They paired is up without any care as to suitability. The Earth was nearly inhabitable and countries, those with money, were creating pods or mini-spaceships, to fling us out into space to carry on the human species. This was reminiscent of the Ark. No giant ship though and no animals other than humans with the exception of animal DNA and plant seeds in the freezer. There was no flood except a caustic Earth – dying and expelling its last life forms as well as a wild hope that humans would survive the millennia.
My partner was Davis I. I saw him in the line to be bonded. He had a hard set jaw and and blue eyes. I was searching for something kind in his face. I did not find it. The government official wound a silk cloth around our hands.
“Your job,” said the official, “Is to procreate, travel, and plant human populations throughout the galaxy. Be well.”
And then we were fitted in our pods and blasted. Davis I had little to say. He roamed the pod and touched everything as if to claim ownership. And then he touched me. A creepy feeling erupted across my skin. He didn’t notice. He pushed me onto a bed and raped me. I cried but he went about checking the machinery when he was done. There was nowhere to hide in the pod. The next night he raped me again and again. In two months time, I was pregnant. The raped continued. I want to kill him but I was also afraid of the pod malfunctioning. Davis I was an engineer. His knowledge would help us survive.
When the baby was born, a male I named Chris I, we went into hibernation headed for an obscure location in the galaxy. Our freezing pod could fit four. I hooked the baby to the oxygen and tubes. Davis I did the same for me and then I floated off into a comfortable abyss where I loved, hated, and needed no one.
I don’t know how long we slept but I woke to the sound of my baby crying.
“Fuck. We’re only at Neptune. The engine needs repairing.” Davis I sounded angry and agitated.
I hugged the baby to me and he didn’t like that. It took him six days to fix the ship and I nursed and cooed at my baby. When Davis I was in the hull I launched a help signal. He’s a rapist, I wrote, please help. There was no message back. Had the Earth finally expelled all its humans?
On the seventh day, Davis I stood before me. “I saw the help signal.” He struck me and then raped me again as Chris I cried.
The engine was fixed and we went back to hibernation. What did God create on the seventh day? Nothing. He rested. And I, my baby, and my rapist would rest in a suspended state until we found a habitable spot in the universe and continued the genetic pool. And one day I will murder Davis I. I knew that. I looked at him as I drifted to sleep. You will die.
THE END