Enders

I feel like I wake up, but I know that's not what happened. I was only half asleep. I'm not scared. Just confused. I've been trying to act mature and negotiable, but I've organized two meetings that ended horribly.

"Rowan?" Someone steps into the room.

"Yeah?" I roll over.

"You missed breakfast, and lunch." Milarde informs me.

"I'd be perfectly fine missing supper as well." I yawn.

"I also wanted to talk to you about- um- Polois?"

"What is it?" I toss the covers unceremoniously off of my body.

"Do you think he's angry at me for leaving him?" Milarde asks me.

"Yeah, probably." I shrug. "But we aren't forcing you to stay here. We've all left our families."

"You had no choice, though." He points out.

"Anything else?"

"Yes, actually." He nods. "Can I get trained separately from Percop?"

"Why?" I ask.

"I think we have different areas we need to improve in. And he kind of scares me. I know he probably won't, but I'm always worried he wants to kill me."

"I'm going to be completely honest with you when I say that the only reason I'm not on board with that is that I'm too lazy to spend twice the time teaching." I step out of bed.

He leaves me to get dressed.

I grab myself a bowl of cereal when the control room starts beeping.

After lots of trial and error, I accept the message that lights up the corner of the window.

"Regeitag- is he here?" A woman asks.

"Regeit's... dead..." I say quietly.

"Horrible news. However, the new leader was supposed to report his death to me." She rolls her eyes. "Your name?"

"Rowan Brooks."

"Pleasure to meet you. My name is Claxia Mrenelev, Astralis Council Leader." She pauses. "Back on topic. We have a mission for you, cadets. Some Gorfonian workers are going on strike, and if it isn't resolved quickly, it may cause a civil war. The location is the Milky Way galaxy, in the Solar system, planet Mercury."

"Of course. We'll head over as soon as we can." I nod. The screen disappears.

"I've got the coordinates in." Maggie informs me.

"Do we have any tissues nearby?" Jade asks. "And more importantly, do you know why we need them?"

"I'm aware." Maggie nods. "I'm sorry , but it's faster to go by a path where we will pass Earth."

"We won't have to look at it, though." I assure myself aloud.

"We should, though." Xavier sighs. "You gotta accept it. You can't keep running from your problems."

I say nothing.

"There's only one red ship. How will both me and Milarde fight?" Asks Percop.

"We're landing on the planet." I shrug. "How much temperature can these suits withstand? Mercury is pretty close to the sun."

"You'll be fine. Regeit actually went into a star in one of those once." Maggie assures me.

"It'll take a long time to reach our destination, right?" Xavier asks.

"Not really. It was roughly two and a half of your hours to get from Earth to Kartrae, and we had to stop to fight off the Margh." She shakes her head. "Someone bring up a map."