My heart thudded with excitement as my starship rattled violently. Hit again? This was gonna get dangerous...just the way I liked it. Red lights were flashing around me and the computer repeated the same monotone warning over and over again through the loudspeaker."Warning, enemy spacecraft in range, Warning..." My crew was already on it, aiming the turrets at the enemy craft. My Co-Pilot came up behind me and cleared his throat, saluting before speaking to me-
"Do you want us to turn on the shields Captain Ryder?" I shook my head and smiled confidently.
"No, we're gonna make it." He frowned and inquired again-
"Are you sure Miss Ryder? The enemy is right on top of us!" I took hold of the control stick and leaned back in the Pilot's seat.
"Cool it, I know what I'm doing. No need to get hyped up over nothing." I laughed and pulled up on the controller violently, sending us into a back flip over the enemy ship giving us a chance to fire.
"Elocin..."
"Now!" I shouted and the turrets- "ELOCIN!"
My best friend Jaelene stood in the doorway of my dorm room with her arms crossed and an eyebrow raised. She knew she had interrupted my daydreaming YET again. She giggled at my zoned-out expression and flipped her flaming pink hair to the side.
"ooooh, what were YOU fantasizing about? Nothing naughty I hope..." She winked at me and I rolled my eyes. Jaelene was such a sicko, everything was about boys with her.
"Ya, because I totally have erotic fantasies about boys in my spare time." I said sarcastically. Jaline pouted her lip at me.-
"Aw, but it's so fun!"
I laughed and sat up off the bed.-
"You need a hobby."
She smirked at my comment, and put her hands on her hips impatiently.-
"Well? Are you ready or what? The Initiation Ceremony starts in 5 minutes, and I am not going to be late because I was nice and waited for you."
"...Wait..." I gave her a confused look. "...since when are you nice?" I asked, sarcastically, cracking a smile. Jaelene frowned, hissing at me grumpily. Laughing, I grabbing my bags from the bedside. She started to leave-
"OK, OK I'm coming! Don't get your panties in a wad." I said, hurrying after her out the door, which quickly sealed itself back up behind me.
My name is Elocin Ryder, and I have been a trainee at the Starfleet Cor University for as long as I can remember. Now, after countless years of nothing but books, lectures, and cramming for exams, I was finally going to become an official member of the Cor's Pilot Branch. And what an honor it was going to be; the 'Cor' was the biggest outer-spacial military defense organization in our part of the universe. Only a few select people make it to the top in the Cor, and by the Gods, I was going to be one of them. For now, I had to focus on the Initiation ceremony. There, each graduating trainee (like mahself) would be assigned to a Captain in the Cor, becoming his or her apprentice for a few years. WHICH ~translated~ means you just have to do whatever the hell your Captain tells you, whenever they tell you to do it. But hey, anything was better than being stuck at the university for another year. Eyes on the horizon. I'm Elocin Ryder, and one day, I'm going to be the most famed and successful pilot that the Universe has ever seen.
"Here we are!"-Jaelene said in her usual sing-songy voice as we entered the Captains hall. The walls were chrome plated and there were tons of service droids buzzing around. It was way high-end compared to what we had back in the university sector of the ship. A hologram came up in the center of the room of this old guy with big bushy eyebrows and a grimace so defined, it looked like it was tattooed across his face.
"Attention graduates of the university. I must congratulate you for your-" I yawned. Blah blah blah. I wish this guy would just get to the good part! I already got the "you graduated, you're awesome" speech from the professors back at the university. Jaelene looked at me and held up her hand, mockingly moving it like a mouth to what the old guy on the hologram was saying. I held back a giggle. Finally he said something of interest and I started listening again- "The captains will join you momentarily, so if you would all get in a single file line, and when they arrived the ceremony will begin. Good Luck." -and with that his little bushy-browed face disappeared.
I whispered to Jaelene as we all smooshed into a single file line going across the room- " You don't think we'll be seeing him a lot do you? He's making this job harder just by making us look at his face."
Jaelene smirked. " Thats Commander Bog," -Hm, his name suits him, I thought as Jaelene continued, "He's the one who gives the Captains their missions. He acts all important, but he doesn't really do anything but boss people around and be a jerk. SO, in other words ya, we may be seeing a lot of him."
