The room was cold.

Not freezing cold, but it was less than comfortable. Alex started to sit up, but the room wobbled a little, so he laid back down. He brushed sleep from his eyes as he opened them and looked around. He was in his room on Mettan’s ship. It felt strange to call it his room. Just two days before he hadn’t even known about Elves or spaceships or powers. He was starting to wish he could’ve left it at that. Life was easier back then. He had a routine, he had structure. But now there was chaos and he didn’t like it. Sure there was a rush to using his powers, but the bullets that the soldiers had been shooting had been real.

Alex glanced down at his watch. The digital face read 6:45 AM. Those bullets had been flying yesterday. The registration deadline that was supposed to be tomorrow was gone. People were just being rounded up. He thought about his siblings, his parents, his colleagues. They were all probably running from different military groups. And none of them knew that tomorrow they were going to have to fight for their lives.

Alex sat up. The room was still wobbling, so he closed his eyes until it stopped. When it did he opened his eyes and looked around. There were inclined shelves to his right with three uniforms. Under the shelves were two pairs of boots. A belt rolled into a circle was lying next to the uniforms. To his left was a closed silver door. In front of him was the door to the hall and to its left was the screen he wanted.

Alex slid his legs over the side of the bed and stood up. His legs wobbled as he stood, so he sat back down on the bed. He ran his hands over his calves, coaxing blood to flow. The fingers on his right hand caught in the hole left by the bullet that had shot him in the leg. He traced his finger around the burnt fabric and touched the scar. It was tender and sore. He flexed the muscles in his leg and wiggled his toes. He had expected the pain to arc up and down his leg, but it just burned a little. He rolled his left shoulder. There wasn’t any greater discomfort, it was just a little stiff as if he had slept on it wrong.

Alex stood up and shuffled over to the screen. He turned it on and looked and did a search for the Dark Legion Fleet. It was still hanging motionless in space just past where Pluto should’ve been. He turned off the screen. If that fleet would only hang there for another few weeks, or a couple of years then maybe they could get ready for it. He pulled at his damp clothes. He needed a shower and a change of clothes. Maybe then his outlook would brighten.

Alex was able to walk at an almost normal pace to the clothes and grabbed a uniform off of the shelf. He headed for the silver door and waved it open. The bathroom looked very similar to what he would’ve expected from a house bathroom. Honestly, he had expected something a lot more foreign. There was a silver commode to the left and a standing shower to the right. A sink held its place in between them. He tossed the uniform on the sink and shed his clothes. He kicked them over by the commode and stepped into the shower.

Instead of handles to turn on the water, there was a screen. Alex adjusted the temperature of the water and flicked the green button that read start. Water began cascading from the ceiling and ran down his body. He looked around for the soap but didn’t see any. Then he smelled the water. It smelled different, almost like metal. He stuck his tongue out and tasted the water. That was a bad idea. There was definitely some soap in the water. He spit the water out and brushed his hands in front of his face. The screen read wash and under it was a button for rinse. He shrugged and began scrubbing himself down. The more he moved, the easier it was to move and the less pain he felt. When he was sure that he had been soaped up enough he hit the button for rinse and braced against the wall. He let the warm water roll over him and wash the soap off. He stayed under the water long after he was sure that he was clean. For right now the world wasn’t burning. The Dark Legion wasn’t about to attack. He had nowhere to be and nothing that had to be done. It was peaceful and comforting. He tapped the screen to stop the water and was hit by a blast of warm air. He was so surprised that he slipped and fell back into the wall. He ran his hands through his hair as the air dried him off. He was glad that he had recently gotten his hair buzzed. Without a comb his hair would’ve been sticking up all over the place.

He chuckled as he got out of the shower and stepped into the one piece uniform. At first he was sure that it was going to be too big for him. He had latched the magnetic clasps shut and it hung from him like when he had worn extra-large shirts to sleep in as a child. Then the uniform started shrinking. Soon it was wrapped around his body like it had always belonged there. It was tight, but not uncomfortable. It felt just like an extension of his skin.

Alex padded into his room and grabbed a pair of boots off of the floor. He sat down on the edge of his bed and slipped his feet into them. The boots were way too big. His shoe size was a 10, but these boots looked more like a 15. He flipped the magnetic latch closed on the front of the boots and just like the uniform had, the boots began to shrink until they fit snugly around his feet. He stood up and bounced on his heels. The boots moved like he had been wearing them for years. Pleased, he grabbed the belt and wrapped it around his waist. He was disappointed that all of its pockets and slots were empty, but he still latched it closed. If he was going to wear the uniform he might as well wear the entire uniform. His stomach grumbled as he headed for the door. It had been almost twenty-four hours since he had eaten and he was famished. He opened the door and headed into the hall. He needed to find Mettan, so he could ask where the food was.

Alex walked up the hall and stepped onto the bridge. The bridge was empty. He hadn’t exactly been expecting anyone to be on the bridge, but he still felt the need to check. He walked over to the screen at the front of the bridge. They were orbiting Earth. He had seen pictures of Earth that had been taken from orbit, but nothing he had ever looked at had prepared him for what it would feel like to actually see it live. A smile began cracking his lips as he looked at the screen. Clouds looked like cream in an ocean of blue and green coffee. Space hung around the planet like a blanket. The scene was so calm, so peaceful that he would never have been able to justify that there was so much fighting happening on the surface.

