The next morning started with a heavy throat and remnants of an awful nightmare. Just as I distracted myself with waltz dance practices in my room and imagining viennese waltz in bed, I still woke up with a faint feeling of doom last night
Even when I had a wonderful breakfast with garlic rice, sweet sausages and sunny side egg, my head was still occupied with how an ace pilot, like my brother, managed to end up in a coma. My first guess would be the golden Monocero leading the battle. My second guess was a new unit descended and battled David itself.
There was no need to go to school anymore, considering that the pilot test was in two days and graduation in four.
My day started with my dad’s hearty breakfast and ended with his savory dinner. School, dancing, listening to Mariam and chatting with dad filled the remaining free time I had. Even when school only supplied me with the free reports of any tactician student and nothing else.
After doing my routine, visiting the cliff in the forest and practicing swing alone, I headed to the marketplace to meet up Mariam and hear her fawn all over Marlon and how she met him before seeing me.
“Hey are you okay, Ame?”
I stared at her, wondering what exactly I had been thinking. “Yes, I’m fine.” And finished it with a smile to cure her worries.
“Okay, so I heard the news. The golden Monocero finally took its shot on us.” She waved her head in front of my face. Mariam grabbed my attention with only two things at once.
Any change in combat and obscuring my vision. “It did?” I asked. Maybe I should check out if any new reports were sent into the school database. “What did it do?”
Mariam gently moved my head to face hers. Her expression was stern and her brows furrowed down. “It shot.”
“It shot?”
“From one kilometer away.”
“There is nothing off with that.”
“With an energy weapon.”
How? “I didn’t know they could reach more than two hundred meters.” I watched Mariam irked a smile and let go of my face. “Even with our specialized long ranged guns like the particle charger or EW, we could never reach more than two hundred meters.” Even with a shot at max range, luck remained one of the attributes to account for a hit. Any small interference from whatever, rain, wind or any passing bullet from standard guns, dropped its accuracy.
I stood up, moving towards my hoverbike.
Then Mariam dropped me back down to sit at the fountain. “They didn’t add the ‘how’ in a report.”
“How do you know?”
“Marlon talked about it with a few other pilots.”
I leaned back against the marble. “I thought pilots like Marlon were to be on stand-by. Especially when David is out of commission.”
“David is what?” She grabbed my face. “Is he hurt or fine?”
I dug my hand beneath hers and freed my head from her grip. Then whispered. “He is in a coma.”
Mariam hugged me and said with a somber voice. “I’m sorry to hear that. And even more sorry about you becoming a pilot.”
“That hasn’t been decided yet. Mother will tell us more. I hope”
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“But what if they will ask you to pilot?”
“They won’t. My last test was way below the activation threshold.” I added.
No one dared to ask me to pilot again. I was sure of it. Not only did I break a simple part. I broke the entire machine and my co-pilots legs. Anyone who would want to pilot a Terran with me was either mad or had a death wish, if I even passed the activation threshold. Anything below would strain the partner.
Mariam hummed. “There are always second chances.”
She wasn’t wrong. But I never got any second chances. Not when I threw tantrums when I was exhausted from training in a Terran nor when I begged my mother to let me redo the test three years ago. And I never got to meet him again.
Even after offering him more dried fruit, he kept sitting on the edge of the cliff. As if waiting for someone to pick him up. He always watched the sky. I let my feet dangle next to him, laying next to him and humming a song at two hundred beats per minute. A tempo perfect for when engaging combat in a cockpit. It canceled any noise that distracted me from piloting. Until I had to pilot with someone else other than my brother or mother. It was obvious pilots were not allowed to be distracted by anything, even music. But on the day of my official testing, the instructor handed objectives to each pilot. Simple maneuvers, like E-formation or advancing over the seas and holding a defense line on ground and above. Each Terran owned two high pressure tanks for propulsion, one hand gun, and a shield made out of e-carbon alloyed steel. The Terran was built to tank and fly for two or more hours in full combat.
“What is that noise?” The unusual visitor asked.
I kept humming and glancing over to him.
You could get a clear view of his face without the locks obscuring his face. But each moment I memorized his face, I accepted the fact that my curiosity about him grew.
After I finished the song, I answered. “It’s quickstep.'' Then I sat up. “Do you have music where you came from?”
He gazed up into the sky. Then back down into the seas. “We don’t, on the ship.”
“So, no music? What about art? Or stories? What do your people do on your homeplanet?”
He frowned at me. “We all were trained to be soldiers.” Then he softened up. “But other races on Sagtaris produced more than fighting and battles.”
Other races than just him and me? “What is Sagtaris?” Or rather where was it?
I blinked at the stars and they stared back down on us. So it was true. We were not alone in the vast universe. He and his people who came raining down on us were proof. I just wished we met on friendlier terms.
“A metropolis built for many different species.”
“Is it on a planet or moon?” I finally got him to talk more. More than just the same questions pestering me about why I came here or what I’d want?
He laid down on his back, closing his eyes. “It’s like the watchtower. It has a set orbit around a gas giant in a two star-system.”
So their station was in orbit. But where exactly was nowhere to be found in any report. Let alone, the East Atlantic Base thought they came from land. Or had a carrier to bring them from somewhere else. “How far is it from here?”
The man formed a ring with his fingers on top of his palm. Then a hologram sprung from his gloves and formed a solar system different from ours. Blue particles made planets in different masses and even shapes. Oval, round and one was broken. And in the center one star larger than the other orbiting a center of gravity between them. I watched simulations in the documentaries on TV, but a screen in between didn’t feel real. Even this shouldn’t. Yet I saw lines curving from one planet to another, moons and stations orbiting several different celestial objects. I just wish I could see it with my own eyes.
He tapped on the largest object, asides the suns, and it zoomed in with symbols appearing. “4500 light years.” And with that close up shot, I saw a large station with ships docking and departing. One was shaped like a rose while another one was just one large and smooth stone.
I tapped on the station to get a better view of it, but he closed the hologram and turned his back to me. For a moment I forgot that he was stranded on the island that his comrades kept attacking. But revealing all of this to me, but giving me the cold shoulder wasn’t fair. Yet still. I understood. A soldier shouldn’t reveal info about itself to the enemy, only when a tactical advantage could be taken out of it. But I wasn’t too sure if he was a tactician. He seemed more like a simple soldier holding his post.
“So, what do your people want from us? Must be something important to even drive us to the brink of extinction.” I provoked a noble blunder. For a soldier-born person to blurt out something that answered anything. So far, I only could accept the fact that humanity wasn’t the only intelligent civilization. And I could’ve made that statement before talking to him. Afterall we had been under siege already.
As I expected, he didn’t answer. I packed my stuff and dusted off the dirt. Once I headed towards the forest, I heard him quietly hum the song.
Maybe I could get him interested in more.