Page 21 of A Million Stars and Shadows

“You’re advancing quickly,” Sally said. “But you don’t have the luxury of time anymore. Hear that?”

I stopped and listened. There was banging. “Where is it coming from?”

“Outside,” Sally said, “The Monsters. But it looks like they are breaking their way in.”

“Is there a way out of here? What should we do?”

“I’m thinking,” Sally said. “But finish the journal. There may be a clue in there on what to do.”

“Okay,” I said, “I’m going to read as fast as I can now…”

TEN

JANA

The door of the elevators opened, and I cautiously looked out into the beeping red lights of the Engineering floor.

No Monsters were in sight, so I stepped out, making my way towards the main controls. I ran as fast as I could to the very spot Thomas and I had our first kiss. The screen was blinking until I touched a few buttons. “Computer work,” I said. “Turn on diagnostics.” The red beeping stopped, and a screen flashing the codes of its diagnostics program began scrolling.

FUEL WARNING! FUEL WARNING!

A deep voice sounded behind me, “How much fuel do we have left?”

I turned around quickly to look into beautiful green-gold eyes. Thomas’ eyes. “Thomas!” I reached up to kiss him.

“Jana,” he kissed me back. “Thank God, you’re alright.”

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“There’s an outbreak. Monsters everywhere.”

“How? And why now?”

“I don’t know,” Thomas shook his head. “I don’t know exactly why now but it could be because we’re so close to New Earth.”

I looked over at the screen. “We barely have enough to make it to New Earth,” I said.

“Can we go try to land now?” Thomas asked. “If we don’t, we may not have any people left to land on New Earth. Our crew is all over the ship, fighting the Monsters. I’ve alerted them to the Monster’s weakness and the way we’ve been fighting them so they’re all over trying to locate the Monsters. But…”

“There are too many, and they’re killing off people so quickly,” I said.

“So far, Jana, you’ve been the only who can truly vanish them. But you’re pregnant, and you’re only one person…”

I made a few calculations and said, “Thomas, we have to do this to save humanity. We have to do this to save the future.”

Thomas’ eyes filled with tears as he looked at me, “Jana, you don’t have to do this. Jana, I need you with me.”

I couldn’t help the tears falling down my cheeks as I said, “You can get to the top speed, which is sustainable for 10 hours, but it would get us to New Earth in a day instead of in a month. But it would be a hard landing, which may cause massive damage to the Red Genesis.”

Thomas nodded. “I understand.”

“Use the highest speed then pull back towards the end for a smoother glide in and to save fuel,” I said.

“I will,” Thomas said. He was holding me close to his chest, kissing my head, “Jana. Jana. You are my life, my love. You and our child are everything to me. I don’t know how I can go on without you…”

I kissed Thomas and said, “Go do your Captain-y duties, Captain Thomas.”

“And Jana…”

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