Celeste

Celeste was staring outside a window into complete darkness.

She finally made it to the Mother ship. All she could see was space on this side. She wanted to see the view of Earth or the stars or the other planets. She knew there was a side that showed the stars, another where she could see the sun, another where she could see earth from here.

Her heart was racing and she heard the others talking as they left her behind. She was the only one who found enjoyment in staring at complete darkness.

She was going to see it all, no one was going to stop her.

Dri had tapped her shoulder to get her to come back from her day dream. She turned abruptly to find him standing beside her.

“This is the fifth time you’ve done that.” he said to her.

“This is awesome.” she couldn’t contain herself. “The fact that my parents actually let me up here is ridiculous. Can you believe multiple generations just lived on this?” she was excited.

“I wouldn’t want to be here.” Dri didn’t find it that entertaining. “I’m not a...‘let’s float in the abyss of space’ kind of person.” he was almost a little scared. Every time he looked out in space, he got this sense like he was going to get sucked into a vacuum of nothingness.

He was only up here because Celeste asked him to come with her, and he could never tell her no.

“I can’t believe Sirus let me show up.” he was secretly hoping Sirus would tell him no, so it was surprising when he just shrugged and said whatever.

“I mean, he can’t leave the sector leader in training.”

“Well, he knows that we...” Dri didn’t want to say it out loud. He had a feeling Sirus was meaner to him recently because he knows about him with Celeste.

“That’s not going to change his attitude.” Celeste didn’t care. “If he was treating you like crap before, there’s nothing to worry about.” she walked forward. Dri groaned but he continued with her.

“He hates me.”

“He actually really likes you.” Celeste glanced to him and smiled. “I thought I said this before. Sirus is picky. He wouldn’t want anyone to take over his beloved sector.”

“We scare the other sectors.” Dri sighed.

“That’s bad-ass and I like that.” she linked arms with him.

“Good cause I was a little worried.”

They would’ve gotten closer but Sirus and Hariette weren’t too far up ahead. They had gotten into an argument about what happened when and were making bets. They remembered enough of the Mother Ship to walk around without mapping out where they needed to be. Hariette came up here more frequently than others.

Sirus would come in place of Aurora. Everyone already knows how he feels about the Mother Ship. It’s easier to have someone take his place, but he hoped one day someone will tear it down.

Celeste couldn’t believe the previous generation lived here. They were from space. Sure they identified with their nationalities and descendants, but they were from space. This was it. She knew what her parents preferred.

“...you know those ships aren’t functional, Sirus.” Hariette said harshly at him when he tried to go off in a different direction.

“Relax, I wouldn’t take one out far.” Sirus blew off her yelling. “I just want to know if I can still fly like I used to.”

Hariette was sure that wasn’t a good idea, and she thought Sirus would think that, too, but he didn’t. “You’re a bit old for that aren’t you-”

“Hey!” Sirus hated when people brought up his age. “You don’t see me saying shit about your limp-”

Since he wanted to go there, Hariette had no problem exposing him. “You dye your hair.”

“Hariette, we can definitely go at it if you have a problem.” Sirus said to her, but it was a warning. She just scoffed at his comment, she didn’t find it threatening at all.

Meanwhile, Celeste was staring at them with a bright shine to her eyes. “You flew a space fighter ship?” She could only imagine what it must’ve been like fighting in space.

Her imagination ran wild.

“We both did-” Hariette said because Sirus was about to brag, but Sirus cut her off.

“I was better-”

“You got lucky-”

“I wasn’t number one for no reason.” Sirus was definitely going to show off in front of his daughter. “That’s how that all ended and you know it.” he said to Hariette.

"That’s awesome.” Celeste had stars in her eyes. She stared at Hariette and Sirus with a new respect.

“Flyer or Coordinator?” Hariette asked her.

“I don’t know what either of those mean, but Flyer sounds cooler.” Celeste answered without having to think about it. Sirus held his hand up and she high-fived him.

“Yeah, that’s your daughter.” Hariette said to Sirus and turned away to check if the scanner still worked. When she pressed her hand on it, the big doors opened.

Sirus was about to go a different way.

Hariette had to repeat herself again. “Sirus, I swear to God, if I have to repeat that the ships aren’t functional-”

“You’re so annoying.” Sirus breathed out heavily as he was the first one to walk forward.

