0.5

I woke up abruptly, startled. There was someone at the door. For a brief moment, I was frozen, unmoving. Then I relaxed, it was just sister Neo. She was sneaking around the door all quiet like, probably wanted to scare me or something.

She still didn't know I was awake, or that I could see her. To be fair, I guess it was kinda hard to tell. My eyes were closed, my breathing in rhythm, and my body was still. Actually, it was probably extremely hard to tell if I was asleep or not. 

She also didn't know I could see what the males see, which means I could flip the situation and scare her instead! As I'd expected, she slowly crept her way into my room. When she was right next to my bed and looked like she was about to try and scare me, I spoke up.

"Hey sis, what are you doing?" I calmly asked.

I don't think I've ever heard her screech like that before. It's really annoying, but also hilarious. She also fell over, but she looks fine, maybe.

"Damit Ena, don't do that!" she half-yelled from her position on the floor. 

"What, talk? I don't do that much anyway." I replied as she scampered upright.

"No! Don't scare me like that, ugh. Whatever. Get dressed, we're leaving soon." She grumbled, then hurried out of my room without saying why we were leaving.

While that was entertaining, not knowing what was going on was frustrating. I was also tired. So I threw on some clothes, grabbed the male and some misc items, then followed sister Neo out. 

"Hey, wait up!" I called out, rushing forward. "Where are we going?" I asked after catching up. 

"The Spacing Guild." She said briskly.

"Why? We still had half a year left!" I exclaimed. 

"Don't sound so excited." she snarked. 

"I'm not excited, " I mumble, "Why the hell are we going there?"

"Apparently," she remarked, "for a 'medical checkup' and 'supplemental education'."

"Wow sis, the air quotes are strong with this one." I teased.

"Shudup" she retorted.

We walked in comfortable silence for a few seconds, then she blurted out the question I'd been dreading. 

"How did you know I was there? I was quiet enough, and your eyes were closed. I even made sure I didn't smell." She asked bluntly. 

I sighed, how was I supposed to answer that without talking about the female? 

I settled for, "I found a monitoring program and repurposed it. You know these bugs my tree makes?" I held out the male to show her, "They communicate with radio instead of sound. The program just lets me listen in and talk to them." I concluded. 

She seemed thoughtful for a sec, then nodded with a smile.

Thankfully I didn't need to continue the conversation as we'd arrived at the garage. Our parents were already there, waiting for us next to the family jeep. It wasn't an actual jeep, of course, but we all called it that because it looked like one. 

They waved us inside and we took our seats. It was as cramped and rugged as it looked, forcing my knees uncomfortably high to fit. At least the seats had plenty of padding. Once everyone was buckled in someone ordered the vehicle to take us to our destination and off we went.

One of the only good things about the ride was the view. We lived in a small suburban town in the middle of nowhere, which meant just about everything was nicer. There were fewer people, less noise, less traffic, less competition, and more nature.

The roads were lined with trees, every block had a park, there were walking and biking paths practically everywhere, and there were plenty of spots to rest and admire the incredible sights. I absolutely love the place. 

Unfortunately, my pleasure at watching the scenery had to end sometime. We arrived at the edge of town just a few minutes after our journey began. Once we cleared the town's air space we stopped and engaged the VTOL system in our jeep. Then, slowly lifting off the ground, we flew off the floating island that was our hometown.

I know, that sounds made up. But it's true! The surface isn't exactly habitable, how else would they build cities on it? The air density on the surface would crush anyone foolish enough to go there. That's not even mentioning that there aren't any landmass down there to land on, it's all just one giant ocean.

Basically, the space between towns is boring as hell. Sure, there's clouds and rain and weather, but that's pretty much it. The only major life out there is the green clouds of algae that somehow evolved to fly. Every once in a while you'll see a stray bird or the occasional floating rock, but there's really nothing to look at.

I guess you could say that's why I didn't think too much when sister Neo asked me to send her the monitoring program. I just said "sure" and gave it over. I was far beyond bored and wasn't thinking straight.

From what I can tell she either didn't read the instructions or didn't care. In any case, what she did next was stupid. For some reason I cannot fathom, she set the sensitivity way too freaking high. Both of them. I'm pretty sure my brain fried a li’l bit from the sensory overload.

She had it worse off. A lot worse. She didn't even cry out in pain, not even grumbling or moaning or anything. She just slumped over into unconsciousness. Without the program, I would have just assumed she fell asleep or something.

She was in pain, a lot of pain. And because she was transmitting it, I felt that pain too. It was only because I was familiar with the program that I didn't go unconscious as my sister did. Instead, I had to suffer through it while awake.

I didn't alert our parents; there was nothing they could do and I didn't want them to worry. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do either. So, for the next hour and a half, I quietly absorbed the most pain I've ever felt in my life, all while I thought of soothing things to help my precious li'l sister get through that same pain. The male on my shoulder helped too.