Proxima Terra

Bygones are never truly bygones

Alarm going off woke me up abruptly from my deep sleep, the clock was showing 6:30 am. I have about an hour before we descend down to Earth. I quickly put uniform on and grabbed my backpack then proceeded to Auroras' room. I knocked one time and there was no answer, I slowly opened the door to see her still asleep. I guess she stayed up longer last night, waiting for me to come back. Didn't really want to wake her up, knowing that she has an important test today and saying goodbye would just make her more nervous and anxious. Instead I ripped out a paper from her notebook and scribbled down a quick message that I'll see her in 8 days and that she will rock her test. Maybe I was making out more of a big deal of this trip than I realized.

Remembering note from yesterday I took it from my backpack, reading it again. It was simply off, who would write this and put it in my bedroom? Doesn't make any sense. You couldn't just enter peoples apartments and leave messages in without being noticed. First I thought Draco left me this, but his pranks were more simple and less mysterious than this.

Doors of elevator opened and I started walking to the Deck One. Riley was there with General Aliester , probably discussing in more details about our leave.

"There is a chance your communication devices will shut off when you enter the Red Zone, due to radiation. But as you're aware we are not sure there is radiation anymore. So if anything goes wrong we won't be able to know it unless you exit the Red Zone." General Aliester said seriously observing everybody present.

Riley noticed I arrived so he made room at the table for me. Tech support was going in and out of the room, bringing us all the technology we will need down there.

"Bastien you will be a pilot this time. You're leading your team and I believe you're ready for this." Aliester said.

"Thank you,sir." I nodded.

Cleo and my dad entered the room,quietly chatting among themselves.

This is the first time I really looked at Cleo, she was little bit shorter than me with shoulder length curly brown hair and slightly blond ends. Her uniform was sky blue with contradiction to our black ones. She had brown eyes with dark complexion, she looked quite beautiful I might add.

Chasing girls was never my thing, I thought of it as a distraction. That's how dad raised me, saying job always comes first and then later I will marry somebody compatible to me. Whatever the hell that meant.

"Sir everything is ready and prepared in shuttle, if everything goes according to plan we should be able to leave in 20 minutes." Darco said.

All of us started walking to the end of the station, Cleo and Riley were chatting and Draco was going through his tablet checking plan one more time. Dad and I awkwardly walked beside each other in silence. I didn't think he was going to come with us to the shuttle. We arrived after five minutes, people were loading our gear inside among the food and water. After everybody entered I turned back to my dad.

He opened his mouth to say something, but then changed his mind and put his arm on my shoulder. " Make me proud son."

"Yes,sir."

And with that I turned around and closed the door of the shuttle.