Glow

  “She took me to her office to talk,” Waverly whispered, her eyes on the two sweaty guards who stood next to the tour guide, smiling benignly as they caught their breath. Felicity was standing off to the side, fingering the necklace that hung around her long neck. Waverly watched the two guards and the guide, waiting for one of them to look at Felicity with desire as so many men aboard the Empyrean had done. But they barely glanced at her. In fact, they were smiling warmly at the littlest girls, who were sitting on the floor staring up at them.

  “The men here are different,” she said under her breath. Both Sarah and Samantha looked at her, puzzled. “Did either of you ever feel…” Waverly froze for a moment. The tour guide had paused in his lecture and was looking at her, waiting for her to pay attention. Once he turned to point out the morphology of a vanilla tree, Waverly continued. “Did you ever feel weird around any of the men on the Empyrean? The Captain’s friends? Or the Central Council?”

  “Why?” Samantha asked, suspicious. “What happened today?”

  “Is there something you girls would like to share with the rest of us?” the guide shouted. All the other girls turned to look at the three of them. Waverly opened her mouth to come up with an excuse, but once again, Samantha was ready.

  “We were wondering what kind of tree that is.” She pointed across the room at some enormous, twisted-looking trees that lined the bay. “I don’t think we had those on the Empyrean.”

  The guide seemed pleased. “Those are banyan trees, and we have some magnificent specimens! Follow me!”

  The man and the guards led the girls between rows of peanut plants to the banyan trees, whose roots were plunged into a swampy section of topsoil. The trees were unlike any Waverly had ever seen. They were huge masses of wooden tentacles, emerging from a base of roots that twisted together to form a trunk and then unraveled toward the ceiling in wide-flung branches. “These are some of Old Earth’s most wonderful creations,” the ecologist said wonderingly.

  “They look good for climbing!” Sarah suggested, and the rest of the girls agreed.

  “That’s true, they are! Why don’t you? You’ve been listening to me long enough. Let’s take a break, and you girls can explore. Just don’t leave the room.” He nodded to a guard, who pressed some buttons on a remote device. To lock the doors, Waverly guessed.

  Waverly pulled herself onto the lowest branch of the nearest banyan tree. Samantha followed her, and Sarah crept up a branch slightly above the others. The tour guide and the guards watched the youngest girls, who were toddling off toward a sunflower patch.

  “You missed the latest,” Samantha said, her eyes trained darkly on their three escorts. “We’ve all been invited to what they’re calling ‘family time.’”

  “What is that?” Waverly asked.

  “We’re each having dinner with a different family tonight,” Sarah said bitterly.

  This was the reminder that Waverly needed: Whatever Mather knew about Captain Jones and his inner circle didn’t change anything. The girls had been taken away from their families. Nothing justified that.

  “I’ve realized something important,” she said to her friends. “Have you two noticed how weak the adults are?”

  “Yeah,” Samantha said pensively. “It’s weird.”

  “I think I know why,” Waverly said. “They had to slow the ship down to let the Empyrean catch up.”

  “So?” Samantha rubbed at her button nose, a tic she had that made her seem anxious and ferocious all at once.

  “So, how long do you think it took for that to happen?”

  Sarah shrugged impatiently. “A few weeks, I guess, considering how fast the Empyrean was going.”

  “Wrong. It would have taken years for them to slow down, years for us to catch up. Remember what they always tell us in physics class?”

  Sarah stared blankly for a moment, but then said, “Yes! Each year we’re covering millions more miles than the previous year because we’re constantly accelerating.”

  “Right. And each year, the Empyrean and New Horizon were getting farther apart because this ship took off a whole year before we did. We’re almost at the middle of the journey right now, so we should have been the farthest we ever would be. So think of the distance between the two ships.”

  Sarah looked at the leaves above her as she considered this. “But what does this have to do with them being weak?”

  “They had to slow down to let us catch up. And remember, the inertia from our acceleration is why we have gravity.”

