Captain Taggart returned and led us to our rooms. They were spacious consecutive rooms with a big windows and a good view over the ship. I walked into my room and looked out of the window. Earth was even more beautiful from orbit than I imagined. I dumped my bags and sat down on my bed and began to unpack my things for the three month long journey. When I had finished I got up and walked to Petra's room. I knocked on the door.

'Come in!' She called.

I opened the door and went in. She had put on a light blue dress and was sitting on the floor unpacking.

'Hi' I said, 'when your done do you want to grab something to eat?'

'Sure, just got to unpack a few things'

'Ok, see you in a minute'

I turned to walk out of the door. Before I left I took one last look at her. I was glad she had come, I guess I had secretly hoped she wanted to all along. And she looked so beautiful in that dress. She caught me staring at her.

'What are you looking at?'

'Nothing' I said quietly

'I guess your just a little spaced out today' She said

I walked through the door and quickly shut it behind me.

I went back to my room and lay down. That was awkward. I guess she was right though, I was a little spaced out. I quickly fell asleep. I woke to Petra leaning over me a shouting something right it my face. I sat up startled and nearly hit her in the head. She nearly fell over laughing.

'Sorry' she said, only just making out the word between her fits of laughter, 'couldn't resist'

'Come on, let's go'

She was still giggling when we got to the mess hall. We took some food from the counter and sat down by the window.

'I can't wait to get to Battle School' she said.

'Why?'

'I really want to get back into the battle room'

I smiled, 'Maybe we could drop in on a training session. I'm not sure they'd let us though'

'Well they can't exactly refuse you, Admiral Wiggin'

'I guess not, Major Arkanian'

'I wonder whether they will have flash suits big enough though'

'I dunno, some of the commanders were pretty big, we might not have time though'

I opened my communicator and selected Captain Taggart's number from the database.

'Taggart here'

'When we get to battle school how long will the refuelling last?'

'Six hours, maybe five if we work quickly, why?'

'Just wondering, thank you, Ender out.'

I closed the communicator.

'So, how long?' Petra asked.

'Six hours'

'That will be plenty of time to terrify the launchies. Or help them, I'm not sure which...'

'I vote for both'

'Good idea'

The rest of the meal past relatively quietly. After we had finished we both said goodbye and walked back to our rooms. I was exhausted and flopped onto my bed without even bothering to change. I kept wondering what the mysterious 'event' general Graff talked about. Could the Formics have returned or was is something less dramatic? I quickly fell asleep.

The rest of the trip to battle school passed uneventfully. We ate, slept and talked but not much else.

The ship took about 20 minutes to dock. We were both waiting expectantly at the airlock.

When we had docked Captain Taggart came and opened the airlock.

'See you in six hours Captain' I said.

'Yes sir'

We walked through the airlock and into the battle school.

'It's bigger than I remember' I said

'Yeah, same here, I guess we haven't seen it in while' Petra replied

'I guess so, shall we go to Major Anderson's office?'

'Last one there collects farts in milk bottles!'

We sprinted down the hallway and nearly knocked over a group of launchies as they walked into the corridor. Major Anderson's office was quite far down the hall and we were both panting heavily when we got there. Petra had got there first and was looking smug

'I don't remember you being that fast' I said

'Clearly your memories not very good then.' She said jokingly 'and I want to see your collection'

'How did you know I said that to Alai?'

'They kept tapes of your training for "educational use"'

'Oh yeah?'

'It seems to be the go to thing when the teachers can't be bothered to teach'

'Ah, I see'

We walked into Major Anderson's office. The Major was sitting at her desk.

'Admiral, Major what are you doing here?' She said

'Our ship had to stop for fuel and we thought we might drop in on a few training sessions' I replied

'By all means. Where is your ship headed?'

'Eris, in the asteroid belt'

'Don't you mean Eros?'

'No, Eris, it's a planetoid slightly bigger than Pluto'

'Why are you going there?'

'No idea. Even I'm not authorised to known'

'I won't ask any further then. Anyway, you can do anything you wish'

'Thank you Major'

We turned and walked out of her office. We headed up the corridor towards the battle room. We looked through the gate, and, sure enough, a group of launchies was practicing. I grabbed a couple of flash guns from the rack on the wall and opened the gate.

