Space Defenders: The New Generation

Samuel lost out to Grayson in more ways than one. He lost an opportunity for a high ranking and he lost the girl that he's still in love with

                Alexa walked briskly down Corridor D at a fast walk.  She took a moment to hop on one foot and slide the back half of her shoe on her foot before she tripped over herself.  Grayson jogged up beside her as he tucked in his shirt and straightened the pin on his uniform.
                “You move pretty fast when you want to,” he smiled as he matched her pace.  Alexa shook her head.
                “You’re supposed to wait before I enter the deck,” she whispered loudly, “Or at least run ahead of me.  I don’t want to look suspicious.”  Grayson chuckled and pointed at her.
                “I won’t look suspicious.  You will, however, if you walk in with your skirt on backwards.”  Alexa looked down in horror.  She quickly fixed her outfit and glanced around to make sure no one was approaching.  Grayson didn’t bother to wait.                
                “Where are you going!” She again called out in a loud whisper.  He turned and backpedaled on his feet. 
                “You told me to go in before you,” he nodded to her, “I don’t want to look�"you know�"suspicious.”
                The doors to the main deck opened as the scanner recognized Grayson’s pin fastened to the chest of his shirt.  Immediately, his demeanor changed as he entered the room.  The eleven members that lined the perimeter of the area all stood by their stations working on their various tasks.  Grayson walked by several of them on the way to the center of the floor. 
                “Captain on deck!” Grayson waved his hand and signaled for someone to hand him a StarGX.  The tablet-like object was given to him and immediately molded to his hand. 
                “On screen,” he said waving his hand in front of him towards the enormous window at the front of the ship.  Suddenly, holographic images appeared in front of them all.  “What am I seeing, Wyatt?”  A tall, brick wall-like figure stood up from a chair in the center of the room.  He walked up to Grayson and stood at attention.
                “Captain, we’re approaching Devion.  It’s one of the planets that we originally sent settlers to inhabit and build on when the program started,” Wyatt said.  “The signal is coming from somewhere on that planet.”
                “Devion?  We haven’t heard anything from them at all this year.  Nothing unusual, at least.”           “Doesn’t mean that they aren’t hiding anything, sir.”  Grayson nodded.  He glanced at the schematics produced by the StarGX.  The device showed detailed diagrams of the atmosphere, terrain, existing life status, and reports that were made in the last decade.
                The doors to the deck opened, and Alexa walked in with all the poise that she could muster.  She took her place at one of the stations surrounding the deck.  She entered in her credentials and started to focus on her work.  She could feel the glares of her two best friends on either side of her and tried to ignore them.
                “Have fun?” Abby asked in a whisper. Alexa didn’t answer.  Abby whispered.  “Captain’s w***e to the left.”
                “I am not!” Alexa elbowed her in the ribs.  “And be quiet. It takes all of us to keep this ship working, and I can’t focus on the balancing the warp thrusters with you�"being you.”
                “Uh huh?”  Abby turned back to her station.  Alexa glanced at Samuel, who hadn’t said a word.  He wasn’t looking at her anymore.  Alexa felt like she had to say something. 
                “I’m not doing anything,” she said; mostly to him, hoping that cleared up the matter.  Samuel nodded. 
                “Yeah, sure.  You know Grayson has a distinct body spray that he wears,” he said sniffing the air.  “It’s incredibly strong right now.”   Alexa sighed.  She couldn’t explain that away. 
                “What do you want to do, Captain?” Wyatt asked.  Grayson bit his lip.  He wasn’t used to this.  None of them were.  Just about the entire crew, except for the subclass, were new to the exploratory missions.  Many of them had only just graduated from the Academy a year ago, and being the top of the graduates, were immediately assigned to one of the five space fleets Earth had.  He was considered the best of the best.  He knew space better than scientists and astronomers with many more credentials than him.  That was why he was Captain of this exploration. 
                “Admiral Thomas wanted us to report any disturbance and any possibility that we have found one of the chips,” he said.  “How accurate is that signal?”
                “It’s about as good as you’re going to get without actually going down there yourself.”  Grayson looked at Wyatt.  Both smiled.
                “You can’t go down there.”  Grayson turned slightly to see where the comment had come from.  Alexa groaned when Samuel stepped away from his station.  She hated that Samuel could never keep his mouth shut.  Grayson saw who it was that spoke, and he sighed.
                “Hey there, Smokey.  I thought that having you on this mission wouldn’t be a problem.”  Samuel ignored the undesirable nickname and made his point known again.
                “You can’t go down into Devion.  Besides the fact that we aren’t conditioned for that environment, we also don’t have the ability to deal with the inbreds of the planet who don’t like humans.”
                “We? We aren’t going.”  Grayson tapped Wyatt on the shoulder.  “Since we only have one pod working, I just want to take four of us down there.  You and I will go along with two others. We will give a report when we know for sure that one of the chips is there.”
                “Who is acting Captain in your absence?” Wyatt asked knowing that Samuel was the only one qualified to do it.  Grayson looked at Samuel when he spoke.
                “Haven’t decided yet.”  Samuel turned back to his station and put it in hibernation mode.  Alexa and Abby watched the rising anger build in him.  Alexa started to say something, but stopped when she heard him mutter.
                “Stupid idiot.  He doesn’t know what he’s walking in to, and he’s going to get us killed.”

