This was gonna be one giant chapter but I decided to cut it back a little.
We checked out of the hotel the next day. After making our way out of Tycho we made it to the Lunar Heavy Space port.
It was a large station several kilometers in length, floating in orbit around the moon. It looked like large, tall cylinder, christmas tree like structure that had a series of radial arms extending off it. Each arm served as a docking bay for large ships of all sizes. Cargo ships, water haulers, hydrogen gas carriers, private yachts, even the occasional Navy frigate or battleship. And yes, our cruise ship was there too.
We had navigated our way from the hanger decks on the lower levels up to the berths for the cruise ships. After getting lost several times we finally made it to the waiting deck as we waited to board.
Our ship was a large structure. It was not suited for atmospheric entry but I doubted that there would be any room for something three kilometers long on a planet of any kind. It had an earth ocean aesthetic to it though there was no part of it that was even remotely suited for an ocean. There was a forward observation deck on the upper half of the vessel. The ship had a rounded nose to it. Overall the ship was pretty sleek with a few bulbous sections to it that dotted the hull in a symmetric pattern. On the top deck of the ship was a large glass ceiling that covered the topside deck.
The stern of the ship had four sets of Hyundai Class Three Heavy engines located on the lower rear part of the stern. The upper part of the stern was a large one way window promenade that housed the central hub of the city that rested inside. The remaining features of the ship were hidden inside the Tritanium plated hull. We were seated in a waiting area along with several hundred others. Below us were a few hundred more along with above us. We were waiting inside one of the stations radial arms. Two smaller arms extended out from the station and cradled our ship.
“When will we be boarding?” Spitfire asked as she held her head in her hands.
“I don’t know,” I replied as I turned and stared at our home for the next two and a half weeks.
Cat looked up from her magazine, “In a few minutes they said. Do either of you pay attention to the announcements when the officials make them?”
“Of course not! That would take the fun out of complaining,” I grinned.
“And besides, what else would we have to talk about?” Spitfire added.
I smiled and returned to staring out the window. I watched as cargo was loaded onto the ship. Various docking arms were connected to the ship to allow for faster boarding. I carefully studied the details on the side of the hull. There were various windows for cabins and other rooms. My attention was caught by a series of circular nubs that popped out of the side of the ship every few decks. Life boats.
In the event of a hull breach the ship sealed itself off section by section. In the event of a catastrophic breach, passengers were to head to the boats and launch from the ship into the night of space.
“Ladies and Gentlemen,” said a computerized female voice, “Boarding will commence momentarily. Please have your tickets ready.”
We stood up and headed over to the boarding gate. A woman stood behind a desk. Thankfully we were traveling lighter than most or the wait would have been painfully slow.
“Hello,” she smiled widely, “Do you have your tickets?”
I could tell Cat wanted to say something along the lines of, ‘NO, we’re just here because we thought it would be fun.’ I stifled a laugh at that thought.
“Yes,” Cat said, holding up three plastic cards. The woman scanned them before handing them back.
“Here you are. We hope you enjoy your stay on the Rising Star.”
We walked through the gate and down the hallway. We took a left and walked into the ship. A man stood behind a desk waiting for us. We showed him our tickets and continued on.
We walked further into the vessel. We came into a large open area. It was located in the center of the ship. It looked like a small city. Various small buildings dotted a green interior. Trees of all species dotted the promenade every several meters. Each building served a different purpose. One could have been a spa while another could have been a gym. And this was only a small part of the ship. The grander part of the city that was this ship existed farther up. Our cabin was there too.
We headed to one of the ship’s lifts. It was a large glass box that offered a panoramic view of the ship’s interior. We stepped inside. A control panel materialized on the smart glass wall. I typed in our destination. Deck 40 on level 2.
The elevator began to rise.
“So what deck are we on?” Spitfire asked.
“We’re on one of the lower decks,” I answered, “I’d say Deck 5.”
“Where’s our room?”
“Up. Farther up. This is just the lower level.”
