Lucky 13 (NaNoWriMo 2017)

Chapter 4: Opposites Attract...

"Do you know what would be interesting?" Lexi asks her roommate.

"If you stopped asking hypothetical questions," Sophie, her roommate responds. "You might even get a boyfriend."

Lexi ignores her. "So the Corrins where doing experiments with folding matter in on itself."

"How about a girlfriend. They're not as high maintenance as males, although there is a smaller dating pool."

"The results was a form of matter that was incredibly fluid, almost like energy, but once unfolded would resume its previous shape."

"I'm not listening to you, you're not listening to me. It's a vicious cycle, and one I'm not about to break."

"Imagine, transporting objects hundred of kilometers near instantly, compressing stored objects to the density of uranium, imagine what it could do for life support and food production."

"That's it!" Sophie shouts, stopping Lexi cold. "When was your last date?"

"Uh... what does that have to do with this?"

"Just answer the question!"

"Last time I was planetside..." Sophie gestures to ellaperate. "Which was when I joined the the military... four years ago."

"Uhg, that long? I am going to set you up on a date."

"Why? I thought you were my friend."

"Har har. You're obsessed with your classes. Every minute of every day you live sleep and breathe starship bits."

"Thats right, I was working on life support yesterday."

She throws a pillow at Lexie. "You know what I mean, idiot! Seriously, you need to take some time off. Forget about classes, forget about final projects, get some jet juice, a private room, and just destress."

"And why don't you take a space walk without a spacesuit."

"Trust me, you won't regret it."

Lexi glances over at her. "I don't trust you with my life, why should I trust you my with my love life."

<<>>

The Loony Bin is a massive stain on the surface of Luna. Situated dead center in the crater of Orihalcon, the complex stretches five kilometers in all directions and is stacked ten stories high. On the second and third story, a series of trams link the complex together in a disorderly web of tracks.

Mark Maelstrom is currently studying a map of the tram system. According to the clock he's already half an hour late for his class, and from the looks of the map, he's was going to be there anytime soon.

Mark reflects on the irony. He jumped the wrong tram, jumped on another wrong one after that, and has since been taking wrong turns, back tracking, and just in general walking in circles. The truly ironic thing is he is now late for navigation class.

Writing it up as a loss, he starts trekking back in the direction he hopes his dorm is.

Graduation is merely a week away, and all he can think of is going home for the first time in four years, even if it is only for a few days. He would see his parents again, his older brother chastise him for not thinking, and his sister. His little sister wouldn't be so little anymore. He had completely missed her middle school years. He had left suddenly, not even telling them what he was doing till after he had left.

He surmises, this isn't quite the story of the prodigal son. He hadn't taken the family's wealth with him, he hadn't spent the last four years living it up, and he wasn't crawling back to them on his hands and knees. All the same, he wouldn't mind having his father slaughter the fattened calf for him.