Chapter Text
The buzzing classroom lights were like the most gods awful lullaby. You'd think that after inventing space travel they could make less annoying lights but here Mark was, nodding off in class. His hand smooched against his head near his hairline to keep it up, opting for a slightly more uncomfortable position to keep him awake. His hand pulled at his face just right to forcibly keep his eyes open, though at this point it didn't help much. The teacher's voice droned on in accompaniment with the buzzing, the sounds latching onto his eyelids and making them droop all the same.
His white button up is just as outdated as the constantly buzzing lights, the concept of a school uniform persisting into the “space age”. It not changing much from the white button ups and slacks beyond the accompaniment of some decals on the arms and lapel for aesthetics and class designation. The engineers got a shiny rust red, science and technology related majors got varying shades of green, and those only in generals got silver.
Something tapped against Mark's head suddenly, managing to sneak between his neck and his collar to burrow irritably under his shirt when it fell, paper against his skin. He jolted awake a little, elbow hitting the desk making him hiss, blinking a few times to remind himself he was still in this classroom hell.
Another tap, this one landing softly on the desk in front of him. Mark looked down at it, having to blink a few times again before he was aware enough to realize what it was. A piece of paper, crumpled up but thankfully not slimy with spit.
The next one caught in the brown waves of his hair for a second before falling. A half torn and distorted-by-crumple doodle was done on the paper in shiny red ink.
Familiar shiny red ink.
With a nearly silent sigh but very “loud” eye roll, he turned and looked at his best friend Cesar.
The Latino boy say with a shit eating grin, a seat behind and to the right of Mark. His red cardigan made him like a beacon for Mark's eyes, helping him find the man nearly anywhere they went. Helpful because of Cesar's tendencies to wander and Marks to zone out. The cardigan was so old and thready now, having been a gift when they were both 15 on Cesar's birthday. Mark couldn't bring himself to complain, not when it always left him feeling a little warm, knowing how much Cesar loved it. It had taken a while to make, honestly, but had been worth it. All the materials being sourced from their home planet even, giving it that sentimental value that he knew Cesar was a sucker for.
The next paper hit him between the eyes, a gentle tap, then fell a small crumple noise as it hit his synthetic wood desk, Mark scowling with a raised eyebrow at Cesar as it brought him back to the moment. Cesar quietly snickered to himself, his dark rust brown curls falling from where he had them pinned down and back with a gray headband that matches his neat uniform decals. He did that when he needed to focus, usually, a sign that at least at some point in the class he had in fact been paying attention and working.
Not now though, that trouble-making grin dancing over his face, his cheeks caving a bit to show his dimples. He looked like the most put together idiot out there. His uniform was immaculate, it always was. Despite everything about Cesar seeming to the contrary, he was oddly compulsive about keeping his uniform neat and tidy. Had been since they were in primary school together, stretching till now while they are in university.
Rarely did you see one man without at least a mention or a token of the other. I throw away “oh yeah Mark and I-” or a pin on a satchel that had been on the other jacket the day before. They didn't bother with some nebulos things like labels, though it went as far as a deep closeness and ended before any romantics.
Space may have shit dress code and loud lights but at least it was accepting.
A sharp chirp, like a pissed off mechanical bird, pierced through the room, blaring three times, then quiet. Another three times, a pause, then three more. A trio of threes signifying the end of the lesson. The teacher sighed but sat down, waving their hand at the classroom, shooing them away like yapping pets as they kicked their feet on the table, nearly knocking off their name placker “Ulysses”. Their piercing blue eyes seemed exhausted and Mark couldn't blame them. It was the last class of the day and it was bound to be boring.
Mark was on his feet in an instant after the bell, eager to leave. His satchel had been hastily stuffed and ready to go, shoving his last pressure-pen in his pocket, not wanting to waste time. He maneuvered around his desk and to Cesar, dancing around the other students to avoid touching them, he wasn't a fan of it. He did brush against Cesar tho, a silent hello, hips bumped as he waited for the curly haired boy to clumsily pack up his things. In contrast to his uniform, the inside of Cesar's bag was a wasteland with broken. Pencil towers and fields of loose papers.
Mark sighs and starts to pick up the gel pens on the desk, putting them in a case he slipped out from under a copy of Paradise Lost on the desk, the book they had been studying in class. He put them away, rainbow order, as Cesar scooped the crumbled scraps of paper he hadn't gotten a chance to throw from off the edge of the desk and into his open palm. They tidied up, and eventually made it out of the classroom, the door sliding down to close off the open doorway behind them. They most definitely did not see Ulysses pull out a small wooden horse trinket that they started to carve. Their hobbies where their own.
