The Apollo Academy

by Kimberly P. Chase

  Aurora slowly gathered her headset and tablet that held all of her approach charts and checklists. She was intentionally taking her time leaving the room. Looking at a cockpit, even in a simulator of a totally different aircraft, made her nervous. Before she made her way out of the room, Lieutenant Colonel Jackson called her over to him.

  “Are you feeling up to today’s flight?” he asked.

  Despite his attempts to lighten the situation, he must have recognized her unwillingness to get in the shuttle simulator. There was nothing to do but move forward, so she attempted a small smile. “Yeah, nothing too bad can happen in a sim, right?”

  Lieutenant Colonel Jackson nodded and leaned down to tell her. “There’s nothing more to worry about now. Whatever caused your failures will be fixed, I promise.”

  Aurora wasn’t really convinced that it was something that could be easily fixed, but she didn’t destroy his faith in the maintenance personnel or her small hope that he was right.

  The Lieutenant Colonel glanced at Sky, who was loading the flight-training program for the simulators.

  “Sky, would you mind riding along on Aurora’s flight today?”

  Aurora’s quick intake of breath drew the Lieutenant Colonel’s attention. Before she said anything, Sky had looked up and answered, “Sure.” Not wanting to cause trouble, Aurora held her tongue. She was sure Sky’s presence would not make her flight any easier.

  Sky continued to load the data for the simulator-training lesson, and Aurora patiently waited. She was in no hurry to get started. The Lieutenant Colonel left them together in the room so that he could oversee the other cadets.

  As soon as Sky finished, they made their way to the last available simulator. It was the only one not already in motion and its little walkway was still down, waiting to be boarded.

  She passed the monitor screens where the instructor sat and headed directly into the cockpit where she easily maneuvered herself into the left captain seat. As she was adjusting the rudder pedals, Sky’s shoulder bumped up against her. He was trying to squeeze his long muscular frame into the seat next to her without bumping into her, but it was too tight of a fit for them not to touch.

  Aurora assumed that he would sit in the back area where all of the computer screens were mounted, but instead, the Apollo Academy’s star astronaut was choosing to sit in the co-pilot seat next to her.

  His eyes caught her choice of shoes, and she was certain he was going to begin the flight with one of his snarky comments. Instead he just shook his head at the platform wedge boots that Kaylana had picked out for her. “Nice shoes.”

  The only response she was able to come up with was a raised eyebrow that he just laughed at. She couldn’t help the smile that spread across her face. He was so much nicer when he wasn’t glaring at her.

  He raised his hands in supplication. “Sorry. I won’t say another word. You won’t even know I’m here.”

  To say the rest of simulator run went normally would just be a lie. Well, the flight itself was completely routine. There were no nasty surprises for her to handle, and true to his word, Sky silently sat in the seat next to her as he watched her complete each training maneuver. The only indication that he was even there were brief touches of skin as she flicked switches throughout the cockpit and the occasional glimpse of observant, bright blue eyes.

  Aurora usually didn’t mind silence, but this was intense. It was like they both wanted to say something, but neither of them broke the silence until it came to a point where it would have been weird if it was broken. Her hands were sweating by the time the flight was over. She had been nervous about getting back into the cockpit, but she forgot all about it as soon as Sky gave her a new reason to be nervous. Shit. This is not happening! Aurora had to keep reminding herself that Sky was an ass.

  Yet instead of his usual critical barrage of judgments, he was totally out of character, distracting her in ways she didn’t even want to think about.

  What was with all the boys around her today? Maybe they were feeling bad for her and trying not to make her life harder for once. Or better yet, maybe she had finally proved herself?

  Once she landed and shut down the engines, Aurora gathered her things and jumped out of the cockpit, trying to escape the confined space. She couldn’t face anything that Sky would say to her because it would probably ruin any good feeling she felt toward him just then. She told herself to just run and not look back, but something made her turn around anyway. Sky was standing beside the sim, watching her walk away with a confused look on his face.

