Chapter Text
The first time Nova’s parents disappear, she is seven years old.
It’s two days before Unity Day when she notices that something is off-or at least, more off than usual. Nova has always been wary of her parents, realizing from a young age that her parents are much less attentive than her station mates’. She doesn’t expect them to just be gone, though. On the morning of Unity Day, she wakes up early, hoping to see that Dad hasn’t let the green bottle break and the smelly liquid spill all over the floor. When she enters her parents’ bedroom, however, he isn’t even there, nor is her mom.
Young Nova Ahmed finds this too hard to comprehend, while later she will grow to appreciate the long absences where she gets to pretend that her parents don’t exist. Instead, she focuses on getting dressed and going about her day. There’s no school today, which means she is free to sit by the clock and anxiously wait for either her parents to return or for it to blink 18 hours, signaling the start of the Unity Day celebration. Eventually it does, and she heads out the door, not bothering with the lock because she doesn’t know the passcode. This year they’ve kept it relatively lowkey, not wanting to overshadow the inauguration of the new Chancellor a few weeks prior. Nova has never met the man himself, but she likes his last name. It reminds her of someone laughing. Ja-ha-ha-ha! She smiles dopily to herself, thinking of this as she walks into the banquet room, the guards not caring enough to notice no parents trailing behind her.
Nova tries to make a beeline for the snack table, but a man steps in front of her, kneeling down with what she assumes he thinks is a kindly face but really just makes him look constipated. Nova thinks she’s seen his face on television before, but she can’t quite place it. Then she remembers. Before her grandparents passed, he looked exactly like that character on the island show they used to watch together. That must be where he’s from.
“Are you lost, little one?” The man asks. “Where are your parents?”
“They disappeared.” With that Nova pushes past him, set on the delicious-looking pink cake at the edge of one of the tables. She feels bad about having ignored him, turning back, only to see him walking over to a short woman who has a stocky boy and a blonde girl clinging to each of her hands. The strawberry smell of the cake calls her again, and Nova turns back to the table, intent on eating at least half of the treat. However, there’s now a taller, dark-haired boy standing next to it, balancing one plate of the cake but also discreetly shoveling some of it into a plastic baggie. This confuses Nova.
“If you want seconds, you don’t have to steal.”
The boy glances at her, his eyes flashing from to surprise to nervousness. He gulps, then takes the rest of the cake and stuffs it into the baggie, turning away from her and running off.
“Hey! I wanted some of that-“ Nova’s anger dissipates as she spots a full plate of cookies and greedily takes all of them, content on sitting back and watching the festivities. She will forget the encounter with the boy within the next twenty minutes, but he won’t ever, fearfully ingraining her face in his mind and hoping that she has not realized who the extra cake is for.
Nova is halfway through the plate of cookies when she starts wondering about where her parents could be. Maybe I should look for them. She bites her lip, an action that will eventually turn into a bad habit, and sits up.
Suddenly the world becomes blurry and her head starts to ache. I shouldn’t have eaten all those cookies. Nova doesn’t have a stomachache, though, and so she carefully makes her way back to her cabin, the setting around her becoming farther and farther away. When she opens the door, her parents are home, but passed out on the couch. She crawls into her bed, closes her eyes, and crosses her wrists, hoping the pressure will make an anchor for her to hold on to. The feeling is gone after twenty minutes, but it will happen again many times throughout her life. For now, however, seven year old Nova closes her eyes and allows sleep to take her.
∞
Nova is fourteen years old when she first walks past the Skybox, on her way to one of her classes. Her parents have started to not come home for weeks at a time now, but she no longer cares. Nova has also stopped spending all her time in Farm Station, instead making the long trek to Alpha for a different set of classes. She’s decided that she wants to work in the government as a strategy officer. Nova has started to pay more attention to her grades, feeling a sense of accomplishment when after each class she’s at the top of the rankings. For now, though, she still has plenty of time between classes, and opts to stare at the cell which holds the juvenile offenders. The term, used by the Council, has grown irritating to her within the last year, mostly because she’s taken Doctrine Regulations and knows that probably only twenty kids in there have actually committed violent crimes. The others are in for misdemeanors, but will probably get floated, because as it turns out, if you stop sending kids to school, they can’t learn any skills that will help them pass their review. This gives her an idea, and after classes are done for the day, she heads straight for the Council office.
