Chapter Five

Silas was at the helm of the cruiser, driving it expertly. I sat in the copilot’s seat, flipping the occasional switch for him but otherwise sitting silently.

Finally, I asked, “Um, Silas?”

“Yes?” His tone was unreadable.

“If it’s not too rude… why do you know Jessalium so well?” I asked hesitantly.

He sighed and turned on the autopilot, sitting back. “It’s my home planet.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” he said. “But I stopped living there after my parents died…”

I paused for a second. “...how?”

“What?”

“Did they die. How did your parents die?” For a second he paused, and I wondered if he didn’t want to talk about it. “It’s okay, you don’t-”

“No, I want to.” He sighed. “My father- Marucs- mined uranium for a living. Most people did. But something went wrong with the explosives… it's not exactly uncommon, but it was still a shock. Best we can figure out, he was closest to the explosives at the time of the accident. There weren’t even any remains.”

I placed my hand on his arm, staring at him with wide eyes. “...and your mother?”

“Amara died of grief not long after,” he said.

A hushed silence fell, and all you could hear was the rumbling of the engine. “Silas, I’m so sorry…”

“It’s okay,” he said, even though I could tell it wasn’t.

“W-why didn’t Jessalium join the-”

“They did.” His voice was cold and hard. “Jessalium had been part of the TTA for years-”

“Then why-”

“STOP!” he yelled, slamming his palm down on the control panel. “Spaceburn, Charlotte, just drop it! I’m sorry, I just-”

“It’s okay,” I whispered, laying my hand on his. “I get it.” Inside, though, I had so many questions. The TTA should have fair labor practices… no, they do have fair labor practices. So why did this happen? Maybe the TTA aren’t as golden as-

I shoved that thought out of my mind; I couldn't bear to think of it. I simply turned my focus to the controls instead.

***

We landed an hour later on the planet. It was pretty barren, and close to its large sun. But one look at Silas’s face told me something was wrong.

“What is it?” I whispered.

“It shouldn’t be this empty,” he muttered, taking a defensive stance. I did the same, ready to leap into action at any moment. Suddenly, something snapped in him. He threw an arm back. “Get inside,” he ordered, “right now!”

Something in his eyes made me decide not to question, and we both scrambled back inside. He closed the hatch. His fingers flew across the keyboard.

“There must’ve been another explosion in the mines. That means-”

“Radiation,” I finished.

He nodded and handed me a rad-suit. “Better safe than sorry.”

After putting them on, we left the ship, creeping slowly in case of danger. “Anything I should know about?” I muttered.

He shook his head. “There’s not much life other than Jessalians, and what we do have isn’t venomous or anything.”

We walked for about ten minutes with no sign of life. Finally, we found the TTA base. He ran to a computer and began to hack. I went to the electrical while he gathered the data. I looked at the wires. Nothing was wrong. I ran diagnostics- the radiation had confused and shut it down. It took me about ten minutes to reboot. Once I had, I returned to Silas. His head was down, palms splayed across the keyboard, and I could swear I heard him crying.

“They’re dead,” he whispered. “All of them. Because of the explosion… this one was so big it took up the entire industrial area. There’s only one place that’s cool enough to sustain life on Jessalium, and it was all wiped out by the explosion.” He slammed a palm on the table. “All of it! And it’s the TTA’s fault.”

“W-what?”

“They could’ve helped. They could’ve done something instead of keeping our people with terrible working conditions like this.”

“Don’t blame them…”

“I blame the people who are to blame.” He looked up at me. “You turned it back on?”

I nodded. “Silas…”

He shook his head. “There’s nothing you can do about it. Now, let’s go.”