“Good morning everyone! Time to get up and get ready for testing!” Peggy announced chirpily, already standing beside our bed and stretching, a wide smile on her face despite the bags bruising the pale skin under her eyes.

I jolted awake, my hand clutching Cas’ and my face dangerously close to his. I withdrew quickly and sat up, moving away from him sheepishly before he could open his eyes.

“Peggy. After 5 years in the same room, you’d think I’d be used to your aggressive positivity in the morning but it still makes me want to hit you.” Gem grumbled, her head buried under her duvet with just her dark hair sticking out.

“Come on! It’s almost breakfast time! We won’t have time to fit our run in if we don’t hurry!” Peggy called as she bounced out of the room.

I sighed and pulled the duvet up around myself. This was the first time we were able to go for a proper run since we got back. Before we were too injured and locked in our old dorm so we could only do laps around the room once we’d recovered enough which was so boring. We needed to get used to it again so we’d be able to fly well. We needed to be in better physical shape.

“One day I’ll do it, I swear.” Gem vowed quietly as she rolled out from under Cory’s arm and followed Peggy out of the room.

He followed her, leaving me alone with Cas. I looked around the room, trying not to look at him until I couldn’t avoid it any more and met his eyes. He was watching me, an amused expression on his face.

“Morning.”

His voice is always so husky first thing in the morning and I love it.

He rolled onto his back and stretched his arms above his head. When I sat up, I’d pulled the duvet we’d been sharing off him and now my eyes found the thin slither of his stomach that had been revealed by his movement.

I pulled my eyes back to his face and quickly said, “Morning.”

I knew my face was burning.

“Did you sleep alright in the end? You didn’t wake me.”

“Yeah. I didn’t have any dreams after that, did you?”

“I didn’t either.” He smiled up at me lazily.

I smiled back, resisting the urge to sink into his arms knowing that if I did we wouldn’t get up for our run.

“We should get up, shouldn’t we?” He asked, somehow knowing exactly what I wanted to do.

“We should. Peggy will drag us out of bed if we don’t.” I teased.

His eyes found mine. I had quoted that morning. The one before all this happened. And I did it on purpose, he knew it.

“We don’t have to? We can lock this door…” He suggested, hesitantly.

I bit my lip and watched as his eyes followed the movement.

“We should.” I said regretfully.

He rolled out of bed, grinning at me cheekily.

“Maybe next time.”

“Definitely next time.” I said with a grin, watching him leave the room before stretching quickly and starting to get ready for our run.

Please tell me we don’t need to wear full dress uniform every day? The tutors don’t normally, right? I never paid much attention to what they wear. Gem asked.

Nah, check the bottom drawer. We have new silvers. Cory replied.

Thank the Gods! I forgot how soft these are!

I pulled on a sports bra and underwear before opening the drawer full of the silver jumpsuits that all trainees wear out of the bottom and stepped into it. It was so much softer than the scrubs we’d had in prison, almost like those waspsilk dresses Gem, Peg and I were going to buy on Rhomia before we realised they were worth almost a full years pay and if we got those we couldn’t get mods.

These are so much comfier than our uniforms. They feel like pjs. Cas thought to us happily.

I grinned in agreement and dragged a comb through my hair before scraping it back into a tight ponytail, how I always wore it. We hadn’t been allowed hair ties in prison, I don’t know what they thought we might do with them but I was so glad to be able to tie my hair up again. It made me feel more like me. More like I was before.

I heard Peggy walking along the corridor, knocking on the doors and scrambled over my bed to open my door before she reached it.

“Ready to go!” I announced with an elaborate salute just in time.

“At least someone is on time! Come on!” She reprimanded the rest of the crew who were just coming out of their room before turning towards the hatch.

“Does everyone have impact boots on? Good. Let’s do this!”

“I think she’s the only one who's excited for this.” Gem mumbled darkly as we followed Peggy to start our morning run.

“Good morning everyone, I am Commander Leo and I’m in charge of your testing today. We will begin with the written testing, as you can hopefully tell by the screens in front of you. There is no time limit so once you are finished, please click ‘completed’ on the top left corner and leave the room. Then you may follow your wrist monitor to the canteen for lunch. Please stay there until you are collected for your next test. If you have any questions, raise your hand and one of these five,” She gestured to us, “will come and answer it the best they can. Please type your name or number at the top. The questions will now appear, you may begin.”

So… do we just sit here and wait for someone to have a question? Cory asked, scanning the room uncertainly.

I think so. Either that or burst into tears. Cas thought, raising his eyebrows jokingly at Peggy.

Hey, Andy says at least one person cries every year. Peggy replied indignantly.

We have our first one. Peggy, do you want to take this? I asked, knowing she’d be best suited for this.

