Chapter 1: The World We Lost
Flames rose to the sky and the air was filled with the sound of sirens and screams. The earth shook below her feet as bombs mercilessly struck the ground. In the middle of this chaos stood a little girl, frozen with fear at the site of her home vanishing before her eyes.
A dull ringing went through her head and her vision faded in and out of reality. Her body felt soulless and lost, as if she didn't exist inside of it. The warmth of the fire blazing in front of her singed off the tips of her hair and the heat began to burn her skin, yet she felt nothing. A noise broke through the chaos around her "Run!" the voice screamed from afar. The muffled sound of bombs and sirens grew louder as if she was rising from the deepest parts of the sea.
"Run, Artemis!"
The girl slowly looked to her right to see a familiar figure on the ground attempting to shuffle itself towards her. As her vision quickly focused and sound shot through her ears, the girl took a sharp deep breath snapping back into reality. Fear immediately set in and she did exactly what that voice told her, she ran.
Her feet carried her small body as if they had a mind of their own, leaping over rubble and ducking under fallen beams. The sirens grew louder and louder and an emergency broadcast could be heard through the whole city "Nuclear Missiles inbound, seek shelter immediately" the voice repeatedly bellowed through the flames around the girl.
Just before the pain in her legs could get the best of her a familiar open road appeared in front of the girl. Her city had been preparing for this for years, on the sides of the road were large arrows labeled "evacuation route". Without hesitation she darted in the direction of the arrows, fighting through the pain in her feet as they struck the hard pavement. Her legs pulled her body for what felt like forever and as the thick smoke flew past her she never once looked back. Up ahead a clearing began to emerge, a large runway filled with carrier ships and peopled came into view. She came to a slow stop gasping for air between hacks, her lungs were on fire from all the smoke and chemicals she was breathing in.
Her legs jerked to continue forward but something pulled her heart backwards. She shuddered and slowly turned around to look at her city. But she did not see a city, instead she saw fire and destruction raging through the ruins of her home. She could see the explosions pulverizing any structure left standing, each burst sent vibrations through the ground up into her body. The sky was black, more black than usual. The stars were blocked out by the rising smoke.
In that moment the girl wanted nothing more than to scream, her mouth hung open, but no sound escaped from her lips. She felt her hands shaking and her knees buckle as she collapsed to the ground in utter terror, her entire body began to shut down from the overwhelming emotion rushing through her blood. The voice from before never stopped running through her head "Run Artemis!" repeated over and over. But her body would not budge. Her mouth slowly shut, and her teeth clenched together hard enough to break. Her arms moved inward in a self-embracing hug and she felt her nails dig into her skin as if to tear the skin off. Cold tears began to run from her eyes, the air was so hot and thick that they almost felt freezing on her skin. Her eyes set from her dying city to the ground where she started to sob silently. She wished for death.
Suddenly fast paced footsteps interrupted her mourning and a tight grip jerked the girls' shoulders forcing her off the ground "Women and children first, let's go! you're holding up the lines!" A tall man in camouflage armor towered over her. "There's no time come on!" he ordered at her and shoved her in the direction of the crowed.
His hand never left its grip off her shoulder, he held her in front of him as she was guided through the crowed. She reluctantly allowed herself to be placed in front of another tall man dressed in the same gear
"One more right here" he explained.
The second man gazed down on the girl for only a brief second before jotting down a number on duct tape and attaching it to her clothing. She glanced down at the number "3178F" is was it read.
"Get her in the ship, it departs in 3 minutes" he said pointing to the carrier ship behind him.
The girl was lead into the small ship before feeling the man's grip leave her shoulder. She glanced back only to find him walking away quickly, the second man looked at a watch on his wrist "That's it I've got to send this one off, anyone else can catch the next one." Others surrounding her carrier ship began to scream in anger.
"The next one!?" one person said.
"We have to get out now! You can fit 10 more on that thing!" screamed another.
The outside world began to fade away as the door to the carrier ship slowly dropped forward before tightly shutting itself.
The girl shifted her eyes forward taking a good look around the ship, it was over packed with women and mothers attempting to comfort the scared crying children. More men dressed like before walked around handing out blankets and water bottles. As the girl was handed one of each she desperately opened the water and brought it to her lips greedily guzzling it. The cool liquid cleared the smoke and soot from her throat, as she pulled the bottle away she exhaled a sighed with relief.
