Harvest showed Zeus every single knock and cranny of the facility.. They even said hi to the neighborhood roach. Zeus was not a fan. And after a long tour… 

 

“I’m exhausted” I yawn and stretch my arms out. 

 

“Oh! Let me show you to our room!” Harvest says excitingly. 

 

“Our room? You’re telling me these rooms aren’t separated by gender” 

 

''No silly where is the fun in that! Zeus, you can meet way more different friends this way. Expect none of the humans really wanted to bunk with me.” She says as her smile kind of fades. “Till now!” 

 

“Umm I don’t know if this is a good idea.” 

 

“Don't be silly!” Harvest says as she takes my hand and drags me to our room. 

 

“Well goodnight! I have guard duty. You know cadet stuff!” Harvest smiles and waves as she exits the room. 

 

I look at the room, I see child-like drawings of cows on the wall. Which per say makes me cringe. Yet I find it cute and endearing. Harvest must have made them. I see the bunk bed that me and Harvest would be sharing. The bottom bunk is neat and well made. While the top bunk is messy and looks like it was hit from the blast. My eyes then lead me to the right corner of the room. THERE'S A FREAKING SHOWER HERE! I lift my arm up and smell myself. I smell like laundry soap. I Imagine they dipped me in a dark blue goo. Then used machines to rub me, somewhat like a car wash. Finally they wash and dry me off. 

 

I decide not to take a shower and drag my feet over to the bottom bunk. I lay down and as soon as I do I hear a crunch under the pillow. I lift the pillow up and find a little note. It says “Hope we can be best friends! Love  Harvest~” Cute! Though the paper is stained, it looks like it's better here for a while. I fold it up and put it in my suit’s pocket. I then press the blue button on my suit which transforms it into pjs, a simple shirt and shorts. Woah, this is a lot different I guess thanks to there being no more blast we don't have to wear a onesie that was really uncomfortable and warm, like I did back when Earth was whole. 

 

I close my eyes. I try to focus on sleeping but my mind keeps running into weird thoughts like if I was in space for 2 years how many space poos are out there, or do I just have 2 years worth of diarrhea built up? I hope not the second one. I tossed and turned in bed until I thought about her… Janet, the planet, my family. I miss you so much. How do I know if you've survived? I promise I’ll find you. I drift off to sleep.

 

Knock Knock

 

Someone knocks hard on me and Harvest’s door. “Get up cadet and Zeus, we have a lot of work to be doing.” says a man’s voice. I quickly got up. When suddenly a tail whacks me in the face.

 

“Zzzzzz Zzzz Zzzz” Harvest snores loudly. 

 

I get up and grab Harvest’s tail. “HE SAID TO GET UP '' I angrily said  as I picked up Harvest’s tail and knocked her out of bed. 

 

“Owwwww” she cries out rubbing the big bump on her head. 

 

We both then get up and press the green button on our suits, turning them back into their original form. We open the door to reveal a handsome dark skinned man with jet black hair in a dark blue suit. 

 

“I've heard a lot about you Zeus”, he says as he introduces himself, “The name is Jaqua.”

 

“Good things I hope,” I reply back. 

 

“We’ll  have to see. Harvest please can you go perform your daily tasks.” 

 

“Yes sir” and with that Harvest takes her leave. 

 

“The Captain sent special duties for me to train you. But please don’t take me lightly. I’m the vice captain in this place after all.” 

 

“Umm yes sir” I say nervously back. 

 

“Please follow me.”Jaqua leads the way as I follow close behind. 

 

As I follow Jaqua I never really realized that being a few inches shorter than him could make me feel so small. We make our way into the testing room. 

 

“There will be a few things I need to tell you before we start. 1. We live on a chunk of Earth that has no materials and is all dried up. 2. The reason we have cadets is to find new land and materials for humanity to grow. 3. There will be three tests you must complete before we are able to let you leave into space...” He pauses, letting it all sink in before he continues, “Part one is the easy part we weigh you, basically check if you're physically able. Then we hook you to our power device. Anyone above a 50 power level is in. This also decides what device you will be riding. The second part is a written test that will brush you up on our goal and how to control our space shuttle. I suggest you check out the library in our facility. The last test will test your strength. You will have to get through me. You can take the last test as many times as you need. Am I clear?” Jaqua says eyeballing me. 

 

“Crystal.” I replied back. 

 

“Alright let's start with your first test.”

 

The first test involved checking my weight, height, speed and velocity. 

 

“Everything looks good,” Jaqua says smiling. 

 

Are you kidding me? I know I'm average. One thing I'm proud of though, I went from 5’8 to 5’10. I guess 2 years in space can really do something to you. 

 

“Anyways, for the final part of the test one. Please follow me up the stairs when you’re ready.” 

 

I follow Jaqua immediately into a room I've never seen before. It’s very dark.

 

“This area is off limits to cadets. Only me and the captain are allowed. I also suggest you put your helmet on” 

 

I press the button that activates my helmet.

 

Jaqua leads me to the back where a black discrete door is just up ahead. He enters a code on the keypad next to it. The door behind us closes quickly behind us. I freak out a little. 

 

“Relax this all part of protocol” Jaqua says coolly. 

 

Suddenly the door in front of us opens wide to reveal a large open balcony. I gasp in awe. It was my first time ever seeing space so closely. 

 

Jaqua looks over my way. “Get used to it because it's the only thing that you’ll see outside.” 

 

My amazement continues as I look around the balcony. In the middle is a machine that looks like an arm pressure device but one for each arm. 

 

“You will put both hands into our power device. The system will lock you in and show us your results.”

 

Jaqua makes his way to the machine next to the hand device. As I step forward to the machine and put both my hands inside. The machine locks both of my hands in place just like Jaqua says. 

 

“Oh, I forgot to mention something this may hurt a little!” Jaqua announces as he presses a button on the other machine. 

 

BUZZTT  

 

The Machine sends a powerful shock throughout my body. As the machine shocks me a floating screen appears showing numbers rising higher and higher. Then appears a spaceship in the shape of a dragon, with giant mechanical wings. When the spaceship is complete and the numbers stop. The machine releases my hands. I feel like my life sucked out of me. I passed out shortly after.