I left the building with an apprehensive wonder. Nori seemed friendly enough, but her dad looked at me in a way I hadn’t seen a mechara look at me before. He clearly wasn’t all there anymore given his old age, but I felt if he didn’t recognize me personally, he at least knew who I was.

  I found a bench nearby, looking out at the street with a view sprawling upward of the seemingly endless white city.

  It was the melodian’s time to be outside, so there were very few mechara filling the streets. After weeks of being on the ship it still felt strange to be surrounded by people of my own kind. I felt like a stranger in a way I’d never felt before and I couldn’t shake that feeling. The more I got to know them, the more I felt like I didn’t belong with them. The melodians seemed to only be interested in surface level conversations and only showed an interest in themselves. It was strange how alien they felt to me. I didn’t understand them.

  To the mechara I was practically invisible, just like all the other melodians. They seemed far more interesting than anyone of my kind, but they treated me as if I wasn’t even there.

  I’d spent so long dreaming of what it would be like on the ship, surrounded by my own kind, learning their culture, making new friends, learning their music, but instead I felt like more of an outsider than I did before. Oliver, Emily, Gav, even John all understood me better than anyone I’d met on Lifeboat 8.

  I sighed, reaching into my backpack to pull out my mp3 player. Several of them had already run out of battery but I had a few more that had some life left in them. I hadn’t listened to much music when I’d first arrived on Lifeboat 8 but as the weeks carried on I felt more empty, more lonely and more isolated from the strange people that lived on board the ship. I didn’t understand them.

  Nori could be an exception I thought to myself as I pulled out my classic rock collection and started playing it, my foot tapping to the drum beat as I watched the melodians in the street going about their business.

  Eventually I got off the bench and started walking through the streets, listening to the music and flowing in and out of the crowds as they went to the various shops, the smaller counters being used exclusively, unlike during the mechara’s time where it was a mix between the two.

  More than anything else, the most disturbing thing about Lifeboat 8 was the lack of music. I seemed to gloss over it when I’d first arrived but as time went on I couldn’t help but feel the overwhelming absence of it. I couldn’t tell if it just wasn’t part of their culture or if I was missing something, but I hadn’t heard anything from them.

  Mom sang me music I remembered.

  It was the only thing I knew about her. She sang to me, so music had to exist somewhere in their strange place, I just hadn’t discovered it yet.

  I thought back to the elevator that took me up from where the ship had docked. It showed so many layers of the ship but I went all the way to the center with only a small glimpse of the other floors as I went up. I had a feeling I’d find what I was looking for by going to the lower floors, but I was afraid I’d be as underwhelmed with those places as I was with the surface.

  On the surface, I could at least hope there was something more to be found, but if I went down and found nothing, I wouldn’t have anything else to discover and it could mean I’d made a mistake by leaving earth in the first place.

  I shook my head, I knew there had to be something for me on the ship, I just had to find it.

  A soft tone came through the ship, signaling a familiar shift for the surface. All around me the melodians eyes turned bright white as their conversations came to a halt.

  I took my headphones off to find the ship had fallen to a familiar dead silence just before they all started shuffling their feet, making their way toward the elevators.

  I turned the mp3 player off and put it away and followed along with the group until we reached one of the giant banks of elevators I’d seen them disappear into countless times since arriving. I’d always stand and watch, letting them file into the elevators until they were all gone, followed by the mechara coming out of their homes along the surface along with the elevators once the melodians had all left.

  It was a strange ritual but one they seemed to follow no matter what. Once the melodian’s times were up, the mechara along with a small scattering of melodians with the glowing eyes would take over the surface.

  I took a deep breath as I mentally prepared myself. I knew I had to go down the elevators at some point and after finally meeting someone on the surface that would acknowledge me, I felt like I needed to find more and it felt increasingly less likely I’d find that on the surface.

  I chose a spot, following the lines of melodians toward the elevators as they took them in droves down to the lower levels.

  Once we’d gotten close, the elevator door swung open, revealing the empty room inside. The crowd around me suddenly started rushing through the door as I tried to keep pace with them as they all rushed inside. As they entered the door I saw the buttons on the panel on the inside of the elevator lighting up as though it already knew who would be going to each floor. As the crowd filled the elevator I watched the lights on the panel lighting up, most of them indicating the red lower floors but some of the middle floors with the green lights turned on. Interestingly, none of the blue lights near the top lit up.