Oh crap! Yes, yes, I’ll sort this out. Peggy hurried towards a young boy who was crying softly.

She spoke to him gently for a second before guiding him out of the room.

What’s the issue, Peg? I asked her.

He’s a volunteer but his dad made him sign up and he’s scared of disappointing him. His dad always wanted to be a Gunner, signed up at eighteen but failed testing and didn’t get into the Corps. He served in the IA for a little but dropped out. She explained sympathetically.

Oof, that’s a lot of pressure. Cas replied. ‘least you can’t fail testing here as a kid. It might be worth reminding him that?

I smiled and leant back in my chair preparing for a long wait until lunch.

We’ve got a question. Cory informed us after a little while, breaking me out of my imagination.

The boy who’d come into the kitchen the day before was holding his hand in the air and smiling widely at me. I smiled awkwardly in response and rose from my chair.

I guess I’ll take this one? I thought as I walk over to him.

“Hi there, kid, how can I help you?”

“Hi! My name’s Sammy!” The kid replied happily, still grinning.

“Okay, Sammy, what do you need?”

“Urm… I was just wondering if I should write more about your crew on the mining crisis question? I don’t want to go into too much detail but I don’t want to miss anything either!”

I looked down at his screen and scanned his answer which already took up almost the whole page. I barely managed to suppress a wince when I saw the lies the Council published regurgitated on his screen. Of course Andy included this question in the test, he probably wanted to see what everyone thought of the situation.

“Kid, we’ve only been here for like half an hour, you can take your time. Wow, you’ve really covered everything in this… I don’t think you need to mention us any more.”

He’d already spoken about us too much. And, to my surprise, touched on our unfair treatment at the hands of the Council.

Sammy smiled proudly. “Thanks, Captain Aries!”

I faltered, not accustomed to being called a Captain by someone outside of my crew, before smiling back. I didn’t know how he knew that much about us, I still don’t really, but maybe Peggy did have a point. Maybe it is best that we write this. That way we control how much everyone knows.

We got a little Peggy here. I told the crew, trying to be enthusiastic. He’s going to get flagged for something, I’m calling it now.

“Ohh I am so glad that’s over, it was almost as painful as completing it the first time!” Gem dropped her plate onto the table and began eating with reckless enthusiasm.

“Me too! It makes me so sad when people cry though, I remember feeling just as hopeless!” Peggy replied, picking up her bread and taking a huge bite.

“I hated it. Just sitting there for hours, not able to get up and walk around. It was basically torture! Gods, I can’t wait to hit the gym again! We should go tonight!” Gem bit into her bread roll, moaning happily as butter spilled down the side.

“You’d think someone who has been tortured would use that analogue less freely. Plus we’re taking Frida out tonight!” Cas grinned excitedly at the idea of taking out ship out for a spin.

Gem pulled a face at him and threw the rest of her bread roll at him which he caught, butter smearing in between his fingers and bit into it.

“Thanks, I forgot to grab some bread! I don’t care about the test, I’m just so happy we have this food again! That prison food was horrible. Just tasteless mush. I’m sure it was on purpose. To, like, lower our morale or something.”

Gem snorted. “Gods, you’d think by the age of sixteen you’d have learnt to eat like a human and not like an piget.”

“Oh, ha ha.” He replied dryly. “Says the person who just threw food. You’d think by the age of sixteen you’d have better insults.”

“Alright, alright, we get it. Cas is an animal and loves food. Can we talk about this afternoon’s testing? It says we will be assessing the flying simulations. Cas and Aries will be taking one group, the rest of us taking the others. Apparently we’re meant to be looking out for: fast reactions, general aptitude, ability to multitask… ” Peggy interrupted, pulling up the testing guide on her wrist monitor and beginning to read it out to us.

I smiled into my food, listening to Peggy as she continued briefing us on the testing, and felt a rush of relief and happiness. We were back together again and no one could split us up again. How dumb I was then.

“Okay, so you can adjust your seat with the lever under the bottom left side… and make sure you can comfortably reach all of the controls.” I instructed, watching suspiciously as Sammy positioned his seat with ease.

“These six will go first, then the next six and so on. The other half of the group are doing the weaponry tests now which you will be doing tomorrow. Understood?” Cas asked.

We waited for a little bit but no one replied.

I guess they get it? Which three do you want? Cas asked, eyeing up the six kids before us. Left three or right three?

I looked at the kids. Sammy was sitting on the left side, gripping the controls excitedly.

I’ll have left side. I have a suspicion about this kid, I want to see if it checks out. I gestured at Sammy who caught my eye and gave me a thumbs up which I returned with a smile.

“Okay, I’ll take you three,” I pointed at Sammy and the two other kids, one girl aged about 9 and one boy aged around 15, “ and Cas will take you three.” I pointed to the kids on the right.