  “I guess we can debrief tomorrow,” he called.

  Aurora only nodded.

  It was the second time today that the most troublesome boys in her life finally began to treat her the way she’d always hoped they would.

  ZANE

  Dr. Stevenson’s feet shuffled around the room as he gathered a million different instruments to poke and prod Zane with, all in the name of medical research. So far, they didn’t know anything concrete, other than that several non-human chromosomes were attached to his DNA structure.

  The needle pinched Zane’s arm, as Dr. Stevenson began to suck another vial of blood from his body. Distracting himself from watching the thick, crimson blood pool in the tube, he told Dr. Stevenson about his suspicions. “I think I can go longer than normal without sleep.”

  “That’s interesting. Anything else?” Dr. Stevenson asked as he removed the needle from his arm. He pressed two fingers against Zane’s puncture wound.

  “After my hypobaric training experience, I think I may even be able to go longer than normal without sufficient oxygen. I’ve also been researching the Grid, but I haven’t found anything like my situation.” Most of his findings were about genetic screening and the removal of diseases. “Of course, I did find articles about choosing a child’s gender, eye, and hair color. But there certainly wasn’t an additional chromosome section for a parent’s shopping list of genes.”

  Dr. Stevenson chuckled, but Zane hadn’t been trying to tell a joke.

  “All right, just one more test.” Dr. Stevenson motioned to a metallic table. “I’m going to do a full body scan. No talking. Just relax. It will take about ten minutes to complete.”

  He felt cold metal press against his back when he lay down. And the stupid flimsy paper sack he wore didn’t help. Dr. Stevenson pushed the hovering table into a dark room and positioned Zane’s body under a scanner. “I’ll be right over there.” Dr. Stevenson pointed to a side window. “The room will be dark, so just try and relax while the scanner runs.”

  Zane only nodded as Dr. Stevenson left him alone in the room. He felt alienated, exposed.

  A humming sound began seconds later. Zane was positioned under what looked like a short, off-white tunnel.

  There was nothing for him to do but think.

  He closed his eyes.

  Was he even completely human anymore? He quickly pushed that thought away. Of course he was still human. So what if he was able to run farther and go without sleep for longer? That didn’t make him all that different, right?

  Oh, and he couldn’t forget to add that he did have a higher IQ than the average person or the new possibility that he could go longer without breathing. Now that he thought about it, there were some pretty cool pros to this situation.

  If he hadn’t aced his acceptance tests, he wouldn’t be sitting here at the Apollo Academy with a chance to earn a legitimate identity and a solid future ahead of him.

  If he kept trying to spin the positive implications behind this new discovery, then maybe he could control all of the raging emotions churning inside of him. He’d never had to suppress so many emotions before.

  Unfortunately, now that he considered some of the positives, his analytical mind would only take into account the negative ones as well.

  Some crazy scientist purposefully experimented on him before he was even born and then had carelessly thrown him away like some piece of trash. Maybe the scientist deemed his ex
periment an irreparable failure and had no choice but to get rid of him.

  It was a constant battle to try and override those types of thoughts. He felt like an abused tennis ball caught in an intense match as he was rocketed between two courts, both intent on winning the battle. It was exhausting.

  Right now he was back on the healthier side of the court. He was smart and, according to the doctor, in great physical shape.

  Twack!

  Oh, who was he kidding? He was absolutely horrified. How could any person do this sort of thing to an unborn baby and then not be around to explain the resulting consequences?

  Twack!

  Wait, hadn’t the alteration helped him get by and ultimately accepted into the Apollo Academy?

  Twack!

  He didn’t want to have anyone to thank for that but himself!

  Dr. Stevenson’s worried face appeared before him. “Zane?”

  Startled from his internal tennis match, he looked at the doctor. “Yeah?”

  “We’re done with the scan. I think we need to talk more about this. You seem a little distracted. How are you feeling?”

