The Jump ~unfinished~ by Raymond Brettschneider (black authors fiction .txt) 📕

Chapters:
Chapter 1 - School's out


Story

- 2145 A.D. Earth launched it’s first and single most largest multi generation deep space vessel. Built to be able to function as a completely independent colony on it’s own, it was send out to seek a new home for humankind, or become adept as a space faring people.

Some 10 generations have come and gone since launch day, and life is much different on board now than when they left earth. Aboard ship, they are now in 223 A.D., After Departure. -

Chapter 1: School’s out

Miss Ardell, the 37 year old school teacher at Mikael’s school looks at the clock. With a faint tick-tock tick-tock the final minutes seem to drag themselves forward. In only five more minutes, she will have completed her second year of teaching, only 8 more to go on this cycle, and her students will be off for either a few weeks of holiday or their own first 10-year job cycle assignments.

Tick-Tock, only four more minutes to go, there’s definitely a buzz building up in the classroom. It’s not just her looking every few seconds at the clock, most students are doing so now. As the custom prescribes, the final hour of lessons is spent in silence. Giving every student time to adjust to the idea of leaving school, or starting holidays. She remembered when she attended school and this custom had not yet been introduced, the final hour was always hectic. Everyone shouting their plans to each other, fellow students sharing in their anxiety over where they would be assigned if they were in their final year. And then, finally when class was officially over, everyone just fell silent. All anxiety already spent, just one more thing to do, to go home or go on.

No, this new method of having a contemplation hour was much better she felt. Of course, being a teacher, she might have a slight prejudice regarding silent moments in class.

Tick-Tock, three more minutes to go, and her eye suddenly catches the stare of Mikael. He’s looking right at here, a frown on his face. Clearly he’s thinking really hard on something. Oh yes, Mikael is in his last year. Three students concluding their studies this year, there seem to be less and less students leaving school every year.

Tick-Tock, two more minutes, and each minute seems to stretch longer and longer. She sees Mikael is now looking around at his class mates. Everybody is still quiet, but there is slight disturbance now with feet shuffling, chairs scraping on the floor, terminals being shut down. Everybody is gearing up for the final minute. After class is over, all hell will break loose.

Tick-Tock, the Final Minute. Mikael is starting to feel his stomach churn a little more. Cold sweat is beading his forehead, his shirt is stuck to his back. It is his Final Minute in school. Ten years he spent here, from the age of five he had spent almost every day here in this school building. Well, it had felt like almost every day, but he must have had some off periods as well. But this was his final minute, after this, it would be a few weeks rest and then he would get his job cycle assignment. Living on board of one of the agricultural continent ships, there was a good chance he’d be assigned to a farm for his first rotation. Not really something to look forward to, but it was much better than being assigned to maintenance, or even worse, another 10-cycle of school. Still, even that could happen. Just the idea of it is enough to cause his stomach to rumble loudly in protest against all that stress.

Tick-Tock, the final seconds... School’s out. It had finally happened.

A buzzer sounds through the hallway and for a moment more the class remains silent.

“Yes, the class is out, you may talk again.” Miss Ardell says, pushing her chair back to get up herself as well.

As if she had given off a starting shot for a race, everybody started talking at the same time, getting up, going over to each other. A few of the younger girls in the front row got a bit overwhelmed and they fell into each other’s arms sobbing, not knowing really why, but it was just all so emotional.

Miss Ardell raised her voice “Students, please, if I may have just one more moment of your time!”. She looked around the class sternly until everybody quieted down. “That’s you too Jason!”

Noticing all eyes were on him while he was still orating to his friends about all the things he’d be doing with his dad this holiday, he turned a bright red and went quiet as quickly as he had been talking.

“Most of you I will see again in a few weeks time. Even so, enjoy your time off, and be warned, next year you will be in a new year of school with higher expectations, more studies and more work. Please do come well prepared.” She turned her gaze to the three oldest students in the back row, including Mikael, and continued.

“Now the three of you have completed a very important phase of your life. I hope I was able to help prepare you properly for your future, whatever that may be. Who knows, you might end up teaching, like me.”

