It was cold. Just like every other morning. Kale lay on the hard ground with his eyes closed. His back was stiff and he was famished. “I need food…” he mumbled. He rolled over and sat up carefully trying not to wake her up. Rachel always slept in later than he did. “I wish I could stay asleep for the rest of this hellish nightmare.” Kale thought to himself. He had been on the OSSC (Outer Space System Colony) 9 for over eight weeks now.

*     *     *

The entire world was in a massive panic. Recently, some researchers uncovered an ancient cave in Africa. The contents of the cave were some primitive paintings and a few skeletons. The scientists brought the skeletons back to England with them for study. What they did not know was that an undiscovered illness lay dormant in the remains of their test samples. They unknowingly contracted the fatal disease and spread it across Europe. Doctors sent information of the disease around the globe trying to warn everyone about its danger. Meanwhile, in the United States, NASA started building 16 giant space colonies to try to save the remaining, few uninfected people. In less than two years, the colonies were ready and 100,000 selected few were sent to wait out the epidemic while orbiting the Earth. Kale and Rachel were a very close couple and were lucky enough to be chosen together. As far as they knew, they were all each other had left.

After the virus was publicly announced on Earth, the massive panic turned to worldwide chaos. While in New York City, both of Kale’s parents were killed during looting. The location of Rachel’s parents was unknown. For all she knew, they could be dead, infected, or on another space colony. The colonies were cramped, cold, and the food was revolting and scarce. Life was hard, and the only hope people had was that a vaccine for the infection would soon be discovered.

*     *     *

Kale quietly slipped away from Rachel and went to find something to eat. Usually, one had to bargain for his food. Daily rations were given, but they were never enough. Kale slowly sauntered over to a food stall. “Hey, could I get some breakfast?” he asked the guard there.

 “PIN please,” the guard prompted. Kale entered his number into the machine and two bland looking packages dropped out into the slot. He took the “food” and stuffed it under his shirt. People on the colonies had so little food; he could easily be mugged and beat up for his. He got back to Rachel and gently squeezed her arm. She yawned and rolled over.

“What do you want?” she said playfully.

“I got us something to eat.” Kale produced his valued possession and Rachel's tired eyes lit up.

“Thanks! I’m starving!” She exclaimed as she tore the paper off the small box and began to examine its contents.

 “Ugh, I wish they could find something better than pancakes in a tube. Oh well, I guess we don’t really have much of a choice.” As they sat on the hard steel floor eating, Rachel stared out the window at the small, round earth longing for her past life. “When do you think we’ll be able to go back home?” she quietly asked Kale.

 “Soon.” is all he said as they finished their breakfast in the cold, dark corner of their small room.

                There was nothing much to do on the space colonies. A few TV’s were scattered across the giant bulky space ships. There were also a few books in various rooms. Children ran around the ships playing tag and goofing off. Kale looked at Rachel as she smiled affectionately at the small children who were too young to have a care in the world and oblivious to the perilous situation that now held so many lives in its grasp. They held each other’s hands as they walked down the long, cool corridor to visit someone.

*     *     *

“We’re what?!” The captain of the OSSC 9 slammed his fist down on his desk and his face flushed red with anger and dread.

 “Captain,” the first officer replied. “There is nothing I can do about the shortage of oxygen on our vessel. According to our technician we’ve been leaking air for the past two weeks and we’re losing about 6 mega-gallons an hour.”

 “This can’t be happening…” The captain’s once stern and angry appearance turned to a look of despair as he buried his face into his hands.  The officer quietly slipped out of the room and left the captain to decide his passenger’s fates.

*     *     *

“Jones!” Kale shouted. His voice echoed down the hall along with the pounding of his hand against the thick steel door. He stopped for a moment and the door creaked open slightly.

“What do you want?” a low, raspy voice demanded.

 “I need a blanket.” Kale said.

