaps back. ‘Dear Moses, he’s freezing.’ Spoons waits at the entrance. Reuben steps in front. ‘What are you waiting for? Come in.’ It rises several inches, tucking in its legs to fit through the door and enters. A cable attached to its back stretches outside. Spoons turns and reels in a sort of trolley, except it has no wheels.
‘It’s a sledge!’ Rebekah claps her hands. ‘Just like the explorers.’ She climbs onto the back of the sledge. ‘And look, it’s brought more rations.’ She covers her hands with her sleeves and brushes the snow off the first of three crates, then rips open the lid. ‘It’s full!’
We climb up beside her and stare inside the crate as if it’s the most wondrous sight we’ve ever seen. ‘Spoons must have gone back to the ship.’ Reuben opens the next crate. ‘Look, more overalls!’ He takes one from the box, steps into the legs and pulls it up over his own. Reuben grins. ‘Picnic anyone? Outside?’ He reaches down and hands out the rest. ‘Oh, there’s two left.’
Zach looks up from buttoning his overall. ‘I guess Spoons must have brought them for Gideon and Abel.’
‘Hats!’ Amos stands by the third. ‘And look, what are…? Oh wait, look. We can put them on our hands.’ We gather around Amos as he passes out the gifts.
Rebekah holds up her hand and pulls on the first. ‘They’re called gloves, they’ll keep our hand warm. And you know what this means, don’t you?’ She beams. ‘We can go. We have—’
Jared shakes his head. ‘Why? We don’t have to. If Spoons can fetch more supplies from the ship, we can stay here and wait for morning.’
Beth agrees. ‘It makes sense. We’ll be warm, or at least warmer, well-fed and safe.’
Rebekah taps the crates. ‘But we have a sledge, more than enough supplies for fourteen days, maybe more. Why stay here and wait when we can head south and find the morning ourselves? We don’t know how long a day is here, it could be months, or even years in our time before the suns rise and melt the snow.’ She steps down from the sledge. ‘What sort of life is this? We’ve spent our lives living the same day over and over again! Haven’t you had enough of that yet?’
Zach points to the door. ‘But we don’t know what’s out there? How far we’d have to walk, or if there’s these,’ he looks to me, ‘Outsiders waiting for us to leave.’
‘Could we please,’ Rebekah takes a breath and lowers her voice, ‘end this talk of Outsiders? They’re just a scare story Mother told to stop us going over the wall.’ She turns to Zach. ‘And don’t you think that’s all part of the challenge? To not know what’s out there is the best part. Don’t you want to discover something new? Or do you want to spend the rest of your life looking at these grey walls, waiting for Spoons to bring more green mush? And…’ she scowls at Jared, ‘listening to him saying I told you so every five minutes!’
Zach looks to Beth, then Jared. ‘But we could… die out there.’
‘Yes. But then we might not. We might find warm lands, with fields to plant our seeds to grow our own food, and,’ she glances to me and grins, ‘we might find trees to climb, lakes to swim in, mountains to scale, and blue skies with fluffy clouds to watch, and… who knows what else awaits us beyond the horizon, I don’t know, and that’s the beauty of leaving.’
No one speaks but their eyes are moving as if seeing the scenes she’s painted in their hungry minds. Rebekah too feels the change in the mood. She smiles. ‘Why did our ancestors choose this planet? There has to be more to it than snow, ice and storms.’
I take Rebekah’s hand. ‘And don’t forget, we have Spoons and that…’
She squeezes my hand. ‘Sledge.’
‘That sledge, so Spoons can pull the supplies, and—’
‘Where do we sleep?’ Jared runs his hand across the top of a crate. He looks up, checking that we’re paying attention. He nods towards the ceiling. ‘Are you suggesting we sleep in the snow? We’ll be buried for good if… when there’s another storm.’
Rebekah pats Spoons on the back. ‘He can pull the shelter. It only took him ten minutes to build. I bet he can take it down and strap it to the sledge and rebuild it when we need to stop.’