Celeste let go of Dri’s arm and quickly tagged along behind Sirus. She couldn’t be any happier. Hariette hoped that the remaining fighter ships weren’t functional, but Celeste hoped harder that they could fly.

The landing hatch was a massive area, and had multiple platforms. There were a few black ships left where there used to be hundreds. The hatch was practically empty.

“What happened?” Celeste could feel like it was deserted here.

“Aurora needed them when he started a war with Europe.” Hariette said. “That was like...almost thirty years ago.” she couldn’t remember how long it’s been.

“That’s so cool.” Celeste said in awe as she stared at Hariette.

There was so much she didn’t know but so much she wanted to find out. Dri hadn’t seen her look so excited before, and it was fun to watch. When she does get excited, she takes interest incredibly fast. She practically ran over to one of the ships.

She wanted to take one apart and put it back together again.

She wanted to make a new one. She wanted to fly one.

“The system missed hundreds of updates so they will not fly.” Hariette had to continue to repeat herself. She hated that she had to do that. For some reason, Sirus and Celeste weren’t listening.

“I don’t think they’re going to understand.” Dri said quietly behind Hariette.

“I figured.” Hariette was not surprised.

“I bet I would be the best out there.” Celeste pressed her hand on the ship, and she saw a whole different world.

“If you fly like how you fight, you won’t make it very far in the ranks.” Sirus said as he walked by her to another one of the higher platforms.

Celeste mashed her lips together when she heard Hariette laugh. Celeste was sure she could handle it. And it’s not her fault that Sirus was as brutal as ever when it comes to sparring. If Hariette could see them, she’d say nothing has changed.

Sirus hopped up on one of the empty platforms, this one higher than the others. He stared down at the number that marked it but he didn’t say anything at first. Hariette hadn’t gotten up. She was wearing one of those suits that helped her walk without her cane, but she didn’t want to push it and hurt herself.

She watched as Sirus stared at the number.

Celeste was watching, too. Dri stood behind her, but he didn’t ask why everyone was so quiet.

“What’s he looking at?” Celeste whispered to Hariette.

“Two-thirty-six was his old number.” Hariette whispered back. She wasn’t sure if she was allowed to say anything, but Sirus hadn’t turned away.

He wasn’t listening.

The ship was missing. Sirus wasn’t surprised. Aurora had taken almost everything when he needed the extra ships for his strategy in the war. Some of them got taken apart for resources, others could be upgraded and used. Aurora was happy to get rid of something on the Mother ship. Sirus wasn’t sure how he would feel if he saw it here.

It brought back memories, but it was so long ago that he was beginning to forget.

He was glad there was something he didn’t have to remember.

“Let’s go, Sirus.” Hariette said. She figured Sirus didn’t want to get so sentimental about everything. “I need help getting the parts for Aurora.” she said to him before turning away to leave.

Dri tugged on Celeste’s arm so she would come with him.

They had things to do.

Celeste was interested in finding out more about the previous generation. If Sirus and Hariette were going to do work, she was sure that she wasn’t needed. Dri was going to follow them, too. So she told Dri that she was going to go somewhere else and before he could ask where, she had already gone the other way.

She had no idea where she was going but that was the best part of all this.

She wanted to find out things.

She didn’t have access into any of the rooms, but what’s great about having a parent that was a Commander was that she knew his codes. She found out, he didn’t tell her but how she got them didn’t matter. She manually put in codes to get around, and she stopped at a room that had a computer in the middle.

The room was dark, but the computer had a light on. She wasn’t sure if she was going to find anything here, but there was something about the room that exuded power. She stepped forward hesitantly but the lights didn’t turn on. She went right up to the computer and the screen changed, wanting an input.

She typed in one of Aurora’s passwords.

The lights turned on.

“Welcome, Commander Aurora.”

She started to laugh. She knows that Aurora would’ve enjoyed that. She almost enjoyed it, too. What if she was a commander just like he was? She didn’t have that drive, but she thought it would be cool to have that position.

She didn’t know what to say or how to get what she was looking for.

She remembered that Hariette had told her Sirus' old number when he was a Flyer. She didn’t say it out loud. She thought it was a secret. So she entered the three digit number and pressed enter.

