“He did WHAT?!” The Admiral yelled.
“Sir, please calm down,” Principal Jenkins said, “As I stated before it was not his fault.”
“No, he only just pulverized half of the school's football team!”
“Well it was in self-defense.”
“Self-defense has its limits!”
“Did you even review the footage yet sir? Because he took a baseball bat to the head.”
“A baseball bat?”
“Yes sir, an aluminum-carbon fiber baseball bat.”
Halsey sighed, “Did he at least win?”
“Yes sir. And I’d say completely. I would also say that it looks like he won’t be getting bullied by them again.”
“How long are they gonna be in the hospital?”
“A few more weeks. Some of their injuries were quite extensive.”
The admiral scrolled down on the pad, “Stabbings? A DEW wound? Shattered rib cages? Five Fractured skulls? Did he escape that entire fight without injury?”
“It would appear so. I believe his choice of words when he was done was, ‘clean this up if you don’t mind.’”
He sighed, “And you said it was over a girl?”
“From what we heard, one of the players wanted information on his roommate. But he was quite defiant and restrained up until about… frame 167364. He didn’t do anything wrong. That along with the fact there’s no official record of the incident ever taking place.”
“ONI?”
“Yeah, they questioned him before covering everything up and leaving.”
“Is he at least being social again?”
“Yes sir. He’s back to talking and hanging out with all of his friends.”
Great. He goes from an emotional husk, to a homicidal maniac, back to normal all in the course of a few days.
“Ok. Just let me know if he does anything again.”
“Will do sir.”
“Alright. Thanks.”
He terminated the connection before rolling back in his chair, “Great, now he destroyed a football team.”
***
Spitfire was lying on her back on her bed. Jett still hadn’t returned after he was called up to the school. And it was getting late. She was beginning to worry. What if he was locked up for nearly murdering 16 people? What if he never came back? What if they did something to him? What if he wasn’t the same when he came back? What if-
The door opened.
“Fucking hell I thought that fucking spook would never let me go,” Jett said as he walked into the dorm.
“Jett,” Spitfire jumped up happily.
She ran out of her room over and embraced him in a welcoming hug.
“Uh… Nice to see you too?”
“Ugh, get a room you two!” Dane yelled.
“Shut up asshole!” Jett yelled back.
“Well I see you still have your higher brain functions,” Dane smiled warmly from the couch.
“Yeah I’m fine,” Jett said releasing Spitfire and walking over to the chair, “Still got grilled by ONI though.”
“Who was it this time?”
“Well I guess beating the football team to a pulp warrants a visit from the director of ONI.”
“Really?” Dane sat up on the couch, “The director of ONI showed up?”
“Yup,” Jett said sitting down on the chair, “Don’t know what the big deal was. This wasn’t any worse than the time we put a dry ice bomb in the principal’s office.”
“Um,” Spitfire said, “I think this was a lot worse. But it was in self-defense. I mean, you didn’t hit first.”
Jett turned, “How do you know that?”
She flushed red, “I kinda may have watched? Oops?”
Jett looked terrified, “I… I didn’t… I wasn’t too… savage… was I?”
Spitfire gave him a comforting smile, “Jett as far as I’m concerned you were protecting yourself as well as getting rid of a stalker.”
“Oh… I… Okay.”
Dane stood up and stared out the window. The sun, however faint it was, was beginning to disappear behind the orange form of Jupiter. Orange and red light painted the room as the sun glowed along the horizon of the planet. Night was beginning to fall.
“Well, I’ve had enough excitement for one day. All this planet destroying and beating up football players is making my ass tired so I’ll see you two tomorrow,” he walked into his dorm and closed the door.
Jett and Spitfire stood awkwardly in the living room.
“Guess we should hit the hay huh?” Jett said.
“Yeah.”
They walked to their room in silence. They entered quietly.
