He had always been good with tech, and it only made sense that he would be placed in the tech AOC. “Yeah, I think that’s where I should be.”
Ms. Lovell nodded her head. “Good. I just sent your schedule to your techiwatch. It will alert you to all of your class and training times. Now that’s all I have for you today, but do you have any questions or concerns for me?”
Zane didn’t have any questions, but he did feel the need to express his gratitude. Ms. Lovell had given him the chance to achieve the life he’d always wished for. Plus she was kind of cool. Zane tried to get the words right. Gratitude was new territory. “I really appreciate you meeting with me personally and helping me. You have no idea what a relief it is to have this chance. I know I can make a huge difference here, and I won’t let you regret it.”
Ms. Lovell smiled and got up to pat his hand, appearing to understand his sentiment. “We’re glad you’re here, Zane. You had the courage to go for something you weren’t sure you could even achieve, and you succeeded. You will find unlimited opportunities at this school if you try for them.”
Zane left her office overwhelmed. This was his chance. If everything went as planned, he’d have a solid future ahead of him, and, more than that, he could make a difference in the world. Soon people like Hailen, Sky, and even that little prick of a guard would never be able to call him an unknown again.
And maybe then he’d date a girl like Aurora.
AURORA
Aurora awoke with a start. Her hair was plastered to her forehead and her heart raced. She sat up and looked around, bewildered. It took her a moment to realize she was in her room at the Academy. Even though she had been in school for almost a month, she still wasn’t used to her new accommodations.
Kaylana slept peacefully in the bed across from hers. Aurora checked her watch; three in the morning. She wished she could wake Kaylana up to talk, but three o’clock was too early even for Aurora. She missed having Kaylana in her classes. They only saw each other in their shared classes: Astronomy, Life in Space, and swim training.
Unlike Aurora, Kaylana seemed to be adjusting just fine to school. She came to the dorm room every evening talking about how great her medical labs were or how cute her lab partner Akemi had looked that day.
Aurora fluffed the pillow behind her and turned on her side. No one would really talk to her. She enjoyed her training so much that she was usually able to forget that people quietly stared or that she was the only female in most of her classes, but free time brought it all back.
She couldn’t get Zane to talk to her either, and she was certain he avoided her when he could. Even Hailen and Sky spoke to her more often than he did, and that was saying something. Sky was becoming more of a nuisance than Hailen.
As an already graduated cadet from the Apollo Academy and now a successful astronaut, Sky thought he knew everything. He was the Apollo Alliance’s youngest captain and held the record for the most moon landings. Aurora admitted that he seemed to let his worst attributes come out only around her. When Aurora watched him interact with others he seemed to be a fun, flirty guy.
An ego she could have handled, but the constant scolding she received for every little mistake upset her. He liked to publicly humiliate her anytime he could, always waiting for the perfect moment to strike out at her. She liked to pretend he was only being tough on her because he was trying to make her better, but it probably had more to do with her last name or maybe even the fact that she was a girl.
Aurora groaned and rolled over. She needed to get back to sleep.
Aurora woke up a few hours later, feeling drained. The constant worry over Zane, Hailen, Sky, her father, and her studies was starting to take a toll on her emotionally, but today she woke up determined not to let anyone else affect her. She quickly dressed in her Apollo Academy polo shirt and shorts and at the last minute decided to wear her favorite wedge sandals.
Unfortunately, her new determination didn’t last long.
Whoop, whoop. “Thrust warning, loss of main engine one.” Whoop, whoop.
The shrill warning bell caused the hair on the back of Aurora’s neck to stand. She thrust the throttles on the remaining two engines full forward. She knew Sky stood behind her simulation panel, probably smiling as she struggled to recover from the engine failure he’d just caused with the flick of a switch.
He’d been overseeing everyone’s progress and of course decided now to come over, waiting until she was at an extremely critical altitude before creating this failure for her to handle.
Whoop, whoop. “Stall imminent.” Whoop, whoop.
Aurora knew she was approaching the aircraft’s stall speed, but the loss of a single engine made it extremely difficult to control the overly large shuttle. Her yoke shook, another warning that a stall was close.
Aurora had to resist the urge to pull the nose of the aircraft up.
“Aurora, you’re going to stall if you don’t increase your airspeed,” he whispered right next to her ear. She jumped, accidentally pressing her foot down on the rudder pedal. She still felt his breath on her cheek. Sky’s constant hissing in her ear was more distracting than being yelled at.
“Shit!” She didn’t even have a chance to alter the course of events because she was at too low of an altitude to recover from the spin she’d just entered.
“Terrain, terrain.” Whoop, whoop. “Pull up, pull up.”
She wasn’t going to make it. It was like her last simulation flight all over again.
The screen cracked and blacked out when the shuttle hit the ground, killing everyone on board. This was followed by flashing red lights and a loud siren that alerted her and everyone else around her of the failure.
