Do You Dream of Terra-Two?

That night was another of her Terra dreams. Astrid awoke mistaking the hum and sigh of the ship for the rhythmic lapping of water. She could feel it, the feather softness of the surf, the way it slid up her thighs and kissed her face. Only it was the rumpled peach cotton of her duvet covers, and when she’d rubbed her eyes and sat up, her mattress was rocking against ivory shores.

She woke up early for the rest of the week. And every time she did, she would climb out of bed, and type ‘New Creationism’ into her tablet search engine.

Chapter 20 HARRY

^14.07.12

HARRY BELLGRAVE WASN’T IN space. He was sprinting through a forest he had never seen. The vegetation was so thick underfoot that he was forced to edge closer and closer to the river. The water was like glass. Every now and then he caught sight of a fish, the sun momentarily igniting its scales red or gold or green before it slipped again into shadow.

He was glad to be outside, to catch glimpses of the sun rising through the foliage, to watch as water sloshed across the coloured rocks on the bank, and how they glittered and skittered over each other as they were drawn back into the river. It looked as if the ground was crumbling beneath his feet.

Sometimes, moss-covered branches would fly into his field of vision, as if to whack him across the face, but he would ghost through them unharmed. That was one of the problems with the simulation. He could see things but he couldn’t feel the morning sun on his shins or the sharp wet rocks at his heels. These limitations stopped him from ever truly escaping the bounds of the games room.

Presently, the trees gave way and the river bulged sideways. Harry barely had time to stop running before the ground fell away and he was standing on the edge of a sheer cliff-face. River water sluiced over the side and crashed down into the glistening pools below, sending a foamy spray up into the trees.

He saw, then, how high he had climbed. Golden shafts of sunlight burst through the granite peaks of surrounding mountains. From his vantage point he felt as if he could grab the half-faced moons in the sky.

Below, a dozen waterfalls converged in misty pools or disappeared into the foliage. He could see all the way out across the bleach-green lagoon and untilled fields to the ocean, which was stained with pre-dawn pink. Goosebumps prickled up his arms. All around, the unblemished, unpeopled earth beckoned. That was where the footage ended.

It had been Eliot’s idea to connect the footage from the five Albatross cameras up to the simulator. So that when the crew were running on the treadmill, it was projected before them.

Pulling off his goggles, Harry jumped off the treadmill. His thighs and arms were glistening with sweat and he was still breathing hard from the workout. He took off his shirt and slumped down on the floor, his lips salty and wet.

If he were still at Dalton, he would not be training alone. He would be tearing through the school grounds with his friends, feet battering the field, their laughter misting on the morning air as they raced to beat each other’s speed. Life at Dalton had been as exciting as a war, and he missed it. He’d thought more of them would make it, the boys he called friends, but when they’d all been streamed into command school he knew that only one of them would be picked for the Beta. There could only be one commander-in-training.

After two months on the Damocles, Harry’s battle was against boredom. The constant pain of it. So he worked to keep his mind on his job, on the simulation, on the game.

In the silence, he heard someone coming. A soft tread. He hoped for a moment it might be Poppy, but instead it was Astrid who appeared in the doorway. She was still in her nightdress, the skin on her cheeks creased from the rumples in her pillow.

‘Oh, it’s you.’ She sounded disappointed.

‘Did you want to use the treadmill?’ Harry asked. ‘I’m almost finished.’

‘No… actually I wanted to look at…’ Her eyes found the footage of Terra-Two, frozen on the screen, and her focus drifted for a moment. ‘It’s beautiful, isn’t it?’

Harry shrugged. ‘You came down here just to look at it?’

Astrid glanced at him, then lowered her gaze in embarrassment. ‘You’ll laugh at me.’ She said it more to herself than to him. Harry was silent, still catching his breath from the run. ‘Everyone thinks that Tessa Dalton discovered Terra-Two by accident.’

‘Through calculation,’ Harry corrected. They had all learned about it in their astronomy classes. She’d noticed the microdistortion the planet had on the gravity of the primary star, and with the most powerful telescopes of her time she had seen the slight dimming of light that indicates the presence of a planet.