Chapter 10 – The Beauty Of A New World
Antonia Sinclair was at work in the second level of the dropship, wiring a still active wristband into the ship's communication system. The others had made what repairs they could to the hardware and had gone off to explore outside, curious to see more of their new surroundings. Antonia stayed behind to work on the wristband herself and Monty stayed to help her. He was also telling her about what happened that morning at the river, and about Jasper.
"Jasper may not be my real brother, but he's always been there," Monty was saying. "Every memory I have, Jasper's right there with me." Monty stopped what he was doing and looked to the door, distracted. "I should be out there looking for him."
Antonia could see that Monty was conflicted, and she sympathized with him, really. But honestly, she had other things on her mind. "You're not going to cry, are you?" she asked.
"Shut up," Monty said good-naturedly, and then they both laughed. "Is it ready?"
"Yeah, let's try it now," Antonia said hopefully. The wristband was tied into the communication system and if it worked the way they had in mind then they should be able to transmit a signal from their communication system to the Ark via the wristband's signal. Given the wristband's limited ability they would not be able to speak, but they could send a tone through like old mores code to let the Ark know that they were there.
"Here goes nothing," said Monty and he turned the power for the communication system on while Antonia watched the monitor. For a moment she smiled hopefully as the signal they were trying to transmit strengthened. Then they heard a high-pitched whine and the wristband burst into smoke with a POP. Monty and Antonia jumped back waving the smoke out of their faces.
"What happened?" asked Monty, staring at the still smoking wristband.
"We didn't compensate for the power surge," Antonia said angrily, switching off the power. "The wristband can't handle the same amount of current that goes through the communication system."
"So…we need some kind of surge protector to stop it from overloading," said Monty.
"Yeah, that and another wristband," said Antonia, leaning against the wall and sliding down to sit on the floor, running her hand over her hair. Antonia didn't like the thought of that. Every wristband that was removed lessened the already slim chance of the Ark thinking it was safe to come down. And yet the only way to let them know that it really was safe was to try again with another wristband, which means that they needed another volunteer. There was no way in hell she was taking off her own wristband.
While Antonia was contemplating all this and Monty was checking the communication system for further damage, the hatch to the first level opened and Octavia come up. And she wasn't alone.
Octavia climbed into the second level and stepped back from the hatch to let the boy who was following her come up. She smiled at him; she didn't know his name, but he was cute. As he got to the top of the ladder, the boy was suddenly pulled back and fell down the ladder with a shout. "Get out of here!" someone shouted at him.
There were sounds of a struggle, and then someone coming up the ladder. This time it was Atom. He sat at the edge of the hatch with his legs hanging down through the opening.
Octavia smirked at him. "One of these days you'll realize you can't control me."
Atom wasn't interested in playing her games. "That guy you were with, did you know he was in for murder?" he asked, already knowing the answer. Octavia's smirk fell away. "The funny thing is I'm actually protecting him from you. Your brother wasn't kidding before. He'll hurt those guys you were talking to."
"Come on," Octavia complained. "You're too hot to be my brother's bitch."
"I'm nobody's bitch," Atom snapped, getting sick of her acting like some spoiled brat. He moved to go back down the ladder, pulling the hatch door closed behind him.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Octavia rushed forward but was too late to stop him. "What are you doing?! Hey, open the door!" she shouted banging on the door. She heard the lock move into place.
"Consider yourself controlled!" Atom shouted back.
"Is this all you've got?! They locked me under the floor for sixteen years just for being born!" Octavia stopped pounding on the door and looked around for something she could use. "This is nothing."
"Ahem," a voice said behind her. "Do you mind keeping it down?" Octavia spun around and saw Monty and Antonia working on one of the pieces of equipment in the dim emergency lights. "We're trying to work here," said Monty.
They should have left her under the floor, thought Antonia, Her and her brother. It was because of Bellamy that she might never see her parents again, and now because of Octavia, all three of them were locked in here, when Antonia could be getting the others to help fix their electrical problem – Ember was the electrician around here. With nothing else to do at the moment Octavia came over to see what they were working on and Antonia saw that she was still wearing her wristband. Maybe she could be useful after all.
