Allister McCullinay sat in her quarters on Arrokoth, waiting for the vast surface communication array of the telescopic transponder to link her to the TGS Starfall. It had deployed three weeks ago, and throughout that time had been radio silent. She supposed it made some sense. It was an Above Top-Secret classified mission, and so any and all communications were filtered before being allowed through and there was a debrief after. At least, that’s what Thomas had said. The silence, however, said otherwise.

However, this time, thankfully, the communications linked, and the screen before her blipped on. Her heart skipped a beat. On the other side, a man with a close shaved beard and close shaven salt-and-pepper hair to match, with striking blue eyes and chiseled features, appeared. It was Thomas. She breathed a sigh of relief, and felt some invisible weight lift from her shoulders.

“Thomas,” she said with a smile, tilting her head back and taking a deep breath. “I was worried for you.”

“I’m fine,” he said, smiling back. “Sorry for the silence, it’s been a tense three weeks.”

“What’s going on? Why didn’t you call or answer my calls?”

He sighed and shook his head. “Command aboard the ship briefed us on what we might be getting into. I can’t talk about it. Even getting this call to go through took some high level permissions, despite the encryptions. We’re lucky we both have our clearances.”

Thomas appeared to be in a small shipside communication’s booth. For her part, she was in her darkened room, her bed behind her, her wardrobe to the right of her desk at which she sat, a couch by the wall, and a television screen hanging to the right of her door. It was a small, cozy little room, quite unlike the chambers they once had on Ceres, together. As it were, when Thomas was ‘home’ in the Kuiper Belt, he was stationed on Haumea, and her on Arrokoth. The time they got to spend together was already limited, and this had strained it further. Still, she couldn’t help but feel butterflies at hearing his voice again.

“We are,” she said. “So tell me, just whatever you can, what is this mission about?”

He offered a sideways smile that seemed to be half sorrowed, half humored. “Love, they’re gonna scrub this call. You know they monitor communications on missions like this.”

Allister sighed and shrugged, offering a sad smile of her own. “C’mon, anything you can tell me. Just be careful. We both have ATS clearances.”

“Alright, alright,” he said, gesturing with his hands as if to calm her down. “Sedna, you know of it right?”

“That’s where the deep space observatory is,” she said, matter-of-factly.

He nodded. “Yes. When was the last time you heard anything about it?”

Allister thought for a moment. “I… suppose it’s been a while.”

“Six years.”

She stared at him, mouth agape. “Six years? No news has come out of Sedna for six years?”

“Yes.” Thomas rubbed his eyes and breathed through his nose, seemingly thinking. “Look,” he said, quietly now, “Sedna went dark six years ago. It’s finally within range of rapid transport, which is why the Starfall was dispatched. There are things you don’t know about, and things I can’t tell you. I’m sorry.”

Allister let her gaze fall, and she took a moment to be silent and think. “When will you be home?”

“Soon, love. Soon. We’ll be at Sedna in a few days, and once we clear the issue, whatever that is, we’ll be back. I’ll call you as soon as we’re on our way, okay? I mean, supposing command allows it. Then, we can keep trying.”

“And then we can go to Earth?”

“Yes,” he said, offering a gentle, kind smile and a soft gaze. “Then we can go to Earth. How is our account looking?”

“Padded,” she said, wiggling her head and patting the pockets of her jumpsuit. “We’re set for a long while.”

“Great. We’ll have our little family again,” he said. She chuckled; it was clear he was hoping for a boy, but Allister’s hopes were on a girl.

She leaned forward and rested her cheek on her right fist. “Oh Thomas, I miss you like I miss the gardens of the Belt. You are my stars.”

“And you are my skies,” he said. “I’ll be home soon baby.”

Just then, in the background, an announcement came over the Starfall’s intercom. It was fuzzy, but Allister could make out a female voice say: “All operator personnel report to the briefing rooms. All operator personnel, report to the briefing rooms.” Then, there was a click.

Thomas groaned, and shook his head. “Okay, I have to go. I’ll call you soon, okay?”

Allister stuck her lip out in a mock pout, and said, “Okay. I love you.”

“I love you too baby. See you soon. Keep the bed warm for me.”

“Will do,” she said, a small blush creeping up into her smiling cheeks.

He smiled back, and then they said their goodbyes, and the screen blipped black. Sitting back, she rubbed her eyes, and sighed, her heart starting to ache once more. She felt the weight of the world reset itself upon her shoulders, and once more she felt pushed down, even though she wasn’t exactly sure why. Perhaps it was her lonely heart, she thought.

