SPACESHIP ZOMBIE CRUISE

FILE ENTRY 2.0

Bella Starr

The next day came like any other, but the expectations were anything but normal. As with the moment before the space jet took off from Earth and I ended up at Neptune Shores, I peer over a giant precipice, into the great abyss beneath me. In particular, that abyss is the next step in my life, what I've worked for. As I approach my workstation in the debarkation bay with the airlock to my left and the passage to the general concourse to the right, my insides tremble. The water in that abyss might drown me.

I breathe in and exhale.

The most challenging thing I've ever done is live on a space station. Of course, staying at a beach resort is anything but difficult. Truth is, I've lived a charmed life. I have wealthy parents. I'm valedictorian of my senior class. My aspirations are enormous, as big as the stars, like joining the Interstellar Navy and traveling to Alpha Centauri. But my life is about to change. Forever.

My contract with Neptune Shores expires today, bringing an end to my senior year of high school. I officially graduate when I get back to Earth. I completed the twelfth grade at the space station and worked as a tour guide when I wasn't in class, in exchange for my diploma and a university scholarship when I return home. My college degree is a requirement to apply for officer school, something I have to do before joining the Interstellar Navy. Neptune Shores rewarded me with this unique opportunity because of my grades, but I chose this route because I wanted to get away from home and experience the freedom of space. I have lofty dreams, and I didn't want to sit around on Earth with an entire galaxy to explore.

Today, I'll board the space cruise ship, the Celestial Sea and begin my journey home. Thanks to the ship's antigravity engines, the three billion mile trip will scorch through the solar system at a small fraction of the speed of light.

Since I left Earth, the Celestial Sea has been in every conversation. This is the spaceship's maiden voyage, the first ever cruise ship of its kind. The vessel is two thousand feet long, a few feet longer than the height of the Interplanetary Trade Center building on Mars. The spaceship's creator, the Space Venture Corporation, has lived up to its promise to give Earth's billionaires a luxury cruise with slingshots around Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus, culminating with a visit to its all-inclusive beach resort.

And I get to catch a ride back to Earth on this majestic spaceship. But first things first.

As I near the tour guide counters, my stomach rages. Even worse, it feels hollow, like the resort might leave a void in my life. I fantasized about getting on the cruise ship last night, but now I feel a strange sentiment about it. I remember how excited I was to leave Earth and venture here—frightened and excited was more like it—and now I'm headed home. Back to a normal life. To walk the aisle and get my high school diploma. Then university life. College exams. Dorms. All that. It's puzzling how two competing emotions can tear me apart—excitement and fear, all at the same time.

Halo will go back to school in Japan. Astra will attend classes in Seattle. Caprica, the East Coast, NYU. And I'll be moving to Stanford. At least that's the plan. Things will change and I have to accept it.

The conduit for that change has almost arrived.

Through a giant viewport in the debarkation bay, I watch as the Celestial Sea grows larger in the distance. From the front, the spacecraft has an enormously wide bow that curves at the bottom like an ocean-going vessel, only it dwarfs anything on the sea back home. From where I stand, the underside looks like solid steel painted dark blue. As I scan higher up, I see three rows of round portals, and above that, two rows of oblong portals.

Through the oblong ports, people stand and gaze out, and others move around inside. Above those floors, an array of green lights flash on and off. While I watch, the lights switch to red. I assume it's a signal to the resort that they're decreasing speed and preparing to dock.