XXXXX
Glass sighed as she pulled her light blonde hair into a messy side-ponytail. It was the middle of the afternoon and the sun was bearing down on them. She was following the group of people led by Kayla who had been heading out of camp saying that they were going to look for berries to eat. Camp was bustling with activity when they left, with people moving fallen trees, trying to clear out more space, chopping wood, starting work on the wall and arguing over the best way to build it. On top of being on edge from worrying about her friends for half the day and hoping that they all came back alright, Glass also found all the movement, commotion and disorder in camp to be disorienting. When she saw the group leaving Glass decided to tag along since they weren't going too far from camp, and it was doing no good to stay put worrying.
Glass trailed along at the back of the group as Kayla led them to the grove where she and Thalia had gathered berries this morning. Coming up to the spot Glass began to take in more of her surroundings. It was astounding. The bushes growing around them were decorated with patches of berries growing on them and flowers of various hues of colour like perfectly made natural ornaments. Glass gasped, drawing in a breath and was struck by how sweet the air smelled. Hearing a noise above her she looked up and saw a group of birds take off from the trees and fly up into the sky.
The sky; they all grew up living in the sky. But down here, looking up to the sky from the ground was something else entirely. It seemed so vast and open, almost unknowable, as if it were impossible to reach. Glass felt a wave of vertigo and closed her eyes for a moment and taking a deep breath, trying to feel more grounded. This place was incredibly, and despite the unknown dangers around them, it was beautiful. But also off-putting, disorienting; There was so much of everything, all of it so strange, screaming at her senses all at once.
"Agoraphobia," Glass heard someone say. She opened her eyes to see Tandoori looking at her, "The fear of wide-open spaces, or uncontrollable or unfamiliar situations or people. Is that what you're feeling?"
"I don't have a phobia," said Glass softly.
Tandoori nodded, "Just anxiety then. Is that why you've barely said a word to anyone other than your friends since we got here?" Tandoori didn't wait for her to answer before saying, "Come on, are you going to help or not?"
Glass followed Tandoori to where the others were picking berries to take back to their friends still in camp. She took one of the bags that they were filling and started picking berries as well, careful not to break them. After a while the rhythmic movement and listening to the easy chatter of the people around her who were enjoying the simple task allowed Glass to relax. The sun on her face (something new to all of them) and the sweet-smelling breeze helped to melt away some of the tension that she'd been carrying all day. It was actually pleasant out here, away from the noise and shouting in camp.
Glass started humming to herself; before she knew it, she was singing softly, a song that they all knew from home. She looked up when she heard someone else join in – a girl with thick dark hair pulled into a ponytail at the top of her head and a pair of goggles on her forehead. Her voice was a little off key, but she sang joyfully. They smiled at each other and they kept singing while the others listened to the two voices blending together in a beautiful melody. When the song was over they were met with applause by the others. Glass tucked her hair behind her ear shyly.
"Hi. I'm Blondie," the other girl said with a laugh in her voice. Glass looked at her raven black hair questioningly, "It's better than my real name. Trust me."
"I remember you, you know," Tandoori said to Glass. "You sang in the Unity Day pageant five years ago."
"You remember that?" Glass asked surprised. She remembered singing in the pageant when she was twelve. She loved to sing, but she'd been so nervous that she'd almost refused to, and the only reason she had was because Wells encouraged her to. He told her people loved hearing her sing.
"They called you the little girl with the big voice," Tandoori replied.
"You remember that?"
"Tandy remembers everything," Blondie said.
"Listen," Glass whispered looking up to the trees above them where faintly musical sounds were coming down to them. "Do you hear that?" The others looked up and saw black and white feathered shaped flitting through the leaves. Listening closely, they heard a familiar melody echoing above them.
"Do that again," said Tandoori. "Sing something else."