The elevator reached the ceiling of the room. The inside was dark accept for the interior lighting of the elevator. Soon the darkness let up and we emerged inside a larger more open chamber.
Now this room was something out of an M.C. Escher drawing. This part of the ship was the main attraction. It was a city. Buildings rose up from the floor towards the ceiling while buildings form the ceiling reached down to the floor. Many of them had groups of hanging gardens on them that gave the huge room a type of Garden of Eden feel. Each building was alive. Trees and other kinds of vegetation grew in perfect harmony with the spires that housed them. On the ceiling were several Maglev trains that ferried people from place to place. All along the walls of the room were the walkways and doors that led to the suites and cabins of the cruise ship.
From the size of the ship it wouldn’t be too farfetched to guess that some people called this ship home. Our elevator continued its assent up until it reached deck 40. The doors opened and we stepped out onto the promenade.
The large walkway offered a nice view of the ship’s city. There was a nice monorail system that ran around the floor of the city. Various plots of green and blue splotched the floor. The foliage mixed in a natural looking pattern with the artificial ponds that surrounded the small city. Farther behind the city was a small amusement park. And farther up on the ship’s upper level was the large pool and water park.
We walked along until we reached our cabin. Cat held up a ticket that also served as a key to the room. The door now unlocked we stepped inside. The cabin was a wonderfully spacious area. The door opened up to a large open area. A kitchen was to our right atop a raised platform area. The living area was down a few steps and included a TV, smart glass table, an L shaped sofa with an armchair nearby. There were a few other objects nearby that made the room more aesthetically pleasing. The bedrooms, and thank god there were three, to the left of the living room. Behind the TV was a large window screen that offered a wonderful view of the stars. Right now all it had beyond it was the docking arms of the station.
“This place is better than both the hotels we stayed in,” Spitfire commented, “And it has a view.”
“It better considering what I paid for it,” I said.
“You didn’t buy this,” Cat responded, “I did.”
“But with my money. If you wanna get technical here I bought this first class cabin and the tickets for the three week journey.”
“Bastard.”
“Oh the irony.”
“Why is it ironic?” Spitfire asked.
“Siblings? Called me a bastard?”
“Ooh.”
“Shut up,” Cat fumed.
A loudspeaker echoed through the ship, “Attention all passengers and class three, four, and five crewmen. There will be a mandatory emergency evacuation drill in approximately ten minutes. All passengers and crew will report to their designated sections. Details are on your room keys. That is all.”
The loudspeaker clicked off.
“Guess we better get ready.”
“Yeah.”
We stepped out of our cabin and onto the promenade and began the trek to our section.
“So if I’m a bastard, what does that make you?”
“There is an airlock where we’re going. Don’t tempt me to use it.”
***
Several LONG HOURS later the drill was over. Apparently when you attempt to get 12000 people worth of passengers and crew together for a drill there are bound to be… complications. Not everyone was as keen about attending. But when micro meteorites from a nearby mining explosion crippled a ship last year there had been stricter regulations put in place.
The drill had taken most of the day, barely leaving any time to eat anything. We did manage to stop at a restaurant and grab a bite before returning to our room.
“Celestia, I thought that drill was never going to end!” Spitfire said as we walked down the promenade back to our suite.
“They’re mandatory on all ships now,” I responded, “Fortunately you only do one during the entire voyage. But I’ll admit standing there with a flash suite on for five hours was a little draining. I just can’t wait to hit the hay so to speak.”
“Yeah,” Cat yawned, “That queen sized mattress is looking rather comforting at the moment.”
We finally reached our room and opened the door.
“I don’t know about you guys but I need to preen my feathers before I hit the sack tonight,” Spitfire said before heading to her room.
“Well I’ll see ya both tomorrow,” Cat yawned again, “Night.” With that she sauntered off to her room and closed the door.
I took a shower before pulling on a random night shirt and bottoms. With that I threw myself onto the bed, curled up and went to sleep.
***
Spitfire stood in bathroom in her room before a mirror. She rotated her wing joints and heard a satisfying pop. She grabbed a towel and proceeded to dry off her flame like hair. She shook her head and watched it pop up back into its fire like state.
