The Brightness Between Us
The Brightness Between Us by Eliot Schrefer
Part One
Minerva (Sagittarion Bb), Year 17, Owl
It's been almost 18 years since clones of Spacefarers Ambrose Cusk and Kodiak Celius landed on the planet Sagittarion Bb while their original forms died back on Earth some 30000 years ago. Since landing, they have used the materials stored on their ship, the Coordinated Endeavor, to create a new home and a new life for themselves. They have two children, Owl and Yarrow, who are each near 16. Unfortunately, they are the only two children that have survived out of several attempts. Some zygotes weren't viable, some babies couldn't adapt to the environment, one that did got a fever and died when she was two. Owl, slightly younger than her brother Yarrow, is a clone of Ambrose's sister Minerva while Yarrow is technically unrelated to anyone currently living on the planet.
Owl helps Father (Kodiak) tending to chores but what she really wants is to explore. She worries what will happen if things go wrong and they run out of water since no one really knows any weather patterns or how anything will actually turn out on their planet. Kodiak and Ambrose have discussed this and have decided that it's just not safe for Owl to go out exploring. She pouts until Yarrow comes to retrieve her to work on preparations for Dad and Father's landing anniversary. Yarrow is the level headed one and he just wants his sister to be safe like their Dads. Owl goes out exploring anyway.
Owl treks for a couple of hours, looking for water, a sea, a lake, a river… anything, and makes a discovery. In what used to be a pond before the changing climate caused it to dry up, Owl finds bones. It's a small skeleton, but it's not a human. It has a weird spade shape on its face and weird arms that don't have hands. She scoops up the skeleton in her tunic and heads back to the settlement, but realizes it's later than she thought and she's going to have to take a direct route through the malevors, the only other known inhabitants of the planet, that are big furry animals with horns. This pack is aggressive, but she needs to go though to get home before it gets dark. Unfortunately, she is attacked as she makes it to the gate. The pneumatic guns operated by OS take out one of the malevors, but Owl is gored by another one. Kodiak yells for help.
Owl wakes after being tended by Rover and Dad (Ambrose). Luckily she wasn't injured fatally, but it will take some time for her to heal. While she rests, Ambrose tells her about her discovery. It's a duck, not an alien. Though Owl and Yarrow have never actually seen a duck in real life, they have seen reels featuring them. Ambrose has to tell Owl about he and Kodiak trying to raise animals from the zygotes on the ship that she and Yarrow didn't even know about. The yaks, or malevors, became unnaturally aggressive and the ducks just didn't survive. The dads stopped trying to grow animals, worried that they might have caused the fever that killed their toddler. Yarrow got the fever, too, but he survived it, thank goodness.
Owl manages to get up and hobble out to see her brother who is with the dead malevor. He's so sweet, sitting there with the creature. Owl tells him about the yaks and the ducks, but Father told him while Dad was breaking it to Owl. Kodiak wants Owl to help butcher the body because they plan on eating it, which weirds Yarrow and Owl out. Eating flesh? Who does that?! We eat algae! They have to use all their resources though and this is something that they can't waste. They eat the malevor and have a family discussion over dinner. Yarrow, normally subdued, seems to be angry, but not just about eating the beast. Owl doesn't help by slowly chewing the delicious meat with her mouth open. They ask their dads about learning more about Earth's history now that they know about the yaks and the ducks, but they say no.
They do however go on a family walk the next day to examine a puddle. The puddle has water in it, though it is heavier than the water they know, but they also know that the water is there because of a comet. OS studies the puddle in comparison to another they found previously and calculates that there are comets that strike the planet approximately every 20 years and they've been here for almost 18 years. They decide that they need to be able to move their settlement in the event of another comet, which OS can track up to a few weeks away, and they also need to build a bunker underground for safety. This means they will need to search for more resources, metals in particular, which means Owl finally gets to explore.
Soon it is Yarrow's 16th birthday. At his celebration, he makes a wish, but as he is preparing to blow out his digitally projected candles, thanks OS, Owl sees a change come over his face. She finds she doesn't recognize him anymore and it's eerily off-putting. After freaking out, trying to smooth things over since the Dads apparently didn't notice the change, Owl asks what Yarrow wished for. The Dads of course tell them that's not how birthday wishes work, but Yarrow tells everyone anyway. He wants Owl to be able to explore for a full ten days. This is something she has always wanted. Owl is pleased that Yarrow gave her his birthday wish, and that the Dads think, if OS goes with her as Rover and they plan carefully, it is doable.