Glass looked up to the trees and sang a few notes. They waited for a moment and laughed when they heard the same notes repeated back to them. Blondie whistled a short tune and got the same result as the small birds echoed it back to them. It seemed they had more of an audience than they thought. They continued to play their little game for a while, to everyone's amusement, until the others were ready to return to camp.
As they were leaving the grove, the birds that had been echoing their songs rose up into the air in a small swarm. The birds flew in sync with each other as they swirling above them, raising their voices in chorus as if saying goodbye for now.
XXXXX
"You sure you want to do this?" Monty asked Octavia. He was sitting with Octavia who had her arm held out for him to remove her wristband. "Your brother won't approve of you helping us contact the Ark."
"No offence Octavia, but your brother's an idiot," Antonia said as she paced the room.
Octavia didn't argue with her. "Just do it."
Monty worked a tool under the wristband and carefully pried at the line where it closed. Octavia winced; Monty put more pressure on it and the wristband clicked open.
"Ow!" Octavia cried out rubbing her wrist.
"Sorry," said Monty. He looked down at the wristband in his hand. The small light on the inside sensor that showed if it was still active blinked and went out. "Damn it," Monty slumped back against the wall, "It's dead."
"How are you supposed to turn it into a radio if you can't even take it off?" Octavia asked.
Antonia snatched up the now useless wristband from Monty's hand and threw it against the wall with a shout of frustration. It broke in half, the pieces clattering to the floor.
"Hey, take it easy," Octavia said, standing up.
"Easy?" Antonia said harshly, turning on her. "Those of you who are orphans, you have my sympathy. But my family is still up there, and I actually would like to see them again. Because of your brother that might never happen, so don't tell me to take it easy!" With those last words, she pushed Octavia back from her against the wall.
"Hey," said Monty. "Come on, Antonia. It's not her fault."
Antonia turned away from them and stalked to the other side of the room. Her anger drained away as she leaned against the wall and slid down to the floor, putting her head in her hands. Octavia was torn between lashing back at her, and trying to find some way to help. But she couldn't think of any way to make Antonia feel better. Before any of them had a chance to say anything else, the hatch was pushed open and Atom's head popped up. He scanned the room for Octavia and when his eyes found her, he nodded and disappeared back down the ladder.
"Go on," Monty said to Octavia. "We've got work to do here."
Octavia moved toward the hatch, ruffling Monty's hair as she passed him. Before going down the ladder she turned back to Monty.
"Hey Monty," she said, "Jasper would understand why you stayed behind."
Monty looked at her and smiled gratefully. "How is someone raised beneath the floor not a total basket case?"
"Who says I'm not?" Octavia replied teasingly.
When she came down the ladder to the first level, Atom was there waiting for her, leaning against the wall. "It's because he loves you," he said, "Your brother. The reason you're not a basket case is because you were loved."
"Yeah, I'm a lucky girl."
"I'm not saying I had it worse than you Octavia, because I didn't," Atom said coming towards her. "But you have someone who would do anything for you. I envy that."
Octavia had never thought of any part of her life as something to envy. She'd grown up hidden away under the floor paneling in her family's living quarters, always living in fear that the guards or inspectors would find her. And then they did. But Atom was right – for sixteen years her brother and mother had loved and protected her.
Octavia thought about Annabeth, the first friend she'd ever had. When they'd been talking all day yesterday Annabeth had avoided anything about her family. She didn't want to talk about her parents…and it wasn't just because they were dead. When Annabeth told her that her parents were dead, Octavia had said 'sorry', because that's what people say. Annabeth had looked at her and said, "Don't be. I'm not." That was the only time Octavia had seen Annabeth look less than cheerful. Octavia guessed that in some way, she was lucky. Her brother had come down to Earth, just for her; she still had family, which was more than anyone else here could say.
Atom nodded towards the door, and they both walked outside, passing Glass on her way in. Glass walked into the dropship and climbed the ladder to the second level where Monty and Antonia had been at work since the others left that morning. When she came through the hatch she found Monty tinkering with one of the machines. Antonia was sitting against the far wall with her head leaned back, her hand turning over the pendant that she wore on a necklace, apparently deep in thought.
