Survivors

Simulate

"Jade is gonna link with Rowan now."

I'm almost asleep in my seat. The simulators were cool... for the first three hours. I seriously regret not sleeping when I had the chance.

"What if I don't want to link?" I ask,

"Stop being stubborn, pretty boy. Link with Jade." Xavier groans. Basically everyone is frustrated by now.

"You have ten diamires before I shoot you." Threatens Maggie.

"Ugh, I don't think in diamires though!" I link with Jade. "There. Happy?"

"Okay, just stay linked for a fareshnir." She tells us.

"I know, I know. We did a ton of practicing already." I roll my eyes.

"You'll do even more tomorrow." Regeit says.

"Why didn't we just do it last night instead? I was less tired then." Jade sighs.

"Yesteropralium we were dealing with the Black Stars, and I wasn't in the mood at the time, as it would slow me down." He shrugs.

"Yes, I think you aren't remembering correctly." Wessa agrees. "I was very tired after all the events of yesteropralium."

"Yeah, yeah." Jade sighs as we watch Maggie and Xavier linking. Regeit wants to make sure we can co-pilot with everyone. Maggie is the easiest to coordinate, if I had to be honest.

"Can we un-link now?" I ask.

"Go ahead." Maggie sighs.

"You're getting the hang of this a lot faster than I thought." Regeit admits. "I think we can call it a day for now."

We all head to dinner, and I pour myself a glass of vargile, getting a plate of the seedy red jelly that Wessa likes. We sit there for a while.

"So, any new missions coming up?" Xavier asks.

"Not that I know of. Just training. And in a week, we have the Astralis ball. It won't be that big, though, seeing how so many fleets are dead." Regeit says.

"I need to dress up fancy?" I pale.

"Most just wear their uniforms. It's for high government officials and cadets alike. You can wear a suit or dress if you want, though." He assures me. "Magri wants to go shopping for it, though. We can do that on Samainne."

"Oh, I've heard about Samainne! That's the planet that's entirely a mall!" Wessa announces.

It sounds like an excellent place to get lost.

We finish dinner and I do my nightly routine, then sit in a circular window at the end of the hall. Soon, Maggie joins me.

"What are you doing up?" She asks.

"Reminiscing." I answer.

"Oh." She pauses. "What was Earth like? If you don't mind me asking, I mean. Sorry, that was insensitive of me."

"It's fine." I assure her. "Just as long as you tell me about your planet, too."

"Deal." She nods.

"Earth had lots of species on it. Mine is human. We are- well, were, the dominant species on our planet. Space travel for someone like me was an unusual thought. So were extraterrestrials. It was kinda boring, to be honest. I had to stand behind a counter and sell stuff to make money so my family could keep their farm up. It was an important place for the family. most humans have two guardians- a mother, female, and a father, male; two mothers; or two fathers." I start. "I lived with my mom, which is short for mother. I've never met my father. Mom didn't tell me anything about him. She got sad whenever I brought it up." I think for a while. "That's really all I have to say."

"My turn, I guess." Maggie takes out her tablet and holds up a picture of her, looking younger, and some other people. "This is a picture of me when I was training at Forackeces Space School. We were preparing to go to space. But one day, some Gorfonians broke in and started shooting everybody. I managed to survive by running outside and running for the forest. They soon noticed and started following me, but then I was picked up via tractor beam by Regeit. He then forced Gorfon to surrender, but a lot of people had died. We went into space so he could train me for Astralis. Nobody back home knew what was going on." She shows me another picture, featuring a cheesy picture of her on some sort of news article. "The headline says Forackeces Student Missing after Gorfon Attack. It talks about how people said they saw me get abducted, stuff like that. I lost my guardians at a young age, and was taken in by Forackeces. My brother's not on the death list, though. Apparently he's missing, too. I think it's too much to hope he was saved by something, too." We sit in silence for a while.

"I'm sorry." I say, unsure of what to say.

"Don't apologize for something you didn't do. Goodnight." She tells me before leaving for her room again. I sigh and walk down the darkened halls to the kitchen. I open the alien equivalent of a fridge and pull out some vargile, sticking it in the microwave because warm things supposedly help you sleep.

"What are you doing?" I jump and turn around.

"Getting some vargile?"

"You should be asleep." Regeit tells me.

"I've got a lot on my mind." I sigh.

"Everyone does." He sighs. "Just lie down and stay still."

Of course. That's what my mom would tell me to do. But I don't feel like groaning and arguing at Regeit. I hardly know him.

"Okay." I sigh. He's not helping anything. The blanket. The talking. He reminds me of my mom. I feel like telling him, but that would probably seem weird to him.

"Don't leave without your vargile, though." He opens the microwave for me. I smile wearily and take the mug, heading to my room. "Goodnight, Rowan." I rub my eyes.

"Night, dad." I freeze and turn around. We're looking straight at each other.

"It's okay." He assures me. "You're, uh, overtired."

"Yeah." I nod. "Sorry." I run off to my room and sit in bed, sipping my vargile.

Soon, I'm asleep.