Everybody frowned, the entire class knew that Miss Ardell was actually not very excited about having to spend ten years teaching kids the basics of life on board of a multi-generation deep space colony ship. Still, nobody dared to make any snide comments on this fact, as the temper of Miss Ardell was as well known as her dislike for teaching.

“Still, you might get lucky and get to work all day outside in the fields. Or if you are so inclined to consider yourself lucky, become an X10 pilot.”

Now that was a prospect at least all the boys, and probably some of the girls as well, found enthralling. An X10 pilot got to fly the latest generation of space jets, able to fly at incredible speeds and with huge agility around the main structure of the Ship, right there, out in space. You could find yourself having all kind of wild adventures there.

Mikael had started day dreaming and did not even take in any of the other wise life lessons Miss Ardell was trying to impart on them. To be able to fly out there, free, as a bird. It would be even better than zero-grav, because the X10 was incredibly fast.

“...and I hope you will all take good care of yourselves! Shipsafe to all of you.” Miss Ardell waved them all out of the classroom with that. That was it, school life was over, all it took was that little wave.

Walking out of the main schooling structure, Mikael looked around. As far as his eyes could see, there was open land, some small forests and to his right the main above ground living units of his village. Technically everyone was housed in sectors, but as far as he knew everyone had continued to call them villages. Some old ways just didn't go away as easily.

All around him the horizon seemed to be way up, as if he was always in a valley looking up at hills, and it never seemed to end anywhere, except for in a kind of a haze far far away. The structure he was living in with his parents was designated as an agricultural unit. It was part of a tube like structure, several units long and rotating around it's own axis to create a gravity like effect. Each section was huge and usually called a country, while the vessel as a whole was a Continent class ship.
By all rights you could indeed consider it a small continent on its own. He remembered from school that they had explained to him that back on earth, a continent was considered a single structure on the planet’s surface that was interlocked with other continents, always adrift on a kind of liquid rock. Liquid rock, yeah, right, as if that could happen. But they had had pictures, there was even this really large hill where molten rock was spewing out of. Can you imagine?

Looking straight up he noticed it was a very clear day today, you could hardly ever look across. Normally there would be clouds, or enough moisture floating in the zero-grav center of the tube to prevent you from looking at the other side. It is a bit dizzying actually, instinctively you fear that you might fall up and straight to the other side. No matter how impossible that would be though. The tube was always spinning, keeping everything and everyone glued at a nice near-earth gravity to the outer walls. Can you imagine gravity suddenly not being there? It would be disastrous, all the rivers would be able to float out of their banks, you might actually float off to the other side. It gave him the chills thinking about it. He had heard it happened once on another tube, but that was in a past long forgotten, like 10 or 12 A.D, more than 200 years ago.

Hearing steps falling in line with his own he looked to his right. It was Jenna he realised, and as he realised that he could feel a deep shade of red creeping up from his neck to his cheeks. Jenna had been sitting a few tables from his in class, and secretly he quite fancied her. He had spent hours in class just hanging back in his chair, looking at Jenna’s long golden braid, how she picked at the edge of her desk when concentrating. Hours he had had to make up for after school however. Miss Ardell always seemed to know when to ask him a question, knowing full well he had no idea what the current topic was.

“Oh, ehm, hi Jenna. “ He muttered. Hi? Was that the best he could say? “Ehm, what are you going to do, ehm, this holiday?” he continued, his voice changing pitch halfway through the sentence. The horror!

Jenna looked at him with brown eyes into which he could melt away...the red in his face immediately deepened.

“Really, I don’t know yet, but, like, it doesn’t really matter, because, like, I still have to get back to school for a year.” She sounded like there wasn’t enough time in the world to complete her thoughts in, it was a torrent of words rushing out.

Looking down at the ground now, she softly continued “You are so lucky that you don’t have to spend another year with that Ardell. You get to go off and do things now.”. Even softer she almost whispered “And I’m still going to be here for a year.”.

It was like she really regretted having another year of not having to worry about what task she would be assigned to. Of course that would come at the end of her year as well, as it had for him. In the last weeks it had suddenly become very real that he would soon no longer be a student, but would actually have to start work. A message had been sent to his parents that he would be expected to attend the annual drafting-ceremony in four weeks, where all graduating students of the Kenoa tube would gather and be assigned to their first