Two profiles loaded onto the screen. She saw old pictures of Aurora and Sirus.

Celeste wasn’t sure who she wanted to read about first. If anything, Aurora wouldn’t talk about himself more. Sirus can be nagged into doing it. So she pressed on Aurora’s file.

A whole list of information came up for her to read.

Ranked .1. That wasn’t surprising. Cadet Aurora. Start of service at 13. Status: inactive. Occupation: Dual. Specialty: aerospace engineer. Partner: Cadet Sirus. Prior partners: ...

Celeste had scrolled down. Aurora’s record was practically spotless. All his exam scores were close to perfect. His projects were flawless and so were his codes, too. Anything he made had top functions. He could handle multiple Flyers if pressured to.

No write ups, no disciplinary actions, nothing.

She figured.

If she wanted something juicy, Sirus’ profile was what she had to look at. She smiled widely when she clicked on his.

Ranked .1. Well she knew that. Cadet Sirus. Start of service at 14. Status: inactive. Occupation: Flyer. Specialty: Weaponry, Close Combat. Partner: Cadet Aurora. Prior partners...

Celeste could scroll down further than on Aurora’s profile. There were plenty of write ups, probation statuses, even a report that said Sirus was inactive for a few months when he was fourteen. Sirus had gotten himself into a lot of trouble. He didn’t like to take direction, he didn’t want to work with anyone, he had a history of fighting. But for some reason, he was the best at what he did.

She wanted to see the pictures of them again. There was one for every year they were on the force. She thought they were so young, but they were part of the army at a young age.

Everyone tells her that she looks like her parents.

She could really see it now.

She got her maroon eyes from Aurora, but the way she looked at people when she was being challenged, when she wanted to prove herself, that intense fire in her eyes came from Sirus.

She looked just like them.

Celeste wanted to read more. There were civilian profiles connected to their occupational ones and she wanted to know more. She transferred the information on to her tablet so she could take it with her. She won’t have to beg to come back to space just to read about her parents. She left the room quietly when she was done, it was like she wasn’t even there in the first place.

She walked the empty hallways quietly. She thought it all looked normal, like she wouldn’t know she was in space if someone had knocked her out and brought her here. She passed by the many rooms and hatches as she tried to find her way around. She started to understand that Coordinators had their own space and Flyers had theirs.

The lighter areas had bright lights and green plants in certain spaces. The aesthetics were minimalistic in some areas and colorful in others. The darker areas had dimmer lights, and had more space.

She liked both aesthetics.

She could fit in anywhere.

She got to another set of rooms and stopped abruptly. She was the only one in the hallway, yet she felt like she had to look around to make sure no one was watching.

She saw the number on the wall.

Two-three-six.

She looked around, like it was a secret, like she didn’t want anyone to know that she was there. She was alone. No one was going to find her. She couldn’t press her hand on the scanner. She had to manually put in a code to get the door to open.

She was staring into a room with two beds. There were two sides, but they were both the same. Everything was cleaned out, only a few items were on the furniture.

This was their room.

It must have been a long time since they were here. She walked around the room quietly. The closets were empty, the bathroom had nothing in there. She went over to one of the beds and sat down. She had hoped to see what it was like when they were here, but she wouldn’t be so lucky. It was quiet. Even with her breathing, it was just silent.

She picked up a small cube that was sitting on the night stand.

She didn’t know what it was so she looked around it, moving it on it’s side in her hands. There was a small button to press.

When she did, the entire room lit up with stars and a projection of a solar system.

She didn’t recognize it.

But it made the room look pretty so she kept it on for a minute or two. She stared at all the planets that rotated around the sun. There were small black holes and all kinds of stars. She thought it was the kind of thing she could stare at to fall asleep.

She believed it might’ve belonged to Aurora. Sirus didn’t have an interest in things like this. Should she return it? She wanted to keep it to herself. But maybe Aurora forgot it.

It took her some time to finally leave the room.

She continued to walk the halls quietly. She didn’t know where the other three went so she found a window to sit next to and she turned on the projection so she could watch.

It definitely calmed her down.

The old planet looked the same. The other planets were different. But the sun was still the huge ball of fire at the center.

The projection moved, the planets rotating around the sun.

After a while, she turned it off. She wanted to know if there were other things she could look at. Were there weapons? There had to be a place where the fighter ships were made. Was there an artillery room?

