Midpoint Station

“Welcome aboard, Capt. Avery. I pray that your stay here is a good one.”

“That remains to be seen.”

Capt. Avery Thigpin arrived at Midpoint Station on August 21st, 2066. This was the first time he had been here since it was constructed 20 years ago. I had never seen him in person until now. Most people here hadn’t. We only knew him by reputation. People normally call him Capt. Fire, although nobody would ever try it in his presence. Rumor has it that SGT. Steel wasn’t aware that Capt. Avery was standing behind him. He was speaking to his crew, telling them to beware that “Capt. Fire” was on the base. He was reduced to Private First Class the next day.

Another name he hates is Capt. Thigpen. It seems as if that would be respectful, but according to him, Capt. Thigpen was his father. It was also his grandfather and his great-grandfather. He didn’t want to fall in their shadow. They all served in the military—the Marine Corps, to be exact. Capt. Avery refused to join the military. He was a captain in the space program. His name is Avery. Thigpen is just the family he was born into. He wanted to make sure nobody confused him with Captain Thigpen. Some people say that he only gives people one chance. He’d give a warning to keep his name and his family separate. Call him Capt. Thigpen a second time and you would meet the same fate as Private Steel.

People were happy to see Capt. Avery. They believed that his arrival meant that somebody was getting a promotion. My name is Jack Cohen. Never call me John. John is my father. This is Carl, my brother, and Megan Hill, my best friend. We believed that Capt. Fire was here to start a, well, fire.

I’ve been here since I was 5 years old. Carl was 2 at the time. He has no memory of Earth. Megan was born here. She’s never even seen Earth. It takes, so they say, 10 years to be acclimated to space before traveling to Kepler-452b, or Earth 2 as most people call it. Carl and I have been here for 10 years, 5 months, and 16 days. But we’re not going to Earth 2. We’re only here because Lieutenant John Carl Cohen was assigned here. Knowing that he would be here for an extended period, he brought his family with him. That would be us.

Father was excited to see Capt. Avery. If it was true that the captain was being promoted to Major, that would mean that Father was next in line to be Captain. The sound of “Captain John Cohen” brought a smile to his face. Mom was smiling also. All the adults were smiling. They were all taken in by this Capt. Fire. We, on the other hand, did not trust him. What was he really doing?

Megan was the first one to notice it. The adults, moving around with their everyday lives, never pay attention to anything. Such a major change should have been obvious to everybody. The engine that powers the station makes a humming sound. It’s hard to describe. Sort of like hmm hmm woosh – hmm hmm woosh. But now it was going hmm woosh – hmm woosh – hm woosh.

“What did Capt. Fire do?” she asked. “Do y’all hear that?”

“I didn’t until you said something,” I said. “I felt that something was wrong. I just couldn’t put my finger on it.”

“I heard Father say that he turned the engine up,” Carl said. “He’s increasing power all over the station.”

“Why?” Megan asked.

“I’m not sure. Father didn’t say. I asked him about it, but he only said that I shouldn’t worry about such things. That it wouldn’t affect me any. Then he closed the door so that I couldn’t hear anything else. That made it all the more suspicious.”

“What’s he up to?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “But we’re going to find out.”

Carl and Megan stuck to Capt. Avery like glue. They were able to stay in the shadows so as not to be seen. Even when there was no place to hide, they learned the vital lesson of hiding in plain sight. Like when they were in an atrium pretending to be playing checkers. They were really hanging on to every word Capt. Avery was saying.

They listened to what all the adults were saying. They found it odd that none of them realized that anything was going on. They all went about their everyday activities as if Capt. Fire wasn’t even here. He was sitting right next to Mrs. Cartwright, and she didn’t even acknowledge he was there. Mr. Green spoke to him and went back to doing his job. The atrium was already clean—spotless even. Yet he continued to sweep and dust just as he always had. Something was happening, and we were the only ones who noticed anything.

I stuck to my father the same way. At least I tried. The only problem was that my father had that sixth sense about me. He could feel it when I was around. I was hiding behind some boxes. I did not make a noise. I wasn’t even breathing hard. Yet, as he stared at the screens, tapping on buttons, he spoke.

“I can’t help you, Jack,” he said, “if you don’t tell me what you’re looking for.”

“Hello, Father,” I said. “I’m just trying to find out what you and Capt. Fire are up to.”

“Don’t let him hear you call him that. We’re just making sure the station is running at top efficiency. Nothing more than that.”

I didn’t believe him. He was able to sense that also.

“Why, son, what do you think we’re doing?”

“I don’t know. But I know something big is about to happen.”

He laughed.

“Son, you really do have an overactive imagination. That’s what makes you unique. Never lose that.”

He patted me on the head and continued working. His little act only convinced me more that something big was happening. Just like he could sense everything about me, I could sense that he was just trying to get rid of me.

We got together in room SR325. It was an old storage room that hadn’t been used in decades. It was locked, but my father had the key. I took it one day while he was sleeping. We used the room as our own personal clubhouse. Father caught us going in once. He was upset that I took his key but said that it didn’t interfere with ship operations. So now we meet here whenever we have important things to talk about.

“Fire is most definitely up to something,” Carl said. “He’s been messing with the ship’s power level. Haven’t you noticed that the lights are brighter? The announcements are louder. All of the screens in the atrium are on. They don’t send someone like Capt. Avery Thigpin over 700 light-years just to help with the entertainment and environmental controls. Something is going on.”

“Also, the ship’s rotation has changed,” Megan said. “It’s faster. Every day since I was old enough to know what Earth is, I looked out the same window to look at that distant star you call the Sun. It has always been in the same spot, at the same time. I watch it as it slowly moves by. Today, it was early and moved by much quicker.”

“We would have continued to watch,” Carl said, “but it seemed that he knew we were there. He didn’t say anything, but he kept looking in our general direction. We knew that we couldn’t catch him doing anything if he knew he was being watched.”

“I had the same problem with my father. He didn’t look in my direction. He actually called my name. He said that we had overactive imaginations, patted me on the head, and sent me away.”

“He was trying to get rid of you.”

“I know.”

The next day we went to watch a group of people teleported to Farpoint Station. It’s the next step in reaching Earth 2. Dr. Beverly Grinder was traveling with her 6 children. Her husband was sent last month. Lt. Ron Chambers, his wife, and their 5 children were going. Then there was Geologist Ted Carr. He was traveling with his wife, his sister, and 7 nieces and nephews. The oddest group was Nancy Pendergraph. No title. She was traveling with her dog and her cat. This was the first time anyone traveled with pets in 2 years. It was also strange that this large a group was going. Normally, no more than 10. Now, including the pets, it was 25. Overactive imagination? I don’t think so.

After the teleportation, the station began to tilt. We couldn’t feel it, but anyone looking out a window could see it. There was about a 45-degree tilt. All of the adults applauded as an energy beam shot from the array, seemingly into empty space. I tried to ask Father what was going on. He just told me to be quiet. What was he hiding?

The next day, people gathered to watch Capt. Avery Thigpin deboard Midpoint Station. As he left, he turned to Father and said, “My work here is done. The rest is up to you, Captain John Cohen.”

He left with questions unanswered. It appeared as if Father was sworn to secrecy. He wasn’t saying anything. They were not fooling me. I’m not sure what it is. But something is beginning, I think.