⸻ ( Bellamy Blake )
Jinny Shumway was the epitome of brilliance, the brightest star in their galaxy. But even stars can fall -- burning, crashing, incandescent.
( the 100 ) • 2020
( editing in progress )
HER FOOTSTEPS MADE NO SOUNDas she traversed the familiar corridors of the space station, the residual steady hum of machinery following wherever she went. Jinny's eyes were downcast, set on the data output module that streaked across the screen of her tablet in a flurry of digitally computed characters. The young girl scanned the information, consolidating it in the brilliancy of her prodigious mind that shone like the white edges of a diamond. Lightning coursed through her neurons, stimulating her mental heuristics to form complex equations of illustrious thought.
She paused, feet coming to an abrupt halt, when her top peripheral vision caught the flare of sunlight reflected from the observation window on her right. Her brown eyes shifted from the screen towards the panel of glass that separated them from the boundless sea of constellations in the dark abyss of space. Jinny moved forwards with profound awe as Venus loomed in front of their orbit, shrouded in its cadmium clouds of sulfuric acid. The terrestrial planet was directly aligned with the sun, creating a burst of light off its side where the yellow dwarf could still be glimpsed.
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She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked towards her mother who smiled down at her warmly. Jinny turned her gaze back at the celestial body adrift in its retrograde rotation. "Solar radiation in space is supposedly more harmful than nuclear radiation on Earth because of the photon particles," she said.
"You're right," Irma replied. "But it's more than just fallout that ravages the ground—there's the electrical storms and nuclear winter too. When the first stations launched into orbit, they reported hellfire that burnt everything in its path."
"Will it ever be safe to return to the ground?" Jinny frowned in thought.
"One day, we'll return to Earth," her mother said confidently. "That's why the work that we're doing is so important. Uncovering the data from the artefact will benefit us all."
"I can't wait," the girl responded with an excited beam.
The thunder of footsteps drawing closer in their general direction caught them off guard, and Jinny watched her father turn the corner of the adjacent hallway. He was with Diana Sydney and another guardsman that she recognized as Callum. They stopped short in front of Irma and Jinny with varying degrees of expressions. Her father seemed troubled, almost frantic, while Callum held a conceited posture. Diana stared at Irma with ferocious blue eyes, the curtain of her blonde hair framing her hollow cheeks.