After examining her wings in the mirror she was satisfied they were clean. Ugh, Spitfire thought, I gotta exercise. Gotta keep my curves. And my wings.
But winged people aren’t common here, she thought to herself in exaggerated mimicry of Jett’s voice, but I guess he’s right. But if I can’t train then what can I do? Hmm. Maybe at night. Yeah! At night. Surely he’d say yes to that! No one would see. She pulled a shirt over her head and shoved her wings through the holes she’d cut. She examined the rest of her body in the mirror. She still had her nice curves and finely toned muscles. Maybe she could get Jett to exercise. What did he even look like? He always had something on. Hmm.
She stepped out of the bathroom into her bedroom. And what’s up with his face? And his arm. She had seen the scar running down his face and the burn on his arm but didn’t ask about it feeling it would be rude. She didn’t want to offend considering what he’d done for her already but there was still something off about him. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it but there was defiantly something.
She sighed and flopped onto her bed staring at the ceiling. Secretly she terrified when she first landed; lot more than she let show. But in the Wonderbolts you don’t show fear. She learned to hide it well. But Jett had been kind enough to calm her down, even after she assaulted his face.
She laughed at that memory. I should get some sleep, she thought, tomorrow begins a three week SPACE CRUISE and I don’t want to be tired for it. She smiled. Maybe she’d enjoy herself here.
***
My consciousness began to return to me. Little bits of awareness poking through my sleepy haze light fog lights on a cloudy day. My sense returned to me one by one. Touch, taste, smell, hearing and lastly sight.
Touch was different. Instead of feeling nothing on my face there was something soft and fluffy covering it. Smell was a bit different too. Instead of normal ship’s air it smelled strangely like lavender. I opened my eyes.
Well I don’t recall the ceiling being orange originally and having a feather pattern on it. My nose itched and I sneezed.
My head smacked into an orange wing sending the owner up along with it and flipping her over the bed. Quickly realizing who it was I flipped out and flopped off the bed on the opposite side before quickly creeping back against the wall.
I heard a screaming noise on the other end of the room. I poked my head above the bed and notice a certain flame haired girl rubbing her head.
“What are you doing my room?!” I yelled.
“Me? What are you doing in my room?!” Spits yelled back.
“This clearly my room! Look!” I pointed at my bag slightly unpacked over in a corner. My helmet was poking out above all the other clothes.
Spitfire’s face turned red, “Now this is NOT what it looks like. I don’t even know how I got here!”
“Really?” I stated sarcastically, “Then please explain to me how you somehow made your way into my room and fell asleep on my bed with your wing on my FACE again.”
“How the hell am I supposed to know?”
“Well gee I don’t know. Maybe because you’re in control of your own body?”
“Well maybe I slept walked here,” Spitfire said defensively.
“Yeah! You just happened to get up and walk into my room all while asleep! It totally makes sense now!”
My helmet flew across the room and smacked me in the gut. Spitfire’s face was red as an apple and looked like she was going to burst into flames. Oh how ironic that would be.
I was knocked to the floor with my helmet in my stomach.
“Ow,” I said, “What the hell was that for?”
“You know what,” Spits fumed.
“Great. Now you’re sounding like Cat.”
“Look. I have no idea how I ended up here. Just like I have no idea how I know I ended up here in your world.”
“You know what? I’m not gonna try to understand what just happened. We just won’t continue to talk about how I woke up with you in the same bed as me. That’s the end of it. This never happened.”
“Fine,” Spitfire said seeming less angry and less likely to catch fire.
I got up and tossed my helmet back into my bag, “Friends?”
She looked up and gave a small smile, “Friends.”
We hugged and made up before walking out of my room; one at a time. I strolled past Cat’s room. She was sprawled out on the bed like a starfish.
“Caaat… Wake up and make us food!” I whined at her.
In hindsight I probably shouldn’t have done that. Sleep haze tends to remove some important thing from your memory until later. Like the fact that Cat is extremely grumpy when she wakes up in the morning and hasn’t had her morning coffee.
