Rachel Lestari was an ordinary girl living in an ordinary neighbourhood on planet Earth. Her daily routine was pretty similar to most girls her age; she went to school, did chores, fought with her foster parents, and anxiously waited for either her MIA father or sister who abandoned her and her brother Kris to return and bring her life back to something normal.
Since the day her ammi died her life had been hell. She'd only been ten at the time, but out of her three siblings she felt like she'd been the closest to their ammi. She used to go on walks with her, helped her and dad cook dinners, showed her all her stories. She remembered curling up in bed with her when she was too sick to move, and watching science documentaries that she didn't understand, listening to her ammi's comments with awe. Witnessing her suffer the way she did for so many years, with her dad off in space having the time of his life without them, his family, had been the worst thing that had ever happened. The day she died had been unbearable. It already would've been dark and depressing if that had been the only thing that had occurred. She'd been at school when her ammi died, and she never even got to see her afterwards; when she and her siblings had arrived home it was to social workers who'd told them the news and advised them to pack up their stuff. Rachel and Kris had gone to their room, cried as they packed their lives into small bags, and then emerged to even more heartbreaking news. Sophie, their older sister who had always been there for them, had run away without even a goodbye. Looking back, Rachel got furious just thinking about it, how she'd lost everyone in her family in one day. It wasn't like Kris counted – since they'd moved into their crowded foster home they'd barely spoken. She was sure they'd been friends when they were kids, but things had changed; now she was alone. No one cared about her, and she wasn't sure she even wanted them to.
For years she'd lived a desperately empty life. Most days she didn't see the point of going on. She missed everything she'd left behind – all of her ammi's books and knick knacks had been claimed and stored away somewhere, and she had nothing but her notebook and some clothes that her dad had mended and she'd refused to throw out to remind her of her old home, her old life. She hated her new foster family, she hated the tiny room she shared with three other girls, and being forced to go to school where she was bullied by classmates and lectured by teachers, and the weird bland food they had for every meal, and the way Mr and Mrs Hesterson always talked to her in that sickly voice that told her they pitied her. She hated the way Kris didn't seem to be upset by everything that had happened to them; he played holo sports, hung out with friends, bonded with the Hestersons as if they made up for the parents they'd lost. She was furious, she was alone.
What was even the point?
She'd found ways to cope, of course, little acts of defiance against a universe that hated her. Like figuring out how to disable the house alarm so she could sneak out and go for walks at night. She liked it when the world was (relatively) dark and quiet and she could just walk around, get a break from how cramped and stuffy her house was. She had a super old and janky digifile that she used to write in. When Rachel had been younger she'd written stories, now she mostly used it as a journal. It was the one private thing she had, and it helped keep her from killing someone. Most of the time that someone was Kira-Lee, the brat of a girl she was forced to share a room with. Or any of the idiots at school. And sometimes simply herself.
So it goes.
One day, like most others, she took the hoverbus to school and headed to the floor where all her classes were. She sat down in her booth in the corner and hooked into the systems, immediately disengaging from reality as her classmates chatted or played loud music around her. School was the main place she had access to technology, so she tried to make the most of it. She was catching up with updates in Glyphscape when today's supervisor called for their attention. Rachel looked up uninterestedly and groaned internally. There was a new kid in their class and guess where the only spare seat was? She mentally prepared herself for an agonising introduction to a person who she did not want to interact with as he was directed towards her booth.
The interaction with the new kid went like so:
"Hi."
She looked at him and tried to psychically tell him to piss off while verbally saying "Hey."
"My name's Adrian, my family just moved here from Italy. What's your name?"
She clenched her jaw unhappily. "Rachel."
"Nice to meet you, uh, Rachel."
"Hmm."
He frowned, glanced around himself for a moment, opened his mouth as if to say something, then lowered his head and focussed on setting himself up for work.
Rachel thought nothing of this interaction; she'd had plenty of experiences with putting people off. She and Adrian ignored each other for the rest of class. She got on with her day. Then lunchtime rolled around, and she sat at an empty table in the corner with her tray of that day's gruel, reading a book she'd managed to download during class. Suddenly she was torn out of reading by... someone joining her at her table.
