Spinning and Swapping, Prologue

Riley took the tiny pieces of metal and sighed. She’d been working hard all day, melting the titanium together neatly and nicely so that, somewhere down the line, it could become a wall or roof. She put the dust into another mold and put it over her last fire. She Took the first mold out from over a fire and opened the lid. It was melted. She sent it on and took the next large pile of tiny metal pieces. This was her life, as long as she was twelve years old. Her only off time was at night, when she could go home and have a nice dinner, then go to bed. Riley sometimes wished for a break, but she had never had a moment of daylight that she was not working, as long as she could remember. She had heard that for her first two years, she had not done any work because she was too small and clumsy. But she could hardly believe it. She was the tallest of anyone her age so far, and the most coordinated. She put the next mold in the fire and turned around. There was another pile. She sighed.

“I really need more fires,” she grumbled quietly, a smile playing over her lips.

********

Riley stumbled in the doorway and smiled. It was so quiet here. She heard the fire crackling and background voices ringing through her head. She shook her head and chuckled, looking around the small house. She chuckled and checked the pile of minerals. She measured out a handful of her daily rations and began to lick the dust off her hands. She had hoped to talk to her mother tonight before bed, but she was exhausted. Maybe tomorrow. No, wait! Tomorrow was the day Max would be launched. Max was an old man who had been living in the nursery for years. Before Riley had been born, anyway. Long before she was born. He would have been fifty next month, except for the Launching. He had actually been the one to discover the ability to shoot a craft into space and it escape the planet’s gravitational pull. He had given it much thrust and aimed it away from the sun. Many elderly men had been launched instead of killed since he invented the Space Waster. But everyone assumed they died in the Space Waster, once they had run out of oxygen or food. Or when it got too cold. Now, Max would find out what it felt like to die up there. Riley couldn’t wait to watch. She’d seen few Launching Days before. Her father had been Launched four months ago. When she was seven years old, she visited her parents and cared for them every day. Her mother’s name was Penny, and Penny was a kind, gentle woman. As a male, he had no name. Only a number. And Riley hadn't taken the time to memorize it.
         Most of the people had a kind of orange skin and short orange hair-like fur covering their bodies. It was said that the planet adjacent to theirs, but farther away from the sun, had people with various skin colors. Sometimes it was pasty white, other times their skin was nearly black. The astronomers had discovered the planet years ago, and they constantly observed the planet. It seemed the planet was toxic. It had vibrant shades of green and blue and yellow. And it spun the opposite direction as Venus. The other planet was called Earth. Sometimes Riley fantasized about if she lived there, as one of the natives, though she knew it would never be. She shouldn’t even think of it. Riley lounged in bed and smiled at the ceiling, thinking once again. What if?