Jett sat on his bed and removed his shirt before finding a night shirt to sleep in. Spitfire caught a quick glance at his shoulder. His arm connected with a set metal joint implanted in his shoulder and upper torso. Beneath what remained of his organic components she could see the vague outlines of nerve filaments that connected the arm to his brain. But there was something else. Scarring along the edges of the joint. She wondered what that was from.
He pulled on his shirt and removed his pants, choosing to sleep in his boxers before climbing into his bed.
Spitfire stood up and pulled her shirt off.
She gave a teasing grin at the android as she turned her back to him, “Don’t peak now.”
He scoffed, “Yeah, in your dreams.”
She removed her bra and extended and stretched her wings before pulling on her night shirt and heading off to the bath room, her wings sticking out of the back of the shirt.
Jett sighed, “Women. So not worth it.”
“What was that?”
“Nothing.”
She returned and pulled her pants off and disappeared under the covers of her bed.
“Night.”
“Goodnight.”
She reached over and flicked the switch and the lights went out. She rolled onto her side and stared at the wall. A lot had happened the last few days. Her friend had nearly turned into a homicidal maniac, destroyed a football team, and apparently been questioned by the very people who created him. Rough day indeed.
“Jett,” she whispered, “Are you still awake? Jett?”
She heard the sound of rustling blankets, “Yeah?”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”
“Well it’s just that you’ve been under a lot of stress lately and I just want to make sure you’re alright.”
“I’m fine, really. I appreciate the concern but… there are some things I have to sort out for myself. But I’ll be alright.”
“Okay.”
A long silence followed. Jett and Spitfire stared at the ceiling.
“Hey Jett?”
“Yeah?”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Shoot.”
“When I get back, can you promise me that we’ll still be friends? No matter what? Even if we never see each other again?”
Hmm. A tough question. The android began contemplating this. Well he would certainly never forget her; ever. Unless he suffered some sort of permanent damage. But if he never saw her again for as long as he lived? That could be a very long time. But then again, normally they never would have met each other to begin with. They never should have become friends but they did. Against the odds Spitfire happened to land in a clearing in the middle of a forest on Earth when the friendly android just happened to be vacationing there. Long odds indeed. But it seemed that fate had meant for something to happen and it seemed to want to help Spitfire return. Fate had pushed them together in the most unusual circumstances. And through it all their friendship had not only survived but thrived.
Even though two months ago he never even knew she existed, they were best friends now. That’s not something you can find just around the corner. Any sane person would treasure that. And so did the android.
“Sure, Spitfire. I’d like that,” Jett smiled, “When you do get back, try not to forget me because I certainly won’t be forgetting you anytime ever.”
“How could I forget you? You’ve done so much for me.”
“Human minds are prone to damage as time progresses. As an android I am not capable of-”
“Jeez it was philosophical not literal,” Spitfire laughed, “So… when I go home, we’ll still be friends?”
“I believe the saying goes, ‘friends till the end.’”
Spitfire smiled, “I like that. Friends till the end.”
***
Spitfire rolled awake. Her roommate’s bed was empty. Hmm. Oh yeah, Thursday. She hopped out of bed and got dressed before walking into the kitchen.
Jett was sitting at the table eating cereal. Dane was sleeping on the couch with a plate of half eaten pancakes on his lap. She laughed at the sight of that.
“Morning,” she yawned.
“Good morning,” Jett replied.
“Did we have any homework last night?” She asked, “I can’t really remember.”
“No I don’t think we did.”
“Oh, alright.”
The rest of breakfast was finished in silence.
“What day is it today?”
“I think it’s an F day. So no Gym or Planetary Geology.”
Spitfire sighed, “And home economics and a study hall take their place.”
Jett got up and placed his bowl in the dishwasher, “Hey, it’s not that bad. We get to make some food today.”
He walked over to the fridge.
“Yeah I guess you’re right,” Spitfire said.
He opened it up and began rummaging through it.
“What do you think we’ll be making anyway?”
