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I touched the pendant hanging on a gold chain around my neck. This was the pendant my mother left for me to find, which contained some valuable data, including her letter to me about the real reason she disappeared from New Earth. Now I knew where she had gotten the pendant. As Chief Engineer, it was entrusted to Mom for safekeeping. Then Mom had entrusted it to me to do the same.
I had finished my ramen and my pot of tea. I looked around the room. Mom’s room. The very one she slept in when she first boarded Red Genesis. What was it like to be the one in charge of a huge flying city carrying the refugees of a planet that everyone thought would be destroyed?
I picked up Mom’s journal, tucking it under my arms while I balanced the tray carrying the empty ramen bowl, teapot, and tea cup with me as I walked to the Captain’s quarters.
I entered and looked around. This was Dad’s room. Or what was left of it. The room had been ransacked, having been the target of whatever looters had raided the ship. Unlike Mom’s modest and hidden room, the Captain’s quarters would be a target of looters looking for anything valuable since it was the nicest room on the ship.
Disappointed in finding nothing of value in the room or salvageable, I walked over to the Command Station to check on the progress of the ship. I set down the tray onto a galley that somehow transported whatever was on it to some kitchen somewhere. With a touch of a button, my tray disappeared. Likely to be on its way to be washed in a disinfecting washing machine that would scrub down, wash, and dry each dish and utensil.
“Convenient way to make sure no one leaves behind dirty dishes and a mess on the ship,” I said to myself. In the underground shelter where I lived all my life, we washed dishes the old-fashioned way. By hand. On the Red Genesis, everything appeared sophisticated enough to seem like a future Earth rather than Vintage Earth. It was the Jetson’s and Star Trek combined. But with some 21st century technology.
I sat down at the control panel and went through all the checks to gauge the conditions of the ship. Everything seemed to be fine, as calculated. So far so good. We were on course to make landing on Old Earth in about 6 months. Half a year.
I was about to get up to get a cup of coffee, which I had put on a while ago when I did a double take. We only had 6 months before landing? That was two months ahead of time. Two months!
I dropped everything and ran out the door, eager to tell Will. It took me only about five minutes to reach the hibernation chambers where Will was kept in a pod, hooked up to all equipment to keep him at the right temperature, electricity to make sure his body would get electric stimuli during his hibernation so there was no atrophy of the muscles, and tubes providing nutrients.
Will looked so peaceful as he slept like a baby. His golden locks gently covered his forehead. Mom had described Dad as one of the most handsome men she had ever seen. But to me, Will was gorgeous like a movie star. Shining golden hair, blue eyes like sapphires, a cleft chin in a sculpted face. He was tall with broad shoulders and muscular long legs. All the years he spent farming and taking care of animals on his farm honed his physique so he was strong and athletic.
I stood there watching him sleep in the comfortable hibernation chamber, which looked like a luxurious and clean bedroom that had a spacecraft-looking pod for a bed instead of a flat open bed.
“Will,” I said, “I miss you a lot. William is no replacement for you. He’s even stopped working. Shut down just like that. No explanation whatsoever so I’m trying to find out why. Luckily, I found my mother’s journal of when she was on Red Genesis. It’s like looking back over time to see what had happened onboard. I’d love for you to read it with me someday when you wake up. I love seeing how Mom was when she first met Dad. Right now, they’re practically at each other’s throats. Enemies even. But they had to get together to have me, right? So sometime between then and later, my parents got together. Then the rest is history, right? Anyways, I wanted to tell you we’re ahead of schedule for landing on Old Earth which means I get to see you sooner. I miss you so much, Will. You’re right, the person left behind is the one who has the most to deal with. I mean, I’ve never felt so much. Emotions. Feelings. Also trepidation. I’m afraid something happened on Red Genesis during the trip to New Earth that caused something horrible. I don’t know what. But I intend to find out.” I kissed the tip of my fingers and placed it on the glass panel separating Will’s face from mine. Then I went back up to the Command Center, hoping to find out more about Red Genesis, my mother and father.