UniQ hated breakfast with her grandmother. Like all P-nots, the old woman was inflexible and prone to fits of wearisome nostalgia. Squaring the insufferability, Catherine, UniQ’s supposed mother, insisted she unload while at the table.

 

“It’s rude to carry on more than one conversation at a time,” Catherine had lectured her in the lift to her grandmother’s residence like she was still a child.

 

She might have been Catherine’s daughter, but she wasn’t a child anymore. Since getting her immersion implant, UniQ’s augmented brain could process hundreds of terabytes of information at a time, and she routinely engaged in simultaneous conversations with her entire F-two cohort. Engaging in a physical conversation with only two people was…tedious.

 

UniQ pushed the uneaten rice and tempeh around her plate with her chopsticks. She took her nutrients intravenously, usually while she slept—it was physiologically more efficient, less resource intensive, and she’d been doing it for so long now P-not food upset her stomach. “What’s the big deal? It’s just an old rock.”

 

Her grandmother stopped mid-story.

 

Catherine cleared her throat.

 

She did that as an unconscious response when under stress. Good, UniQ thought. She deserves it for making me do this.

 

Catherine smiled like she was soldiering on in spite of a stomach flu. “It’s more than just a rock.”

 

Always the diplomat! If the F-ones hadn’t been so desperate to appease their parents, UniQ’s generation wouldn’t be stuck in limbo. “It’s been an uninhabitable rock for sixty years, Catherine.” UniQ enjoyed her mother’s eye twitch at the use of her name.

 

“I used to live on that rock, Sara” her grandmother said, using the name given her by Catherine and—what was his name—Jonas? Jonathan? It didn’t matter. Like Catherine, he didn’t get her either.

 

Her grandmother sighed wistfully. “Back before the impact, that rock was a beautiful place.”

 

Great! Strap in everyone, shuttle departing for who-cares-land in three, two…UniQ rolled her eyes as her grandmother started to tell another fanciful story about her childhood.

 

P-nots conveniently forgot the overpopulation, the pollution, the entire mess they had made of the Earth. The asteroid was the best thing to ever happen to humanity. The forward thinking—humanity’s best and brightest—had launched their future into space. The not-so-best tried in vain to divert the asteroid. Natural selection at its finest, UniQ had thought when she was younger but now realized the truth wasn’t so inspiring. Thirteen generation ships had launched in the weeks before the impact. Twelve had sling-shotted off into deep space in search of a new home world. UniQ’s ship had stayed behind when its P-not crew had voted to abandon the mission and stay in orbit, under the misguided notion they would be able to resettle the Earth after the planet had “stabilized.” More than a half century later, they were still there, orbiting twenty thousand kilometers above a still uninhabitable rock. But their wait was almost over—UniQ’s generation, the F-twos, had finally seized control of the ship’s parliament from the P-nots and F-ones and rammed through a binding resolution to leave.

 

“Your generation just doesn’t understand,” her grandmother said, apparently having reached the end of her reminiscence. “I sound like an old person, but it’s true. All you have ever known, Sara, is this ship.”

 

And who’s fault is that?

 

“It’s just a ship,” her grandmother continued.

 

“And that’s just a planet.”

 

The old woman shrugged. “Fair enough, but that planet made us who we are.”

 

~ * ~

 

Catherine pinched the bridge of her nose, but it didn’t ease the pressure building behind her eyes. Why did Sar—UniQ, it was UniQ now—have to be so dismissive of her grandmother’s feelings? Catherine knew this wasn’t a trait restricted to her daughter; many of UniQ’s cohort, the second generation born in orbit, had grown restless. Could she blame them? Not really, but surely, they could find better ways to show their dissatisfaction.

 

Catherine’s datapal buzzed in her pocket, reminding her they were on a schedule. Before she could pull the unit from her pocket, UniQ said, “The shuttle is fueled and will leave in twenty-four minutes.” Catherine gritted her teeth, determined not to let her frustration show. UniQ had promised to unload her Link, at least during breakfast, but how else could she have accessed the flight schedule so quickly?

 

Her daughter batted her eyes innocently.