“No idea,” he replied and emerged from the fridge with a can of whipped cream. Spitfire looked from Jett to Dane and back again with a grin on her face.
“Oh no.”
“Oh yes.”
He walked over to him spurted a huge glob of the stuff onto his hand.
“Wait wait,” Spitfire laughed, “I got this.” She reached behind her back and pulled a small fluffy feather from her back.
“Are you sure about this?”
“Don’t worry; it’s not of my primaries.”
“Ok. If you say so.”
She reached over the couch and began to tickle Dane’s nose with it. The android stirred but didn’t wake up.
“stupid bird,” he muttered and slapped himself in the face.
Spitfire fell over laughing followed swiftly by Jett. Dane opened his eyes only to be greeted by a white wonder land of vanilla cream.
“What the?” He raised his hand to his face, “Oh you assholes.”
“That’s what you get for falling back asleep,” Jett laughed wiping his eye.
“Alright go fuck yourself.”
“My name is Dane,” Jett started to imitate the other android; which was funny as he did it perfectly, “and I can’t take a joke because I suck.”
Dane walked over to the sink and began washing his face, “You suck at imitating me.”
“Dude shut up. I can imitate you exactly. Android remember?”
“Alright go fuck yourself asshole,” Dane laughed.
“Yeah yeah,” Jett said heading for the door, “See you all at class.”
“Where are you going so early in the morning?” Spitfire asked.
“Personal project,” he responded, “And don’t worry, I’m not going to murder anyone or plot to destroy any planets.”
“That wasn’t what I was thinking,” Spitfire said.
“I’d lie if I said the thought hadn’t crossed my mind,” Dane said.
“Nice to see you have faith in me,” Jett said.
“Yeah yeah, you know I was kidding.”
“Alright. See you all at class.”
He grabbed his bag and walked out the door, pulling up a few files on his pad as he left.
“What do you think he’s even working on?” Spitfire asked.
“Beats me, you live with the guy.”
“Well he’s not exactly an open book.”
“Well knowing him he probably still hasn’t gotten over Caitlyn’s death completely. I’d venture to guess he’s just finding something to occupy his time.”
“Like what?”
“Like I said, beats me. When he’s emotionally disturbed he finds some activity to do. Last time it was a plot to destroy a planet. The time before that he took the time to teach himself the piano. And when he lost his arm, we all kinda ended up helping Gin with her club. But he always has to be doing something.”
“Sounds like he needs to loosen up a bit.”
“Well that’s what Gin and I have been telling him but he doesn’t seem to think so.”
“Hmm.”
“That and he never attends any social event this school has. Though I can’t really say I blame him on that one. The football team used to make his life a living hell.”
Spitfire laughed, “Well I don’t think they’ll be doing that anymore.”
“Amen to that.”
***
Classes were relatively easy. No homework, little school work as well. In two classes all they did was watch movies. Though Jett seemed to be preoccupied. He sat alone in the back of the class with his pad pulling up various diagrams of some type of device. He would put it together, pull it apart, tweak something, before pushing it back together again and repeating the process.
Though now it was time for Home Economics.
Spitfire walked in and set her bag down next to her desk. In front of her sat various students she didn’t know. None of her girl friends were in this class but both of her guy friends were. Dane sat snoozing in behind her and Jett sat in the seat next to her. He was still tapping away at that pad of his, pulling up holodiagrams of some strange device. He opened up a file and pulled out something that looked like a plated covering and layered it over the device.
“Hmm,” he mused and pulled the covering off.
The bell rang and class signaling class was starting. He quickly tapped a button on the side of the device and sent it into sleep mode. He shoved it into his bag and turned to face the front. Spitfire turned and gave him a friendly smile which he warmly returned.
It felt nice.
The door opened and a man walked in. He had thinning grey hair atop his head. He was tall and had lanky arms. He wore baggy pants and a rolled up plaid shirt. Mr. Badner was his name.
“Alright class,” he said not bothering much with introductions, “I remember I promised you’d all get to make something today so here we go.”