------

                Whizz! The tiny ball slammed against the curved wall and ricocheted off with lightning speed. The gravity room echoed with the sound of the racket hitting the ball with Samuel’s swing.   In building the spaceships, the Earth Exploration Alliance wanted to simulate as much of a home atmosphere so that everyone in the program would have something to remind them of Earth.  For Samuel, it reminded him of what he never had.  Samuel tossed the racket to the floor, and let the ball slowly stop bouncing.  There was a small group of them who were born and raised on one of the five space stations because their parents worked there as a career.  Like them, Samuel had never stepped on Earth’s surface.  He had never broken through the atmosphere.  The only thing he knew of the planet he was supposed to call home was from pictures, stories, and the simulation room.  That was where he first met her.

                Samuel walked down the hallway from his new quarters on the ship Lincoln, which was specifically a training ship.  All of the recruits for EEA Academy were sent there; the ones from other star-ships and the ones from here from Earth.  Walking by the simulation room, he happened to glance in and see a girl playing around with the switches on the wall panel. 
                “What are you doing?” She jumped and turned quickly realizing that someone was watching her.  Samuel immediately felt his heart start beating faster as if she just jump-started something inside of him. Beautiful sky blue eyes stared at him through wisps of dirty blonde hair.  Worried lines lined her forehead as she cleared her throat. 
                “I just wanted to see how this thing worked,” she said.  Tapping her heel on the floor, she pointed to the panel.  “These things do nothing.”

