The ripple of a vibration running through the pod woke Ren from a pleasant dream soaring through the skies of Darai. He had never been to Darai, or seen the sky, but he could imagine, and dream. Darai was a distant memory four hundred years behind them, and still the only known habitable planet in the galaxy – twenty-two generations of Darai explorers had lived out their lives aboard the Morning Star Exploration and Colony Ship. Another vibration passed through the pod – a soft rolling staccato that brought Ren fully awake. He sat up in the darkness, fear freezing the breath in his lungs as he listened for the roar of wind that would signal a hull breach. The sounds came to him, some near, some distant, but all urgent. The sound of rushing wind, shouting, alarms blaring, panic, and then the cries of frightened children – it was happening again. Images from seven years ago flooded into his mind with scenes of the catastrophic hull strike that had ripped open a large hole in the ring that rotated around the main fuselage. He remembered his mother pushing him into an escape pod, and the other woman that had appeared at the hatch and shoved a small hatchling infant into his arms. Toma had only been a year old, and Ren seven. “Protect him,” pleaded the woman. Ren didn’t understand what was happening, but he did understand the desperation and fear on the woman’s face. He took the baby and nodded as the two mothers together sealed the boys inside the escape pod. The boys rode out the disaster inside the pod, safe from the terror occurring just outside the pod, but neither of the boys ever saw their parents again. Ren looked down at the platinum-haired boy sleeping next to him. The nearly white hair was the mark of a Solanitte, along with pale skin and graceful features. He pushed a feathered wing sticky with jelly aside and nudged the sleeping boy. “Toma, wake up.” The boy tried to pull his wing back over him and mumbled a complaint. Ren nudged the boy again. “I think there’s been a hull strike.” Toma’s eyes snapped open. It took a moment for the blaring alarms to register in his brain. He sat up and pulled back from the side of the pod as if that could save him. “What do we do?” “We’ll be okay, put your armor on, we have to evacuate the ring.” Ren already had his armor on. He often slept in it, a habit he’d formed after the hull breech seven years earlier. The armor was a spacesuit, but its default position only covered the torso and arms. If he needed the entire suit, he could flip a control switch at the wrist and deploy the entire suit, but he didn’t like doing it. The liquid metal flowing down his legs always managed to find some skin to pinch. “My legs and helmet?” asked Toma. “Not yet, save your oxygen, we’ll breathe the ship’s air as long as we can, and furl your wings or I’ll put the restraining straps on them,” replied Ren. Toma pursed his lips into a pout. Wing restraints kept the wings rolled tightly against the body, but was usually only done to young hatchlings to keep them from flapping around and knocking things over. Ren could only remember having had his wings restrained once after knocking a ship officer’s meal off the table in the cafeteria. Ren had learned to keep his wings tight against him, but Toma still tended to flap around when he got excited. Ren rolled off the bunk, and went to the pod’s oxygen tank. He tapped the gauge and frowned, the tank was only half-full, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d filled the tank. He was in the middle of exams; chores had gotten shoved to the side. They never used any of the fuel, and rarely used water, but when the hatch was sealed for the night, they did use oxygen. He flipped the switch to fill the tanks before all the air in the ring was lost through the hull breech. He shoved the clutter of school work off the escape pod’s control panel he used as a desk. The hatch lock clicked, followed by a rush of wind and acrid smoke as the door swung open. A man with a thick mane of dark brown hair leaned into the pod. “You boys okay in here?” he shouted as a shudder shook the pod and the sound of a distant explosion arrived. Ren turned his head to the man that had adopted him and Toma after they had lost their parents. A woman appeared at the hatch next and after one look inside, crawled into the pod and over to Toma still struggling to get his armor on – Toma gladly accepted her help and stretched his arms up while she slipped the armor over his wing blades. The man and woman were a Hetenitte couple that hadn’t deserved the years of resentment Ren had given them. The volatile domestic situation came to a head when the man had offered to teach Ren to fly. Ren broke down in a burst of anger at the man for trying to take his father’s place. Ren then learned that his father and the man had been friends since childhood and his father had asked his friend to take care of Ren if anything ever happened to him. His father’s friend was trying to fulfill a sacred promise, just as Ren had been trying to do by protecting Toma. They had come to an understanding. “Yeah, we’re okay, I’m filling the oxygen tank. What’s happening?” Maeken smiled calmly at his adopted son, but there was an urgency in his voice. “Good boy, you’re going to need it. Two of the zero-g tubes were hit and there’s a bottle-neck of evacuees at the other two. We’re sending you and Toma over to the second ring in the escape pod.” “Really?” “Don’t get too excited, this pod is ancient, it will probably fall apart and you’ll drift