No one responded again but Sammy nodded, smiling slightly at the simulator screen in front of him.

“Okay, simulation starting. You’ll be walked through the basic controls and then you’ll do a short test flight and attempt a landing. If you crash, don’t panic, just sit there and wait until the others finish their flights as well.” I explained before switching on the simulators, hearing the familiar buzz of machinery and feeling a pang of nostalgia.

It had been so long since we’d gotten to play with the simulators and they were so fun. You get to test out ridiculous and dangerous manoeuvres and there was no consequence for crashing. I miss that. We always used real ships from the second year onwards, apart from when we were first testing as a crew.

The young girl on my side jumped at the start up noise.

Not a good sign. I thought to Cas, nodding towards her subtly and making a note on my screen.

Could be worse, one of mine has already crashed. He didn’t even manage lift off. Cas shook his head slightly and made a note on his screen too.

The girl understood the controls surprisingly quickly and was doing better than I initially thought.

Okay, maybe I was wrong. I think I’m going to flag her? At least as one to watch if not actual flagging?

“No!”

She had clipped a meteor trying to come out of a dive and her monitor had started beeping in warning.

“It says I have a fuel leak! That sounds bad! What do I do? Can I land somewhere?” Her voice was loud and squeaky with fear.

I rushed to her side and scanned the screen. It was bad but there was a small chance she could do it. She wouldn’t finish the simulation but the ship could survive. It would show how she worked under pressure at least.

“You could but it’s risky. Keep an eye on this light here,” I pointed at the warning light on the corner of her screen. “If it goes red, you’re in trouble. Pull the thrusters up and go in real gently, barely even touch them.”

“Okay.” Her eyes narrowed in concentration as she leant forwards.

“Watch your wing!” I urged, wanting to grab the controls out of her hands, but it was too late.

She reacted a second too slowly and I watched as her simulation crashed into the ground, the screen going black with the words “SIMULATION OVER. FATAL CRASH” blinking in red.

“You did well. What’s your name?”

“I’m a draft, I haven’t picked one yet. I’m 19324.” She answered miserably, refusing to look me in the eye.

“You should pick one. You know, flyers like you normally name themselves after a star or constellation. You should have a look.” I smiled, making a note on her file to monitor her progress.

She’ll be a good flyer one day.

“I will! Oh wow, look at him.” She sounded significantly happier as she pointed at Sammy who was skilfully pulling out of a low dive.

I walked up behind him to watch as he entered the final section of his simulation, checking on the other boy who’s simulation had failed a few minutes before the girl.

“Doing great, Sammy. Bring her in to land.” I instructed, leaning over his chair slightly to get a better look.

He smiled, his eyes not leaving the simulation.

He brought the ship down shakily, catching the nose on an outcrop near the landing station but still managing to touch down. “SIMULATION COMPLETE. SHIP DAMAGE: MINOR” flashed on his screen as he turned to look at me.

“Did I do okay?” He asked, his eyes checking on the other simulations before staring up at me worriedly.

“Very well. I’m going to flag you.” I clicked on the little flag icon next to his name and made a quick note of his simulation number.

“Oh… What does that mean? Is it bad?”

“It means you’re going to be put in an accelerated flight training program, you have a knack for this. Although…It looks like you’ve had practice…” I trailed off quietly, raising one of my eyebrows in question and waiting for an answer.

“Oh…” He lowered his voice, looking over at the crowd of kids waiting to be tested. “I used to break into my mom’s office and play on her simulations. She was a Commander before she retired. Please don’t tell my brother! He wants me to be a gunner real bad but I don’t want that! I’ve always wanted to be a flyer.”

I smiled at him. “I’ll keep your secret. Go sit down over there.”

He hopped out of his chair and took a seat with the other kids who had already had a go, his brother glaring at him as he did so.

“Okay, next six please!” Cas called.

“I’ve flagged three people, Cas flagged seven. What about you three?” I asked.

“We flagged ten for weaponry.” Peggy replied as we walked towards the flight bay.

“I got six. Some real terrible ones too though.” Cory said, his hand capturing Gem’s.

“We had some bad ones too. I had to jump out of the way of one kid. I’m so glad we set everything to shock and not stun.” Gem said, rubbing her shoulder and wincing.

“Me too. I need to go to the armoury again, I’m not used to holding any of the weapons with this.” Cory said, a slight frown on his face as he held up his left hand where two fingers were missing.

“We’ll go after dinner today.” Gem said quickly, trying to hide the anguish in her eyes.

“Okay.” He replied with a gentle smile.

“There you five are! Probably off to cause trouble no doubt!” Andy said grinning at us indulgently as he walked out of his office.

