Do You Dream of Terra-Two?

‘Well,’ Harry said through chattering teeth, ‘t-this is the end of this hellish ride. For me. I-I want out.’ Harry looked around the table for support, expecting a chorus of agreement. It didn’t come. His gaze fell on Poppy. ‘Don’t you?’ he asked.

Jesse would be sorry to see Poppy go. The crew needed someone like her. Someone who was gentle and empathetic, who resolved arguments and tried to understand everyone’s point of view.

‘You know,’ said Poppy, ‘I think if you’d asked me the same question a month ago, I would have said yes in a heartbeat.’

‘And now?’ Juno glanced at Poppy hopefully. It was almost as if the ordeal of the past few weeks had filled her with a new and clear resolve. Her storm-coloured eyes shone in a way they hadn’t before.

‘Now I have a family. Now, I have sisters.’ She took Juno’s hand and squeezed it. ‘Even if they can be stubborn. This place is my home.’

‘And mine, also,’ said Fae.

‘Did you hear about it?’ Poppy asked, glancing between Fae and the rest of the crew. ‘Fae’s fiancé—’

‘Moritz, meine Liebe.’ Fae smiled to herself, twisting her ring around her finger.

‘We heard from the Russians that he’s been chosen for Die Ersten Vierzig,’ Poppy explained. ‘The German group going to Terra-Two. A few people dropped out. After what happened to us and the Orlando, not so many people want to sign up to die in space. So Moritz was chosen from the backup crew.’

‘We will be reunited on the other side. On Terra-Two,’ Fae said.

‘But you can be together on Earth too,’ Harry said.

‘Yes,’ Fae agreed. ‘But then what happens to you? When I was asked to come in Maggie Millburrow’s place, for a little while, I have to tell you, I hated all of you. But now…’ She shrugged.

‘I think that’s the closest Fae will ever get to saying she likes us,’ said Poppy.

‘Well, I do,’ Igor said. ‘You brave young people. But I was never going to leave. My mission is here.’

‘Mine too,’ said Cai.

Jesse didn’t want the others to feel pressured to follow in their footsteps. He turned to Eliot and said, ‘Well, if, like Harry, any of you would prefer not to continue, now is your chance.’

Jesse knew that they would need Eliot’s engineering genius on Terra-Two. But, back on Earth, he could recover from his breakdown. Found a start-up with skinny-jeaned whizz-kids in Silicon Valley.

‘But you need me,’ Eliot said. He looked down at his wrist and pinged an elastic band against his skin. ‘I made a promise to Ara that I wouldn’t go to space without her. I’ve basically spent the past few months racked with guilt about breaking it. But… I don’t want to end up the way she did. I don’t want to go where she is.’

‘We’d be glad,’ said Jesse, ‘if you stayed.’

‘They’d be ruined if you left,’ Juno said. ‘I mean… they need an engineer.’ She sat at the end of the table in her dressing gown, an oxygen tube hooked over her ears and under her nose. Jesse wanted her to stay more than anything. Wanted her practical way of thinking, her Damocles Document and her laws. He wanted to go to sleep with her every night, as he had only once, and wake up to the sound of her breathing.

Juno looked at her sister and said, ‘This is the worst choice I’ve ever had to make. Go home and be with Astrid, or stay and…’ She looked at Jesse, and he glanced away. Afraid that he might lose his composure and begin to beg.

‘Astrid and I always thought we were only half-suited to this mission. That she’s too naive and I’m too—’

‘Cold?’ Harry said.

‘Practical,’ Juno corrected.

‘Hopeful,’ Astrid said.

‘I wish I were hopeful,’ Juno said, her voice taut with longing. ‘I wish I woke up in the morning kicking the covers off my legs, just ecstatic about the sun rising. I’ve been fighting a lot of conflicting emotions.’ She paused and looked at her sister. ‘Devastated that you’re leaving and angry about the reason. But I’ve had a little while to think about it, and now I know that you gave up the thing that was most important to you to save my life. It’s because you love me.’

She turned to Jesse. ‘But then, I think about the world we’d be going back to. It’s bloodstained history. How could I give up my chance to start again? To be part of something new. Something we’ll try to make better. I’m excited to go,’ she said to him. ‘I still want to go,’