Chapter Two
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Day One: Asteroid
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“Aster. A distress signal was received a minute ago. From-” Meteor, my boyfriend, says, bursting into my room without knocking.
“If you say Earth or Scallanos, I'm going to throw things.” I shudder. “I do not think we are welcome in either place.”
“I was going to say Mars.”
“That’s so close to Earth! You trying to get us thrown out of the galaxy?”
“Don’t worry. This time of year, it’s 248,000,000 miles away from Earth. I looked it up! And the transmission’s not even from some human. It’s from Martians.” I sigh.
“Nova.” A hologram of the Orion’s pilot shimmers into view, a new feature Michael, our Tech guy, dreamed up.
“Yes, Ma’am?”
“Plot a course for Mars. On the double!”
“Yes, Captain.”
I walk into Meteor’s open arms and rest my head on his chest.
“You did good.”
“I know I said no more weakness, but I don’t like being so mean.” I say to no one in particular.
“No, it's good for you. They didn’t respect you before, and they hardly respected me at all. Now, they look to us for instruction.” He holds me out at arms length. “No more weakness.”
I repeat the intonation. “No more weakness.”
“That's my girl.” He kisses me tenderly. “Let’s go to the hangar. Michael has a surprise for us all.” He takes my hand, a part of his plan to make the two of us appear stronger. He thinks if we appear as a united front, they will respect us more. So far, he’s right. I haven't even gotten a snarky word from Michael in a month!
As we walk into the hanger, Michael pushes us out of the doors.
“The others aren't here yet! They’re on their way down. Until they’re down here, you guys stay.” I start to say okay, but Meteor nudges me. Right, assertiveness. No more weakness.
“When will they be here?” I query.
“Ten, maybe fifteen minutes.” He replies. Meteor subtly shakes his head, masked by him running his fingers through his jetblack hair.
“Too long. Speed them up.” I order. Michael places an expeditious call with Constellation, our Navigator and his girlfriend. He returns almost immediately.
“Five minutes.”
“Good. Th-” Thank you. No. No more weakness. “Good thinking.” Meteor nods his head faintly. I sit down on a stool Michael placed there for lunch break. He doesn’t allow anything food-related anywhere near where he’s working, much to our food-loving Co-Pilot, Star’s chagrin.
Meteor stands behind me and fingers my hair. I can tell what he’s thinking, just by the way he plays with it. He’s only playing with the tips, meaning he’s distracted, probably by the Martian distress signal. If he was really digging into my scalp, it would mean he was trying really hard to restrain himself from kissing me in front of everybody like he did that fateful night last December. If he was playing with the little hairs at the base of my neck, it would mean he was worried about something that was really bothering him.
As I daydream about Meteor and all the tender, unnoticeable touches he gives me, Star, Nova, and Constellation walk out of the televator.
“What’s up Michael?” I ask impatiently.
“Well, you know how the Orion is a little big? Hard to get into, say, small bodies of water?” We all nod. “Well, I present the solution.” He flings the doors wide open. “Our own spacejets! Meteor, Blue; Asteroid, Black; Constellation, Purple; Nova, Red; Star, Yellow; I’m Green.”
I start to get up to run and look at mine, but Meteor holds me down. The others bolt towards theirs. Unprofessional, I think.
Another voice sounds in my head. Ding ding. Give the girl a prize. I jump. The voice in my head sounded a whole lot like Meteor. Telepathy. Must be your ability, the voice rings in my ears.
Meteor, this is crazy. How do I control it?
Stop thinking about me. I blush.
But I'm only seventeen. Why did it come early?
Maybe the Universe thinks you’re special. I know I do. Well, great. Meteor is totally using this to his advantage. He knows I always think of him at night, and now he’ll talk to me through my mind. Eh. Not so bad.
I stop thinking of him and rigidly stand up and stride over to my black starjet. I run my hand over it’s sleek, aerodynamic body, thinking it’s the same deep black of Meteor’s hair after a shower. I’ll name it. No one would ever know. I wouldn’t even tell Me-
You already did. What’s its name? I sigh tremendously.
Well, since you asked, I'm naming it Desert Night. What’s yours named?
Asteroid. He says flatly. I look at him and he busts out laughing. I’m not even joking. It looks like your hair.
I reach over and grab a pair of scissors on the worktable next to Desert Night. I take my ponytail and cut my long blond and blue locks off just above my hair tie. The hair falls around my feet. Not anymore, Loverboy.
I was hoping you’d do that. I love you with short hair. Remember when you cut it in sixth grade? Of course, I never got to really see you up close very often. You were always hanging out with--”
I immediately block him out. Those memories are just too much. He is right though.
I used to hang out with another boy when I was younger. We weren’t dating or anything, but we were very close. When I was fifteen, something happened to him. I never liked to think about him after that.
“Michael, thank you for these creations. They will serve a great purpose on Mars.” Mars. That name. That name was once a boy’s name. Until-
I choke back a sob. My boots activate the invisibility feature. I walk silently out of the room, tears streaming down my unseeable face. I slowly tread down the halls, the room I want in the belly of the ship. During the past few months, I've spent a lot of time in the cell we used to hold Meteor. I hold my head in my hands, trying to keep it together.
Meteor knocks on the cell door.
“Hey. You okay?” I don’t answer. “I’m sorry. About what I said. About-”
“Don’t.” I hold my hand up.
“I’m sorry. I know how close you were.”
“It’s not your fault.” I sigh, annoyed. “It’s his. He is and was, probably never going to turn out any different.
"Let’s just get to Mars."
ns 15.158.61.6da2