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He tore his eyes away from the screen and walked back out of the bridge. His second thought had been that they had left him alone on the ship, but if they were in space then that was highly unlikely. Alex reached the other end of the hall and stood at the end as he waited for the elevator. It stopped in front of him, but he didn’t get on. He really didn’t want to go searching through all those crates. Plus even though it was a big room, he still should’ve been able to hear their voices. He turned around and looked at the other three doors in the hallway. Everyone might have been still asleep.

Alex glanced down at his watch. It read 8:03 am. Paige he could imagine was still asleep, but yesterday Mettan had woken up before now as well. He reached out with his senses. He was going to try to find them like he had found the soldiers the day before.

At first, his senses were overwhelmed. There was so much water on the ship. It was natural to expect that a water Elementalist would have lots of water on his ship. Alex began sorting through the water. He started with the pipes in his room and followed those back. There were six bathrooms like the one in his room on the ship. Once he had traced those, he was able to locate the water containers. He didn’t need those, so he marked them off in his mind. He searched the rooms, but there was no excess water anywhere in the hall. Under him was clear as well. He moved his focus to the cargo area. There were a few random bodies of water, but nothing that he thought might be a person, let alone three people. He moved his focus back up the ship. Under the bridge was the right amount that he would expect from three people.

Alex opened his eyes and ran back onto the bridge. He looked around the floor for an opening, but he didn’t see one. He paced around the outside edge of the bridge. There had to be a way to get under the bridge somehow. He looked for a latch or a pad, anything that would give away a secret door.

Then it hit him. He dashed out the door and ran to his room. He turned inside and faced the screen. He dismissed the image of the Dark Fleet and pulled up the blueprints for the ship. There was nothing on the image of the bridge on the second floor to indicate that there was an opening to the first, but when he looked at the plans for the first floor that’s when he saw it. There was a hallway that ran behind the rooms on the first floor. Both emptied into a large room under the bridge. Alex closed the screen and walked back out into the hall. He stepped onto the elevator and took it down to the first floor. From there he walked straight back to the wall and took a left. He followed the hall to the end. When he got near the opening he heard Paige’s voice asking questions that he couldn’t make out. He stepped into the room and her voice became quiet.

Alex smiled, “’ Morning.”

“Good morning.” Paige nodded her head and took a bite of the bar in her hand.

Alex's stomach rumbled as he watched her eat. The look on her face told him that the flavor of the bar left much to be desired.

Alex pointed at the bar as he looked at Mettan, “Can I get one of those?”

The Elf tossed a silver-wrapped bar through the air. Alex caught it and tore off the wrapper. He bit into the dry brown bar and chewed with gusto. It tasted like dry cardboard, but it was taking the edge off of his hunger, so he didn’t care. He took a second bite, “So what’s the plan for today?”

“I don’t know how you can eat that.” Paige glared at Mettan, “It tastes like poopy.”

“Huh,” Alex took a third bite, “So that’s what that tastes like.” He couldn’t help himself, “I’ve never had the courage to try it myself.” He nodded to Paige, “Kudos to you for lending me your experience.”

“That’s not-“ Paige flushed, “I’ve never eaten poop.”

Alex shrugged and popped the rest of the bar in his mouth. It was dry and didn’t have any flavor to it, but it had stopped his stomach from complaining. He grabbed a bottle off of the counter and took a sip out of the straw on the top. He could tell the water inside was filtered, but it was still water and it chased away the dryness of the bar.

He turned to Mettan, “What’s on the agenda for today?” He put more giddy in his voice than he felt. Maybe if he tried to be happy that life as they knew it was over he might eventually get used to it.

Mettan pointed at the table in front of them. Images rose off of the table and it showed a 3-D image of a hospital.

“This is where Caleb is being held.” Mettan looked at each of them, “And where we are going to break him out.”

Alex looked over the building. It seemed familiar for some reason, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. He guessed he had probably seen a commercial of it on TV sometime.

“When do we hit it?” Alex asked

“Later.” Mettan gestured at the image and it vanished, “It is a military prison. The guards will be as real as the ones that you faced yesterday.” He looked at each of them, “And there will be more of them.”

Alex grinned, “We’ve got this!” He held a closed fist out towards Paige for a knuckle bump, but when none came he retracted his hand. He didn’t feel any of the confidence that he was showing. He was scared to death. He had almost died yesterday and so had Paige. Now to go into a more dangerous place had him thinking about where to hide.

“You can do this.” Mettan looked from face to face.

Alex noticed that Paige was mimicking his grim look.

Mettan smiled at them and started walking toward the back of the room, “I’m going to land the ship, then we’ll begin your training.”

After Mettan walked out Paige leaned onto the table with her elbows, “I’m curious why he doesn’t just go in there himself and get Caleb.”

“He has his reasons.” Alex began tapping buttons on the table, “Roles each of us has to play so that prophecies can unfold.”

“Prophecy equals fate.” Paige rolled her eyes, “So you’ve bought into something directing your life?”

“I don’t. And neither does he.” Alex motioned at the door, “But he respects prophecies enough to play his part and hope that they come true.” The image of the Dark Legion Fleet rose off of the table.

“We’ve seen their technology. We’ve seen what they’re coming at us with.” His voice softened, “It doesn’t matter if we believe it or not. We can’t beat this. All we can do is hope that we find the Triftion and that he is strong enough to defeat this.”

They stood in silence for a moment as the gravity of their situation weighed on them. Compared to the Dark Legion Fleet the hospital full of troops didn’t look that threatening.

The Camadt’s Bite grumbled as it touched the ground. Alex thumbed the door behind him, “I guess that’s our call to meet destiny.”