 

When UniQ was little, she had adored her grandmother. Catherine used to leave the two together when field work took her Earthside. Oh, the crying and carrying on when Catherine returned, and it was time to go home. Then it would be a litany of Grandma-this and Grandma-that, always to show how Catherine was the inferior caretaker. That was before her immersion implant, before her daughter joined the collective social-sphere, became UniQ, and the little girl whose grandmother had been everything to her disappeared.

 

Don’t ruin this day, dear daughter. Catherine tried to send the thought telepathically across the breakfast table, but much as she had longed for it, Catherine had never had that type of connection with her offspring, or anyone for that matter. Maybe that’s why the current state of UniQ and her mother’s relationship pained her so much. If anyone knew how rare and special such could be, it was her.

 

“We should go,” Catherine said. “This is the last shuttle Earthside, so we mustn’t miss it.”

 

~ * ~

 

UniQ trudged after Catherine and her grandmother down the gangway to the lozenge-shaped shuttle.

 

“Isn’t this exciting!” Catherine said with breathy excitement.

 

Does she think I’m still six? UniQ wondered. Sixty-two percent of the social-sphere indicated their F-one parents behaved similarly.

 

No amount of her mother’s canned enthusiasm would make UniQ care about the shuttle because after today, she would never have need for one again. The closest potentially habitable exo-planet was several generation-times across the void—she would be long dead before the ship reached it. If the P-nots had not delayed, her cohort would have been the ones setting foot on the new world. Now—

 

Nine hundred and seven well-wishers flooded her with positive messages. Seventy percent reminded her of the positive work she had done to ensure a better future.

 

Aboard the shuttle, the three women settled into the harnesses along the portside of the passenger compartment. They had the entire compartment available, but to UniQ’s annoyance, Catherine sat next to her, and her grandmother one seat down.

 

Pretty ducklings all in a row, UniQ thought, then remembered a children’s story about a duck family her grandmother used to tell her when she was little. UniQ had never seen a real duck, but that hadn’t stopped the two of them from waddling around her grandmother’s residence quacking madly. The silly memory soothed the uneasiness in her stomach.

 

UniQ’s fingers trembled as she buckled the harness across her chest.

 

“Is this your first time off-ship?” her grandmother asked, leaning around Catherine to look at her. “By your age, Catherine had made a dozen trips Earthside.”

 

Good for Catherine. But she wasn’t Catherine—she never would be and didn’t aspire to be—and UniQ resented it when her grandmother compared them. That constant P-not competition was what had ruined Earth in the first place, and UniQ was proud her cohort had moved passed such silliness. If the social-sphere had existed a hundred years ago, UniQ was confident humanity wouldn’t have shit the bed. An insta-poll showed eighty-seven percent of the social-sphere agreed.

 

“First time for everything,” Catherine said sprightly, putting one of her hands on each of the other women’s knees.

 

UniQ shifted her legs, and the hand fell away.

 

“This should be an adventure then,” Catherine said, this time with less enthusiasm.

 

UniQ scoffed quietly and closed her eyes, allowing herself to sink into the social-sphere. Thousands of conversations swirled around her, through her, uplifting her like a breeze might a feather. Catherine didn’t understand what it meant to be linked to her cohort. The F-ones had never fully embraced the immersion technology, and they were lesser for it. Through her Link, UniQ felt the entire ship, every pulsing thought, every beating heart, ever —no, not everyone, she realized—but everyone that mattered.

 

~ * ~

 

Catherine sighed. UniQ’s slack jaw indicated her daughter had sunk back into her social-sphere. At least that would put an end to the side-comments and eye-rolling, but it would also dash Catherine’s hopes for a day of reconciliation among the women.

 

Had Catherine deluded herself into thinking this would work? Reluctantly, she agreed with the F-twos impatience, yet unlike UniQ and her cohort, Catherine had always tried to be sensitive to the P-nots’s feelings of loss, even if she didn’t fully understand them. Earth had been her mother’s home until she was twelve, but that meant most of her life had been spent in orbit. Yet, Catherine’s mother was the last generation to live under open skies and fresh air—well, as fresh as it could have been given the damage done. Her mother was always quick to point out her generation hadn’t done the damage. Fair enough, but they also had failed to do what was necessary to fix it, and never intended to, either. Her mother always conveniently ignored the fact the construction of the generation ships had been nearing completion when the asteroid had first been detected.

