Tevun-Krus #10 - TKX: Best of 2014

The Voyagers: First Contact

The Voyagers
A first contact short by @TheRobot.

The moon shone in the sky battling the darkness with the aide of distant stars. It tried its hardest yet on Earth darkness still defeated its futile attempts to take over the work of the sun. Jacob sat back in his grandfather's chair that had been on the front porch for as long as he could remember. Usually Grampa Ed would get furious if he saw anyone in his chair and would begin shouting about respect and generations and this and that 'back in the day'. But in the early hours of the morning when everyone else was tucked up in bed asleep Jacob could sit on the comfortable chair and gaze and the stars all he wanted.

"Can't sleep either, huh?" whispered Daisy carefully shutting the front door behind her. His sister handed him a glass of warm milk which he took with a smile. She leaned against the banister, staring up at the stars as well, "Grampa would slit your throat if he saw you, he ever tell you about Normandy?"

"Every other day" laughed Jacob before he sipped his milk. And returned to star gazing. He liked to let himself be sucked into the star scape. It was the enormity of it; every little touch of light in the great black sky was a star just as powerful as the one that kissed the Earth in the day, each one with its own collection of planets orbiting it and whatever was on them. Jacob liked to think about those worlds, those stars and what they would be like. "Daisy?"

"Yeah?"

"When you're at collage we will have these talks right? Like phone calls or skype or something?" he asked. Jacob and Daisy were always close, at least once a week when their parents and Grampa was asleep they'd hang out and chat in the early hours of the morning and go back to bed for an hour or two before they were screamed at by their mother to come down for breakfast.

"Of course" she smiled sipping her glass of milk. Jacob was proud of his little sister, he always knew she was the smart one in the family and would hopefully be the first to make it off this farm and into the wider world. "You coming tomorrow? To help me take all my stuff up there?"    

"Have I got a choice?"

"Nope" they laughed together.

He was going to miss her, and he hoped she'd miss him in-between the wild parties and studying. It was a strange feeling; they'd always been by each other's side, every walk home to and from school, every dinner and breakfast. He had a feeling that tomorrow night when he sat on his Grandfathers chair and looked up at the sky he would for the first time feel alone.

They chatted the night away, this time not going to sleep before breakfast. Instead they talked and bought up the old memories like a pair of people Grampa's age. High School was where they kept going back to, bringing names and talking about where they were now. Most of Daisy's friends had gone off the collage the year before leaving her to stay behind another twelve months to help on the farm for one more harvest.

The next morning without any sleep they both extremely tired, their eyes were heavy and at every quite moment one would catch the other drifting off. The car journey with Dad's car filled with boxes and bags took five hours. Five hours they fought off sleep as their father talked to them and warned Daisy about the dangers of life outside the farm. "Don't let anyone push you around" he said, "especially boys, me and Jacob know what they're like, we are them".

"I'll be fine Dad, I'm not an idiot" Daisy kept saying as Jacob sat in the back seat listening to his father slowly break down. Their mother had cried at breakfast, while Grampa gave her tips on how to disarm and kill a man.

"I know you're not an idiot sweetie, I just want you to be careful okay?"

"Just remember what Grampa said" Jacob interjected, "go for the eyes and throat".