Sequestered

Two teens confined to a space station yearn to see what the planet below them reveals.

Sequestered


Thaddeus Quimby pressed his fingers against the transparasteel bulkhead, gazing down upon a pristine green and blue world. “Are you close, Vazquez?”

“Almost there,” Elias replied, feverishly working the security algorithm on his datapad. Distant footsteps approaching, he froze, but they thankfully turned and faded. “Bypassing the lockouts is no easy task, you know.”

“Well, hurry up. I can’t spend another day here,” his friend fidgeted. “If I have to take another breath of recycled air or attend one more Earth appreciation class…well, I might just throw myself out an airlock.”

“We’ve done well enough so far,” Elias chuckled, “for centuries before we were even born.”

“I want to feel the sun on my skin, and not through this transparent metal hull. We’re not supposed to live like this.”

Elias sighed, “You know what’ll happen if they catch us?”

“C’mon Vazquez, your dad’s head of security. What could they possible do?”
“Maybe a year scrubbing the poop chutes? How’d you talk me into this?” He shrugged, then announced, “We’re in.” The escape pod door slid open.

Strapped in, the antiquated shuttle drifted silently away when the alarms started barking. “No problem!” Elias feverishly manipulated his datapad, and the klaxons fell silent.

“Did they hear?”

“Who knows. We’re off-grid now.” Thrusters maneuvered them into an orbital descent. “The pod’s on auto-fall, programmed to land at an old military outpost in a place they called Colorado.”

Their ride shuddered, the roar of re-entry, deafening. Thaddeus clenched the armrests in a white-knuckled grip, his stomach in his throat. “Is this normal?!” he shouted, but Elias only stared back in terror.

Finally, breaking rockets set them gently down in an open clearing and the hatch slid open. “Welcome to Earth,” a mechanical voice announced. “Please follow protected sanctuary protocols.”

“Protocols?” Thaddeus wondered.

“You really were asleep in our Earth appreciation classes,” Elias grimaced. “You know, we’re about to be the first civilians on Earth since The Exile.”

Thaddeus was already out the door, meeting the unexpected burden of natural gravity. “It smells…clean.”

“And clear,” Elias explained, almost too terrified to enter the forgotten wilderness. “At least from rads, anyways.”

The effects of humanity’s planetary withdrawal was plain – a thousand years sequestered aboard the series of rings encircling the Earth; not a single planetside resource harvested, not even to expand the habitats. Everything from cometary water to Martian soil came from extraterrestrial sources. Still, Elias knew Thad was also right - a general malaise befell humanity, as if something was missing – a piece so very close, yet so far away.

“What’s are those?” Thaddeus referenced structures near the tree line.

“They must’ve been buildings,” his friend answered. “I think we’ve seen enough. C’mon, let’s head back.”

“You kiddin'?” Thaddeus scoffed, heading into the brush. Climbing atop a decaying tank, he asked, “You hear that?”

“Birds,” Elias followed. “We covered them last week.”

At the nearest edifice, they pushed through a rusted door. Sunlight met them on the other side from what used to be floor to ceiling windows now facing a forest. Fractured chairs and weathered tables laid strewn amongst nature’s advances. Outside, a curious glimmer in the sunlight from a nearby berm caught Thaddeus’s attention. He brushed some of the soil away from exposed aluminum which began to hum. “Whoa!” he remarked, curiosity peaked. “I bet it’s something cool!” Thaddeus eagerly dug the soil away until the shape and nature of his prize became tragically clear. He fearfully backed away. “Is that…?”

“A thermonuclear warhead,” Elias confirmed – a remnant from the world’s end. It clicked, then began to beep, counting down.

“Crap!” They both took off through the brush, frantic to reach the escape pod, scrambling over each other to get back inside.

There, Elias’s heart sank. “We’re dead! We forgot to deploy the solar collectors! The batteries are spent and can’t prime the engines!”

Unprepared for a disastrous end, a tremendous explosion echoed through the valley and, out of the blue, a sleek colony starship zoomed directly overhead dragging a tether. Its magnetic end found their pod, snatching them away as their hatch slammed shut. A violent jolt, and all systems in the pod went dark.

The silence and darkness seemed like an eternity. Finally, light blinded the boys as the hatch swung open and they were dragged out in front of the station’s transparasteel view. Below them, a new devastating nuclear crater was just coming into view.

“A thousand years of healing,” Chief Vazquez brooded. “You’re gonna wish you died on that planet!”

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