 

The shuttle door closed with a soft hiss of air and the lights dimmed. Catherine clicked on her overhead light. Illuminated as they were, she could see their reflections in the small port window on the opposite side of the passenger compartment.

 

Catherine felt a gentle squeeze on her fingers and looked down to see her mother had taken her left hand. Had her mother ever left the ship? Catherine realized she didn’t know with any certainty, but most people had no reason to go planetside, especially given the hazards. That was why Catherine had supported the decision to give the P-nots one last opportunity to say goodbye to their birth planet. She had hoped it would ease her mother’s loss, but she also hoped it would help her daughter understand the P-nots’s decision to stay behind had not been made out of selfishness.

 

~ * ~

 

The vibrations of the shuttle pulled UniQ up from the social-sphere to find they were still the only ones in the passenger compartment.

 

See, grandma, no one cares but you.

 

The shaking intensified as the shuttle dropped into the thickening atmosphere.

 

UniQ grabbed the edge of her seat. Was the shuttle supposed to shake this much? Four hundred and seven people told her the shaking was perfectly normal, but none of them had ever been on a shuttle, so UniQ didn’t know if their information was reliable. The ship never shook, even when they burned the engines to reset their orbit. This was all very disturbing, and seven hundred and forty-three people agreed with her.

 

UniQ pointed at the orange glow filling the port window.

 

“It’s okay,” Catherine said. She moved as if to pat UniQ’s hand but stopped short. “It’s the sublimation of the shuttle’s heat shield. It’s perfectly normal.”

 

UniQ already knew this, however; the social-sphere had told her as much before her mother had even started to respond. F-ones were so behind the game it was tragic. The conversations in the social-sphere had already moved on to a hundred other topics that—

 

The voices went quiet.

 

The abruptness of it physically shook UniQ. She frantically re-initiated her Link, but was unable to re-connect with her cohort. She gaped at Catherine.

 

A small crease appeared in Catherine’s forehead. “There’s no immersion tech down here—too much interference from the magnetic field. I thought you knew.”

 

UniQ rubbed at her temples. The silence felt like a vise crushing her head. Now that she thought about it, a small percentage of her cohort had hypothesized such an effect, but she had never entertained it as a real possibility, and the overwhelming consensus had agreed with her — it simply made sense the social-sphere would be everywhere people went.

 

UniQ cursed, drawing a surprised look from her mother and a chuckle from her grandmother. Her ears flushed hotly. Damn you, ears!

 

“I guess you’ll just have to talk to us,” her grandmother said.

 

~ * ~

 

Catherine had genuinely forgotten the social-sphere was inaccessible planetside, but would UniQ believe her? Catherine had never been to the surface with any F-twos, and none of her field team were immersion-enhanced. Like most F-ones, Catherine valued some quiet in her head.

 

Her chest tightened at the sight of her daughter’s trembling. She wanted to hold her, but she was afraid UniQ would pull away.

 

The shuttle jolted.

 

UniQ seized Catherine’s hand and nearly crushed her fingers.

 

“That’s the landing gear; we’re almost down.” She steeled herself for UniQ’s release, but her daughter did not let go. Neither did Catherine’s mother, who continued to hold her other hand. For the first time in a long time, Catherine was content sitting between the two.

 

This is how it should be.

 

She remembered when she had been the most important person in UniQ’s life. While Catherine knew part of growing up was the shifting of that order, it didn’t make it any easier. Children grew away from their parents to prepare them for a future without them, but that was an asymmetrical dynamic. UniQ would always be the most important person in Catherine’s life, even if UniQ couldn’t understand that now. She wondered if her mother felt the same about her.

 

Of course she does, Catherine told herself, surprised that she even needed to affirm such. That was motherhood, and no matter how strained a mother-daughter relationship might become, the bond had no parallel.

 

~ * ~

 

As the shuttle touched the ground, UniQ’s stomach dipped and rose—a wholly unpleasant feeling. She willed herself not to throw up.

 

No way this is worth it, she thought.

 

The heavy, thick air seemed to pool around her feet, making it almost impossible to draw it in and out of her lungs. Everything even sounded odd in the higher pressure. Her cohort had explained the physics behind it all, but that didn’t mean she had to like it.

