It was almost a full day before they came for her.
Boots were coming down the hall which meant it was Louis. It was both a relief to hear another person and terrifying. In all her time awake, Louis hadn’t been in this part of the ship. And when he stopped at her door, Sadie had never been so happy and terrified. She rose to meet him, preferring to be standing whether he intended to talk or hit her.
“You still alive?” he asked, his voice polite while his face suggested he wasn’t concerned.
“Yes.”
“Are you feeling alright? You’ve missed two meals.”
“I’m okay.” Hunger wasn’t new to Sadie. She had missed dinner but for breakfast there were still rations in her tiny compartment. It wasn’t the gourmet meals that the kitchen prepared, but she was not in danger of starving.
“What’s wrong then?”
“Nothing.”
Disbelieving eyes judged her, but Louis said nothing. Without so much as a shrug of the shoulders, he turned to leave.
And Sadie didn’t want him to go. She wanted him to stay or invite her along. He didn’t have to speak, as long as she was in the presence of another person. He and Maia could have conversations about any subject that Sadie couldn’t understand and ignore her, just let her be in the room. A desperate need to not be alone drove her out of the room after him.
“Can I ask you something?” Louis stopped, looking over his shoulder. “Why do you live like this?”
“Like what?”
“Alone.”
The look he gave reminded Sadie that despite his appearance, Louis was not a man. He was predator, an alpha species that could do anything he wanted. Sadie wasn’t his guest; she was tolerated baggage. Like Maia, everything he did for her was for his own benefit, and that good will could end at any moment. If not for a life under oppressive ursa overlords, Sadie wouldn’t have been able to stop shaking.
Louis’s gaze slowly drifted away from her. He looked at the rooms across the long hall, eyes going wide as if seeing something Sadie couldn’t. Louis settled on one, moving to open the door. No one was there. No one had been there for a long time. He stayed there until Maia appeared at the end of the hall, drawing his attention away from the past.
“Did you know that the fastest advancement in AI didn’t come out of a need for computing power, but comfort? That way no matter what happened across the stars, you always had someone to talk to. Someone that never forgets and never goes away.”
“Why don’t you have a living crew?” asked Sadie meekly.
“I’ve had a crew. I’ve had ten crews. They’re all dead.” Sadie might have expected him to stare at her with loathing. Louis just kept talking as if he barely saw the room around him. “I don’t know if you can comprehend this, but I’ve been alive for a long time. All my friends are dead. This ship has seen some of the best people and the worst scoundrels. Aliens and humans alike have shared these rooms. It doesn’t matter if it’s through conflict or retirement. Everyone goes. Nobody stays.”
Sadie said nothing. What was she supposed to say to that? She was as familiar with death as anybody in the reservation. Industrial accidents, beatings from alien overlords, and the bugs had just invaded. People died all the time. Sadie knew any of these things might be her end in the next few years. But what did it mean to live through it? Maybe Grandma Snibbs could explain. If she ever saw her again anyways.
“It’s hard,” said Louis, still not looking at Sadie. “When we first went to the stars, everyone was so worried about physical health. But it’s your mind that gets to you. When you go from feeling the sun on your skin and open streets filled with people down to cramped corridors filled with no one…” He shook his head. “It’s hard.”
“We’re in the skip right now which means this ship is a prison. It doesn’t matter how nice it is, you cannot escape. There is nothing any of us can do to escape. The best thing to do is give yourself a purpose. Something to devote yourself to every day and night. People sometimes use the skip as a retreat. A time to become scholars, plan for the future, or just take a break from reality.”
“What do you do?” asked Sadie.
“All of it.” Louis chuckled. The bemused look he wore was somewhere between amused and depressed. “You have to find what calms you.” Then his expression changed. “Come with me.”
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“Where are we going?”
“Just follow me and keep your hands in your pockets.”
Maia was waiting with her arms crossed. “I do not believe this is a good idea.”
“It will be fine.” Louis sidestepped her and pressed a button, a door hissing open. Sadie realized Louis made a point of never walking through Maia.
Maia frowned, turning her attention to Sadie. “If you attempt to damage anything down there, my turrets will put you down without remorse.”
“Maia,” reprimanded Louis.
“I will not apologize. I take great pride in our work.” Maia disappeared.
“Just keep your hands in your pockets.”
Louis waited until the nervous girl joined him and pressed a button. The door closed and the elevator began to descend. There were only two floors; cargo and living quarters. Sadie had never considered what Louis had used the cargo areas for before today. Knowing him, it was full of weapons and some kind of arena. It wouldn’t surprise her to find cages of bugs and other war animals he could fight when he grew bored. So when the door opened, Sadie was stunned by the truth.
