Together

Chapter 21★Amy

My quarters contain a bed and a locker. The bed is hanging from the ceiling and underneath it is a desk and chair made of stainless steel. The desk's top looks to be made of glass, and I tap it. It lights up immediately, with the same mechanized voice from Battle School.

"Please place your hand on the desk to be scanned," it chirps, overly cheery as usual. I place my hand on the desk.

"Please state your name."

"Amy Thompson." I comply, even though my name and handprint are already coded into the ship's database.

"Amy Thompson, confirmed." Booms a different, yet still mechanized, voice. The young man in the video clips that gave me transfer orders pops up.

"We apologize for any inconvenience that you may have experienced. We were merely confirming your identity, so as to make sure that you made it to the correct room," he says. The window he was in closes automatically. My normal desktop pops up. A few icons and programs are missing, but not ones I would use in my free time. I shut down my desk and a notice pops up. It tells me to remember to change my password every week to maintain maximum security. I close the window, and walk back out into the hallway. I turn right and walk down to the library.

★★★

Books. Real, actual, paper and ink books. Not just words on a screen. I walk over to the information section. I quickly notice that this particular library does not contain many books intended to be pleasure reading. The section I walk over to is F. Three whole bookcases. Two of them are dedicated to all information we have about Formics. I walk over to the A's. I find the air and flight books and start studying.

★★★

When I check the time it is 1924. I missed dinner. And lunch. But the flight books are very detailed. I check out some, and put them in my room. Closing the door, I turn and walk to the galley.

When I arrive, only two people are there. I walk over and grab a tray. After it is filled with food, I walk to the back corner and sit down. I a
am able to eat more than seventy-five percent of my meal, since nothing else is distracting me and I am actually hungry. I log in to a nearby computer port after I finish my meal and place my tray in the depository.

"Where do all of the other recruits spend their time?" The screen pulls up two different locations. There is a game room and a lounge on G deck, as well as a gym on I deck, and that is where my friends spend their time. According to a log, none of them have actually gone to their rooms yet. I log out, then head back to my room.

★★★★★★

Two months of this routine pass. I make sure to keep fit by using the gym everyday, but no one else is there at 0600 hours, so I train alone. I'm late to whatever meals I remember to attend, and the aeronautics books I find in the library keep getting more complex and interesting. I'm almost in space flight.

One day I decided to check out the engine rooms. The head engineer showed me around and explained every bit of how the engines worked. I added engineering books to my list of books to read. I also visit the cockpit, and the pilots explain to me which buttons do what. They were very impressed when I easily understood their "fancy flight terms." They allowed me to control the ship for three minutes. I found a minor miscalculation in the trajectory, and altered the course to account for that. Once I turned to thank the captain and leave, I found him and the copilot staring at me with mouths agape. I saluted and quickly left.

Today marks the halfway point to Eros. I walk down to dinner, actually on time. The galley is filled with the other transfers. I quickly grab my food and sit down at my usual table in the back. A person plops down their tray across from me, scaring me half to death and nearly sending their food all over the floor.

"So I checked on that rule thingy about commanders sitting with subordinates, only exists for big shots," proclaims a voice behind me.

"We haven't seen you in months," says a more concerned voice beside me. Bean, Petra, Allie, Aiden, Tom and everyone else sit down around me. Wolf sits next to me, and Bean beside her. Petra and Tom sit across from me. Some tables were pulled up and a semicircle was made. We can all sit and see each other. The ten recruits who weren't in Dragon look around in varying degrees of confusion and anger.

"Where have you been, you idiot?"

"Yeah, did you really think that we wouldn't notice you missing?"

"You could've just checked the logs." Everyone stares at me like I grew another arm.

"The what now?" Ask Fly and Hot Soup in unison. I notice that Fly's off of his crutches.

"The logs." I repeat. Blank stares.

"Every time you leave or enter a room it's logged. We can access these logs." Everyone just nods and begins eating.

"Where the heck were you?" Tom says from behind me.

"Reading." I reply.

"There's a library?"

"What else am I supposed to do for four months on end?"

"Interact. With humans. Talking. Training. There's a gym, ya know."

"I do know. I've been training there everyday at 0600 hours."

"What don't you know about this ship?" I don't reply. I know almost every nook and cranny on this tug.

"So, if we ever 'lose' you again, we should just check the library?"

"Yep, and if I'm not there, just-"

"Check the logs." They reply in unison. I don't say another word all night.