A welcoming empty corner called to her and she squatted down wrapping the blanket over her shoulders. The carrier ship was dark and smelled like stale air, the only light came from a smal window overlooking the still large sea of people waiting to be shuffled into the other remaining ships. Her eyes began to grow heavy again, but the fear that everything could disappear if she dared to blink still haunted her mind. "Mom..." she muttered under her breath, the first words she had spoken since the bomb struck her house. The situation settled into her mind more and her heart began to ache. She began to realize she left her mother dying on the ground like a coward.
A voice came over the speaker of the ship "Preparing for takeoff." and the soft hum of its engine echoed over the cries of the children. She watched as women sobbed and waved to their husbands from the small window. "Mommy..." she muttered again clenching the blanket close with her shaking hands, fighting back the tears stinging her eyes.
The ship hastily lifted off the ground, each inch tore a piece of the girl's heart apart. Every inch became a foot and soon every foot became mile as they rose into the sky. The distance from her home grew farther away and the girl could feel regret fill her body "Mommy!" she screamed out in anguish throwing herself towards the window of the ship desperate for a final look of her city.
Her eyes glazed over the city; everything was silent and still for only a second when suddenly, a massive white flash ripped through the carrier ships window.
The ship jerked to the left violently throwing everyone to one side, the silence was broken by a deafening blast and soon more screams followed. The ships red emergency lights filled the small ship and the alarm system said, "Minor hull damage detected." before proceeding with an emergency alarm. One of the men in gear screamed "Everyone hold on!" as the ship continued travelling wildly in one direction. The girl found herself being pressed against the wall of the ship by 2 other bodies, the g-force was close to bone breaking and the sound of panic flooded her head. The ship growing faster and faster. The wall and her body grew closer and she could feel the cold metal attempting to morph with her skin under the pressure. Then it went black.
"Run Artemis...Run Artemis...Run Artemis"
The words echoed in darkness where her body was floating in a black empty space. Slowly her pale blue eyes opened, but if she hadn't been able to see her hands she would have sworn she was still asleep
"Where am I?' she thought to herself.
Her thoughts echoed in the space around her. the comforting black void was neither warm or cold, there was no sound except for her breathing.
"Who am I?" once again the words echoed in the space around her.
"I am...Artemis" she said aloud to herself.
Visions flashed in front of her eyes of fire surrounding her "...Artemis" her eyes grew heavy again and began to shut. The visions continued showing a burning world with a figure appeared limping towards her, broken and burning alive. The figure softly whispered "Run Artemis" repeatedly in a comforting voice, slowly growing louder.
Artemis opened her eyes to a woman shaking her in panic "c'mon little one stay with me" bright white up lights blinded her momentarily. "Ugh..." she explained in a stiff tone. "Thank the gods!" Artemis's vision focused on the person in front of her. A woman in her 40s was knelt in front of her, she had dark long brown hair and gentle brown eyes. A very plain looking woman whose age shone through every valley in her face.
"Do you feel any pain little one? can you stand?" Asked the woman.
"…I'm ok" Artemis responded hesitantly as she struggled to lift herself off the ground to her feet. The women gently helped her stand.
"Careful! You have no idea how fast your ship was moving, I'm relieved your alive, but I am also shocked!"
"What happened?" Artemis asked weakly.
The women solemnly looked away "...The nukes hit before we could leave orbit, our carrying ship was caught in the cusps on the sonic wave. We got lucky and were missed by the main detonation and instead of blowing up we were thrown into space." The women took Artemis by the hand but would not look her in the eyes "…But we are safe now" she helped Artemis out of the carrier ship onto a massive loading bay filled with other ships and people. The ceilings were over 100 feet high and behind them a massive opening with a thin force field separating them from the cold clutches of space.
Artemis took a close look out of the massive loading bay force field and could see a planet in the distance glowing bright red, her heart grew heavy "Is that..." The women clutched her hand tightly "yes...the UNI and the IGC both fired at the same time...there's very little, if anything, left at this point"
Regret and sorrow flooded over Artemis once more as she fought back tears, her heart strained as if someone was tightly choking it.
"Did your mother make it on the carrier ships?" Asked the women.
The question went right through Artemis like a knife, her eyes drifted to the floor "...no."
If fear could have a smell, the room would stink of it. If loss had a sound, it would be the shuffling of thousands of feet far from their home. But anyone can see sadness with their eyes. The women stared at Artemis with a heavy gaze "I'm so sorry…" her tone was soft and comforting, but not comforting enough.