“Ha!” the old man jumped. “Good luck finding someone that will trade you one let alone just give it to you!” With that, he began to close the door. Then with a sudden jolt, Kale threw his hand on the handle and forced the door open with surprising strength. “Get out of here before I call the Resistance Force!” Jones threatened. Jones had been stocking up on all sorts of items and there was no way he would risk being caught just to get rid of one troublemaker. Rachel shuddered as the strange old man’s piercing dark eyes grabbed at her. “What do you want, eh?”

“Give us a blanket. I know you have more than enough.” Kale interrogated. “I’m asking. You don’t want me to have to take one from you.”

“Alright, alright”, the man gave in. “You villains take this and get out!” He threw a thick wool blanket at Kale and Rachel and they left. “Stupid kids can’t even leave a poor old man to himself…” Jones mumbled as he shut the door and locked it. Kale wrapped the blanket around Rachel as they walked back to their room.

 “Thanks,” she quietly smiled as he put his arm around her and tried to keep them as warm as possible.

*     *     *

“Attention, will all passengers in deck C and D please report to the main hall for a brief announcement. Thank you.” The intercom shut off with a short crackling sound.

“I wonder why they would need to give an announcement to only half the crew. Rachel wondered aloud.

“I don’t know, but I guess I’ll find out.” When they boarded the ship, Kale was assigned a room on C deck while Rachel was assigned a room on deck A. Regardless of their separate rooms they both stayed in Kale’s room. As they approached the main hall, a security guard stopped them.

“PICs,” he demanded. A PIC was a Personal Identification Card. Every person received one upon boarding the ship. As he looked over Rachel’s card, he gave her a stern look and said, “You can’t be here. Only passengers from C and D deck are allowed to hear the announcement.

“It’s alright, she’s with me. We…” Kale was cut off by the rough guard.

“Look, I don’t care what you want or what the deal is. You can go in but she can’t,” he pointed a dirty, blackened hand at Rachel. “Got it?”

“Fine, let’s go.” Kale turned and started to walk away with Rachel. But, she grabbed his arm and looked him in the eyes,

“It’s alright. This seems pretty important. You go ahead, I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?” Kale felt uneasy about leaving Rachel alone. He didn’t know what could happen while he was gone.

“Go,” she told him. He gave her a quick kiss and walked into the assembly.

                After everyone was seated, a man in an official looking uniform approached the podium and pulled the microphone closer to his face.

“Excuse me,” he said in a low, strong voice. A silence fell over the room.

“Uh, I am your captain and I want to thank you for coming to this important meeting, I guess.” He cleared his throat. “Ladies and gentlemen, recently our planet and people have fallen under some sort of widespread disease. I’m sure that most of you have lost loved ones and I give you my condolence. But today we’re faced with, yet again, another crisis.” A murmur rippled through the once quiet audience. “Please, if you listen to me I’ll explain exactly what’s going on. One of our technical engineers recently discovered that our ship is holding too much weight and if we don’t remove some of it our orbital course around the Earth is going to be thrown off and we’ll be hurled into deep space.” Before the people could respond in any way, the speaker continued.

“Fortunately, this will not happen for quite some time and there is no immediate danger. As a precaution we are going to transfer some of the crew to another ship.” There was a mixed reaction among the audience. Some sighed with relief as others paused to consider the seriousness of the situation. “You are the selected few to be transported to another ship.” The captain reached the end of his speech. “Please gather what belongings you have and meet in the docking port at 1800 hours tomorrow for departure. Thank you.” He put down the microphone and walked off stage.

The crowd began to file out of the room and the captain met with one of his officers off the side of the stage. “I think they bought it,” he said to the other man. “Anything to stop them from panicking, I guess. Even if we have to lie.”

“What are the others going to do, though?” the first officer inquired the captain. He just gave the officer a long look and started to walk away. “Wait! We can’t just leave them here! They don’t deserve to die! You can’t do that!”