The class gave murmurs of approval.
“Now,” he continued, “In preparation for the upcoming prom and Halloween dances, I’ve decided we’d make a Bloody Velvet Fudge Cake.”
“Is there gonna be real blood in it?” One kid asked. Nick was his name and he was one of the few remaining football players that weren’t in the hospital.
“Shut up Nick,” Mr. Badner said causing everyone to laugh at his expense, “No. But it will be colored. But before we begin I’d like to go over a brief history of chocolate to let everyone get a feel for the dish we will be crafting today.”
The lights dimmed and a screen descended from the ceiling. A few pictures of a tree popped up.
“Now as most of you know or at least should know, I’m not too sure about you nick,” he continued, “Chocolate as we know it is derived from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. But you all probably know it as the coco tree. It was originally cultivated by the Mesoamerican peoples; including the Aztecs who made it into a drink they called xocolātl.”
“Isn’t that a dead language?” some random girl asked.
“Don’t question how I pronounced that.”
Everyone laughed.
“Now I’m gonna skip the rest. You all know what happened when the Europeans came into contact with the Mesoamericans. But now onto more modern things. Chocolate in moderation has been shown to lower blood pressure, decrease cholesterol levels and cause the release of multiple chemicals in the brain.”
He tapped a button and a few chains of complex chemicals showed up.
“Now one of the chemicals released by the brain is serotonin. This chemical is known to trigger feelings of happiness and well-being, making it a minor antidepressant. Another chemical known to exist in chocolate in varying concentrations, depending on the variety, is Phenylethylamine otherwise known as PEA. Now this chemical has a variety of effects on the body from fighting the effects of aging to improving memory and mental activity. It is even known to have aphrodisiac effects in high concentrations.”
A few people laughed while other blushed. Spitfire’s face flushed. Fortunately no one noticed. Her gaze drifted to the android next to her who wore a lifeless expression.
Guess he’s still recovering.
“Now, in our recipe will be using dark chocolate instead of normal milk chocolate. You will find the recipe at your stations. Step to it.”
Everyone stood up from their desks and walked to the back of the room. There were a number of stations, each with a sink, oven, stove, various counters and drawers. On each station were the necessary ingredients for making the cake.
Jett and Dane went to their station and got to work rather quickly. Spitfire sighed.
“Androids.”
She walked over to her station with Cleo.
“Alright,” Cleo said cheerfully, “Let’s get to it.”
“Yeah.”
They got to work. They began measuring out the correct amounts of sugar, fudge, milk, ect.
Spitfire turned. There were a group of girls with scowls aimed at the android. Spitfire frowned.
“Hey Cleo,” she said, “Who are those girls?” She pointed at the girls.
“Them? Oh their just some of the football team’s trophy girls. Why?”
“They’re giving Jett and Dane these looks.”
“Well you know how they are. The popular ones tend to be the stupid ones. There’s some crazy rumor going around that Jett was the one who put those boys in the hospital! Can you believe that? I can’t picture that quiet boy doing much of anything.”
“He’s not too quiet once you get to know him,” Spitfire responded.
“Really?”
“Well he is my roommate. Why?”
“Well he has that arm. Everyone always assumed he was in some weird accident or had some kind of disease. I mean, why else would he have that metal thing strapped to his shoulder?”
“Well he doesn’t have some disease but he doesn’t get it replaced for… other reasons.”
“Oh; genetic replication issues?”
“… something like that. But he’s really cool once you get to know him.”
“Hmm. Still can’t see him beating up the football team though.”
“Yeah,” Spitfire said.
“Well let’s get to work! All we have to do now is put this thing in the oven,” Cleo chirped.
“How did you make that so quickly?”
“That’s my secret.”
***
Well flight practice was over for today. Normal orbital maneuvering drills, the whole shebang. Practice was an hour shorter than normal. Coach decided to give us a break today. Whatever, more time to myself.
