by Mya Meneceur<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019re in the middle of nowhere. I\u2019m serious. Empty, cold, cruel and vast, that\u2019s how I would describe space, this deafening infinity spreading all around the only home I\u2019ve ever known. I\u2019m a third-generation occupant on this spaceship. My mother may have passed away when I was younger, but I\u2019m still lucky enough to hear all of my grandmother\u2019s stories about Earth. Sometimes, she rambles a little bit and confuses the epidemic period and the climatic tumble. When she\u2019s feeling nostalgic, just like now, we sit together and watch her favorite movie about a weird machine floating on an immense amount of water, that sinks because of an iceberg. Behind that all, there was a vague sense of romance between two protagonists, but it never mattered to us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy favorite character is that giant ice cube, just unapologetically sitting there, and ruining everyone\u2019s day. They\u2019re kind of a mood.\u201d I point at the hologram screen, and made <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grandma Linda laugh. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMine has always been the captain, honey. Look at him, staying heads up and proud, the calm within the storm, never abandoning his ship and ready to die with it.\u201d She sighs and clears her throat, sign of an upcoming anecdote. \u201cYou know, Habibi, I looked up to this kind of value so much, I had tried to escape the international army when pulled into the mother ship. I wanted to stay on our doomed, yet so dear Earth. It\u2019s my home, I\u2019m not leaving. It\u2019s my home, I\u2019m not leaving, Mom! It\u2019s my ship\u2026\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGrandma\u2026 You\u2019re losing the track of your story again.\u201d I calm her down and smile. I\u2019m fifteen and I might not understand much to life yet, but it still breaks my heart to force my late mother\u2019s mom to change homes again imminently. My dad bursts into the cabin, sweaty and obviously out of breath. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLyn, Linda, are you two\u2026 ready?\u201d He inquires, looking at me insistently. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cReady for what?\u201d Grandma asks. \u201cThe movie is almost finished, Joseph.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYes, as you can see, we are definitely so, so ready, Dad. Thank you for giving me this mission, it\u2019s really all I needed before the departure.\u201d I said, rolling back my eyes and nervously tapping my feet on the carpet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My dad exhales loudly and crouches down next to Grandma Linda, ignoring my intervention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMom, we told you this many times.\u201d He tries to keep his composure but then quickly spills, \u201cThe mother ship has a serious oxygen failure and declared the state of emergency two days ago. We\u2019re living our last hour here before it becomes unbreathable, and almost everyone besides us is already evacuating on the network vessels. We need to go right now…\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCalm down, Joseph, I\u2019m not leaving this ship.\u201d Grandma gets up from her chair and goes to lay on the berth. \u201cIt is my home after all.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOh my god\u2026 Linda!\u201d Oopsie, Dad is losing patience. \u201cLinda, just this once, please don\u2019t be so stubborn and listen to me!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Too late, she put her headphones on, like a rebel teenager. I love this woman. She\u2019s like\u2026 my own unremorseful iceberg. Dad is stressfully pacing in the cabin, then suddenly stops and turns to me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI give up.\u201d He tilts his head towards Grandma Linda. \u201cIn the next ten minutes, I want to see both of you in the network ship number four hundred and thirty-three, access next to the fitness and spa alley. Understood?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don\u2019t answer, but raise a thumb up, and it\u2019s enough for him to run back to safety with his wife and newborn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As soon as he leaves, Grandma grabs my sleeve and pushes off her headphones. \u201cI\u2019m perfectly lucid, Katerina.\u201d She states, confident she\u2019s not addressing to her grandchild, but to her deceased daughter. \u201cI\u2019m just a sick and condemned old woman, I want to leave in peace, in my ship, like a proud captain.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cChose your fight Grandma, are you the iceberg or the captain?\u201d I ask, tears unconsciously tumbling down my eyes, as I am weighing the right and wrong in forcing my grandmother in a ship, as when she was a kid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI can be both, Habibi. But you are Rose, and your destiny is to get out of here. Now, come say goodbye to your old Linda, wait until the last moment so those suckers can\u2019t come get me, and run, run run!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I hug her as tightly as I held my mom on her deathbed, and kiss her forehead while crying out, \u201cI love you.\u201d I put her covers up to her shoulders and she whispers, \u201cI love you too, Lyn.\u201d I close the door and run down the halls. All lights are red, and I only have a few minutes. I guess it\u2019s not that bad being Rose, I can get to save myself AND start a new life. Just like she hid from her family to never be found again, I join a random network vessel on the opposite side of the mother ship. Far, far, from the fitness region. Through my tears, I see the huge gate closing behind me. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We\u2019re in the middle of nowhere. I\u2019m serious. Empty, cold, cruel and vast, that\u2019s how I would describe space, this deafening infinity spreading all around the only home I\u2019ve ever known. I\u2019m a third-generation occupant on this spaceship. My mother may have passed away when I was younger, but I\u2019m still lucky enough to hear all of my grandmother\u2019s stories about Earth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8,7],"class_list":["post-253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","tag-8","tag-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web1.unine.ch\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web1.unine.ch\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web1.unine.ch\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web1.unine.ch\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web1.unine.ch\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=253"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/web1.unine.ch\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":283,"href":"https:\/\/web1.unine.ch\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions\/283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web1.unine.ch\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web1.unine.ch\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web1.unine.ch\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}