"Hi Monty," Glass said, going up to him.
"Hey," he responded with a small smile.
Glass pulled a small bag with berries out of her pocket and held it out to him, "Thought I should bring you something."
"What is it?" he asked.
Opening the bag and seeing the berries inside his smile widened. He grew up on Farm Station and knew that these sweet treats were good to eat. He poured out a handful of the small red treats and stuffed them into his mouth at once. He mumbled 'thanks' with a full mouth. Glass smiled back at him, and then glanced over at Antonia. The dark-haired girl's expression was strained; her different coloured eyes – one blue, one green – were troubled.
"Is Antonia okay?" Glass asked.
Monty swallowed down the sweet and slightly tart mouthful of berries before answering. "She's just worried," he said.
"About what? Contacting the Ark?"
"Everything," Monty explained. "Her dad's the head of engineering. He'd be the one monitoring the wristbands. She wants to talk to him." Monty had been recruited to engineering, not as early as Antonia, but he had worked under her father, and he and Antonia had known each other a little bit on the Ark. Glass looked from Monty to Antonia, and then started towards her.
"Careful," Monty said softly behind her. "She's about ready to bite someone's head off."
"Hey," Glass said tentatively as she stopped in front of Antonia. She held the berries out to her. "I brought something to eat."
Antonia put a hand against her forehead and looked up at Glass. "I'm not hungry," she said curtly.
"That's not what Monty said," Glass muttered.
"Yeah?" said Antonia. She shot a glare to where Monty was watching their exchange. He quickly turned back to his work when she caught him looking. "What else did Monty say?"
"That your dad is up there, monitoring the wristbands and you're worried about him." Glass sat down against the wall next to Antonia. "My mom is up there too," said Glass. "It was supposed to be visiting day today, wasn't it?"
Antonia nodded. "The council's probable giving the people some bogus excuse for why they can't see their kids, like maybe sickness in Prison Station or something."
"My mom's probably worried sick," said Glass. "But at least your dad knows where you are."
"For all the good that does," Antonia said morosely.
"Why are you here?" Glass asked. Antonia looked at her with an eyebrow raised. Most people knew the rumors about why she was arrested. "I mean…why did they send you to Earth?" Glass amended. "Someone as smart as you, who can do what you did…It just seems like they would want to keep you around."
"You'd think so," said Antonia. "When I hacked into the Ark-net, I accessed some restricted files. I knew the council was hiding something, and I wanted to know what. And I found information about the oxygen crisis." Glass nodded. It sounded like Antonia had been imprisoned for the same reason that Clarke had – too much information. Antonia continued, "And that they were planning on sending the juvenile prisoners to Earth."
"What?" Glass said surprised, "You knew they were sending us here?"
"Yeah, I don't like secrets. They bug me," Antonia said. "That's why I've been locked up in solitary for the last year. I was just a girl who knew too much." She huffed out a breath, "Too smart for my own good. Ironic isn't it."
Glass considered what Antonia said, and it sounded like the young technician related better to machines than people. If Antonia had been in solitary for a year, then she wouldn't have gotten the chance to know anyone else in the Skybox. She might know a few people, like Monty, from before she was arrested, but she hadn't had the chance to make friends.
XXX
Flashback: five years ago
Twelve-year-old Iris Glass was sitting in a corner in an empty hallway with her knees drawn up to her chest. She'd just left school, and was hiding away from her classmates after some of them had been teasing her about her father leaving. She knew that her parents had been fighting for a long time now. She'd heard them arguing at night after she went to bed. She'd kept hoping that they would work it out, and that things would change…But they never did.
.
Daddy, please stop yelling, I can't stand the sound. Make Mama stop crying 'cause I need you around
I hear glasses breaking as I sit up in my bed. I hope that you didn't mean those nasty things you said
.
