The boys lay quietly in bunk beds sitting haphazardly around a darkened room. The sounds of the busy base surrounding them being muffled by the metal walls. Bravo stared up at the bottom of the bunk above him, stuck in thought and unable to sleep. Otto lay above him snoring soundly, with his arm hanging limply off the side of the bunk. As he lay there he heard a rustling and a quiet whisper, “Bravo are you awake?”
He glanced over to the speaker to see Buck staring at him, “Yes”
“We need to talk.”
“Ok,” Bravo replied.
“Preferably in private, I don’t want to wake the younger ones.” Buck replied and gestured towards the bathroom.
“I hope you aren’t planning on leaving us older ones out then.” Data cut in suddenly.
Buck, flinched, momentarily startled. “We can make it a team meeting then.”
Data and Buck quietly slipped out of their beds, Bravo stopped to shake Delta awake, and motioned for him to join them. After a moment the four stood in the moderate, but still a little cramped, sized bathroom, with the door firmly shut.
If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
“What’s the matter?” Bravo asked
Buck leaned against the wall as his borrow furrowed. After a moment he sighed, “I don't think we should be here.”
The other three looked at him with puzzled looks on their faces before Data asked, “What do you mean?”
“I mean that, here, with these people. We're Just kids, and teenagers. We have no business being here with this resistance fighting some evil Empire. I mean do we even know that they are telling the truth.”
“Buck, you came along with the rest of us, you could have stayed back on Earth.” Delta answered.
Buck huffed in annoyance, “Would you have liked to try and convince Mickey to stay behind too? I’m not gonna stay behind and let my little brother go off to space with some unknown man, and you saw him and Otto, they really wanted to go.”
“However you are here.” Data stated, “What are you going to do now, demand they take us back to Earth?”
“And what would you or any of us do if we did go back,” Delta added, “ We can’t go back to the junkyard, or even stay in that city, we’ve made enemies of that gang and they aren't going to leave us alone.”
Bravo shook his head, “Our days of staying on our own were running out. Here we have a place to stay, a bed to rest on, and food to eat. We’re not scrounging for scraps, stealing to get by, or sleeping on the ground.”
“But getting involved with a resistance, against some Empire we know nothing about. Fighting in a war we have no stake in.”
“You heard Kid,” Data answered, “He said we didn’t have to fight, they need more than just soldiers
“What would we do besides that? We can’t fly spaceships, or build things. We’re just scrapy orphans who are used to living on our own.”
“Kid said they would train us.” Delta replied.
Buck huffed and mumbled, “Yeah grooming kids for the slaughter.”
“It doesn't matter what we will end up doing.” Bravo stated firmly, “We are together, and in much better condition now than we were on Earth.”
“Now Let's get some sleep,” Data yawned, “Buck we can certainly bring up any concerns you have when we speak to Kid’s dad in the morning.
Buck begrudgingly nodded and the four quietly slinked back into bed.