Looking up bewilderedly, she saw Adrian awkwardly sliding into the seat across from her. She glared.
"What?" he asked.
"Why are you sitting here?"
"Can I not sit here?"
"I mean, you can, but why would you want to?"
He shrugged. "It's my first day. I don't know anyone else."
"Okay..."
"So I can sit here then?"
"I guess."
Why was this random new kid bothering with her? She didn't want to have to deal with this but she also didn't care enough to tell him to go away. I mean, she knew what it was like to be thrown in the deep end in a new place, and if she'd been in his shoes she probably would also have gone and sat next to someone who wasn't talkative. Less pressure that way. Nonetheless she caught herself glancing at him out of the corner of her eye as lunch went on. He basically just sat there and ate, sometimes looking around the cafeteria curiously, sometimes on his device. He was reading something too. She wondered what it was, then subtly shook her head and went back to doing her own thing.
"Hey Rach!" She froze, on her way up to her room after school, and turned to see Kris standing in a few feet away in the kitchen looking at her with a weird gleam in his eyes. She frowned at his enthusiasm. They weren't exactly siblings who had a rapport. What did he want from her?
"What?" she asked flatly.
He walked over and nudged her with his elbow, probably attempting to be friendly but coming off as more obnoxious. "I saw you in the cafeteria today with a new boy. Do I hear wedding bells?"
Rachel rolled her eyes. "Ugh. Very funny."
"Nah for real though. It was nice to see you sitting with someone."
"Yeah, okay. Can you drop this?"
Kris shrugged. "Okay. Have you heard about the Matraxan thing?"
"Huh?"
"Yeah, there's a bunch of human colonists trying to stage a coup or something. It's all over the news. Not a good look for Earth really."
She stared blankly at him. "Why are you telling me this?"
"What, you wanted me to change the subject."
"Whatever." She gave up on the conversation and headed to her room.
Although she resented the implication from Kris that there was something romantic going on, she had to admit, over the coming weeks, that he was somewhat right. As each day passed and she found herself sitting with him at lunch, working in class together, even almost blowing up the lab in science one time, she realised she did enjoy Adrian's company. They didn't talk much, but there was solidarity in their silences. She had a friend, sort of. It was nice.
He even waited for her after school once, when she got detention for getting in a fight with one of the other kids in her grade. She found him sitting outside the detention centre, and caught a flash of the game he was playing in his glasses before he closed the tab.
"You play Glyphscape?" She was so blindsided by this fact that she forgot to be shocked that he cared enough to wait for her. He shrugged and she questioned further. "What level are you?"
"uuuhh... seventy-one, what about you?"
"Fifty-three, but, like, I can only really play properly when I'm at school because I don't have much of a set up at home."
"Oh, well... I have a VR rig at home. If you wanted to have a go, you could come over." He said, shrugging.
Rachel blinked rapidly. She genuinely didn't know how to respond to this. She knew it was a normal thing friends did, visited each other's houses. When she was a kid, she and Kris had spent heaps of time hanging out with the kids in their building, but that felt like eons ago. She wasn't sure if it was something she could do now. But Adrian was fairly chill, and getting to use a proper VR rig was very appealing. "Yeah, okay, that would be cool." She said.
And so, against all odds, Rachel found herself visiting Adrian's house a few weeks later. It was weird.
Adrian lived in an apartment building in a slightly less cruddy part of town than where Rachel lived. They even had some of those floating gardens around their building which looked pretty cool from afar. He gave her a tour of his home, including his room, his pet lizard Giuseppe, and his family.
Adrian's parents were nice, in the way that adults are nice, where they talk to you like you're a child and you need taken care of. But for once she didn't mind it, didn't resent them for it. She still gave her usual blunted answers when they questioned her about her life and her family and yada yada, but she was trying at least, to be a good guest.
After introductions Adrian led her to his lounge room where his VR setup was and they played online games together for a bit. She had to admit, it was really fun. She'd rarely used that sort of gaming system; it was definitely a plus to have a friend who had one.
Rachel had said she'd be home for dinner, so when it started getting dark, she got ready to go. Adrian's dad acted all confused when she said goodbye to him, because wasn't he driving her home? She blinked. She didn't have any idea how to respond to that. She was used to getting everywhere by public transport or walking. She looked at Adrian, who shrugged at her.