'Shall we?' Asked Petra

'Ladies first'

She pushed off and floated gracefully to the nearest star. I followed and held on next to her.

'Lets see if your still as good a sharpshooter as you were' I said

I handed her one of the guns and she quickly froze everyone except Dap.

'WHO WAS THAT!' He shouted at the launchies

We ducked behind the star. Nobody spoke.

'I AM NOT UNFREEZING YOU UNTIL YOU TELL ME WHO DID IT!'

Petra pushed off and stopped a few centimetres behind Dap.

She tapped him on the shoulder and he turned around, she was very quick and followed him when he turned. Meanwhile I snuck behind him and unfroze all the launchies and told them to point there guns at Dap.

Dap turned around to find all the launchies pointing their guns at him.

He was so furious you could almost see his face turning red.

'Your face' Petra said between giggles.

'GET BACK TO THE GATE CADET AND GIVE ME 20!'

'That would be great if you had the authority to make me do that' she said, regaining her composure.

'I CAN MAKE YOU DO ANYTHING I WANT CADET'

'You could if I were a cadet'

He pushed off the star he had been floating on and stopped In front of her.

'I'm sorry Major I didn't expect to see you here'

'I suppose it's not you fault then' I said from the other side of the group.

He floated over to me.

'Or you Admiral'

'We thought we would drop in on a training session' I said, 'How much training have these cadets received?'

'Their first battle is tomorrow'

'Good, how about a mock battle?'

'Very good Sir'

'Okay, let's have me, Petra and you versus the Launchies'

'OK, MOVE IT LAUNCHIES, MOCK BATTLE VERSUS THE TEACHERS' Dap hollered.

We retreated to our respective gates and the battle begun.

'Petra move forward to the next star on the right and snipe them from there' I said, 'Dap try and get round the back of them and into the gate unharmed and I will go down the middle and draw their fire'

I pushed off and we launched into action. I immediately felt a hail of shots going around me, luckily they weren't very good shots and I managed to take down four of them before they took me out. Petra quickly took out most of them while their fire was concentrated on me. Dap was making good progress and hadn't been shot yet. Suddenly a launchie hit Petra's firing arm and she was immobilised.

'Dap' I shouted, 'Get the last ones from behind!'

He shot the few remaining launchies before they had time to react. He got through the gate and unfroze everyone.

'Good game' I shouted to Dap, 'but I think we need to be going'

'See you again soon Sir' he replied.

We left the battle room and walked down the aisle towards the barracks.

'Do you want to go and visit our old barracks?' I asked

'Sure, why not. Dragon or Salamander first?'

'Salamander?'

'Ok, I just hope Bonzo isn't still there'

I went quiet and looked at the floor. She laughed briefly and then saw me and gasped.

'I'm so sorry Ender, I didn't remember' she said, 'really I didn't'

'It's okay' I said glumly.

The rest of the walk passed in silence.

They walked in to Salamander's barracks.

'Officer on deck!' One of them shouted

'At ease' I replied

We walked down the room and to the commanders room.

'Nothing seems to have changed' I said. We looked around the room.

'Look over here' I called to Petra

She walked over. Bonzo had scratched his name into the bed

'I always knew he was the vandal type...' She replied, 'Dragon next?'

'Yeah, sure'

We walked out of the barracks and towards the Dragon barracks.

We walked in and once again one of them shouted

'Officer on deck'

'At ease' I replied.

We walked past them towards the commanders room. The door was shut.

I knocked and waited for a response.

'Come in' a small voice said from inside the room.

I opened the door. The commander was sitting on her bed with her desk. She immediately stood up and saluted.

'At ease' I said.

'With respect Admiral and Major, what are you doing here?'

'Just thought we would take a look at our old barracks while we were here'

We looked around quickly not wanting to intrude too much.

'I don't mind' she said

'What?'

'You looking around'

'Thank you'. We took a longer look round before turning to leave.

'What's your name commander?' I asked

'Alexandra Deane but everybody calls me Ali'

'Thanks Ali'

We left. And walked back towards the airlock.

Petra tried to break the silence.

'She seems nice enough' she said

'Yeah' I replied. She clearly realised I wasn't in the mood for conversation since the rest of the walk passed in silence.

Captain Taggart was waiting when we got there. We stepped through the airlock and he closed it behind us. The ship began to undock.