Owl and Rover trek north for five days and have interesting discussions and lessons along the way. One is about what will happen when another comet strikes and it is… not good. To sum it up, it is a life-ending catastrophe and they will need to be underground for at least three years to survive it. This leads to a discussion about how the planet is now and how it has changed since Kodiak and Ambrose arrived. It seems that the planet has been recovering from its previous comet strike in that time. They soon come upon something new, which is very exciting. It's a jungle of sorts made from the same weird moss that a previous Kodiak and Ambrose collected that had taken over their ship by the time the final versions woke up. They collect samples to take home. Owl is so excited!
When they arrive, they encounter Yarrow, and he's holding a piece of the perimeter fence that keeps the malevors at bay. Why? He doesn't know. He doesn't know what's happening. Owl takes the post and they run back to the settlement and slot the piece back in place as the malevors notice and charge toward them. Luckily they make it in time and the pneumatic guns come back to life and whirr to their positions without discharging. They find the Dads inside working, nothing amiss, except for Yarrow not knowing why he took out that piece of fence.
OS studies the sample they brought back and discovers chromium in it. They found metal! This is exactly what they needed to survive! Time passes and they trek back and forth to the settlement collecting more chromium, and then they realize that they actually found the other half of the Coordinated Endeavor that broke when they crashed, which is actually a great find. They might be able to use the buried hull to survive a comet! And then they spot one. It's coming way too fast. Just as they think they are going to die, they see there is a message trailing behind it in the sky. This isn't a comet, it's a beacon. The message says Find this beacon. Ambrose and Kodiak, come. Find this beacon. Ambrose and Kodiak, come. What?!!
Part Two
Earth, November 6, 2472, Ambrose Cusk
Ambrose wakes from a full neuro mapping scan the day before he is set to leave on his mission to rescue his sister Minerva on Titan. He flirts outrageously with his nurses about how handsome his brain is, but he really only wants to flirt with one more person before he leaves, Sri. They have been Ambrose's main interest for quite some time, and though they are broken up now, that doesn't really mean much to either of them. Ambrose is supposed to be meeting with his mother, the head of the Cusk Corporation and thereby the most important person in the world, but she skips out on meeting with him all the time, so now it's time to avoid her and see how she likes it.
Ambrose sneaks away from his assistant who declares the meeting with his mother as mandatory and finds Sri on the roof. They tumble around a bit before Ambrose is escorted by armed guards to see his mother. In a room devoid of all technology, she tells Ambrose that he is not going on a rescue mission, in fact, he's not actually going on any mission at all. His sister is dead, has been for a while, and instead of going on a mission to save her, what they will actually be doing is sending clones of Ambrose to Sagittarion Bb, light-years upon light-years away, to create a new, Cusk-branded home for humans. The rescue mission was not real, was never real, but in order for the new mission to work, his clones have to think they are going to save his sister, otherwise they will lose their minds with depression and probably go crazy.
Ambrose is not pleased by this announcement at all but is expected to attend press briefings and conferences about the change in plans and to be happy and professional about it. Instead of doing that, Ambrose watches the briefings from the comfort of space. He takes a space elevator up to a pleasure satellite, one of three owned by the Cusk Corporation, and decides to crash a quinceanera when he finds out that his favorite boy band featuring his favorite pop star, Devon Mujaba, will be there.
Ambrose, now drunk on his favorite PepsiRum and thoroughly depressed about the death of his sister, the only person who ever actually loved him, gets many sexy body mods upon arrival and now he's covered with sparkling glittery golden leaves and gets a tattoo on his chest that reads Labels are the Root of Violence, but only the Violence part can be seen through his outfit. He's dressed by a stylist in a white robe and a gold circlet and 100% looks like a glittery Roman god. He goes to the concert and after sexily staring at Devon Mujaba the entire duration of his performance, Ambrose goes to the suite he rented, hoping he will follow. He does.
