8. Choice of Cage

Prince should have been overjoyed. Mindy would take him to a rocket and everyone would flee to a better place. But without Pika, he didn’t know what he would do in that new place.

He and Akoa stood on a table, unchained. They were back in the room with the many blinking lights, which flashed even more chaotically now as rockets regularly took off.

The storm raged at full force, weather reports said. Humans had adapted to the new climate, however, by placing huge windbreaks around important places. This made it seem as if the rocket base had lovely weather.

Crowds of humans shuffled through the gates, in a neat line. They were directed by agents that frantically pointed towards the right rocket.

It finally started raining. Just as relentlessly hard and long as Prince had expected. The rocket base had a roof, but of course that had to stay open now.

Giant fans blew the rain away like an umbrella of air. Half were out of commission and the other half mainly ensured one group of people got the full barrage.

Children stomped in the puddles before inevitably being pulled back by mother’s hands. The adults complained about every drop, but everyone appreciated the cooling relief from the endless sticky heat.

Akoa had jumped onto someone’s back, who Mindy called her “colleague”, and let herself be carried outside. By the time the poor boy realized he was being used as a tree trunk, Akoa had already collected six new objects for her pouch.

Prince also considered going outside to drink some drops, but then Mindy finally returned. She placed a cage on the table and opened the door.

“I was scared you might not return!”

Prince cried enthusiastically, which still sounded like whistling to Mindy. He happily hopped into the cage. Akoa stayed put. Mindy laughed about it, but didn’t try to get him in, leaving the door open.

“You can still walk around a bit,” she said. She smiled and Prince tried to smile back.

“But soon the researchers will come to take you away, so you’ll need to be in the cage then!”

“Pardon?”

Prince waited for an answer. Akoa tugged at her lab coat. Mindy looked as if she understood the animals and sighed as she fell into the armchair next to the table.

“I’m not boarding a rocket, my dears.”

Someone called her name. She turned the chair, checked a screen, then nudged exactly the right button to make the other person happy.

“People need to stay behind to press the button. To wait until all rockets are safely in space, clean up afterwards, and arrange news or repairs from here. That’s my job.”

Her eyes searched the room, while her fingers played with a pen. “Along with the other four interns. And the janitor. And the part-time guards. Even though we don’t get paid and Goettot still doesn’t know my name.”

She’s going to deliver me to … researchers, Prince thought. They’ll put things in me. Or attach them to me. Pull me apart.

He jumped out of the cage, but Akoa blocked the opening. Mindy took it as a sign and pushed the koala further inside so she could close the cage.

Meanwhile, two more rockets had departed. Mindy watched them go with longing in her eyes.

“I don’t know, really. Do I want to spend the next forty years in one of those rockets? Are they comfortable? What if they only have gross food on board? What if my neighbor stinks? Then I’d rather be remembered as one of the heroic ones who stayed behind.”

Prince pressed his nose gainst the bars until his front teeth poked out. Mindy stuck a pen between them and laid out some paper.

She was called on again, more grumpily this time. She ran through the room, turning increasingly large dials. Until she held one and said something over a loudspeaker that echoed across the entire complex, but was probably understood by no one amidst the chaos.

In the meantime, Prince wrote his message. Writing with a pen crooked between your teeth was slow. By the time Mindy returned, two more rockets had taken off and only a few symbols were on the paper. A drawing of Mindy’s face, a rocket, and an arrow from the first to the second.

Mindy frowned. “Who’s that face with the weird hair and—oh, that’s me. You think I should go?”

Akoa squished Prince in the cage and nodded. Mindy looked over her shoulder. Everyone was busy guiding this massive unexpected operation. It was a miracle they had warned so many people and activated all the rocket platforms of Raketa. Both here and at all the other rocket bases in Aprania.

She slapped her pen against the tabletop, repeatedly, then put it back with the rest.

“Even if I stay behind, Goettot will probably pretend I didn’t exist. Like I was worthless. Just a young intern. I’m sure they can find another unpaid hand to push a button, right? Right?”

Mindy picked up the cage and walked quickly and confidently towards the exit. Someone called her name, but she pretended not to hear.

“But I don’t have a ticket,” she whispered once outside. “And the staff knows my face. So we’ll have to find another way.”

She looked over her shoulder and missed the person right in front of her. She collided between her and an older man in gray long robes, though the cage took the brunt of the collision. Prince and Akoa were squished even more.

“Sorry!”

“My apologies, young lady. I was walking towards you to ask a question, but got distracted by that peculiar cage in your hands. Your pets, I presume? Which rocket are you taking?”

“Oh, god, no, I just met them.” Mindy held up the cage. The man removed his black hat and pressed his nose to Akoa’s. “And I’m not taking a rocket—uh, I mean, rocket—uh—seven?”

The man laughed heartily. “That one just departed. Did you perhaps mean …”

“Seventeen. Yes, that’s what I said, seventeen. And these animals are my—uh—friends’ pets.”

But Prince saw the panic in Mindy’s eyes as she realized this base only had sixteen platforms.

The man held up a shiny passcard. “Young lady, you do not have a ticket for a rocket. I do.”

He placed the pass in her hand, while his other hand gripped the cage handle. “I’m willing to give this to you, in exchange for that cage with the animals inside.”

“What—why—are you a veterinarian? A researcher?”

“You could say that. The animals are in safe hands, believe me.”

But Prince did not believe him. The truth lingered in people’s eyes. Mindy looked at the animals and her eyes showed kindness and curiosity. The man glanced half a second, narrowed his gaze, then paid no more attention to Prince.

“He’s lying! Don’t give us away!”

Prince pulled Mindy’s clothes, but she didn’t feel it. Her attention wavered between the ticket and the towering rocket piercing a hole in the black sky.

“I just don’t know if I want to spend the rest of my life in that steel cage. I could be eighty before we find the first habitable planet. Eighty! Four times my age!”

“Ah, my dear, you already live in a cage.” The man rummaged in his deep, full pockets. “You can’t go anywhere without encountering fences and gates. The black sky makes the world unlivable, except for those small patches where humans make a great effort.”

A large, brown sack of gold coins was placed atop the ticket. Raindrops had already soaked everyone and immediately discolored the bag.

Prince had the sinking feeling that he was defeated. That Pika, sweet Pika, might have been right—just a little bit—after all.

“Learn this wise life lesson. lady, from an old man who has seen much. Life is not about getting out of your cage. Life is fighting for the cage that fits you best.”

The base slowly emptied. Only four rockets remained. A voice echoed across the complex: “Thirty minutes until impact of Kran’s weapons. Thirty minutes until impact.”

Mindy grabbed the ticket and money sack.

The man took the cage.

“I wish you a nice journey and hope you live five times your age!” He speeded into the darkness, the animals rolling around the shaking cage.

In the flashes Prince saw, he noticed Mindy still hadn’t moved from her spot.

As the final rockets departed, he cursed his own trust in humans. He was going further and further from where he belonged. A loud, long whistle was his final call.