Constellations' Child

30

Surfacing into early morning darkness, we run through a dense forest. No wind, but the chill of crisp air against my skin jolts me back to reality. There's enough moonlight to make out trees, but lucky for us not enough to reveal our position to any Addicted patrol potentially in the area.

Vela runs beside me, the others just ahead. The others meaning those of us who haven't yet been turned Addicted. We left them down there. Grus, Leo, Eridanus. I can't think about them now, though. We have to just keep running until Gen. Sagitta tells us to stop. Running once again from the Addicted. I feel like that's all I've ever known.

I don't know how long it's been or how far we've gone before I find myself next to Pavo and Vela leaning against a tree, all of us breathing heavily.

"What are they going to do with him?" Pavo asks.

I know who he's talking about but I can't bring myself to think about Grus right now.

Vela looks to me but I don't know what to say. "I'm sorry, Pavo. Grus is... he's with them now," she replies, searching for words.

"There's nothing any of us could have done about it," Carina adds. She's calm and collected, breathing evenly despite our mad dash. Her body is accustomed to this level of intensity, and to this planet. "Take whatever comfort you can in knowing that the Addicted look after their own kind."

"Those soulless freaks don't have the capacity to care for anything," Crater says as he coughs, having more trouble than any of us to catch his breath. Despite being on Earth, it's probably been some time since he went for an early morning run.

Pyxis slaps the side of his head. "Do not listen to this idiot; he's still drunk," she says to Pavo.

Crater pukes behind a bush. "On the contrary, my dear; that run got it all out."

As they continue the back and forth, something up above catches my attention. A light source shimmers overhead through trees that still have most of their leaves. My stomach initially drops thinking it's the Addicted, but then I realize what it is. The moon, peering around branches and leaves, like it's playing hide and seek. It's been such a long time since I've seen it from this vantage point. So long I'd forgotten how striking it is.

I've traveled all over our small corner of the galaxy to exoplanets, each with its own moon. Some with two or more. Even though I have so many vivid memories of the exoplanets, I couldn't tell you thing about any of their moons. Standing here on Earth looking up at our own, though, is like looking at a long lost friend. Unique in all the galaxy.

It's not like I didn't see the moon from Gemini. I saw it all the time. There's something different, though, seeing it from here, standing on solid ground. This is where we were meant to see it from. Gazing up from wherever you happened to find yourself on a given night. The moon is always there, whether just a sliver, hidden behind a cloud, or full and low on the horizon.

Maybe that's why I never seem to remember the moons of exoplanets I've orbited. Moons are intended to seen from their planet's surface. Gazed at through tree branches with wonder and awe. From space, it's just another pile of rocks, lifeless and cold in silent darkness.

"Addicted patrol, nine-o'clock!" The warning comes from an Alliance soldier behind a pair of night-vision binoculars. "About three miles out!" he adds.

"Let's move!" Gen. Sagitta yells.

Still out of breath, my legs begin to move as fast as they can through the dark forest. "Where are we even going?" I yell out.

"Underground entrance. Half mile from here!" Carina responds.

"That's too far! We won't make it!" Pavo calls out.

"The more you talk the harder it is to run!" Vela replies.

"I knew I liked you, Vela!" Carina shouts back.

The low hum of the Addicted craft grows louder with every step, like a microscopic army storming my eardrums. In a forest not much different from this one, I ran from the same enemy as a child. Heart thumping, feet stomping, trying as hard as possible to outrun what most of humankind could not. How did I end up back here? The question repeats over and over again in my mind.

"There's Ubiquity's border wall!" Someone shouts from the pack.

Squinting into the dark forest ahead, I can't make out anything but trees and the others around me. Then I notice it. A faint, green band of light in the distance, probably about two miles from here. I never would have thought there would be an entrance to the Underground this close to the most powerful Addicted stronghold on the planet.

"Contact twelve-o'clock! Everybody get d—"

Dark energy pulses burn holes in the trees and ground around us. An Alliance soldier lay motionless on the ground next to me. He'll be Addicted before the sun rises.

"Stay down!" Gen. Sagitta yells.

Ahead, the menacing green glow of Addicted fighters emerge from the forest, closing in and firing as they advance.

"We're pinned down, there's nowhere to go!" Pavo screams.

"Unit one!" An Alliance soldier calls out. "Follow me!"

Four Alliance soldiers immediately stand up and begin running directly to the left of our position, firing as much as they can as the Addicted as they move.

"What are they doing?" I ask Carina. "They'll be outnumbered."

"Gen. Sagitta made it clear: delivering you safely to Ubiquity is the mission.
They're keeping you alive."

"They're sacrificing themselves for me?"

"Just stay down, otherwise they're doing it for nothing."

The dark energy pulses begin to subside around us, fading toward the direction where the Alliance soldiers have successfully diverted the enemy's attention. Once again, the forest ahead is silent. On Gen. Sagitta's command, we move quickly and quietly toward Ubiquity's glowing border wall.

It's only a matter of minutes before we reach the Underground entrance, hidden in plain sight under a false tree stump. I look back into the forest as I approach. The flashes of light from Alliance guns and green pulses from dark energy weapons at close range are so intense that I can make out the silhouettes of the Alliance soldiers who stayed behind. Who saved my life even though they didn't know me.

An explosion rocks the battlefield, setting it ablaze, and I feel a hand push me to keep going, down into the darkness once again.