It was a greenhouse. Floor to ceiling, everything was covered in racks, trays, and tables full of plants. These weren’t the dingy, depressed plants of morose browns and blues of the reservation, but green! Green as far as the eye could see, with blotches of every color growing amongst them. Long vines tangled their way up cords hanging from the ceiling. Miniature trees not much smaller than her reached out, seeking the best light from above. Bushes were trimmed to almost perfect cubes, fitting neatly into slots on shelves or along the wall. Clear paths were designated along the floor in bright blue paint, like rivers running through the jungle.
The smells made Sadie’s breath catch in her throat. It made her want to cough and she didn’t know why. Sadie had not realized she was hyperventilating with excitement. Pausing, she took a deep breath. The air on the freighter was purified to perfection, but this, this was natural. This was how the air was supposed to smell. It was clean and humid from the misters up above. Subtle hints of fresh dirt and citrus floated in the air, tickling her nose.
“This is what I spend my time on,” said Louis proudly. “We have over one hundred species of plants. Their primary purpose is agriculture, with real fruits, vegetables, and spices. It’s one of the largest natural human greenhouses left.”
“Human greenhouse?”
“None of these plants have been modified by aliens or include alien biology. Everything in here is a product of Earth.”
“I thought Earth was destroyed,” whispered Sadie, hypnotized by the plants as they walked slowly down the aisle.
“It is. These plants have been carefully preserved and propagated. We used to trade for new species, but it’s been a long time since I’ve found any.”
Sadie desperately wanted to touch the plants. She wanted to run her fingers down the vines. She wanted to put her hand in a bush and smell the leaves up close. But even without Maia’s threats, her hands would’ve remained in her pockets. Greenhouses were the most valuable things in the reservation. It provided natural food, and it was so easy to kill the rare crops. The greenhouse back home was hidden behind security doors and only the best and brightest earned the privilege to work there. Lucky visitors were granted the privilege of observing the withered plants through windows. Most of their plants were tubers, with the occasional twisted tree.
Louis must have read her mind or known what this room would do to her. He stopped by a rather fluffy bush and pulled a small red fruit off it. He passed it to Sadie who admired the tiny, bulbous thing. Louis pulled another and ate it, indicating she should do the same. It was juicy and then her face puckered. Saliva ran freely down her tongue and she kept chewing, despite the inability to stop her face from reacting.
“The word you’re looking for is, tart,” chuckled Louis.
“I was hoping you’d give her a lemon,” said Maia. She had appeared on an imaginary ladder, admiring plants above them.
“Later.”
Sadie had a thousand questions and couldn’t bring herself to ask any of them. Her tongue was rubbing her mouth down, trying to find any remains of the strange fruit. She studied each plant until she reached the far wall. There Louis opened a door, revealing another cargo bay.
The first bay had been warm and hot like a jungle. The lights above were warm, but filtered through the canopy of plants. A dry heat struck her as soon as she stepped through the doorway, crushing the humidity off her like a dry sauna. Here the light was harsh with no area for protection. The brown floor reminded her of barren rock. Beds of dirt and sand partitioned the room off with strange plants growing out of them. The wall also had racks of plants, cacti, and other tall, thin ones she couldn’t identify.
“Some plants like the jungle, and some like the desert.”
“I don’t think anything good could grow here,” said Sadie, shielding her eyes.
“On the contrary,” said Maia, checking one of the boxes. “Some of the most popular spices grow best in dry climates.”
“One last thing to show you,” said Louis, leading her back into the jungle. “There’s a lot of work here. We have to monitor each plant’s health, make sure no outside mold or fungus makes it in, and pollinate, harvest, and preserve seeds. Pollination used to occur naturally with the help of Earth bugs, birds, and wind.”
“Bugs?” asked Sadie, alarmed.
“Earth insects are nothing like raknath. They were so tiny you could step on them. They’re crucial to good agricultural health. We can’t have them here. They’d spread across the ship and potentially damage the circuits. But there is one risk I take.”
“Our crown jewel,” agreed Maia.
At the far end wall, there were multiple large glass cases, and each of them was swarming with activity. Sadie saw hundreds of fuzzy, colorful forms flying around. They walked along the glass or hovered around a central box.
“What are they?”
“Bees.”
“They pollinate the plants and create a substance called honey,” said Maia. “I’ve heard it’s excellent with toast.”
“And mead,” added Louis.
“You should not put that on toast.”
“This is incredible,” said Sadie, watching the bees fly around. “Why do you have all this?”
“Because we’re meant to have it. This is what humanity started with. We weren’t meant to work in holes in the ground or live aboard sterile starships. We were supposed to be where it’s green.”
“Can I work here?”
“Only when you learn everything there is to know about them. Maia can teach you the academics, and then all three of us can work together down here.”
“Thank you.”