The Great Unknown

Sharla woke the same as she had for the last two years, instantly, her senses alert, heart beating wildly. Jerking upright, she scooted her back into the corner. Narrowed eyes flicking quickly around the 7x7 foot room, she found no danger, her heart calming. A soft beep of a waiting message gave her the answer to what woke her up and calmed her as much as she could be. Slipping out of bed, she stood and flexed the muscles in her body, area by area, stretching her toned body to it's nearly 6 foot height. Pushing the button on the console, she grimaced at the sound of her Mother's voice.

"Sharla, Please call me back. I want to talk about why you are doing this. You have to accept that Dagan is gone, risking yourself will not bring your brother back. Loosing one child to the horrors above is enough.." the voice broke with a sob. "Please don't do this, we can wait to go up-side when the world has been tamed."

Sighing in Frustration, Sharla stopped the recording. Mother had never understood, would never understand most likely. Dagan was not the reason she was going upside, it was because as long as she could remember that is all she had wanted. To breathe real air, not recycled, stale odorous vapors. To see things she couldn't even imagine in her wildest dreams, to go places no one else had gone in hundreds of years, no one human anyway.

Her brother had felt as she did, being the elder by two years, he had gone upside two years ago. How many stories he had brought back of the wild untamed world. The mutants, the biomecs, the creatures, the bizarre landscape. Each story only flamed the passionate desire she felt to take on this world once known as earth, but now as alien as any world in a distant galaxy.

Then it happened, six months ago, Dagan disappeared. He was on a routine mission, to a distant valley. How and why he disappeared no one could or maybe would say. Sharla had her suspicions about the curious silence that surrounded Dagan's last mission. But try as she might, no one was willing to talk, beyond the sympathetic clucking and evasive words. The only explanation was that they were covering something up, or even worse, they had no idea what had happened to him. And that was the worst thought, that he may be still alive somewhere out there unable to come back to them.

Sitting down at the desk, Sharla recorded a message to her mother, trying once again to explain why she was going. Sighing again, she set a timer to transmit the message in several hours, long after she was gone. That wasn't right she knew, but the seemly endless discussions had worn her down and today she didn't want to go through it again. Today was the day, she was going upside, to see for herself what she had so far only read and seen pictures of. As she daydreamed, her excitement came rushing back, a euphoric feeling racing through her veins. Anyone seeing her then, would have had no doubts of why she was doing as she was, unless she was a mother who had already lost a child.

Her graduation two days ago had seemed anti-climatic, receiving the orders to hand to the launch point, the handshakes, the smiles. For the last year she had learned the facts of the new world as they knew them, trained with weapons, tactics. To the consternation of her instructors, she chose the unstructured life of the bounty hunter. They assured her that her aptitude tests scored excellently in all fields, she could be what she wanted. But Bounty Hunter was the field she chose and no one could talk her out of it.

It was time to go, time to get her orders, to head out into the world. Sharla quickly used the sonic shower, braided her flame colored hair and dressed. Then hefting her pack, took a last look around and swallowed down an unexpected lump in her throat. Stepping onto the moving walkway she headed to the garage, to the future, to the unknown.

To be continued........