"Oh, okay." She said, and she let Adrian and his dad lead her to their hovercar. Rachel stared out the window during the short trip home and smiled to herself. She'd been nervous about this whole experience but it had actually been good. As they dropped her off at her house and she waved goodbye she had to admit to herself, she was really happy.
Rachel was happy as she sat down to dinner. She was still happy as she turned her eyes to the holoscreen as she ate. Still happy as she saw that the trouble on the planet Matraxa was finally ended, thanks to a group of fighters from the Alliance organization who'd made their way to the centre of the trouble and stopped the leader. She was still happy as footage from the battle on Matraxa was shown. But then she saw something that made her heart stop. Rachel spat out the food that was in her mouth and shouted at the screen.
"Pause, pause!" The screen paused and everyone around the table stared at her.
"Okay, now rewind." She said warily, feeling the bewildered looks of her foster family still on her as the news footage rewinded. Then she forgot about them as the part she was looking for flashed onto the screen.
"Pause there!" she yelled, and then just stood and stared at the screen.
"Oh my God!"
Because projected on the holoscreen, clear as day, standing in the streets of Matraxa, was Rachel's sister Sophie.
"It's Sophie!" Rachel shrieked, and Kris opened and closed his mouth like an idiot, unable to take it in. "It is her! She looks older, but it's definitely her! Oh my gosh, look!" she pointed ecstatically at the screen, but everyone around her shook their heads in disbelief. Rachel glared at them, until Mr Hesterson hesitantly said;
"Rachel... I.... I understand that you miss your sister very much." Rachel stared at him, open mouthed. "But just because that girl looks like her doesn't mean..... it can't possibly be..." he got cut off by Rachel shouting.
"You've never even met her! You don't really know what she's like, what she'd do!" She glared at them some more. Then she whipped around and pointed at her brother.
"Kris!" she said desperately. "You must believe me! That's Sophie!" she gestured towards the screen.
Kris looked uncomfortable as he replied.
"Well it certainly looks- I mean it kind of does... It can't be Sophie, Rachel, it just can't be!"
Rachel looked helplessly around at her foster family.
"Fine." She said, throwing her arms up in the air. "Fine! If you don't believe me I'll just have to prove it! My sister is still alive!"
And with that, she stormed out of the room, headed up to her room and got into bed.
She lay there for hours just thinking, worrying about Sophie, wondering how she'd got to Matraxa. Where had she been the last four years? Was she part of the government group on that planet? Rachel didn't think so. It wasn't like Sophie at all. Was she some sort of outer space agent? But how could she be? She was only seventeen! Or at least Rachel was pretty sure she was. Rachel counted the years. Sophie had been thirteen when she'd run away. So thirteen plus four equals seventeen, she was right! But that still didn't answer the question. After a while the other girls came up to bed. Rachel pretended to be asleep but after the lights were out she tossed and turned until finally, at about three o'clock in the morning, she drifted off to sleep.
The next morning Rachel got ready for school and left quickly, before anyone could try and talk to her about the previous night. Arriving at school early, she made her way to the library so she could use the research stations. After putting a helmet on, Rachel searched through sites until the bell rang for class, but didn't find anything helpful. She headed to class in defeat, muttering to herself about stupid websites and so on. She was sure it shouldn't be that hard to find information on Sophie or footage with her in it. Most news reports had hundreds of photos and videos, but all Rachel could find including Sophie was the one news report from the night before. There was a bit of information on the Alliance, the space-based government agency that had helped out with the threat, but there was nothing among that information about the brown haired girl who had fought in the streets.
She was distracted in class, and Adrian seemed worried about her. Rachel didn't really want to tell him what was up; she was afraid he'd think she was crazy for believing her sister was still alive and had been on Matraxa.
At lunch, she left Adrian alone at the table and went back to the library to continue her search.
After twenty minutes, she came upon a site which promised footage and photographs from Matraxa during the alien incident.
She scrolled through photos upon photos of agents firing guns and people with aliens attacking them, until a hopeful looking image popped up on the screen. Rachel clenched the arms of the chair she was sitting in in anticipation as the picture fully loaded.
