Chapter 1: Hatin' on the Space Station
The smell assaulted Anya when she stepped off the transport onto the space station Convergence. It was acidic and bit at her nose, antiseptic cleansers, new carpet, a metallic tang. Man-made. Nothing like the rich smells of her backyard. Scratch that. Former backyard. She exhaled a breath, not realizing she had been holding it, and followed her older brother Tobias. They shuffled through the arrivals corridor with the other hundred or so new Landers in their transport.
Their parents were siphoned off to one side with the adults. Tobias and Anya were crammed in with the kids, about forty. They'd been quarantined during the transport up, so this was Anya's first chance to see the other people in their Landing group. She swept her eyes around, hungry for new faces, glad to have escaped the tedium of the tiny pod she'd had to share with both parents and her brother the last week.
Tobias had decided to experiment with facial hair on the trip up, and she found the patchy hairs on his chin--she couldn't even begin to conceive of them as a beard--just gross. He was only sixteen and hadn't quite gotten there on the whole facial hair thing. She wondered if he'd notice if she shaved it all off while he slept. She had taken to tinkering with the pod's on-board computer on the ride up. Nothing that her parents or Tobias would notice, but little changes like better airflow wherever she was sitting, little brighter lighting, and a cool pink glow effect around the bathroom mirror, all tied to her Identity.
Her mom and dad, well, she was still pissed about the move to the space station. She wasn't sure when she'd be done hating them for uprooting the family and moving everyone to the space station, but maybe before the next century. Maybe. At fourteen, she'd finally found a group of kids to hang out with at school, friends. She was a star on the soccer team and otherwise feeling normal for the first time in her life. Of course that meant it was a good time to move off-planet. She hadn't even told her friends where they were moving at first. It was just too weird.
She let out a big sigh and looked around. Time to buck up, kiddo. She glanced at the other kids in the Lander group. There were littles as well as teens. At least she and Tobias weren't going to be the only new kids at Convergence High. She noticed a few girls and boys who looked her age, or at least her size. She made a mental note to try to be friendly. Just because she was determined to show her parents how much she hated it here didn't mean she had to act that way with potential allies.
Tobias poked her and pointed to the colored walls of the large gathering room they were in. "Look sis, colors in space!"
In spite of her best intentions to look grumpy for her parents' sake, she couldn't help the grin that escaped. In anticipation of their move to the Convergence, she and Tobias had pulled every science-fiction film they could off the net and watched them, snipping together their favorite clips into a highlights reel. From 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and STAR WARS to MINDSTORM OVERDRIVE and WAR WITH ALPHA CENTAURI, they discovered a universal truth. Living in space meant gray. Lots and lots of gray.
In front of her now was evidence that the movies were wrong. Each of the walls were covered with soft fabrics that shimmered and shone with different colors--pinks, greens, blues. Some of the fabrics were pleated and folded in intricate patterns. It was like being in the middle of a festive Middle Eastern bazaar. Or the Couch Emporium. She was close to an orange wall and dragged her hand across the folded fabric there, feeling the pleats ruffle in her fingers.
"Nice, isn't it?" Anya's mom, Madeline Bowden, was suddenly at her shoulder and Anya jerked her hand away from the wall as though it were electrified. Busted enjoying herself for a millisecond. She'd have to be more careful.
"Whatever, mom." Anya rolled her eyes for her mom's benefit, and was rewarded with a tight smile.
"You have your Identity, right?" Her mom's smile pulled at the corners of her mouth and made her look pinched and much older.
A little part of Anya felt bad for torturing her mom, but only a little. "Yes, I get it, don't let your Identity out of your sight, they've drilled that much into us." Anya felt at her throat for the silver disc that hung from a black satin cord. She had picked the icon carved into her Identity. It was only fair, since she and everyone else had to wear one at all times on the station.