She slammed her finger down on the automatic warning system. The red warning lights swarmed around her, making her cringe in on herself. She already knew she had messed up; she didn’t need the incessant light show. If Sky hadn’t scared her half to death, she wouldn’t have stomped down on the rudder so hard at such a low speed. Okay, so maybe scared wasn’t the right word, but his breath on her face definitely distracted her.
“Damn it, Sky!” she said taking her frustration out on the one who was really responsible for her crash.
Now sitting down beside her, his large frame towered over her. He whispered in her ear, “Tell me why you crashed.”
He was still too close. “Oh, I don’t know, maybe because you scared me half to death by hissing at me.” She touched her ear. “Who does that? It made me stomp down on the rudder.”
Sky grinned, showing off his dimples. “Are you saying you were distracted by my very presence?” He had the audacity to wiggle his eyebrows suggestively.
Heat ran to Aurora’s face, but instead of backing down like she normally would, she decided to wipe that grin off of his face. She’d had it with everyone treating her differently. It might not have been the best idea, but she flirtatiously leaned toward Sky anyway. His eyes widened in surprise.
Now that he was distracted, she discreetly pulled a piece of gum from her bag on the seat next to her. “Here, maybe next time your breath won’t cause so much trouble.”
His mouth opened in shock, and Aurora took the opportunity to place the gum into his mouth. The instant she did it, she felt horrible. What was wrong with her? That was the most immature thing she’d ever done.
Sky calmly shut his mouth and popped a bubble, but the grin on his face was definitely gone. “That’s no reason to kill everyone on board.” He popped another bubble, glancing down to where her feet met the rudder pedals. He raised his eyebrows. “Maybe you shouldn’t be wearing heels when flying. You’ve just killed everyone on board because you don’t have the sense to wear appropriate shoes. When will you get it in your head that this isn’t just a game?”
Her face felt like it was on fire. And the red warning lights still flashing did nothing to calm her down. Sky was absolutely clueless to the building volcano of feelings angrily swarming around inside of her.
&nb
sp; She interrupted him. “I can fly nova in any shoe. And you know that’s not why I crashed. I crashed because of your interference.” Aurora knew the stakes. People’s lives would be placed directly in her hands, and because of that she had spent more time training than any other cadet.
She was beginning to question why anyone would invite Sky to train the next class of astronauts. He was only twenty-two years old. The reason they used certified astronauts as mentors was for the added benefit of their real-life knowledge. Two years as a certified astronaut was not enough time to become someone’s mentor. So what if he completed a few missions and held the record for most moon landings. Someone would surely surpass that with all the mining missions. Maybe she would even be the one to do it. Regardless, he wasn’t mature enough to keep his obviously personal feelings against her from getting in the way of training. It seemed like Sky tried to make things as difficult as possible. It was like he wanted her to fail.
Sweat began to drip down her back, causing her clothes to stick to her, and yet he still continued to lecture her. “You need to be able to handle an engine failure at any altitude. Just because you are the daughter of Collin Titon doesn’t mean you have free reign to goof off.”
That’s it! “I am not here because of my father!” She pointed her manicured finger in his face.
The rest of the class stared, so she toned down her voice, but the fire in her words still rang out. “I train and study more than anyone in this room. You’re purposely being harder on me either because of my last name or because I’m a girl. The special treatment you think I receive because of my father is no special treatment at all. I have to work harder to prove to everyone else that I belong here. Is it still considered special treatment when you’re constantly being underestimated and dismissed?”
Sky’s piercing blue eyes were cold as he looked at her, but he didn’t say anything. In fact, he looked a little shocked by her outburst as he considered her words.
But she wasn’t waiting around to hear anything else he had to say. She got up and stormed out of the room, her high-heeled shoes leading the way.
Her pounding footsteps made an echo as she ran down the hall to the elevator. The elevator could not get her to her floor fast enough. It was the only place she could go before her astronomy class in thirty minutes, and she needed some time to compose herself and calm down.
She had never exploded on anyone like that in her life. Oh, but it had felt good. When she made it to her room, she flopped onto her bed, thinking she would probably start crying, but found she was completely numb. All of her anger and embarrassment were gone. She distantly knew that she had overreacted and that everyone would probably be talking about it, but she didn’t find it anywhere in her to care. And why on earth had she shoved a piece of gum in Sky’s mouth?
She smiled. That actually was kind of funny. Well, until he had completely ignored her attempt to throw him off guard, like he had done to her with all of that whispering in her ear. Either way, she had actually stood up for herself, even if the crash was partially her fault. She would have to be able to handle any emergency, but Sky’s presence had only further flustered her. She needed to learn how to ignore distractions like that. Being captain of a shuttle was going to be stressful and she needed to learn how to keep her knots up even when stressed.
Keep your knots up. That was something Lieutenant Colonel Jackson was always saying when he lectured during ground school. She wasn’t sure she could pull the pilot lingo off as well as he did. She was far from their typical pilot.
She looked down at her shoes. With her small stature, the added two-inch heels boosted her confidence. Of course, when she piloted a shuttle in real life, she’d be dressed in her Apollo Academy standard flight suit. What? Did he expect her to dress like that all the time? She was still in school, not on a mission.