Zooming in on the photo, she just sat and stared for a moment at her sister, looking very heroic as she stood in the middle of a Matraxan street holding a gun, caught in the action of turning her head towards something the camera hadn't captured. Rachel examined Sophie's face closely, taking in all the differences from the last time she'd seen her. Sophie was wearing a slightly ripped black t-shirt and jeans with a belt along with brown boots, her curly brown hair was worn out and hung raggedly around her face, it seemed that her eyes were flashing in the picture and there were lines on her face that told Rachel that her sister had been through a lot in the past few years. Most interestingly, Sophie had a silver coloured watch on her left wrist, and Rachel wondered exactly what it was for. It was too large to be an ordinary time telling watch but.... Oh it didn't matter, Sophie was alive. Yes, Rachel thought as she took in the post, YES! It really was Sophie and now that she had proof she was determined to show her foster family just how right she had been the previous night at dinner. She quickly saved the photo to her digifile before perusing the rest of the site for more .Then she left the library, heading for her next class as lunch was now over. She walked with a spring in her step due to her sister's living status, but there was one question still weighing on her heart. Was Sophie ever going to come back for her and Kris?
Adrian was waiting for her outside of their next class.
"Where were you?" he asked, looking mildly hurt.
"Oh just in the library." Rachel answered him. This caused a curious look from her friend, but he didn't push the matter and they spent the rest of the day as normal.
Though finding Sophie's picture had initially filled her with hope, it didn't take long for that to pass. She showed it to Kris, but he didn't seem excited at all. And her hope faded pretty fast as the days went by and nothing happened. She felt like she was constantly alert, waiting for something, for Sophie. She didn't know why she bothered. It's not as if Sophie cared about them; knowing she was somewhere out there didn't change that. Rachel was used to disappointment, she'd spent a long time putting up her walls so that she couldn't be hurt anymore, but this had made her like a child again. She was furious, she was alone.
Okay, she guessed she wasn't alone. She did have something she didn't have back when her family had abandoned her. She had a friend. Was that enough?
Maybe.
"Hey, you wanna grind on glyphscape today?" she slid in beside him at lunch one day after she mulled all this over and decided she wanted things to return to normal.
He stared at her for a moment before saying, "You're back."
She regarded him coolly. "Yeah, I guess, whatever."
So it went. Rachel and Adrian had an unspoken pact between them, not to talk about her sister or any of the things that made her so angry to think about. She did her best to throw herself into her interests, her writing and her games, to distract herself. She went over to Adrian's house some more times, he visited hers as well. Things were okay. She'd all but forgotten about Sophie being sighted on another planet until one weekend when she and Adrian were playing online chess the doorbell rang and Mrs Hesterson yelled from the other side of the house,
"SOMEONE GET THE DOOR!"
When the doorbell rang again a few minutes later and it became obvious no one else was going to get it, Rachel sighed, paused the game and mumbled a quick sorry to Adrian before getting up and trudging downstairs. Her mind still on the game, she slid the door open and her heart dropped.
"Rachel? I can't believe I finally found you." Standing before her was a sight from her wildest dreams; it was Sophie! This couldn't be real, Rachel thought, silently taking in her sister with shocked eyes. Sophie was slightly taller than her, with hair that looked like it had never been brushed, and the same ripped clothes she'd been wearing in the Matraxa image. Had she really not changed in all this time? The picture hadn't been great quality, and with Sophie before her now Rachel found herself struck with how much Sophie looked like their ammi.
"Sophie?" she asked warily, at a loss for what else to say.
Sophie's face dropped a bit. She looked nervous herself, as if she was also unsure what to say when you reunite with someone after many years. Huh, it was almost as if she gave a damn about them. Shaking her head quickly, Sophie flashed an eccentric smile. "Of course! I had to come visit my little siblings! What's it been? Five years? I've missed so much."
Rachel felt anger rising in her chest. How could Sophie talk so casually about this? Furious tears welled in her eyes. She clenched her fists and growled, "Yeah, you have. So why turn up now?"