I walked towards the hololab again; this time without the intention of destroying a world. There I should be able to finalize the designs and start building a prototype.
I walked towards the empty lab and pulled out a card and slid it through the door lock. The door unlocked and I stepped inside. A large glass table about two inches thick sat in the center of the room. Various tables and computers were along the edges. Students would come here to work on their designs before viewing them in a practical 3D environment. Sometimes the sports teams would come here to work on strategy but today I was here to design something. Something the military would love to have. Something a lot of people would love to have.
But this would be something only I would have.
***
The mall was again crowded again. As usual it was the usual hangout for people when they wanted to do things. Whether there was a movie playing in the theatre or exercising at the gym or having dinner with a few friends, this place was always crowded.
Spitfire was eating supper with her friends. They were all talking cheerfully and happily about the day’s events.
“So Archer finally asked you out?” Cleo asked.
“Yeah,” Annabel said with a happy blush on her face.
Veronica began clapping, “Congratulations Anna. So are you two going to prom together?”
“Well duh,” Dixie smiled, “That’d be stupid if they weren’t.”
“Yes he’s taking me to prom, and hopefully the Halloween ball too,” Annabel smiled.
“Well good for you.”
“Sounds like we all have dates now,” Dixie smiled.
“Yeah,” Veronica said, “Almost all of us.”
Everyone turned to Spitfire who was playing with her food.
“Ahem,” they all coughed.
She looked up, “What?”
“Geez girl you’ve been awfully distracted lately,” Annabel said.
“Yeah,” Cleo said, “What’s on your mind?”
“Nothing, I’m just distracted again,” Spitfire sighed.
“Oh no it’s us!” Dixie said, “Girls she doesn’t have a date!”
“Relax, girls, its fine,” Spitfire put on a fake smile.
“Really? Come on now, someone has to have asked you out yet. Other than Ryan.”
“Well a few people have,” she sighed, “But not anyone I’d say yes to.”
“There has to be someone in this school for a cute girl like you,” Dixie said, “I mean there has to be someone you’re crushing over; whoever that lucky guy is.”
“Well there is one guy but, he’s a bit clueless in more ways than one,” Spitfire blushed.
“Who is he? What’s he like?” Annabel asked.
“Well he’s kinda shy, fun to be around, he has a great sense of humor.”
“Can you crack a dirty joke around him?” Veronica laughed.
“Yes,” Spitfire laughed, “At least I think so. I’ve been a bit too shy to try really.”
“You still haven’t told us his name,” Cleo smiled.
Spitfire sighed bit her lip, “If I tell you, you promise not to tell him or anyone else?”
“Promise,” they all said and smiled warmly at their friend.
She took a deep breath with a blush on her face, “Alright, his name is…”
***
“Jett!”
“What the fuck do you want, Dane?!”
“Bitch, calm your ass down,” Dane said holding his hand over the phone, “Take out guy wants to know what you want.”
“Just get me the usual,” I yelled back.
“Alright. He’ll have a number 97 and 98. 10 minutes? Sounds good, okay, thanks, bye.”
“You ordered take-out?”
“Yup,” Dane smiled proudly.
“When we’re on a space station?”
“Well the mall is only just down stairs.”
“You’re an idiot.”
“SMD.”
“You’re lucky I even let you up here.”
“What are you even making?” He asked.
“You’ll see,” I said, “Hand me that control pad.”
“This one?” Dane asked holding up a small rectangular piece of glass with a connecter cord coming out of the side.
“Yeah,” I grabbed it and connected it to the device, which looked like an unassuming mesh of wires, chips, power supplies, and field emitters. All of this was connected to a chip that would plug into the control pad. I attached it and began to solder the piece on.
“Alright,” I said, “Do you have the plates?”
“Yup,” Dane said pulling out two rounded objects.
“Alright,” I said and snapped them into place around the device. I turned it over and began inspecting the power supply. I pressed it down, setting it into the device. I sat inside with a satisfying click. I tapped a button on the control board and it lit up. A series of icons lit up on it along with a radar screen.