“SHUT UP!!!”
I ducked as a helmet similar to mine flew out the door and smacked the wall behind me.
“Ok, I’ll make breakfast myself. Like always…” I high tailed it away from her door and into the kitchen. Spitfire was sprawled on the couch snoring away, her wings twitching occasionally.
It was kind of funny. I walked up to the fridge and opened it up, examining its contents. I looked through the pantries and cabinets.
“Yeah,” I said, “I can work with this.”
***
Spitfire yawned. She opened her eyes. The aroma of pancakes reached her nose. She sat up on the couch. Her wings fluttered as she pulled herself into the air. She hovered into the kitchen, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.
Cat stepped out of the hallway and into the living room. She just stared at Spitfire’s hovering form before yawning, slapping herself across the face and strolling into the kitchen.
A cup of black coffee was waiting on the kitchen’s island. She grabbed it and strolled into the living room and sat on the couch, sipping her cup.
Spitfire smiled, remembering how Cat had hurled her helmet out the door at her brother but was now calm as a Buddhist monk. She walked into the kitchen.
***
I grabbed the spatula and flipped the pancake over. It landed on the pan and began to cook into a golden brown color.
Cat walked out of her woman cave of a room and into the kitchen. She grabbed her cup of coffee I had placed and strolled into the living room.
Spitfire entered the kitchen slightly taller than me. Strange, she was about my height normally but- oh yeah, wings.
She inhaled deeply, enjoying the aroma of freshly make pancakes, “Mmm. My favorite.”
“I like them too. Made them on the off chance Cat still wanted to gouge my eyes out with a fork.”
“I was planning on it but you do make the best pancakes in the system so I’ll let it pass,” she shouted from her spot on the couch.
“Well if you actually could cook you could make them yourself.”
“Now why would I cook when you’re around?”
“What do you do when I’m at school and you’re off planet?”
“The station has a Café.”
“You’re gonna have to learn eventually.”
Spitfire landed and walked towards the pan.
“Those smell good,” Spitfire reached towards the pile I had stacked. I slapped her hand away, “Hey! I wanted one of those.”
“Wait.”
“Aw, come on! They look so GOOD.”
“NO,” I said in a loud whisper, “You will wait! Cat learned last time she tried to sneak a bite before I was done.”
“What happened?”
*Flashback*
“Come on Jett just one!”
“I’m not done yet! It’ll ruin the meal when we eat. That and it’s against tradition.”
“Not more of that Japanese stuff you do.”
“Yes! Now wait.”
“You know what? Ho persino fame così va al diavolo.”
One minute later.
“HEY GET BACK HERE YOU CRAZY BITCH! I’M NOT DONE WITH YOU YET!”
Cat was laughing, “Put that wooden spoon down!”
*Flashback*
“She learned.”
I flipped another pancake and tossed it into the pile.
“Fine,” she floated out of the kitchen, “Hey Cat! Is he always this pissy when he cooks?”
Cat laughed, “Oh yeah.”
“Cause your cooking sucks!” I yelled, “If you actually cooked something other than sandwiches, eggs, and cake every once in a while we wouldn’t have this problem!”
“Hey I can make breakfast!”
“Because breakfast is easy! I could teach Spits how to make nearly anything in five hours today. I taught you how to make something edible after a few days of practice.”
“Not my fault.”
“Yes it is.”
I finished the pancakes along with several other things I’d been making. I removed some muffins out of the oven and pulled a fruit bowl from the counter, and a pitcher of orange juice. I placed them all on the dining room table.
“Bon Appetit ladies,” I placed the maple syrup on the table.
“Thank Celestia! I’m starving,” Spitfire said as she sat at the table.
Cat soon joined as they both began to dig in. I joined them and began eating myself. Spitfire took a bite and gasped.
“Wow! These are delicious!” she said through a mouthful of pancake, “Where’d you learn to cook like this?”
“Taught myself. Lots and Lots of Trial and Error,” I responded.
