Stars Above

CHAPTER 6 - Airin

I'd been staring at the ceiling for the past three hours. My mind just wouldn't give it a rest.
"I give up..." I sat up pushing the covers off and padded over to a small cabinet that housed the entirety of my alcohol stash. This was made up of two bottles, one bottle of Milky Way rum and a bottle of aged scotch. The latter was my poison of choice tonight, pouring the amber liquid into the glass I contemplated why I thought this would help. Shrugging I took the glass over to my viewing area and opened the solar shades.

Currently we were passing an emission nebula that filled my quarters with its red glow. The gas clouds took up the whole viewing window.
"Beautiful." I whispered before taking a sip of scotch. I'd always loved the stars, galaxies, really everything about space. I knew at age 7 I would give anything to travel the stars. My best friend and I would play for hours acting out space missions and alien contacts. We couldn't wait for the day we would join space cadets to start training for exploratory space travel. It was our dream...
"That's all it will ever be, a dream." I tossed back the remnants of the glass and seriously considered having another.
By the time we were old enough to join the cadets, the seeds of a universal war had begun to sprout. We both enlisted right after leveling school. Training took our youthful dreams and blasted them to smithereens. We got the training for space travel, but only so far as to pilot a military star craft. So instead of exploring we tracked and instead discovery we destroyed. But it wasn't until I watched as my best friend's ship was obliterated did I truly break.
When the war finally finished nothing was the same. People didn't want to leave their comfort zones anymore, didn't want to explore or even dream. A divide was made between those who believed we needed a colabetation of all the plants and those that wanted to rule themselves. Thus the Galactic Planetary Union and the Quasar Guard were created. Those of us that didn't choose a side were left to drift and find our own way. I had had enough of rules and regulations, I wasn't going to serve anyone ever again, let alone fight for them.
Now this slip of a girl barges on to my ship and into my life saying there's a weapon out there that could bring all that misery crashing down on us again.
My mind warred within itself, fighting the building anger. In a brief release I punched the wall as hard as I could. The pain of a possible broken finger cleared my head.
"Damn her!"
Bleep
"Enter"
Foot steps approached cautiously. "Couldn't sleep either eh?" Luka's chill laid back dimeaner gave ones the idea that he couldn't be rattled, but that was so far from the truth.
"Yeah" I sighed. Luka and I had met during military training, he was a hot shot and a huge show off, but when it came down to it he was as loyal as they came. His breaking point was when he lost his family in the war, both parents and his older brother, only he and his younger sister made it through. She survived because her parents had sent her to stay off colony with an Aunt, she was all Luka had left.
"You thinking about the girl?" He asked.
I turned to face him, "The girl, the weapon, the possibility of another war, pick one."
"Yeah, me too. If she's right then we can't ignor this..."
"Why not? We've already fought a war, we paid the price. Why can't we just sit back and watch it all go to hell."
Luka huffed out a laugh,"It's because of ones just like Sam...it's funny, she reminds me a little of Jayla. Her spunk and the way she yelled at you..."
"Yeah yeah laugh it up. That girl is trouble I tell you she is nothing but trouble."
"For you maybe, she didn't seem to like you very much. Even calling you a coward..." now he started laughing louder.
"Shut up! You know I'm no coward..."
"I know but the way she got you so rialed up is hilarious."
"Yeah yeah, whatever..." I give him a shove and walk over to place my cup on the sinthisizer.
"Ok...ok... but seriously, if it's true we should probably take this to the union."
"Yeah your right... I hate it when your right. We need more then just her word to go on. Did Connor find anything out about her little thingy?"
"Yeah, her little 'thingy' is like one of those ancient radar sensors. But he hasn't learnt anything more. You might have to actually try talking to her."