"Ailysia, you have to find out what's on the other side of that door." Misty said, her voice garbled a bit by chewing. The omelet baguette in her hands was disappearing fast under her attack. "From everything you told me, that seems to be the key."
"The last two times I tried, something blocked my memory. Or maybe that was just me refusing to remember." Ailysia tapped her fingers on the bench, and flicked a stray leaf into the weeds. She was feeling a bit antsy. Or maybe just hungry. Despite having already finished her own lunch—a tuna sandwich and a pear, watching Misty eat had somehow made her feel starved all over again.
"Was it really scary?" Pedra, sitting on the bench next to her, asked.
Pedra was eating macaroni and cheese bought from the cafeteria, Ailysia noted. Usually, Ailysia found cafeteria lunches a little too salty, but today the macaroni looked so creamy and delicious. With a conscious effort, she tried to shift her thoughts away from food, and to answer Pedra's question.
"It was terrifying." She admitted. "But what really got me was the despair. Like I've lost everything. I've never felt anything like that before."
And then it struck her—she had in fact felt that despair once. The scene unfolded in her memory: the living room strewn with papers, both medical records and legal documents, the phone smashed on the floor, and her grandmother on her knees next to the fireplace, head bowed and wailing. She pictured her nine-year-old self in that scene, standing helplessly at the door, feeling her world coming to an end.
A hole was gouged in her heart that day, when she lost her mother. But the years since had dulled the pain, and the emptiness had been filled with new experiences, new memories. Looking back at it now, Ailysia didn't feel the same helplessness. There was strength in her that hadn't been there before. She had her friends, and her whole life ahead of her.
"I'm going to try again tonight." She announced, determined. "I will get to the bottom of this mystery."
"Can I help?" Pedra offered eagerly. "I will keep my phone on tonight. Before you go to bed, and after you wake up, you can text me. I'm great with moral support!" As Ailysia locked eyes with her, Pedra blushed a little and tried to temper the eagerness of her voice. "I mean, only if you want it..."
"Thanks. But I don't want to bother you late at night." Ailysia said gently, smiling. She truly appreciated the gesture, and just the thought that she could count on Pedra made her feel braver. Of course, her greedy stomach chose to show its appreciation by growling loudly at that exact moment.
"Oh, are you still hungry? Do you want to have some of my walnut brownie?" Pedra began unwrapping the brownie she bought from the cafeteria.
"It's okay. I'm really fine." Ailysia protested, her face heating up from embarrassment. She couldn't just take Pedra's lunch! But Pedra was already splitting the brownie in half, and her eagerness made it impossible for Ailysia to decline the offer. So she took the half piece and thanked Pedra.
Ailysia bit into the brownie, meaning to nibble, but the chewy sweetness was so appetizing, that she soon abandoned daintiness and chowed it down. Still, she felt it necessary to make an excuse. "It must be my alien DNA acting up."
Misty laughed, and scarfed down the last bite of her sandwich. "I wish I can use that excuse."
****
It was 8:30pm. Usually, Ailysia didn't go to bed this early, but tonight she couldn't wait to uncover the mystery. She changed into her pajamas, washed up, and checked her phone one last time. There was one text from Pedra.
"Good night! And let me know if anything happens." The message read.
"Sure. I will tell you everything tomorrow." Ailysia replied. She set the phone down, and an amusing thought crossed her mind. Pedra texted in full sentences, with punctuations! Until now, the only one Ailysia knew who did that was herself. Even her grandmother, who just learned texting a couple of years ago, had quickly picked up the shortcuts and dropped the periods.
What were the odds? Ailysia thought. To think that she could meet someone who accepted her so easily, who was similar to her in such quirky ways, and with whom she clicked immediately—and none of it would have happened if she hadn't found the courage to say hello. She wondered what other interests she and Pedra might share. Was Pedra's belief in magic based on real life experience? She should definitely ask her about it.
And before long, her mind was wandering off, thinking about witches and folklore and if she should bring a sandwich for Pedra tomorrow in return for the brownie, or would it be better to just accept the brownie as a gift and not as a favor to repay—until a glance at the clock told her it was 9pm.
She felt a little guilty spending so much time daydreaming. She should be sleeping and finding out the truth! So she lied down on the bed and pulled the blanket over, closed her eyes, and shoved the unnecessary thoughts away.
Sleep overcame her easily, quickly, before she was ready for it.
********
The panel on the wall flickered into life before her, a glowing veil that pulsed with invitation. This time, she didn't hesitate. She stepped forward, pushing through the veil, and felt nothing on contact except an icy draft ghosting across her skin, vanishing faster than a blink.