Devon Mujaba of course knows who Ambrose Cusk is and they begin making out almost immediately, but Devon has come to secretly deliver a message. He is from Dimokratía, the only other country in the world who is almost constantly almost at war with Ambrose's country Fédération and they are also part of the false rescue mission and, just like Ambrose, Devon and their mutual friend Sri are upset about it. They want to tell everyone what's actually happening, especially after Ambrose reveals the clone plan that Devon didn't know. The Dimokratía spacefarer will not know this information either, and they both think that everyone needs to know the truth.
The next morning, after an enjoyable night with Devon Mujaba, it seems that Ambrose's mother has finally found him. He is escorted to see her again and learns that he has to record a message for the clone of himself that will land on and settle Sagittarion Bb. Unfortunately starting with “Fuck you!” to the producer of the video and his mother doesn't make the final cut, and actually, they will probably end up deep faking the message anyway. Ambrose is upset and says how weird this is and then demands that his violin be put on the ship because he knows any version of himself will be freaking out and want to touch something real. His mother decides to allow this knowing that if she disagrees, Ambrose will disappear again when he really needs to be present for press conferences and he also needs to be off the planet in case Fédération goes to war with Dimokratía. He agrees to do what he is told as long as Sri gets to go with him.
On the space elevator to the Coordinated Endeavor, of course after fooling around, Sri writes a note on actual paper using an actual pencil to Ambrose. It's likely that they are being monitored so they can't speak about what they are about to do, livestream the truth. You had your bender. You had your wallow. Now you fix this thing that's been done in your name. With everything that's just happened and with the constant threat of war… Should he send a seed out to continue or let humanity end here? Would you rather…
When they arrive, they decide to split up. Ambrose hands off his violin to be loaded and takes a tour of the outside of the ship after multiple scans by both Fédération and Dimokratía soldiers. Soon, he meets Devon Mujaba who was allowed to tour also because it wouldn't be fair for only a Fédération person to see this and lucky for everyone, Devon was already nearby and interested. As they tour, Devon mimes a bomb, asking if that's why Ambrose wanted his violin on board so badly, but no! No! He doesn't want to explode the mission! He just wants to shut it down. They get the livestream going and Ambrose announces exactly what is going on, but then the tour guide asks him why. Does he expect the war that's happening below them to stop so everyone can come together to cancel this mission? What? War? Now? It's actually happening? Ambrose has to run before he's captured.
Ambrose tries to get back down to Earth, knowing he can disappear easier there than anywhere else. He switches from the executive fancy space elevators he's been using to the public ones and manages to get to a shopping mall where he tries to buy an outfit that is less obviously ridiculous than his Roman robes, but his payments are declined. He's been flagged as a threat. Devon shows up and tries to pay, but he has been flagged, too. Devon pushes Ambrose out of the store to the elevator just as guards arrive. As Devon is arrested, he tells Ambrose to “read his body.” What the hell does that mean? Ambrose strips out of his robe and looks his body over before putting on the less obvious clothing they stole. In addition to his gold glitter and violence tattoo, he sees that Devon must have written on him while they were drunk and naked together. He sees coordinates and a name: Kodiak Celius.
Part Three
Minerva (Sagittarion Bb), Year 18, Yarrow
Yarrow spends most of his time digging. Digging and thinking. Thinking about killing his family and what their dead bodies would look like after the variety of ways he could kill them. He doesn't want to be thinking these things, but he can't help it. He asked for this repetitive duty, still important for their bunker creation, while Owl goes out in search of the beacon. When she comes back from another fruitless trip she asks how he's doing and he really wishes people would stop asking him that but then they have a nap. Yarrow only thinks about killing Owl once or twice during their rest.
After waking, Yarrow decides he wants to know the history of Earth. He is alone on Minerva. Owl knows she is a clone of Dad’s sister Minerva and Father knows where he came from, too, even though it was an orphanage. He has nothing. Now that he's 16, he asks Father for permission and reluctantly receives it, and Dad agrees while Owl pouts. OS starts with an abridged history it has created for just this opportunity, but Yarrow asks to see the videos that real Ambrose and Kodiak left for their clones. No one has ever seen Kodiak’s and they only partially saw Ambrose's. Yarrow watches first as glittery Ambrose speaks and then as young burly Kodiak breaks down in gut wrenching sobs after learning that his entire life’s purpose has been scrapped.
