Evolution

Anna grabbed my hands, giving me a stern expression. She twisted my clenched fists roughly on the hilt of her katana, forcing them to be vertical.

“Keep your grip loose, yet firm.”

I tried to do what she told me. I looked into her hazel eyes, which she then promptly rolled.

“Stop looking at me and focus. Make your mind blank. I imagine a black plane, a void. Have you been practicing that like I told you?”

“Yes,” I lied.

“No, you haven’t. I can tell.” She sighed. “That’s the most important part.”

“Where did you get this void thing, anyway?”

“I don’t know. I made it up, but it works.”

I smirked, holding the katana as steady as I could. “So, when do I get to swing this thing?”

Anna raised an eyebrow. “Would you quit being perverted and pay attention for once?”

“I’m trying.”

She sighed again, but it was forced, and I could see the beginnings of a smile playing on her lips.

“Seriously. You need to practice meditating. Once you get the hang of it, you can make your mind completely blank. I always do it before a fight. It helps my concentration.” She looked at me. “Do you understand?”

“Yeah. Makes sense.”

“Good. You really need to practice it. I can’t stress that enough.” She looked at my arm, touching my left bicep. “You’re getting stronger. You’ve been working out still?”

“Yeah, of course. I didn’t realize you were such a fan.”

“I’m just commenting on your physique,” she said. Despite this comment, her face flushed slightly red “I can actually see you when you stand sideways, now. You were so rail thin before.”

“Ouch.” I set her katana gently on her bed. “My ‘physique’, huh?”

She ignored my comment. “When you go to your hab today, I want you to do the mediation. I mean it.”

“Alright. I get it.” I turned for the door. “I’m going to grab dinner, if you want to come.”

She shook her head. “I still need to practice myself. Thanks, though.”

“You’ve already practiced this morning.”

“I practice twice a day. If you can wait a couple hours…maybe. We’ll see.”

My stomach growled in protest. Between my hunger and her playing hard to get, I think my stomach was going to win. “No, I probably can’t wait that long. So, you want to meet at the same time tomorrow?”

Anna took up her blade, staring intently ahead. “Works for me.”

I left her room and made my way back to my hab. Two months in Skyhome, I finally got the chance to see Anna a little more. Nothing had happened between us. At least, not yet. I felt some flirtatious vibes from her, but it always looked like she was doing her best to suppress them. Which made sense; after all, we were all here for the mission. But when you spend a lot of time with someone, you can’t help but think about them.

So far, Anna had only agreed to help train me to use the katana. I wanted a backup, in case I somehow couldn’t use my gun, but I think we both knew that I was just using training as an excuse to get to know her. I had learned a lot, but I was still a long way from being even semi-competent. All the same, I appreciated everything I was learning, and it was nice to see her.

Still, after two months, I was hoping that things could have progressed a little more with Anna. And I wasn’t just crazy. After all, it was my hand she decided to grab down there on Earth, when the crawlers had been coming for us on the runway. And the way she looked at me sometimes, when she thought I wasn’t looking…well, let’s just say there had to be something there.

Hopefully, the right opportunity would present itself.

Chapter 2

On returning to my hab, I practiced the meditation Anna taught me. I was failing miserably. No matter how much I tried, my thoughts kept spinning out of control. I’ve always been a sufferer of the disease known as “thinking too much.”

I was grateful when a knock came at the door. Hoping it was Anna, I went to answer. I pressed the exit button, causing the metal door to slide open. I couldn’t help but be slightly disappointed when it was Samuel, standing in his characteristic muscle shirt and camo pants. His head, as usual, was shaved bald, and his facial features were sharp and toned. Even after all the R&R, he had been working out. That was Samuel’s way — everything he did was for the purpose of succeeding in our mission.

“We’re all meeting in Ashton’s office to go over the final phase of the mission at 1930 hours.”

“Alright. I need to eat still.”

“Make it quick. You have fifteen. Anna and Makara are already waiting.”

“What are we going over?”

“We’re leaving tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” I asked. “I thought we still had a couple weeks.”

“It’s go time, kid,” he said. “My arm’s healed, and if we stay up here any longer, we’ll go soft. Besides, the xenovirus isn’t taking any breaks.”

I guessed that much was true. “Alright. I’ll head over.”

Samuel walked away, and I felt a surge of energy rush through me. Tomorrow, we’d be back on the planet, doing something that mattered. I was already starting to feel more alive. Makara had been training to pilot the Odin. Ashton himself had been teaching her, in the mornings, and they had run some test atmosphere reentries, and even some landings. Basically, anything she’d have to do during the mission, Ashton had taught her. He had told me that she was a natural. That made sense, because she drove the Recon like a pro on our way to Bunker One. It didn’t surprise me that she also had an affinity for piloting the Odin.

I left my hab, entering the main corridor of the Mid Ring. It was time to head to the commons for a bite.

The Mid Ring’s main corridor is hard to get used to. You can see it curving, slightly upward, along its entire length. The whole thing makes a circle, and is always spinning to supply Skyhome with artificial gravity. The Mid Ring is divided into four Quadrants — Alpha, Beta, Charlie, and Delta. Charlie Quadrant contains the commons, the clinic, and an archive, where there are computers. In Charlie, there is also a rec room with a large screen that’s used for movies. The rest of the Quadrants are dedicated to habs, mostly. My hab, along with Anna’s, is in Delta Quadrant. Makara’s and Samuel’s are both in Alpha.

Then there are the two other Rings — the Outer Ring, and the Inner Ring. The Outer is where all food is grown hydroponically. The Outer Ring also contains recycling tanks and water reclamation units, or WRU’s. Most of the water is tied up in the Outer Ring to water crops, but every molecule of it is saved and recycled with near 100 percent efficiency. Any time there is a shortfall, which only happens once every few years, Gilgamesh can go to the surface, fill up, and make up the difference.

For power, solar collectors are attached on the Outer Ring’s surface. Altogether, they take in more energy than the station will ever need. There is also a backup fusion generator, the same kind that runs the spaceships, in Skyhome’s central nexus. In the event of a massive solar flare, the solar collectors could be blown out, rendering them useless until they could be replaced.

The crops of the Outer Ring provide oxygen, and Skyhome’s citizens provide carbon dioxide, while state of the art filtration and monitoring technology makes sure the air composition maintains a proper balance. In addition to the food grown in the Ring, chickens are also raised. They provide eggs and the occasional meat. Most Skyhome citizens have a full-time job growing crops and raising chickens. There are also specialized technicians and engineers who keep the orbiting city maintained, and who make repairs when needed. Dr. Ashton himself doubles as the station’s general practitioner, even if medicine is not his main field of expertise.

Of the three Rings, the Inner is the smallest. It contains administrative offices, including Ashton’s, and the inner workings of Skyhome, called the Central Nexus. The Nexus turns all three rings of the station, and consumes