Standing, she turned and flipped the lights on in her quarters, and then, dusting down her jumpsuit, she stepped out of her chambers and into the common area of the C-3 Arrokoth Dormitory. Here, there was a large square of glass around the center of the room that separated the common area from the ‘hallway’ that ringed the area, where the doors to the individual rooms were. Red carpets filled the flooring, and gentle eggshell lights illuminated the room. There were four entrances to the main, central area, carved out of the glass in large rectangles. Stairs led down to the basin in which a billiards table sat, along with couches, a television screen, some arcade games, and a game console.

Here, Sergei, a stocky man from New Hungary, with a short beard and bald head, thick jawline and powerful eyes, sat on the couch. He had a kind twinkle in his gaze, and laugh lines around his mouth, and as intimidating as he could’ve been, one look at him would tell anyone that he was friendlier than he first appeared. He was playing a racing game on the console. It was nearly 11 PM Earth Time, which didn’t mean too much out in the Kuiper Belt, but they tried to adapt to it anyway. So it was late, and she and he were both still up.

When she entered the room, he looked up at her and waved with a grin. “Allister,” he said. “I thought you’d gone to bed.”

“No,” she said with a laugh. “I actually just got off the phone with Thomas.”

“Thomas! How is he? I know you’ve been worried.”

She shrugged softly and sat beside him, looking up at the clock on the wall. There were several different times and time zones on the clock, 11 PM Earth Time, 2AM Martian Time, 4PM Ceres Time, and so on. She stared at the Ceres time for a moment, a yearning building in her heart, before turning away and saying, “He’s okay. They land at Sedna tomorrow. Did you know, by the way, that Sedna went dark six years ago?”

Sergie, not looking away from his game, said, “Yeah, I found that out something like three years ago.”

“And you never told me?”

He shrugged. “I figured you knew. And we were so busy with the core samples and EMF readings that it didn’t seem pertinent. Besides, I heard the Admin Zone is trying to keep that on the low.”

“They are?” she asked, blinking and shooting him a look.

“Yes, at least, that’s what I’ve heard. Just one more reason not to talk about it,” he said, furiously clicking buttons on the controller in his hand, his eyebrows furrowing and lips pulling taut.

“Where did you hear it from?”

“Naomi.”

“Ah,” she said, sitting back into the couch. Naomi was Sergei’s wife, and she worked in the Administration Zone, near the Administration Tower. It made sense she’d hear about it, but still, she thought, Sergei should’ve told her. No wonder there’d been no news out of Sedna though. Not that she particularly ever cared to look, but in retrospect, it should’ve been obvious something was up.

“Don’t be too worried,” Sergei said. “Naomi said it was likely a communication equipment failure.”

“But why would they dispatch a large RTP ship like the Starfall then?” Allister questioned.

Sergei gave her a sidelong look. “Maybe for its cargo bays. If they need to overhaul the equipment on Sedna, they’d need a lot of storage space to drag all of the crap out there. Makes sense they’d load it up onto the Starfall. Just my theory though.”

“Maybe,” she said.

Just then, Sergei stomped his foot down, and cursed. “Shit. I’m playing against the guys on Namaka,” he said. “Was, anyway. Bastards beat me at my favorite game.”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Allister chuckled. “Sergei, you really should get more hobbies than just gaming. I swear it’s all you ever do on your time off.”

He huffed and rolled his eyes. “At least I have hobbies. All you do is work, friend. Maybe you should try playing some games, it’ll take your mind off of how depressing it is out here, no?”

The controller vibrated, and he cursed again. “No, I will not rematch you, cheaters,” he said, backing out to the main menu. Then, he handed the controller to Allister and said, “Here, you try. It’ll get your mind off of Thomas, and Ceres. I saw you looking at the clock.”

She felt her cheeks redden. “Oh, I, um…”

“Do not be shy about it. I understand the burden that is on your heart. Try distracting yourself a bit.”

Allister eyed him, then the controller, and then, kicking her feet out, said, “Alright, I’ll try it.”

Sergei clapped her on the shoulder. “That’s the way!” he said, nodding sagely. “I will show you how to play. Here, follow my lead.”

And that night, for the first time in a while, Allister felt a little relief, despite losing every single match she played. For the first time in a while, she had fun for fun’s sake. And for the first time in three weeks, she managed to push the worry out of her mind.

She wondered if it would last.

Three more weeks had gone by.

Silence.

That was all she’d gotten since her last conversation with Thomas, three weeks ago. Silence. From the Starfall, from Sedna, from the Administration Zone, all were silent on the issue. She’d called the Starfall several times, and received nothing in return. In fact, all of her access to the ship logs had been blacked out. She had no way of garnering information on the ship, its location, the whereabouts of her husband, none of it.

So that is how she ended up here once more, in the Admin Zone on Dysnomia. The monorail that ran from the spaceport to the Administration Tower chugged along, and through its reinforced windows, she could see the beautiful lights of the Admin Zone fly by. The monorail itself was fairly empty, and there was an air of disquiet amongst those within the cars, and the Zone in general. Nobody really spoke to her, nobody really looked her in the eyes. Some kind of emotional miasma was present here, thick like a hazy fog.