  I watched carefully as the elevator started moving downward. I remembered how heavy I was when I’d first arrived and I knew I couldn’t go to any of the lower floors, but with all the lights on the panel that were lit up, it looked like I could get off once I felt like I couldn’t take more of the weight.

  The elevator descended and with it I felt a familiar weight, as if my body was getting heavier with each passing moment. It wasn’t anything that felt alarming, in fact, the surface made me feel a lot lighter than I did back on earth and as we went downward I felt more like I was going back to normal.

  The doors opened once we’d reached the green section of the ship and a bunch of the melodians got out of the elevator. We started with at least forty in the elevator and about six or seven of them got out at the first stop. The doors closed once more and we continued going downward for a few moments before the elevator stopped once more, allowing a few more off.

  I could see glimpses of the places we were stopping, each place having a vaulted ceiling that stood about thirty feet tall. I couldn’t see too far outward as the curve of the ship seemed to obscure anything further than about a quarter mile away, but the houses and buildings had similar designs as the ones on the surface.

  The doors closed once more as we continued descending through the ship. We reached the last green floor and I tensed up a little as I decided I’d get off. I took a step forward but felt a hand grab my shoulder, not letting me move forward.

  I turned around to see one of the melodian’s had reached out and grabbed me, his eyes were white, he didn’t seem to look at me, but his hand held firmly as the elevator door closed. He let his hand go as soon as the doors were closed and he went back to his resting position as if nothing had happened.

  I wanted to ask him why he stopped me, but I already knew the person standing behind me wasn’t the one that stopped me, it was whomever was controlling him.

  We continued downard, my tail touching the floor as we passed into the red zone. I started feeling heavier than I remembered back on earth, my clothes sagging, my cheeks feeling like they were being pulled downward. My damaged left ear folded down onto itself as the weight started to effect how I stood.

  The elevator stopped once more. Unlike the other times, nobody got out, the elevator simply stopped, the doors opened up and we all just sat there, waiting.

  I turned around to see everyone staring blankly in the direction of the door but nobody moved.

  Curiously, I took a step forward to see what would happen and the person behind me didn’t move. I looked out the door and realized the stop was for me.

  I looked out the door to see the design of the ship had changed dramatically. The vaulted thirty foot ceilings had shrunk down to only about six feet tall. Easily enough to fit any melodian in, but would be a bit too short for a mechara.

  I took a cautious step forward, the melodian behind me didn’t move, didn’t reach out, just stood there and waited like the rest. As soon as I stepped out of the elevator the door closed behind me.

  I stood there for a moment as I took the new surroundings in. It looked like hallways stretched in all four directions with 90 degree turns between each one. The hallway in front of me curved upward, going out of sight, but to my left and right the hallway looked as though it stretched on forever.

  Everything was shorter, looking as though it was built for someone my height, which felt extremely alien to me. My entire life, everything was made for someone bigger and even everything I’d seen on lifeboat 8 was designed for someone larger than me, the only things that fit me looked as though they were an afterthought.

  But at the red levels, it appeared to only be for the melodians. I thought about the colors in the elevators for a moment and realized what they were for. When I’d first arrived I only saw other melodians on the red levels. On the green levels I saw a mixture of melodians and mechara, but on the blue levels, including the surface, I mostly only saw mechara, with the only exception being when I saw workers or if it was during the brief times the melodians roamed the surface. I’d noticed the mechara weren’t as strong as the melodians, which would explain why at a certain level of gravity they wouldn’t be able to function.

  The green levels appeared to be fairly similar to the blue, with a familiar architecture design with curved surfaces everywhere, but as soon as I passed into the red zone it was like I was on a completely different ship. Everything looked a lot less pretty, but more functional. The roads and walkways were all at perfect 90 degree angles to each other, the buildings and living spaces looked as though they were designed to be space efficient as their main priority.

  I started walking forward, the hallway was mostly empty, being about ten feet wide and curving slowly upward in front of me. It was a much wider curve than what I’d seen before, but with the shorter ceilings the curve hid what was behind it pretty quickly.