Two weeks later, Nova starts volunteering at the Skybox, tutoring the kids there. Many of them are older than her, but they eventually learn to trust her, especially when they learn that Nova hates the council as much as they do. She starts to change the load of classes she’s taking; instead of taking a more direct and quicker path to her dream career, she shifts to a more all-rounded schedule, taking classes like Mechanics 101 and Machine Maintenance in order to teach more practical skills to the delinquents. Taking the extra mechanics classes are ultimately a waste of time because she’s absolutely terrible at them, but it still makes her heart jump to know there’s been a 60% increase in passed reviews since she started working.
When she’s a day shy of sixteen, Nova meets John Murphy. There’s been an increase in violent crimes getting kids arrested, and the swaggering Murphy is no exception, having set fire to the cabin of the officer who floated his father. Admittedly, this makes her a bit nervous when instead of sending an extra guard, the council decides to send her.
Just make him cooperate. Nova hears the Chancellor’s voice in her head and shudders. It’s bad enough that he refers to the kids in lockup as “expendables” in private, but recently she’s started to notice just how much he also openly dehumanizes them. Even if Murphy is a pyromaniac, he’s still a fifteen-year old orphan.
Nova nods at the guard, and he backs away, staying close enough in case anything bad happens but far way enough that he can’t hear them.
She swallows hard, then smiles brightly. It’s a face that she’s put on repeatedly since she started doing this, acting as a nonofficial welcome party to the Skybox.
“Hi! My name is Nova. What’s yours?”
The boy looks up. “You already know.”
Nova shrugs. “Fair enough.” She sits down next to him, keeping a distance of eight inches. Once she accidentally sat too close to a girl who then had a panic attack. Now Nova knows better.
He looks again at her, his face quickly transforming into a smirk. “I’ll have you know, darling, I’m really not interested.” Murphy drawls.
“Well, I’m glad we’re on the same page, John.” She smiles again at him. It throws him off, and she bites back a laugh. “So, what are you in for?”
“Again, a question for an answer you already know.” He’s started to look at her now, which Nova takes as a good sign.
“Alright.” She slips into a more matter-of fact tone, but keeps her smile. “My name is Nova Ahmed. Yours is John Murphy. You know exactly one person who’s been sent to the Skybox already – John Mbege. I know him too. Unless you plan on trying to make some new friends while in lock-up, I’m afraid you’ll have to be a little bit nicer to both me and good ol’ Jerry over here.” She waves her hand over to the guard. The man smiles bashfully. “Trust me, John, you could have been stuck with a much worse guard. Jerry’s nice. He’s even teaching me to shoot!” In exchange for signing off on his (nonexistent) overtime shifts.
Murphy looks at her again, this time making eye contact. She holds it, still grinning widely. After a second, he smirks.
“Alright then, smiley. Whaddya’ want to know? I’m an open book.”
∞
Nova is now eighteen and a half, still at the top of her classes but also now taking a shadow position with Kane. She’ll graduate in two months, but in the meantime, she’s figured it’s probably best to have a job lined up once she’s done with classes. Shadowing Kane is excruciatingly boring, however, mostly because he doesn’t let her do anything. Just for once, Nova wishes that she would have more knowledge about something than he did, because every time she tries to point out something, it seems Kane has already thought of that.
Spending time in the Skybox has become more of a necessity then a pleasure, mostly because it turns out that spending four days a week with criminals doesn’t make you very popular with regular kids. Nova has made genuine friendships in the cell, however, as more of the kids who’ve gotten arrested are now her age. Murphy has become what she supposes is her best friend; maybe he isn’t the most moral person ever, but more importantly, Murphy is loyal and doesn’t judge her. Nova’s developed a reputation in both the Skybox and with the Council, still made of the same insufferable elitists but in recent years, even more uppity.
In the past two weeks, Nova hasn’t been allowed in the Skybox at all. At first, she dismissed it as a security check, but the absence of Murphy’s terrible jokes and the rest of her friends has started to grate on her nerves. Which is why she finally decides to go figure out what's going on.
