Melanie just shrugged and turned back to the front of the room. Yeah, yeah, I get it, you don’t make the rules. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, it seemed more and more likely that she was right.
The screen at the front had darkened back to a blank metal slate. I blinked at it, unbelieving. That’s it? That’s all we’re gonna get?
“It will take approximately two weeks to reach P14256ABX. During that time, you will receive more thorough instructions on the mission and your duties.”
“Our duties?” Kat snarled, jumping up again. Chapman stepped towards her, but Colonel Jackson held up a hand. “My only duty is to get away from you and this whole clusterfuck.”
I stood, too, in solidarity, as did Theresa and Melanie. No way was I going to get sucked into some interstellar alien translation job without my consent. I had school to think about, students, a life to get back to. Others were standing now, grumbling, their voices getting louder. Kat continued, grinning at the sight of all the angry women getting out of their chairs.
“See? We don’t want to and you can’t make us. You may have been able to toss us into vans and get us here, but there’s no fucking way you’re getting us off this planet.”
Colonel Jackson’s face remained impassive. The entire room was standing now, waiting for him to make a move. He said nothing, instead pulling a small black object out of his pocket and aiming at the wall that had been a screen a moment before. He pushed a button, and the entire wall seemed to disappear, shimmering out of existence right before our eyes. And what we saw sent me falling back into my chair with a strangled huff, my chest tightening as my knees gave out.
It was earth. The size of a marble, and getting smaller every second, swallowed up by black on all sides as it got further away. No. As we got further away. Kat’s mouth fell open, and more girls started to cry.
“I’m afraid, Katerina,” the Colonel said, his voice like ice, “that that ship has already sailed.”
AS SOON AS THE PRESENTATION ended, we were all trundled back into our rooms, escorted by soldiers every step of the way. Although at that point, none of us had much fight left, even Kat. After seeing our planet, the only thing we’d ever known disappear before our eyes... Well... It had kind of stopped any chance of escape in its tracks.
Theresa and Kat climbed the ladders to the top bunks, and Melanie and I collapsed into the bottom ones. There was silence for a moment, as we all contemplated just what on Earth – or what in wherever we were now – was going on. But it wasn’t long before Kat spoke up, her voice dripping with venom.
“I don’t buy this for a fucking second.”
“Don’t buy what? You think they’re lyin’? You think we’re still on Earth somewhere?” The note of hope in Theresa’s voice from the bunk above me almost broke my heart.
“No, I think that part is real,” Melanie interjected, and I nodded. Every instinct was telling me that we were no longer anywhere close to home.
“No, yeah, I get that. Bye bye, big blue planet. See you never,” Kat said. “I just don’t believe for a second that A, this mission is actually legit, and B, that they’re going to let us go home afterwards.”
I gritted my teeth against an onslaught of threatening tears.
“Don’t say that,” I managed to choke out.
“Sorry, dude, but I think it’s true. Think about it. This mission is so top secret that they literally had to kidnap us and drug us to get us here, you think they’re going to just let us waltz back into our lives afterwards? And what about the fact that we’re all women, huh? And the fact that we’re all young or students and definitely not the kind of experts you’d want on a mission like this? Why aren’t they sending the crème de la crème, top notch scientists and shit, to deal with this?”
I pressed the palms of my hands to my burning eyes. I had no answers for her.
But Melanie did.
“They’re not sending the best they have because they think we’re going to die.” Her words crashed through the air, heavy as stone. “They’re hoping that, if by some miracle, we can do something for them, then at least we have some knowledge that may be useful. But they’re not going to send their best scientists on a suicide mission.” Her voice fell, hard and low. “And the fact that we’re all women, well... I bet they’re hoping that if we don’t get murdered on sight, then maybe we’ll just get raped instead.”
“Oh my God, no, Melanie,” I said, sitting up and looking at her. She was laying still, staring up at the underside of Kat’s bunk. Her voice was a whisper when she spoke again.
“I don’t know about you guys, but if I don’t come back, if I disappear, there’s no one who would look for me.”
Kat sighed from above her.
“Girl, same. My mom’s an addict who I haven’t seen in years and my dad’s in jail.”
Theresa groaned. “Oh my God. Shit. Same. I grew up in the foster care system and I just moved to a new town and dumped my boyfriend, literally the only person who knows me there.”
Panic swelled inside me. No way, this couldn’t be true. I wasn’t like that, was I? Someone who could disappear and barely leave a trace? Somebody no one would miss? I had Grammy! Had Grammy. Past tense. But what about my PhD supervisor, Dr MacLaren? He would file a police report, for sure. But then again... What if my whole university was in on whatever this was?
My throat tightened painfully, and I bit down on my lips so hard I tasted blood. They were right. They were absolutely right. We were nobodies on Earth, and we were about to be nobodies who died on a faraway planet.
Hell no.
Everything in my body rebelled against that possibility. I got up, pacing the room, the other girls watching me.
“OK, maybe you’re right. You probably are. But I sure as hell do not plan to die in the middle of another galaxy.”
Kat sat up, her eyes burning with blue fire.
“What do you have in mind? I’m all for some mutiny.”
I laughed, a short, humourless bark.
“They’ve got armed soldiers every few metres in this place. I don’t think we stand a chance with something like that.”
“So?” Kat said. “At least we’ll go out in a blaze of glory. Go out on our terms.”
“Look, if we try something like that, we’re basically guaranteed to die. Melanie already outlined why we’re expendable. But what if we do everything we can to learn in the next few weeks, do everything we can to ensure our survival down there? He said we can breathe the atmosphere. Maybe we could escape and survive somehow.”
“And,” Theresa added, that heart-breaking note of hope back in her voice, “maybe the aliens will be friendly.”
Kat burst out laughing.
“You’re nuts! Did you see the thing in that photo? It’s not gonna be like some golden retriever at your vet’s office.”
“We don’t know that. We don’t know anythin’ about them. We do know whoever’s runnin’ this brought a linguist.” Theresa looked at me over the edge of her bunk. “So they must have reason to think the aliens have language, some kind of intelligence. Maybe we can communicate with them.”
“Yeah, that’ll go over well. ‘Hey, aliens. Please don’t try to fuck or murder us. By the way, will you give our military all the special energy juice your planet’s running on?’”
“OK, well, I don’t know,” Theresa responded with a huff, flopping back onto her bunk. “But Cece’s right. A mutiny will get us shot instantly. Honestly, I’d rather take my chances on the planet.”