Until just a few weeks ago, when she'd come home to find her father gone and her mother crying in their living room. He'd left to move in with some other woman that Iris had never met. Affairs were nothing new, but moving out was drastic, given the regulations on housing storage. Since then, Iris and her mother Sonja had had to move out of their flat, since two people couldn't occupy a flat meant for three, to a much smaller living quarters on a different deck – Which meant that Iris had had to move away from her friends. That was probably just as well, since her friends didn't stay her friends with the scandal surrounding her family. These days Iris found herself walking to and from school alone, keeping her head down, trying not to be noticed. It wasn't the teasing that bothered her, as much as the fact that it was her friend – former friend – Roma doing most of the teasing.
Iris didn't feel she could talk to her mother about it though. Her mom had enough to deal with as it was. Now, without her father's seemingly endless income of credits and ration points, Sonja had had to sell most of her possessions at the exchange in the Redistribution Center, and was scraping by just to keep the lights on in their home and more than protein paste in their cabinet.
.
Mama, please stop crying, I can't stand the sound. Your pain is painful and it's tearing me down
I ran away today, ran from the noise, ran away
Don't want to go back to that place but don't have no choice, no way
.
Iris had been relieved to find this empty hallway, somewhere to just sit and be alone for a few minutes. She wasn't ready to go home, where her mother would be trying to hide how sad she was. Sonja tried to pretend that things were okay, to hide the hurt that she felt, but her daughter saw it anyway. And it hurt to see it. Her father hadn't just left Sonja, he'd left Iris too. He hadn't tried to speak to his daughter or see her since he walked out that day, gone before she even got back from school, without so much as a goodbye. Though that shouldn't have surprised her. Her father had never really wanted her. And he'd taken every chance to remind her of that.
.
In our family portrait we look pretty happy. Let's play pretend, act like it comes naturally
I don't want to have to split the holidays. I don't want two addresses
I don't want a stepmother anyways and I don't want my mom to have to change her last name!
.
"Hey," a voice close to her made Iris stiffen.
It was a boy. Glass kept her head down and sniffed back her tears. Letting them see her cry only made things worse; if she ignored him maybe he would go away and leave her alone. No such luck. She heard footsteps coming closer, and a pair of shoes stopped beside her, shoes made from the good kind of material, the kind that she and her mother could no longer afford.
"Are you okay?" the boy asked.
Iris looked up since it seemed like he wasn't going away. She gasped softly, and the boy saw her bright green eyes open wide. She knew who he was: Wells Jaha, the Chancellor's son. He was in the class above hers in school. Unlike the kids she had stopped in this empty corridor to avoid, Wells wasn't looking at her mockingly. He only looked concerned.
"What's wrong?" he asked again. That note of concern in his voice almost undid her, and a few tears leaked from her eyes. Now she really wished that he would go away; she didn't want him to see her cry.
Twelve-year-old Wells stood there awkwardly, not sure what to do. The girl's bright green eyes swam with tears that ran down her face. A very pretty face surrounded by shiny, light blonde hair. He could walk away and leave her there, but that didn't seem right. He didn't know what to do about a crying girl. But maybe he knew someone who did. He reached down and took her hand.
"Come on," Wells said to her gently.
Iris was too surprised to protest as he pulled her to her feet. He even picked up her bag for her and put it over his shoulder along with his – Wells' mother had always taught him to be nice to girls. Iris wiped her eyes and followed him as he led her down the corridor. She didn't say anything, not even to ask where they were going, as he pulled her along. She almost had to jog to keep up as he forgot that his legs were longer than hers. Finally they stopped at a door. Wells held his ID tag around his neck up to the scanner and it opened.
Iris hesitated to follow him inside. Feeling the pull on his hand as she stopped, Wells looked back at her. "It's okay," he said reassuringly.
He smiled at her, and Iris couldn't help but smile back. She followed him inside. It was somebody's living quarters, bigger than the place she'd had with her mother and father, before… "What took you so long?" a voice said impatiently.
