Finding Home

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. As Rayne tumbled through the emptiness of space, her screams were anything but silent. Her screams were everywhere, surrounding her. So many thoughts and questions were clanging through her mind. She had been rejected, thrown out, abandoned by her crew, her family. Tears streamed down her face. She should be dead. Everything she knew about space told her she should be dead. Her screams should be silent. She shouldn’t be crying. The end was supposed to be quick and silent and painless. There was no pain, but her fear was overwhelming.

What was going to happen to her? She couldn’t just tumble in the depths of space forever. Even if she was sucked into the gravity of another planet she would surely burn up on entry into the atmosphere or at the very least die when she hit the ground. There was no survivable option.

Even if death weren’t certain from so many other variables, they didn’t know if any of the planets in this new galaxy were viable for human life yet. They had only just arrived in this galaxy two months ago and hadn’t been able to analyze any of the planets here. After waking up from their cryogenic sleep a month and a half ago, they all had to get their bearings back. At least one of the planets had to be livable or they wouldn’t have been released from sleep so soon after their last scheduled wake.

She would never know. She would never get to see what this new place had to offer. She would never see a tree or breathe the air or play with an animal. Everything she had dreamt of all these centuries would never come to pass. So many thoughts raced through her head as she continued to float through the emptiness around her. Something here was definitely different, because she was alive. Her screams faded. There would be no one to rescue her. Screaming was pointless. The tears, however, she couldn’t control.

What could she have done to deserve this? They were her family. She loved them.

As she tried to think of anything she could have done to cause herself to end up in her current situation, not that it particularly mattered anymore, she drifted closer to one of the more vibrant planets in this solar system. The colors were stunning. Granted, she’d been born on their ship and never had the opportunity to come this close to a planet and had spent centuries in cryo sleep, but the colors were more beautiful than she could have imagined.

She was close enough now that she could see this planet had oceans and forests and mountains. The bluish green of the oceans reminded her of the blue apatite stones she’d seen in the treasure room on their ship; one of the many samples of stones, gems, and artwork their ancestors had managed to salvage from Earth so long ago before they fled the dying planet. The forests made her think of the emeralds. There were other clusters of color that she had never heard mentioned when she heard the stories of Earth. There were large clusters of purple as stunning as amethysts and oranges like, well, oranges. There were also areas of red as radiant as rubies.

As she looked at the many beauties this undiscovered planet had, she wished she wasn’t going to die. She wanted to live and explore and experience things she had never been able to. She’d been alive for centuries and never got to live. And now that she finally had a chance, the people she was supposed to experience everything with killed her.

Did they think she was dead? Did they hear her screams and question how she was able to scream at all? Would they take it back if they knew that she would have to die a painful and terrifying death? It would start to hurt once she started to starve and dehydrate.

Her tears started streaming again right as she felt the tug of the gravity from the stunning planet beneath her. Maybe she wouldn’t have to wait to die.

The pull of the planet grew more intense. She wasn’t afraid anymore. She was relieved. She watched the definition of the planet become clearer. She could see white peaks on some of the larger mountains. Snow. She could see that the clusters of color that she couldn’t originally identify were also trees, in colors she could never have imagined. It would have been so amazing to live in this world.

As she was pulled further into the atmosphere, she could feel her body go from floating to falling. It felt like flying, or what she imagined flying would feel like. She stretched her arms above her head and let the wind carry her to her end. She wasn’t burning like she thought she would. She felt cool and still more weightless than she expected.

It was incredible. She could see large animals flying above the trees. They had to be birds but were again not what she expected. She was falling through clouds now. She could almost feel them. She had never seen clouds before. Most of the planets we came close enough to see on the occasions she was awake had swirling mists of foreboding reds and oranges and sometimes deep purples and greens. Based on the readings from their ship, they were gases or burning liquids that their history had no record of. They had never seen anything like this planet. She wondered if her crew would make this planet their home.

