Anniversary Waltz

A fleet of generation ships wanders in space looking for a new world to colonize. Every twenty-five years, they choose a percentage of their population to exchange among the ships to keep the gene pool from degenerating and preserve the species.

The Captain of the Niagara stood at a podium on a small stage in front of one hundred individuals chosen for the Exchange. After clearing his throat, he began his speech. “A thousand years ago, twenty-five ships left our home world in search of a new home for our species. Every twenty-five years, we have selected a group of citizens to journey to one of our sister ships...” Sparrow Sutliffe stopped listening to the Captain’s speech and started to look around the room. She slowly inched her way to the back of the crowd and sat on the deck with her back against a bulkhead. She pulled her electronic slate out of her jumpsuit pocket. Unfolding it, she searched the ship’s library for information on the Yosemite, the ship that she would be moving to in a matter of whenever the Captain chose to end his long boring goodbye speech.

The Yosemite was identical in design to the Niagara with housing for well over one thousand residents and crew. She would be passing one hundred of her citizens on to the Wallaman while the Niagara received one hundred from the Hannoki. All of this in the name of genetic diversity – at least, that is what they taught. As Sparrow studied the list of the selected citizens, she noted several abnormal aspects in each of them. But her interest soon turned back to the comparison of the Niagara and the Yosemite.

“There you are, Freak.” Wanda Bellringer loomed over Sparrow. Sparrow ignored the well-dressed young woman addressing her. This would ordinarily bother Sparrow if it had been anyone else. She didn’t like to be close to normal people, but Wanda was not a normal person. Wanda was overly gregarious. She had little respect for personal boundaries. And she lacked a filter, saying whatever came to mind.

Sparrow noted that the outermost module did not connect to the ship’s central spire. The module was docked to the module just below it. The module was identical to every other module with two common areas near the spire airlocks and the landing lifts.

“I see they are finally getting rid of you.” Wanda knelt next to Sparrow to get a look at what she was working on.

“They are getting rid of you, too,” Sparrow looked up and smiled. “Or you wouldn’t be here.”

“Fair enough,” Wanda sat on the floor, “but actually we are staying here. It’s everyone else who will be moving.”

“That’s logistically not possible. They moved us into the section of the ship that gets swapped. It’ll happen later tonight. This is the Captain’s goodbye speech. We have until curfew to say goodbye to our families and the friends who are staying here. Then while we sleep, the swap occurs.”

“Is that our new home?” Wanda’s finger touched the screen causing it to zoom in on the drive section of the Yosemite.

“The Yosemite is almost identical to the Niagara. I’m still going over all the specs and the operational history.” Sparrow touched the screen again to access information on the engines. With a few rapid gestures, she instructed her eSlate to create a spreadsheet listing all the specs of both the Niagara and the Yosemite.

Sparrow finished her spreadsheet comparison of the two ships a few minutes before the Captain dismissed the group. She folded her eSlate and slipped it back into her pocket before joining the crowd on their way to spend time with their families for a last supper on board the Niagara. Sparrow’s parents gave her a family photo before her father walked her back to the airlock between modules. She smiled at him and gave him a tight hug. “I’ll miss you, but there’s always the ship-to-ship. Promise me you’ll send me updates on Squirt. I’m going to miss the little imp.”

Hal Sutliffe promised that he would send her weekly updates on the family. As he walked away, a knot formed in his stomach. He passed Wanda Bellringer and her parents and nodded politely to them. He was too afraid to speak lest he break down and alert Wanda to the truth. He wondered if the Bellringers were aware of the sacrifice that they were about to make.

Sparrow spent the hours before “lights out” working on her spreadsheet comparison of the two ships. Out of curiosity, she added the rest of the fleet and came across an anomaly. Each of the ships carried six modules, but they had been designed to carry only five. She wondered where the extra modules had originated. After digging into some classified files, she found the source of the module that she was currently inhabiting. There had been another ship, the Silver Thread, which had launched with the twenty-five. She added the specifications of that ship to her chart.

