Chapter 5

The planet was burning.

Justin could see that, out of the corner of his eye. On the curved wall at the back of the bridge, the planet Tanah was falling away from them. The acceleration, while not as bad as what he had seen US astronauts go though, was still enough to limit how much he could turn his head. Or, to be more exact, how much he dared look. What he saw, in those sideward glances ... black clouds, covering most of a large land mass. Huge glowing sections where night fell across the dying planet. The scope of it! His eyes returned to Daium. Her gaze was squarely on the forward view. She knew ... and didn't want to.

"God..." Tammy's voice came from somewhere behind him. "Why would someone do that?"

"We did it," Chuck said, voice calm, sad. "Humans. America. On a smaller scale, but ... it's no different than the firebombing of Tokyo, or using nukes. The intent is the same." Justin disagreed slightly, as it didn't seem like this was an attempt to force a surrender, but he was way ignorant of the politics of this. A moment's reflection, sadly, told him that to even consider something like this as political just proved Chuck's point.

"Do you think there're survivors?" Melinda's whisper was desperate for some shred of hope. Justin willed Chuck to lie.

"Probably," the stocky boy said, once again proving Justin's faith in him. "Planets are big, and it sounds like they had some warning. If nothing else, I'm sure some escaped, like we're doing."

Alicia's voice, shaken, came from his left.

"Where is she taking us, Chuck?"

"I don't care..."

The force of the acceleration lessened, then ended.

With a deep breath, Justin let himself relax. Before them ... a blackness he had never seen. There were stars, yes, but he wondered if they were really visible, or if the computer was putting them in. How much of the view was real, how much simulation?

Did it matter?

Such deep philosophical questions could wait. Flexing his shoulders, which were suddenly sore, he unbuckled and tossed the safety strap out of his way.

To his shock, it continued in the direction he threw it until fully extended, then began to float slowly to the left.

He was in space.

Space. Him. In space. Justin Boslon, son of Marc and Tracy.

Slowly, still not believing it, despite the last twenty hours, Justin grabbed the arms of his chair and began to push himself up while staying in the sitting position. It took effort, as he was moving mass if not weight and wasn't the strongest teen, but slowly his butt left the seat. Once his arms were fully extended, he let go.

He was floating, a half foot or more above the chair.

"Heh ... hehe ... Hahahahahaha!"

He couldn't help it. He was in fucking space! The laughter just poured out of him. He felt his head lean back, his body starting to follow. Afraid for a split second he was about to spin uncontrollably, Justin frantically grabbed at the chair, managing to get a hold of the back. The position of his body, legs now straight off to the side, floating in air, caused another wave of laughter.

Daium was looking at him, amusement clear on her four eyed, alien face. Grinning at the girl, Justin just shrugged and laughed again. She grinned back, unbuckling from her seat. With a sudden, graceful movement, she pushed off at an almost perfect forty-five degree angle up towards the middle of the bridge. His mouth dropped in appreciation, as she came to a perfect landing on one of the large tree branches over his head. It dropped even further when he realized his view now was right up her green skirt. She had panties, or the alien equivalent, a bit lighter in color than the skirt. Justin's eyes quickly went to the much safer ground of her face, but on the way they lingered a bit at the woven cups covering her breasts. When he reached her eyes, they were regarding him with ... was it nervousness? Almost without thinking, and certainly without paying attention to the zero g antics of his fellow humans on the bridge, Justin got his feet under him and pushed off from the chair towards a point near Daium. He came in a little fast, but still managed to stop himself without too much trouble. He copied Daium, wrapping his legs around the branch, facing her.

They sat, talking silently with their eyes, ignoring the world.

"Gah! Coming through!"

Alicia found herself flying head first towards Justin and the chimp at much too fast a speed. This, she thought to herself, tensing at the approaching collision, was what happens when you try and show off at something you're not good at. Melinda had been spinning in air, taking to space like she was born there (this, actually, would explain much about the homely geek), so NATURALLY Alicia felt she had to do something to top that. Flying seemed like a good start, so here she was. Crashing. That'll show her.

She expected the two to get out of her way, let her go slamming into that big branch. And, they DID move, separating a bit. However, as she approached each shot a hand out to grab at her, to try to both slow her and change her course. Justin managed to get her bare forearm, which she'd had held out to cushion the blow. Daium's arm managed to wrap around her body, just under her breasts, stopping her forward momentum and knocking some of the air out of her lungs (her dignity had already fled). Her feet and legs kept going, swinging around under her, lightly hitting the bottom of the branch. She hung there, in space, held by her two saviors.

"Thanks, Justin."

"Anytime." He let go of her, a slight blush visible on his brown face. Or so she thought she saw. He should blush, having touched her. So, quite frankly, should the other one. Alicia looked down, where a long blackish furred arm just touched the bottom of her breasts, then up into the four eyes of Daium. Those eyes were puzzled for a moment. Alicia saw them glance down, notice where her arm was, then shoot back up to meet hers.

"Ah! Maaf!" The creature released her, face now embarrassed.

"That's OK," Alicia found herself saying, with more calmness than she would have expected. She grabbed the branch, floating between the two. This was the closest she'd been to Daium, and ... hell, maybe she was starting to accept the alien a bit.

Looking around the bridge, Alicia also had to admit that she was also starting to accept this design, and Orang designs in general. The tree made perfect sense here, giving handholds in the middle of the sphere and in general making the bridge more livable. They'd have to see about putting some out around the new home of the Bells.

The sound of a door opening came from below.

"Everyone OK?"