The men were the last out of the room, and outside of it were two highschoolers waiting for them. One of the boys, in the age range of his last year of highschool (as told by the twos deep maroon uniforms), lounged against some railing. The other, slightly shorter, boy chastised the taller.
“Gods fucking dammit, Jonah, stop doing that shit, just cause they had to work maintanance on the safety shield doesn't mean ya get to be a dumb ass around that drop” he huffed, trying very hard to sound unbothered despite his concern being clear. His blond hair was poking out in a tuft above his eyes and from under an ever present dark hood. The scowl on his face was a staple for him as well.
The taller boy just snickered, leaning back a bit further with a snarky grin and raised eyebrow, his entire top torso hanging over the drop that led down to the base floors, a round open area meant to show the size of the ship behind him. It just served as a source of fear for any with vertigo.
“Awwww, careful, Adam, you might accidentally sound like you care! What will people say?! Adam Murray, having a friend, and Jonah Marshall no less! What a scandal!” Jonah snickered, even as Adam swatted at him with a gruff huff of air and a scowl.
“Fine, fuck you jackass, fall for all I care, maybe it'll rearrange your face so you stop giving me that stupid grin” Adam growled with a scowl, tho it was clearly not serious. Jonah just laughed, though he did stop leaning on the edge of the railing. He might not be able to admit it to themselves just yet but they and Adam were as thick as thieves. He cared just enough to stop worrying the blond, after a little bit of teasing, though.
Mark groaned, giving an exaggerated grossed out look and eye roll directed at Cesar, who snickered, “Fucking teenagers” . Cesar laughed again, swatting at Mark similar to Adam.
“ ‘Scare the living shit out of me?’ Oh c'mon, we were sappy and annoying back then too, mi amigo, cringe and let cringe” Cesar said, using a wise voice at the end. Mark rolled his eyes again, but they strode over to the two by the railing. He hummed the song Cesar referenced a little, an ancient classic by now.
Adam's head perked up and turned suddenly, even before either went close, staring directly into Mark's eyes somehow, like he had known he would be there. It almost froze Mark, though Adam being, , , creepy happened often enough he just pushed through. Those slate eyes weren't gray as much as they were the absence of any other color, and gray was all that was left to call what they were. Maybe a small shiver did run through Mark, but he let it slide off him like it was nothing.
Jonah looked over and lit up like a fire hazard, giving that lopsided grin that showed a chipped tooth beside his canine. He's been making dumb decisions long enough to be a professional, as testified by the tooth.
“Yo! Markiman and Ce-sir! What took y'all so long?” He said happily, shrugging his backpack onto his shoulder a bit more securely, though not as much as it would be if he actually put on both straps.
“Don't call me that” Mark grumbled, though it wasn't serious. Adam rolled his eyes but followed along, not even moving away when Cesar gave him a soft affectionate head pat. Mark and Cesar had babysat Jonah for a long time, and then Adam when the two became friends. Even after they had all grown out and on from that, they stayed with an almost brotherly relationship between the two duos. It helped that they took a nearly identical route home from their classes, only splitting up when the elevator got to different floors.
They started walking down the hall, just like everyday, wading through a crowd of people just like them, rubber shoes thumping uproariously against metal floors, probably chrome. Everything is chrome in the future, shiny and hand smudged.
“Nothing really, just took our time-” Cesar started with a shrug before Mark jumped in.
“ ‘Nothing’ my ass, you're never prepared to leave at the bell, we were packing up your metric tons worth of supplies into your hellscape of a bag! For fucks sake, better check and make sure there aren't two men on a homoerotic quest to destroy a ring in there, it's so bad!” Mark protested with a playful shove. Jonah barked out a laugh, and Adam even snickers. Cesar gave a gasp of mock offense, a hand gently put against his chest like a scandalized Victorian woman, then giving Mark a playful shove back. The two older men squabble a bit as the youngers gave commentary and watch, the quartet eventually reaching an elevator. Mark, the most organized by far, pulled out his pass card first and swiped, it being read the first time, and the four piling in.
“How the fuck does he do that?” Mark heard Jonah mumble irritably to Adam in a quiet voice. Mark didn't hide his smirk, pressing the buttons to the different levels as the doors shut the four of them in. A small rattle, and they where off, a smooth ride as they hurtled downward.