Wanda spent the time socializing with the rest of the chosen transferees. As she went about the common room, she noticed something odd about everyone chosen for the transfer. Every person she met lay somewhere on the Autism spectrum. She didn’t have time to meet everyone since some like Sparrow had stayed in their quarters. She would have to ask Sparrow to check it out for her when she got back to their shared quarters.

Wanda waited patiently while Sparrow told her about the mystery ship. The Silver Thread had suffered engine trouble and abandoned its twenty-five modules to the other ships. Sparrow had found a log entry of a recent signal from the Silver Thread. The ship was underway and in pursuit of the fleet. After Sparrow finished her recap of her research, Wanda brought up her discovery that not a single neurotypical was among the chosen. She suspected that to be the case on all of the other ships. Sparrow had made a similar observation earlier. She queried the various ships for their module six rosters.

Just as Sparrow finished copying the rosters from all twenty-five vessels, they felt the jolt of their module separating from the Niagara. “If this were a video, this is when they would be playing a waltz in the soundtrack,” Wanda declared with her usual aplomb. Had they been asleep in their beds, they would not have noticed the moment. They ran to an observation port and watched as the modules moved away from the ships. To their horror, the ships, once the modules were clear of them, accelerated away leaving the twenty-five modules behind in the Lagrange point.

Sparrow and Wanda watched as the modules slowly clustered together into groups of five. She could feel the mild jolts as four other sections connected to hers. The twenty-five modules slowly accelerated out of the Lagrange point in formation, heading in the direction of the fleet. As they drifted out of the planetary orbital plane, a five-spired ship approached on an intercept course. The new arrival slowly maneuvered into position to capture the five cylinders.

A loud clunk resonated throughout the lower modules and rose slowly up through the cylinders as they locked onto their pylon. An acceleration alarm sounded and passengers scrambled to the special seats within their quarters. Sparrow and Wanda released themselves as soon as the all clear bell signaled that it was safe to walk about the ship. They went down to the drive module to confirm that the rescuing vessel was the Silver Thread.

A small group of curious teens met outside the gangway to the command spire. After a series of quick introductions, they opened the door to the bridge of the Silver Thread. They stood both defiant and awestruck by the composition of the crew manning the bridge. There were aliens sitting at varying consoles and one sitting in the Captain’s chair. The aliens were catlike in appearance, though lacking tails, who spoke in tones approximating English.

“Come in, please,” the creature in the Captain’s chair yowled. “We have examined the data downloaded from the various pods. One of you discovered an instability in a ship’s engine. If we can overtake them, we can save the ship.”

Wanda slapped Sparrow on her shoulder. “Way to go. I told you that your OCD would come in handy someday, didn’t I?”

Sparrow rubbed her shoulder and nodded in reply. She stepped forward toward the viewing port. She could barely see the tops of the residence spires, but she had a clear view of the stars ahead. A young human Ensign turned to her and smiled. He turned and addressed the group of teens. “You might want to go below and strap in on the observation deck. We’ll be decelerating soon.”

Wanda led the group down the ladder to the observation deck. Sparrow took an empty seat next to the young Ensign. “Still no response, Captain. Should I send the message again?” The Ensign held his hand over the resend button.

“Yes, they must wait for us.” The Captain spoke as the fleet appeared ahead of them. Before the Ensign could hit send, a series of radio transmissions bombarded the Silver Thread.

“We need to abandon the Niagara. We can’t shut down the drive unit and are just barely holding her engines below critical. Releasing her modules now.”

“Niagara Five reporting clear of docking pylon. On course for the Yosemite.”

“Niagara Four reporting clear of docking pylon. Heading for the Wallaman.”

“Niagara Three reporting clear of docking pylon. Heading for the Iguazu.”

“Niagara Two reporting clear. Heading for the Pissing Mare.”

“Niagara One clear. On course for Victoria.”

A short moment later, the Niagara Drive module pushed ahead of the fleet leaving behind jetsam. As the Silver Thread slowed to where the fleet lay, a bright flash appeared in the darkness ahead as the Niagara’s Drive module exploded.