Chasing the Stars

Chapter Four

“Wake up you rabble! We’ve got things to do! Sal, I need a shopping list – Ake you can upgrade the engine and Shady, you can help me," she shouted to Sal, Shady and Ake who were still sound asleep. After the few grumbles and complaints Copper marched into the kitchen and turned on the breakfast maker, laughing as they all miraculously appeared in the kitchen after the smell of Bacon wafted down to the dorms.

As they all sat on the mess chairs, leaning heavily on the plastic table Copper began to bring attention to the day's events.

"Ake and Sal – you'll need to be shopping today. I managed to scrounge a couple extra thousand credits up for you. Oh and Sal, you can splurge out on the grav-sling. We need a new one anyway."

Hours later, Shady and Copper were still in space, having dropped of Ake and Sal at the nearest mechanic shop. Copper was sat behind the wheel, her smooth fingertips hovering over the leather steering wheel. She felt for it's balance – the precipice on which it would follow her every command. As first Shady directed her to drive around a large asteroid in their path. She obliged, but sped around it a breakneck speed, halting to a break after the violent push of her foot.

The cockpit of the ship now stank of rubber and sweat. Shady was sweating from pure terror and Copper was pressing the brake pedal so hard that she was leaving skid marks on the brushed metal floor.

"I may be usty but I'm certainly not a beginner." She laughed, looking at Shady's terrified face.

"I think you might have an affinity for racing after all," he spoke, chuckling "but you would probably end up crashing up into the competition.”

Copper rolled her eyes, and crossed her arms. Looking at Shady, she revved the engine, letting it burst forward. Startled, Shady shot forward bumping into the control panel. Sighing he turned around to Copper who raised an eyebrow in response.

“Next time you're about to do that, warn me. Anyway, I think you're ready for the next test. Can you navigate through an asteroid field without your grav-sling?”

It was like a wall. The ship was drifting closer and closer to the asteroid belt, but Copper's mind was elsewhere. Just seeing the belt of small rocks drifting around a planet as enough. Her memories were like a bulging water skin, only held together by surface tension and pure luck. Like a tsunami, the memories returned.

Whilst Copper was frozen solid, Shady was bewildered – he was stood in front of Copper clicking his fingers backward and forward in front of her face. He tried waving, even prodding her but she was frozen solid. Her breathing was shallow and fast, and her face was in the same gormless position. Meanwhile, inside Copper's mind she was batting away the memories as best she could. They swarmed her like flies, blocking everything. She couldn't see, smell, taste or hear. All that she could feel was those emotions.

Rooted in her gut, it began to grow. It was a heavy feeling – it was like someone had punched Copper in the gut. It consumed every fiber of her being – her mind couldn't let itself free of that feeling. The very air around her shook with the feeling, that premonition of something bad, something terrible. She couldn't picture it, couldn't smell it – it was just there. Her intestines writhed and twisted, wrenching from left to right. As much as she tried – Copper was paralyzed.