  I heard some voices in the distance, drawing me forward as I saw an opening coming up in front of me. Where the next 90 degree intersection of the hallway would have been, there was instead an opening, revealing a large open area. It was all curved, just like everything else on the ship, but it was open, like a giant courtyard. There were hundreds of melodians sitting around talking to each other, none of them had glowing eyes, which was a good sight to see.

  As I walked out into the courtyard I saw a railing looking over what appeared to be a large opening. I decided to approach it and was met with an eight story tall opening, reaching down into an open common area. I realized as I looked around that I’d found myself in the rough equivalent of a mall, with shops and food stands all around the little courtyard area I found myself in. As I looked down through the opening I could see more shops, more sitting areas, more places to be.

  Another hand grabbed my shoulder from behind, making me jump a little at the sudden touch.

  It was a melodian woman, her eyes glowing white. She looked at me for a moment, then pointed down at a lower floor. I couldn’t quite tell where she was pointing but I tried to follow her hand. As I looked across another melodian on the other side’s eyes suddenly turned white and looked directly at me.

  I was alarmed for a moment, before I realized I was being told where I should go. The hand let go of me and the person’s eyes stopped glowing. She blinked for a moment, then continued on her way as though nothing had happened. I turned to look where the other person was to see they were already gone.

  There was a staircase leading down into the lower areas along the perimeter of the open courtyard so I decided to make my way down toward the place the person had pointed to.

  I was feeling increasingly more alarmed as each interaction played out. I knew I was being watched, I assumed Artemis was the one behind everything, but I was confused about why he wouldn’t just speak to me. He seemed to be beating around the bush and doing the smallest amount if intervention possible. He wanted something though. For some reason I was still being ignored by everyone on the ship, but he knew where I was from yet he didn’t tell anyone. It wouldn’t make sense for them to know and let me just wander around on my own. The more I thought about it the more I felt like something was up.

  As I approached the store I saw some clothing in the windows, matching the style I saw all the other melodians on the surface wearing. The clothes were fairly simple, with a tight looking fit but with simple color patterns marking up the fabric. The colors were muted, but they had a similar design to them that made them unique but not stand out from the crowd too much.

  As I approached, the person behind the counter inside the store’s eyes turned white. After everything I’d seen on the surface I had a hunch about what was about to happen.

  He came out from behind the counter as I walked in. The furniture, the shelves, everything felt so strange because it looked like it was designed for someone my size. Something I was extremely not used to seeing.

  The man approached, holding a pile of clothing in his hands.

  I nearly said hello, but before I could say anything he handed the clothes to me and pointed to a small bank of doors off on the side of the store.

  “Uh… Thank you…” I said softly. He didn’t respond as he turned around and made his way back to the counter.

  That’s it, I said to myself as I made my way over to what looked like a changing room off to the side of the counter, I’m going to talk to someone here, they can’t all be like this.

  The clothes were mostly an off white course cloth with patterns stitched into the fabric around the arms and torso to create visual lines along the body. It matched what I’d seen most of the other Melodians wearing so I figured I’d at least fit in with them.

  They seemed to like their tight fitting clothes on the ship, which made it a bit more difficult than I was used to to slip the shirt on, but I eventually wiggled it into place and took a hold of the pants. I was confused for a moment as there wasn’t a zipper or anything on the top like I was used to. They were a denim like material made of brown fabric with two pockets on either side, but without the zipper on the top I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to get it on.

  I sat back and stuck my tail through first, then pulled it around my legs. It was awkward, but they eventually fit and they were unusually snug to my body. I always wore fairly loose fitting clothing but that was likely due to Emily not having a lot of experience making Melodian clothing.

  I stood up to take a look at myself and was happy to see how it fit on me. It was a lot more comfortable than the flight suit I’d been wearing and with the pants and the shirt I felt like I was fitting into the clothing better than I’d ever felt before. It felt like it was properly made for me, something I never knew I was missing out on.

  I laid the suit next to me, grabbed my backpack and made my way out into the little shop. The man from before was still standing behind the counter.

  “What do you think?” I asked as I stepped out in front of him, holding my arms out and doing a little spin.

  He looked at me, confused for a moment before saying “Sorry… Is there something wrong?”

  “No no, I was just asking what you thought!” I replied, but he didn’t seem to understand what I was talking about “About… the outfit” I continued.

  He gave me a look of utter confusion and just shrugged in response.

