Suddenly there was a pair of strong arms around her, pushing her sideways, and she was falling just as the car skidded past them, colliding with a garden wall.
When Lyra realized that she was uninjured, she let out a breath, relieved and filled with adrenalin. She peered up at her saviour, lying on top of her where they had fallen. It was her neighbour, the hot one from upstairs. He had brown eyes, sparkling golden in the early morning light. There was a quirk to his smile like he was trying to hide his amusement.
“You’re OK,” he said, his voice a low, calming murmur in her ear. “Relax.”
Lyra sagged under his – very solid – chest.
“Thanks,” she said, her voice cracking in an embarrassing way. “I’m Lyra.”
“Jayden. It’s great to meet you, neighbour,” Jayden continued. “I just wish we were meeting in less exceptional circumstances!”
She’d never felt so relieved. The tension in her stomach, which had been building in a tight coil since she’d realized she was in danger, dissolved into nothing.
With Jayden, she was safe.
fin.
DAYS UNTIL THE ETERNITY ARRIVES:
364
My inbox doesn’t contain any voice messages today. Instead, there’s an MP4 file. A video.
I stare, too confused to open it. I can’t think of a reason why Molly would send me a video clip instead of an audio message. NASA have always said that it’s too expensive to send that much data.
Transmissions to and from Earth are sent by laser, encoded in binary. An antenna on Earth conveys the laser beams to The Infinity, where a light array picks up the signal and converts it back into letters, images or sounds. The uplink from Earth takes a long time, and apparently video files just aren’t feasible to send. It takes hours for the antennas to transmit them, compared with the minutes required for audio or text messages. What’s changed now?
I’ve got a nervous tickle in my stomach at the thought of seeing Molly’s face. It’ll be the first time I’ve seen a real human in years. I eye up the file while I eat breakfast, brush my hair and get dressed.
I tell myself that I’ve got no reason to be worried. This is new and exciting. It isn’t scary. That doesn’t stop the itching concern at the back of my mind.
Eventually I sit down, take a deep breath and click play. At first, the screen is black. Slowly it turns grey, and then white. Dark letters that I’ve seen more times than I can count appear.
Loch & Ness
As the familiar theme tune from the opening credits plays in the background, I double-check whether I’ve somehow opened a file from my hard drive instead of the message. But it’s right.
NASA has sent me an episode of Loch & Ness. Why would they transmit an episode of a TV series to me – especially one they must know I’ve already got?
It takes me a stupid amount of time to realize why the first scene seems unfamiliar: it’s a new episode.
Suddenly, I’m grinning. They’ve sent me a new episode of Loch & Ness! A new episode! Molly must have finally found an excuse to send it to me, like I requested years ago.
When I was ten, I asked Dad to ask NASA for more episodes, as I’d just finished the seventh series, which ends on this massive cliffhanger. The characters – two supernatural detectives called Lyra Loch and Jayden Ness – had just kissed for the first time. Unfortunately for me, The Infinity had launched before the eighth series aired, so it wasn’t on the ship’s hard drive.
In their reply, NASA said that they couldn’t send me any new episodes because video files were too large to transmit across interstellar deep space. Instead they sent me a file full of Loch & Ness fanfic.
It’s the single best present I’ve ever received, especially because it arrived just after my parents died. I read the entire archive, and then started writing my own.
I watch the new episode without taking my eyes off the screen for even a moment. Jayden Ness, the puppy-eyed and long-legged mixed-race selkie, and Lyra Loch, the no-nonsense feminist banshee, are trying to track down a fairy selling illegal love potions.
The new series must have been filmed a few years after the ones I’ve got, because Jayden looks a little older – his muscles are more filled out, and there are a few laughter lines around his mouth. He looks good.
I screenshot a few scenes, setting a picture of Jayden as my wallpaper. I replay his best lines, listening to the dialogue on repeat until I’ve memorized his latest witty one-liners.
By the time the credits roll, I’m giddy with happiness and excitement. I’ve already thought of three new fics based on this episode alone.
I’m about to watch it again when I notice the message origin. I shoot upright in my chair, reading it twice just to make sure. The video didn’t come from Earth at all.
It came from The Eternity.
The new ship is talking to me. It sent me an episode of my favourite TV show. Why? Why would they bother using their transmitters for this? It must have taken hours to transmit. And why didn’t they send me an actual message, even just to say hello?
I don’t understand. My gratitude has dissolved into a mess of confusion and nerves. Someone on that ship knows I like Loch & Ness. They know that much about me, when I know nothing about them.
I should reply. I open up a message addressed to somewhere other than Earth for the first time ever.
I stare at the blinking cursor, trying to decide what to say. It hadn’t even occurred to me that I might be able to talk to the crew of the other ship. I type Thank you.
I quickly delete that, and then feel like an idiot. This shouldn’t be hard, but for some reason I feel shy. What if I say the wrong thing, and make a terrible first impression? Should I be formal and polite, or funny and relaxed? This would be so much easier if they’d sent me a message first. Then I could just copy their tone, instead of having to try and work out what to say myself.
From: The Infinity Sent: 26/02/2067
To: The Eternity Predicted date of receipt: 08/06/2067
Dear the crew of The Eternity,
I received your transmission today. Loch & Ness is my favourite show – thank you so much.
Congratulations on your successful voyage so far. I trust that everything is progressing safely with your journey to date.
This message is going to take almost four months to reach you, but I’m glad that we can communicate at all, regardless of the time delay.
It’s nice to know that I’m not alone out here.
Commander Romy Silvers
I reread the message three times, finally deciding that while I definitely sound awkward, I don’t sound as stupid as I could, so it’ll have to do.
I send it off, then firmly tell myself not to think about them again. They’re still closer to Earth than to me, so it’ll take months for a reply to arrive. I should try to relax about it, at least for now.
I used to be able to have reasonable conversations with people back on Earth. The ship has been travelling away from the solar system at just under a tenth of the speed of light for my entire life, so even though light is the fastest thing in the universe, messages currently take over a year to travel through deep space between me and Earth – and the delay increases every day.
At this point, it’s almost impossible to have a proper conversation with anyone on Earth. When Molly finally receives my messages, even if she replies immediately, it still takes another year (plus the extra distance I’ve travelled since I sent my message) for her reply to arrive. Though at least I get messages from her every day, even if they are out of date.