As always, it was hard for me to keep track of time on the lifeboats, but my best guess was that the melodians had been learning their instruments for at least a week. I took the occasional nap off on the far end of the hallway where it was quieter but I’d regularly get woken up by another question from the melodians.

  In the week since they’d begun learning their instruments the crowd had grown considerably. The main area for music had become the adjacent common area where I’d originally followed Flint and Abel through. The older melodians seemed to mostly avoid it, choosing to go to a different place to go about their daily activities as they seemed more annoyed than anything about the loud noises the young melodians would make.

  I found it disheartening, but I knew what it was like to be comfortable with a routine so I understood why they’d feel put off by something so new.

  On a positive note, the listeners had slowly started joining the groups. They seemed a lot more willing to join in with the young melodians, even though they seemed to have a harder time picking up the musical concepts they’d been learning.

  The MP3 players had become a premium item to the young melodians. They’d argue over who got to listen to it next and figuring out which ones had whatever song they had stuck in their head. Which happened to be the question that was being presented to me.

  “It went like… Um…” the young melodian said, looking like he felt a little awkward about trying to sing it.

  “You can just hum the rhythm or something, whatever sound you remember from it I can probably help” I said.

  “Uh… Well it went… Daaaa, daa da daaaaa” he said while lowering the pitch between each part.

  He was about to continue as I held up my hand.

  “Police Truck by the Dead Kennedy’s. You haven’t found it on that one because it’s on a different player. Did you bring me something to write with?” I asked, holding out my hand.

  He excitedly reached into his pocket, pulling out a small white piece of paper and a pen.

  I still couldn’t get over how similar their paper was to what I was used to. The only major difference was that it was smoother and felt a little like plastic.

  As I started writing I figured I’d ask.

  “So what do you like about that one?” I asked as I tested the pen out on the paper.

  “Um, well. It has a lot of energy to it. I was trying to play it but I think I forgot how some parts went so I wanted to hear it again” he said as he tapped his foot impatiently on the ground.

  I wrote the name of the collection it was on first, then the sequence of menus that would get him to the song he was thinking of.

  “Jammin - Music - Artists - Dead Kennedy’s - Police Truck” I said out loud, tapping the paper at each word.

  “Thank you!” he said, but before he could reach for it I started writing again.

  “Jammin - Music - Artists - Goldfinger - Superman” I spoke as I wrote it out on the paper.

  “Oh, what’s that one?” he asked.

  “It’s a favorite of mine and it should be on that same MP3 player. If you like that one, you might like this one a lot too” I said with a smile.

  He reached up for it but I pulled it back.

  “Now promise you’ll let whomever has it use it before you try to take it, okay?” I said.

  “I promise” he said sheepishly as I handed him the paper.

  As he ran off I couldn’t help thinking about it to myself. Superman was one of the last songs I’d listened to before my life was turned upside down. I remembered that song starting me out on my chores the day before I took my scooter out to Colorado Springs.

  Despite being only about ten months since then, it felt like a lifetime ago.

  “Tess? Is that you?” I heard a familiar voice asking me.

  “Gron?” I asked as I looked up to see an older melodian, his fur completely white. He looked like he’d been led by another melodian who gave me a small “hey” which confirmed what I’d thought.

  “Hey Flint” I said as I slowly stood up from my spot.

  It was a nice sight to see since all of the melodians I’d been interacting with were either my age or younger. It was nice to see someone different.

  “Ah it is you. I was told you’d be out this way. I have to say this whole setup you have here is… quite impressive” he said in a warm tone.

  “Thank you, yeah it’s been a good rotation” I said, repeating a new saying I’d learned recently.

  “I’ve been speaking with the other listeners about this. Do you think they’ve learned enough to pick up where you’ll leave off?” he asked

  “Hm? Leave off?” I asked.

  Gron nodded “You said you were planning on leaving, correct? First contact happens pretty soon. Abel asked me to come down to speak to you about all of this” he said, gesturing around the room.

  It seemed like he had more to say but Flint jumped in.

  “We were hoping you could send more MP3 players up with you. You said you had more, right?” he asked with his hands clasped together.