"Lucky us." Our giggles came to an abrupt stop when the terminal door in the back of the room opened, and one by one the Captains started filing in. They all stood tall, and walked with a purpose. Some of them were cute, with dreamy scarlet eyes and pointed ears, just like in the magazines,(Jaelene pointed those ones out right away) while others looked a little...foreign. Meaning tentacles, blue skin, antennae, spikes, you get the picture. I ran my fingers through my short black hair self consciously. I never payed attention to how I looked; I wasn't trying to impress anybody. But I was the last pure specimen of my species as far as I knew, and it left me feeling like others were always examining me, as if I were some some sort of museum exhibit. I tried to put my shyness aside as the last of the Captains arrived, and the ceremony officially began. A skinny little creature that looked like a cross between a kangaroo and a swordfish walked out into the center of the room with a CP scroll-(Like an Ipad only holographic XD
It started to read off names in a deep, rippling voice-"Xander Oreal...please step forward." There was a short silence, and everybody from my class looked down the row at Xander: a dorky nerd who had exceeded in EVERYTHING-that wasn't physical, that is. "You will grab your bags and report to your captain's side after I announce his name, are we clear?" Xander nodded, even though the statement was sorta to everyone.
"Your Captain is...Miss Fleur Auderisa." Everyone applauded as Xander happily joined Captain Auderisa at the other side of the room.
"Lucky." I whispered to Jaelene. Captain Auderisa was definitely the smartest, and had saved the Cor's Security system from hackers numerous times. Now I was excited. All these famous Captains...and I was going to be an apprentice to one of them!- MENTAL FANGIRL SQUEAL!- On and on the names were called, and Jaelene and I watched more of our classmates get assigned to their captains. Captain De Lerosa-best gunman, Captain Thiomar-best pilot, Captain Shauna Hilton- most seductive (Its a talent!). I grew more anxious as it narrowed down to only a few more people on the trainee side of the room. I watched as Jaelene was assigned to her captain, Kwaradino Brenton-famous for defeating an entire enemy fleet with a single ship. I chewed on my fingernails nervously. Come ON, my name had to be somewhere on that list.
"Elocin Ryder" the Sword-a-roo called. I sighed in relief. I was SO happy not to be called last that I almost died of satisfaction right there. However, that would have looked incredibly stupid, so I just stepped forward like a good little apprentice.
"Your captain is..."-the little creature paused and looked at the CP scroll oddly, and I could swear I saw a smirk on his face. "Captain Michael EO..." A hiss of quiet whispers tore through the crowd.
Captain EO? Who was that? I'd certainly never heard of him. I watched some of the other Captains faces. Some looked amused, while some shook their heads scornfully. I scanned the line of captains, but none of them stood forward. Great, he's probly some deaf old Yoda lookin' guy that didn't even hear his name get called. Lovely.
The little announcer creature turned around and cleared his throat. "Captain EO? Captain Michael E-O." NO one stood forward. One of the captains smirked and whispered-"He's late."
WHAT? What kind of Captain was late to the Initiation Ceremony!? Suddenly the door of the back of the room slid open, and a small figure darted in and sprinted to the end of the line of Captains. Breathing hard and in disarray, he tried to stand up tall with his hands behind his back, doing his best to look like the other captains. Oh no, please don't tell me that's-
"Captain EO...you're late." Said the Kangaroo Swordfish thing. The Captain looked crushed by the scornful eyes staring him down.
"I'm so sorry, I tried to get here on time, but-" his voice was so quiet and soft like a child's, I was almost upset when the thing interrupted him.
"Captains don't make excuses." -His mouth closed stiffly and he looked down. I frowned, feeling a little more sympathetic for the stranger than I probably should have. Picking up my bags, I headed over to him silently, skimming over his characteristics as I did so. His hair was a dark black like mine, except it was wildly curly with one particular curl sticking out right in the middle of his forehead. Human, I guessed, from his rounded ears and earthy features. But it was his eyes that really got to me. They were such a rich dark brown, very deep and piercing. He glanced at me, and our eyes locked for a second before I looked down, feeling my face get hot. ...There has to be something wrong with him. So many captains reacted negatively upon his name being called... My emotions were a mix of frusteration, uncertainty, spite, pity, and who knows what else, and my stomach churned inside of me like a washing machine filled with tar.
I decided on a whim, right then and there that I didn't like my Captain at all, and I would try to speak with him as little as possible. The world is ruled by popularity and status, and though it seemed cruel for to base my opinions on such things, I couldn't help but be disgusted that my captain had neither. He wasn't at all the Captain I'd expected or wanted. And he would know that before the day was up.