She went on a search to find where everything was.

If she could find blue prints, that would be amazing.

She found an old room with a few unfinished machines and various other weapons. This was the setting she was looking for. There were a few screens flashing when she turned on the lights. She figured this was where Coordinators worked on their machines and systems. There were multiple computers, some of them trying to start on their own, others completely powered down. She went to one of the computers and turned on the system. As she sat down, hundreds of blue prints loaded for her to choose from, all of them organized by each Coordinator's number.

Obviously she only wanted Aurora’s blue prints. Just under his ID he had hundreds. It was surprising because he didn’t make much while she was growing up. She would’ve definitely seen it if Aurora had recent blue prints. She scanned through some of them, the ones that interested her. When she picked the most recent, she saw the blue print for the ships he had used for the war.

She wanted to see what was used so she read through it.

She recognized the models and dimensions. Then she saw how much energy the ships generated and she didn’t believe that it actually happened. This was what the others were talking about when they said he trapped an entire continent. The amount of energy the ships needed was immense, and she deeply believed it didn’t happen, that other people were making it up.

But it did happen. The blue print was completed and it seemed like the ships were functional based on the models that she saw.

He actually did come up with a way to trap an entire continent, but it sure wasn’t energy efficient with how much power that needed to be generated.

Aurora wasn’t the only one to work on the blue print. Celeste saw Taurus’ signature at the bottom. Hariette’s signature was to the left side. Celeste already knows that Aurora doesn’t sign his blue prints.

But she knew what was his based on a small coding when he writes a system. It was well hidden, but the second someone finds it, it’s hard to ignore it everywhere else. When she found it, she smiled. The code was activated for the ships.

She smiled to herself, not surprised that Aurora tried to be clever but wanted people to know when he did something.

Now she understood what The Northern Lights meant.

Celeste downloaded the other blue prints. She wanted to read through them.

Celeste realized there were four Civilian decks, each of them massive. When people talked about where they were from, it was one of the four decks.

One of her parents was from deck two. The other was from deck four.

She was standing in front of a door that led up the way to deck two, well that’s what she thought. She couldn’t find a scanner anywhere. She looked around, checked the corners, further back down the hall but she couldn’t find it.

How was anyone supposed to leave if there’s no way out?

Then she remembered what Hariette told her. They weren’t allowed to see their families.

“What are you doing?” Sirus was walking up behind her.

He wasn’t surprised to find out that she wandered away. But here of all places? Where did she want to go? Celeste turned around quickly when she heard his voice.

Celeste figured Sirus knew how to get up there.

“You’re from here.” She said.

“I am.” He pressed his hand up against the cold metal, but a small section right where his hand was placed flashed blue.

The scanner was hidden.

The doors began to open slowly. The halls were dark but it only led one way. Sirus had already walked inside. He was never one to be afraid of the dark. Celeste followed after him, wanting to keep close. She used her tablet to see.

Sirus didn’t talk.

Celeste figured he didn’t want to be here, then again, Sirus doesn’t like being bothered to do anything.

She didn’t talk either.

She quietly read everything to herself, just walking behind Sirus. She listened to the sound of his footsteps until finally she couldn’t hear it.

It was a long walk.

And he stopped at an elevator. Did it work? Sirus didn’t try to move. He was lost in thought as he looked at the scanner.

She walked up to it instead, pressing her hand on it. It flashed red, not opening up for her. Sirus scoffed beside her.

“You wish, don’t you?” He wasn’t surprised to see she hoped to be like them.

He opened up the elevator doors. It was dark inside. She looked at Sirus but he gestured for her to go inside first. She was hesitant. Obviously he wouldn’t put her anywhere in danger, but she had hoped the area would be well lit.

Sirus stepped inside after her. “Computer.” He said. The system turned on, the lights bright and the hallway had a low blue trail along side the walls.

When everything turned on, Sirus pressed the only button that was there. The doors closed and the elevator started to move.

“Did you come back often?” Celeste asked.

“Often enough.”

“This is why Grandma says you deprived her.” Celeste wasn’t surprised.

“Trust me, there was enough of us to keep her company.” Sirus didn’t think it was a problem.

Celeste knew. She did have many aunts and uncles, so there were a lot more cousins. She wasn’t surprised.