Iris saw two girls who were sitting on a couch. One of them, a girl with blonde hair like Iris' and blue eyes had her vid-screen for school work propped up in front of her. The other girl looked part Asian, with long dark hair pulled back into two French-braids. They were the same age, but the dark-haired girl looked older than twelve. Her vid-screen was off, lying flat on the table, and she was lounging on the couch like she had either done all her work already, or couldn't be bothered to do it. She was the one who had spoken. Both of the girls looked at Iris with interest.
"I found someone," Wells announced proudly. "She's gonna work with us today." Turning to Iris, Wells said, "These are my friends. They can be your friends now too. This is Clarke," he said pointing to the blonde, blue eyed girl.
"Hi," Clarke smiled brightly and waved a hand. Iris smiled back at her warm welcome.
"And that's Emily," Wells continued.
Glass' eyes opened wider as she recognized the girl's name. "You're Councilor Kane's daughter," she blurted out.
Emily's look of interest turned into a scowl as she stood up and crossed her arms. The smile sipped off Iris' face at the way this girl looked at her, like she was an intruder, or a bug that she would like to step on. But Emily didn't object as Wells led Iris over to join them.
"This is…" Wells' voice trailed off as he realized that he didn't know what to say. He recognized Iris from school vaguely, but he didn't know her name.
"What, she doesn't have a name?" said Emily.
Emily was taller than her but Iris lifted her chin and met the other girl's bold gaze with one of her own. "Iris," she said, "Iris Glass."
Emily smirked at her, looking down on Iris like she was something she wanted to break, "Nice to meet you, Glass."
XXX
Glass had found her friends – or more accurately, they had found her – when she needed them most. Now it looked like Antonia needed a friend. She glanced around the ship at the hammocks that were strung up where those who had preferred to sleep inside had spent the night. She would bet that Antonia had been one of them.
"Have you been outside?" Glass asked.
"Of course," said Antonia, "I went out with everyone else when we landed."
"No, I mean after that," said Glass. Antonia looked at her blankly. "There's a lot to see out there."
"Nature," Antonia said the word like it left a bad taste in her mouth. She shook her head. "Not my thing."
"How do you know if you haven't tried it?" said Glass.
Antonia considered her for a moment, but didn't reply. Honestly, she didn't want to go out there. She had spent her whole life immersed in technology, even more so than anyone else here. She'd been recruited to engineering at age twelve; she'd been building computers since she was three. It was what she knew, what she was good at, how she was useful. What could she do out there in a forest?
Glass got to her feet. "Come with me. I want to show you something."
Antonia looked at her doubtfully, and then decided, what the hell? Until she thought up a solution to the problem – which she would! – she had nothing better to do. Antonia took the hand that Glass offered and let the other girl help her up. As she stood Glass saw that Antonia was a head taller than her, with long slender legs and a willowy frame. Her black hair was pulled back into a messy braid with locks hanging loose, framing her face as though she couldn't be bothered to fix it. Her blue and green eyes gave her an exotic look. Antonia was the kind of person who was pretty without realizing it, with too many other thoughts going through her head.
Antonia followed Glass down the ladder and out of the ship. She blinked, holding up a hand to shield her eyes, as she stepped out into the bright sunlight. Glass led Antonia along the path that she'd taken earlier. The songbirds had made Glass feel better; maybe it would help Antonia too, if she could open her eyes and allow herself to see beyond a computer screen, to some of the beauty of this new world, so unlike anything they'd ever experienced before. She just needed someone to show it to her.
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On The Ark: The Mess Hall
"Attention. The mess hall will be closed from 2100 hours to 0800 hours for maintenance. Attention. The mess hall will be closed from 2100 hours…"
The announcement went out over the comm. system. Cece barely heard it as she was in conversation with the chief guard of Alpha Station, Sargent David Miller.
"The count is at 24 dead," Cece was telling him. "They're working on trying to reestablish communications, but..." She trailed off as a group of civilians walked passed them coming out of the mess hall.
"Are they sure it's radiation?" Sargent Miller asked once the civilians were out of earshot.