                Samuel stepped in the room and nodded to the panel.
                “That controls the temperature.  You’ve been turning the heat on and off probably about fifty times by now.”  The girl gasped and covered her mouth with her hand.  The giggle that escaped from her lips was almost musical. 
                “So, I probably broke it, and we’re either going to freeze in here or sweat to death.  Great first day I’m having.” 
                “You are a part of the group from Earth?”  She nodded, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet; her hair bounced a couple of seconds in delay.  “That’s cool.  Where?”
                “I would show you, but�"I’m kinda having this issue with getting this thing to turn on.”  The smirk she flashed him was genuine and honest.  He grabbed her shoulders and guided her to the center of the room. 
                “Simulation on,” He called out.  Bright lights flashed.  The girl yelped; surprised by the sudden explosion of color and images around them.  She marveled as they stood in the middle of a white light with a huge image of the Earth revolving around them.  Samuel watched her. Mouth wide open.  Her eyes taking in everything. 
                “Wow! This is amazing! We don’t have an Earth simulator at home; it’s a space simulator.”  She looked at him.  “Do I just say where I want it to show us?”
                “Yeah. Go for it.”  She rubbed her hands together in excitement.
                “Lancaster, Pennsylvania.”  More colors exploded and flashed around them.  Then everything stopped. They stood in the middle of a gravel road in front of a farm.  Birds sang as they flew back and forth from tree to tree arguing with the squirrels that seemed to defy them.  On the road, a horse and carriage passed by slowly as if time was okay waiting for them.  Samuel wrinkled his nose at the smell.
                “There must be something wrong with simulation.  The smell.”  The girl laughed. 
                “There is nothing wrong.  Lancaster is farm country.  That smell is manure.”  A horrified look came over Samuel.  She took a deep breath in and placed a hand on his shoulder.  “I miss this.  I haven’t seen home in two years.  They just whisked us away to train in some desert area in the middle East, and now, we’re here.  It is nice to see the beauty again.”  Samuel watched her as she looked around; so focused, that he didn’t see her look at him.  She cleared her throat again.
                “Huh?” Samuel snapped out of his daze.  She blushed.
                “You�"um�"why are you looking at me like that?” He looked down bashfully. 
                “I�"um�"dunno.”  Then he frowned.  He knew why.  Samuel had lived this crazy space life for his whole existence.  He knew everyone on the stations, and for the first time, he met someone who took his breath away.  “Actually, I do know.  You are truly the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.”
                “Me?”  Her voice croaked in response to his forwardness.  Her eyes widened, but Samuel noticed that her face radiated with a glow from what he said.  “You just met me. You don’t know anything about me.  You don’t even know my name.”
                “What is it?” 
                “Alexa.”  Samuel stepped a little closer to her. 
                “Well, Alexa from Lancaster, I’m Samuel, and I can’t wait to get to know you better.”  Alexa shook her head; speechless.  Samuel wasn’t sure what came over him, but he didn’t want to take a chance that any other guy at the academy would meet this girl and realize how amazing she was.  He waited for her response, but she didn’t oblige him with one.  She simply took in the scenery of the simulation for a moment.  Now it was awkward and humiliating.  Samuel figured he should just slither away in embarrassment before he said something else stupid.  Before he could, Alexa stepped forward and planted a kiss on his cheek.  Samuel’s eyes widened this time, and she smirked. 
                “Can’t wait to get to know you better, too, Samuel.”

The door to the gravity room opened.  Alexa walked in and sat next to Samuel who had his back to the wall and his head leaning back against it as well.  She mimicked his seated position and waited in the quiet.
                “Grayson asked you to go with them to Devion, didn’t he?” Samuel asked breaking the silence.  He didn’t wait for her to respond.  “You know this is a stupid move. He just wants to be the poster for the EEA.”
                “It is a stupid move, but what if the stupid move is the best move, Samuel?” He turned his head to look at her.
                “It’s not the best move; especially if that puts you in danger.  But hey, you’re f*****g him so…”
                “Whoa! Where is this coming from?” Alexa asked defensively.  “What I do is my business. You’re my friend; not my parent.”
                “Yeah, your friend.”  The disdain in Samuel’s voice was unmistakable.  Alexa scoffed in disgust.  She stood up.
                “Your friend. You are the one who had delusions that there was something more.”  Samuel watched as she started to walk off.  He called out.
                “They weren’t delusions, Alexa.  You and I both know what we had.”  She stopped walking.  “You chose him.” 
                “No, Samuel,” she said without turning around.  “I chose me.” 
                Alexa’s footsteps continued as she walked out of the room leaving Samuel alone with his thoughts.

 

Author's Note

this was an order for a writing service that I offer

Reviews

[Dust That Drifts Throug..]

I like at the end how you didn't make Alexa say she choose Grayson or Samuel, but herself. It's an interesting story that makes me want to know what happens next.