Kepler-22b

Chapter 7 - Forget in the Flight

I had spent a whole day and a half with Alma and it was time to make my excuse to leave. I knew it was time because of all the impatient glances I caught Rezon giving me from the tree tops. I tried not to look up too often so that Alma wouldn't notice it, but it was hard to resist. Now that I knew he was there, it made me feel stupid; he was so obvious. Though he was fantastic at hiding by then, if you knew he was there, it wasn't difficult to spot him.

    "Hey Alma," I began with a little hesitation.

    "What is it? Do you want me to check your band aids again?" Alma asked casually.

"Well," I started, "While I was gone I realized how much of the planet I haven't explored. I mean, I've lived here for fifteen years and when I was a few days' walking distance away, I found so many places that I had no idea were even on this planet."

"You want to go get hit in the head again just so that you can explore in the other direction of the forest?" She laughed as she turned around to look into the microscope she was using to analyze another sample.

"No," I laughed nervously, "Actually I just wanted to go exploring in the same direction I had left in..."

"Okay, fine. Just let me get done here and then we can get ourselves a pack to take with us and we will leave first thing tomorrow."

"Well... I know you won't like it, but... I actually wanted to go alone."

"You're right, I don't like it." Alma said as she finally stepped away from her work and put her full attention and now anger towards me. "Why in Kepler would I ever let you go alone after what just happened?"

"Well, you shouldn't leave your hut unattended for too long because the last time that happened a bunch of animals ransacked the place. And I think I just need some alone time for a while.

"Was your four day adventure not enough for you?" By now Alma had her hands on her hips and looked ready to counter anything I had to say. "And besides, we were gone for three weeks, a couple of days won't hurt."

"Actually it would be two weeks... at the most, maybe less. It's just, I need to do this and I-"

"No. That is much too long for you to be gone. I let you be by yourself for one night and you come back four days later with cuts, scratches and bruises. There is no way I would let you go by yourself. Your options are either going for a few days with me or not at all."

"Come on, I've spent years with you, is it so bad for me to have time alone?" I was raising my voice, which I hated doing with her; this was not going the way I had planned.

"Five years." She whispered in a voice I could hardly hear.

"What? I don't understand." I lowered my voice too.

"In one month I would have been here for five years exactly." A silence settled over us as realization fell over me. "So I have to send the message to earth saying that this planet is habitable. And by now they already have a million people on a spaceship five years away, waiting for a message that it's okay to populate the planet. We both knew this was coming and it's time to accept it."

"You could just not send the message." I suggested as tears grew in my eyes. "I don't want humans here. In about five more years they will have buildings built and we can say goodbye to all the nature and beautiful sights here."

"But Stella, they are my people, and they need help, won't you let me do that?" There was desperation in her voice as she tried to get me to see it her way. The tables had turned.

"Your 'people' have already destroyed one planet and I'm not going to let them destroy the only home I have." I tried not to yell but the words were running out of my mouth before I had the chance to call them back inside to safety. I should have stopped talking before I said something I would regret.