Chapter 1

Bellamy was so tired of solitary confinement. The food the guards brought him tasted like toothpaste. The boredom was becoming unbearable. He missed his older sister, Octavia. She could always make him smile and she always protected him. Some days, he would just sit and stare out his cell window at the stars. When he was very young, his mother would tell him a story about a king that became a star to protect his kingdom. Bellamy sometimes wondered if she had become a star when she died. She deserved such an honor. However, Bellamy tried not to think about his mother's death, because it was all his fault.

The place where Bellamy was born was known as the Ark; a space station drifting endlessly through the cosmos. It had been launched into space from Earth days before a meteorite crash into the Earth, completely obliterating it. While humanity's homeworld was destroyed, they continued to live on in space. The Ark holds all that remains of the human race, who search for new home. Given the scarcity of resources and other problems, every law is punishable by death. Unless you are under eighteen; then you have a chance. If you break the law before reaching adulthood, you will be imprisoned until your eighteenth birthday, then you will be evaluated by three specially selected adults. They will determine if you should live on the Ark or be sent into the void of space.

Bellamy got put in solitary confinement after he fought with one of the guards. The guy deserved the black-eye he gave him. No one talked trash about his mother. She was a great and loving person; so loving that she had two kids, which is illegal. For sixteen years, she managed to keep Bellamy a secret, but he was found out. That is how she got executed and Bellamy ended up being imprisoned. In prison, there was nothing to get excited about. Everyday was the same; nothing to look forward to for years.

However, today something different was happening. He could hear shouts from the other side of cell door. Well, it was difficult to hear anything outside his cell, so he had to press his head against the door. He moved away from it when he heard the opening mechanisms moving. A few seconds later, two guards entered his cell with irritated expressions.

"What's going on?" Bellamy asked.

"Stand against the wall." One of the guards barked.

"Why?" He asked.

"Shut up and stand against the wall!" A guard ordered.

One of the guards walked toward him. That is when he made his move. Bellamy dashed forward and grabbed the guard's taser from his belt. Then he jabbed the second guard with it, rendering him paralyzed. Before the remaining guard could get him, Bellamy pressed a button outside his cell, trapping the guard inside. He knew he would be in serious trouble later, but his gut told him it was the right move.

When Bellamy looked around at the rest of the detention-block, he realized something weird was happening. Guards were pushing, shoving, and dragging the rest of the delinquents out of their cells. Not one person was being left in them. Bellamy did not have a chance to wonder what was going on because he was shot in the back with several tranquilizer darts. In an instant, he blacked out.

Meanwhile, Bellamy's sister, Octavia, was annoyed that visiting hours for the detention-block were canceled today. Those hours were the only time she got to see her brother. Also, today was suppose to be the day he was released from solitary confinement after three weeks. They were finally going to finish the chess game they did not finish the last time they were together. She asked the guards why the detention block was closed-off, but that just remained silent and motioned her to get back to work. Frustrated, she went to the cafeteria to eat and try to calm herself. There, Octavia met up with her friend, Luke. He worked in the Garden, testing and producing food. Octavia, on the other hand, is a janitor.

"What's wrong?" Luke asked shortly after they started eating.

"Why do you think something's wrong?" Octavia replied.

"You eat rapidly whenever you're mad." He answered.

The two of them smiled at each other. They met when Luke ran across a floor Octavia had recently moped. He slipped and fell right on top of her. Luke was so embarrassed, he gave her some of his new breeds of vegetables. When he gave them to her, Octavia invited him to eat with her. From then on, they were the best of friends.

"I'm just mad that I can't see my brother today." Octavia said.

"I wonder why they closed-off the detention-block." Luke said. "Perhaps there was a disease outbreak and they need to quarantine the delinquents?"

"I don't think so." Octavia replied. "The vents were still open. If it were a disease, they would have closed the vents to prevent it from spreading."

"Then why?" Luke wondered, suddenly very curious.

Before they could continue their conversation, the Ark suddenly shook with tremendous might. Everyone fell to the floor; children cried and adults screamed. The vibrations may have only lasted a few minutes, but they seriously scared everyone half-to-death. There was a great deal of panic. Only a few seconds later did they see what had caused the vibrations. A Landing Vessel passed by the windows; Landing Vessels were what they the citizens of the Ark were going to use to land on another planet because the Ark itself could not handle the extreme heat that came upon entry. The vessel must have been what caused the vibrations.

"Damn," Luke swore. "It must have been launched accidently."

"I don't think so." Octavia said, a horrified expression on her face. "That's why they closed-off the detention-block. They put all of the delinquents in that Landing Vessel."

"What?!" Luke exclaimed. "Why?!"

Then, an emergency broadcast came on over the speakers. On the screen in the cafeteria, the Ark President appeared. He had very dark skin tone, combed-black hair, and cold eyes. Octavia hated him; he was the one who released her mother into space as punishment for having more than one child.