“Do you think I have a choice!” the captain swung around, his face red with anger. “The last thing I want is to be responsible for the death of 3000 people.” He started to walk towards the officer. “I’ve tried everything. I’ve talked to everyone, but we can only save these few.” He was right in the officer’s face. “Don’t blame me for something I have no control over.” He demanded in a low voice. The first officer just looked down at the floor as the captain walked off in despair.

*     *     *

Kale filed out of the auditorium with the rest of the crowd and Rachel ran over to him as soon as he was out of the door. “What did they say?” she asked anxiously.

“We...” Kale had a hard time telling her what really happened. “…Everyone that was just in there is going to be moved to a different ship.” Rachel just stared at him.

“You’ll stay with me…won’t you?” Kale didn’t look at her and just said, “I don’t think the captain is telling the truth. But people are gullible enough to believe it.”

 “What are you talking about? Kale are….are you going to go with them?” Rachel asked him. Kale ignored her question and kept on talking.

“I think that there is a different reason that half of this ship is being evacuated to a different one. The captain is making something up so that we don’t freak out.” Rachel didn’t say anything and just stared at the ground. “I’m going to go talk to him first thing tomorrow morning. Hopefully I can find out what’s really going on.” Rachel didn’t say anything else and they both went back to their room in silence.

*     *     *

The next morning Kale woke up before Rachel and headed to the main deck to speak with the captain. When he got to the door, a guard confronted him.

“What do you want?” he asked with a snarl.

“I want to speak with the captain.” Kale said a little too forcefully. 

“I don’t think you’re gonna be “speaking” to anyone, bub.” The guard proceeded to throw out this nobody when the intercom squealed on.

“It’s alright, send him in.”

“You’re lucky,” the guard mumbled as the doors hissed open. Kale cautiously stepped inside.

                The captain was facing the other way, gazing out the window when Kale walked into his office.

“What is it that you want?” the captain asked without turning around.

Kale replied coolly. “Why are we being sent to a different ship?”

The captain still did not move and just said, “I already told you if you were at the meeting.”

Kale persisted. “That can’t be possible. All of the ships hold the same amount of people. What you’re saying makes no sense. If we were going to be thrown out of orbit, so would everyone else. What’s really going on?!” Kale demanded, frustrated that he didn’t know the truth.

The captain spun around in his chair, “I’ll tell you what’s going on.” He said. He was clearly annoyed by Kale’s persistence. “You want to know the truth? Here it is. Two weeks ago, a small, but not insignificant, asteroid punctured the oxygen tanks on the port side of the ship. Since then we have been losing a considerable amount of air.”

“When will we run out?” Kale asked, afraid of the answer he might get.

“Approximately, four minutes after departure.”

“What about the other people? What is going to happen to them?” Kale asked.

“Half of the ship’s people are all we can save. There is nothing else that can be done for the rest.”

Kale was furious. “You can’t do that!” he yelled. “How can you leave these people to die without them even knowing it?!” The captain sighed and turned back around in his chair.

“You’re welcome to stay if you want.” The guard walked in and roughly escorted Kale out of the room. “You’re gonna go to hell for this!” Kale screamed in anger. The guard threw him out the door and Kale walked back to his room, crestfallen.

This was unbearable. How could this be real? How could Rachel…die? This couldn’t be happening. Kale didn’t want to believe it. She would cry. He couldn’t make her cry. She needed to know. What’s going to happen to them?

Kale reached the door to his room: their room. He hesitated for a moment as he reached for the handle. “This is it,” he thought. Slowly and painfully, he brought himself to open the door. He knew the first thing she would ask him.

“Kale, is that you?” a small voice called from the kitchen of their little apartment.

“Yeah. What are you doing?” he answered her as he put down his bag and sat on the sofa.

“Just making us some breakfast.” She walked in with a plate of rolls she heated in their microwave and sat down next to him. “There not much, but hey…” she looked up at him and smiled, “…we still have each other.”

