Stasis
a slice from the life of interstellar space
Mission Cycle 4276
Theo glimpsed the moon through his bedroom window. It shone a very bright white, very bright. The moon suddenly flew up and out of sight. Then, just as suddenly, it dropped back into view, still framed neatly in the window between the little red rocket ship print curtains, then flew back up and was gone again, and then down and it was back again, and Theo realized he had been bouncing on his bed. Except that the bouncing seemed to be taking him no effort at all.
“Just like being almost weightless,” Theo thought, “yeah, I should know, I’m an astronaut!” Theo thought some more, “Except I’m not weightless or an astronaut right now, I’m here at home!”
But it still felt cool to be floating up and down in his bedroom at home.
Very cool.
He twisted a little bit in the air and floated gently down to the floor.
“Wow! Wait till I show Mom and Dad!” Theo thought, but then he thought a little more, “but Mom and Dad are dead, aren’t they?” Theo gave a little shrug in his mind, “They don’t feel dead right now.”
He bounced through the door and down the stairs, gently touching each step on his bum as he floated along.
“Mom! Dad!”
And Theo kept on thinking, “Why is my voice getting smaller?”
“Dad… Daddy!”
And Theo’s last thought before waking up was, “I thought I just bounced my way downstairs! Why is the bed jiggling?”
“Daddy! Daddy! Is it Sunday yet?”
Theo poked a tiny bit of grit out of the corner of each eye with each index finger and wiped a streak of dried drool off his chin and onto his sleeve.
“Yes, Star, it is finally Sunday again.”
Star stood up at the foot of the bed and stretched her small chubby fingers toward the opposite wall of the bunk room. Theo heaved a sigh, rolled out of bed, and lifted Star up to reach the spin control. She giggled uncontrollably as Theo’s feet gradually left the deck as he gave her a playful spin, propelling her through the hatch into the gangway.
“Why can’t every day be Sunday, Daddy?”
“You already know that answer, Star.”
Her high little voice became mockingly serious.
“Because if every day were Sunday, then we wouldn’t have a special day to look forward to.”
“That’s right Honey, and what’s the other reason?”
Star’s face twisted into a scowl which totally failed to look mean from the midst of all that cuddly cuteness.
“Because I need all those other days to learn all the things I’ll need to know when we reach the colony, and because I’ll need to grow big and strong,” then the scowl suddenly disappeared. “So I can run and play and maybe even swim!”
Star frantically windmilled her arms and kicked away at the thin cabin atmosphere.
“And…”
The scowl returned.
“And so I can work hard. But I’m already working hard!”
“Yes, we both work hard, Star,” and Theo launched himself from the wall and caught Star by the waist as the two of them tumbled down the corridor. “But not today, because today is…”
Star screamed with delight, “Sunday!”
“And, Star, what comes next on Sunday?”
One more screaming word from the depths of Star’s little throat: “Oatmeal!”
“With?”
Two more screams: “Extra! Sugar!”
“And how does the sugar stay on the oatmeal, Star?”
Star frowned once more and launched herself across the cabin to the spin control, gave it a turn, and they both floated back down to the deck.
***
As they each carefully wiped their oatmeal bowls clean Theo asked, “So what Sunday game will we play today, Star?”
Star did not hesitate. “Alphabet names!”
Theo smiled. It was hard the rest of the week to make learning feel like work with Star. Sunday was a relief. It was play day and he didn’t have to try so hard to be serious with her. They made their way back to the long stasis corridor.
“And how far did we get last Sunday, Star?”
Star ran down the row of chambers and pointed up at a nameplate, “L!”
“And who starts with L?”
Star’s face screwed itself around in careful concentration, then her mouth stretched itself in some unaccustomed directions as she worked out the pronunciation. It finally it came out in a long drawl, “Law-rents”.
“Right, Star! You remembered the ‘L’ name! But can you get the bonus point for Laurence?”
Star danced around in excitement. “Laurence is the cook! Laurence is the cook!”
“Very good, Star!” Theo handed her the marker and she danced over to one of the two empty stasis chambers and added two marks under the carefully scrawled letters S-T-A-R. Then she handed the marker back to Theo.
“Your turn, Daddy!”
Theo carefully snapped the cap back onto the marker. Like practically everything else aboard, it would have to last as long as possible. As he watched Star ran down the corridor ahead of him, Theo took inventory of the remaining various cloth and plastic pieces he could still scare up around the cabin as he could see the uneven seams on her outfit begin to pop out.
Star stopped short, nearly toppling over, and skipped back a few steps as she pointed eagerly up at a nameplate. Theo caught up to her and his heart seemed to skip a beat as he read a very familiar name there. His heart did not immediately return to its normal rhythm.
“C’mon, Daddy! Don’t you want another point too?”
Theo took a deep breath of the recycled air in a vain attempt to rein in his pulse.
“Daddy! It’s an M, isn’t it? That’s next after L, right?”
Theo nodded his head automatically thinking that Star should be replacing the teacher, not the horticulturist, she sure seemed better at it than Theo had been.
The letter M.
Theo taught her the word “Daddy” months ago, but somehow still hadn’t gotten around to “Mommy”.
“That’s right, Sweetie, M is next and you found it. You are such a little smart one. You should get this point.”
“Daddy! Play the game!”
“Okay, Star.” Theo drew another breath and took a mental note to check out the air recycler. It seemed like the stalest breath he’d taken in a while.
“ An M name is – Maeve.”
“And what is Maeve, Daddy? Don’t you remember? It says it right there by the name!”
“Maeve is a psychologist, Sweetie. We don’t pronounce the P.”
Star stared at the nameplate for a long moment.
“That word doesn’t look like sigh-co…”
“Psychologist, sweetie.”
“What does a sigh-co-gist do?”
Theo’s shoulders sagged for a moment, then he picked Star up and gave her a hug.
“I don’t know, Star, I’m just a stasis engineer.”
He handed her the marker and she gave him a point anyway.
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