Page 5 of A Million Stars and Shadows

“I’d say you are a ‘smart’ suit,” I said. “If I didn’t leave the Shelter and gone off looking for Mom, I wouldn’t have discovered you.”

“Like I said, Evie, your Mom is a genius. She thought of many things including me, if you decided to go outside of the Shelter.”

“I know. She told me to stay at the Shelter and don’t go looking for her until 5 years,” I said. “How can I follow her instructions and not look for her?”

“Like I said, your mother is a genius. Most geniuses have a method to their madness. Your mother must have a reason.”

“Okay. This is Mom’s ship so maybe we can find something here to find out what that reason is. Come on!” If this is Mom’s ship, I would be proud of her role in designing it. Much like the way she had designed my current suit, Sally, despite how Sally came across.

There was a click and a door appeared, opening wide. I waited for the stairs to appear, but Sally just pushed me indoors.

Then the door shut close.

I turned to try to open the door behind me, but the seams of the door blended into the walls of the ship until the walls were seamless. The door simply disappeared.

“What now?” I asked Sally.

“I’m tapping into the system,” Sally said.

“Do you detect Mom anywhere on this ship?” I asked, looking around. I switched on the headlamp on my helmet and began walking forward.

On the first step, there was a whirling sound as though an engine had turned on. The path ahead of me lit up like a lighted flight path. I walked ahead following the lighted pathway until I came into a massive open space.

My mouth dropped open as I wondered at the beauty of the space. Like an atrium in the center of the ship, as large as a football stadium, in the center was a garden with lush tropical fruit trees, flowers, and colorful plants. Up above were bright lights shaped like diamonds.

“There’s so much food here. Orange trees, peaches, cherries, apricots, even pineapples,” I said. “And the flowers… they’re beautiful.”

I ran forward, eager to reach the fruits, the flowers, the plants, eager to touch and hold them. I was starved, haven’t eaten for days. I felt my stomach rumble in hunger, as it reminded me I haven’t eaten anything since I left my underground shelter home when I last left in search of Mom.

Mom! Could she be here? She left to go get supplies when we were running low in the underground shelter. She didn’t return. But she had told me to stay put in the shelter and to wait for her. We had enough supplies there for a few more years but…

“I am searching for any movement on board,” Sally said. “I am detecting movement on the top floor.”

“Who is tending the garden?” I asked. “How is this going on without anyone in sight?”

As if to answer my question, as soon as the lights turned on over the garden, water showered the plants in a gentle mist. A robotic arm went out over each tree, checked the fruits, and if ripe, plucked it from the tree, depositing it into a basket on a track. When the basket was full, the basket rolled off like a small train into the wall that opened, then closed.

I followed it along until I stopped at the closing wall.

“Where would this go?” I asked Sally.

“Open the wall like you did coming onboard this ship,” Sally said. “Do the sign.”

I put my hand into the symbol and placed it on the wall and stood waiting.

The wall opened and I walked into an area like a clean processing center where the fruits were washed, cut up, freeze-dried, and packed into silver packs. They were then placed into storage containers and stacked into a corner.

“Wow, this is so efficient,” I said. “But where are the people for all this food, Sally? Is there anyone here?”

“Top floor,” Sally said. “There is movement.”

“How do I get there?” I looked around, walking back out of the processing center and into the atrium. Then I saw a glass elevator that looked like something out of a high-rise hotel from Old Earth. I tried walking as fast as I could through the atrium, but the bulkiness of my suit made it difficult.

I finally had to sit down to get out of my suit. “I assume the air in here is breathable. Oxygen?”

“Yes, the air in here is breathable for you,” Sally said.

“Good,” I said, about to take off my helmet.

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