The monorail hummed along the track for what seemed like forever, but for what couldn’t have been more than ten minutes, before it slipped into a large airlock at the base of the Administration Tower. It paused while the chamber pressurized, and then continued to creep into the station within the Tower. The station was grand - marbled pillars of stone rose up throughout the chamber, and beautiful murals of the Kuiper Belt planetoids were painted on the walls. There was a mosaic of Earth on the floor of the station, and large chandeliers hung overhead to illuminate the vaulted room. The monorail pulled in and stopped with a hiss, and then the doors slid open, allowing its passengers to offload. Allister carefully shuffled her way through the thin crowd.

The directory in the center was touch-screen enabled, and so she navigated to the screen for the Executive Offices, and found the Office of the Communications Director. She’d tried to reach Xiao specifically, but he’d ignored most of her calls, only to tell her finally that he was not at will to share any information. So, she figured she’d try the next best thing.

Yu Solarum.

His daughter.

The Director of Communications for the Kuiper Belt.

There had to be some nepotism there, she thought, but she pushed that aside and found where her office was. Fourteenth floor, suit A-13. Alright then. She walked over to the elevators on the far wall of the station, and called one. There were five elevators, so thankfully, the one that arrived for her was empty, and remained empty, save for her. The doors slid shut as she pushed the fourteenth button, and the car gently began to rise, riding up its maglev rails smoothly and with ease. The whole way up, she could feel her nerves building, as though the tension was escalating with the elevator. There could be repercussions for doing this, she knew. Her job, potentially, and Thomas’s safety, may be on the line. Unfortunate, but necessary.

Soon, the elevator slowed, and came to a stop, the doors sliding open and letting her out onto the fourteenth floor. She was let out into a reception area, with white walls and potted plants and couches and plush chairs. At the desk that guarded the doors, there sat a woman, clicking and clacking away at her keyboard. As Allister entered the room, the eloquent appearing lady looked up from her computer and eyed Allister through her red glasses for a moment for a moment.

Then, she said: “Can I help you?”

“Ah, hi, I’m here to speak to Yu? Yu Solarum?”

“Do you have an appointment?”

“Well, no,” she said, fidgeting. “But I have important news. My name is Allister McCullinay, I’m the lead scientist on Arrokoth. I just need a moment of her time, could you please let her know I’m here? It’s for her ears only.”

The receptionist looked her up and down for a moment, and then sighed, saying, “Okay, I’ll send her a message. Please have a seat.”

“Oh thank you so much,” Allister said, giving a little bow. “Thank you.”

With that, she took a seat at one of the couches, and looked around. There were magazines and newspapers here on the table before her. There was the latest edition of Eris Monthly, and the Kuiper Times, along with some trashy tabloids that were data streamed from Earth and printed on Dysnomia. She leaned down and picked up the Eris Monthly, which had the large planetoid surrounded by Haumea and her rings, Makemake, Quaoar, Gonggong, Pluto, and, at a distance, Sedna. The title on this edition read: SHIPMENTS FROM EARTH INCREASING; WHAT’S ON IT’S WAY, p.g. 14.

She flipped it open, and headed to page fourteen out of curiosity. The headline read: SHIPMENTS FROM EARTH: GOODIES, SCIENCE, AND… WEAPONRY? She took a moment to reread it, before moving onto the article.

It read:

New shipments from Earth are arriving to the Kuiper Belt in EY-2240, and they contain some interesting items. Among the many goodies for the Kuiper Citizens, including new gaming consoles, homely foodstuffs, and other recreational items, there are scientific items and, oddly, weaponry. The Eris Press has uncovered documents detailing obscure amounts of ammunition being hauled aboard the TGS Isonomic, including “incendiary ammunition” and “plasmatic ammunition”, though the amounts are unknown.

Also aboard the Isonomic are the new T333 Gaming Consoles, rations of chocolate and vanilla, seeds from the Seed Vault, and more. The Isonomic is set to arrive within the EY, utilizing the RPT Solestia Engine, and will be docking at Pluto before making its final stop at the great farms of Eris.

The strange shipment comes amidst swirling rumors of Sedna’s silence. Though the Kuiper Administration insists that they are in regular contact with the planetoid, friends and family of those planetside on Sedna claim that they have had no transmissions from the object in six years. We reached out to the Kuiper Administration for comment, and they had this to say:

“The Administration Tower has been in contact with Sedna for the past six years and will continue to maintain contact with the Observatory of Sedna.”

This brief remark contradicts the statements received by the families and friends of Sedna’s scientists, but the Eris Monthly has received a cease and desist from the Administration Zone. As always, we continue to be the freest press in the Kuiper Belt, and we intend to maintain that reputation.