The guards have grown accustomed to her presence at the Council Headquarters inside the Go-Sci Ring, but today they dissuade her from going in.
“No one’s allowed, Miss Ahmed.” The guard says. “Official council business. Not pertaining you.” The formal tone comes off mockingly in what Nova recognizes as a Hydra Station accent.
“I just-“
“Ma’am, I already told you, no one’s allowed in.”
Nova sighs, then quickly strides away. When she’s out of sight, she goes around the other way, looking for a vent entrance into the room. One of the frequent Skybox visitors had taught her the entire map of the Ark’s air ducts and vents. This had come especially in hand when “power conservation” occurred, as the Skybox was always the first to shut down, essentially trapping her in whichever cell she was in. Usually it was Murphy, who Nova could only take in moderation, and when she didn’t want to be stuck in there with him, she would just use the vents to get out. Though they were old and dusty, they were also a convenient way of getting around guarded doors. Nova spots one, and clambers up the wall, using the steel beams running along it as a ledge. Earth Skills got a sudden budget boost two months ago, allowing her teacher to install a climbing wall, and so it’s easy for Nova to scale the wall and pry open the vent.
It takes effort to haul herself into the vent, considering Nova isn’t exactly the most athletic person around, but eventually she manages to pull herself up, following the faint sound of voices to the Council room.
Finally light begins to shine through, and Nova reaches the grate, pressing her ear and struggling to hear the voices.
“Countdown to launch begins in two hours, Chancellor.”
“Right. Keep me updated, Sinclair.” Nova recognizes Jaha’s voice.
A woman’s voice sounds. Nova thinks it could be Dr. Griffin’s. Her daughter was arrested too! A year ago, I think. “This better work.”
“It’s already done, Abby. I still think it’s a waste of resources. We should have just floated the delinquents.” That’s Kane.
A chair screeches, then a thud. “Give me a break, Marcus. You’d do anything to get more air for yourself, right?” Dr. Griffin snaps.
“More air for all of us. If the prisoners succeed in their mission, we’ll get to go to Earth. Claim our birthright. And if they don’t, well… I guess we’ll have to start the Cullings.” He replies. Nova winces.
She continues listening to the Council arguing, her mind spinning circles. What were they talking about? Sending the prisoners to the ground? Then she realizes what this means.
Murphy and Octavia and Miller and Monty and everyone are going to die. Earth’s not survivable yet.
The realization brings her head up, forgetting that she’s still lying in a vent. Nova hits her head hard against the top, the sound echoing and sharp pain immediately sprouting from the top of her scalp. Probably shouldn’t have done that.
Nova’s still too busy rubbing her head to realize that the grate isn’t screwed in place. When she brings her head back down, it completely gives way. Almost comically, she tumbles headfirst, instinctively rolling into herself and gripping her head. The impact of the ten foot fall is enough to knock the wind out of her. By the time her vision clears and Nova’s able to sit up, the Council has regained its composure and Kane is rising out of his seat.
“Nova? What are you doing here?”
“Just-I was just- wanted to know what was going on.” Nova’s head continues to spin. Is this what it feels like to be high? How can Monty enjoy it?
“She’ll tell everyone. We have to float her.” Jaha stands up.
“What? No!” Dr. Griffin pushes to her feet as well, and Nova feels a glimmer of hope. She really doesn’t want to die.
“Do you have a better suggestion, Abby? Nova’s over the age of majority. We can’t risk this getting out hours before launch. “ Kane asks, and Nova is disappointed at how relaxed her mentor is with the prospect of her getting floated.
“We send her down too.” All heads swivel to stare at Dr. Griffin, including Nova’s. “With the other kids. We send her to the ground.”
There’s murmurings of assent among the council, and finally Jaha nods in approval. Nova attempts to processes this, while Kane turns back to look at her , eventually hauling Nova to her feet. “Guard!” He calls. “Load her on the dropship.”
She's going to Earth.
The guard enters, and she recognizes it as Miller’s dad. He grabs her arm before holding it up and attaching a metal band to her wrist. There's a sting, and slowly the world starts to fade out.
“Take care of my boy.” He whispers. Nova tries to nod, but her vision is growing blurrier by the second.
The last thing Nova sees before it all turns black is Kane’s face, his wide eyes staring into hers.