The object was the size of small, flattened football.
“This isn’t for your arm is it?”
“Nope. This is better.”
“What is it?”
“Something no one other than me will ever have. I coded it to self-destruct if someone other than me uses it. I also put the blueprints in my memory and destroyed the hard copies.”
“Ok, so what does it do?”
“This,” I said and tapped the button.
***
Well that went well, Spitfire thought to herself. She was walking towards the school across the grassy lawn that covered the land in front of the building. Apparently Jett wanted to show her something.
She had finally worked up the courage to tell her friends who ‘The Lucky Guy’ was, as they all called him. She still didn’t know why they called him that.
Oh yeah now she remembered. Apparently the new girl was all the guys, who weren’t occupied if you know what I mean, were talking about. From the looks of things Spitfire had grown quite popular among the male population.
No wonder the girls all called him ‘The Lucky Guy’. Though she didn’t see it that way. He was just the guy she happened to fall for, not the one chosen by the gods or something.
This was certainly a funny situation she’d found herself in. She’d always thought she’d go for some hot athletic guy who could at least keep up with her in the sky. Maybe one of the other Wonderbolts. Maybe even Soarin’. But never some guy without wings. Never in a million years did the laid back girl ever think she’d fall for someone who could never hope to match her in the sky. And probably never could.
She despaired at that thought. She saw how much he loved flying, but also the faint sadness in his eyes when he was forced to return to the ground. As much as she wished she could remedy that it was not likely to happen ever.
But even without wings she still couldn’t help but fall for him. She hadn’t even realized it was happening until recently, but the feelings were there. She sighed to herself. Now only if she could find the courage to tell him.
She continued to day dream, not really noticing much of her surroundings until a certain black haired android popped into existence before her.
“Boo!”
Spitfire yelped and fell back onto the grass. The android himself began laughing hysterically and fell onto the grass too.
“Ah ha ha ha, Dane! Did you get that?”
The white haired android fell down from a tree, a small camera device in his hands.
“Yeah! That was hilarious! Dude, you have to make me one of those!”
“If you can be responsible with one then maybe. Until I can trust you not to walk into the girl’s locker rooms with it you won’t be getting one.”
“You suck. But that was still hilarious!”
Spitfire stood up brushing herself off, her face was red with embarrassment, “You jerks!”
Jett pulled a bag off of his shoulders and stood back up, “Sorry, but we couldn’t resist. I think I’ve just created the most diabolical device known to man.”
“What did you make?” Spitfire asked, “Come to think of it, how did you do that?”
He reached for the bag and pulled out a small football shaped device. It had a small rectangular control pad on it.
“Well since I can’t get my field emitter in my arm to bend liquid metal, I made one that bent something a little less solid.”
“Put simply,” Dane said, “He made an invisibility unit. But he won’t give me one!”
“Because you’d do irresponsible things with it! And that’s just you! Don’t even get me started on the military.”
“And what you just did wasn’t irresponsible?”
“Hey I was just testing it out to see how well it worked. And it worked well to say the least!”
“Wait, you’re saying you just up and built a piece of technology the military doesn’t have?” Spitfire asked.
“Yeah pretty much. It’s not like we haven’t done this type of thing before,” Dane said, “We once made an ablative heat armor out of carbon fiber. Could go sun surfing with it. Or at least that was what we thought. We never did get to test it.”
“So, again. You just up and made something your own military doesn’t have?”
“Yeah, why? Do you know what the military would do with invisibility? They certainly wouldn’t use it sparingly.”
“So how exactly did you make something that the whole military hasn’t even come up with yet?”
“Easy, I’m a machine and can do things faster and more efficiently. It only took me a day to understand all the concepts behind it. But now that it’s built, we can have fun with it.”
“You know, I’m gonna stop attempting to understand the why and how and just skip to the let’s have fun with it,” Spitfire smiled.