off into space and get eaten by space vultures.” Ren rolled his eyes and gave the man’s attempt at humor a weak grin. The man crawled into the pod, his impressive mottled-tan wings flaring to block smoke from getting through the hatch and into the pod. “You’ll be fine, we use these pods to transfer supplies between the rings all the time.” Ren watched the man crouch next to him and enter the coordinates for docking on the second ring. “You’ll dock at G34. When you get there, stay put, I’ll come get you.” “Aren’t you and Jena coming with us?” “We’re staying to help with the hull breech.” Ren’s head snapped around to stare at the man, there was no reason for them to stay – they weren’t structural engineers. Maeken and Jena were Bridge Navigators. Ren glanced down at the coordinates, then back up at the man. Ren couldn’t have plotted the course himself, but he’d seen Maeken program supply pods enough times to know the coordinates always began with the numbers 24. “These coordi…” Ren started to say. The man lowered his voice to a whisper. “Shhh… you’ll scare Toma. Jena said you wouldn’t fall for a trick. Look, son, these pods are very old, the oxygen generator can’t take too much strain. The hull strike is bad, we’re sending you a safe distance away for now. The pod will return if the recall command is given, otherwise…” Maeken put a hand on Ren’s shoulder and squeezed. “…survive, it’s what your father would want.” Maeken held his grip a moment longer, then released Ren and backed out of the pod. Ren was certain the hull breech was worse than Maeken was letting on. He glanced back at Toma. Jena was finished helping put his armor on and now held him in a hug. She held the hug longer than what would have been normal, then released him and came over to Ren. She wrapped her arms around Ren in a long hug, and before letting go she pushed a data cube into his hand. “Take care of Toma and the girls. I love you.” Jena backed out of the hatch as Ren cocked his head to the side in confusion. “Wait, what girls?” Ren was out of his seat and about to crawl through the hatch to find out what was going on when a girl from his class appeared at the hatch and pushed him back inside. Ren stared at her in confusion. “Laena? You’re going with us?” Laena gave Ren a look as if he were the dumbest boy on the ship. “Do you need a biology textbook?” “Huh?” “You’re clueless, never mind.” Ren narrowed his eyes, certain there was an insult in there somewhere, but he wasn’t sure where. Maeken reappeared at the hatch and lifted a second girl into the pod. Ren recognized her from Toma’s class. The girl had been crying – was still crying – and her face streaked with tears. After waking in her own pod filled with smoke, and then a heroic rescue by her father... everything after had been a blur. She saw Toma, and grateful to see someone she knew, rushed to him. Toma unfurled a wing and wrapped her in a protective embrace. “It’s going to be okay, Kirae,” said Toma, relieved to no longer be the most scared person in the pod. The girl buried her face into Toma’s shoulder and sobbed. Laena decided to let Toma deal with that situation, there was too much to do. She turned around to Ren and nodded towards the hatch. “Your father has boxes for us, pass them to me and I’ll stack them.” Another explosion, closer this time, rocked the pod violently. Ren was thrown onto the floor. He recovered just in time to grab a box. Ren passed the box to Laena. “Do you know what’s going on?” “Not now,” replied Laena. “Grab another box.” Ren heaved box after box of survival gear to Laena until there was hardly any room left to sit. Ren wondered how Maeken had put together so many supplies so quickly. The last four boxes sent a chill down his spine. The boxes were faded red from age, but obviously never opened. Nobody in their right mind would ever use the technology inside the boxes. When the Morning Star had launched four hundred years ago, this technology had been in its infancy. Ren handed the red boxes to Laena, but if she was surprised to see them, she didn’t show it. The pod was nearly completely filled with acrid smoke now. Ren leaned back to the hatch to check for more supplies and say his last goodbyes to Maeken and Jena. A horrible ripping sound of metal preceded the entire ring listing at an unnatural angle. He braced himself from a hurricane force wind now threatening to suck them all out of the pod, and watched with horror as Maeken and Jena were pulled into the air and were gone. The smoke in the pod was pulled out with the wind and replaced with an unnaturally cold and thin air. Laena wrapped her arms around Ren’s waist to keep him from being pulled out of the pod. She looked back at the two younger kids and shouted: “Help us!” Toma and Kirae both jumped up, and flung their arms around Laena’s waist. Ren grabbed the hatch door, but the wind was pushing against it. He leaned out of the hatch, trusting that Laena wouldn’t let go. He pulled at the hatch, but it wouldn’t budge. He almost let go of the hatch in surprise as Maeken dropped down from above. The big man put his shoulder against the hatch and pushed. Ren shouted over the wind, “Where’s Jena?” The man didn’t need to say anything, his eyes told Ren everything. Jena’s wings hadn’t been strong enough to save her from the sudden decompression of the ring – Jena was gone. The hatch slowly moved. Maeken’s face turned red with exertion, and probably the lack of oxygen, but he had fought against the wind and come back to save them. The hatch reached