The Apollo Academy

by Kimberly P. Chase

  “What do you want?” he said through gritted teeth.

  A horrible thought rose to the front of his mind, way worse than Hailen knowing his true identity. What did his brother want with him?

  Sky gazed across the massive pool where cadets were gathering for neutral buoyancy training. Zane’s concerned eyes briefly held his.

  Sky leaned into Hailen, whispering in her ear, “What do you want?”

  Hailen clasped her hands together, bouncing on the toes of her feet. “Nothing. I just wanted you to know that I know your secret.” She cocked her head to the side. “I’m sure I’ll come up with a favor, of course, at some point.”

  And he thought Aurora would be the one to cause trouble.

  “If you were going to spread such a senseless tale, you would have told people by now.” Sky fake smiled. “You have no proof.”

  Hailen patted his shoulder. “Of course I have proof, but I don’t plan on saying anything. Just remember that I know.”

  “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” he asked, exasperated. Sky, used to controlling everything, had never felt so conquered.

  “I’m sure I’ll come up with a favor eventually, but for now just keep your mouth shut,” Hailen nonchalantly said. She tossed her blonde hair over her shoulder and strutted away.

  Sky’s mind whirled. Keep his mouth shut. What the hell did that mean? The only people who knew his true identity were his father and Ms. Lovell. Henry Dagan had spent a fortune trying to keep his existence hidden and had never wanted anything to do with him. What had changed?

  Sky had no choice but to pretend like his whole world wasn’t crashing down around him. He had cadets to train. As long as Hailen kept his secret, everything would be fine. What’s the worst she could ask him to do or keep quiet about?

  Sky put on his headset, walking over to the class eight cadets surrounding the neutral buoyancy pool. He made eye contact with Hailen, slightly nodding. He’d do whatever it took to keep his secret. Sky wasn’t ready to face his true parentage.

  ZANE

  When the elevator opened on the fifth floor, Zane made his way to the overly large pool that would serve for neutral buoyancy training.

  A few students were already dressed in their fitted spacesuit gear by the pool. Zane thought that the Apollo Academy had done a nice job with their spacesuits. They were functional, unlike the older generation of suits that astronauts used to wear. He would never understand how they ever wore those big bulky contraptions that made them look like over-insulated marshmallows. He even heard that they used to weigh over three hundred pounds. How anyone thought a person could appropriately function with that much extra weight and bulk strapped down on top of them, regardless of atmosphere, was beyond him.

  Zane spotted Jean-Pierre and Akemi, standing fully suited next to the pool. He waved a hello as he walked past them to get to the locker room. He didn’t bother trying to say anything because they wouldn’t be able to hear him through the clear, small helmet covering their heads.

  When Zane entered the locker room, he requested a suit for the Neutral Buoyancy Simulator training from the side wall monitor. He stripped to his boxers, waiting for his requested suit. A few seconds later, a compartment opened from the wall below the monitor. He grabbed his suit and helmet and went to the middle of the room to get dressed.

  He stopped short.

  Aurora stood a few feet away, half naked. The sexy white underwear and bra she wore left nothing to the imagination. Zane’s eyes slowly skimmed her toned thighs as she pulled the legs of her suit up. She then wiggled when trying to get the tight suit over her ass, and Zane groaned.

  The Academy wanted them to get used to undressing in front of one another. No one could be self-conscious living on a space station, but Zane wondered if they realized the more dangerous situation they were creating. The sexual tension in the room was palpable.

  Staying away from her was becoming impossible.

  Aurora slowly zipped the suit up and swallowed when she saw Zane staring.

  A pink blush coated her cheeks, but she didn’t look away.

  It was only when her gaze slowly traveled down his body, that Zane realized they were both half-naked in a room together. He stepped forward, intent on crushing her body to his.

  “Just friends, huh?” Aurora whispered, her voice taking on a huskier pitch.

  Before Zane could carry out his plan, Kaylana came bouncing out from the back of the locker room, fully suited. “You ready?”

