Do You Dream of Terra-Two?

Astrid looked at the old cosmonaut. Fae had given him an oxygen tank, with a cannula that ran under his nose. He was already only surviving with the use of one lung; the plummeting temperature and oxygen pressure was sure to kill him soon. Astrid could not help the uncharitable thought that they would run out of all their supplies of medical oxygen sooner with Igor using it. The sound of his breathing made her wince, the sticky sound of fluid filling lungs, the muscles in his neck straining every time he inhaled. He, of course, had always known he was never going to make it to Terra-Two.

‘How can you bear it?’ Astrid asked, tears streaming down her face. ‘Never going? How could Tessa?’

Igor looked at her as if she’d asked a foolish question, his eyes widened in surprise. ‘You don’t need to go there, to go there.’ Astrid looked at the old man quizzically. ‘This place, Terra-Two. This country that you dream of, that Tessa dreamt of. Perhaps you don’t need to touch the ground, to smell the air.’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘Perhaps that’s what this new religion of yours is all about. New Creationists. Perhaps this thing you feel, this hope, this belief, is the only thing that you need. It is – what’s the word? – transcendent.’

JUNO

WHENEVER SHE FELL ASLEEP time flew by.

The first night, she opened her eyes to see the solar system in miniature, the Earth cast in brass, spinning around the sun on spokes. It was Solomon Sheppard’s armillary sphere, and in her fever it looked as if the sun itself was shining. She was in his old bedroom. Then in the infirmary where he had died.

When she awoke next, she was in a plastic tent. A hyperbaric chamber. Juno knew that if she could just work up the energy to roll onto her side she would find a clock on the far wall and then she’d be able to anchor herself a little in time. She would talk herself into it, steel herself for the task, but she’d drift back to sleep before she managed it. Finally, she gave up trying to move her limbs or to lift her eyelids and she tried to guess the time by the sounds on the ship. The muffled thump of footsteps outside, the voices of the others in the kitchen, Fae rushing in and out of the room, taking her temperature, scribbling notes.

Once she managed to cry out Astrid’s name, her voice a pathetic rasp, and she felt a hand in hers, cool and firm.

‘I’m here,’ her sister would say, and Juno had never been so grateful.

‘What’s wrong with me?’ she asked.

‘The thing that’s wrong with all of us. We’re running out of air,’ Astrid said, and Juno felt a tear splash against her wrist.

The pain, which came and went, made her cry out and clutch at her head – she thought someone was forcing a screwdriver through her temples.

Juno drifted in and out of technicolour interstellar dreams. She thought about God. Once, in class, her French teacher had pointed to ‘le ciel’ and said, ‘You know, where they used to believe heaven was.’ Juno had asked in shock ‘Where do they think it is now?’ She’d been on the edge of her seat at this new revelation.

‘Where has it gone?’ she asked. ‘Where is it now?’

‘I’m here, Juno,’ said Astrid and Jesse, each holding a hand as she gasped in pain. This pain, it would grind the bones in her skull to salt.

Her mind was a kaleidoscope of fantasy.

Unhinged questions.

Why had Juno never wondered where all the gods disappeared to?

In astronomy, Jupiter was only a quiet giant in the sky, big enough to hold over 1,000 Earths but not as solid as one. She had never wondered what had happened to the god that shared its name. Jove or Zeus, the dispenser of skylight. What happened to Anat, knee-deep in blood, wrestling Ba’al’s enemies. She saw now that they must have retreated somewhere, these defunct deities, and she thought she knew where.

‘Terra-Two?’ she shouted in her confusion. Only one answer.

‘I don’t think she’s going to make it.’

Juno tried not to cry out again, but her head had been seared open. ‘I can see everything,’ she gasped, ‘and it’s beautiful.’

Chapter 55 JESSE

^21.02.13

TEMPERATURE: -12°C

O₂: 62% SEA LEVEL

WEEKS UNTIL RESCUE: 7

‘JESSE?’ HE’D FALLEN ASLEEP in Solomon’s room again. He knew before Fae touched his shoulder and he opened his eyes because it was colder in there, and the smell of vapour rub and antiseptic clung to everything. He was too cold to feel his feet.

‘Jesse?’

He straightened his back, pins and needles stinging his right calf and prickling his numb hands.

Jesse looked across at the girl he loved. For a while she’d drifted in and out of sleep, mumbling in confusion and shouting disjointed phrases. Often, she didn’t recognize him. She had not regained consciousness for six hours. Though Fae periodically put her in a portable hyperbaric chamber, she’d stopped showing signs of improvement and Fae was wary about using up their supplies of oxygen. They would all need it, in the end.

‘Have you eaten?’ Fae asked.