“We weren’t allowed up here anyway. I tried to stay out of trouble.”

Celeste began laughing. “Dad, you have such an extensive history of write ups and probation statuses. I think you went looking for trouble instead.” She kept laughing.

“Stop digging into things that you shouldn’t.” Sirus didn’t think he had to warn her.

“Since you won’t tell me things, I’ll find out myself.” She explained herself. “When you were seventeen, you ranked first out of thousands of people.” She said to him.

“Okay.” It was a fact. Sirus didn’t have to add to it.

“What made you want to work hard?”

She figured he didn’t like what he was doing but there had to be a reason. The second Sirus puts effort into anything he can show his true potential, so she wanted to know why.

“I had a new partner that was all pissy about exams-”

“Was it Aurora?-”

“It was not Aurora.” He answered before she could get too excited. “I wasn’t partnered with him until I was eighteen.”

“What was that like?”

“A nightmare.” Sirus didn’t have to think about it. “There was nothing more annoying than-”

He stopped himself from complaining for a second. When he looked at Celeste, he saw that she was waiting desperately for the truth. Her eyes were sparkling and she had an excited expression on her face.

He couldn’t understand why she wanted to know so bad.

“We didn’t get along.” Sirus thought he was too old to complain so he kept it short. “He messed up my stuff and it was hard to get him to stop it.”

“I heard people placed bets.”

“I should’ve collected on that.” Sirus forgot. “It’s been thirty-three years. I won.”

Celeste swooned. Her parents stayed together after so long. She had so many questions to ask but she kept to herself, trying to hide her smile. She didn’t want to make Sirus upset.

“I found his old blue prints.” Celeste said. “One of them wasn’t finished.” She showed it to him.

It was dated in April.

Sirus couldn’t tell what it was until he read the date. “Oh. This was a new system for the fighter ships.” He said. “Well, I can’t say it worked, but...”

“Where are the gloves?” She asked.

“I don’t know. After I broke the system Aurora said he wasn’t going to fix it.”

Celeste looked at her tablet again. The blue print was done a week before their birthday.

“Was it a gift?” She asked.

“A shitty one that broke.”

Celeste couldn’t help but smile again. More so to herself. Sirus wasn’t going to tell her he hoped Aurora would’ve made a new one. But then they got to the new planet and there was no need.

Sirus had taken her to an open area. It was dark, the lights were off, but she could see from above. The sun’s light shined through the glass dome. She could see the stars on the other side. She almost wanted to sit down and watch.

Sirus had already done that.

Celeste took a chair and sat beside him, looking up to see the stars.

“What happened after...after everything went wrong?” Celeste asked quietly.

“We left.” Sirus answered.

“But...I don’t understand how he recovered if things were so bad.” She said like she was concerned, like it was happening now.

What had happened was between Sirus and Aurora.

He didn’t think he had to tell Celeste about it, but he planned to. It wasn’t nice to keep secrets for so long.

“It was hard to get Aurora out of bed. He wouldn’t eat. He barely talked. He cried almost every night and slept through the day.” Sirus could remember the frustration. “So, I made him get up.”

“Where’d you go?”

“Hm.” Sirus wouldn’t answer that question. “Anyway, I forced him out of bed and gave him a reason to be tired.” He said, but snickered quietly at his own comment.

“No details?”

“Uh, no. Mostly because he was whiny the entire time.”

“Okay, so I’m under the impression that I came into the picture while you two were off on vacation.” She smiled widely.

Sirus didn’t answer for a moment. He wasn’t lost in thought. He remembered what happened. He stayed quiet as he stared in the darkness.

“He asked first.” Sirus said quietly. “But I guess he was joking because the look on his face when I said I’d do it...” He shook his head. “Honestly, I was afraid you’d give him a mental break down because you never let him sleep.” He admitted.

Celeste began to laugh.

“But you made him happy, so there’s that.” Sirus said, though it didn’t seem like he wanted to admit it.

“And you?”

“I minded my own business.” Sirus got comfortable. “You’re his kid.”

“I’m your kid, too.” Celeste nudged him.

“Yeah, I guess you are.”

She couldn’t see him smile. He felt better knowing that Celeste turned out the way she did.

She was smart, and tough, and knew how to handle herself.

That’s all he could hope for.