  “Do you think it’s… Ugh nevermind” I said as I turned around and left the shop. It was clear he didn’t want to have a conversation.

  I made my way out into the little town square, looking up around me at all the shops and buildings that encircled the small area. It was barren of any artistic design and looked entirely functional. A stark difference from the city that encircled the surface.

  A lone Melodian stood near the center of the square, his eyes looking up to one of the top floors as he looked like he was lost in thought. He was a little shorter than I was, his clothes mostly matching mine, but he had some extra pockets along the torso of his shirt along with a slightly different design within the woven patterns along his body.

  “Hi there” I said as I approached him, startling him a little as I broke him from his thoughts.

  “Oh, uh…” he turned to look at me, his eyes darting up and down over me for a moment before he made eye contact “What?” he asked in a confused tone.

  “Sorry to bother you, I just saw you over here and was wondering what you were thinking about” I said cheerfully to him.

  “Why do you care?” he asked in a less than friendly response.

  Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you I just wanted to…” I tried to say but as I spoke he just turned and walked away from me.

  Well that was a bust, I thought to myself before turning to see a small group of three Melodians talking to each other.

  I made my way over, listening in on their conversation.

  “I think I might be using it too much lately, I don’t know I feel like it’s not the same as it used to be” the first woman said to the other two.

  “I’ve been feeling that too” said the second person. He sounded pretty sad as he continued “I think we’ve all been feeling it actually. It’s been different since we arrived here.”

  “Honestly the sooner we can leave the better” the second woman said, crossing her arms, “I wish they’d just tell us how long we’ll be staying here so we can know how long this will last” she said.

  “What are you guys talking about?” I asked as I approached the three.

  They all turned to look at me as I approached, turning the conversation into an awkward silence for a few seconds before the first woman responded.

  “Just talking about the assembler. Has it been different for you too since we got here?” she asked.

  “I uh… Yeah it’s been…” I thought for a second, using the context of what they’d said earlier I continued “It’s been acting up for me too” I said.

  “Acting up?” the man asked, sounding confused “in what way?”

  Shoot, I think I got the answer wrong there, I thought as I tried to think of how to correct it.

  “It’s just been different really” I said with an awkward smile, hoping it was close enough to the answer they were expecting.

  They nodded, letting me relax a little.

  “Well, they said they’d be making an announcement pretty soon so we shouldn’t have to wait too long for that” the first woman responded.

  “Who’s making an announcement?” I asked.

  They all turned to me with a look of confusion again.

  “Are you… Okay?” the man asked.

  “I’m… Fine… Sorry, forget I said anything” I said as I realized that whatever questions I was asking were coming off sounding dumb to them.

  I decided to leave the group to themselves and instead made my way over to a small table with a chair that had a cutout on the bottom of it. Unlike any of the chairs up on the surface, the one next to the table looked like it was made for someone like me.

  I took a seat, sighing to myself as I saw the little group of three break up and go their separate ways.

  I felt like I was unwanted, like I was a stranger that wasn’t where they belonged. I felt smaller than ever as I simply sat and watched the people making their way in and out of the various shops. With all the time I’d spent on the surface I felt like whenever the Mechara were out and about the place was lively, full of friends, conversations, people sharing stories, talking about their days, laughing, talking. It was nice. But when the Melodians came out it was a completely different place. They were all about function, only spoke in order to convey simple information to each other, never to talk just for the sake of having a conversation. I’d hoped the floors underneath would show something different. I’d hoped the simple nature of the Melodians was just something they had on the surface because they were there to do business or to work and their social structures happened where they lived, which was in the lower floors.

  Instead I saw all the same behavior. Some people would talk to others, but it would only last for a few minutes at most before they’d break apart. Despite the square filling with hundreds of Melodians, the place was nearly dead silent.

  I sat at the table for hours, watching, listening, hoping to get an idea of what their culture was like, but it all felt empty. It was as if they were empty shells of people who had no interests outside of their daily chores and tasks and had few thoughts outside of those things.

  Occasionally I’d see their eyes start to glow and they’d go about doing some menial task before it would turn off again. There was always a brief moment where they looked happy as it turned off but they’d quickly go back to their blank, unfeeling expressions.

  Out of everything, I felt a weight slowly crushing down on me. Not from the higher gravity of the lower floor I was on, but instead from the lack of music. One of the main things I was looking forward to learning about my people was the music they listened to, the instruments they played, the different approaches to creating music from what I was used to. Instead I only got deafening silence from them.