Owl, Father and Rover go out searching for the beacon again and gathering materials while Yarrow and Dad stay behind. Yarrow asks if he can spend his day learning, which of course he can. Yarrow links into OS and feels more connected to it than to anyone else and marvels at all its capabilities. When Dad tries to get his attention for dinner, Yarrow ends up pushing him to the ground, not realizing he has done it. Ambrose is wary but hugs his son and they go to eat. Dad starts to ask their silly daily questions that they always ask around the table, but Yarrow would rather sit quietly instead.
When Owl and Father return, they start waving from just outside the perimeter, happy to be back. Yarrow looks up into the sky and sees a new bright light, knowing it is a comet, but doesn't say anything to anyone. Instead he watches as the pneumatic guns start firing at Owl and Father. Dad tries to get OS to stop, but OS alerts that that is outside its directive and asks Yarrow for his permission to turn off the guns, which is denied. Ambrose turns to Yarrow, begging him to stop the guns, and then is shot himself with the weapon Yarrow has had OS print for him. When Ambrose asks why, his response is There is no reason. I'm just doing what I've been told to do.
Part Four
Earth, March 4, 2473, Kodiak Celius
Kodiak Celius leaves the shelter he has taken as his own in Scotland. This area of the world has been abandoned and scattered with EMP dust so no technology will work again. After finding out that his mission, and the entire space program, was cancelled, Kodiak slipped away rather than be disappeared by the leaders of Dimokratía. Devon Mujaba met with him in secret and wanted him to help share the actual story of what happened and sent him out here to wait, but Devon has not come. A sheep has though. This little sheep is completely covered in wool, bred for it to grow quickly, but with no farmer, she's a mess. Kodiak shears her and now he's got a companion for the first time in a long time.
Soon enough, he has another. He spots a ship from the Cusk Corporation and worries that someone has finally found him, and someone has, but not to kill him or imprison him like he thought, though he does tackle the strangely alluring and glittery newcomer with his posh Fédération accent and tie him up. Kodiak thinks he recognizes the newcomer, maybe as a member of Devon Mujaba’s boy band, but then the newcomer shares his ID. He is Ambrose Cusk and he was sent here by Devon to find Kodiak. Together, they are supposed to share what actually happened to them and try to change the world that is now in a full fledged war.
The next morning, Kodiak and Ambrose immediately start teasing each other, Kodiak already letting his guard down and trying to show off his muscles by sexily chopping wood. Ambrose asks to try and is hilariously bad at it and they seem to be easily settling into a companionship. Ambrose asks if there is anywhere they can go to avoid the EMP dust so they can find out what's happening in the rest of the world, so they row to the middle of a lake and watch Devon’s trial.
Devon is sentenced to execution, something that Fédération hasn't done in more than a decade. After his brain is indexed so the two fugitives he has helped escape can be found, he will be killed and then war bots will track and kill Ambrose and Kodiak. Before his trial ends, Devon asks to speak. He tells everyone that the war won't end and that everyone on Earth will live in squalor while dreaming of a new home 10000 years away. He tells everyone that even though everyone knows about the mission now and that he can't stop it, he has already done something to sabotage the new planet before the clones even arrive. He has inserted a virus in the zygotes on the ship that will alter any DNA it finds to either be completely unviable or to develop too much testosterone and aggression once they come of age. He has done this with the human zygotes and the animals, too, so the planet will have no hope of success. After hearing this, Kodiak dives out of the rowboat, upset about his clone’s future and at himself for allowing Ambrose to ruin his solitary peace.
Part 5
Minerva (Sagittarion Bb), Year 18, Owl
Owl and Kodiak watch as Yarrow shoots Ambrose. When the spray of pneumatic bullets stops, they run. Rover, not connected to OS and the changes that Yarrow has made, rushes to help Ambrose. Kodiak lifts his daughter and they run, Yarrow shooting at them, but they make it far enough away and hide themselves. They are not sure why Yarrow has done what he's done and they both worry about Ambrose, but there's nothing they can do now. They look around where they've stopped and see a red blinking light. Their running has led them nearer to the beacon they were supposed to be looking for!