  Samantha got it first. “So for the last few years, while they were slowing down, waiting for us to catch up…”

  “They had weaker gravity. Or maybe none at all,” Waverly finished for her.

  “But why wouldn’t they have just turned around and pointed the thrusters in the opposite direction?” Samantha asked. “They’d have gotten to us faster.”

  This stopped Waverly. Of course, that was the original mission plan. Halfway to New Earth, both ships were supposed to cease their acceleration, turn around, and point the thrusters toward New Earth to slow themselves down. With the ships pointing in the opposite direction, slowing down would create as much a feeling of gravity as accelerating. So why didn’t the New Horizon just do that? Waverly was stumped.

  “The nebula,” Sarah whispered tentatively.

  “Oh, my God, you’re right,” Waverly said. “They had to time it perfectly so that the attack could happen inside the nebula so the Empyrean can’t track us with radar and get us back. It gives them a huge head start.”

  “And Captain Jones probably didn’t know they were coming until they were on top of us,” Sarah said. “So they had the element of surprise.”

  “But why not attack years ago?” Samantha asked. “Right when we entered the nebula?”

  “The ship isn’t designed to function in zero gravity,” Sarah said simply. “The plants and animals couldn’t have survived.”

  “So they probably slowed down as soon as they were inside the nebula,” Waverly said, imagining the time and the vast distances. “The Empyrean has been crossing the nebula for the last year and a half…”

  “So they were waiting here for even longer!” Sarah said.

  “That would be years of muscle atrophy,” Waverly said happily. “They might never fully recover from it.”

  Samantha nodded. “So we are stronger.”

  “I think we’re much stronger than they are,” Waverly said. “But there’s one more thing. We’ve had near constant gravity since we got here, haven’t we?”

  “Pretty much,” Samantha said. “I felt lighter at first, but for the most part it’s been pretty normal.”

  “So how could they be gathering up debris from the Empyrean? To have constant gravity, they can’t be stopping and starting and changing directions.”

  Samantha let out a groan of relief. “I knew they were lying, but you’re right. If the Empyrean exploded, we’d have left the debris behind long ago.”

  “So that hunk of metal is a lie,” Waverly said.

  Tears tumbled onto Sarah’s freckled cheeks. “Thank God.”

  Samantha’s narrow face hardened. “That bitch.”

  “There’s one more thing.” Waverly’s breath caught in her throat. “They don’t have any kids on this ship,” she said softly.

  Both girls looked at her, alarmed.

  “What do you mean?” Sarah said.

  “I mean they never solved the fertility problem.”

  All three looked around the room at the other girls wandering through the gardens. Waverly wanted to scoop up the little ones and run away with them somewhere safe. She knew Sarah and Samantha were thinking the same thing.

  “That’s why they only wanted girls,” Sarah said. Her voice quavered, and she was pale.

  “More and more of the girls are starting to trust her,” Samantha said, visibly shaken. “We need a plan right away.”

  “How will we make a plan? They’re going to separate us!”
Sarah said, too loudly. Waverly saw that the men were standing near the tree now. They might be listening.

  “It’s going to be okay,” Waverly said loudly, then whispered, “We need to figure out how to communicate with each other. Any ideas?”

  Both girls looked at Waverly, anxious. “How can we figure out a plan before we know what they’re going to do with us?” Samantha said angrily.

  Samantha was right. Waverly was overtaken by rage that she was here, on this ship, with these problems. Days before, her biggest worry was about marrying Kieran. She should have said yes to him, with no hesitation. Yes, Kieran, I will marry you. I love you. He needed to hear that, and she should have given it to him.

  “Okay, break’s over!” the tour guide called, and the girls began to gather around him once again.

  “We’ll just have to find a way,” Waverly whispered as Sarah started to climb down.

  The tour extended to the granaries and the orchards, all perfectly manicured, before finally circling back to the dormitory. Once the girls were left to themselves, the mood became much more somber, for naturally their minds returned to that twisted heap of metal Anne Mather had shown them that morning. Several of them were huddled in lumps on their cots, crying. Sarah went to each girl, whispering in their ears until their faces brightened. Waverly knew she must be explaining why that piece of metal couldn’t be from the Empyrean.