As she passed through the clouds, her speed increased. She started feeling lightheaded. If she lost consciousness, she wouldn’t even have to feel the initial impact before she died. If she had to die, at least she had the chance to see a world more beautiful than she had ever dreamed. The colors started to fade, and the world grew dark. As she passed out, she thanked the fates for letting her see this world before she died. For letting her not die in the emptiness of space.

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When she woke up her first thought was that heaven must be real. She was warm and the air smelled like flowers, but something else that she didn’t recognize. She opened her eyes and realized she wasn’t in heaven, but on the ground. She was lying on what had to be some type of bed under a vibrant purple tree. She realized now that the purple she saw from space were flowers. The whole tree was flowers instead of the leaves she’d seen on Earth trees. The scent was incredible. It was sweet and clean and completely enveloped the senses.

She nestled into the bed and closed her eyes again with every intention of going back to sleep. Before sleep could take her away, she shot up and looked around. What the hell is going on? She was supposed to be dead! She should absolutely, unequivocally be dead! She should have been dead when they threw her out of the ship without a spacesuit, and dead again when she entered the atmosphere of this planet, but then definitely when she hit the ground. How was she alive now? Nothing had made sense since the minutes before she was forced out of the ship.

She removed the absurdly soft blanket and stood up. She didn’t fall from the sky into a bed on her own. Someone put her there. And she realized the smell she didn’t recognize was smoke. There was a fire burning nearby and the smoke was drifting right to her makeshift bed. She had never smelled burning wood before. It was a surprisingly pleasant smell. There wasn’t grass beneath her feet, but rather something she could only describe as some type of moss.

There were so many sounds she couldn’t have imagined. Everything around her sounded alive. Just as she stepped away from the bed to explore her new surroundings, she heard a voice. She spun toward the voice and there stood the most perfect female she had ever seen. She looked almost human, but her eyes were slightly larger and the most incredible cerulean blue but with hints of purple in them. Her eyes were truly stunning, but what really stood out were the wings. She had incredible feathered, iridescent wings that shined a bluish green in the light. Her hair was as dark as the darkest parts of space and braided down her back where it settled in the center of her wings. She wore a brilliant blue dress with thin straps over her shoulders and a dip in the back that went to the bottom of her spine.

The incredible female stepped toward Rayne, her right hand out and her left pressing to her chest.

“Lilette,” the female said, patting her chest with a smile. She had never heard a voice or an accent like hers. It was soft and rolling.

She smiled back at Lilette and put her right hand to her chest. “Rayne,” she said in response.

Rayne had no idea how they were going to communicate beyond sharing their names. But it was nice to not be alone, and to not be dead.

“What is this world called?” she asked, spreading her arms to illustrate.

Lilette looked at the world around them. “Principium,” she responded.

She stepped away from the tree to allow herself a better view of her new world. It was more beautiful up close than when she was falling to her death. There was a large crystal-clear river about 100 yards away. The rocks on the edges were different tones of red and blue. The sky was cloudy, but not completely overcast. She could see now that there were, in fact, massive birds flying above the trees. Their wings spread wide as they soared above the trees. She could see the white of their bellies and that the underside of their wings were a mixture of yellow and orange. Just past the river there was a group of furry animals that looked somewhat like the pictures she had seen of horses, but with large ears like rabbits and their faces were shorter. Their fur was also different from what she’d seen in the pictures of Earth’s horses. It was more like the fur on a cat.

There was so much to this world. She had already seen and experienced more in the 20 minutes she had been alive on this planet than in the centuries she spent “alive” before. She breathed deeply and turned to her savior to try and ask more about Principium and how she managed to survive when some of the birds let out a shriek that drew her attention.

Her ship was descending from the sky. They were barely above the clouds and no doubt looking for a place to land. She turned to Lilette, every ounce of fear showing on her face. She didn’t know what their plans were for the life already living on whatever world they decided to settle on, but she knew for sure what their plans were for her. She was supposed to be dead.

Rayne reached for Lilette’s hand, praying she would understand. “Run!”