Kale’s heart was aching in pain. Every passing moment seemed like an eternity of suffering.

“What’s wrong, Kale?” Rachel said through a mouthful of bread as she scrunched up her eyebrows in a worried, concerned look. He had to tell her now.

“Rachel the…the captain is evacuating half the crew because the ship is running out of air and not everyone can leave.” Rachel was speechless. She just stared at Kale not saying a word. The silence was hard on Kale. “Rachel I don’t know what…” Tears filling her eyes, she put her hand over his mouth and embraced him. Neither of them let go. She buried her face in Kale’s shoulder and he absorbed her tears; her sadness; and he made it his own. For the rest of the night they both sat there together, not talking about what could be or what will happen. Slowly, Rachel’s body relaxed as she fell into a peaceful, quiet sleep.

*     *     *

The next morning Kale opened his eyes, still with Rachel. He didn’t move or wake her. He was not fully awake and slowly began to come back to reality. “So this is it,” he thought. “This is how it happens…” Rachel stirred and yawned. She kept her eyes closed and sighed.

“What time is it?” she whispered.

“It’s not time yet.” He replied. He didn’t know what to do. How should they spend their last moments together? It was hard to think about it.

“Let’s take a walk.” Rachel offered. “Maybe it will take our minds off of things for a bit.” Kale wished that would work, but he knew it wouldn’t. He agreed anyway, thankful for the time he could be with her. They both got up and walked out of the room together holding hands.
                As they walked together, Kale’s mind was in a spin. Everything that had every happened between Rachel and him was melting through his memory. There had to be something he could do. He could send her on the ship instead of him. Would she do that? Or what if he stayed with her? That way they both wouldn’t have to live without each other. He knew what he would do. No matter what, he would follow through with it. Suddenly the intercom blared on, “Attention, everyone leaving for the OSSC 8 should report to the docking port immediately.” Rachel looked at Kale longingly and whispered, “I can’t live without you.”

 He whispered back to her, “Go back to the room quick, and get us a blanket and a pillow so that we can stay warm.” He gave her a reassuring smile and she hugged him, a lingering hug that begged him to stay with her, and went back to the room. As she was walking away, though, Kale turned into the crowd and walked on board the space shuttle. He knew in his mind that it was the smart thing to do. Nevertheless, his heart told him otherwise. As the rest of the crew piled in, everyone trying to find their seats, Kale looked into the OSSC 9 and saw Rachel. She was spinning around screaming his name. He turned away. “She has to understand,” he thought. “How could she not?” He looked back at her and saw her finally fall to her knees, knowing that he wasn’t there. Her head hung low and Kale could see tears drop from her hidden face.

After all the passengers were loaded, a red light flashed telling all passengers that they were ready for take off. Suddenly, Kale realized that it wasn’t worth it. He quickly leaped out of his seat and dashed to the front of the space shuttle. “Open the doors! Let me out!” he yelled to the pilot.

“Are you insane!” the pilot yelled back. “You’re gonna die if you go back in there!”

“Open the doors now!” Kale repeated.

“Fine, get out of here!” The captain yielded to the maniac’s request and opened the doors. “You’re not getting’ back in, Buddy!” he yelled after him. But Kale was gone and didn’t hear him. The doors slid back shut and the shuttle took off. None of that mattered, though. Kale ran over to Rachel. His own footsteps could not be heard as he ran across the quiet, still plain that eternally separated him from her. She was lying on the ground, not moving.
                “Rachel!” Kale cried as he reached her lifeless body, his own voice not heard by himself or any other person. He picked her up and turned her to face him. She wasn’t breathing. “No! Rachel wake up! I’m sorry!” Tears rolled down his face as he whispered, “Please don’t leave me. Just let me say goodbye. I only want to say goodbye.” Slowly, as the oxygen disappeared, his breaths became shorter and fewer until they stopped and he joined Rachel in a cold, steel tomb, as cold as their lifeless hands, held together for the rest of time.

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