Artemis stared into the horizon at the burning planet. Her home, her family, and her city were all gone. Here she stood in a room filled with thousands of people and yet she couldn't have felt more alone. Her eyes shifted around the massive room, it reminded her of one of those old airplane hangars that existed hundreds of years ago. Towards the back of the room were several stair cases leading to different floors on the rest of the ship where people were lining up to speak with the men in armor before separating out evenly.
The women released Artemis's hand and gave her a reassuring smile pointing to herself "My name is Ida Weber" Ida extended her hand in a welcoming gesture to Artemis "What is yours?"
"Artemis" she said gently taking Ida's hand and shaking it "Where are we Ida?" she asked.
"It's my understanding that this is the Titan, Anicetus. The first in the space station colonization program that has been in the works for hundreds of years." She replied
Anicetus is a large ship capable of holding thousands of people at once. The ship can be separated into three sections:
Section one (Living Quarters): The main center section of the ship. Shaped like a square with rounded corners the living quarters is built to be like a massive apartment complex. A section of the living quarters is used to house space crafts and large internal machines, below that are the large thrusters used to move the ship through space.
Section 2 (The Ring): The ring is attached by 3 long poles to the Living Quarters. Each pole consists of an elevator like structure to transfer people to the ring. Inside the ring you would find rooms such as a Cafeteria, Maintenance, ext.
Section 3 (The Bridge): Attached to the front of Living quarters, opposite of the ring, is a cone shaped structure which is considered the front of the ship. This is where the main AI exists, and the ship is piloted.
A voice boomed through the bay of the ship "All humans proceed to check in to be sent to your designated rooms." Ida noticed Artemis staring at her with a curious look waiting to see what she does, she felt a sudden motherly impulse overtake her and softly held Artemis's hand leading her forward towards the line. Artemis glanced at all the faces around her, the room smelled like burning clothing and smoke from the ashes of earth. Everyone had very little with them, they only had time to grab what they would carry. For Artemis that was almost nothing. She reached in her pocket and pulled out a small torn up leather wallet, inside was an old family picture of her mother and father holding her as a baby, 5 dollars and some change, her UNI ID card, and a small arrow head she had stolen from a gift shop during a field trip to a museum .
She though back to her field trip and began to realize that her school no longer existed, looking around she tried to find any type of familiar face from school but saw nothing. She wasn't even sure if anyone here was from her neighborhood, different races and different languages surrounded her. Quickly Artemis realized how lucky she was that Ida spoke English and gripped her hand tightly for reassurance.
The line was long and moving slowly, mainly due to the language barrier of some of the survivors and the men in armor. Artemis kept her eyes on the floor, lost in deep thought.
Ida glanced down at Artemis "How about we play a game?"
Artemis shook her head "I'm not in the mood for games…"
Ida smiled" c'mon it'll help us get to know each other, I'll ask you a question and you ask me one. I'll go first ok?" Ida thought for a moment "ah! How old are you?"
"Twelve." Artemis answered dully.
Ida gasped childishly "Wow such a grown young lady!" Giggling at the end; Artemis held back a small smile.
Ida gave her a playful shove "Now, you ask me a question."
Artemis stared up at Ida with a concentrated look on her face then looked at the other people around them "Where are you from?" she finally asked.
"That's a good question, I am from New Germany" New Germany was in the Eastern portion of Old Canada. Established over 600 years ago during the Modern Move when Old Canada opened their immigration systems to most of Europe to help refugees escape the brutal impacts of war.
"Wow really?" asked Artemis "But you don't have an accent."
Ida smiled "English was almost like a first language in New Germany." For a moment a sad look came to Ida's face and her gaze grew far. Artemis, embarrassed, looked away realizing how inappropriate the question was in this circumstance.
Ida opened her mouth to ask the next question but was cut off by a man in armor "What is your number?" he demanded atomically. "um...e-excuse me, what?" Ida smiled confused. The man pointed to the piece of tape on her clothing "Your number." He was very obviously annoyed.
Ida glanced at her clothing "ah! yes i am um...6714F" The man ripped a piece of paper off his note pad and handed it to her.
"floor 6 row F7, Next!"
Artemis glanced at her number "3178F..." she said as the man handed her a paper.
"Floor 3 row F1." he said as Artemis took the paper confused and looked at Ida.
Ida smiled nervously at Artemis "It's probably just our rooms." she stepped forward towards her stair case "Come find me when you get settled." She went to let go of Artemis's hand but felt a small tug while trying to do so. Glancing back at Artemis she saw fear in the child's eyes.
