Promised to the Alien King

8

We finished with around ten minutes left. Laine had PE, so she went there early to leave a good first impression, and I decided to do the same.

I had no idea where classroom 6 was, but I guessed it was somewhere mangled with the offices. The hallway was now crowded, late ‘cadets’ running into the cafeteria. I looked at the numbers on the doors until I saw the door number 6.

It opened automatically, and I entered. It was a huge classroom with around thirty tables for one. There were a few cadets already inside, sitting at the very back. I decided to take the front seat- I was going to need all the knowledge I can gain in order to go to space.

I wasn’t that girl that always sat forward, but I decided to turn into one now. Then I realized I had nothing to take notes with.

“Crap.” I said under my breath. I hoped that we wouldn’t learn anything important first day, but considering we got only five, it was unlikely. I tapped my bracelet, checking if there was any way to take notes.

I swiped through some menus until I found a ‘note’ programme. I opened it, and a hologram keyboard popped out. I had to keep my hand still and type with only one, but it was better than taking no notes at all. I had to borrow a writing tablet from somewhere for the next day.

The classroom filled up quickly afterwards, and the teacher came right on time. He was a man in his thirties, with short brown hair and an old looking face.

“Good morning, cadets! I am instructor Phillips. I will be teaching you modern technology and the official secret space language. Forty-five minutes are meant for language, and fifteen for technology, since there’s not much to cover. Egun on, cadets! That means Good morning.” he said, and I quickly typed it down.

I raised my hand. “Yes?” he asked when he saw me.

“Why do we have to learn this language, instructor Phillips?” I asked. I was usually shy around people, but I guess I could talk in extreme cases such as destruction of Earth.

“Good question, cadet Watson.” he said, somehow knowing my name. “You’re learning this language because people from all around the world will be sent on this mission. You need a common language to communicate in.” he explained.

I raised my hand again. “Why don’t we use English? Most of people already speak it, and it would certainly be easier than having everyone learn an entirely new language.” I said. He nodded.

“Good point, cadet Watson. This language was used for centuries by the first astronauts. We didn’t just make it up for this mission. It was made for only the people sent on special missions like these to conceal information and communicate with each other without spilling secrets to everyone. The explanation might not satisfy you, but I can’t tell you more until you’re on the ship. Those of you who pass will have everything explained to them, I promise.” he answered, and therefore closed the matter, going on with teaching.

By the time 45 minutes were over, we learned some serious stuff. We learned how to greet people at any time of day, we learned some basic words as well, like ‘table- antes’. We also learned basic grammar- it worked the same way as English. Also, words like ‘on, off, at…’ were exactly the same. Basically, this language was English but with different words. Some of them made sense, and some didn’t. Instructor Phillips told us that it will come naturally once we’re in a group that speaks mostly that language, and that would be once we were at the ships.

Now, the second part of class was a lot simpler. The instructor was explaining things I already knew how to use. He was teaching us about how the so-called ‘white mass’ worked. It’s a mass of materials that is able to float. Not fly at will, but whenever you put something made from it, it would stay there. I was bored pretty quickly, since this was nothing new to me- but I saw that the other cadets were intrigued.

“Cadet Watson! Since you’re not paying attention, I’ll assume you know this. Kindly explain what would happen if an object was made white mass, but also included other materials that do not float.” the instructor said. I smiled. This seemed like either an extremely difficult, or an extremely simple question. But I knew the answer.

“One gram of white mass can support one kilogram of other masses. So, that object would float, unless there was a lot less white mass than the other materials.” I answered, earning a respectful nod.

“That is correct. Cadet Watson, if you slack off again, you won’t go unpunished. Pay attention.” he said, adding a warning, although I knew he was pleased at my knowledge.

“Understood, instructor Phillips.” I replied. He continued with explaining what the white mass was made off, and I gave my best to listen.

Finally, the class was over, and I left with the rest. As I was going out the door, a muscular boy covered with tattoos blocked my path.

“Listen here, little know-it-all! Stop playing around, you ugly piece of crap! Trying to be every teacher’s pet. Give the rest of us a chance, will you? Show-off!” he said and then moved away.

I just sighed. For the first time, I was a nerdy girl, and of course I got bullied for it. It didn’t matter, though- all that mattered was survival.

My next class was PE, and I realized I had no time to change clothes. The guy took most of my time, and if I tried running back to the dorms, I would be late for sure.