Amos calls over. ‘The wind has definitely dropped.’ We turn to see he’s standing by the open door. He laughs. ‘See. You hadn’t noticed I’d opened it.’ He steps outside. ‘It’s still a little breezy, but nothing like it has been, it’s dark, but I can see…’ he disappears from view.
‘Amos?’ I stride to the door and stop.
‘Is he okay?’ Reuben is at my shoulder.
‘He’s fine, he’s… Dear Moses.’ Amos stands with his head tipped back staring up at the sky. All around him, the snow glistens with a faint, silvery light stretching impossibly far off into the distance. I step outside and follow his gaze, catching my breath.
The storm clouds have gone. Above, the sky glimmers with thousands upon thousands of stars from one horizon to the other. I hear the others venture from the hut, their voices are silenced by the sight of our first real sky. I close my mouth against the cold air and let my eyes be drawn by the stars. Some twinkle, some shine bright, some look red one moment, and blue the next. But these are still, not swirling as when viewed from the ship, silently emitting their precious light until the end of time.
Rebekah takes my hand and whispers. ‘It’s beautiful.’
I wrap my arm around her waist and pull her close. ‘How can something as wonderful as this be so dangerous? Mother said—’
‘No, not now, don’t mention her name, you’ll spoil this.’
I close my mouth and let my eyes be led from one wonder to the next. ‘It looks so… big, so… permanent.’ I shake my head, struggling to find the words. I look to Rebekah – her face as beautiful as the stars above. My heart swells as I lean close. ‘It’s like they’re…’
She turns and smiles. ‘Like they’re… what?’
‘I’m not sure if this is going to sound odd, but it’s like they’re waking something deep inside, but a part that doesn’t just belong to me.’
She tilts her head and rests it against my shoulder. ‘I think I know what you mean. I wonder if our ancestors once stood and watched the skies, back on Earth, and the awe they felt is still inside us.’
‘That’s a wonderful thought, something that connects us back to them on the other side of space.’ I look back to the sky. ‘Are we the first to see these? Do you—’
‘When you two have stopped gawping, could you help us look for Abel?’ I turn as Jared strides towards us. Behind, the others stomp in the deep snow along with Spoons.
‘Err… yes, of course,’ reluctantly I take my eyes from the stars and Rebekah, ‘we were just—’
‘Over here.’ Beth stands in between the shelter and the shuttle waving her arms in the air. We stumble through the knee-deep snow to Beth’s side. She points to what looks like four white feathers poking out of the surface. Slivers of clear ice streak out from the thin shafts in the direction the wind had blown. Beth sobs. It takes me a moment to realize I’m looking at Abel’s fingers, reaching out for help we couldn’t bring.
Zach scrapes away the snow and uncovers his face. I look away. Zach slams his fist in to the snow behind. ‘He was so close. He must have seen the shuttle and thought it was the shelter. We sat eating his rations while he died… just feet away.’ No one speaks. No one can say anything that could ease the mood.
Jared catches my eye. ‘I did tell you not to go outside but you wouldn’t listen.’ He shivers. ‘I’m getting cold in this breeze. I’m going in.’ He turns and trudges back to the shelter, but I notice he can’t resist looking up to the stars as he makes his way.
Amos watches him leave. ‘He’s sounding more like Mother every day.’
We help Zach clear the rest of the snow from Abel. Spoons tries to help but Reuben holds up his hand. ‘It’s okay, we’ll do this, it’s the least we can do for him... now.’ The spider steps back. ‘Look at that. I think he understands our grief.’ I turn. Spoon’s black eyes watch us work; I dread that Mother also sees our grief.
We finish removing the snow and ice clinging to Abel. Reuben directs Spoons to lift his body. We follow with our heads bowed as he places Abel a short distance from the shelter. It steps to the side and scoops away several feet of snow uncovering two small rocks. We shuffle closer. The two rocks have one word written on a flattened surface: Grace on one, and Gideon on the other.