 

Catherine smiled sympathetically at her, and UniQ drew comfort from the simple gesture. She appreciated that her mother said nothing—no lecture, no condescending explanations. Her mother hadn’t always been like that, and she wondered when she had changed.

 

UniQ pushed her lips up into a grin that she hoped looked reassuring but that she suspected simply looked ridiculous.

 

Her grandmother unclipped her harness and grunted as she pushed herself up from her seat. Catherine grabbed the old woman’s elbow as she swayed unsteadily. “Slow down, mom.”

 

UniQ recalled the mandatory pre-trip safety briefing, which warned them about the higher gravity, the denser air, and the caustic atmosphere.

 

Her grandmother pushed the hand away. “I walked off this planet; no way in hell anyone carries me back onto it.”

 

Catherine sighed and acquiesced.

 

“What’s the rush?” UniQ thought she had spoken quietly enough to go unheard, but Catherine shot her a disapproving glare. UniQ did her best to roll her eyes but found even that difficult in the high gravity. No matter that Catherine wanted her to feel guilty about it, UniQ did not because it was true. Earth might have been her grandmother’s birthplace, but it wasn’t her home anymore—it wasn’t anyone’s home—and her grandmother’s attachment to it was purely nostalgia fostered by an increasing sense of her mortality.

 

UniQ frowned at this thought and silently chided herself for her insensitivity. This was her grandma, the woman who used to waddle around quacking like ducks with her when she was little. This might not be UniQ’s home, but at one time, it had been hers. She must still feel some connection, too, because even to this day, her grandmother kept plants in her residence, dutifully doting over them hoping they would flower, which they never did. UniQ couldn’t recall anyone else (except Catherine) having any plants in their residence.

 

Maybe she should not ruin this for her grandmother.

 

“Come on, UniQ, let’s help grandma outside.”

 

With the aid of a ceiling strap, UniQ pulled herself to her feet. She felt suddenly lightheaded, and her finger tips started to throb.

 

How did anyone ever live on this godforsaken rock?

 

~ * ~

 

Catherine helped her mother with her respirator because the old woman’s trembling hands couldn’t work the straps. Her wide eyes through the mask’s faceplate worried Catherine.

 

Catherine had last been planetside three years ago to collect plants that had survived Earth’s acidic conditions intending to genetically enhance their seed stock. Catherine knew what to expect—humans could survive short exposures with an e-suit and respirator, but long-term occupation was still not feasible.

 

Catherine frowned, suddenly unsure if they should have come. She had heard stories about old people hanging on to complete one final task, and once done, they would allow themselves to die. She and her mother had never been particularly close—something Catherine had come to regret when her own daughter had started to pull away. Her mother might cause her a lot of annoyance, but Catherine wasn’t ready to lose her yet.

 

“Is this right, mom?” UniQ asked, pointing to her respirator.

 

They had all cleared the mandatory safety training weeks ago, but this was the real thing, and without the support of her cohort, UniQ’s confidence looked shaken.

 

Catherine helped her run a fit check and gave her a thumbs-up. She donned her own respirator and pulled up the protective hood of her e-suit, cinching it into place.

 

With everyone set, Catherine led them into the airlock.

 

“Cycling the hatch,” the shuttle captain said over the intercom. “You’ll have ten minutes.” The hatch clanged as the external seals withdrew. “Watch your step as you exit.”

 

The moment finally here, Catherine’s nerves made her have to pee. She drew a slow breath through the respirator, feeling the resistance from the filters.

 

Everything will be okay.

 

~ * ~

 

UniQ’s skin felt heavy as lead and the damned respirator was suffocating. Yet, worst of all was the quiet hole in her head that was usually filled with the comforting voices of her cohort. Alone with her thoughts, UniQ was afraid.

 

How does anyone live like this?

 

The hatch slowly lifted outward. Air hissed in. The outside light had a strange golden quality to it, nothing like the ship’s cool blue-white lamps.

 

Reflexively, she tried to step back, but a gentle tug on her arm kept her at her mother’s side. Looking down, she saw Catherine’s hand wrapped around her own. UniQ didn’t remember her mother taking her hand, but she decided not to pull away.

 

The hatch now open, Catherine and her grandmother stepped forward, but UniQ’s feet would not move. Catherine looked back, her eyes urging UniQ to come with them.