  I pulled my backpack out and started to rifle through it. I had about 10 MP3 players sitting at the bottom of it but they were all dead aside from one.

  I pulled it out to take a look. It was a brown zune that only had ten percent of its battery left.

  I sighed, putting it back inside, not wanting to drain it quite yet. I would have taken more with me if I’d known what Lifeboat 8 was like, but I originally just brought them in order to show to others, like an introduction to the type of music I listened to. Instead it was the only refuse from the silence I found on board the ship. I wish I’d taken the solar panel with me. I wished I’d taken more of my collection with me. I wished… I’d never left in the first place.

  The crushing feeling of that realization bore down on me like nothing I’d expected. Since getting on Lifeboat 8 I always had something new to see, something new to discover and learn, but as time went on, throughout the weeks, possibly months I’d spent on the ship, I only felt disappointment.

  The Melodians felt empty. I didn’t know how to talk to them, I didn’t understand how they thought or how they worked. They seemed like they were empty shells. The Mechara were far more interesting, but they barely noticed I existed. I wasn’t surprised. If every Melodian they’d ever met were like… Them. I thought as I looked out at the town square. I wasn’t surprised they didn’t pay me any mind. They expected me to be as empty as they were.

  I heard loud, bounding footsteps to my side, pulling me from my thoughts as I turned just in time to see a young Melodian running on all fours toward me, leaping into the air above me as he reached down, grabbing my backpack right from my lap and landing on two feet on the other side of me, sliding a bit before he came to a stop to turn around to get a look at me for a moment.

  “Hey!” I said as I got up to take it back, but I was too slow.

  He flung the backpack on and continued in the direction he was going, bounding forward on all fours and running toward one of the hallways along the side of the square.

  I ran after him, realizing I’d have to get on all fours as well in order to keep up.

  He ran through the first hallway, then made a quick turn, glancing back toward me just before going out of sight. The hall was filled with other Melodians but with some careful maneuvering I was able to get around them.

  Around the next turn I just barely saw his tail disappear from around another turn. In a panic I tried picking up the pace but I misjudged my speed as I made it to the turn and slipped.

  I rolled to the side, running into two other Melodians who gasped as I barrelled into them.

  “Sorry!” I yelled as I ran down the hallway I’d seen the thief take.

  I didn’t see him, but I continued forward, hoping I’d catch a glance of him.

  A door slammed, causing my head to turn to the side with just enough time to see the backpack through a small window along the side of the door.

  I turned and pushed through the door to find a stairwell, one side leading up, the other leading down.

  If anything, he was thankfully not very quiet on his feet as I heard him running down the stairs below me.

  The stairwell was empty so it was easy to leap down each flight, landing on the platform at the base of each set. It sounded as though the thief was doing the same thing.

  With each landing I felt myself getting gradually heavier, each landing causing a harder hit. I felt as if I was gaining a few pounds with each flight of stairs up until the point where it started to get difficult each time.

  I heard him shuffle a bit, just a few flights below me, then a door slammed. He’d exited the stairwell but I wasn’t sure which one he’d taken.

  I ran down the next few flights of stairs as quickly as I could but I couldn’t make the jump each time like I could when I was higher up.

  I took a look through each window on each flight I went down to see if I could see him and on the third one down I saw him, standing, waiting for me with his arms crossed. He was about thirty feet from the door, standing down a similar hallway as before.

  I opened the door, standing up as I yelled “Hey! Stop I… I need…” I tried to say through my strained breathing.

  I started making my way over to him as I tried to catch my breath but as soon as I’d started closing the gap he turned and bolted down another hallway.

  “Stop! Please!” I managed to get out as I went back onto all fours and tried to follow him.

  With each turn I felt my arms getting weaker, my legs not wanting to put out as much power as they did before. I easily weighed twice what I did back on earth and even more than I’d gotten used to on the surface.

  I could hear my hearts beating louder in my ears as I tried to catch up with the person that took my backpack. I’d slowed to the point where I could only barely catch a glimpse of him before he’d turn each corner. He was so fast, so agile, and I knew he was just standing there at each turn, waiting for me to catch up before he continued. It was like he was playing a game with me.