“Jett has always been the only one in our family, other than father, who can actually cook something without setting the kitchen on fire,” Cat said.
“You set water on fire,” I said stone faced, “You have no idea how many hours I’ve spent trying to replicate that in a kitchen. You set WATER on fire.”
“I think there was cooking oil in it,” Cat said.
“All you had to do was make a pitcher of water! And you set it on FIRE!”
“Damn right and proud of it.”
We laughed and continued breakfast.
***
Well we had finished breakfast. I made Cat do the dishes. She complained the whole time. Soon after though we were getting ready to go out and about the ship.
“Well I’m heading down to Level 1,” Cat said, “There’s a spa there and I’m gonna treat myself.”
“Yeah, sure,” I said.
“Ok… I’ll see you two later. If you go two go out be back by 11:00.”
“Alright.”
“See you later.” She walked out of the cabin.
I put my arm on the armrest of the couch and rested my head on it. Spitfire hovered over.
“Come on! Let’s do something!”
“Like?”
“I don’t know. And please put your wings away.”
“UGH,” she moaned, “Gosh you are worse than our manager. Fine.” She left and pulled a shirt on before returning.
“There. Now let’s go out and do something!”
“You just can’t stay in one place for too long can you?”
“No. Now let’s get outta here! We have until 11:00 so let’s make the most of it!”
I smiled at her bubby hyper personality.
“Well there is an amusement park in this place. I suppose we could go there.”
“Yes! That sounds like fun.”
I got up and pulled my sunglasses on. I grabbed the room key and the credit card. Spitfire pulled her leather jacket on and her sunglasses.
“Ready to go?”
“Yup.”
We stepped out of the room. I locked the door behind us before we continued walking along. The city was just waking up. People were just leaving their rooms, just like us, to go do whatever business they did. A lot of them were heading up to the water park upstairs. I hadn’t seen it yet but the Star Line was famous for their attention to detail.
Spitfire spoke up with a sly grin, “So I was thinking. I don’t want to lose the muscles in my wings or my nice curvy body that you like so much-”
“What?!” I punched her in the shoulder red faced, “Why I never!”
Spitfire was laughing, “Wow! You are really easy to aggravate!”
“You have no idea.”
“But I was thinking, when we get to Ganymede I could get a little exercise with my wings in at night when no one’s awake. That way I can get some wing time in without being seen.”
“We can exercise at a gym. Isn’t there some other things you can do to keep your wings strong that doesn’t involve actually flying?”
“No not really. And even if you say no I’ll just sneak out anyway.”
“WHAT?! OH NO YOU ARE NOT! NOT IN THIS REALITY. NO. NO NO.”
“Well then you can either agree to me practicing at night and watch or not and have me sneak me out at night without you knowing.”
I sighed. Gosh she was stubborn, “I’m not gonna win this one am I?”
“Nope,” Spitfire smiled smugly.
“Guh! Fine. But only at night and only when we get home. Not on this ship.”
“I guess I can compromise.”
We walked away from the cabin area and into the city. This place had everything. Malls, bars, (We weren’t allowed in those), restaurants, stores, and casinos. I certainly hoped this was one of those ships that had an open door policy on its casinos. Even after four hundred years there still wasn’t a way to figure out if someone was counting cards. My… condition didn’t make things any easier for them.
We walked into the entrance of the city. It in all honesty looked a lot like a lot of the other cities we had seen so far accept the buildings were a lot shorter to fit inside the ship. We walked in silence along the edge of the city. Spitfire was probably wondering how my species had done all of this. In all honesty I was surprised her world hadn’t accomplished similar feats considering they had magic but that’s something I probably wasn’t ever gonna find out.
We reached the edge of the park. There was a simple gate in front of it with a sign that read, Rising Star, on it. Roller coasters and other rides could be seen running along with the screams of the riders.
I smiled, “You ready for this?”
Spitfire smiled back, “Please.”
“You sure?”
“Hey! I can handle anything you throw at me.”
I grinned deviously, “Oh you have no idea.”