She huffed. No matter what she did, people would be watching, so it only made sense to look nice.
Her thoughts continued to roar around in her head until she had no choice but to leave for class. Astronomy started in ten minutes. She decided to look on the bright side; Sky would not be there. Aurora grabbed her bag and strode out of the room.
By the time she found her usual seat next to Kaylana at the front of class, Professor Fontaine stood in front of the room waiting to begin his lecture. Aurora still felt the heat of her emotions burning her cheeks but had no time to talk it through with Kaylana.
“Everyone, I have a special lesson planned for today.” Professor Fontaine smiled. “From the first days of civilization people have looked to the stars above. Gazing upward they would seek answers from the brilliant balls of fire burning above them. Our solar system is over 4.5 billion years old and is in constant change. Many have lost sight of the brilliance of the celestial bodies roaming above us, and I think it’s time we all looked with fresh eyes at the beauty of the universe.” He paused before saying, “Now, I’d like everyone to please close their eyes.”
There were a few groans and whispers, but everyone eventually closed their eyes, curious to see what the Professor was up to. After a few seconds, Aurora began to hear a slight tapping and had to force herself to keep her eyes shut.
Professor Fontaine was clearly going for drama because he made them sit in silence for several minutes before finally saying, “Now open your eyes and see the universe anew.”
Aurora wasn’t sure what exactly she was seeing at first and gasped in surprise when she finally figured out what the Professor had done. In the few minutes they had their eyes closed, the room had been transformed. They were surrounded by glowing planets, moving asteroids, moons, and the sun, brightest of all, which stood at the center of it all. Her teacher had uploaded a moving representation of the solar system and now it was virtually displayed for everyone to see three dimensionally.
Aurora watched in awe as the planets moved about the room. Each planet was unique in its own way, each one a different color and size. They slowly turned on their own axis as they rotated around the sun. The room was cast in shadows, but at the center of it all stood the glowing sun, lighting everything that moved near it. She felt like she was finally at home. The small piece of her soul that she knew was missing, seemed to be filled in as she looked on in wonder. She took a huge breath. It was the most gorgeous thing Aurora had ever seen.
She couldn’t get over how damaged, yet still beautiful the earth looked as it passed by her desk. It was one of the most unusual planets in their solar system. Unique in every way with its swirls of white, blues, and small patches of green, its beauty marred by larger patches of brown where cities and trash consumed what remained of the available land. She didn’t think anyone could ever realize how irreplaceable the earth was until they were looking from the outside in. It was a shame to realize that humans were to the point of using resources faster than the earth was able to produce them. They were a growing race running out of options, and the Academy taught them that they would be responsible for helping all the people left behind.
Her professor tore her attention from Earth, to the planet slowly following behind it. “Everyone take a look at the planet Mars. The rusty red planet has been called many things throughout history and gains the most attention because of its similarities to Earth. As a possible second home for humankind and our next closest source of natural resources after the moon, its importance cannot be overlooked.”
Mars was beautiful in its own desolate way. It reminded her of the Big Island of Hawaii and of Loihi, the most recent addition to the Hawaiian Island chain. Like Hawaii, Mars was molded by its many volcanic eruptions that had left visible scars on its surface.
As Aurora looked more closely, she saw the white polar ice caps on the north and south poles of the planet. She could also see the pock-marked craters that were formed from the many asteroid hits the planet received. Mr. Fontaine began tapping again and managed to increase the size of Mars before their very eyes as he zoomed in on some of the planet’s most distinct features.
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“Mars boasts some of the most highly varied and interesting terrain in our solar system.” He used his finger to point at a large wide mound that rose slowly until it peaked above Mars’s atmosphere. “Anyone know what this is?”
“It’s the biggest volcano in the solar system. It’s three and a half times the height of Mount Everest,” Aurora stated.
“That’s exactly right, Aurora,” Professor Fontaine said.
Everyone stopped looking at the swirling universe to look at her. She shrugged, trying not to get embarrassed. It was no wonder that she related more to the fictional characters she read about than to the people around her. She wanted to yell out, It’s called reading, but really it was a miracle she’d spoken at all. One step at a time, Aurora.
Professor Fontaine pointed to a different location. “You can see here Valles Marineris, the largest canyon in our solar system. Makes our Grand Canyon look tiny.”
Professor Fontaine spent the remaining class time going into details of the red planet and answering any questions they had.
Kaylana, of course, had the courage to ask, “So when are we settling on Mars?”
“What?” Hailen squeaked out, like the idea had never occurred to her. “When?” She looked at the Professor with wide eyes.
Professor Fontaine rubbed his beard as if he was contemplating how to answer the question. He finally replied cryptically with, “Sooner than you would think.”
That caused some commotion in the class, and people spoke quickly to one another. Knowing that he had lost everyone’s attention, he released the class a few minutes early. Aurora and probably every other cadet in the room left the classroom wondering if maybe they would get a chance to be a part of that mission.
The Apollo Academy Page 8