More on page 35.

Just then, the secretary cleared her throat, making Allister flinch, and said, “Mrs. McCullinay, Director Solarum will see you now.”

She set the paper down, giving it one last glance, and stood, offering the receptionist a smile. “Ah, thank you. Just this way?” she asked, pointing to the doors.

The receptionist nodded, and the doors slid open to reveal a hallway with red carpets and rows of doors. “Down the hall, take a right, go to the end of the hallway and there’ll be a door. That’s suite A-13, the Director’s office.”

She gave a small nod, and then headed through the doors, into the hallway. The doors hissed shut behind her and latched, and then, she was in deafening silence. The hall was eerily empty, all the metallic airlocking doors shuttered closed. There were pictures on the wall of Earth and her habitats, and tapestries and flags bearing the TerraGov sigils and seals. She swallowed, and started down the hallway, to a T junction, where she turned right into another long hallway. This one stretched down a ways, and then, at the end, there was a wall with a door in it. Next to the door was a golden placard, with the label “A-13 - Director Yu Solarum” printed on it.

At this door, she hesitated. She’d never met the director before, and the intimidation factor was certainly present. There was a small button and an intercom beside the placard. She pushed the button, and it buzzed, and for a moment, she waited in silence. Then, a voice came over the intercom, sharp, but warm.

“Mrs. McCullinay?”

“Yes,” she said, nervously wringing her hands.

Then, the doors slid open, and she was let into a large office with shining stone floors, couches, plants on the walls, a delicately made chandelier on the ceiling, and a desk by a large window that overlooked the Administration Zone. Off in the far, far, desolately far distance, the light of the sun filtered through the window. It was all extravagant. At the chic, slender glass desk, behind a large holoterminal, sat the Director of Communications for the Administration Zone, and daughter of the Commander of the Kuiper Belt, Yu Solarum.

She was a slender woman, with short black hair that ended in pink tips and draped to the right side of her face. Her features were as sharp as her voice, and Allister took a moment to appreciate her natural beauty. She wore a blue and white Administrative jumpsuit that was ironed and pressed, with ribbons on her left breast and rank on her shoulders. She looked up from her terminal at Allister with crisp brown eyes, and motioned to the chair on the opposite side of her desk.

Allister stepped in, and the door shut behind her as she made her way to the chair and sat down. For a second, nobody spoke.

Then, Yu folded her arms and crossed her legs and said, “Mrs. McCullinay, it’s a pleasant surprise. I’ve heard some about your research on Arrokoth, though not much, so I am eager to hear what news you bring.”

Allister fidgeted for a moment, looking away, and from the side of her gaze she could see that Yu had cocked her head. “Well, you see, I was actually hoping to get some news from you.”

“Oh?” said Yu, leaning forward. “And what is that?”

She swallowed, and then locked eyes with the Director. “What happened to the TGS Starfall?” she blurted out.

Yu blinked, somewhat taken aback apparently. She cleared her throat, and sat back in her chair. “Mrs. McCullinay, all information about the TGS Starfall is classified.”

“I have ATS clearance–”

“It’s TC-ATS.”

“Oh…” she said, looking down. Then, after a moment of hesitation, she looked back up and said, “My husband was on that ship.”

A look of sympathy and sorrow passed over Yu’s face, but only briefly, before she let her face fall into an unreadable coldness. “I’m sorry Mrs. McCullinay, but you don’t have the appropriate clearances. I’m not at liberty to divulge any information, even if…” She paused. “Even if I had news.”

Allister’s eyes widened. “You don’t know?” She stiffened and stared at Yu. “You don’t know…”

Yu leaned forward on her desk and folded her fingers together, leaning on her fists. “I would love to help you. But my hands are tied. I have a lot of people asking for news of the Starfall, and there’s nothing I can do for them, or you. I’m sorry.”

She let her gaze fall. “I see. There’s nothing you can tell me at all?”

Shaking her head, Yu said, “No. I’m sorry.”

Allister sighed, and held her head in her hands, as though she were about to cry. And truth be told, she felt she might. Her body began to tremble, her lip quivering, and seeing this, Yu said with a sad sigh, “I can tell you one thing.”

Perking up, Allister locked her glossy eyes with Yu’s gaze. “Anything, please.”

“Sedna went dark six years ago. We received one transmission before its silence, and it was just… noise. It was white noise. Make of that what you will.”

“That doesn’t help me.”

“It’s all I can offer you,” Yu said, gesturing with empty hands. “I’m sorry.”

Now, tears were beginning to stream down Allister’s cheeks. But still, she simply nodded, and stood, mumbling, “Thank you.”

Yu watched her for a moment, before Allister turned, and silently, wordlessly, walked out of her office, and headed back to Arrokoth, defeated.