So I just decided to go to the gym and hope for the best. I took my jacket off and left it at the side once I was in the gym. There was not as many people as I expected them to be- they must’ve made the schedules so that no two ‘classes’ were held at the same place. Smart.

The uniform pants were quite comfortable, so I concluded that there won’t be trouble. Except that this shirt was going to be stinky, but I had another one that I could wear while this one was washing, so it was no problem.

After a minute, there were thirty of us. Laine had language and tech now, so we’d have combat together, which was nice. Soon after, instructor Mel walked in.

“Egun on!” She told us, and we replied with the same sentence. “I am instructor Mel, and I’ll be teaching all of you PE and combat. Now, line up and we’ll do some warm-up exercises. You need to bring up your strength and endurance for the mission you might be sent on.” she told us, and we got into a line. I was next to an athletic looking girl and an overweight guy.

Then, she made us do exhausting strength exercises. We had to plank for a whole minute! The most I could do was thirty seconds, and I had to stop before the minute was over. The overweight guy held out until the end, to my surprise.

Then we had to do some other stuff, and I realised I wasn’t the worst- there might still be hope for cadet Watson!

But then, it was time for running. She told us to run a full circle and come back. She also told us that we weren’t allowed to stop, only walk as a method of rest. I knew that my life was over, but I gave my best.

At least I was familiar with the size of the gym, so I kind of knew where to just keep running a bit longer instead of walking. I just wanted to collapse and die by the time I reached one side. Luckily, the gym wasn’t square and width was half the length, so that part was easier. But then I had to run the length again. I was last, but there were some people not far ahead. By the time I was at half the length, some of the cadets were already done.

Once I finished, Instructor Mel approached me. “Cadet Watson, I’ll be expecting you at the gym after classes. You need to improve your endurance. I’m assigning you thirty minutes of daily running.” she told me, and all I could do was nod since I was out of breath.

We did other exercises until the rest of the class, and the last five minutes she told us to run. I sighed, but I did what she told us too. Again, I was a lot slower than the others, but I tried to do this without making walking breaks. As I was about to make one, since I couldn’t run anymore, the bell saved me. I had a twenty-minute break, so I decided to go to the dorms to get changed and put this shirt in a machine.

The dorm had some people in the main room, and they were writing something, probably notes from the language class. I decided to go through them in the afternoon.

Once I put on the clothes meant for training, I put my shirt into a washing machine and set it to 10 seconds. It beeped and started washing. It was spinning really fast, and I was afraid it was going to explode. But after exactly ten seconds, in beeped again and my s**t was both washed and dried! That was impressive! The washing probably wasn’t as good as if it were set to longer times, but it was good enough for my case.

I then went back to the gym. I was in gym one again. There were still a few minutes left when I arrived, but I saw Laine talking to a guy. I winked at her when she looked at me, and she winked back with a blush. She said something to him and walked over to join me.

“Hey Sane! I think that guy likes me!” she said excitedly, beginning to describe how he helped her find the gym because she faked that she didn’t know where it is.

“Remember the no dating rule, Laine.” I warned her, making her roll her eyes.

“Don’t worry, I’m just starting out- I won’t date until we’re on the ship!” she said in a know-it-all voice, continuing her descriptions of how cool and amazing that guy is. She mentioned his name, but I forgot It right after.

Luckily for me, her talk was interrupted just as she began explaining what she’d do to him if they were alone in a bedroom by the entrance of instructor Mel.

“Egun on! You all know me already, so there’s no need for introductions. Welcome to combat class. Here, I will teach you how to properly use a gun and we will learn combined martial arts, called ‘Eos on’. We will dedicate half of the class to both things, since they are both important. We will begin with Eos on.

“There are so-called poses in Eos on that moves originate from. There are ten of them, and five are offensive, three are defensive and two are evasive. Today, you will learn how to do these poses and we’ll save the actual fighting for tomorrow. I expect all of you to train these poses today after class. We don’t have much time.” she said. I was suddenly excited- I was never a fan of martial arts, but this seemed interesting, since it had a system. I was sure that all poses were somehow connected, and that one could counter another.

“We will begin with the first one- Enr ru, meaning straight line.” she said, and showed us the pose.

“The first five poses are all offensive. This one is by far the simplest one, but don’t be fooled- it’s extremely effective!” she said. The pose reminded me of a snake ready to strike.

“Of course, different defensive and evasive poses can counter different offensive poses, but we will learn which counter which and which are effective against which tomorrow.” she said, the repetition of the word ‘which’ making my mind wobble.

We went through all the poses five times, making sure we remembered each one of them correctly.