  “Yeah I just have to get my helmet.”

  Zane glanced away and focused all of his attention on his suit. The spacesuit was all white with the exception of a gold Apollo Academy logo on the upper left arm and the gold wings that spread wide over the back shoulders. He knew white had been chosen because it reflected heat the same way in space as it did on earth, allowing for passive thermal control. But the gold wings across the back gave the suit character.

  It was a pretty sick design.

  Feeling back in control, Zane glanced up to find Aurora gone.

  He breathed a sigh of relief. That had been close. Too close. How was he supposed to stay away from Aurora when he lost all rational thought when she was around?

  Zane yanked the pant legs up, shoving the image of Aurora’s tight little body away.

  The pants molded to the shape of his legs, tightly ensuring a complete seal. Zane carefully secured the utility belt around his waist. It was kind of important; the belt held the life-support system that helped regulate body temperature and oxygen levels.

  Finally, Zane was dressed. He walked back to the still open compartment and placed his clothes inside where they would return to the storage room until requested again.

  With his clothes safely tucked away, Zane joined Akemi and Jean-Pierre by the pool. As he walked toward the two of them, he spotted Hailen and Sky talking in the far corner of the room.

  Akemi’s fingers tapping on his helmet brought his focus back to the two boys beside him. Both of them were wearing a duh-we’re-trying-to-talk-to-you look. That’s when Zane realized that Akemi and Jean-Pierre’s mouths were moving, but he didn’t hear anything they said.

  Right. He hadn’t turned on his communication unit yet. He tapped on his lower arm panel to activate it and immediately heard their voices.

  “Turn on ze radio,” Jean-Pierre stated the obvious in his accented English.

  “Zane, can you hear me?” Akemi asked.

  “‘Ello, Zane!” Jean-Pierre yelled.

  Apparently, they felt the louder they yelled, the better his chance of hearing them. He would have let them continue with their ranting, but that wouldn’t be fair to anyone else tuned into the common frequency.

  “Whoa, guys, I hear you loud and clear. I just hadn’t switched on yet.” Zane motioned over to the conversation that had drawn his attention earlier. Hailen and Sky were still in a heated discussion. “What’s going on with those two?”

  Jean-Pierre shrugged. “Don’t know. A little tête-à-tête. We can’t exactly ‘ear zem in zese ‘elmets.”

  It was weird. Sky’s faced was lined with anger, and Zane wasn’t sure if he was upset at Hailen or at what they were talking about. Zane really needed to talk to him about the techspider he had just found, but now was obviously not the time.

  “They’re probably just talking about the upcoming training,” Akemi said but mouthed, “Talk after training.”

  “Right.” Zane looked away from their conversation when Aurora and Kaylana started walking toward them.

  He focused on Aurora, trying not to think about her half-naked. Or how it would feel to have her perfect breasts pressed against his chest. Zane shook his head, dislodging his traitorous thoughts.

  “Hey,” Kaylana said when she got close enough. Though Zane could tell she was really directing her hello at Akemi. “Are you guys ready for today?”

  Akemi just nodded, and Jeanne-Pierre said, “We don’t ‘ave much to do. Zee medical, geology, flight AOCs are h
ere to experience weightlessness. But Zane you ‘ave special objectives to do, no?” His accent grew even thicker now that girls were around.

  Everyone looked at him expectantly. “Yeah, they are going to fail something, and I’m going to have to figure out how to fix it.”

  He was surprised when Aurora asked, “Did they tell you what?”

  “No, that’s a part of the training. I get to figure it all out on my own.”

  Aurora blushed. “Right, that makes sense.”

  Zane hadn’t meant to sound like a smart ass, but before he could try to fix it, Sky’s voice came over everyone’s helmets, preventing further conversation. “Okay, everyone, let’s brief before we get started.”

