Chapter 9

Queens, USA, Earth: December 28th 2155

"There's another one. Let's make a wish."

I was looking up at the cold winter night sky watching the clouds move and feeling the few snowflakes falling from them blanketing my face.

"Terry, did you make a wish yet?" A hand shook my shoulders.

I squinted my eyes and made out a small streak of blue flying through the sky. I then turned my head towards the source and looked into the eyes of the person who was asking for my opinion.

"Kassie, that's just an airplane." I whispered. "Wishes only come true if it's a shooting star."

Kassie's head rested back onto the park bench and looked up at the sky.

"You're no fun, Terry" She replied feeling a little depressed.

"If you didn't teach me all about planes and space, I would have gone along with it." I innocently defended myself. "You even underlined the words in your giant textbook that the airplanes' ramjet engine often leaves a blue contrail."

Like our first encounter in the library I messed up once again. She fell silent and looked away from me. But this time was different, we were no longer strangers. We have been in each other's company since the semester started 3 months. Like Claude, she was one of my closest friends. I laid an arm behind her neck.

"Hey, I'm sorry Kassie." I said. "How about this, the next streak of light we see in the sky we make a wish. If it's an airplane, we'll just pretend that it's a shooting star."

We both looked up and waited. Not long after, a blue light streaked across the sky.

"I made my wish." Kassie said with her eyes closed. "How about you Terry?"

I was silent as another blue light flew by, then another and then followed by another.

"Terry?"

Cassini Base Outskirts, UN, Callisto, Jupiter: February 19th 2160

"Terry!" a voice was blaring in my helmet. I shook my head around watching blue beams of light fly by my face.

"Terr!" I felt a violent shake that made me come to my senses. I looked up and saw Oliver yelling through his visor. A blue light flew past him forcing him to duck. I peeked over the rock and reached backwards for my rifle to return fire but nothing was there. Three flashes of blue skimmed my head.

"Stay down, we got contacts!" Oliver yelled and pulled me back under the rock.

A large round flew past us and impacted a larger rock behind me. It left a large hole spewing out debris upon impact. Since when were live rounds used in simulations?

"Oliver what's going on?" I questioned through my headset.

"When we were breaching the door," Oliver yelled at me loading a new simulation magazine into his rifle. "The electronic signal must have set off a satchel charge that blew the door off. You hit your head when the room got decompressed."

I groaned as I pulled out my pistol and slowly fired at the dark figures to prevent myself from using up the ammunition quickly. Live rounds, electronic satchel charges and open zero oxygen space suppression, the instructors have really outdone themselves in this surprise drill.

"What happened to the rest of the team?" I asked as I loaded in a new magazine.

Oliver collided with me as he dodged another large round.

"Mia and John went to search for an opening in the base away from the fire. Yumi helped me drag you into this crater when you were unconscious."

A dark figure suddenly leapt from one of the shadows and into our presence. We pointed our weapons at the mysterious person but lowered them after seeing the familiar face behind the visor.

"The front entrance is a mess." Yumi said breathing heavily. "I counted around 10 people firing at us. I couldn't get close enough. Their weapons are too powerful."

I could tell that she was frustrated but this was not the time to be agitated. With only 5 minutes of oxygen left in our suits, I needed everyone's cooperation in order to get back in.

"Yumi, Oliver, you two are going to blend in with the moon." I said pushing them into the soft soil. "With the moon's dirt camouflaging your suits and the low light, you guys will be invisible. I will continue to draw their fire to divert their attention away." I continued saying as I took Oliver's side arm's magazine and threw more dirt on top of them. It was just like the simulation earlier where we blended in with the surface. I wiped the gray dirt off of their visors and gave them a light pat on the back. "I'll be joining once you all are safely there."

"Good luck Terr, we'll meet you in less than 3 minutes." Oliver tapped my helmet and began crawling towards the base with Yumi. I breathed in heavily and stood up firing at the first figure I was able to distinguish. My simulation rounds harmlessly bounced of his suit and flew in all directions. He, along with the rest of his companions, ruthlessly fired back forcing me into cover.

The enemies have completely diverted their attention to me, but my only weapon does not even dent their suit. I changed magazines as the rock behind me shook from the force of the bullets impacting it. Quickly, I dove behind a larger rock and fired again attempting to draw more people's attention to my position. Blue lights flew by me as I quickly ducked beneath the rock.

I got up in an attempt to return fire but was immediately met with resistance. Blue lights flashed by where I kneeled, forcing me to lay down again. I tried to peek out from the side but the fire intensified. They knew I was hiding here now and they had no intentions to let me escape. I rolled into the crater behind me as bullets tore through my original cover. I leaned my back against the slope of the crater, pulling out my spent magazine and loading in the last one. Blue lights flew over the top of my head. I breathed slowly as I looked at the blue tracers fly outwards into space. Even though the situation was dire, I could not help but feel nostalgic. The silence of space that accompanied the tracer's brief blue trails reminded me of that snowy night so long ago.

"Terry, did you make a wish yet?" I felt a voice whisper to me.

"Those aren't shooting stars." I thought to myself. "But after all these years, I could really use a wish." I stared up at one of the blue lights that ricocheted off the crater's edge. "I really want to go home one more time."

"Terr," Oliver's voice crackled in my helmet breaking my train of thought. "We're going to divert their fire, get ready to run."

The bottom left of my HUD flashed in red indicating that I had 1 minute of air left.

"It's no use Oliver," I breathed through the headset. "This is just like the impossible Mars simulation where our rounds do nothing against them. I'm going to call it quits on this one. No way am I going to make it out of this simulation alive if I tried. You guys go on without me, complete the simulation so we can all rest for the night."

A dark figure peered down from the top of the crater, the barrel of his weapon pointed at my head. I silently raised my hands admitting defeat.

"Terr," Oliver continued to say through my headset. "These guys aren't instructors. They don't have UN insignias on their arms. This isn't a simulation, you need to…"

A bright light flashed in front of me basking my visor in a sharp hue of blue.