Artemis shook her head "I don't think we should split up."
Ida kneeled down on the ground and held Artemis's shoulders "Don't worry, here take this." She folded the paper and tucked it in the pocket of Artemis's pants "If I don't come to you, you come to me. Ok?"
Intuition: the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning.
Artemis stared into her new friend's eyes trying to project her intuition into her. But it was hopeless. Ida released Artemis's shoulders and patted her on the head "Maybe you'll get a bigger room than me!" she smiled before standing and turning to go up the stair case. Artemis watched every step Ida took as she went up the stairs, her pace seemed mockingly slow and deep-down Artemis knew something wasn't right; but how could a child convince an adult to understand.
Artemis turned towards her staircase and took a deep breath mustering up any strength she had left before taking the first step, then another, and another. She climbed with a crowed of people towards her floor clutching onto the railing with each step.
Every step created a loud clanking noise under her feet, eventually the sound synchronized with all the others around her and an ominous beat echoed through the metal staircase. Artemis kept her focus on the person in front of her, stepping with their rhythm. Their march forward into the unknown caused her nerves to spiral out of control, she felt anxiety well up inside of her as her hands grew sweaty and she struggled to keep a grip on the metal railing.
She approached a floor labeled "Floor 3" In front of her was a long dark hallway. She had no time to take in the situation or to turn back and return to her little corner in the carrier ship, the crowed of people forced her to keep moving.
Each wall in the hallway had a door labeled "A1, B1, C1, D1" she was ushered forward before approaching a door labeled "F1". The door stood ten-foot-high, which towered over Artemis considering she was only four and a half feet tall. Her feet felt glued to the floor as she scanned the door trying to find something wrong with it, but it was just a normal metal door. Artemis looked around at others entering their rooms attempting to peek inside to get an idea of what was ahead of her, but she was unsuccessful as each door quickly closed behind everyone.
"C'mon Artemis...it's just a door." she told herself and reached forward grabbing the cold handle with her small hands yanking it with all her strength and stepping inside.
The room was an eight by twelve room with dark metal walls and matching metal floors, as Artemis stepped into the room the door quickly shut behind her and made a locking noise. Her heart jumped, she quickly began to panic and grabbed the handle tugging on it violently
"Help!" she screamed banging her fist wildly on the door.
A deep mechanical voice bellowed through the room "Welcome human 3178F." Artemis froze with fear.
"I am the ships AI Anicetus, you are currently inside the cryochamber room." She turned slowly to finally look at the room. Inside there was a single window peering out into space and a large metal chamber with glass door, the chamber was making a whirring noise and was dimly lit blue inside.
"This ship has a destination for the closest habitable planet, the trip is approximately 110 years of travel. To ensure colonization you will be frozen during this period."
"F-freezing me?" Artemis shuddered at the thought "I don't want to be frozen!" she backed herself up into the closest corner staring at the cryochamber in fear.
The voice bellowed once again in the room "failure to comply will result in force, do you fail to comply?"
"Ida! hel-" Artemis went to scream but before she could finish wires shot from the cryochamber pulling her inside.
Anicetus's voice spoke once again "The fate of humanity rests in the hands of those who survived."
The glass door shut, Artemis breath grew faster; her heart raced in her chest as she pressed against the glass "someone help me!"
The chamber clanked and began humming, the sound of gas releasing could be heard and the pressure inside of the chamber began to drop causing Artemis's ears to uncomfortably pop. Artemis went to cover her ears but before she could a mask dropped from the ceiling of the chamber and suctioned itself to her face, she grabbed at it frantically trying to rip the mask off her skin.
"Please! Let me out!" her screams were muffled through the mask, tears streamed down her cheeks.
Gas began to enter the chamber starting at her feet, the sensation of piercing cold quickly rose up her legs. The feeling started as extreme pain but soon faded to numbness. Artemis threw her head back and sobbed loudly desperately hoping someone would come save her. The mask around her mouth began releasing a calming neurotoxin into her lungs. Her loud sobs grew silent and the room grew blurry, her breathing began to slow as her body slouched against the left wall of the chamber. Gas continued to rise through the chamber leaving behind a frozen shell on anything it touched, it moved over her torso and up her arms.
A voice began to echo in her head "Run Artemis."
Artemis exhaled a final hissing breath as the gas traveled up her face freezing the tears on her cheeks, Darkness soon followed.