Invasion

Chapter 5 - Voyage Home

30th May 2071

The morning is unusually cold, but I guess the Control Center is bored of always having 28 degrees Celsius as the temperature. Aurora's still asleep, again curled up in her sheets. I'm not tired.

Today we are both going to enjoy an ice-cold trip to Earth, freezing our selfs for a whole 9 days. And then, we meet these aliens. I sit up and get out of bed, trying to foresee the near future.

I get dressed and do my morning routine.

After almost 30 minutes, Aurora is still asleep. We only have 45 minutes until we have to leave to Earth, and I don't want another short breakfast. I sneak towards her, watching her every move. I speak as softly as I can.

"Aurora, Aurora! Wake up!"

She groans and turns over.

"C'mon you can sleep in the ship"

She twists her head towards me, her eyes peering into mine.

"I'm tired"

"You will be refreshed on your 9 day journey to Earth. Get up, it's 8:19 and I want to have breakfast"

Her eyes widen.

"Oh yeah"

***

Later, Aurora finally finishes getting ready and we go to have another quick breakfast. After we and eat and pay, we leave to meet commander in the same spot as yesterday.

"Your late, again"

His voice is more aggravated than yesterday.

"Sorry about that. Someone wouldn't get out of bed"

He looks at Aurora, and she just lets out a quiet sorry and a smirk.

"Anyways, about your mission. You two will be flying on a straight trip to Paris, France. I'm sure one of you have been there-"

Aurora interrupts.

"I have! It's a wonderful place! Also a great place to shop"

"Well, once you get there it will be a war-zone. We have calculated that the aliens will fly past there at sunset. The main objective of your mission is to kill as many of these aliens a possible, and to retrieve data from them. Once the aliens have retreated, which I guarantee they will, find a safe place to park your ships and stay the night. The next day, search around Paris for Intel and alien remains to bring back to Mars. Leave at midday"

He takes a short break, then continues.

"Now, for you travel plan. Inside both of your ships' cabin's is a Holovision, a bathroom and Cryosleep containment. But I'm certain you two have already checked it out"

"Cryosleep?" Aurora questions.

"It's like hibernating; it freezes your body so you don't age for a long exploration. You probably don't need it for this journey but it wouldn't harm using it"

"Fair enough"

"Good. I think we have everything sorted. Be sure to set your cyrosleep time to 8 days. You may leave to Earth"

We both search for our ships. Aurora finds her Offender, and I follow her.

"Wait!" Commander yells out.

"What is it?"

"I forgot to show you something"

He opens up his phone and finds his 'something'. Aurora and I come back to him, and he shows us an image on his screen.

"This was taken yesterday in Moscow"

The blurry image consists of a dark, glowing object.

"What is that?" I ask this time.

"It's a poor quality photograph of an alien fighter"

We both just stare at the image, without saying or doing anything. Commander slots his phone back into his pocket.

"Enjoy your trip"

He leaves.

Aurora turns to me.

"See you in Paris"

She walks towards her ship, and I follow.

***

It's been about 10 hours since we took off from Mars. The journey hasn't been overly too interesting; I'm thinking of going into cyrosleep. My holovision unexpectedly turn on, and a message comes on the screen.

Live Video Message from Aurora Bright. Would you like to accept?

"Yes"

Message accepted.

The message disappears and Aurora's face covers the screen.

"Hello, how's the trip"

"Boring. You?"

"Pretty much the same. I'm thinking of going into cyrosleep"

"So was I"

It was silence for a little, so I decided to say something.

"Why did you call me? I'm right next to you"

"Yeah, but in different ships. I can't simply jump into your ship"

"True"

More silence.

"Well, I'm going to sleep now. You should too. Goodbye, goodnight"

"Bye"

She smiles, I wave, and the video ends.

I get hit by a wave of loneliness, having someone to talk to really does make you happy. But she was right, I did need some sleep for the week to come. I have a shower, get dressed and do all that other stuff you do before you go to bed. I set the time to 8 days, and lay inside a soon to be freezer. On the 8th of June 2071, I will have my first encounter with an extraterrestrial being.