  In a final push, I rounded the next corner and just as before, I saw him disappear around the next one.

  I collapsed onto the ground, laying on my back and laying flat, trying to catch my breath, my eyes closed as I felt a wave of frustration wash over me.

  With a groan I turned to my side, then pushed up off the ground to get up to my feet.

  I turned down the hallway I’d last seen him disappear into and to my surprise, he was just sitting in the hallway, his back to the wall, my backpack in his lap as he was simply looking through it. One of the MP3 players was in his hand, my headphones on the floor next to him.

  “H-hey!” I yelled down the hall.

  He didn’t look up at me and simply put everything back into the backpack, then held it up toward me for me to take.

  I was confused, but I cautiously approached, expecting him to dart off again, but to my surprise he just waited and let me grab the backpack from him.

  “What is all that stuff?” he asked as if he hadn’t just taken me on a wild chase through the ship.

  I grabbed it from him, still trying to catch my breath as I responded “None of your business that’s what. Why… Why did you do that?!”

  He shrugged.

  “I thought it’d be funny, I guess” he said.

  I couldn’t help but notice he wasn’t out of breath at all, talking as if he hadn’t just sprinted through the ship for the past twenty minutes.

  I collapsed against the wall opposite him, holding the bag to my chest.

  “Well… I didn’t think it was so funny” I said, still gasping for air between each breath.

  “Yeah well. I don’t get it. You’re slow, you’re clumsy, you’re weak, you have no stamina. What are you, a surface dweller or something?” he asked with a snarky attitude.

  My eyebrows furled as the little twerp berated me for not being able to keep up with him.

  As I caught my breath I had a chance to focus more on the kid. His fur was all black, like mine was when I was younger. He was a good amount shorter than me, but I could see he was strong. Despite his size, his arms were thicker than mine.

  “Why is that any of your business?” I asked, putting as much of my frustration into my voice as I could muster.

  “I was curious why they were interested in you” he said.

  “Why… Who was interested in me?” I asked, my frustration turning to intrigue.

  “Stupid too. Do you have anything going for you or are you just remarkably unremarkable?” he asked.

  “Hey!” I snapped at his insult.

  “Oh relax I didn’t mean anything by it” he said as he hopped up to his feet and held his hand out to me.

  I clutched the backpack with one hand as I skeptically reached my hand out to his as he helped pull me up to my feet.

  “My name’s Flint by the way” he said in a cheerful tone.

  “Tess” I responded as I flung the backpack behind me and put my arms through the straps.

  “A liar too?” he asked through a snarky smile.

  “I… what?” I asked.

  “If you’re gonna give me a fake name you should at least use a real name” he said.

  I sighed “Thanks I’ll keep that in mind.”

  “So what happened to your ear?” he asked as his eyes looked up toward my left ear, which under the added gravity of the lower floors wasn’t able to hold itself up, causing it to flop down halfway up it where the scar was.

  “It’s uh… It’s a long story” I said.

  With him standing closer, I noticed a small patch on his right arm, sewn into the clothing. The woven colors in the fabric stood out to me instantly. I hadn’t seen anyone else on Lifeboat 8 wearing it, but it was the same patch I’d landed on earth with. I hadn’t given it much thought since most of my focus was on the shard the whole time. I’d barely remembered the patch was there at all until I saw the same one on his shoulder.

  “Hey uh, what does that patch mean? The one on your shoulder there” I asked.

  “You talk funny, what’s up with that?” he asked, not seeming to want to stay on any single topic.

  “I… I do? How so?” I asked.

  “You just say things a little weird. Did you hit your head or something? Is that why you’re a surface dweller now?” he asked, sounding genuinely curious.

  “I… I don’t know…” I began to respond when a gentle chime came through the hallway.

  “Oh! Announcements! We should go!” he exclaimed as he turned and ran down the hallway, leaving me there for a moment before he turned around to look at me.

  He came back and grabbed my hand to lead me with him.

  “Come on come on!” he said as he led me down the hallway as I reluctantly followed.

  He led me down another series of hallways, each one with more Melodians than the previous as more people came out from the doorways along its sides.

  Eventually we got to another town square, not much different than the one that was higher up. A big white screen had come down from the ceiling that everyone was gathering around. The lights in the square were slowly dimming as a projector on the other side of the room turned on, pointing at the large screen.