 

“I need a minute.” UniQ’s voice sounded weird in her head. Was it the atmosphere? Or the mask filters? Maybe it was simply the true sound of her voice as it sang alone in the amphitheater of her head.

 

UniQ’s stomach twisted anxiously when Catherine released her hand.

 

Why is this so hard? UniQ wondered. It couldn’t be anticipation—she could care less about this planet—so, it had to be the heaviness of the air. And this gravity! She could already feel her boobs starting to sag.

 

And yet, that pull stirred something within her. And something about that golden light prodded her at a basic, instinctual level. She had seen pictures of Earth before the asteroid strike—her grandmother had several in her residence—and she had always been amazed at the diversity of plant life, the wispy beauty of the clouds, and the bodies of water that seemed to stretch to infinity. When she was little, her grandmother would tell her stories about the vastness of the Earth, but UniQ had never been able to understand, and how could she when her entire life had been bound by metal and glass?

 

She took another slow deep breath.

 

Just get it over with. You can do it.

 

UniQ forced her feet forward. The oval of light grew larger. She realized she was holding her breath as she stepped through the opening.

 

The shuttle had landed on the crest of a hill that sloped downward to fold into other hills that rolled gently off toward the misty horizon. Grey-green blades of wiry grass waved gently before a light breeze. Overhead—

 

Suddenly dizzy, UniQ grabbed her mother’s arm, thankful for her sturdiness.

 

“Are you okay?” Catherine asked.

 

Unable to speak, UniQ nodded, but did not let go. She forced herself to look up, to keep her eyes open. Overhead was nothing, only a high dome painted the most amazing color of blue. And there! Was that shining sickle embedded in the top of the world the moon?

 

UniQ had spent some time in VR re-creations; yet this—this was different.

 

~ * ~

 

Catherine did not have the same connection to this planet as her mother. Other than a handful of trips to the surface, she had not spent any time on Earth—she had not been born there, had never lived there. Yet, Catherine found something comforting about standing on its surface. Maybe it was in her DNA—after all, humans had evolved in Earth’s dense air and gravity. They were companions of this planet, attracted and held to it as much by their biology as the forces of the universe. She wondered now as she looked at UniQ, would they ever return to any planet, or would they simply become people of the stars?

 

That’s what her mother must be feeling, she realized. Her mother’s connection to her past, to everything she had ever been, was about to be sundered. Staying in orbit had always kept open the possibility of returning, but in a few hours, any chance her mother would walk again on the surface of this planet—her planet—would be gone.

 

A lump rose in Catherine’s throat.

 

Her mother’s shoulders shuddered raggedly. Was she having difficulty breathing through her respirator?

 

The old woman patted the back of Catherine’s hand. Through her faceplate, her eyes sparkled with wetness. “I didn’t cry like this when I left,” she whispered, barely loud enough for Catherine to hear through her mask.

 

“Grandma?” UniQ asked, leaning around Catherine to better see the old woman.

 

Through her daughter’s faceplate, Catherine saw the furrows in UniQ’s brow—real furrows. Of concern.

 

Catherine’s throat continued to tighten. Did she finally understand? She wanted to hug UniQ, but the action felt awkward.

 

UniQ’s arms came up around Catherine’s shoulder and pulled both women into a hug. “Everything will be okay, grandma. Right, mom?”

 

Catherine couldn’t remember the last time her daughter had called her that, let alone hugged her. Since reaching her teen years, UniQ had withdrawn farther and farther into the social-sphere of her F-two cohort. But now, Catherine felt closer to both her mother and her daughter than she had in a very long time. With a sense of relief, she pulled both women closer. At first her daughter pulled back against her, but Catherine did not let go, and UniQ stopped resisting…at least for a moment.

 

Catherine felt her mother’s arms around her, and she knew things would be different moving forward. “We’re going to be fine,” Catherine said.

 

After a few seconds—much too short, Catherine thought—UniQ pulled away, and the three women separated.

 

UniQ turned so Catherine could not see her face, but she heard her daughter sniffling through her mask.

 

“We can go now” Catherine’s mother said, turning back toward the shuttle.

 

“Not yet, grandma,” UniQ said. “We still have time.”

​