Overlap

Chapter 39: Stormy Oceans of Space

<02/03/2011 - 09:21 | Saffrin Middle School (Math), Austell, GA, USA>

Sighing with confusing frustration, I leaned back some more in my seat, ignoring the others around me. I feel unusually good today, like I have extra energy to boot. At the same time, I have not done enough for my poor mind to stay satisfied anymore. "It's official. I'm bored again."

"You usually are. You get bored too easily."

Perhaps. I could only sit and think, sitting with the same group I promised myself I wouldn't just to avoid more boredom. Banarus, Maddison, Ashly, and Malica were all sitting around me as usual. And as usual, I tuned them out enough not to be part of their conversation. It's not as if everything we come up with is considered small talk. But lately, the only interesting things on my mind to me all relate to Lumina or her world, or how crazy this world is by comparison. I learned last month why it was a bad idea to openly talk about Lumina, let alone mention the mere existence of the secret friend I'm hiding. Before I could say anything else to Lumina, Malica burst into laughter over some joke I missed out on, which made me jump just a little.

"And she gets on with life too easy." It was only a brief remark, but Lumina only mentioned it since she doesn't like Malica one bit.

Not that I mind. "I don't care about her. Malica isn't even a friend to me anymore. She doesn't know how to treat anybody. Like, did you know that she and Kenzaki broke up about two months ago?"

"Yeah? Okay then, check the systems one more time."

What the? Lumina wasn't talking to me just now. That had to be her co-pilot. "Huh? Were you just talking to Junko?"

"Yeah. We want to make sure we're ready for this. Sorry Reed, but there may be lots of interruptions today."

"It's okay. I understand from what you said earlier that today is going to be interesting. I don't know much about Plasma Storms..." The mention of it reminded me of the reason why the Cy-Stars aggressor group were so busy today. Apparently, their famous Plasma Storm is scheduled to pass through their specific territory following its orbit path. So ever since last night, Lumina and her team have been carefully planning for it. Because of its width, it's hard to navigate away and maneuver around it. Since it plays hell with electronic scanners from a distance, trying to outrun it also has risk. The thing is, my memory of her explanation on plasma storms was too vague for me to remember properly. "Think you can explain it to me?"

"Yeah... Hold on Reed... Are you sure these readouts are correct?"

All I could do was just sit here and wait in silence. It's a strange thing not being able to hear Junko when Junko is talking to Lumina right next to her like this, but the reason has to do with the properties of our limited telepathy. If Junko isn't using her mouth to speak either, I won't hear her even though Lumina will.

"Yeah, I know that... Okay, so let's be prepared for it. The storm will hit us in an hour, but that could still change. I want us fully prepared for when it comes close."

There's something that bothers me about all of this. Lumina told me she would be fine with everything today, but she's putting an awful amount of attentive priority to the storm and her preparations. What exactly are they bracing for anyway? "So, you're all going to pass through this electrical nebula in one hour from now?"

"Yes, but a plasma storm is not an electrical nebula. It's a plasma storm."

"I don't get it." Sorry Lumina, but I only learned about this stuff on day one, so it's been a minute. "What is a Plasma Storm?"