We stopped abruptly, wanting to talk to Andy but also hoping that we wouldn’t be held up.

“We were going to take the ship up for a quick spin before dinner.” I informed him, trying to hint that we were in a rush.

“Ah, that’ll have to wait until tomorrow! Aries, I need to speak to you in my office, if you don’t mind.”

I sighed internally and followed him.

I knew we should have taken the back way and not gone past his office. I shot at the others.

We’ll meet you in the armoury when you’re done?

I hesitated in the door to his office, scared of what he was going to say and looked around, trying to see if there was anything obviously wrong.

His office looked exactly as it always did with screens scattered about, bookcases of real Earth books overflowing and the panel from his old ship Mersa displayed on the wall behind the desk. His desk didn’t look any more cluttered than usual. He had the normal stack of screens on it, a couple books and a screen showing a picture of him and his partner Elliot. He’d told me about that photo before. A member of his old crew took it just before the mission where they’d lost him, just before Andy retired. He smiled whenever he looked at that photo but it was a distant smile.

“Take a seat please.” Andy gestured to the chairs in front of his desk as he seated himself behind it.

I sat down, my heat pounding.

“What’s the matter?” I asked, my mind immediately jumping to the Council, worried we would be arrested again.

“Nothing’s the matter!” Andy said quickly, a sure sign that something was the matter.

I waited for him to continue, my fingers picking at the edge of my nail.

“I just wanted to check in with you and see how you are all managing being back on the base and with all your new responsibilities.”

He smiled kindly at me, worry evident in the wrinkles on his forehead.

“I think we’re doing okay… I mean it’s only been like two days we’ve been out of the dorm. Testing hasn’t been too bad and we’ve all started to look at lesson plans for next week so that should be good…”

“Good! How are you coping with being back on the base?”

I looked down, unable to meet his eyes. My throat suddenly felt tight. I didn’t want to lie to him but I didn't want him to see how much I was struggling. I knew that would hurt him too. I tried to speak and had to clear my throat twice before any sound would come out.

“It’s… it’s been okay. We’re coping fine, I think.”

That was a lie.

He stared at me intensely and I tried hard to not look away.

“How are your injuries healing?”

“They’re okay. The medBot said my ribs are all completely healed and the others are healed too.”

His eye twitched slightly and his hands, laced together in front of him, tightened noticeably.

“And how’s your mental health been since you got back?”

I swallowed again.

“Fine.” I squeezed out.

His smile told me he knew I was lying.

“You went through a horrible experience, it’s okay to be struggling.”

I nodded, unable to answer, my mouth was too dry to speak.

“You could always speak to the therapist about it or maybe you could talk to the doctor about going back on medication to help you cope better?”

I had been considering it but it still felt too fresh. I didn’t want to relive it and I didn’t think I needed medication just yet even though it really helped when I first came to the base.

“I think I’m okay.”

He surveyed me silent.

“Alright. If anything does change or you need anyone to talk to, you know that you can make an appointment at any time or you can just come talk to me.”

I nodded before I remembered what Cas had told me.

“There is one thing… We’ve been getting some weird messages.”

“Weird how?” He looked troubled.

“Like hate mail I guess?”

His eyebrows drew together.

“Do you know who it’s from?”

“No, not really…”

“Okay, I’ll get some of the tutors to look into it. Have you received any threats?”

I thought about the message Cas received. It seemed threatening but it didn’t count as a threat really. I didn’t want to tell Andy and have him get into trouble or anything. I still don’t know if that was the right decision.

“Not really. Not like proper threats, it’s mostly just anonymous messages calling us traitors and other things like that.”

“Are the rest of the crew getting these messages too?” He said, studying me closely.

“Yeah.”

“Okay, I’ll get that looked into. How are the rest of the crew coping with being back?”

I sighed, my shoulders slumping.

“Alright, I think. It varies depending on the day. Cory is struggling most at the moment, because of his hand. He’s not used to it yet and doesn’t like asking for help but I think that’s probably normal.”

Andy nodded sagely.

“That is normal and it’s why I have him teaching Weaponry. He needs a chance to have a practice with all the weapons again and get used to it.”

“I think everyone is struggling a bit. Gem blames herself for what happened, Peggy blames herself too because she’s the one who spotted it. And so does Cas, cause of his dad.” I blurted out.

“Ah. Who do you blame?”

His question caught me off guard.

Me.

That was my answer but I didn’t want to tell him that. I couldn’t tell him.

“It’s not any of their fault… I guess the Council for not helping Irision sooner and not listening to us. Or maybe the other ship for not making sure Gem was clear. But either way, it’s happened and we’d do it again if we had to. It was the right thing to do.”

He smiled, his eyes beaming with pride and concern.

“Good. Hopefully, you’ll never have to do it again.”