  Soon two men carried in trays of food, red faced and straining with the weight. After they left, Waverly lifted one of the trays that had seemed so heavy to them. It was surprisingly light.

  Waverly saw Felicity sitting on her cot at the back of the room, facing the porthole. The glow from the nebula looked smothering. How far away must they be from the Empyrean? How could they ever find home in all that pink sludge?

  Waverly walked up to Felicity, put a hand on her back, and sat next to her.

  “What do you want?” the girl asked irritably.

  Waverly chose not to answer. Instead she leaned against her friend.

  “You know, one time,” Waverly said, “back on the Empyrean, Mason Ardvale tried to kiss me.”

  Felicity’s ears seemed to perk up at this, but her eyes remained on the porthole.

  “I had to slap him. He got a bloody lip.”

  “And he let up?”

  “We were in an elevator. The door opened and someone came in.”

  “You were lucky,” Felicity said with a sour laugh. “That guy…”

  Waverly held her breath. Tell me what happened, Felicity. Let me help you.

  Felicity seemed to think better of what she’d been about to say and turned away.

  “You’ve been hurt, haven’t you?” Waverly asked as softly as she could.

  “I won’t talk about it with you.”

  “Why not? Maybe it would help to—”

  “Forgetting helps. Pretending it didn’t happen helps.”

  “I don’t think so.” She reached out to touch her friend’s wrist, lightly, but Felicity buried her hands in her skirt. “Tell me what happened.”

  “You’d have found out for yourself,” Felicity spat, “if your boyfriend wasn’t the Captain’s favorite.”

  This stung deeply, but Waverly tried not to be angry with her. “Felicity, I want to help.”

  “So now that Kieran isn’t around you have time for me, I suppose?”

  “What?”

  “Come on, Waverly. Don’t pretend. As soon as Kieran showed an interest in you, you never had time for anyone else.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “It is true. So don’t pretend to be all caring now. I’ve been on my own for a while now, with no one to talk to—”

  “What about your parents?”

  “My dad can’t handle this, Waverly. He’d fall apart. Or get himself killed.”

  “But your mom—”

  “Told me to avoid them. On a closed metal box in deep space.”

  “Them? Who?”

  “It doesn’t matter.” Felicity leaned her head against the thick glass. The skin around her mouth was loose, and Waverly saw little droplets of spittle playing at the corners of her lips. She’d known Felicity Wiggam her entire life, but there was nothing she could say to help her.

  “I guess I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t want to go home,” Waverly said.

  “What makes you think it will be any different here?”

  “It might be different. Isn’t that what you’re thinking?”

  “You’re so naïve.” Felicity laughed scornfully. “Don’t you see what people are? They’re animals. Every one of them.”

  “Felicity.” Waverly grabbed hold of the girl’s hand and squeezed hard enough to hurt, until Felicity lifted her eyes to Waverly’s. “We’re animals, too. We can fight back.”

  Felicity yanked her hand away. “You idiot. It doesn’t matter how hard you fight.”

  “It matters to me,” Waverly said quietly.

  “So fight, then,” Felicity spat over her shoulder.

  Waverly stood up, fists clenched. “I will.”

  FAMILY TIME

  Waverly’s hosts for family time were Amanda and Josiah Marvin, and they were more nervous than she was. Amanda’s long fingers trembled, and Josiah kept popping up to check the food, passing by a very messy worktable that was covered with tools and wood shavings.

  “As you can see, Josiah has a hobby.” Amanda smiled. Wrinkles splayed out from her green eyes, but she had a gentle, kind face that gave her a certain agelessness. She indicated the several carved wooden instruments hanging on the walls. They were variations on the guitar, of different shapes and sizes, and beautiful in a primitive way. “Josiah builds them. He’s quite an accomplished musician. He plays music for the services.”

  “Services?” Waverly asked.

  “Church services. We all go.”

