Let it breathe, let it breathe, let it breathe for the space cadets

Deciding emergency control

"This will be Emergency Command Control for now," Paul said, as the camera came down toward the center small tower to the right hand side of the planetoid. He observed the scenery around him with a smile and his hands were placed on his waist. "Looks like it could have been used as Academy Control."

"I can't believe no one thought to make a emergency command room for the campus," Chris said.

"They better start constructing a real emergency command control room after we get back," Paul said. "Professor T'Hej would like xeir office in working order."

Chris came toward the window.

"The office has a good view of the campus," Chris said. He leaned toward the ledge of the window looking off in the distance seeing the shapes of campus that flickered on, from ahead of that were the formations of mountains, what little there were of shapes belonging to trees, and bodies of water that stood out underneath the night. "Wait a minute. . ." he leaned off against the ledge then turned toward Paul. "This is Academy Control."

"That can't be," Paul said. "Academy Control is out there."

"We did have to be put on a mandatory week holiday before the new year started," Chris said. "What if they could change which corridor went to which classroom?"

Paul's eyes widened.

"Professor T'Hej's office is the spare command control room," Paul said. "but that would mean Commander Gampu and Commander Stone knew what was going to happen."

"I doubt they knew it was going to happen this way," Chris said, rubbing his chin. "A just in case kind of procedure."

"Without telling us," Paul said, then lowered his head shaking it with his gaze fixated on the floor. "What else must he have kept back from us?"

"A lot more," Chris said. "A lot more."

The actual academy control was a small tower that resembled a sauropod without necks but had a hat and two pairs of arms. The engineering cadets were setting up the long table up in the center of the room. Their Vegan fellow cadet, Roark, was helping to set up the rounded consoles section to war control sliding the stations into the holes set up on the floor. The parts were still useful after all these years remaining in storage. T'Hej's holographic pictures were taken down by cadets on long ladders surrounding the room. The newer consoles were gray and black making the colorful buttons stand out with the smallest of all friendly aesthetic remaining the same. It was one of the more finer, friendly aspects of the stations that cadets could adjust to using in the meantime.

It wasn't going to be the same walking into battle control. It was a problem that couldn't be fixed with taking a seeker out with the entire blue team going along the ride and Gampu occasionally overseeing the campus. Gampu had oversaw a majority of their missions as their Commander regarding the academy. All three sections had a space monitor that was illuminating a gray color. Paul placed a hand on the top of the space monitor lightly giving it a pat. It had the same build and model but the gray theme made the space monitor seem different. Meaner, more military outlook and less pleasing. The optimistic, red friendly colors were vibrant and welcoming. A color that contrasted against the black secondary theme to the consoles. The dark gray felt more inclined to a scene of dark, gritty violence. A kind of violence that Paul had believed he had escaped from the new colony Ceto. The carpeting in the room was replaced by dark gray and yellow.

"Repair Control To Battle Control," came a woman's voice.

"Control here," Chris said, pressing on a button.

"We have a survey of the damage so far from our half of the campus," The two men exchanged a glance. "If the damage is the same like ours on the other half then it could take up to two weeks."

"Two weeks," Chris said. "Take all the time you need. Control out," he pressed the red button wearing a worried look. "We are at rock bottom. Sitting ducks."

"We're not sitting ducks, Chris," Paul said. "We got hand lasers."

"How many do we have is the real question," Chris said.

"Enough to arm abled people," Paul said.

Roark approached Chris.

"Who is in charge of Battle Control?" Roark asked.

"Gampu is," Chris said.

"I heard that he left with main academy control," Roark said, Paul turned his gaze onto him.

"He didn't leave, actually," Paul said, cutting off Chris before he could speak. "He left Peepo behind to pilot the ship and decided to stick around to make sure we didn't panic."

"Thankfully, he was the first face we saw," Chris agreed. "Told us we got to safety."

"Is he ready to make cadets soldiers?" Roark asked, raising a eyebrow.

"No," Chris said. "He will never be ready. Makes him feel sick having to think about it."

"It does," Paul said. "he is in one of the sick bays right now recovering from that sickness."

"I'll like to speak with him later about what to do with the battle over this planet," Roark said.

"I will get him," Paul said, then began to walk out of the room.

"In his office," Roark said. "alone."

"Alright," Paul said, then waved his hand in the way of the door panel.

"Roark," Chris said, the door opened before him. "You're a soldier, tell me how afraid that I should be as a cadet."

The Vegan looked down toward the young man.

"Very afraid if it doesn't pan out the way we want it," Roark said, then walked out of Battle Control.

Chris sighed, worried, folding his arms as he turned toward the viewscreen.

The viewscreen was outfitted with bright neon lights that made the window from the outside glow.

The camera turned around to reveal the inside of the changing battle control floating away in the distance leaving Chris where he became smaller and smaller behind until it seemed that the asteroid was a large cruise ship submerged in rock with lights on that made the gray hulls stand out from above. The camera moved into the distance following out hundreds of miles away from the campus until it came down to a stop on the Chariot. The Chariot was heading in the direction of a vessel that was illuminating lights from the windows in the middle of barren trees.