"What?!" Sophie exclaimed. "Oh, you don't get it – I've been searching for you ever since the day ammi died! They told me we were going to separate homes and they wouldn't tell me where, so I left to go and find dad, but his ship went missing and I've been busy helping try to find it, but when I've been here I've been trying to figure out where you were living, and when I got back Louise told me she'd found a lead and I came straight here."
Rachel blinked as she took this all in. "Back? From Matraxa?"
Sophie frowned. "Yeah, how did you know?"
"It was on the news, and there was an image with you in it."
"No way! That's cool. This has actually been an insane week. I thought dad's ship might be there, but when I got there it turned out it was just some crazy humans who wanted to overthrow the Matraxans, and then the Alliance – that cool sentient rights group – turned up to deescalate things, and I ended up as a gobetween because, ya know, friendly human, and then those guys got arrested and I had to give a whole witness statement before I could leave. Dead end for finding dad though."
Rachel blinked rapidly some more. She couldn't believe Sophie had been looking for their father all this time. A sliver of new hope started to worm its way into her cynical heart; could she actually get her family back after so long? No, she'd told herself she wouldn't think like that anymore, she had to focus on something else.
"Wait, so when did you get a gun then?" she blurted out.
Sophie's eyes lit up. "They got a picture of me with the gun? No way! I have to see it! That was near the end and someone gave it to me to protect myself but the Alliance was pretty efficient so there was never any fighting and then I had to give it back straight away." she pouted at this.
"Oookay." Rachel fished around in her memory to compare the Sophie of her childhood with the girl before her now. Had she always been this eccentric? Or was this the effect of space travel...
She was weirded out and overwhelmed. As silence grew between them, Sophie shifted uncomfortably. "Is Kris here?" she asked, craning her head to look behind Rachel as if he might be hiding in the hallway.
"Oh, uh, he's not. He's out playing holosport with friends. I can message him though." She turned to head back up the stairs, then realised it would be kind of weird to leave Sophie on the doorstep. "Uh... come in and I'll be back in a minute."
She dashed up to her room and picked up her digifile to tell Kris that Sophie was here. Her mind was still spinning from that fact. She realised her chat with Adrian was still open.
"Sorry Adrian, I can't come back to the game for a bit. My sister's here."
"Your sister?" he said in confusion.
"Yeah. Haven't seen her in four years."
"Oh." There was a long pause as if he was trying to figure out what the hell to say. "You okay?"
She stared at the wall for a moment. "I don't know. I guess we'll see. She's waiting downstairs, I'll talk to you later."
"I'll be here." He said.
Rachel took her time making her way back downstairs. She hoped Kris would get home soon, he was much better with social things than she was and as much as it hurt, Sophie was practically a stranger right now. Something to relieve the awkwardness would be a godsend.
In the main room of the house, Rachel found Sophie poking at one of the Hesterson's remotes. She cleared her throat and Sophie immediately dropped it and smiled sheepishly. They stared at each other and, as if reading Rachel's mind, Sophie spoke,
"Rachel, um, I know this is weird. I really am sorry for leaving you guys behind. I can't even imagine what you went through, not knowing what was going on. When I left I thought I could hang out at dad's work until the expedition returned, and then dad could go get you and we'd all be together again... but obviously it didn't turn out like that."
Rachel shifted uncomfortably at the tired look on Sophie's face. She'd directed so much anger and sadness at her over the years. She'd never even thought about their dad; he'd left when her and Kris were so young she'd just assumed he was never coming back. "What do you think happened to him?"
Sophie hesitated, eyes darting from Rachel to the floor and walls. "I don't know. I've been looking for years now and it's like their ship just vanished. It seems that there was a solar storm that cut off their communication with earth and after that it's not clear where they went. I'm gonna keep looking... but at this point I'm not expecting much."
"Oh." That sliver of hope withdrew from her as fast as it had arrived.
"We don't need to talk about that though." Sophie said hastily, waving her hands around erratically. "Um. Tell me about... your... life. What's it like living here? And... school? You go to school right?"
