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Supernova, Chapter One: The Road Home
Posted By: Triad<m.eelkema@student.tudelft.nl>
Date: 26 July 2006, 12:36 pm
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Supernova
chapter One: The road home
"Want something to drink, Maynard?"
"Yeah, that would be nice."
While Roland was busy in the kitchen fixing beverages, Maynard sauntered around in the living room and looked through their bookcase.
"Did you buy that new Chiroptera-album yet? I've heard the fans are going ape-shit over it," Roland asked from the kitchen.
"Yes, I bought it last week," Maynard answered absentminded while he was browsing through a book on popular science. It was called "an anthropologist on Mars" by someone called Oliver Sacks.
"Looking for something to read?" Roland said as he walked into the room carrying their drinks.
"What's this book about? I didn't know the colonists on Mars had degenerated so much that they need an anthropologist to study them."
"Haha. No, it's about medical patients with certain mental defects or brain damage," Roland chuckled. "One of those patients is autistic and feels her condition is like being an anthropologist on Mars. Feel free to borrow it, if you like. I don't think my parents would mind."
"Thanks. It sounds interesting," Maynard said while reading the blurb.
Roland plumped down on the black leahter couch and put his feet up on the coffee table in front of it. "You're welcome. Now would you please move out of the way? You're blocking the TV and the news is about to start."
Maynard frowned his thick dark eyebrows. "Why do you need to see the news? If anything happens on this world we know about it ten times sooner than any reporter."
"I like to stay informed about what's going on beyond the planet, mister Wiseguy. If I ever get off this boring rock I better know what's playing."
Still going through the book Maynard took a seat next to his friend facing the sixty inch viewscreen incorporated into the bookcase. The news came on, showing the sterile and almost featureless face of the best known woman on Kappa Aquila.
"Good day to all. Welcome to the six o'clock news on march second, twenty-six ten, broadcasted to you by the Aquilian News Network. I'm Marianne Smythe. In tonight's issue: The second solar flare within a month has crippled outdoor labor and activities around the planet. Significant damage to the economy is not expected though. Meanwhile the United Nations Space Command reports a major uprise in Covenant forces in the vicinity of Pi Aquarius. UNSC-Supreme Commander Roni Bosilias has ordered all available ships to join the main fleet near Reach. It is expected the armada will depart to strike down the uprising within a month. On a more local matter; the mayor of New Tblisi has decreed…"
"Do you think the Covenant will ever be really defeated?" Maynard wondered.
Roland kept his eyes on the news and took a sip of his drink. "I thought we already had defeated them fifty years ago. Why do you ask?"
"Well, it's just that the Navy has been chasing them ever since, even on their own turf, and there just doesn't seem to come and end to their space, or their ships."
"Yeah, and the Navy keeps knocking them down like the flies some of them are. It isn't much to worry about in my opinion."
"But we've been venturing into the old Covenant realm for decades now, and we still haven't found any of their homeworlds. Don't you think that's weird?"
Roland shrugged. "Not really. It took the Covenant twenty-five years to find Earth, remember? And their empire is probably much bigger than ours at the start of the war."
"Hmm. Maybe you're right. Oh shit!" As if bitten by a snake Maynard jumped up from the couch and reached for his mobile phone. "Damn, I almost forgot. I have to call my mom." Hurriedly he pressed the speed-dial for his parents, knowing his mom was probably going nuts over him. Almost immediately after dialing the receiver was picked up with the familiar, yet stressed sound of his mother's voice. "Hi mom, it's Maynard."
"Maynard! Where the hell are you? Did you get caught in the flare? I've been worried sick here."
"Mom, calm down. You know me better than to think I let myself get rayed out in the open. I'm staying at Rule's place."
His confident words seemed to calm his mother down. "Oh, that's all-right. Just…just cal me sooner when another one hits, ok?"
"I will, mom, and I'm sorry. See you tomorrow, right?"
"Yes, darling, see you tomorrow. Bye!"
"Bye, mom."
The next morning the same sirens that had signaled the onset of the flare gave three quick honks, meaning it was safe to walk outside again. It was a Saturday, so Maynard and Roland weren't in any way obliged to get out of bed early. After having breakfast Maynard said goodbye and stepped out their front door to walk the twenty blocks home.
Because of the countless waves of solar farts most of the daily life on Kappa Aquila went on underground or underneath vast sunroofs fitted out with UV-blocking glass at least two inches thick. Even most of the streets had giant covers, making the inhabited part of the planet look like the biggest conservatory on this side of the galaxy. These domes also retained a lot of the heat coming from the sun, which was actually intended by the designers since Kappa Aquila was quite cold from itself.
Walking down the familiar streets Maynard passed underneath one of the many elevated Maglev train tracks that criss-crossed the urbanized zone. They were not only used for commuting; this was in fact a secondary use. Their main purpose was to facilitate in the transport of the one and only right of existence for this remote colony in the periphery of the human-inhabited galaxy: Titanium-ore. Trainloads of the grey gold were taken to the thriving and bristling foundries every day. From there the coils of A-grade Titanium were transported to the starport, where a superfreighter landed once a month to collect the spoils.