Anthony floated in, followed by Hannah carrying two shopping bags. They looked a bit disheveled, leading Alicia to wonder what exactly they had been doing, all alone. The thought made her heart race a bit. Chuck, standing on the central walkway with both feet in foot holds most likely made to be gripped by long toes, waved to them.

"Oh, we're fine. Did you guys manage OK? Sorry about the lack of warning."

"Well, I'm sure you had reasons." He looked up as Justin launched himself from next to Alicia and floated down a yard or two away from Anthony. He had managed to flip around and land on his feet. "I see you guys have been practicing. Good."

"How's the store?" Tammy came up next to Chuck, loose hair floating all over the place. She reached up to grab it, muttering. "Looks like this is going back into a ponytail."

"The store is OK," Hannah said, arm around Anthony for balance. "Lots of dust floating around, inside and out, so we'll have to deal with that. Oh, and..." Her eyes went hard, as she turned to regard Melinda. "SOMEONE forgot to cover the toilets."

Melinda's hands shot up to cover her mouth.

"Oh shit!"

"Exactly. Any volunteers to clean that up?"

Luckily, they had robots for that.

Daium activated the ship's complement of mechanical helpers, dubbed "R2's" by the male humans, telling her shipmates that everything should be better by morning. She wasn't sure that was true, but this was her ship so she kind of felt the need to project an aura of competence. The idea of letting them know how much of this was her Dad's design, and how little comparably she had done, was kind of embarrassing. Not that, really, she should care what these aliens thought of her, but, still...

A rumble in Daium's tummy, and comments from the humans about food, soon had her leading them for the first time into the heart of the ship. Going through the bottom of the two doors on the bridge, or, at least, the one closer to the roots of the tree now that 'up' and 'down' were no longer absolute, they entered the gathering area. Tables, chairs, video screens, various entertainments. She was relieved, never having taken the ship up before, to see that everything was in fact secure. Her dad always said; never assume something works until after the tenth test. She did like the decorations he had put in here, a nice white wood paneling with dark brown geometric patterns inlayed. It reminded her of the family home, and the living room she had spent so much time in. Floating through an archway, she showed them the kitchen. Or, was it galley? Tammy, looking around, muttered something in their incomprehensible language.

"Daium," Nona asked, drifting closer to her, "I assume all this stuff is for cooking in zero gravity? Do you know how to use it?"

Her first instinct was to say, yes, of course! It was her ship! But, looking at it again...

"Um, maybe. I can probably figure it out." She shrugged at her translator. "I'm not a good cook anyway." Making her way to one of the three refrigerators, she opened it and pulled out a rambutan. Ignoring the looks of the others, she deftly peeled the red spiny skin and popped the white fruit into her mouth. Mmmm ... she needed that. Getting down to the seed, she debated whether she should just eat it, despite the rather bad taste when uncooked, but decided to just be herself. No need to act all proper in front of her new companions. Turning her head, she spit the seed out.

"Don't worry," she told Nona, "I'll grab it in a minute."

Making sandwiches in space requires a certain skill.

The entire concept of the construction of one, after all, is based on the idea of the weight of each layer keeping the ingredients in place. One can put cheese on top of meat with a fairly good idea that it will in fact stay there. Without gravity, though, those assumptions and techniques fly out the window. Humans would have to create new food preparation skills from scratch.

Tammy's first attempt, after realizing the problem, was reasonably successful. Looking around the kitchen, with its alien utensils that were somewhat similar to theirs (she'd have to raid the Bells kitchen utility aisle later to bring in real supplies), she found a set of thin spikes that attached to the counter. By impaling the bread on it, then the meat and such, she was able to create edible results. Tomatoes were a bitch, as only one slice in the middle of the bread could be attached this way, but so be it.

"I was really looking forward to a HOT meal," Melinda grumbled, taking her sandwich spike. Tammy sighted.

"I know, me too. But, it's gonna take time. It's not like food is going to stay in a frying pan. Tomorrow I'll explore all this equipment and see what I can do."

She was looking forward to it, actually. Tammy loved cooking, always had, and the idea of being the first human to actually have to do this kind of thing ... well, it excited her.

"I should have paid more attention to that female cook NASA sent up to the space station," Chuck said, shaking his head. "She tried a bunch of stuff, to see what worked and what didn't."

OK, the second, but Tammy could be the first to actually do a good job.

Anthony had his cellphone out, looking at it as he munched away at his meal. Crumbs floated away, which Daium said wasn't a problem so long as most eating was done in this section. They'd be filtered out of the air rather quickly.

"Would you guys believe it's already after 8 PM?"

"Is that it? I feel like it's been days already." Alicia shook her head. She was floating, back to a wall, drinking a diet coke out of the bottle with a straw. The hole around the straw had been covered with some plastic wrap, with mixed success, some of the drink still floating away.

"Know what you mean." Anthony looked around. "We probably should, after Daium shows us around a bit, try and get some sleep. Or, at least, get some alone time. I'm sure all of you have some music or books on your phones to keep you entertained."

"What about tomorrow?" Chuck asked.

"Tomorrow, we try to finish moving in, learn about the ship, about Daium, teach her about us ... hell, I don't know." He brought a hand up to his forehead, then ran it through his hair. "We'll worry about tomorrow when it comes."

"That's leadership," Alicia said, rather good naturedly. Anthony grinned up at the girl.

"The best thirty thousand a year can get you!" His expression turned more serious. "Look, you're all adults. If you have ideas, see problems, feel free to speak up. I won't pretend this is a democracy at the moment, as for now we probably do need me to be the evil overlord, but if we're in this for the long term..." Tammy's expression, along with all the others, turned grim, "then we all have to be responsible, and take charge when that's clearly the best option."