“Maybe because I'm not trying to be the flash when I do it, yeah?” Mark teased back, leaning against the wall by Cesar, across from the other two.
“Hey!” Jonah protested, though Adam just nodded with a sneering smile.
“He's right, ya idiot” he snickered. Jonah gasped again, and Adam just rolled his eyes, it now being the younger twos turn for a mock fight. Mark and Cesar just watched, Cesar snickering to Mark that they were like two old people grumbling about the next generation. Mark gave him a friendly shoulder shove for that. The elevator rumbled and moved, the almost unnoticeable vibrations made the oddly unsettling red looping and gold cross design on the carpet seem like it was dancing. The well worn buttons for four specific floors, three of which were the floors the quartet lived on.
Mark the highest, being on floor 333, since his dad was part of this starship. Jonah and Adam were next, living in their own place on the dorm floor, 777, and then Cesar on the lowest deck, 993, his mom being a cafe owner on the lower decks. 993 being home for strip mall type shopping and food.
Mark watched as a screen on the door slowly flipped through ads, content to listen to his friends around him as the levels slowly ticked by. An ad for some blood themed horror movie. Cesar elbowed him, gesturing to a question he was confused by on the homework he had pulled out and started to do.
“The answer is B, man” Mark said lazily, tapping the paper. He'd already finished his in study hall while Cesar had taken a small snooze.
“Fuck, I knew it” Cesar huffed, nodding and circling the answer. He had a bit of a tendency to second guess his work, but Make knew he was smart. A small snort and he was looking back to the screen. An ad for vacations on Earth2 came across the screen, followed by an enlistment ad for crew. Jonah and Adam had stopped fighting loudly and had hushedly started to negotiate a ‘deal’, being quiet even though the older two could most definitely hear them and didn't care.
“Hey, any news from your mom, by the way? How's , , Sarah? Doing” Cesar asked, absentmindedly as he did another problem, a little iffy on if he got the right name, filling the paper's margin with chicken scratch math.
Mark was almost proud of how he hadn't frozen up at the question. He kept his eyes on the advertisement screen as he answered.
“Sarah's good, she's starting preschool next week, actually. Mom's been busy, so the last message was kinda a shorter update. She's got a lot on her hands, being back surface side with Sarah by herself, plus all the paperwork that comes with getting on a ship heading this way, even with dad being on the main crew, it takes a lot. . .” He said, sparing a glance at Jonah and Adam, who were very not subtly exchanging credit coins and a little baggy of something, , , pink? It's been awhile since Mark was in that kinda scene, the strains have gotten hella weird since then.
He felt more than seeing Cesar nod beside him, “I figured. . . You dad still wanna go back surface side with her?”.
Mark shrugs, “ Doesn't matter, by the time he can put in for leave for that I'll be 18 and can stay on board on my own”. He looks back, though it was not an ad this time. That old warning everyone knew by heart now. ‘What to do in the case of a cabin fire/invasion/pirate boarding ECT”. Annoying more than anything, though Mark understood. It had been playing for years now, the add, ever since that day of mass hysteria, all the lights blaring a warning red and news of voyagers going dark. It got the point across at least.
“ Yeah, , ,I guess. . . Hey, Mama is gonna make cocoa tonight, wanna come down? You can stay the night! Hell, I bet Mama would let us open the bay door and watch the stars outside” Cesar offered, sparking a glance up from his homework and giving Mark a smile.
Mark shrugged with a small upturn of his lip.
“I gotta do some stuff around our quarters, but I can come down later? I don't wanna wake Mama up if it's too late” he said, noting that his floor is getting nearer and the elevator is slowing. An almost imperceptible pit in Mark's stomach was the only show of how fast they had been dropping. Wonders of modern tech he guesses.
“I wouldn't worry about that, primo, she may complain but you know Mama loves having you over. Besides, it's just gonna be you at your place for most the night anyway, might as well!” Cesar said, drawing his words out like a lure, trying to convince Mark.
The door dings once, a noise meant to be pleasant but with repetition has gotten aggravating. Mark adjusts his backpack, ruffling Jonah's hair and nodding to Adam. Again, he brushes against Cesar gently as he moves past and through the door. He walked backwards as he spoke to Cesar.
“I'll see what I can do, I'll text ya when I decide!” He said, even as the door started to close slowly. Cesar rolled his warm brown eyes, but was smiling.
