Member-only story
A Long Way Home to the Stars
They go into the unknown each day.
There were secrets that even Gaia knew were too big for her to keep. When her mother left the cell block each night, she knew unspeakable things were happening. After all, no one could hide the screams that rang off the walls like screeching metal meeting metal. Every day she saw the tallies: only so many could escape the swing of the Scythe in this place they had the misfortune to call home. But only so many left the block beyond the asteroid prison. Gaia’s mother herself would have escaped without her if she could have stolen one of the coveted transit keys that would take her back to her home planet of Gild.
But Gaia — Gaia would die here just as she had been born here. The homeborn could not leave: they were the ones who would be the workers once the originals left to their planets of origin. Plus it was another punishment for the parents: the children would be stolen from their parents just as the parents themselves had thieved and scammed away precious things that had landed them on the block to begin with.
Gaia, however, was even more unlucky: her mother would be glad to leave her behind. She had been a prestigious pilot’s daughter who had stolen jewelry from other rich offspring. Her own father had assigned her to this place, as was the right of those parents on her home planet…