"Difficult to say," said Cece. "The wristbands tell us if the kids are in distress, but not what's causing it." She glanced at his worried face. "Your son is still alive Sargent," Cece said to him. "I checked the board just an hour ago."
Sargent Miller gave her half a smile, grateful for that information, and the parted ways as he turned down a different corridor and she entered the mess hall. Miller was one of the few parents of The 100 who were in the know about where their children had been sent, where his son was now – the general population had been told that there was no visitation because there was a virus in Prison Station and it had to be quarantined. Miller, and a few of those other parents, had helped her pack some supplies into the drops ship before the launch, when the council would have sent them with nothing. It had been a risk, but they'd given the kids what little they could: camping gear, blankets, tents, torches…weapons.
Cece had managed to get to Emily and tell her daughter where the sword that she'd trained with for years was hidden in the third level of the dropship before she'd been taken away to board the ship. Emily would have it to protect herself. She just hoped that the reason the wristband signals were dropping wasn't because the kids were killing each other with those weapons.
Cece spotted Abby, and her assistant Jackson, in the line where their ID chips were scanned and their rations distributed and moved to join them. "Abby," she said in greeting, "Jackson."
"Officer Kane," Jackson returned. Cece half smiled at him. The young doctor always spoke so formally to her or any other officer for that matter, even in their off-time.
Abby smiled at her friend, but the smile didn't reach her eyes, and worry lines tightened Abby's face. Cece could understand why she would be feeling stressed. At the meeting today, the council was going to decide on their next course of action. Cece was not a council member and so wasn't party to their meetings. But she knew the matter that was up for debate: whether or not more lives needed to be sacrificed to preserve the Ark.
While waiting for the line to move, Cece looked around the mess hall. At the far side of the room she spotted her husband. Marcus Kane was deep in conversation with some of his fellow councilors. Cece knew that he was for the plan of culling the Ark's population to save oxygen and he was making his case with the other council members. She turned away. Things had been strained between her and Marcus since Abby's near execution – she had avoided going back to their living quarters at all last night.
"Are you alright?" Abby asked in concern.
"Marcus has been lobbying for votes all day," said Cece.
"How are things between you two?" asked Abby. Cece ignored the question, moving her tray down the line. Abby smiled sympathetically, "That bad, huh?"
"You should be campaigning for votes, too," Cece said, changing the subject.
"She's right Abby," Jackson put in.
"We'll have our chance at the briefing," said Abby.
"Excuse me, Dr. Griffin." Abby and Cece both looked around at the young woman with light brown skin and brown hair in a red jacket who came up to them. "I have a question about the quarantine. My boyfriend's in lockup. I went to go see him. Instead, I saw an open air duct. Now, if there really was a virus, wouldn't you move to contain the airflow?"
"The virus isn't airborne," said Abby. Years on the council made the lie roll easily off her tongue. "That's why the ducts are open."
"Can you at least tell me if he's okay?" she asked. Her concern and worry in her voice were also easy to see in her warm brown eyes.
"I can't. I'm sorry," said Abby.
"No, you're not." The young woman's expression hardened and she dropped the carefully respectful tone. "First the dropship, now this," she shook her head; it was easy to see she wasn't buying into the council's latest bullshit. "The council's hiding something, and I'm gonna find out what it is!"
With that, the irate girl turned and stalked away. Cece hid a smile; it took nerve to talk to a councilor like that. She liked it, the honesty in it.
"Ballsy kid," Jackson commented.
"Her name is Raven Reyes," said Cece. "She works in mechanics. Sinclair says she's brilliant. She's the youngest mechanic to pass the Zero-G course in fifty-two years." Part of Cece's job was monitoring aptitude and IQ tests that were required in the school – it was part of her job to know who had the greatest potential to be an asset to their society.
"She remind you of anyone?" said Abby. She and Cece both smiled; Raven Reyes seemed like someone Emily and Clarke would get along with.
.
Author's Note: The song lyrics in this chapter are from Family Portrait by P!nk