  “Flint” I said to grab his attention.

  “What?” he asked as we moved to the outside of the crowd of a few hundred Melodians as we crowded around the screen.

  “Who was looking for me?” I asked.

  “Hey if you don’t know then I shouldn’t tell you. I’m not actually supposed to be here. Anyway it’s starting, be quiet” he said as he directed my attention to the screen.

  The projector screen changed to a video feed of two people standing next to each other. One was a white Melodian, the other was a Mechara. It looked like the Melodian was standing on something so the two would be on equal height with each other.

  “Hello Lifeboat 8” the Mechara said. My ears perking up as soon as I heard her voice. It was Nori.

  “I know you’ve all been waiting for an update and I’m so sorry we kept you waiting for so long” she continued “We’ve been waiting until we had some proper answers to give you. In short, we’ve learned a lot about the people that live on the planet below us. The best I can describe them is… Diverse. They have many languages, many beliefs, many ideas about what we’re here to do. It seems they disagree on nearly everything we talk about but we have been learning to communicate. As you know, I’ve been doing my best to learn one of their languages. Navigating their different cultures and beliefs has been… Difficult. To say the least. But I believe we’re making progress.

  “Soon we’ll be making proper contact with them. Most importantly, they’ve agreed to provide us with the resources to rebuild Lifeboat seven. There’s no timeline yet on how long that’ll take but we should be able to start soon. We’ve also agreed to share our technologies with them. Right now we’re only just getting to the point where we can understand each other but we’re getting better at it!”

  The Melodian cleared her throat “To the Melodians…” she began.

  My ears turned forward, my hearts skipping a beat as I recognized her voice immediately. It was the woman from the black shard message to earth.

  “We’re not entirely sure what’s been going on with the assembler” she continued “Artemis believes it’s something to do with the magnetic field around the planet but he says he’s working on a solution. In the meantime it’s best to use it a bit more sparingly than we’re used to.”

  The entire crowd groaned as she finished her thought.

  I tapped Flint on the shoulder, whispering to him “Flint, who is that?” I asked.

  Flint laughed a little but continued watching.

  “Flint” I said again.

  He turned to me, confused “You’re serious? It’s Nori and Rosa. Are you sure you didn’t hit your head or something?” he asked.

  “Maybe… Maybe I did, I don’t know” I said.

  “They’re… You know, from the surviving three? The only survivors from lifeboat seven? How do you not know them?”

  “Ah, right okay yeah I know them” I said nodding as I lied to him.

  As I was asking Flint about the two, Nori had started speaking again. I’d missed the first few words but tuned in a moment later.

  “... that’s why we’re excited to say that we’ll be starting up the gravity games soon! We’ll be broadcasting it down to the people of earth and it’ll be their first introduction to the way our lifeboat looks from the inside so we’ll give them quite a…” she was saying as she was interrupted by a Mechara who walked into the frame to whisper something in Nori’s ear.

  Her expression quickly changed from excitement to shock as the other person quickly finished what he was saying and moved off screen.

  “Everyone I… I have to go. It looks like my father isn’t doing so well I… I have to go” she said as she reached up, pulling a small microphone off her shirt and handing it to Rosa before she quickly rushed off.

  Rosa closed her eyes, taking a deep breath before turning to the camera.

  “In the past few kilorots Lampro’s health has taken an unfortunate turn. Sorry everyone I think we’ll have to end this a bit early but hopefully it’ll clear up as soon as possible.”

  I grabbed Flint’s shoulder, turning him toward me “I need to get back to the surface.”

  “Sounds good! Good luck!” he said, waving me off.

  “Where’s the closest elevator?” I asked with a bit more urgency in my tone.

  “You don’t…” he began to chastise me.

  “Flint I don’t have time for this just show me where it is!” I said a bit louder, several of the other Melodians turning around to look at us.

  He rolled his eyes but started leading me away from the group. After a few turns through the hallways he brought me to a familiar looking bank of elevators.

  “Thank you!” I said as I ran into the closest one, reaching up to hit the topmost button.

  “Sure thing ‘Tess’” he said in a sarcastic way.

  As the doors started to close I realized something.

  “Flint, how do I find you again?” I asked urgently.

  “Don’t worry I’ll find you” he said as he turned around, making his way back in the direction we’d left just as the doors closed.