"Uh, yes." Rachel hated telling people about herself, but she figured she could make an exception this once for Sophie. She gave a vague outline of life with the Hesterson's, having foster siblings, things going on at school, playing games with Adrian, and was briefly explaining the mechanics of glyphscape to an enraptured Sophie when they were interrupted by the loud buzz of a hoverbike out the front. A few moments later, Kris burst through the front door, yanked a helmet off his flushed face and shook out his flattened curls. He fixed Sophie with wild eyes.
"Jesus SHIT." He exclaimed.
"Kris!" Rachel was shocked at such an emotional response from her cool guy brother.
"Hi!" Sophie said, in a bright voice. "Long time no see, Kris."
"Uh, yeah." He said and the three of them stood in an awkward triangle in the living room, together for the first time in four years. Kris looked conflicted, which continued to stun Rachel. "How could you leave us Sophie?" Rachel could tell by his voice he was trying to downplay how upset he was.
Sophie's shoulders sagged as she explained herself again. "I had no choice." She said in a quiet voice. "They were gonna separate us no matter what I did, and then once I left I didn't know how to find you again. I've been looking for dad ever since, with no luck... but I'm here now."
Kris crossed his arms and nodded as he took in her story. Rachel watched as if from far away. "Oh. Well, it is good to see you again."
"Yeah." Sophie said.
"So what now?" Rachel asked. "Can we come live with you? Do we help look for dad? What changes?"
"Uhhhh..." Sophie scratched her head. "I mean, I currently live out of my backpack, and when I'm on Earth I sleep on a coworker's couch so..."
"Damn, Sophie, really?" Kris asked, frowning.
"Yeah, but it's okay. And I don't want to uproot your lives for no reason. This is a nice place, and Rachel, you were telling me about school and stuff – that sounds good – I don't want you to miss out on that. You guys can come visit dad's work with me if you like, but most days what I do is pretty boring, except for when something like Matraxa happens."
"What did happen there?" Kris asked. "Rachel showed me the report but I couldn't believe it was you."
"Well it was. I still need to see that report myself – I feel so famous! Um, well, hmm, do you wanna come back with me to the Science Institution now, and I can tell you the full story."
Kris shrugged. "I'm down."
Rachel nodded. "Sounds good. I'll just go turn off my digifile."
"And I'll tell our foster parents what's happening." Kris said. "Back in a minute."
Rachel bounded upstairs and quickly hopped back on chat with Adrian. Naturally, he was back grinding in glyphscape. "Hey."
"Oh, hey, how'd it go?" He responded immediately.
"Um, okay, I think." She said. "We're heading out, apparently she's been working at my dad's old work, so yeah. No more gaming tonight."
"Your dad? That sounds like a big deal."
"Yeah, it kinda is. Talk to you later." She ended the call and powered off the digifile.
Rushing downstairs once more, she almost ran into Mrs Hesterson and Kris in the kitchen.
"Rachel!" Mrs Hesterson looked flustered. "Your sister's here!"
"I know." she said.
"And you and Kris are going with her now?" she sounded worried.
"Yeah, but it's okay mum." Kris said calmly. Rachel shuddered the way she always did when he called Mrs Hesterson mum. She really could never see her foster parents that way. "We'll be back tonight."
"Are you sure you'll both be okay? I know it's exciting to see your sister but I'm just not sure about this."
Rachel glanced towards the front room where Sophie was waiting. She was anxious to go to their dad's work with Sophie, and get more answers about everything that had happened since they'd last been together, and normally Mrs Hesterson's cautiousness was an annoyance to her. But Rachel had grown up a lot the last few months. She could see that there was real concern here.
"We'll keep you updated with everything we're doing." she assured Mrs Hesterson. "And Kris is right, we won't be gone too long. We do need to go with Sophie now that she's back though."
DTheir foster mother sighed. "Alright then, off you go." Rachel and Kris headed towards the door and, right before they passed through to join Sophie, Mrs Hesterson added, "Kids? I love you, I hope you have a good time with your sister."
Rachel nodded and they headed to where Sophie was waiting by the door.
"Ready?" she asked.
"Ready." Kris said.
"Let's go then - we have so much to catch up on!" Sophie slid the door open and they headed out into the city.
Rachel smiled. That burning hope in her chest was back, and for once she wasn't afraid that it would vanish momentarily. The world hummed around her, and she was happy.
Now to see what would come next.