In a galaxy far away from ours there was another system of planets and their Sun – the utopian coalition, the Elysium of all paradises. Every planet, of which there were nine, was populated. People lived in peace and harmony, and all that was possible due to one single rule, followed irrevocably – never, under any circumstances, let yourself fall in love.
Love was the word that they banned from the mouths of little children. People got punished for even implying that such emotion could possibly exist and invade the hearts of the innocents, who, free from all the restrictions that came with love, ended up prosperous and successful.
Love to your parents was admissible. But they referred to it as “repaying the debt”. The two human beings, chosen at random, who signed a life-long contract, agreed to share their DNA to create another life by means of science. The child was to be raised in a laboratory until becoming of the appropriate age, so that the parents would not waste time on caring for him in the early stages of his development. Some, however, preferred not to meet their offspring. Sky was one of these kids.
‘Good morning.’
She took a deep, satisfied breath. Her body was regenerated from the desperate fall last night that didn’t leave a single bone of her skeleton unharmed. This reminded her of the time when she was born. Immediately, the conscious of an adult was seeing through the eyes of a child. She was alive, yet not entirely complete.
‘Good morning.’
‘Are you feeling alright?’
Sky was perfectly fine. She left the hospital ten minutes later and went straight to the airport.
Last night she tried to solve her problem. This time she determined to deal with it for good.
‘One ticket to Hades, please.’
‘To Hades?’ the saleslady raised her eyebrows. ‘You do realise it’s a one-way ticket?’
The girl with the red ponytail knew what she was doing. ‘Is that so?’ she sounded genuinely surprised, at which Sky thought that this kind of behavior was not common for the Aresians. Perhaps, the girl was visiting from Hermes.
Sky had noticed her at the parking lot earlier. She was walking with wide steps; shoulders back and chin high. There was no way she didn’t know about Hades’ recent elimination from the coalition.
‘It is certainly so! Are you sure you want to travel there? I’ve heard that they’ll be shutting down the airport in the next three days.’
‘I am sure.’
‘Very well.’
Sky bought a ticket from a different saleslady. Neither of them was keen to keep up with the conversation, even out of politeness. She had already taken the sleeping pill, which left her twenty minutes to get onboard of the Aresians space-lines to the Third planet.
The entire flight she was dreaming about him.
It was half past twelve when the spacecraft landed. Sky was greeted with the smell of fresh wind and a song of the bluebirds. She suddenly realised that she had no idea where to find him.
Sky walked to the exit doors with a racing heartbeat. She believed it to be the internal response of the body to the level of recklessness and desperation running through her veins.
Then the doors opened and she saw him.
The chain reaction that followed Sky’s act wiped out the life on seven planets. Years later, when the order was restored every schoolchild on the Third planet knew how and when this happened. Sky knew that she was the destroyer, but they called her the emancipator. The skyey emancipator who showed them what love was.
Now she was complete.
