Sorry for the little delay... I had a really busy weekend, and schoolwork is overwhelming right now... anyway... here's a chapter for you!
Chapter 28
Six years and 6 days in space…
"ELIGIUS to Circle Space ship, over," the voice resonated in the Com Room. It was the first voice they heard on the radio since Clarke. Raven and Bellamy exchanged a look.
Bellamy nodded and Raven took the radio. "Ark Station to ELIGIUS, we hear you, over."
"My name is Robert McCreary," the male voice said. "We're on our way down to Earth. Can we dock on your Space ship? Over."
Raven made a face and the others shrugged. "Why? Over." Raven said.
"We just want to make sure you guys are okay before landing… Over."
Bellamy raised an eyebrow in confusion. Why would they want to know that? And how did they know they were here? Bellamy took the radio from Raven. "How many of you are there? Over," he asked, instead.
"A few dozens. We're miners. We've been asleep for a hundred years. Over."
Bellamy thought for a moment, all eyes on him.
"Bell," Jane said, breaking the silence. "They might be our ride back home."
Bellamy looked at Jane with so much love in his eyes and he smiled. "You're right." He turned to Raven. "Where can they dock?"
She raised an eyebrow and thought for a second. "Hangar B. It's the only one left, anyway."
He nodded. "ELIGIUS, are you still there? Over."
"Yes."
"You can dock on Hangar B, on the other side from where you are. We'll be waiting for you. Over."
"Thank you, Ark Station. Over and out."
Bellamy put the radio down. "Let's go meet them." Then he paused. "Wait a minute. How did we answer since our emitters are fried?"
"No idea," Raven said. Maybe it's not radio… satellite?"
"But we don't even know who they are," Harper said.
"Maybe not," Bellamy said, heading for the door. "But Jane's right. If they can take us to the ground, we better make friends fast."
"But what about our rocket?"
Raven chuckled. "If we can go to the Ground with them, we have a much better chance of surviving. Come on, let's go meet them."
The eleven members of Skaikru 2.0 walked all the way to Hangar B to greet the newcomers. Their spaceship was huge. Once they were sure the ship was inside the Docking station in Hangar B, Raven closed the door. They waited for the pressure to stabilize, and then waved at the newcomers. Their ship door hissed open, revealing dozens of heads. A bearded man walked down the walkway, and the group behind him followed.
Bellamy tried to count them, but there was much more than just a couple dozen people.
"Greetings," the man said, coming over to the group waiting near the door. "I'm Robert McCreary." He held out his hand for shaking.
Raven and Bellamy exchanged a look. Bellamy held out his hand, too. "Bellamy Blake," he said, introducing himself. He lifted an eyebrow and stared at the man. "Where the hell did you come from?"
"Like I said on the radio, we're miners and we've been asleep for a hundred years."
"But where?" Bellamy asked again.
"Wait a minute," Raven said. "I heard Abby and Jackson talk about Nightblood miners sent in space." She frowned. "You're all criminals."
"Unfortunately, yes," Robert said. "We were part of the Asteroid Mining Penal Colony. Once our sentence done, we were supposed to sleep until now. We woke up pretty much at the same time, three months ago, and we've been traveling towards Earth since then. We were about to head to Earth when we saw light on your ship."
Bellamy chuckled. "You'd have come tomorrow, we would have been gone already. We're packing."
"You have something to get down?"
"Yeah-"
"No," Raven said, cutting Bellamy. "Actually, we don't. We did, but we don't have enough Hydrazine to go back. It would have been a free fall into the water, and hoping for the best."
"Oh, wow. Come with us, then," Robert offered, a smile on his face.
"Yeah, thanks," Raven said.
"Wait, we need to talk about it," Bellamy said, using his head like Clarke told him to. "Give us just a minute." Robert nodded and Bellamy lead his group out of earshot, down the hall. "Guys, what do you think? Should we go with them or try Raven's rocket?"
Raven rolled her eyes. "It's obvious, isn't it? Their ship is way better than ours. We have a chance of not making it with my rocket and-"
"But what about your simulations?" Monty asked.
"A lot of things can go wrong in real life."
"Jane?" Bellamy said, turning to his wife. "What do you think? You said they could be our ride home."
She shrugged, unsure now. "I don't know. I don't really feel like trusting them. They're all pretty serious criminals…"
Murphy laughed. "Jane, stop being a wuss. We're just going down to Earth, and then every man for himself."
"Every man for himself?" Emori repeated.
Murphy rolled his eyes. "Every group for himself, if you prefer. We just use the ride."
"Harper? Monty? Echo?" Bellamy asked.
They shrugged. "I'm with Murphy," Monty said.
"Okay let's vote," Bellamy said. "All in favor say Aye," he said, raising his hand. Raven, Murphy, Emori, Monty and Harper followed, saying Aye. "All opposed say Nay." Jane and Echo said Nay. "The vote decided," Bellamy said, looking apagogically at Jane and Echo. "We're going with them."
Bellamy went back to Hangar B, followed by his crew, and was met with the whole ELIGIUS ship crew waiting on the deck. "Oh, wow, there are a lot of you guys."
"A hundred," Robert said. "But there is room for another dozen. How many are you?"
"Eight adults and three kids."
"Been busy," Robert said, winking at Bellamy. "How long have you been here?"
"Six years," Raven said. "And eager to get back down."
A young man with brown skin and curly hair from the ELIGIUS crew laughed. "Try one hundred years," he called out.
"I don't want to boast or anything, but we stayed a hundred years on this ship, too, before going back to the Ground, and then back up," Monty said.
"Okay," Jane said, Persephone on her hip, taking a step in between the two groups. "Let's stop this little fight right here." She looked at Robert. "When's the last time you ate?"
