Lessons in the Stars

Chapter 3 - Lord of the Space Flies

Rogue was the first to wake up in the morning. Well, she assumed it was morning. It was a bit hard to tell without a regular sunrise. She tapped the screen open, checking their route. They were still nearly two days out from Bal'Takar. She sighed, getting up and quietly leaving the room, she tried to remember the plans for this type of ship and wandered around a bit until she found the way to the mess hall.

Jon woke up with a start, a bit uncomfortable from sleeping in a chair, he looked around the room, starting when he didn't see Rogue. He got up quickly, accidently knocking the broom that had been balancing against his chair to the floor. He winced at the echoing bang that followed. The others started awake. Slight panic ensued as they tried to remember where they were, and who was missing.

"Where's Rogue?" Benny asked, slight panic evident in his voice.

"That's exactly what I was wondering," Jon replied, looking around as if she would just appear.

"Well, I say we split up and search the ship. We need to find..." Sam began.

"Find what?" Rogue asked. They all spun around to face her, she was balancing a tray of cups in one hand and a bag in another.

"You're okay! What happened?" Benny rambled on.

Rogue cocked her head, a habit she always seemed to do when she was confused, "Woah. What?"

Jon took a step towards her, "We woke up and you were gone. We got worried."

She smiled and cocked her head again. "Seriously, you guys were worried about me? How sweet!" They all simply stared at her, waiting for an explanation, "I woke up about half an hour ago, and went looking for food and coffee." She walked towards the council table in the middle of the room and placed the tray down. There were five cups of coffee and a tray of machine-made pastries. Everyone jumped up, Jon's stomach growling as he was reminded that he hadn't eaten since breakfast the day before. They sat around the table.

"We need a plan of action," Jon stated, after they had filled the holes in their stomachs.

Sam nodded in agreement, "We can't just wing this, we are going to have a three-day flight after this without autopilot and we have to work out flight dynamics." They nodded in agreement.

"I know we don't all get along but we have to try, at least till we get home." Jon added, looking around. "We need to put our differences aside and be a crew. A real crew." Jon looked at them all seriously.

"Yeah. We will," Benny agreed.

Scarlett interjected, "We aren't a crew. We haven't even graduated yet. It isn't logical or right for us to do this." Benny looked chastised. Graduating and being part of a crew was an extremely important thing to them. It was an honour. "We can't be a crew," Scarlett finished stubbornly.

"I don't think we have a choice. We aren't going to be able to do this without killing each other if we are all vying for control and trying to be and do what we want." Jon argued, "We aren't at the academy anymore. This is real and it's dangerous enough without fighting breaking out within our ranks."

"I agree." Sam muttered.

Jon looked at Rogue who was sitting quietly, "Rogue?" He asked her opinion.

"I say we vote. Majority wins. If we decide to be a crew we'll decide positions and if we don't, we act the way we would at the academy," Rogue replied.

"Sounds good to me." Benny agreed and the others nodded as well.

"Okay. All in favour of remaining as we are." Scarlett and Benny both put their hands flat on the table, in the way all voting worked on Orion. "All in favour of acting as a crew," Jon continued and he, Rogue and Sam voted for that option.