the half-way point and the wind grabbed it and slammed it shut. Ren leaned his forehead against the cold metal. “They sacrificed themselves for us,” whispered Ren. Laena shook him. “We have to launch now, the ring is coming apart!” Ren didn’t move. “Why did they do it?” Laena grabbed Ren’s arm and pulled. “Because that’s what parents do. Don’t waste their sacrifice, get us the heck out of here, I don’t know how to launch this thing.” Ren pushed himself up. What was the point? Where would they go? He leaned over to the control panel and entered the four digit code to unlock the safety cover over the launch button. The pod listed several more degrees as the ring twisted and ripped apart. He pushed the launch button. The docking clamps released and the pod dropped with a stomach lurching thud into the launch tunnel. There was nothing else Ren needed to do. Maeken had set the pod on an auto-escape course. The engines fired and Ren stumbled back into Laena as the pod shot out of the launch tunnel. The pod’s collision detection sensors took over and dodged a path for the pod around the debris of the dying Morning Star. The pod continued to accelerate for several minutes away from the ship that had been their home. At last the engines shut down and an eerie silence settled inside the pod. Ren was tangled up with Laena in a heap. It felt like he’d bruised every bone in his body. He pushed himself away from Laena and drifted upwards in the zero-g environment. Ren glanced at Toma and Kirae. “What the heck are you two doing?” Toma and Kirae were pressed together with their wings wrapped around each other in a winged cocoon. No part of their bodies had been exposed to the boxes tumbling around the pod. Laena looked back at the two and laughed. “Oh, that, I’ve seen it before,” said Laena. “The younger kids invented it for dodge ball. A wing strike doesn’t count, you have to hit legs, arms, or torso. So, they came up with that cocoon thing to protect themselves from getting hit. I’m surprised nobody ever thought of it before, it’s pretty smart.” Ren grinned. “We should practice it.” Laena glared at him. “Don’t get clever, rooster.” Ren laughed at the insult. It was usually used at school dances and such when a boy tried to get too friendly. The girl would usually say something like, ‘strut away, little rooster, strut away’. A space appeared between the cocooned wings and Toma peeked out. “Is it over?” “Yeah, buddy, it’s over,” said Ren. “I’m going to open the front shield and see what happened to the Morning Star.” “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” replied Laena. “It could give Toma and Kirae nightmares.” “We’re not babies, we have a right to see,” said Toma. Laena shook her head. “I don’t think we should open the shield, it’ll cause heat loss, and the heater is too old to keep up with that, I’m already freezing in here,” said Laena. “I have an idea. Ren, why don’t you use the external cameras and record what’s happening to the Morning Star, and then you can decide later if we should see it.” The radio beeping an incoming transmission caused everyone to turn their attention towards the control console. “Hello, is anyone out here?” said a voice shaky with fear. Ren looked at Laena. “That’s Taerek, from school. He’s on the zero g-ball team, I recognize his voice.” Laena kicked off from the wall and sailed past Ren to the control console. She caught herself on the back of the command chair, then reached down and pressed the comm. button. “Hello, this is Laena from Solanitte Middle School, is this Taerek?” “Oh thank the ancestors, I thought I was alone,” replied Taerek with relief in his voice. “Isn’t anyone in the pod with you?” asked Laena. “No, my little brother spent the night with a friend. Mom and Dad went to find him, but they never returned. I waited until the fire was on me before I launched… I… I… abandoned them…” A third voice broke in over the radio. “Stop that,” ordered the voice. “This is Markus from Holentite High School. You did not abandon them, I’m coming up alongside your pod now. Your hull is almost completely black from the fire. You went far beyond what could be expected, your parents would be proud how long you stood your ground. Now I need you to pull it together, I’ve got seven in my pod, I’m going to dock with you and transfer three over before my oxygen generator over-heats…” Ren floated up beside Laena. “That’s Markus, he’s that famous g-ball quarterback… he’s epic.” “…Laena, who do you have with you in your pod?” continued Markus. “I’ve got Ren, his little brother, Toma, and Kirae, Toma’s friend from school.” There was a short pause before Markus replied. “Alright, I put their names on our survivors list and sent the update out to all the pods. You can expect messages if you have any family or friends on the list. Do you know how to fly a pod, or are you still on auto-pilot?” “We came out on auto-pilot, but Ren knows how to fly this thing.” “Okay, tell Ren to take it off auto-pilot and make your way over to me, I’m sending you the coordinates. Most of the pods are on the other side of the Morning Star. I’ll collect up the rest of the pods over here, and then we’ll convoy over together and get you in formation. We’ll figure out what we’re going to do after that.” “How many pods are there?” asked Laena. “Current count is 152, but there’s more coming from the second ring, now get moving, we have a lot to do.” “Understood, Laena out.” Laena closed the connection and turned to Ren. “Wow, you weren’t kidding, that guy is epic!”