7 years ago…
Northern Lianos, Lianos Interstellar Space Station. It was a clear day and also a busy day. It was a saturday night and people were still boarding onto their flight to wherever their spacecraft can take them. There was a flight that one mother decided to venture on…
"Flight-781 departs in fifteen minutes. I repeat for fifteen minutes."
Helen Sizk was on the flight to Nevar , the fourth planet next to Otis, the second star in the Esoph system, to meet up with someone about moving into Nevar. It was a home to over 3 billion people on the planet. It was declared the healthiest planet and safest one in the entire Esoph system and the largest planet in the system. Warlords from many planets had tried to invade Nevar for its resources but failed every time. It was a perfect planet that could inhibit life and people wanted that badly. But it had very strict laws that people had to follow. Helen was accepted onto the planet, but she needed to see someone about where she was going to move with her two daughters. Anna and Ella.
The flight would take nearly 2 weeks to get to Nevar since the distance from Earth was pretty far. The fights and wars that happened on Earth made Helen scared and nervous about her twin daughters lives and their future on Earth. As she found her room on the ship she settled in and sat down. She didn't share it with anyone, just herself.
As she waited for departure she started to relax in her seat waiting for launch into orbit. It usually took around 10 minutes to get to Earth's orbital rotation.
"Please wear seat belts for takeoff, please wear seat belts for take off. Departure is within 5 minutes." The announcer spoke loudly. He had a Yovian accent that was so recognisable which was also soft and delicate.
…
9 hours later…
There were over 52,000 people on board floating in space now. The ship that was being used to transport people was named the Xylien United. Over 150 different flights of this aircraft brand would take off everyday which made them very popular and reliable for interstellar travel.
Helen was asleep around this time, they were to arrive at Desmo, the next planet. Upon landing they were in a different part of Desmo that they usually never land at. Helen didn't leave her room and she was very tired from all the packing and reading of confirmation papers she had to sign beforehand.
The departure would take off within less than 45 minutes and into deep space towards Nevar. She slept soundly, so relaxed in a deep sleep where no one could disturb her. Everything was perfect.
When she woke up sometime later, she noticed that the aircrafts engine wasn't on. She assumed that they were still on Desmo that's why the engine was off. She started to feel a little hungry so she decided to leave her room to find some food in the food court.
She wore her pyjamas into the large red, gold and white hallway with multiple doors that were open and abandoned. She guessed that it wasn't that full, but it was strange that a lot of people weren't on board. She made her way to the escalator towards the large centre of the entertainment court. Helen started to get confused. She paused in her tracks looking around trying to find someone, anyone. But there was no one. In this large space that was nearly big as a town it was completely empty. She made it to the bottom floor of the entertainment court. There was a large tree in the centre of the court with a waterfall surrounding it with a glow of white lights. The benches, and stores were all empty. But the lights were still on.
Helen quickly made her way to the large clock on the other side of the large tree. The clock was showing the 8th hour. It must've been the morning now. Helen started to feel small in this large space of emptiness. Was she alone on the vessel? She had to know. Helen ran around into the food to see if there was any food that was left out. There was a pizza left in a box which she decided to have. It was cold and there was a doughnut that was left in the small box with pink frosting with sprinkles. She took a bite out of the doughnut and pizza separately.
With her mouth stuffed she thought to herself 'Fucking delicious, I love it.' she had been craving for a taste like this for a long time. After finishing her food she then tried to understand what was going on. There was a weird buzz that she could hear above. She then made her way to the other side of the Xylien to see if there was anything weird happening. Then suddenly the lights switched off. Everything that was on was now off completely. Leaving Helen in complete and utter darkness…
That was the last moment where Helen was last seen on the CCTV shown to the girls when they were 13. Anna and Ella kept watching the footage back for days trying to understand what happened. Why did their mother act like this? What happened before she woke up. No one knew anything. 52,000 people? Who knows. But it was for sure that they didn't make it to Nevar. They needed answers but they didn't know where to start.
7 years later….
Ella sat in her dorm room thinking about that incident. Over the years, fears of going into space was something that the girls hopefully didn't have to experience one day. Ella looked up at the ceiling wondering what her goals were. Was it just to create ship designs and stay on this planet forever? There was so much to see of this world and so much to learn but she didn't know where to start.
'i guess it would be finishing MAU first.'
Ella had her IVR headset In her room but it hadn't finished charging. It was at 68 percent… She then pulled it out of the charging cable and wore it. It was the morning and it was Wednesday, most of the girls were still asleep.
Ella opened up the app selection. She then navigated to the game section for Turbo Launcher. She noticed that her profile was gone.
'What?' Ella was sceptical and looked around for answers. She sat there for a moment and let it wash over her that all of her stats were fucking gone. 'I should have a back up somewhere?' she thought to herself but nothing worked. She then gave up and chose to play some 1v1 matches for the rest of the morning while everyone went to classes.
An hour of matches later, she felt her phone go off. She removed her headset immediately, the light of the windows flooring her eyesight was painful for a few seconds. She looked down and saw that it was Anna calling. Anna always called now and then about things with Ella.
Ella picked up the phone.
"Hello…".
"Hey Ella, how's university?"
"It's fine, nothing special has happened yet. How's work?"
"Work is fine I guess…"
"Space." Ella spoke "What would you think about me going to space?"
There was a moment of silence between the two girls. Ella was starting to creak at the weight of her question. She was an adult woman who had her own choices and decisions but even space was a huge commitment even for the two.
"Why?" Anna responded, breaking the silence.
"My teacher, Mrs Wells, wanted to take me on a trip to see one of her mentors. She wanted me to learn a little bit about space and their experiences so I was a little curious about what you would think about me going to space one day? Maybe I'll have my own experiences and perhaps I could tell you about them." Each word that came out of Ellas mouth was heavy but she was glad she finally said them.
Anna began to laugh hysterically at the phone, Ella dropped her face at the sound of each chuckle. .
"What's so funny?!"
"Yeah as if you'd ever and I mean EVER go to space" Anna continued to laugh.. "My lord.. I'm actually tearing up". She sniffled over the phone. "Well if there is anything else you want to talk about, you can call me."
Ella didn't speak a word back.
"Funny girl, I'll see you later" Anna chuckled a little bit more before the phone cut off. Ella sat there for a moment trying to figure out what the hell just happened.
Ping! A notification showed up on her phone. It was a new contest.
'I'm not so fond of contests.' she thought to herself before swiping away the notification from existence on her phone. She sat there quiet for a moment thinking about what's out there. In space to be exact. There's textbooks, photos, videos, IVR experiences of planets, space and people but Ella wanted to be there. Flying with the stars. She wanted to see what else planets had to offer on her own. She then got up to stretch. Rotating her waist around made clicking sounds.
Angelia was her roommate she was staying with currently. She talked to her a lot of the time but it didn't get into much deep discussion since they weren't that close.
PING! Another notification showed up on Ellas phone. It was a damn contest. It was in the form of an email.
"Dear Ella, I've always admired your work from when you were in highschool. Keeping an eye on you was one of the things that MAU didn't like. I once went to one of your competitions when you were 16 years old, such an artwork… your ship designs of course. I just wanted to see if you want to join the ship design contest. If you don't mind, you could come to my office to talk about it if there's any concerns. From - Igros" …