A Way Out

Pearl Adams sat on her bed, nervous. She had nowhere to go, now that the entire spaceship had been shut down. Rumors of extermination had been swirling. People were convinced that the government was behind the malfunction of the ship’s motor and that soon, they would all be dead. 

The trip started out so promising. Pearl had been content, happy even, to start this new life thousands of light-years away. Earth had become practically uninhabitable, eaten away by rising ocean levels and the never-ending conflicts that had scraped away at what was left of humanity. Then Christopher Stewart, a powerful business magnate, came along and promised everyone a way out. 

His company built spaceships, massive ones that could fit entire cities within their gleaming metal hulls. Some even began to worship him religiously, and the media called him the savior of the human race. In their eyes, he could do nothing wrong. 

Governments, too, quickly found use in this modern hero. In partnership with Stewart’s company, they organized a lottery. The great many who couldn’t afford a trip on his luxurious spaceships could instead win a government-sponsored, all-inclusive trip aboard the first spaceship, aptly named the Pioneer. Pearl had applied, desperate for a fresh start, and by a stroke of luck, had won. Now, she sat on her bed in her room, surrounded by everything she could have ever dreamed of, and all she could feel was a sense of premonition.

Suddenly, her entire room went dark. The soft electrical hum that had accompanied her since day one abruptly shut off, as did the digital clock on the wall above her door. A click let her know her door had locked, and a small emergency light went on next to the phone. There had been a power outage.

Reluctantly, she made her way over to the phone. The last time she had used the phone was when she first got on the ship. Tightly gripping the handset, she dialed a number and then waited for the comforting voice of Sky.

Sky, like many other parts of the spaceship, was named after a part of the heavens that had once seemed so far out of reach. It was a robot that provided a sense of home, a reminder of what all of the passengers had left behind. Now more than ever, Pearl needed something like Sky to calm her down and tell her it was all okay even though she knew deep down that it wasn’t.

A strange beep welcomed Pearl when she picked up the phone. “I’m sorry. The person you were trying to reach is not available at this time,” an automated voice said on the other end of the line. Pearl sighed. Of course, Sky couldn’t work. The robot didn’t have any power. 

Unsure of what to do next, she walked over to the window. After some tugging and pulling, Pearl was able to pull up the shutters and look outside. For the first time, she was able to fully take in her new surroundings. In every direction she looked, there was darkness, broken only by small points of light that must have been stars. 

Earth was already far off in the distance, or so she assumed. She recognized nothing around her. A team of astronauts had been sent ahead of the Pioneer spaceship, and Stewart’s company had published pictures and logs carefully documenting their trip from Earth to this new planet. Pearl had studied them intently, taking in everything there was to see and learn. But nothing of what she was looking at now remotely resembled anything that she had seen in those pictures.

A small drop of water ran down along her cheek. She wiped it away quickly, refusing to let herself cry. But the water droplet hadn’t come from her eye. Pearl ran her hand along her hot forehead, wiping away the perspiration. Bewildered, she stared at the glistening drops of sweat on her hand. 

Quickly, she changed into something cooler and then rushed over to her thermometer. Each room had a personalized heating and cooling schedule that could be changed with a quick phone call to Sky. However, on her first night on the ship, Pearl had had a lot of trouble setting the temperature in her room and decided to buy a thermometer. Looking at it now, the red liquid was at about 94 degrees Fahrenheit and steadily increasing. Mesmerized, she watched as the liquid rose and rose. Sweat began running down her face and entire body, forming little swimming pools in her shoes. 

Desperate for relief, she headed to her bathroom. She turned the faucet and then the shower handles back and forth, but no water came out. Frustrated, she tore a towel off the shelf and peeled off her sweat-soaked outer layers. But still, she could feel the heat pressing in on her as the temperature continued to rise and rise.

Pearl rushed over to the telephone. She dialed every number she knew, but to no avail. No one was going to be able to help her. She had to get out of her room herself. Meanwhile, she rushed over to the thermometer and watched as the liquid flowed up quicker and quicker. 

Desperate, she turned her attention to the door and began to tear at the door handle, praying for it to open. She screamed and yelled and pulled, but nothing happened. Finally, she gave up. A deathly silence overtook the room. The liquid in her thermometer was shooting up so fast now that Pearl couldn’t tell anymore how hot her room was. She was beginning to feel faint, so she slumped down against next to her door. 

Suddenly, she heard a low boom and far off screams. The emergency light above her room began flashing, signaling a drop in air pressure. Somewhere on the ship, there was a massive hole, and Pearl knew where. If the power had been cut, then none of the fans cooling down the engines would be working. The engine was already partially broken down, so it would only be a matter of time before something exploded. This also explained the increase in temperature. Pearl had to get off the ship.

A loud thumping jolted her back into reality. “Help! Help! Pearl please help me! I can’t breathe!” It was her neighbor, banging on the wall separating their rooms. “Pearl, please. I need some water. I think I’m going to pass out. It’s just so hot in here.” Her neighbor began coughing and wheezing until eventually, her pleas stopped. 

Pearl’s suspicions had been confirmed. She had to get out. Her room had gotten so hot that it felt like the heat was strangling her. She grabbed a chair and stumbled over to the windows. Using what little energy she had left, she threw the chair at the window. Nothing happened. She heard two more booms, this time closer. Again and again, she picked up the chair and hurled it at the windows as the booms drew closer and closer. Pearl couldn’t see straight anymore. Her throat felt like it had almost closed up completely. She began wheezing and coughing. She felt her knees give way as she fell to the floor. 

The explosions were so close now that with every boom Pearl felt her room shake and her head rattle. Barely able to keep her balance, she got up one last time and smashed the chair against the windows with all her might. The chair shattered into a hundred small wood fragments. Pearl fell to the ground and began collecting the little slivers with her shaking hands, trying to force them together again. Her sweat was forming a puddle on the perfect wooden floor. Then everything went black.

On Earth, Christopher Stewart was standing next to the President of the United States with a glass of champagne in his hand. “The Pioneer has been successfully blown up, Mr. President.” 

by JULIA ARNOLD

“Congratulations, Mr. Stewart. Here’s to creating a new Earth.”