And the Suns Never Rise: A Story of Alpha Centauri

All is not What it Seems

Colonial Year 265; 213 Terran years after the Founding

Christiana was in trouble. A lot of trouble.

On instinct, she took cover behind one of the cement pillars found throughout this large parking garage.

Just then, three projectiles hit and ricocheted off the other side, leaving small craters on the otherwise unblemished surface.

'Damn! Where did they get their hands on a semi-automatic rifle?' she thought as she performed a silent roll to the next piece of cover. This time, she was behind a low barrier meant for pedestrians as they climbed up to the building above.

However, while there were barriers between herself and the person with the semiautomatic, it opened her up to fire from another angle. "Pop! Pop!" a pistol discharged from covering ten emms away.

"UGGH" she vented in a low voice as her wrist chronometer began to vibrate.'Only fifteen minutes left before Mainday sunrise,' Christiana realized. 'All that's left is to make it to the extraction point and the mission will be a success.'

Looking around for an escape route, the only one that she could find was the stairs.

'The stairs it is,' she thought as she crouched and began taking them two at the time. Luckily, the stairs had a low, waist-high concrete wall which provided great cover. 'There can't be enough enemies to watch every stairwell on every level,' she realized as she went upwards. 'I also doubt that they have any more semi-automatics.'

With that thought, Christiana's morale went up, and she started climbing even faster until she eventually made it to the ground floor. Then she looked around to see if there were any sentries.

'It feels clear,' she thought as she emerged from the stairway and went through the emergency 'lock. Just then, her watch vibrated again. 'Crap! Only five minutes left.'

Christiana had to pick up the pace if she was going to find an unguarded 'lock.

At random, she rushed off in search of a way outside so they could pick her up. Within a couple of minutes, she was at a 'lock. 'Come on and work!' she thought as she used her automatic code finder to find a working combination.

After what seemed like an eternity, the card beeped and the 'lock door opened. As soon as the inner door closed, she hit the emergency purge button and the outer door opened with no delay.

Christiana then ran to a black van and hopped into the back with mere seconds to spare.

---

After completing her mission, Christiana went to take a shower and clean herself up. 'Five days in the outback and I still got chewed out by the SWAT training officer. I made it at the last second. But Haruhi-nee took an extra half hour and therefore did not even complete the mission properly.'

After finally reaching the shower room and finding it was deserted, she took the time to look herself over in one of the floor-length mirrors. Her clothing and gear were quite worn from her travels across the outback. Her long hair was woven into a simple braid, and she had tucked it underneath her black "baseball" cap.

She also looked at her figure and her proportions. While she was still vertically challenged, she was now two cee-emms taller than her Asian womb-mate. On the other hand, Haruhi-nee had a complex about how Christianna had developed. After all, the blonde had blossomed early and Haruhi-nee had matured later. Haruhi-nee had even worn a padded bra at one point. Christiana had joked with her Sister that once she was Married her Spouses would wonder where her boobs went every time she undressed.