The rectangle of varnished wood is ninety-four feet by fifty feet. An orange rubber ball is bounced on the surface. Running along the surface, their foot steps making sounds, a ten young women, five wearing one set of colors, the other five wearing another set of colors. They all wear sleeveless shirts and shorts, and wear rubber-soled athletic shoes designed to absorb the shock of running. The ladies' bodies are covered in sweat. They all breathe deeply, in and out, and their hearts race.
The women sitting on the wooden benches on the sides of the court feel a little less stressful. s
Mirage Sterling is one of the ten young women. She barely notices the loud, cheering crowds on the stands, many of them eating snacks or drinking soda or beer. The basketball player sees another player in the same colors, whose name she knows as Ayanna Harden.
Everything seems slowed down, including her heartbeats.
Adrenaline courses through her arteries and veins.
She throws the ball; to Harden.
She looks at her teammate who throws the orange basketball towards the hoop.
It goes through.
Mirage looks at the time and the scoreboard.
There is not enough time for the opposing team to make up the deficit.
The timer seems to reach zero quickly, and the buzzer announces the end of the 4th quarter, and the game.
"The Earth Academy beat Ohio State, 79-61," says the announcer. "It was a hard fought game."
The players for the United Earth Forces Academy's Women's Basketball Team all huddle together as they had just scored a victory in their first game of the season. Weeks of grueling practice had paid off.
The coach, Melissa Karn, shakes hands with her counterpart from Ohio State University.
Mirage looks at the crowd and waves.
Her parents, brothers, and sisters wave back.
A sports reporter and a cameraman approach them. The repoter wears a jacket, shirt, and slacks.
"Do you have any words?" he asks the coach.
"Morale is definitely up," says Kan. "This was our first scheduled game of the season. We;'re excited as to what the season plans for us. We actually won the women's basketball championship two years ago. Some of our players are still here."
"We want to talk to your player here, Sterling."
"Who me?" asks Mirage.
"Yes, you," says the sports reporter. "You actually made that steal and passed it to Miss Harden here, enabling her to make that three-point shot that put victory out of reach for the Buckeyes."
"Okay, I did that," replies the basketball player. "But a lot of these other players laid the foundation that made it possible. I mean, I recall the ball being stole from me a few seconds into the second quarter and passed to another Ohio Stater who made a three-point shot."
"We worked hard," says Karn. "And the Buckeyes who were kind enough to let us play here, they made us work hard for our victory."
"Thank you," says the reporter.
Mirage and the other basketball players are mostly silent and sweaty. The next thing up is the bus ride back to their hotel, where they will sleep for a few hours before another bus takes them to an airport, where they will board a suborbital flight to Samsun, where the United Earth Forces Academy is.
Ooooo
The parking garage at Ohio State University is packed, and many people are already leaving. Drivers turns around to find an opening in which to back out. The lights come from overhead lamps and the headlights of vehicles. There is a dusty smell inside.
"I'm sleepy," says Ashley Nadine Sterling, accentuating her claim with a big yawn.
"You can sleep In the car," replies her mother, Miranda Sterling.
"I feel sleepy too," says Amber Nicole Sterling.
Miranda looks at her two daughters, both with green hair ,both seven years old, both looking alike. They wear overalls.
"I'll be driving home too," says John Sterling, her son.
"You're going home too?' asks Steven Michael Sterling, his father.
"Well, Dad, it's late, it'll be like midnight be the time we get back, and I can look for my next camp site tomorrow morning. Besides, I can wash and dry my bedsheets there. And while the washing machine takes care of my bedsheets, I could skim over the one hundred work e-mails waiting for me."
"I'll ride with him," says his older brother, Ben Sterling. "We'll let the girls here have the back seat to themselves.
"See you at home."
"What about Mirage?" asks Amber.
"She has to go back to school, darling," says her mother. "Just like Ben has to go to the airport early tomorrow to catch his flight to the spaceport."
"I'll be back for Christmas," says her son. "Then, starting on December 27th, I have to do a three-month tour of duty in deep space, no paid time off during that time. It's what my bosses demanded in exchange for me seeing Mirage play near home and to be home for Christmas."