  “Oh, right. Yes I have a lot more, I only brought a few with me to the lifeboat. I’m sure we could get a lot more than that though” I said slowly as I was thinking about what I was saying.

  “Is something wrong?” Gron asked.

  “No it’s just… Hmmm…” I said as I tried to think of what I wanted to say.

  “If you’d rather keep them I think we’d all…” he started to say.

  “No it’s not that. Here um, follow me I’d like to show you something” I said as I started leading them down the hallway.

  We passed the original room where we’d started, which had become a place for all the string instruments to get together and practice. They kept both of my classical music MP3 players in there with them so they could quickly reference them and make adjustments. I had started to teach them sheet music but they seemed more interested in learning it by listening. I couldn’t say I blamed them, I’d only started reading sheet music myself only a few years before.

  The other rooms ended up getting ‘assigned’ in an unofficial way to different types of music. There weren’t nearly enough instruments to go around of course, but every time the lifeboat got another shipment from earth there would be a team of melodians that would scour what was sent up and bring any instruments they could find back to us. The mechara didn’t bother them since they likely assumed they were on some sort of official business of some kind. One of the few perks of being a melodian. If you’re doing anything in the mechara areas of the ship it’s assumed you’re there for some purpose that was assigned to you.

  Thankfully they’d gotten enough of a system together to let everyone have a turn with the instruments.

  There was a wonderful joy I felt every time I’d see them discover a new instrument. I’d show them which songs to start out with and they’d start learning it on their own after that. They’d already gotten to a point where they felt comfortable adapting music into different styles and feels instead of trying to stick to what they’d originally heard. The next step was for them to start making music of their own, but after only about a week of learning music I didn’t expect them to take that on quite yet.

  I led them out to the main concourse where melodians would stand around the upper balconies, looking down at a small platform they’d set up on the bottom floor. It was like a concert, but the people playing the instruments all faced outward toward the audience that surrounded them.

  The concert area had quickly turned into my favorite place to sit and listen as different groups would bring their instruments out to show others what they’d learned. The other melodians tended to be in the main area whenever they weren’t practicing or if they didn’t feel like waiting in line for their turn at the instruments and mp3 players.

  As we approached the band at the central platform was finishing up a surprisingly well done version of “Tongue Tied” by Grouplove. They didn’t have any lyrics but I recognized the melody pretty easily.

  The audience started going silent as some of the melodians recognized me.

  Although we were face blind, it was hard to not notice the only melodian with brown eyes.

  “Oh! Tess! What did you think?!” the drummer asked me.

  I smiled as I said “Great! You guys are learning really fast! It sounds so much better each time I hear you!”

  They all gave each other a little fist bump, something they’d picked up from me early on in our sessions.

  I gestured toward the guitar.

  “Do you mind if I borrow that for a song?” I asked.

  He shook his head, handing it over to me.

  “Great, I wanted to show my friend something. Have you practiced ‘The Unknowing’ at all?” I asked as I put the strap around the back of my neck.

  They looked at each other with a confused look.

  All of the melodians hadn’t learned English quite like they’d been learning music, so instead I gripped the guitar and played the first few notes of the song.

  The other melodians eyes lit up as I played it.

  “Oh! Yes!” they exclaimed.

  I nodded as I turned to face Gron, who had found his way into the crowd, sitting among the people near the front as I started playing.

  I’d chosen the song because it felt appropriate. Out of all the songs I’d been hearing the melodians playing, it was the one that reminded me most of how we were feeling in their new moment of discovery.

  “I never lied about those times that I felt free

  From the outside everything seemed so easy

  Yet I can’t help but worry, I’ve been here before

  I thought I’d closed the door, but here you are”

  As I played and sang along to the lyrics I couldn’t help but feel the song coursing through me. It felt right, I felt free, I felt like I’d broken out of my shell, showed myself to the melodians and had them accept me for who I was. I brought them the gift of music, but they brought me the gift of finally having a place to fit in.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  I watched as the entire crowd listened on, their eyes wide as I sang to them. We hadn’t had much of a chance to sing the lyrics to songs. They heard them through the MP3 players and they’d occasionally ask me to sing in English for them, just so they could hear it, but I’d decided to do something differently.