  “I see.”

  Amanda gestured toward a wooden bench, and Waverly sat down. “I can’t tell you what a pleasure it is to see young faces! I forgot what young skin looks like.” Amanda leaned forward as though she wanted to touch Waverly’s cheek, but the girl drew away from her.

  Waverly looked warily at the woman’s open face, her high forehead and prominent cheekbones, and tried to think how she might get something useful out of her. “I had tea with Anne Mather today and she said the same thing.”

  “Thank goodness for Pastor Mather.” Amanda brightened. “I don’t know what we would have done without her. Everyone aboard the New Horizon was so despondent until she rose … until she was elected to lead us.”

  “I’ve noticed people call her Pastor. On the Empyrean we had a Captain.”

  “We did, too, at first,” Amanda said, her expression troubled. “Captain Takemara.”

  “What happened to him?”

  Amanda shook her head. “He got sick. It was so sad. He wasn’t very old.”

  “But then wouldn’t his first officer have finished his term?”

  Amanda looked at the doorway of the kitchen as though hoping Josiah would come in and rescue her. “Well, actually, Commander Riley had committed suicide a few weeks before the Captain gave up command of the ship.” She blinked, forced a smile.

  “So then Anne Mather took over.”

  “Was elected,” Amanda said. “By the church elders.”

  “Elders?”

  “I believe it was called the Central Council on your ship? Is that right?”

  “I thought if the first mate couldn’t take over, there was supposed to be a general election, and everyone got to vote. Isn’t that in the bylaws?”

  “Oh,” Amanda said, chuckling, “I don’t know anything about politics. Do I, Josiah?”

  Josiah had come into the room and was setting a pot of steaming vegetable stew on the dining table. “It’s true, Waverly. Amanda pays no attention to that sort of thing. She’s an artist, you know.”

  Waverly looked at the painting over the table. It was a portrait of a little girl with rosy cheeks and curly
black hair. “Did you paint that?”

  “Yes, I did. Can you guess who that is?” she asked Waverly, a twinkle in her eye.

  Waverly studied the apple cheeks and pointed chin, the square hairline and plump body, and with a sinking sensation said, “That’s Anne Mather, isn’t it?”

  “At the age of three. Wasn’t she precious?”

  The toddler’s gaze was wide and innocent, her pink lips a rosebud, her fat hands wrapped around a corncob. She was indeed a beautiful child.

  “I love to paint children! It has been … therapeutic. Naturally I haven’t been able to work from live models,” Amanda said. “The Pastor was kind enough to loan me a childhood picture.”

  “It’s really good,” Waverly said. She wanted to believe that the woman was ignorant of what had happened on the Empyrean, because she instinctively liked her. She liked Josiah, too. He was shorter than Amanda, and he had wide-set brown eyes and a floppy mop of grayish hair. He puttered around the apartment while Amanda talked, but he always seemed to have one ear trained on his wife, and he smiled privately to himself at things she said. They loved each other, Waverly could see.

  Josiah tossed his head toward the table. “Soup’s on, girls.”

  Josiah ladled a savory stew into Waverly’s earthenware bowl. Large chunks of broccoli, tomato, and asparagus floated in a fragrant broth. Waverly took a piece of crusty bread from the basket in front of her and dipped it in. She was ravenous, but she felt gentle fingers on her elbow. Amanda smiled indulgently. “We have our customs,” she said, and closed her eyes. “Dear Lord, thank You for bringing Waverly to us safely. We are so grateful that You saw fit to bring these children into our fold.”

  Waverly put down her spoon and lowered her eyes. She’d never said grace before in her life. As far as she knew, no one on the Empyrean did, not even Kieran and his parents. She felt fidgety and uncomfortable, but she folded her hands in her lap as Josiah and Amanda were doing until they said, “Amen.”

  Waverly bit into her bread. “This is really good,” she said with a full mouth, and immediately felt ashamed of her poor manners. This felt like a regular dinner with regular people, and once again Waverly had to remind herself that she was a captive.