A Trapped Cause

Tired eyes considered their surroundings. There was little to see, unfortunately. The space was rather plain; white metal walls, six of them, an off white sliding door with a keypad beside it, two gaps in the wall that led to other rooms within the home, and a wide view port through which the ever-present, swirling starscape could be seen. Behind the watching organs a brain thought of various ways to improve upon the desolate setting. It would only be this way for a couple of days, Thayit assured himself, until he could find time to program the apartment’s background.

Thayit wondered if the previous occupant of the apartment, Lakinteen, had kept his home this way, or if the structure simply reset itself when a new resident arrived. Thayit’s thrill at finally having a place of his own was almost overcome by the grief of the loss; Lakinteen had only been eighty seven. But this was still the greatest moment of Thayit’s life, and would probably remain so until he was granted parenthood. After that, Thayit was unsure of what life would be like.

One other object filled the otherwise empty room: the bed in which he slept. It too was rather ordinary, but for the petite woman that shared it with him. She was pretty, but only truly attractive right now because the sleeping cannot help but look beautiful. Yanael was the same age as Thayit, twenty two, but did not have his independence. She slept here only because Thayit wished her here, not because she had been given liberty. Another would have to die before that could happen.

With a charming yawn and stretch she opened her eyes and for a moment looked terribly frightened. Her first sight in the morning had been a constant for the entirety of her life, and to see a different one now unnerved her. The fear faded when she caught a glance of Thayit. He would comfort her. They came closer to each other, held, and breathed in the new environment. This would be their home for the rest of their lives.

Yanael peered into the pinpricked darkness past the window and wondered aloud, "The stars won’t look like that once we get there, you know."

Puzzled, Thayit returned, "What do you mean? Sure the constellations will be different, but without a telescope, one star looks pretty much like another."

"Oh I’m not talking about the look of the stars, darling," she giggled, "I’m talking about their movements. They spin!"

"You know that’s not true. We spin - to simulate gravity - and the stars just appear to spin around us, like the sun’s…"

"Oh be quiet, you get the point. Once we get to the world, the stars will look quite fixed, though of course they will change as the year changes. I wonder what it will be like to see stars that never move, and to have a star of our own, a sun."

Thayit remained silent for a moment. He was reluctant to speak his mind. No one alive today knew what a still world was like, and no one alive today would ever know. Several generations later the people of the ship would be allowed that experience, but this population was right in the middle, totally devoid of any earthly memories.

Instead he said, "Well I don’t think it is anything we really need to worry about. All that matters to us is that we finally have our own home," he smiled, "and someday, we’ll have a family."

"A child, that would be wonderful indeed.