I press the last button and straighten. A beam of light shines on the wagon, coating it in a faintly greenish glow as the altered plasma morpher combines with the anion preciever. The wagon begins to shake, wobble, and then lift inches off the ground, a foot, two feet… a hundred feet.
Shit.
The wagon keeps on shooting upward, and I race over to the device to dial it back down, but that also happens way too fast. The wagon’s crashing down far too fast, the wagon looking redder than normal from the heat generated, and I just manage to get it to slow down, but not in time for a perfect landing. It’s rough, but not too rough. The wagon doesn’t bust apart at least.
“Ah, well, I, um, had it all set for a centuricar or centuricmobile,” I say hastily, “but it would’ve worked better with one. It’s a levitation device, and it’s what we need, what the Earth needs. Think about it! We won’t need to worry about heavy roads, and all of the asphalt concrete shaping the Earth, and…”
The general says nothing, and I swallow hard. I’m not so sure he thinks it’s as much of a game changer as I think it is.
“If you just give me a little more time, I can lift and land the wagon with ease. Then, I can show you—”
“I think I’ve seen enough.”
I grit my teeth and do my best not to snarl or growl at the infuriating man. “I know that what happened was a little rough, but—”
"We don't have time to worry about little trinkets like this when we need to focus on bettering our spaceships, or weapons in case there are any more hostile alien life forms out there… The Earth has had enough game changers, don't you think? We don't need anymore."
I inhale deeply. “Respectfully, sir, I disagree.”
“Well, the military isn’t interested in this project of yours. I must return to my work now. Have a good night.” With a nod, he walks away, his hands behind his back.
I clench my teeth so hard that my jaw aches. The wagon's too hot for me to put the device in, and I grimace. Maybe he has a point. Not that the Earth isn't ready, but the device isn't. I need the device to be on the vehicles to maintain the levitation until it's possible to create multiple massive levitation devices all over the place. The massive ones will work together to levitate multiple centuricmobiles across extensive distances. Otherwise, I would need miniature ones in every vehicle. Either would work, but I'm not there yet.
A prototype. That’s what this is, and it’s still a work in progress. I thought I was further along than I am, but that’s just not the case.
Dejected, I sit on the grass and wait for the wagon to cool off. I'm not risking the prototype. I won't risk exposing it to heat like that. I thought I recalibrated the device to properly handle the wagon, but I clearly miscalculated or punched in the numbers wrong.
9
Rix
Mark, Simon, and Lloyd have been doing their best to keep me happy and preoccupied. Even though we haven’t been friends for very long, they realize and recognize that I’m hurting. I doubt any of them realize why I’m hurting, and it’s all my own fault. There’s no denying it. I wanted to see if there could be something between Ava and me, and I blew it. Plain and simple, I fucked up, and I don’t know if I can get her to trust me again.
The boys, though, they drag me from place to place, and there are always so many women. They flock to us and not just because of me. Plenty of them have their eyes on my friends. They seem to love a man in uniform.
All I want, though, is another chance with Ava, but I’m scared. Yes, I’m scared. It’s pathetic really for me to be nervous. What’s the worst thing that can happen if I show up at her place? But I don’t want to stalk her, and I don’t want her to feel like she can’t be safe in her own space. It’s not really a home, though. Does she have a home? That place has to be her workspace, right? Not where she stays all the time?
The days pass, one by one, and I find myself getting into a routine. As much as I can't help myself, I dream about Ava every night. It's always the same dream, although the circumstances are a bit different each time. Every dream stars Ava and me, and we're going at it like rabbits, fucking each other every way and upside down too. It's amazing, and, unsurprisingly, I wake up each morning harder than a rock, which means I have to flamindulis. I have no choice in the matter, but I hate it because it’s a waste. It’s also damn frustrating to have sex dreams while lacking a sex life.
Then, I tend to eat with the boys. They don’t have much in the way of work right now, so we can do what we want for most of the day, and then at nights, we go to barbeques and picnics and dances and parties.
By the time the night has come, I'm exhausted. In a daze, I hit the hay for the cycle to repeat again and again.
One morning, after a week since I last saw Ava, before it’s time for me to catch up with the boys for breakfast, my chip chirps.
“Hello?”
“Rix,” my dad says.
“What’s up?”
“What’s up? What’s up, he says.” I can picture my dad shaking his head. “How’s Earth?”
“It’s great.”
“Good. You want to know what else is great?”
“What?” I ask even though I already know his answer.
“Kuria, that’s what,” he states. “When are you coming back home?”
I hesitate.
“Rix, what’s going on?” my dad asks suspiciously.
“Nothing’s going on,” I say maybe a tad defensively.
“You met a girl, didn’t you?” he asks.
“Maybe.”
“Either you did,