  Zane sat up, rubbing his arms for warmth. Could he really just share his thoughts with someone else?

  He decided it was worth a shot. “Yeah, I don’t really know what I think. I’m confused, but mostly I feel like a freak and a fraud.”

  Dr. Stevenson nodded, sitting next to him on the portable table. He folded his hands together, looking at Zane. “I know all of this has come as a shock, but let’s try and look on the bright side.” He started ticking items off his fingers. “One, you are no longer plagued with the genetic anomaly that you thought would cost money to fix. Two, your position within the Apollo Academy will not be hurt by this discovery. Three, you are a very fit and intelligent young man with a bright future ahead of you.” He held up a fourth finger, “Four, you are most certainly not a freak. The majority of children born every day have some sort of genetic alteration.” He wiggled his fifth finger, “Five, whoever did this was trying to improve your genes. Just think of yourself as a superior version of the same genetic altering that happens all the time.”

  Zane met the doctor’s eyes. “Look, I get that you are trying to spin the positive on this thing, but I’m an untested experiment. You have no idea what this may mean for my life. Who would do such a thing and then leave me all alone to figure it out?” He hadn’t meant to say something so personal, but it was something that had bothered him his whole life. Now the reasons why meant so much more.

  Dr. Stevenson rubbed his chin briefly before speaking again. “You’re right. It’s not all on the up and up, but I’d rather you look on the brighter side of things until we know more.” He gestured to himself. “You are not alone in this. Finding all of this out doesn’t change anything here for you. You will continue in school and graduate to astronaut status. If any problems come up between now and then, we’ll figure it out. Until then . . . ” He spread his hands wide.

  Zane just nodded. There was really nothing left to say. Dr. Stevenson was right. Once they knew more, they could better figure things out. Until then, he’d pretend like nothing had changed. When Zane left Dr. Stevenson’s office, he felt lighter.

  Beep.

  1400 Group One, Neutral Buoyancy Simulator scrolled across Zane’s techiwatch. He cleared the reminder before shoving his hand back into Aurora’s XT-101 head unit. Zane tried to push the electrical wires and oxygen tube out of his way, but they were knotted and twisted together.

  Frustrated, he fisted his hand around the numerous cords and yanked with all of his strength. The wires snapped and popped as they broke free.

  “Finally!” Zane stood, holding the mangled wires in front of him triumphantly.

  Akemi chose that moment to walk into their room. He stopped and stared at the mess in Zane’s hands. “What’d you do? Decapitate a robot?”

  “No, this is actually the guts of Aurora’s head unit.” Zane sat down, trying to untangle the cords. He had spent the past few nights trying to dissect the tangled mess in front of him without success. After this morning’s lab work, he had decided there were too many questions left unanswered and had taken desperate measures, determined to find the metallic spider thing he saw the other night.

  “Are you in group one or two for the neutral buoyancy training today?” Akemi watched Zane work from the bed opposite of his.

  “Group One. You?” Zane responded, not looking up as he pulled the wiring apart. His fingers locked onto a thin piece of metal.

  “Same.” Akemi smiled. “Kaylana is in group one too.”

  “That’s—” Zane stopped mid-sentence. Hidden within the wiring, a metallic spider lay with its legs wrapped around Aurora’s oxygen tube and electrical output. The spider’s eight legs were pointed, meant for penetration.

  A sour taste coated the back of Zane’s throat.

  “What is it?” Akemi moved closer to Zane.

  “It’s some sort of tech.” Zane scratched his head; he’d never seen anything like it. The spider had wrapped its legs around the wiring of Aurora’s helmet, easily penetrating their plastic coating. It’s an electrical inhibitor.

  “That was in Aurora’s helmet? The day she crashed?”

  “Yeah,” Zane nodded. Why would someone put an electrical inhibitor in her helmet, or more importantly, who? Was it meant for Aurora or for anyone?

  “What are you going to do?” Akemi touched the spider’s leg.