As soon as she landed on solid ground, the ruckus of voices and movements startled her. She was in the middle of foot traffic, with many people jostling past. Someone bumped into her, which led her to step on someone else's foot, and the string of angry complaints, loud and shrill like a car horn, made her jump. She stared up at the person she stepped on, and three clusters of eyes stared back at her. The eyes glowed dark-red, each rotating independently, while the person—alien—issued angry protests through a proboscis-like mouthpiece.
"Yes, right, sorry." Ailysia stammered, trying to back off. But there was no place to go. Bodies and limbs and even tails blocked her every which way. Finally, she ducked under what looked like a crystal mammoth, narrowly avoiding being crushed by its feet, and ran away from the crowd.
Fortunately, the affronted alien didn't chase her. Ailysia breathed a sigh of relief, and looked around, trying to figure out where she was.
The square she was standing in was bustling with foot traffic, alien creatures large and small all moving in a hurry. Everyone seemed to be carrying luggage; some even dragged carts behind them loaded with bags. And it seemed to be a tense time. Everywhere she looked, arguments were breaking out as tempers flared.
She followed the crowd to a large crystal dome. The grand entrance to the dome was blocked, with many aliens in red robes standing guard. Anyone who approached the dome was corralled into a line, and forced to wait. Occasionally, two red-robed guards would walk down the line, pick someone, usually a small creature, and escort them into the dome. And those who were not picked would howl in rage.
Ailysia had no idea what was going on. Why were they all so eager to get to the dome? She wanted to go inside and find out. But it wouldn't be easy sneaking past the guards.
Just then, two horned and scaly creatures, each over twenty feet tall and walking on four stout legs, came lumbering through the crowd. They towed a huge cart between them, and threw their weight around carelessly, shoving smaller creatures aside. An ugly protest ensued, culminating in dozens of small aliens piling onto the cart, jumping up and down, until the cart fell apart.
The guards were forced to intervene, and Ailysia saw it as her chance. As several red-robes rushed to stop the fight, she ran past them and made a beeline for the dome gate. Unfortunately, she wasn't the only one who had the idea. A few aliens waiting in line ran after her, and their defiance inspired many others. Within seconds, the small rebellion grew to a stampede as everyone charged for the gate, running over any guards in the way.
Suddenly, Ailysia saw something coming down inside the gate. She sprinted the last two steps, and dived inside just as a wall of ice came crashing down from the ceiling. The ice wall slammed into the ground behind her, cracking the floor, and blocked the path of anyone else who wanted to enter.
Groaning, Ailysia pushed up from the ground, and came face to face with a familiar figure. The dragon-woman stood in the hall, palm raised toward the ice wall, and flanked by several guards.
Ailysia guessed she was the one who made the ice, and it angered her. "Ashermoran! Why are you keeping everyone outside? There is going to be a riot if this goes on any longer!"
The dragon-woman studied Ailysia, but oddly, didn't seem to recognize her. "What specie are you?" She asked in a curious tone.
"My specie?" Ailysia scowled. "You invited me here! Don't you remember?"
However, Ashermoran didn't seem to be in a mood to chat. "Take her to the transporter." She ordered the guards. "The rest of you, reinforce that gate and make sure no one gets in."
"Wait! I need to talk to you!" Ailysia called out, but Ashermoran was already walking away, disappearing into a side corridor. Meanwhile, two guards advanced on her. They had a slender, hard-shelled body, a triangular head with bulging eyes, and a protruding jaw full of sharp teeth. Their fearsome appearance briefly stunned Ailysia, and before she could move, they had each clamped a vice-like claw around her arm.
Ailysia wanted to kick the guards, but winced when the claws dug into her arm. Impulsively, she wondered if she could conjure a block of ice to drop on them, like Ashermoran did. But the more calculated part of her decided that it would be best to wait, to learn more about what was going on. So she walked with them.
When the guards realized that she wasn't going to cause trouble, they relaxed a little bit, and began to talk to each other. The sac on their throat vibrated visibly when they talked, and the voice came out like a bee buzzing.
"I've never seen one like this before. What specie do you think she is?" One said.
"Beats me." The other shrugged. "But if she's the first of her kind to come here, then she is still eligible."
"Excuse me." Ailysia cleared her throat, and spoke as casually as possible. "What am I eligible for?"
Both guards stared at her in genuine shock, their voices buzzing at a high pitch. "You don't know about the Exodus program? Then why did you come here?"