  I sang the lyrics in Mecharan, translating the best I could to keep the timing of the song, but in absence of rhyming words in Mecharan, I decided to use the English word for anything that was supposed to rhyme. I hoped it would give them enough context to know what I was singing about while still maintaining the rhyming.

  “It’s in my blood it’s in my hearts

  Been in my veins right from the start

  Don’t know I have a fear of the unknown

  Until I start to lose control!”

  I continued singing, pouring my hearts into the lyrics, my fingers playing the strings of the guitar as if they were a part of me. I loved the feeling, I’d missed it and I never wanted to let it go again. The melodians could feel it too as they started cheering as the song started to wrap up, the final chords of the music flowing through my fingers as the instruments faded out and the crowd roared with applause.

  I took a deep breath, looking around the auditorium as tears started to fill my eyes.

  I was finally with my people. Not just physically, but emotionally. I felt connected with them in a way I’d never felt toward anyone else.

  My friends back on earth meant so much to me, but they weren’t like me. The people in the auditorium, they were more than friends, or family, I felt like we were connected, as if we were one.

  Back where I grew up I always felt different from John and Emily, I felt different from my friends online. I grew close to Oliver and Emily and Gav, but I would always be different. With the melodians, with their ability to understand music the way I did, I felt like we were one.

  I didn’t just find my people, I found my home. A proper home that I could call my own. I’d teach them music, I’d teach them English so they could sing the songs they were hearing in the MP3 players. I wasn’t sure if we could teach the other melodians to stop using the assembler, but we could at least convince the young ones to not use it in the first place.

  After handing the guitar back and making my way back over to Gron, wiping the tears from my eyes as I approached, I said “I think… I think I’d like to stay here. With all of you. We can…”

  I was interrupted by Flint as he jumped toward me, wrapping me in a tight hug.

  “Aaaah I was hoping you would say that!” Flint yelled, shaking me back and forth a bit as I looked at him in surprise.

  “You were?” I asked, a bit surprised by his excitement.

  “Yeah I mean, you still have so much to show us and I… I dunno. I’m sorry for the times I was mean to you, I didn’t mean to… I don’t usually… Sorry I don’t know” he said, pulling back from the hug and looking embarrassed.

  The band started playing a new song, it sounded like “For Elise” by Saint Motel.

  I motioned for Gron and Flint to follow me as we left the crowd behind as we found a quieter area to talk.

  Gron spoke up first, “Well, we’d be happy to have you Tess. You’ve already shown us so much. I suppose the first thing we should do is to…”

  He stopped as we felt a small rumble under our feet, both Gron and Flint looking curiously at the ground.

  “Uh, is something wrong?” I asked “I think it’s just a standard spindown.”

  They both shook their heads.

  “There wasn’t one scheduled, no” Flint said, looking a bit puzzled.

  “Is it…” Gron started to say.

  “No… No it’s not…” Flint responded as his eyes went wide as he held his arm out straight “it is…”

  “Sorry” I interjected “What’s going on?”

  “Do you feel that Tess?” Flint asked as he grabbed my arm, pulling it out straight.

  “Uh. Do you mean that it’s getting lighter? Yeah I can feel it” I said.

  Gron looked nervous “Tess, we’re on the front part of the ship.”

  “Okay?” I asked, feeling more confused.

  Flint shook his head “Tess we’re on the front part of the ship. We’re not supposed to feel a spindown. This… this is a spin up!”

  I shook my head, feeling more confused than before.

  “Sorry, I don’t understand,” I said.

  Flint grabbed my arm as he started to lead me away.

  “It means we need to leave,” Flint said with urgency in his voice, “I thought they wouldn’t notice us down here, I’ve been telling them not to bring any of this up to the surface but… I don’t know. I don’t know how they found out, but we have to get out of here.”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked, his urgency making me feel a lot more nervous.

  “They know about us Tess, the only reason they’d do a spinup would be to come down here themselves. They…” he stopped speaking, his mouth gaping as he looked behind me.

  “What…” I asked as I turned around to see Gron standing behind us, frozen, his eyes glowing white as he stood perfectly still, expressionless.