  Zane pulled out a magnifying glass. “I don’t know.” Zane inspected the spider’s body. He pushed the legs back and where one of its left legs met the body, the lettering FS5509 was barely visible. He ran his finger across the numbering. He had no clue if that meant anything. “Do you think someone put this in her helmet on purpose?” Zane met Akemi’s concerned eyes.

  “Who?” Akemi asked.

  Zane shrugged. “I don’t know. I should talk to Sky. He’s the one who helped me find this in the first place.”

  “Well, let’s go then. Sky’s our instructor.” Akemi motioned to the door.

  “Yeah, okay. You go on, I’ll be right behind you.” As Akemi walked out the door, Zane placed the spider on top of his desk, hoping it was the only one of its kind. Even though Zane had discovered the reason behind the plane’s failures, he had more questions than ever.

  SKY

  Sky’s footsteps echoed throughout the cavernous room. The ginormous pool that served for neutral buoyancy training spread out before him, illuminated in brilliant light. He pulled a headset from his back pocket. He would need it to communicate with the class eight cadets while they learned to function in a weightless environment.

  The change in gravity would affect all of their movements. After living on the Moon on and off for the past two years, he knew this was something the cadets would need to grow accustomed to.

  “Wait.” Hailen grabbed his arm as he strode by the edge of the pool.

  Sky pushed away his annoyance as Hailen wrapped her skinny arm through his. He could have easily broken her hold but turned a dazzling smile toward her instead, letting her hold him in place. He had a few minutes to spare before training.

  Hailen was dressed for training in the standard Apollo Academy spacesuit. His gaze traveled down the tight fitting suit that molded to her short, lean frame. If she weren’t so desperate for attention, she would’ve been hot.

  Hailen pulled him to the other side of the pool.

  “This isn’t exactly appropriate student-teacher behavior,” he teased.

  “Yes, but you seem like a rule-breaker.” Her lips parted as she moved even closer.

  “Oh, do I really?” He arched a single eyebrow, glancing over his shoulder. A few class eight cadets were coming out of the locker room, gathering around the pool.

  “Hailen, let’s talk after training.” Sky started to walk away. Before he made it two steps, Hailen grabbed his arm.

  Her bony hand squeezed into his bicep.

  He flexed, looseni
ng her hold.

  “What big arms you have,” Hailen purred.

  “Did you need something before training?” Sky wasn’t sure what game she was playing. But he really hated girls that were so desperate for attention. And with the way Hailen followed him around all the time, she was clearly starving.

  Hailen batted her eyes, and Sky tried not to grimace. Didn’t she have any self-respect?

  “I just wanted to see if you were anything like your brother.” Hailen held his glare as she lifted her chin.

  “What the fuck are you talking about? I don’t have a brother.” Sky narrowed his eyes.

  She couldn’t know.

  “Oh, the name Rowan doesn’t sound familiar?” Hailen lifted a single eyebrow just as he had a few moments before. “Rowan Dagan, you know him, right? Your brother?”

  Sky’s stomach clenched. “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” he gritted out.

  “Oh, Skyller Dagan, you’re so naïve. Did you really think this day would never come?” Hailen patted his shoulder.

  How did she know what his true name should have been? Only Ms. Lovell knew and the two of them had managed to keep his presence at the Academy secret for years. As the long-lost son of Henry Dagan, birthed by someone other than his wife, his father was more than willing to forget his existence.

  Sky strained to keep his face impassive.

  “What? You didn’t think anyone would find out?” Hailen batted her lashes. “Though, I think you should’ve come up with a better call sign. Sky wasn’t very creative.”

  “I have no idea of what you’re talking about.” Sky managed to paste on a smile.

  “It’s what your brother told me.” Hailen shrugged, smiling triumphantly.

  Hailen was in contact with his brother? He didn’t think his half brother even knew of his existence, much less that he was at the Academy.

  “I still don’t know what you’re talking about.” Sky fisted his hands together.

  “Don’t play games.” Hailen tsked.