"Yeah, you were out in deep space working on a cargo ship last year," says his younger brother. "Come on, let's go to my van."
The two young men see their seven-year-old sisters get in the back seat of a Starfire hover car that had been purchased at a dealership in Sandusky just two months ago. John leads Ben down a concrete ramp lined with cars, with card and trucks passing by them, until they reach a large Toyota van. It has four wheels, and gray in color. A ladder is installed on the left side.
Ben recalls the interior of a van, which has a sink, an electric stove, and some cabinets. In the back is a bed where his brother sleeps. He opens the right side front door and sits in the seat.
John pushes a button and starts the engine. Glancing in the mirror, he knows it will be a while before there is an opening for him to back out.
Ooooo
In a region of Earth known as Turkey, next to the Black Sea, is a city called Samsun, a major port city which grew rapidly in the one and a half decades since the Robotech Wars ended. Hundreds of boats and ships dock and depart from its port daily, traveling to and from other ports like Odessa, Kurch, Batumi, and Varna.
And just a few miles east is a large tract of land leased to the United Nations. In this tract is Joint Forces Air Field Samsun, the main United Earth Forces base for U.N. activities for eastern Europe and northwest Asia. And near the air field is the United Earth Forces Academy, which educates cadets to become officers in the United Earth Forces.
A boy in a gray uniform walks out. Holding a horn to his mouth, he blows a tune.
From the box-shaped buildings that serve as the cadet dormitories, the cadets all march out. They all wear gray, button down uniforms, and peaked caps on their heads. The first-year cadets, known as plebes, are inspected by third-year cadets who act like non-commissioned officers. Many of the cadets straighten their covers or adjust their buttons.
Cadet Corporal Mirage Sterling stands at attention as the third year cadet passes by. He whispers something to her roommate and basketball teammate, Cadet Private First Class Ann Campbell, and Campbell adjusts her cover.
Standing before all the assembled cadets is the cadet sergeant major, the only one at the Academy.
"Okay, twenty-nine minutes and forty-one seconds," he says. "We have a record here, boys and girls. You are all perfect and ready to go. Now, let's have a nice, hearty breakfast."
"Sir, yes, sir!" snap the cadets.
Mirage and the other cadets all march into the cadet mess, a large building where, given the name, the cadets eat their meals. They all line up, as food servers- all first-year cadets- provide servings. Miage gets her bacon and her fried eggs and a biscuit and some orange juice. She sits at a bench where the second-year cadets sit.
"Got your homework done?" asks Mirage as she eats.
"Yeah," answers Ann. "So much of this is tougher. I mean the third years don't look over my shoulder as they did before."
"They're now fourth years."
"Well, almost all of them anyway. Now I have to figure stuff out."
"Believe me," says the cadet corporal. "I spend so much time hitting the books. Hard to believe it's been nearly one and a half years."
A memory from almost that long ago arises for a brief moment.
Ooooo
"Okay," said Cadet Master Sergeant Ayanna Harden, with three other cadets sergeant standing beside her. "You have all been assembled here for a very special duty. You don't have to go out there and get in formation with all the other cadets. Instead, you get to serve over a thousand hungry cadets their will wait until they finish their meals, and you will eat. The twelve of you aren;'t alone in this. We don't eat until the other cadets eat. We're hungry too. Now, to your stations!"
"Ma'am, yes, ma'am!" snapped Cadet Private Mirage Sterling, Cadet Private Ann Campbell, and the other cadets. They got behind the serving stations, which is filled with various types of breakfast foods like eggs and bacon and sausage and ham and hash browns and chorizos.
And the the other cadets came in. Soon, breakfast was being scooped up and loaded into their plates.
"If being an officer doesn't work out for you," said Harden, "you can go work at a restaurant."
Finally, the twelve cadets doing mess duty get to eat.
"In case you had forgotten,," said Cadet Harden, "you have fifteen minutes to eat your breakfast. When the fifteen minutes are up, any food you didn't eat goes in the trash. Then you twelve will wash the dishes, wash the utensils, and clean every surface in this mess. Do you under-stand?"
"Ma'am, yes, ma'am!" snapped the cadets.
"Your fifteen minutes to eat start now!"