"Hello citizens of the Ark." He said. "As you have no doubt noticed, a Landing Vessel has been launched. This was no accident. Inside the vessel are all of the delinquents that were being held in the detention-block."

The President's last sentence caused quite an uproar. Some people quickly became angry and demanded an explanation. Others fell to their knees, crying over the possible loss of their loved ones. Luke and Octavia remained quiet and waited for the President to continue. Suddenly, the image on the screen changed to a purple vortex.

"This is an anomaly we discovered some time ago." The President explained. "After numerous tests, we now believe this to be a portal to an alternate reality. In a matter of seconds, the Landing Vessel will enter the anomaly. As to why we have done this, there are two reasons. The Landing Vessel is equipped with communication device that will allow them to contact us from the other side. If they discovered a inhabitable world on the other side of the anomaly, we will all follow them. The second reason is that an error in oxygen system has been reported to me. If it is not fixed, we will all die of oxygen starvation. Only our engineers also reported we would need to reduce population to have enough time to repair those systems. With the one hundred delinquents removed from the equation, we can now fix the systems."

Then the announcement came to an abrupt end.

Meanwhile, on the Landing Vessel, the delinquents just finished watching a video giving them a similar message. Inside the Landing Vessel, all the delinquents were strapped tightly to their seats. The Landing Vessel was cylinder shaped with three thrusters at one end and heat shields everywhere else. There was only one window in the front of the pilot's seat. Except, the craft was on autopilot, so no pilot was required, so that seat is currently empty.

This is where Bellamy awoke. What woke him up was the person next to him poking his head. When Bellamy opened his eyes, that person smiled and said, "Glad you're not dead."

"What's going on?" Bellamy moaned.

"Well, looks like we delinquents are taking a little trip." The guy replied. "Which is why I'm glad you are alive. Dead people are not good traveling companions."

"Who are you?" Bellamy asked.

"Jackson." He replied, then took a flask out of his coat pocket and took a big sip of whiskey.

"Is that real whiskey?" Bellamy asked.

"Yep." Jackson said. "My dad works as a guard and slipped this into pocket while we were being put in here."

"Can I have some?" He asked.

Jackson handed him the flask and Bellamy found out it was almost empty. However, he still drank what was left and discovered that alcohol tasted bitter. As he handed the flask back to Jackson, the whole ship shook so hard that Bellamy dropped the flask but Jackson caught it.

"What was that?" Jackson replied.

Then the vessel shook again with even greater might. The vibrations continued and a purple light began penetrating the metal walls of the vessel. Bellamy looked over at Jackson and saw he was becoming transparent. Everyone was turning transparent; including Bellamy. The more transparent he became, the more tired he became. He knew he should be freaking out, but for some reason, he just wanted to sleep. The same could be said for all of the other delinquents. At the moment they completely entered the vortex, all of them lost consciousness.

On Earth, in the alternate reality the vortex lead to, a new body just arrived at the Seattle morgue. It was a young teenager with dark brown hair and an odd birthmark on his face. This young man was shot in the chest three times, then found four hours later in a dumpster. Why this was done to him was still unknown. He has not even been identified yet. Detective Clive Babineaux has been assigned to solve his murder. Currently, the medical examiner, Ravi, and his assistant, Liv Moore, are examining the boy's corpse.

"So, what have you got?" Clive asked.

"Not much, I'm afraid." Ravi replied. "We have tried to use fingerprints and dental records to identify him, but neither worked. We're still waiting on the DNA. From our examination, we have discovered this man was in top physical condition and that he has been in a number of fights, based on the soft ribs and small scars."

"Liv, any psychic visions?" Clive asked.

"No, but I'll let you know." She said.

After Clive left, Liv took some of the deceased brain matter and prepared to eat it with some pizza. Such an action is disgusting, but necessary for a zombie; which Liv is. Liv has been a zombie for months. Before she was a zombie, she was working to become a doctor. Now, she works in the morgue, and pretends to be a psychic to help solve the murders of the deceased whose brains she eats. Even though she is not psychic, she does have visions. A side effect of eating brains is having flashes of the memories of the person whose brain she ate. Only one person who knows her secret is her boss, Ravi. He was very understanding of her condition.

After she finished her lunch, she went to see if Ravi had learned anything else about the boy. She wanted to know what she was in for. Not only does eating brains give her visions, but it also gives her some of the deceased personality traits. So, she did not like eating the brains of a John Doe. It meant she had no idea what she would be like. When Liv entered Ravi's office, his notes were on the counter and he was watching an episode of Star Trek. The moment she saw the screen, she had a vision. The boy was fixing a control console. In space! Yes, he was literally in space! He had a spacesuit on and felt weightless. When the vision faded, Liv said, "Oh my God."