He shrugged. "Can't remember, honestly, we were genetically modified to not need food for a one hundred years sleep."
She frowned. "And you've been travelling for three months. You must be hungry. Come on." She beckoned the newcomers to follow her, and she lead the group to the dining room. She ordered Echo, Emori, Monty and Harper to harvest all the algae that was left to harvest.
"This is going to be our last meal up here, so harvest everything. We have 111 mouths to feed tonight."
Bellamy quickly caught up with her. "What are you doing?" he whispered. "We were supposed to take that food down with us, and eat it until we found food down there."
"Clarke survived for six years, there's food. Don't worry about that."
He frowned. "How do you know Clarke's still alive?"
"Monty heard her several times since Raven fixed the radio." She waved the thought away. "Look, we have some other priorities right now than taking food down to the Ground."
"Yeah? Like what?" he hissed, getting a little angry.
"Like being nice to our guests," she whispered.
He rolled his eyes. "I thought you didn't trust them," he whispered back.
She quickly looked over her shoulder, send a smile to Robert and his crew, and leaned close to Bellamy, whispering. "I don't. but Murphy's right. We need the ride. Once we're on the Ground, it's every group for itself, and we find Clarke."
Bellamy raised an eyebrow. "I can't believe you just mentioned Clarke twice in the last minute. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." She rolled her eyes and stopped in front of the dining room. "I'm afraid we don't have a hundred chairs or places to sit, but it's all we can offer." She smiled to their hundred guests as they filed inside the room.
The young man who had spoken earlier from the crew passed in front of Jane and smirked. "I'm Zeke Shaw," he said. "And you are?"
"My wife," Bellamy said with a forced smile, looping his arm around Jane's shoulders. "Move along."
Zeke Shaw lifted his hands in mock surrender. "Chill, man. I just wanted to know the name of our host." He backed away and followed the others filing into the room. The ELIGIUS miners sat wherever they could – chairs, sofas, floor – and a few minutes later, the harvesters came back with crates full of algae. It was raw and unseasoned, but it would have to do. They didn't have anything else to offer, anyway. They passed the food along, and everyone ate whatever they were given.
Once everyone was full – or as much as they could – Robert, Zeke, and another blonde woman called Charmaine Diyoza talked with Bellamy, Raven and Monty about the trip back to Earth.
"We saw a small green spot on Earth, and this is our best chance of surviving. 96% of the Earth is dead and not survivable," Raven said, showing them the screen.
Robert's eyebrows shot up to his hairline. "What the hell happened? Last time we were on Earth, everything was doing great."
Bellamy and Monty exchanged a look. "A.L.I.E happened," Monty said. "But we'll catch you up on everything on the trip to Earth."
"We need to leave in an hour," Raven said, "if we don't want to miss the green spot."
"Okay," Robert said. "I'll order my crew to board the ship. Be ready in thirty minutes." Bellamy nodded and the three people from the Prisoner's ship walked away to board everyone.
Bellamy took a deep breath. "All right. This is it. We're going home." His voice caught in his throat, being emotional and all.
Raven chuckled. "Yes, we are." She walked away and headed to her room she shared with Murphy and started packing. So did Bellamy and Jane, Monty and Harper with Jasper, and Echo and Emori.
Thirty minutes later, Skaikru 2.0 joined the ELIGIUS crew on Deck B in the Hangar and they were invited inside. Bellamy held Jane's hand tightly, with Atticus on his hip and Persephone on Jane's hip. They walked together in the miner's ship as a family. Monty and Harper followed with Jasper Junior. Then came the two Grounders-turned-Skaikru, and Murphy and Raven brought up the rear, a remote control for the Hangar door in her hands.
Once they were all in, one of the miners closed the door that hissed before shutting completely. The engines roared, Raven opened the Hangar door and they flew away. The kids were strapped in first in spare seats, and the others strapped themselves wherever they could. They were making good time. Monty and Raven were telling their story to Robert.
When suddenly, out of nowhere…
"Bellamy, if you can hear me, you're alive," a very familiar voice came through the speakers in the ELIGIUS ship. Bellamy looked all around him, trying to find the source of the voice. "It's been 2199 days since Praimfaya. I don't know why I still do this every day. Maybe it's my way of staying sane…" Bellamy looked frantically around him. Robert was smirking, observing Bellamy in his obvious weakness. "Not forgetting who I am… who I was." Pause. Everyone was listening, and looking at Bellamy. "It's been safe for you to come down for over a year, now. Why haven't you?" Another pause. "The bunker's gone silent, too. We tried digging them out for a while, but… there was too much rubble. I haven't made contact with them, either." Long pause.
"Seize them!" Robert ordered. Fifteen people jumped from their seats and jumped on Skaikru 2.0, tying them up in their seats. Atticus, Jasper and Persephone started crying, noticing that something was wrong with their parents."
"Don't touch my kids!" Jane cried out.
Charmaine, the blond woman, stood next to them. "We're not going to hurt them," she said. But Jane didn't trust her. She knew she couldn't trust them. But no one, not even Bellamy, had listened to her. And now he was too shocked by Clarke's message for him to care about what was happening to himself, his family, or his people.
"Anyway, I still have hope," Clarke continued over the radio. Everyone became silent again, listening to what she was saying. "Tell Raven to aim for he one spot of green, and you'll find me. The rest of the planet, from what I've seen, basically sucks. So…"
"Thanks, Princess," Robert said.
Just then, Jane felt the ship going through the Earth's atmosphere, and they started to slow their descent.
"Never mind, I see you." There was so much hope in Clarke's voice that Bellamy broke down, sobbing. There was nothing he could do. He was once again a prisoner.
