Submissions for Contests

Admiring from afar

A mother sitting at the breakfast table with her daughter, what a lovely sight. Zera shifted in her seat, to get a better view on the square-shaped window. Like usually, her mother blocked the view with obscure hand movements she used to articulate an important problem to one of her assistants over video. It wasn't easy to manage a spaceship, but in Zera's view, the hands were a bit much.

 Each daybreak, Zera took her time to take in the view. The ever-changing play of colors, so bright yet light-years away. 

On this particular day, the many sprinklers of violet captured her whole. It was as if the window frame dissolved, and she could flood right through the glass. Sadly the articulations of her mother sentenced her to stay in the bright room. The artistically curved walls reflected every broken ray coming from the chandelier. What a contrast to the peacefully glooming space. That made it seem as if Zera was eating cereals in a lightbulb.

„Zera sweetie," her mother purred. „Finish your breakfast. You need to get dressed for the opening in sector 3." Zera frowned. „Oh and put on dark shoes, you don't want to ruin your pretty white ones in that place."

At the door, Zera ran into her dad. He met her with a serious face. „Before you go to school, I need to give you this," his hand opened to reveal an old-fashioned necklace. It glistened golden as he let it trickle into my outstretched hand. „Take good care of this." Zera hadn't even closed her hand before her dad already continued an eager conversation over the phone.                                                                                                  ***
Openings are all the same. It starts with a speech, cutting the red band, smiling for the picture, and shaking lots of hands. Then on it goes from raw architecture, all-metal and narrow back to the highest sector. With every high-security door Zera passed, she felt worse. 

The guards let her off the hock in the bright hall that posed as a high school. Learning with the best of the best, all next to each other, each with their own program. ‚We value Individuality' sounded great on a flyer, but in reality, though they all sat in the same room, their screens kept them apart. With their own private teacher, the visit of these high-tech rooms was just an option as opposed to learning at home.

On the other hand, her education provided Zera with the perfect excuse for time off. Her parents wouldn't bother to check on her. A neutral parka thrown over the school's uniform, she exited the common area of sector 10. To get a hold of an access card had proved to be easier than expected.

Her destination, the sector of science, certainly had its perks, one of them being a see through wall, the ship's biggest outlook on the universe.

Zera climbed up to the small pedestal, out of sight from the working scientists below. First, she noticed a smell like in the engineering deck: fuel and solder. Next, her eyes rise above pedestal level, and she faced an unknown boy.

„Hey!" the boy said. He turned towards her, but the loose strands of blond hair covered most of his eyes.„What are you doing here?"

„Just sitting, the view is beautiful isn't it."

„Yeah, it is." She unfroze and settled next to him.

„I'm Dean by the way."

„Zera." She gave him a soft smile.