They still haven't found it exactly, so they make camp and rest for the night, but within an hour the next day, they find the beacon. Along the way, they also find a baby malevor who decides to join up with them, and Kodiak says as long as it doesn't slow them down, it can tag along. Owl reaches the beacon in the huge crater it left when landing a couple of weeks ago and pockets it. When she climbs back out, they realize the small beacon, no bigger than an eyeball, is speaking. Owl pulls the device from her pocket and sees a projection of Dad and Father, only much younger.
Part 6
Earth, March 5, 2473, Kodiak Celius
Kodiak gets out of the lake and catches up with Sheep who has been merrily prancing along the shore. They head out into the woods and then spot Ambrose going back to the shelter. Kodiak knows that they aren't going to survive against a war bot, but he also knows that he doesn't want to die and he doesn't want Ambrose to die either. Then he hears the sonic boom of the war bot and slows his heartbeat thanks to all the severe training he's done his entire life. A pack of wild dogs near the war bot is misted, but Kodiak and Sheep are fine for now. The war bot heads away from the shelter, so Kodiak and Sheep head toward it. Ambrose is no longer there, surely having heard the war bot, so Kodiak grabs what supplies he can and Sheep and goes off after him.
Kodiak follows behind Ambrose and so does the war bot, but not close enough to take them out. As Ambrose heads to a bridge, Kodiak calls out, telling him to not go to the bridge because it will be a perfect spot for the war bot to shoot from. They start to ford the river and continue on together but then the war bot starts shooting. Kodiak knows that the war bot will shoot at any living thing, squirrel, praying mantis, sheep… human… he hopes his companions are okay. When the war bot is finished shooting, it is picked up by another craft. Kodiak guesses that it found its target. Luckily Sheep is okay, so they head off together, not waiting for another war bot to come for them.
Sad that his new companion who ruined his solitude is gone (but he's still got Sheep), Kodiak decides to travel to a park shelter that he's explored previously. Along the way, he fords the river that they tried to cross earlier and finds Ambrose's backpack. Well, at least he has more supplies now. He stops to rest and is awakened by … Ambrose? He's not dead! Then… oh no, if the war bot left abruptly without completing its mission, that must mean that the war between Fédération and Dimokratía has gotten worse and the war bot was needed elsewhere. As bad as that is, at least they are relatively safe, for now.
They briefly discuss Devon Mujaba sabotaging the zygotes and both agree that, even though humanity is a scourge, they wanted their cloned selves to have happy lives on their distant planet. Devon decided that humanity will continue to destroy everything it touches though and didn't even give them a chance. They are astounded by the fact that not only did he destroy the zygotes, but he built in the aggression fail safe that no one will be able to detect. Their cloned selves won't stand a chance.
After resting, Kodiak has a plan and Ambrose has a plan. Kodiak wants to avoid future war bots by traveling west and hiding out on the Isle of Skye and finding a home there. Together? Maybe. Ambrose wants to go to Glasgow and use the technology at the university observatory there to send flies, marble-sized projectiles containing data, to Sagittarion Bb with all the schematics and plans they will need to repair the damage Devon Mujaba caused. They will be able to repair the zygotes and perform surgeries to fix the amygdalas of any viable children. They will be able to continue to live, if they are even there, if they even receive the messages, if they even want to. That is the plan they go with.
For six days they walk, and they spend a lot of their time talking. Kodiak starts feeling more comfortable looking at Ambrose now and does it more obviously than before. He has spent most of his life planning to be alone, but during training, he did enjoy spending time wink with the other cadets, but now, things feel a little different. He knows that the cloned versions of himself will spend the rest of their lives with only the cloned versions of Ambrose, and he doesn't think that will be so bad. One day, their talk turns to Devon Mujaba and Kodiak asks if Ambrose had sex with him, and oh lord yes, he did and it was great. This talk leads to a very similar discussion their clones had in TBKIOS, and then turns to teasing. Maybe it will become something more?
When they arrive at the observatory, they get to work immediately and start sending out flies with the information that future Ambroses and Kodiaks will need to know to save their new planet. It's possible that the flies won't make it or there is already extraterrestrial life there that might find the information from their strange god or any other number of possibilities, but they end up sending 23 of them out, staggering arrival times across the years, hoping at least one makes it and can help. Then, the bombs start falling. They take Sheep and any supplies they can to the laboratory where they will be safest, and Kodiak and Ambrose spend the rest of their lives together together. Kodiak cries with the utter joy of it.