  Sky wasn’t dressed in a spacesuit because he would be instructing all of the cadets from a dry location. The shuttle on the floor of the pool would be near capacity with just half of the cadet class, so Sky and several instructors would observe from the control room. Sky was currently using a headset to speak to everyone. “Today we are going to take some time getting used to how our bodies function in a weightless environment. Most of you will do nothing other than move objects from one place to another. The pilot cadets present will all have an opportunity to sit in the shuttle’s cockpit and practice a few procedures. Dr. Stevenson, Professor Anderson, and I will be your primary instructors.”

  Sky gestured toward Professor Anderson. “The geology cadets will need to change to a private channel when Professor Anderson is ready to demonstrate his lesson.” Sky looked around until he spotted Zane. “I believe your professor has already informed you, but we’re going to be running failures for you to identify.”

  Zane nodded. He really wished he could gesture to Sky somehow that they needed to talk, but no such opportunity presented itself.

  “All right, everyone, grab a few weights. They’ll help you get to the bottom.”

  Everyone murmured their agreement. Zane saw lights reflecting off the bottom of the pool but couldn’t make out much more than that. It went ten stories down and only the bright spotlights positioned at the bottom made everything visible. On the opposite side there was a separate elevator that would hold Sky, Dr. Stevenson, and Professor Anderson as they monitored the cadets’ progress from the wide windows that encased it. The mobile room would allow them to observe everyone from different heights throughout the pool.

  When Zane turned to get his weights, he saw that he and Aurora were the only ones still not in the pool. She was trying to adjust additional weights onto her belt when Sky stepped forward to help her. Zane stood frozen, watching their interaction.

  Sky stopped in front of Aurora and bent down on his knees while he helped secure the additional weights around her waist. Aurora was loaded down with more weights than anyone else because of how small she was and Zane watched as Sky gently touched her waist, ensuring they were properly secured. Jealousy stabbed his insides. Right now Zane wanted to kill Sky.

  Zane buried the ugly feeling deep down until it was gone. Only then was he capable of unemotionally observing them.

  It seemed as if Aurora was caught off guard by his attentiveness, because as soon as her weights were secured, she scrambled into the pool.

  Sky looked up, sensing Zane, and nodded in his direction for him to follow Aurora. Zane quickly grabbed a weight and hastily attached it to his belt.

  When Zane entered, the water temperature didn’t register as either warm or cold because the life-support system on his belt regulated his body temperature based on a set of parameters. He swam to the middle of the pool and began his descent.

  The farther down he went the more he was able to make out the dissected shuttle that lay at the bottom. It was now clearly illuminated by the numerous lights directed its way. Zane knew that every part, even the littlest pieces of equipment found on the shuttle would be found on the replica below.

  The additional weight on his belt helped his slow descent, until he finally reached the bottom where he would spend the next two hours. Everyone went to their pre-designated areas. Zane watched as Aurora and Jean-Pierre made their way to the shuttle cockpit. He couldn’t help but be in tune with her movements.

  Zane was stationed near the front of the shuttle, where the stats were displayed, only a few feet down from the cockpit. He saw Akemi and Kaylana perfectly illuminated in the medical bay. Zane marveled at all the spotlights. He felt like he had traveled down to the surface of the sun. Random chatter filled his ears as the cadets maneuvered around, trying to acclimate to their new weight. They bumped into things unintentionally, and it was a struggle to remain in one place.

  A metallic thud reverberated throughout the bottom of the pool.

  “Shit, is my mask on right? I think I just bumped it.”

  Brianna was frantically struggling with her mask, panicking that it was no longer working, but Zane heard her rapid breathing broadcast over the main channel. She was obviously receiving oxygen. He positioned himself near a foothold by the shuttle monitors to help him remain in place and began watching the simulated program to ensure all was properly functioning. He was already prepared to expect a failure, so he stood there waiting, ready to identify whatever it might be.

