The World Flying Force Rebellion in the Shadows

Chapter Nine- Intimidation Tactics

Several hours later, stiff legged and hungry, we finished the simulation. The space pod had parachuted back to our planet successfully. The suit had tried to simulate the force of impact, but really it had just given me a kink in my neck. While took them off. Zarleque was quiet.

"That was fun. Weird, but fun," I said. He nodded, his face still white.

"Talaya something is bugging me," he said. He was half bent over untying part of his boot. He hadn't looked at me while he was speaking. It was like he was trying to keep our conversation quiet. Many others had already finished their simulation and left the room. We were one of the last groups.

"It's probably the same thing that's bugging me," I said. Master Guardian watched us both from the front. He locked eyes with me and waved off a person that was trying to talk to him. I stepped closer to Zarleque and turned my back to Master Guardian.

"No not that. I mean yes, that was startling, but something else I noticed, all the other simulators had 'simulation' in a kind of transparent lettering at the top of the middle screen, ours didn't," he pointed to the screen next to us.

I stopped undressing and looked at the other screens. Sure enough, the few that I could see still had "simulation" across the top. Ours did not.

"How else would we have seen video like that? We could move the camera, and it was realistic. We didn't fly a simulation, I think we just piloted a real spaceship," he whispered. Even though I had thought the same thing, it felt wrong to talk about it.

"Why would they lie? What could they gain from us flying a real space mission today? And how? Last I knew, remote piloting only worked up to like 500 miles." Zarleque hadn't really heard my question, his focus was trained on something over my shoulder. I snapped around. Four men in strange uniforms walked towards us.

'U.P.' was displayed on their collars like some sort of badge. Each one of the men held a weapon. A long black staff with two metal prongs on the end. A bright blue current zapped between the prongs. Each one of the soldiers held the staff with the tip pointed to the ceiling. They looked serious.

"Zarleque, the Master Guardian requests a meeting," The leader said. Zarleque seemed to recognize him, but his face didn't relax, it remained as bloodless and worried as before.

"Sure Rotowey, just let me finish getting my flight suit off." He kept untying his boots. Rotowey's mustache twitched in irritation.

"Negative, we are leaving now, you will wait for him in his reaffirmation room." He grabbed Zarleque by the arm and yanked him up. Zarleque was much larger than him, but it would take a lot of abuse before he would fight back.

"Alright, I'm coming," he mumbled and yanked his arm back. One of the other soldiers poked him with his weapon. Zarleque dropped to the ground with a shout. When he looked back up, his eyes burned with anger. He took three deep breaths through his clenched teeth but stood up without being asked. I jumped back from the scene, shocked. One thing was certain, I did not want to be touched by whatever the hell that thing was.

"Let's go," Rotowey said. His tight uniform stretched against the movement. Thick muscles barely fit into the shirt. When he grabbed Zarleque by the bicep, his arm flexed exposing a giant vein. He was using way more force than was necessary.

Zarleque walked out of the room. Half of his flight suit was still hanging off his waist. I was left alone next to the simulator. My mouth hung open, I couldn't stop staring at the door they had disappeared through.