  “No, no no no!” Flint exclaimed as he grabbed Gron by the shoulders, shaking him, trying to get him to pull out of it.

  “Flint, what’s happening?” I asked, my voice quivering as I started to shake.

  “I knew it. I knew they were doing this. Dammit. I didn’t think it was ready. I thought we could stop it” he said in a panicked tone, his gaze not leaving Gron’s eyes as I heard a subtle undertone of shame in his voice.

  “Flint!” I screamed at him.

  He looked over to me as I saw fear in his eyes.

  “The assembler four. They turned it on” he said.

  “What?!” I asked, my arms reaching out to the side.

  “Tess we need to go. We need to get as far away from here as we can” he said as he grabbed my arm again.

  “Wait!” I yelled, holding my feet firmly to the ground “what about the others? We should get them…”

  “Tess”

  “... We can relocate the instruments…”

  “Tess”

  “... We can find a new place to set up…”

  “Tess!” he screamed, stomping his foot on the ground.

  I stopped, seeing the intensity in his expression.

  “We lost Tess. It’s done. It’s over. I fucked up. We need to go” he said as he tried to pull my arm again.

  “I’m not leaving them!” I yelled, yanking my arm away from him.

  We were considerably lighter, the gravity feeling similar to what we’d expect around the middle of the green floors.

  Flint was shaking, I’d never seen him look so afraid, all the confidence he usually expressed had vanished.

  I was about to say something but we both paused as we heard the cars in the distance, they sounded like they were heading toward us.

  “Please…” Flint said softly, holding his hand out to me.

  “I… I can’t leave them behind. I’m sorry I can’t” I said as I turned around, running past Gron and back toward the music area. I glanced over my shoulder to see if Flint was following me but to my disappointment he hadn’t moved.

  I shook my head, looking forward as I ran into the music area.

  The air left my lungs, my stomach sank and I felt a cold chill go over my body as I ran into the auditorium area to find all of the young melodians frozen, their eyes glowing bright white as they stared off at nothing.

  “No no no no” I said, looking back and forth between them.

  The band members were still holding their instruments, the onlookers were still standing in the same place as they were when we left them, but they were all silent, unmoving as their eyes glowed.

  “Stop!” I yelled out to them, trying to shake them from their stupor.

  Nothing. They didn’t respond.

  I looked between them, trying to think of something I could do.

  “Hey!” I yelled to the melodian closest to me.

  Whenever I tried to speak to Artemis it seemed to knock the melodian out of the assembler.

  “Artemis! What are you doing? What have you done to them?” I asked as I grabbed the young melodian, looking into his eyes as I spoke.

  For a brief moment his eyes flickered, but they immediately went back to white.

  I turned, going to the next melodian over and doing the same, but aside from a brief flicker I couldn’t get her to respond either.

  “Artemis… Please…” I said as I looked around the room, trying to find any sign of a melodian responding to me.

  I heard the sound of the cars pulling up behind me.

  “What have you done to them?” I asked as I heard them getting out of the cars. I wasn’t even trying to hide the anger in my tone.

  “Ah, this must be the one” I heard one of them say behind me. I could tell by the sound of a clapping beak that it was a mechara.

  I was always told the assembler was optional, that it was something the melodians had to choose to use, something that was voluntary, but they weren’t choosing to use it, they were being forced into it, they didn’t have that choice.

  The anger was building up inside me, my hearts pounding, I heard blood rushing through my ears, my fists were balling up as all the muscles in my body tensed. They were trying to take them away from me.

  I turned around, screaming “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO…”

  My thoughts were cut off as the mechara turned on his flashlight, my vision turning white.

  “No!” I screamed through it, not letting the white cloud my vision as I willed myself toward him.

  A brief look of confusion went across the mechara’s face as I took another step forward.

  “You will not take this from us!” I yelled, my words slurring as they exited my mouth.

  Another mechara turned their light on, then another and a moment later my vision turned white.

  “No!” I yelled out again, but it was different. I wasn’t using my voice any more. My real voice. I was in the void and I couldn’t do anything about it.

  “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” I yelled up at nothing as I fell to my knees.