“That’s the spirit,” Dane said, “Though you should have seen the look on your face when we did that! Oh wait, you can!”
“You’re both assholes,” Spitfire smiled.
“And that’s why you love us,” Dane grinned, “Go ahead, fire it up again!”
“Will do,” Jett said and tapped a button on the screen, instantly he vanished leaving nothing but empty grass where he stood.
“Still there?” Dane asked.
“Yup,” a voice replied seemingly omnipotently.
“Where are you?” Spitfire asked.
“Right where I was when I disappeared. I haven’t moved.”
“Really?”
He sighed, “Here.”
Suddenly there was a blue aura surrounding Spitfire as Jett walked forward. And just like that it was gone. Everything around her looked normal except for the blue circle on the ground that sat only one inch away from her feet.
“See?” Jett said.
“Aw great, where’d you guys go?” Dane asked.
“We’re still here Dane. Hold on a sec,” Jett said. He held up the object and swiped his finger across it. The blue circle on the ground instantly extended and enveloped the android.
“Oh here we go.”
They were all inside the field.
“So why did you build this?” Spitfire asked.
“Halloween,” Jett responded, “Dane and I never go to the party the school has. At least not officially.”
“Every year we show up and pull some kind of prank on the whole thing,” Dane laughed, “And best of all, it was Principal Jenkins’ idea!”
“Really? He condones that?”
“Yup. He asked us when we first showed, saying it was a tradition he wanted to start. We pull off some kind of prank and he doesn't say a word.”
“Really? Why?”
“Well we’ve pulled off a few bad ones before.”
“Like last year?” Jett grinned, “Remember the balloons?”
“What did you do?”
“Well,” Dane laughed, “We rigged all the balloons at the party to blow up midnight exactly. And best of all they all had smoke in them. The gym was covered up to the ceiling with it!”
“That must have been funny,” Spitfire smiled.
“It was, until someone opened the doors. Then it got messy.”
“Yeah perhaps it’s best we don’t tell her about that one.”
“Wait, why?”
“Do you want to hear the story about the ejaculating ghost of hallway C?” Dane asked.
“The what? You know it’s probably best if I didn’t hear that one.”
“Yeah.”
From outside the bubble they failed to notice a rouge janitor looking at the tree and scratching his head.
He sighed, “I picked a hell of a day to quit drinking.”
***
“Okay I already said I would make you one!” Jett yelled, “Now shut the hell up. Please.”
After much haggling and whining from Dane, Jett finally conceded to building an ‘Invisibility football’ as Dane called it.
Jett had safely locked the device away from prying eyes inside the dorm. Now he, Spitfire, Dane and various other students were all relaxing in the dorm lounge again. Jett was again playing a relaxing tune on the piano. Apparently that had become a staple of the Level E dorm.
Many people calmly sat around listening to the relaxing tone. A lot of people were even engaging the android in friendly conversation. He even started taking requests.
But then the news came. And like usual it wasn’t good.
“Good evening,” The News Anchor said. He wasn’t at the normal news desk but instead inside of a glass building on the rim of a crater. All along the inside were various docking arms and landing pads for ships of all sizes; a space port.
“This broadcast is coming to you from the Victoria Crater Space port as a special report following an incident that may rewrite interplanetary travel regulations. At approximately 0900 hours, Martian time, the cargo ship Hon exploded in the ship yard from an apparent terrorist attack. The blast left 27 dead and extensive damage to the shipyard. We’re going now to journalist Evan Greene. Evan.”
The view cut to a man standing in a space suit. In the background was a smoldering wreck of metal and concrete.
“Mike, as you can see behind me the fire stopped a while ago as officials decided to let it burn itself out. But the damage to both the ship yard and shipping industry is extensive. From what has been gathered we can tell there was a small device placed in or around the ship’s fuel tanks. Now officials are not certain how it got on board but they do know it wasn’t placed mid transit.”
