I allow myself a tight smile. We won! Against two burly sergeants. And I really enjoyed flinging Hammer through the air, spinning like a windmill.
- - -
“Why did you join Space Force, Umbra?” Emma carefully adjusts her position on the metal ventilation box she’s sitting on. It looks unpleasant, but better than sitting on the floor, like me.
The Space Force station in orbit around Earth is small and cramped, and there are few windows. The ones we have are popular places for spending a couple of hours after duty, looking out at space and down at Earth. I usually don’t do it, because I know the view is hypnotic and before I know it, an hour has passed and I’m still looking down on the planet, waiting for the next continent and country to appear, trying to spot a familiar, lit-up city on the night side.
And I can’t do that. I always have something to learn, a new certification to take, a new course to prepare for, another piece of crucial machinery I have to qualify for and learn how to operate. Tomorrow is a big event, too.
But tonight, I want to sit here and enjoy the moment, just for a short while, as Europe slowly passes below us and the life support systems hum. The metal of the station pings and creaks around us as it keeps heating up and cooling down, depending on if it’s in the sunlight or in the shade.
“I never considered anything else,” I reply. “My sister was taken by the UFOs. After that, all I ever wanted was to go out in space and look for her. Some of these manuals about life support and orbital dynamics I read cover to cover at age twelve. I didn’t understand it all, but when I had to learn it for real, it was all familiar.”
“Oh no,” Emma says with empathy. “Your sister! So you’re one of the Avengers? The family members determined to find their missing sister or daughter or cousin somewhere in space? And beat up an alien or two?” She leans closer, eyes glittering, then winces and touches her chest. “Damn, that stings a lot for not even being broken.”
I try to never think about that morning, years ago. The news was full of shaky videos of flying saucers hovering over colleges, sending down strange beams and seeming to pick up people. And Ashlynn’s college was one of them. Then we couldn’t reach her, her dorm room was found empty, her bed not slept in, the roof of her lab had been broken open, and a bunch of girls from that college were missing.
She never came home. And we knew we’d lost her. My big sister, the kindest person in the world, so excited and also so worriedabout her physics studies, where she was so talented but still felt so inadequate…
I remember the feeling I had. She was gone. There was nothing we could do. Not even look for her, because we can’t even go into space, not really. I hated feeling sopowerless.
I quickly blink away the tears that always come when I think about her. “Avengers? I guess that’s what they call us in the media. Sure, I’d beat up whoever took Ashlynn away from me. But just finding her and getting her back home would be all I wanted. We could finish the jigsaw puzzle we were working on together. Finally complete the big picture of Mount Fuji. I don’t actually need revenge. You? Oh, look. That big cloud formation is about to catch Italy. Has to be a storm.”
I point out the window. The station is passing over the north side of the Med, and the blue ocean is slowly giving way to the brownish land masses.
Emma smiles and looks out the tiny, round window. “Smart cloud. I’d love to take Italy by storm. Me? Oh, I just wanted to go to space. See the Moon from up close. Get a shot at a Mars mission, maybe. But Space Force is going in a different direction, I think. Actuallyknowingthat there are aliens and that they’ve taken hundreds of girls from Earth changes the way you look at space. It’s enemy territory now. Huh. No clouds over France. Except… that one. Is it above Paris? Maybe just pollution.”
“ Nah, those are rain clouds. You’d hear a lot of ‘merde’down there right now,” I say slowly. “Space does feel like enemy territory sometimes, but maybe it’s just untamed. Open for anyone to go and explore. It might as well be us. At least we’d bedoing something, not just sitting still and hoping nobody notices our planet.”
“Uh-huh,” Emma says drily. “‘Explore.’Says the girl who’s going to pilot a laser-equipped shuttle tomorrow. The first seriously armed spacecraft that Earth has ever had.” She leans forwards to look down. “No sign of England today either. They sure like their clouds. Always keeping them above them. Pretty smart. The UFOs can’t see them.”
I smile, thinking about the shuttle. “Well, wouldyousay no to a chance like that? It’s a test, just checking that it can fly right. Or rather, thatIcan fly it right. It’s not like I’m the first. It’s an old and rickety tin can now. Lots of people have flown it.”
“Spacecraft get old fast,” Emma says. “We only had that one for three weeks. And whilesomepeople have flown it, they never did target practice with the laser the way you will. Everyone will be watching, you know. It’s arguably Earth’s first warship in space. You better make sure the first laser shot it fires doesn’t miss the target, or I’ll be miffed. That shuttle has gotten the best care.” She presses her nose to the window. “Huh. No clouds over Denmark today.”
“But rainy in Sweden. Sure, because you’ve cared for that little fighter shuttle yourself. That makes me feel good. For real, Emma. I know it’s not going to break up.”
She flashes me a little smile. “Thanks. No, that’s Norway. Sweden is… actually, it looks like it’s raining there, too.” She winces as she leans cautiously back from the window. “I once knew a guy from there. Sweden, I mean. Big and blond. A real Viking.”
“A boyfriend?” I ask, interested. I’ve been far too busy to act on any romantic impulse for the past few years. Space Force has taken all my time.
“No,” Emma sighs. “He was arealViking. So when he wasn’t skiing somewhere in the woods, he was blackout drunk on some kind of mead that he brewed himself. Nothing happened between us. Very sad. I would have needed it, I think. But things have been so weird on Earth since the UFO night. It’s like, all the colors went out of the world. We’re prey, just sitting and waiting to be hunted again. I’ve just not been in a romantic mood.”
“Me neither,” I confess. “I know what you mean. There’s this hopeless feeling on Earth right now. As if nothing we do matters. Those UFOs could come back at any time and just… steal people. You feel sopowerless. It sure doesn’t make you want to make more of them that the aliens can steal.”
Emma slowly straightens, sitting primly to keep her sore ribs from aching. “Exactly. But at least we’re fighting back. Or starting to. Space Force is the cutting edge, Umbra. Specifically, that shuttle you’ll fly tomorrow.”
“Oh, if I see a flying saucer, I’ll shoot first and ask questions later. If they don’t shoot me first.” I tense up at the thought of tomorrow’s test. We both know it’s a risky one. That shuttle has been built from lightweight materials because more sturdy ones are far too expensive to send up here from Earth. It’s designed for a crew of three, but Space Force is unwilling to risk that many lives on tomorrow’s test. So I’ll be flying it alone, seeing if it handles like the simulator and then trying to hit the target with the laser. Emma is not exaggerating: everyonewillbe watching, both Space Force on Earth and the people on this station. A failure will not be good for my position up here.
“Nah, there won’t be any saucers,” Emma says. “And if that craft breaks up, it’s not going to be because of a lack of care. I’ll tighten every screw and polish every part of that thing myself before your launch.”
I shake off my overthinking. This is why I came here. A Space Force officer must be able to handle this kind of pressure. I’ve trained for this. I’m ready.
“That actually makes me feel really good about it.”
3
- Mareliux-
