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T he doors of the shuttle train hissed open, belching tiny clouds of bluish gas down the length of the transport. Elara stood for a moment, steeling herself as the vehicle hummed. Taking a deep breath, the future student of the Seven Systems School of Terraforming Sciences and Arts stepped aboard the small shuttle, and the doors closed behind her.
Inside, the shuttle was empty and quiet. Elara made her way to an open seat. She buckled in and steadied herself for what turned out to be a surprisingly smooth takeoff.
The space vehicle was controlled by computer, and so for the first hour of her long journey, Elara was completely alone. Rows of empty seats stretched out around her. This wasn’t too surprising. Not many people came and went from Sector 17. Not enough habitable planets existed that far out from the Core of the Affiliated Worlds.
Elara tapped absently at the communications control pad at her seat. Inactive. No long-range or short-range communications would be possible.
It was weird: Life on the farm could be so quiet. Vega Antilles V was a large planet with a tiny population. But quiet on a living world versus quiet in the middle of space... that was different.
It was peaceful.
Elara looked at her own faint reflection in the plexiglass window, shaking her mop of thick purple hair as she did. Her image was surrounded by the gently swirling colors of deep hyperspace, which she found soothing.
And then it was abruptly over.
Elara felt the gravitational pull of a planet, her stomach lurching like she was on a carnival ride. The shuttle was descending onto another world. An entire ecosystem, completely new and unfamiliar. Elara felt her fingers tighten around the end of her seat’s armrest in excitement. She had never been off Vega Antilles V before. Sure, she had seen travel holograms and experienced other biospheres that way. But Elara knew it wouldn’t be the same as actually being on another planet.
Elara rose from her seat and made her way to the shuttle doors. Punching up the manifest on the data pad, she took note of the planet name—Thui Prime, only recently discovered and designated a mining world by the Affiliation. It was an exportation hub for fuel and gases. That made sense , Elara thought. They were still too deep in the outer rim for the wealthier worlds. Industrial and agricultural planets were most common this far out.
“A brand-new planet... ,” Elara whispered to herself as she stared out the window. Everything she had left behind... Nothing would take that sting away. Not completely. But this was the reward. No one in her family had ever set foot on another planet. Not in four generations, since back when her great-great-grandparents Pannel and Samantha Vaughn had accepted placement on Vega Antilles V in the space-colonization program. No one had seen a point in leaving.
As the shuttle landed on Thui Prime’s station platform, Elara could see the bright green of the tall, thin trees just outside the station—very different from anything they had on Vega Antilles V. The sky was different, too, just on the brighter side of purple. It was a lush and colorful world, and Elara couldn’t wait to experience it firsthand. Thumbing the unlock button, she stepped forward to take in her first breath of otherworldly air...
...and choked back the most awful stench she had ever smelled!
Frantically, Elara tapped at the shuttle’s data pad, and the doors slid shut. Gagging, she rubbed her stinging eyes. Right. Gas planet. A planet where they harvest gas. From boggy, festering pools of methane-rich liquid. Technically, the air was breathable, or the shuttle would never have landed. Nothing in the atmosphere could be deadly, but... the holograms had not prepared Elara for this. They never took into account the way another planet might smell.
In the distance, Elara could see a second shuttle gliding across the horizon. In a few seconds it docked with Elara’s shuttle, forming a two-car train.
“Who lives here?” Elara wondered aloud to herself. There were no signs of life anywhere.
Just then, a large procession of figures emerged from the trees. At first Elara thought they were students. But as the figures got closer, she could see that these were robots—mindless lifter bots common on industrial planets. They were loading large and heavy boxes onto the shuttle. But there was still no student in sight...
Elara pressed the hatch button, opening the sealed connection between the two cars. With a few cautious steps, she was inside the new shuttle. The hatch slid quietly shut behind her. The familiar smell of Thui Prime surrounded her. But all she could see were boxes. Lots and lots of boxes.
“Hello?” Elara called out.
No response. Odd.
Elara walked more boldly now. There was no one on the shuttle. Just her and some cargo.
“But where’s the student?” Elara muttered to herself. “If this is all their stuff, where are they?”
With a lurch, the two connected shuttles launched back into the sky. Elara steadied herself against a large box as the transport picked up speed. But something about this box was not like the others. For one thing, it was yellow and... squishy. What kind of species brought a large, squishy, sponge from a super-smelly planet to school?
There was a small white name tag attached to the yellow item. With a glance, Elara quickly read the name.
“Clare?”
Elara shook her head. Whoever Clare was, her luggage was weird. And she had definitely missed the transport. And STS had very strict attendance policies. Orientation would occur immediately after the shuttles docked.
Through the window, the stars began to streak, and the now-familiar colors of hyperspace filled her view. Elara sighed. Soon they’d reach another world. Hopefully then she’d get to meet some actual classmates.