  I couldn’t control my breathing as my eyes darted left and right as I tried to think of something I could do, something I could say, something that would break me out of the prison in my mind.

  I felt a hand on my shoulder, snapping me out of the moment as I turned to see the other me.

  I was shaking, but he looked calm, his face pulled into a frown as he looked down at me.

  “What… Do we do?” I asked him as I looked around again, trying to think of some way to get out.

  “I don’t know. It’s too much right now. I don’t think we’ll get out until they let us” he said.

  His voice was calm, measured.

  “I’m sorry… I should have gone with Flint…” I said as I closed my eyes.

  I wasn’t looking at him, but I could feel him shake his head “We both decided to turn back. We’re in this together.”

  “We’ve got to do something…” I said as I tried to think.

  He sighed, sitting next to me.

  “When we get out, you can talk to Nori. She’ll figure something out. She’s on our side” he said with a smile.

  “Sorry, but why are you so calm?” I asked, looking over to him.

  He smiled a little more as he said “Because I feel like myself again” he said.

  I sighed, taking a deep breath as I rolled onto my back, looking straight up into the white void.

  I was still shaking, but I felt a comforting warmth as he laid down next to me.

  “I don’t know what to do,” I said softly.

  “Don’t worry, be happy” he said.

  For a brief moment I felt the fear fade from me as I laughed at him bringing out a song lyric at such an inappropriate time.

  I was about to say something else but I started to feel different, the white void was turning a darker grey.

  “Ah, there we go” my other half said.

  I closed my eyes and when I opened them again I was in the auditorium again. I was laying with my chest to the ground, my head turned to the side as I saw a large mechara standing over me, his flashlight in his hand.

  I was feeling dazed, the room felt like it was spinning.

  “I said that’s enough” I heard a melodian say.

  I could tell from the sound of his voice that it was an adult melodian, but more importantly, he had the same monotone voice I always heard Artemis speak with.

  The mechara didn’t look convinced, his finger still on the button.

  “How can you be sure Artemis? Did you see how she was powering through it?” he asked.

  “Her hands are bound and I have two melodians on her Sedim, we don’t want to damage her” he said.

  Hearing his words, I tried to pull my arms out in front of me but sure enough, it seemed they’d used hand cuffs on me. As I was starting to get my bearings I noticed two heavy weights on me. One on the center of my back, the other holding my tail down.

  A loud crash caught my attention as my eyes were brought to the stage as I saw the most horrible sight.

  One of the mechara had just smashed one of the guitars over the drumset, breaking both in the process.

  “No!” I screamed, my hearts sinking as I watched the guitar I’d poured my soul into only a few minutes before falling to the ground in pieces.

  “What’s going on with this one?” Sedim asked.

  “Her assembler is broken” Artemis said as he held me down.

  I could barely listen as I heard the sound of instruments getting smashed from down the hallway, they were destroying them. All of them.

  The mechara in front of me picked up the keyboard, lifting it over his head.

  “NO!” I screamed as I turned, knocking the melodian on top of me off balance as I sprung up to my feet. I tried to run toward the mechara, dive under the piano to hopefully catch it as it fell, but the melodian at my tail gripped hard as he yanked me back. He pulled me upward and over him like I weighed nothing, causing me to arch over and slam onto my back, knocking the wind out of me as I heard the keyboard shatter into a thousand little pieces across the ground.

  My strength had left me, my lungs burned from the lack of air as I struggled to breath, the two melodians were on top of me again, each holding one arm to the ground as my anger turned to sadness as I heard the instruments getting destroyed one by one in the various rooms and floors around me.

  I wanted to say something, I wanted to scream, but I couldn’t breathe.

  The mechara stood over me, looking sad as he looked me up and down.

  “It’s terrible. Look how they suffer without it” he said, sounding genuinely sad.

  “I’ll take it from here” one of the melodians said.

  I looked down to see both of them holding me down. They both had helmets on but one of them had his visor up, his eyes glowing bright white.

  “Where will you take her?” another mechara asked, sounding like she had pity in her voice.

  Artemis responded, his eyes looking down at me, emotionless, a chill going through me as his eyes locked with mine.

  “We’ll get her assembler fixed.”