‘Now we know what that noise was.’ Zach brushes a layer of snow from the top of Gideon’s stone. ‘Spoons buried him before he came to the door.’
Spoons raises his legs and nudges us back from Grace’s resting place and draws a line across the snow. We stand behind his line and look on in silence as it steps sideways and, with a flurry of its legs, clears the snow down to bare rock. He hammers the ground with his front legs and within seconds he’s made a hole the same size as Abel. Then, with a gentleness that belies the violence of the digging, Spoons slides his front legs under Abel. He lifts the body and lowers him into the hollow, then turns to us.
Rebekah takes his cue. ‘I feel we need to say something, and then for Grace and Gideon.’
Zach treads softly to the edge of the hole. ‘I knew him best, I’ll say something. Give me a moment.’ We join Zach and instinctively hold hands.
Beth looks back to the shelter. ‘Where’s Jared? He should be here.’
Reuben shakes his head. ‘Leave him. If he doesn’t want to be with us, he won’t be missed.’
Zach clears his throat. ‘I’m sorry I don’t really know what to say.’
Rebekah squeezes his hand. ‘Just say what comes to mind, what he was like, a memory, something he did, anything will do.’
‘Okay.’ Zach straightens. ‘Abel was a year younger than me, and I remember when he…’ he looks up, ‘I don’t really know if this is a suitable story, it’s a bit... rude?’
Rebekah laughs. ‘Does it matter? Who’s going to tell you off?’
Zach smiles. ‘Okay. I remember when he came back from his… you know… third visit.’ I glance to Rebekah; my face grows hot in the cold air. I look across the faces around the hole and can see who’s been to the Meeting Place. Zach continues. ‘Abel…’ he starts to chuckle, ‘Abel had this ridiculous big grin, but at the same time, a look of shock in his eyes so it looked like he had two faces.’ I look down to Abel and feel pleased he at least had a few moments of a pleasure in his otherwise short and ultimately pointless life.
Zach laughs. ‘I swear he looked like that for a week. Gideon…’ his voice breaks, ‘poor Gideon… had to talk to him to wipe the grin off his face before the others started asking questions.’ Zach turns to the stone with Gideon’s name. ‘Gideon was a good friend to me. I think he had his doubts about Mother, but he never said anything, probably to protect us from suspicion. He… he always stayed strong, and kept… kept our spirits up. He…’ Zach covers his face and turns away. ‘I’m sorry, I can’t say any more.’
Rebekah strokes his shoulder. ‘That was perfect. No need for more words. You did well, they sound like good team members.’ Zach nods but says nothing.
Reuben motions to Spoons who scuttles forward and covers the hole with the displaced earth. Spoons draws another line in the snow as he picks up one of the larger pieces of rock and quickly fashions a stone then etches Abel’s name on it. He holds it aloft as if pleased with his work, then helps Zach to position it at the head of Abel’s resting place.
We repeat the ceremony for Grace and Gideon but I notice Rebekah’s attention is on the stars. She glances to and from the horizon and back to the sky. Once finished, I approach her. ‘Is something the matter?’
‘No, not really. It’s just that, I thought it would be darker.’
‘Darker? It’s pretty dark, isn’t it?’
She stands in tiptoes and peers at the horizon. ‘Is it lighter over there?’
I look, then back the opposite way. ‘I guess so. Does that mean one of the suns is coming?’
‘Not a sun, but maybe… yes, there! See it?’ A thin slither of silvery light peeps over the edge of the hills in the distance. Rebekah can’t contain her joy. ‘Yes! Our new home has a moon, see, it’s rising.’
We watch, perplexed by Rebekah’s reaction, as a small, flat disc climbs slowly up the sky. Amos turns back. ‘It doesn’t look as big as Earth’s moon in Mother’s pictures.’
Rebekah laughs. ‘Makes no difference, it means we’ll at least have more light when… if we choose to leave.’
I shiver. ‘We should go head back inside, even with this extra layer I can feel the cold getting to my bones.’