Anya had selected an icon of an acacia tree. How appropriate, she thought when she chose it, an image of something rooted to earth when she was miles above all known dirt. It reminded her of the tree in her backyard at home. Former home. Their house and cars were gone now, sold to some suburban patsies who probably wouldn't even appreciate the house's proximity to the soccer fields three-eighths of a mile to the west. Anya could jog it in three minutes, two and a half if she sprinted. All their possessions were either packed into tiny crates for the move to Convergence or stored in long-term storage Earthside. Mail permanently stopped, if it couldn't be sent electronic they just weren't going to get it. In spite of all this, Anya still clung to the idea that at some point everyone was going to be so miserable in space that they'd get to move back home. Home. What a funny word.
Just then a man with a handheld the size of a clipboard came in. He had the look of someone who was in charge of something and used to being listened to. He cleared his throat and the general buzz of conversation calmed, then quieted as all eyes turned toward him.
"Hello and welcome to the space station Convergence. I'm Captain Kipp." He paused for what looked like dramatic effect. "You can call me Captain, or Sir. I'll be leading your orientation, so you may wish to call me God. If you don't follow my directions, you may find yourself on the wrong side of an airlock as it cycles out." He looked at the people in the room, a serious expression on his face.
Anya was going to laugh at his serious expression, but the laugh died in her throat. She didn't need the cold reminder of the vacuum of space. Nothing quite like being trapped in a spinning mass of metal with only a few feet between her and blood-boiling airless nothingness.
"I will be covering basic safety features in this first meeting. After that, you'll be shown to your quarters. Those who requested a cat or a frog will meet your pet in your quarters. These are the companion pets we've found do the best when raised in space. Other species don't adapt as well."
Anya perked up. Cats? In space? She hadn't had a cat since Milky Way died when she was eight. Come to think of it, her parents had been a little strange about her desire to get another cat all these years. Had they been planning this space station move since then? Anya turned this thought over in her head, renewing her anger at her parents.
Captain Kipp went on, "Tomorrow we'll meet back up in the morning for more general information. In the afternoon, the children will meet with a teacher from their respective schools. Adults will do job-specific orientation. After that, you'll be on your own on the Convergence, but help is always a push of a button away." Here, he gestured in a vague way to an icon of the space station that was etched on the wall, a light gray outline against the bright orange fabric. Anya hadn't noticed it before. She didn't have time to look at it closely, though, because the Captain went on, "Is everyone ready? Have your Identities on? Step through the membrane door here, the computer will calibrate your Identity as you enter."
People approached Captain Kipp, then stepped through the membrane door to the station. A soft voice said each person's name. "Najaf, Evan. Mitsoko, Ohiro. Hankins, Connor."
Anya watched each person slip through the membrane, their bodies disappearing through the opaque barrier bit by bit, first a foot, a leg, one arm, a torso, last the trailing arm and wisps of hair. They membrane swallowed each person whole, like the belly of a jellyfish. Anya stifled a shudder. It would be her turn soon enough.
Her parents went next. "Bowden, Madeline. Bowden, Zach," the door hushed.
Swallowing, Anya prepared to go through. She eyed the membrane warily, wondering if it was all just a ruse and if she was going to find herself swallowed whole by some gigantic space-beast. She hoped the digestive enzymes woul
d kill her quickly. She sighed and stepped up as the last of her dad's brown hair disappeared.
She decided on a decisive stride, so the anxiety she felt wouldn't be so obvious to the other people waiting their turn to go through. She stepped forward with purpose, and as she tried to put her right leg through the membrane, the membrane stopped being porous and her leg bounced back at her, throwing her back into Tobias who was next in line.
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About the Author
I write because nobody has written the stories I wanted to read. The ones about a geeky girl who was good at stuff and had adventures and solved problems and was smart and cool and dorky and nice and confused and friendless and interesting and new around here and different and the same and both interested in boys and uninterested in boys and...
I write for all the geeky cool girls out there, because I have their stories to tell.
If you enjoyed this story, please connect with me online to tell me!
Other Titles
Apples on the Moon
Library of the Apocalypse
Convergence
Connect with Me Online
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KarenTSmith
Author's Blog: KarenTSmith.com
Mommy Blog: Suburban (in)Sanity
Email: karen.suburbaninsanity at gmail dot com
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