  “Brianna, it’s on just fine. No need to hyperventilate.” Hailen pulled a crying Brianna back into the geology lab when Professor Anderson’s voice came over his headset, making sure she was all right. He directed all of the geology cadets to change channels for a more private discussion. Zane was pretty sure Brianna was going to get kicked out soon.

  Zane returned his attention to the shuttle monitors. After a brief glance, he was satisfied that everything was within operational levels and still functioning normally. Zane took his eyes off of the monitors to peek into the cockpit where he saw Aurora and Jean-Pierre running some sort of a prelaunch checklist. He didn’t know too much about flying, but they were just touching random flight instruments as far as he could tell. As he watched Aurora move about the cockpit, he noticed that she was still a little clumsy. She seemed to have trouble coping with her change in weight and had lost her usual assertiveness.

  Zane could easily see that Jean-Pierre and Aurora worked well together, even if he couldn’t hear a word they said to each other. They moved as a team through their checklist and, even with Aurora’s occasional bumping into things, still managed a coordinated effort.

  The constant stream of information from the monitors in front of him demanded his attention, so he pulled his gaze and mind back to the matter in front of him. Zane did not have a partner to depend on, so it was solely up to him to identify any problems with the shuttle.

  A yellow caution light and three red warning lights simultaneously appeared on the monitors. Zane was actually pleased when he saw the warning lights because he could finally address a problem other than his own. He immediately realized that the instructors were trying to trick him. They failed three minor systems, causing the red blinking lights and only gave a yellow caution light for the shuttle’s life-support system, which was barely within limits. They were trying to distract him with three minor failures when soon the bigger problem would be the life-support system as it slowly moved into a more alarming emergency.

  As a simulated emergency, these failures would not cause any real harm to anyone, but he still took the training seriously. Everyone was currently using a life-support system to regulate their body, but that would not be the case when they were truly operating inside the shuttle.

  His heart rate remained the same, but Zane still felt the increased adrenaline. He pulled up detailed schematics on all four of the warnings. Just as he suspected, the life-support system was the most threatening, so he decided to wait to address the other three.

  After a brief search throughout the cabin, he discovered that one of the oxygen tanks was leaking, causing the slow failure in the life-support system. He pulled the paneling out from the oxygen compartment near him, keeping a secure foothold to prevent flying away from the now revealed oxygen tanks. There
was no visible puncture wound because it was a simulated exercise, but he would still be expected to follow the appropriate procedure. He cross referenced the monitors and determined that the leak was coming from tank two. He pulled out the sticky adhesive tape from his belt that worked on any surface and placed the sealant to the side of tank two, pretending to cover the problem.

  He turned back to watch what the instructors thought of his decision and smiled when the oxygen levels stabilized. Now that the most critical issue was addressed, he focused on his remaining three failures that were causing the red warning lights. Zane quickly concluded that the warnings were for non-essential electrical components that were grouped on the same electrical bus. The units must not be receiving sufficient power to maintain functionality.

  Moving farther down the cabin hallway, Zane floated to the access door that allowed him to see behind the pretty white paneling and into the hidden area where all of the ugly wiring ran its way throughout the length of the shuttle. He needed to reconfigure the inefficient electrical bus so it would produce enough current to power the three failed components again. It was just a matter of rerouting power around the problem so it could reach where it needed to go.

  He wasn’t sure how long he worked on reconfiguring the wiring, but it didn’t feel like it was very long before the programs were back up and running smoothly. His mind always cleared when he focused on a problem; it had always been a natural extension of his abilities. He never consciously directed his hands, because they always seemed to know what to do with broken objects without much thought. Now he knew why.

  Sky congratulated him for successfully completing his assignment, silencing thoughts that were sure to lead to another grueling tennis match.

  Zane turned his attention back to the shuttle monitors, hoping to distract himself once again with their constant stream of data. A few moments later, Aurora floated out of the cockpit, demanding his attention. She had a huge grin on her face as she tried unsuccessfully to move down the hallway toward him.

  Aurora hit her head on the side wall. She was going to hurt herself if she didn’t acclimate.