Part 7
Minerva (Sagittarion Bb), Year 18, Owl and Yarrow
Owl and Kodiak watch the younger versions of Dad and Father as they quickly explain that Devon Mujaba sabotaged the zygotes and that OS can fix everything and how. The recording isn't very long and Dad talks more than Father, but that's exactly how it always is between the two of them. They feel relieved, but now they have to go back to the settlement in order to start making the repairs, but that means they have to face off against Yarrow. When they arrive, they find that the pneumatic guns are no longer active, so that's good, and they also don't find Yarrow, which is maybe good? At least they don't have to fight him or subdue him, which they were planning to have to do. They do find Ambrose and he is alive and as well as he can be after being shot several times in the stomach, thanks to Rover. Dad is not up for seeing the recording just yet and Father cries with relief that everything is okay for right now.
Rover suggests Owl give her Dads approximately 20 minutes alone together snort and tells Owl that it has discovered something that she needs to see. Rover points Owl toward the new bright star in the sky and tells her they have around 20 days before the comet strikes. Yarrow meanwhile is not very far away, hiding behind a malevor carcass, watching his sister. He has taken Dad’s violin and bow, something so so meaningful to Ambrose and Kodiak, and has stripped it of its strings and broken the bow for its strings as well. He uses those to tie his hands so he can't hurt his family anymore. He isn't going back to them, not by his own accord, but he's tied just in case. He looks on as Owl finds and watches the anniversary reel he made for the Dads and he knows that if he went to her, she would forgive him, but he doesn't. Instead, he walks away from the settlement.
Yarrow heads in a direction they haven't explored before and plans to walk until he can't anymore. He finds himself following a smell that he thinks might be blood, or maybe tears. He walks up a hill, something new, and decides once he gets to the top of it, he will lie down and not get back up, letting the comet destroy him so his family will finally be safe. As Yarrow crests the hill, he sees a sea below him, brimming with life! Creatures are swimming in the water and flying in the air and they resemble the rust-colored moss that the Dads brought with them from the asteroid. Although his body is depleted, he knows he has to get back to the settlement to tell Owl about the sea. He hopes he will make it before the comet does.
Owl and the Dads have moved into the bunker, what was once the Aurora, Kodiak’s half of the Coordinated Endeavor, complete with blind room. With very little time left, not even twenty minutes, Owl is going to leave the bunker in one of the Dads’ old space suits to protect her from the radiation that is even now enveloping the planet to retrieve the embryo that the Dads started gestating before everything happened with Yarrow. It's not likely that it will grow into a baby, but maybe it has a chance. They of course moved all the rest of the zygotes into the bunker already, but they didn't want to move the gestation unit until the last possible moment. If anything is the last possible moment, this is. Just as she reaches it, she sees Yarrow.
Yarrow looks terrible and Owl thinks his hands are bound, either that or he's carrying a weapon behind his back. Yarrow shouts that there is a sea with rust creatures in it, but Owl has no idea what he is saying. She tells him to hurry because they are almost out of time to get in the bunker, but he's not doing so well. Owl gives up on the gestation device and goes for her brother instead. She drags him to the bunker and drops him down the hatch just as their countdown reaches zero and they have to seal the door.
Once inside, Yarrow repeats what he said about the sea, but Owl doesn't know if what he is saying is true or he's just saying it so he can surprise attack and kill her. He also says that she should have left him behind because he is almost a straight up murderer, but no! Yarrow! It's not your fault! Owl explains about finding the beacon and the surgery that Rover will be able to do to repair their brains and the zygotes as well.
Now that everything is mostly settled, Ambrose, Kodiak, Owl, Yarrow and the little malevor have nowhere to go for the next three years at least. Ambrose has a brilliant plan. He asks OS to use the display screen that they once thought was a window showing them their progress toward Saturn to show them exactly that. These are stars that Owl and Yarrow have never seen before! OS suggests they time the display to last exactly as long as they will need to be inside. Soon, Yarrow will be Yarrow again and Owl will finally get to explore an entire new planet.
