Missing Stars

Chapter 1 | After

© 2014 Lujayn Ambers. All rights reserved

Author's Note: Missing Stars is divided into two storylines which merge into one. All the chapters with "After" are set after one year and all the events in the  "Before" chapters happened one year ago.

Chapter 1 | After

Plumes of grey smoke billow to my face. I join copper wires together and settle the soldering iron on the workbench. My work is done. Shutting the compartment, I take a step back to admire my handiwork.

A robot shudders to life. Six spindly legs twitch then rise up, lifting the robot's spherical body. The sensor lights up, a glowing strip of blue across her face.

"Hello RIN," I say.

Holographic gridlines materialize in the air, hovering over my face. In seconds, the robot has finished scanning me. She blips in response to my greeting.

"Go on." A smile plays at my lips. "Begin the search."

RIN leaps off the workbench, her metallic body glinting in the light. She crawls away from me, disappearing under my bed. I'd programmed her with simple instructions—to find all the hidden small items lurking in my room. You have no idea how hard it is to look for stuff that gets lost in here, especially when you're moving house. Well, planets. You'd think the floor turns into a wormhole when no one's looking.

Yesterday, I'd placed a coin beneath the carpet, a scrunchie under the plant pot and a paper clip inside a slit between the floorboards. If RIN finds them all, I'd consider my latest project a success.

A twinge of sadness pricks my chest. RIN will be the last robot I make on Earth. Tomorrow, I leave for Vayne, a habitable planet in the Alpha Centauri system, and I won't be back for another ten years.

My sadness is swiftly replaced by the thrill of self-fulfillment. I'm good at this. Fixing things. Creating life out of metal. My mother taught me how to make robots since I was ten. She's the Head Robotics Engineer of Osiris, the spaceship that will take us to Vayne.

The doorbell rings. Once. Twice. Thrice. I pull off my work gloves and glasses and leave the room. A droid passes me at the stairs, balancing three boxes in its hands. By nightfall, our house will be left empty with all the essential stuff shipped to Vayne and the rest, taken to the storage zone in downtown.

I open the door. A gasp escapes my mouth. For a moment, the world teeters, shapes morphing into a blur of washed-out colors. My heart surges up into my throat. Alex Hadfield stands on the porch, his gaze fixated on my face. He looks just as I remember him. Tall and broad-shouldered.

"Kelrina."

Anger burns through me, hot and ruthless. I slip out, closing the door behind me with a slam and leaning against it. "What do you want?" 

Alex swallows. He rakes a hand through his blond hair and licks his lips. I know what that gesture means. He is nervous. I clamp my teeth together until I feel pain in my jaws. How could I remember everything about him after all he has done?

"I came to see you," he says.

Images flash in my mind. Travelers shuffling along the terminal, a hovercraft soaring into the sky, a droid asking if I was lost, a couple holding hands as they exit the airport, and I, waiting, waiting, waiting.

I grip the hinge and push the door backwards, retreating. Alex grabs my wrist. My skin burns at the point of contact and I feel overwhelmed by the need to lash out. I pull my hand free.

"Just one day," he pleads. "Give me just one day with you and I'll never bother you again."

The answer would be simple. No. I hate you. Go away. I don't ever want to see you again. And yet I find myself frozen in spot, unable to say the words. Maybe it is because I see sadness in his grey eyes. Shame and defeat by the drop of his shoulders. Or maybe, just maybe, I feel pity for this boy who broke my heart.

What is one day in the face of ten years? A flake of ice in a blizzard. That is how insignificant and powerless it is. So then what could one day change between us?

Nothing.

Letting out a sigh, I say, "Okay."

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