“Now do they know what the ship was carrying that may have added to the magnitude of the blast?”
“From the cargo manifest it looked to be carrying large quantities of fruits. There was nothing on board other than the fuel that posed a risk to the flight.”
Everyone stood watching the screen. A bomb? On a cargo ship? What could this mean?
“We are now joined by interplanetary policy analyst Lewis Daniels. Lewis, what could this mean for the space industry?”
“Regulations. It is as simple as that. Regulations. There will most likely be large increase in regulations and security checks on all ships. Maybe even the resurrection of the TSA. But whatever the result, it looks like all forms of space travel will take considerably longer.”
Jett, Dane, Spitfire, and the other students continued to watch the story unfold in morbid fascination. What was happening?
***
Halsey stood before the desk. Harvey didn’t look pleased.
“You’re saying we revive a program that hasn’t been needed in over 200 years?!” He yelled.
“Mr. President, this attack has just shown that we are vulnerable. We got caught with our pants down on this one sir.”
“The TSA hasn’t been needed in over 200 years! Do you know how long that is?”
“Well quite frankly sir, we were vulnerable. That industry has nearly no safety or security regulations. Do you see any similarities between now and 400 years ago? It took something a lot more destructive than that to get people to change their minds. But it stopped things 100 times worse than that. Do you really want to risk that sir? Because if the IPA really is responsible for this and we do nothing, we’ll be as unprotected as a couple of teenagers without condoms. And I can guarantee that the IPA is not only protected but has offensive plans.”
Harvey sighed. The reports were not good. There were at least 1000 different space ports where something like this could happen. The Victoria Crater Spaceport wasn’t even the most populous. But what if something did happen? Was it really worth the risk?
Harvey put a hand to his head and sighed, “Do what you need to do Admiral. Keep us safe.”
***
Well school life went on as usual. Or at least tried to. Even I could feel the tension in the air. Everyone was on edge. There hadn’t been a state of aggression between two nations this high since The Cold War. And that was only on one planet. Toss a few more plus some moons into it and you’ve got yourself quite a clusterfuck.
Classes went on; things looked to be settling back into the new norm. Only this time the precipice was a lot closer than before.
We were sitting standing in the gym when the intercom came on. Principal Jenkins was making an announcement.
“Good afternoon everyone. Now I have some news for you all. A number of school events will have to be delayed, including prom.”
A large number of moans went up. My voice wasn’t one of them. I wouldn’t be going so why complain?
“In accordance with new safety regulations, a lot of the party supplies for those events will be arriving significantly later than expected. So again, I apologize but it will have to be delayed until November 10th. We will update you on other school events when we have the new dates. Thank you.”
The mic clicked off. People started talking. Conversations on how much this sucked and how the stupid IPA fucked everything up began to pop up.
I personally couldn’t care less.
***
Spitfire stood on the opposite side of the gym. Cleo and Annabel stood behind her.
“Come on,” Cleo said, “Ask him. He’s bound to say yes!”
“He’d be crazy to say No to a girl like you!”
Spitfire turned red. The cold feet feeling began to return, “Easy for you to say! The guys you all had your eyes on approached you!”
They all stopped to consider this, “Hmm, come to think of it, why didn’t he ask you?”
“Maybe he has his eyes on someone else?”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Spitfire said, “In fact he’s said he’s not interested in anyone.”
“Well maybe he just hasn’t noticed you yet.”
“Yeah, maybe you just need to make yourself known of him. I mean, he’s bound to notice this,” Cleo said pointing at Spitfire’s body, “And if he doesn’t then there’s something wrong with him.”
“Or he’s gay.”
Spitfire coughed, “Yeah I don’t think that’s the case.”
“Well then just be a bit more assertive. I mean do something to get him to notice you. Hold his hand or something.”
“Yeah. Now get out there girl. You’re the tiger and he’s the prey. He’s probably just playing hard to get.”
“You have no idea.”