"Well, I heard something about it." Ailysia stalled, thinking fast. "But only a rumor. I came to find out if it was true."
"I don't believe this!" The first guard shook her head, her face contorted in an expression Ailysia interpreted as disgust. "There are tens of thousands stranded outside waiting to get on the ship, and you happen to be the lucky one who don't even know about it."
By then, they had come to a steel gate, which seemed to be sealed airtight, with no lock or handle on the surface. The second guard went to a panel on the wall and punched in a tedious sequence with her claws. The panel glowed blue, and the gate swung open, releasing a sudden, strong draft that would have knocked Ailysia over were it not for the guard steadying her.
Once the draft passed, they entered the gate, and Ailysia saw that they were in an enormous hall directly under the dome. In the center of the hall was a crystal pedestal, and above that, there were two giant crystal rings suspended in the air, each at least one hundred feet wide. One ring hung still, while the other, locked within the first one at a tilt, spun steadily around an ever changing axis. Every few seconds, when the inner ring completes one cycle of rotation, an intense spark would flare in its center, issuing a blast of air that would blow over the entire hall.
"What is that?" Ailysia asked, awed by the sight.
"That is the transporter, and you'd be going in there in one of those ships."
Ailysia followed the guard's claw to the line of spaceships waiting to depart. They were oval shaped, and each only big enough to accommodate six to eight people. Some of the bigger creatures waiting outside the dome definitely wouldn't fit, she thought. She watched as several passengers boarded a ship. None of them carried any luggage, and all of them looked like they had a lotus flower for a head. She checked out the other ships, the passengers waiting to board, and gradually came to a startling conclusion.
"They are grouped by species—one specie per ship. That's why you asked me what my specie was."
The guard nodded. "That's right. Eight individuals per ship, and two ships max per specie. That's as many as we can accommodate. Whether sixteen individuals provide enough genetic diversity to start over, now that's another question entirely."
Chill ran down her spine as Ailysia pondered the meaning of "start over". What could be happening to this world that required such a drastic measure? And if only a small number could board the ships, what would happen to the rest? To the tens of thousands waiting outside the dome?
Before she could ask any more questions, the guard dragged her behind a crate, and told her to duck. Ailysia saw that everyone had similarly crouched behind something. Curious, she poked her head around the crate, and saw the ship being lowered into the ring by a robotic arm. As soon as the arm let go, the ring began spinning faster and faster, generating a dazzling spark to envelope the ship.
The guard pulled Ailysia away just as the spark exploded into a white-hot flash, and a sonic wave blasted through the hall. Loose objects went flying, and a pair of goggles crashed into the crate, bouncing to the floor next to her. When everything quieted down, she risked a look around the crate again. The ring was back to spinning at a leisurely pace, and the ship had disappeared.
"Where did they go?" She asked, still a little shaken. One thing was for sure: she would not get on one of those ships!
"If everything went well, then they would reach one of three hundred potentially habitable planets." The guard bent down to retrieve the goggles, and stood up waving them. "Whose are these?" She shouted at the people around the ships. "I've said a thousand times to secure your belongings!"
If. Potentially. Those terms did not sound reassuring to Ailysia at all. Anger welled up inside her again. Those thousands waiting outside came with hope, if not desperation, and this was what they would get? "Why would you send your people on these dangerous trips? Would any of them even survive?"
The guard wheeled around to face Ailysia, and the fury in her bulging eyes was an even match. "Listen, if it were up to me, I wouldn't count on some stupid Exodus program. I would stay and fight! But we can't all be martyrs can we? This city is the last one standing, and who knows how long the Lady's barrier will hold. And when it falls..."
Her voice trailed off abruptly when a loud rumbling came from the sky. It rolled like thunder, but the sound was deeper and disturbingly rhythmic. A second later, another rumbling answered, and soon it was an unending wave, rolling through the air and shaking the dome to its very foundation. Every brick in the floor was trembling, and Ailysia had a hard time standing still. No one was moving however. They all looked up to the sky and waited.
"What's happening?" Ailysia cried out.
The guard sighed. In a few short seconds, all life seemed to have drained from her face. "I'm sorry." She whispered. "It seems you won't make it out of here after all."
A\N: Things are about to get really dicey. There will be a big moment in the next chapter that will set the tone for the rest of the story. But back to Ailysia's real life for a moment -- what do you think of her friendship with Pedra? Do you think there could be something more? I'd love to hear your thoughts. And if you like the story, please click the star to vote :)