“You better, or Ma will have tu cabeza!” He hollered back, then the doors thwomped shut. Mark nodded with a little chuckle, turning back around and walking down the long empty hall. He passed a few people as he walked down the hall, but they were all crewmen in familiar uniforms. Not a lot of people in his dads section were much for family, much less kids. A few nodded to Mark in some sort of trickle down respect from his father, a few in a trickle down hate. Happens when your dad is kinda in charge, , and an asshole. Mark kept his head down and just kept walking the hall, winding a little as it followed the small curve of the ship. All the closed doors were the same, an off slate color with a key card slider at waist level, each slightly indented into the darker gray of the walls. Folks where allowed to decorate their doors, they even had customization tools built in! Many took advantage of this, but, the level Mark lived on was more like self imposed barracks than a homey neighborhood. He kinda missed when they lived on the lower decks, on the same level as Cesar. Dad had moved them to his complimentary, and more military, quarters on the upper levels when Mom left to give birth to Sarah on earth, tho, and mom had very specifically said Mark had to stay living with his father.
His dad's door was just like all the others, the only distinction being the numbers set in shining chrome above it. 690. Mark knocked twice on the door in an old habit, more cause he wanted the feeling than it was to alert anyone, sliding his card and entering the empty quarters. The lights lit up in the room as he walked in, bouncing off of the gray and silver homeware that all matched in the same soulless gleam. The lights were cold, following him as he moved through the entrance room to the kitchen, pulling an energy drink out and starting to sip it.
He made his way through the house, shedding his uniform in his room, the only warm place here though it was also meticulously clean, and shoes in another. He went through the motions, setting stuff out here, putting this away there. He moved his dad's framed crewman acceptance letter and dusted under it, and adjusted the photo they had of his mom and baby sister, sent after she was born, on their home planet. Mark picked up his dad's coat and hung it up, a peg away from his own so they didn't touch, reshelving books the man had gotten down. Mostly old novels on politics of all things. Mark tried not to think of how he felt like a housewife.
Eventually he was able to take a seat, punctuated by a deep weary sigh. The house was finally clean to his dad's standards. And the man would still be at work for another few hours.
Mark looked at the numbers reading out on his phone.
9:47
Yeah, , yeah he could make that work.
Getting up with another sigh, this one a little less bitter, he started to grab some of his stuff for a night over,and calling Cesar to say he was on his way. He sandwiched his phone between his ear and shoulder as he walked around.
A spare change of clothes and pajamas,
ring ring,
a tooth brush and socks,
ring ring,
access card and his card for credits.
Ring rin-
-click-
“M-mark-” Cesar's voice came out strained and sounding pained, making Mark freeze,hand halfway through zipping up the backpack. A rasping choked off breath that sounded like a close cousin to a death rattle had Marks heart in his throat.
“Cesar?” He started to ask.
“Ffuck!” he hissed in pain as sharp and loud static ringed through and the line cut out, he may be crazy but he swore he heard a gasp over it.
He was tense, beyond tense. Every part of him taunt with a terrible dread. Even if it was a simple line-out, the, the way Cesar’s voice sounded. Mark shuddered, wasting no time in striding to his front door, pack only barely remembered on his shoulders. He put in the code to leave,hearing the lock hiss as it released.
Thunk. Chunk.
Waiting a moment and~
It, , didn't open.
Why didn't it open?
Mark's breath was slowly picking up in speed like a train on a track.
He tried putting in his code again, meticulously pressing every worn button.
Nothing, speeding up breaths and brow furrowed.
He tried pushing at the doors manually now, nails with dark finger paint scrabbling over its smooth surface trying to find leverage. it did nothing, beyond a small sliver of an opening. He banged his fist against the door with a growl of frustration. Breathing faster, panting even.
“Fine, it's fine, I'll call a maintenance crew, it's fine” Mark told himself in-between little pants, fumbling with his phone for a moment trying to unlock it. He dialed the emergency number, bringing it up to his ear even as he tried his code again.
He let out a startled cry as a sharp piercing noise rang out in his ear like a bullet to the brain, making him drop his phone. It skittered on the ground and tinked against the still shut door. The pain in his ear throbbed and-
The world went red.
Mark stumbled, gasping and holding his throbbing ear, looking around wildly. His blood slowed to a frozen and sluggish stop in his veins. Eyes wide.
All the lights were red.
A ship wide lockdown.
They only locked down in the case of, , something getting aboard.
Cesar's pained voice came to mind, strangled and panicked.
Mark's breath hitched.
The world was red.