On his way home Maynard started to think again about what Roland had said on the baseball field about Linda. Did she really see nothing in him other than some weird guy she met on guitar practice? He was sure he felt a connection between the both of them whenever he had talked to her. Or was it just his imagination thinking wishfully about something that never was and never would be? Maynard didn't know anymore what to make of it, make of her. This was where his severe lack of experience concerning girls became painfully apparent. It wasn't just that he couldn't fetch Linda's attention; Maynard had never managed to make a lasting impression on any woman, young or old. Linda was the closest thing to a female friend he had, and even she didn't seem to recollect his existence unless he put himself firmly in her line of sight.
Yet, when he did manage to engage in conversation with Linda she seemed genuinely interested in what he had to say, and even dared to ask more personal things; questions, which came out of leftfield and caught Maynard off guard. Still, his sometimes downright clumsy answers didn't scare her off or deter her to ask for more.
It was this genuine interest when he talked to her on the one side, and her complete lack of initiative to make contact with Maynard as soon as they wouldn't see each other on the other which confused him so much. When was the last time they had done something together? Should he give her a call one of these days? Better sleep over it at home.
This 'home' was a three story duplex in one of New Tblisi's numerous suburbs he shared with his parents and his older brother. If there was anyone on the planet he envied about as much as Linda's boyfriend, it would be his brother. Five years older than Maynard, Anthony was everything his younger sibling aspired to be, and had everything his sibling desired to have: friends galore, a prosperous carreer on the local aeronautical academy, and most of all a gorgeous girlfriend called Maggie.
Walking into his street he tried to shrug off his blues, telling himself he should be thankful for what he had. He had loving and relatively wealthy parents, he'd had a care-free youth, and he was a moderately good student in Engineering at the Aquilan polytechnic university. Most other kids his age didn't share his luxury, but had to cope with life on the wrong side of the Maglev-track, often coming from broken families and being groomed for a life and certain death in the titanium mines. Maynard knew he was lucky and shouldn't complain so much.
Yet, he felt something was not right about his existence, that there was a void in his heart. He had a strong feeling Linda might be the one able to fill it up.
Maynard walked down the front garden of his home and fetched the front door key from his pocket. With the tip of the key a quarter of an inch away from the hole the door swung open, revealing his mother standing in the hallway. In a flash two arms shot forward and pulled her son over the doorstep and into her warm embrace. "Maynard! Finally you're home! I've gotten so worried!"
"Mom, please! People can see us," Maynard sputtered as he gently wrestled out of his mother's loving clutches. "Again, I'm sorry for not calling home right away, but I've said it to you a kazilion times; I'm old enough to know what to do, mom," he said while putting away his jacket and walking into the living room.
"You can't blame a mother for caring about her youngest son, dear," his mother rebutted. "anyway, how did the game go?"
"Normal. The rest of the team sucked except for me and Rule. The other team was leading four to nothing by the time the flare struck."
"So you didn't get to score? I was going to cook your favourite in anticipation of at least homerun."
"Thanks, mom. I was about to score when the sirens wailed, if that's any consolation."
"Of course it is, dear."
Of course it is. I can impress no one as easy as you ,mom. But where is my consolation? Maynard wondered. Oh well.
"Man, I'm exhausted," Anthony sighed as he let himself fall backwards into his father's barkalounger. "Six gruelling hours of written tests, simulator practicals, oral examination, and then some more written tests."
Mom and dad were sitting besides him on the couch, nearly falling on their noses as they tried to hunch closer to their firstborn. Maynard was still sitting in the kitchen trying to fake how unimpressed he was, but meanwhile listening to every word that came out of his brother's mouth.
"No, it wasn't easy, mom. But I think I still aced it pretty hard."
"Really? Did you do it that good?"
"Well, I might not have gotten every single question correct, but I expect it to be sufficient for a high grade."
The moment Anthony confessed on possible faulty answers Maynard got up and walked into the living room. "What questions did you fail on?" he asked brusquely.
Anthony stared into his brother's face for a moment, not knowing how to deal with Maynard's impertinence. "Well, there was this one weird problem, but it was more like a bonus. First they asked us to plot a course for Delta Cygni, some dismal system in another part of the periphery. Then they awarded bonuspoints for also calculating a course for Earth from that same system."
"That shouldn't be too hard," his father commented with confidence.
Anthony swivelled around in the chair. "Yeah, well, yes and no. Because Delta Cygni isn't in the neighbourhood of anything important, stellar charts of that area are not very accurate. To get the calculation started you have to take sort of a guess about where Earth is supposed to be, and then proceed from there. I got this question in the last hour, and I must have been having some kind of a meltdown, because I couldn't figure out a proper vector for Earth." Anthony leaned back again. "But it doesn't matter, really; as I said it was more of a bonusquestion."
Maynard remained unimpressed by his brother's story and the irritated looks coming from his parents. "Meltdown; that's a nice way of putting it."
"What's your problem, Maynard?" his mother intervened. "Aren't you happy for your brother?"
"Sure, sure. There's no problem, I just like to hear about interstellar navigation, that's all."
After putting out this fire between him and his brother before it had even flared up, the attention shifted back to Anthony and his glorious victory over education again. Incapable of caring and having nothing left to say Maynard retired to his room without any of his family noticing.
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