Promised to the Alien King

7

It moved downwards, revealing a huge shooting range. I felt my mouth and eyes widen- this place was incredible! There were distant targets that were barely visible, but they were all immobile.

“You can change settings on the screen, and make some-or all- of them move. You can also set their speed. I’ve been told that you use instinctive aim, but I doubt you know what means, and you won’t find out in a while. But soon, it will be explained to you- in short, it’s a talent possessed by rare, and you are by far the most talented one. I’d like to see you shoot immobile targets now.” she said, and I nodded.

I aimed and just started shooting. I didn’t think and I barely looked. I knew that I hit all bulls-eyes. After I was done, instructor Mel was amazed.

“That was impressive! You will definitely need advanced training. I will think of something that might be challenging to you for tomorrow, while the rest still learn the basics. You should leave now, the first wave of will be arriving in around fifteen minutes.” she said.

“Thank you, instructor Mel.” I answered. I liked being praised, but I had a bad feeling that the other passers wouldn’t like me. I was brought here a lot earlier by the captain himself, and I was going to get special gun training. That would spark jealousy.

I thought about it until I reached the still empty dorms. But I could hear some engines in the distance, so I knew it was the new passers. It was past 9 pm, and I was tired. Lights were going to be out soon, so I decided to change into my regular t-shirt and training pants for sleeping. I knew that they were going to go to the bathroom first, and there was going to be much noise, so I just decided to stay out of their way and rest.

I fluffed my pillow and lied down with a sigh. I didn’t realise how tired I was. And hey, it’s not every day that you murder seven people.

The event still haunted me. But I knew very well that those people weren’t the first ones I killed…

I remembered my brother, suddenly. He was thirteen when he died.

I took a deep breath. I need to stop thinking about those events. It’s in the past, and there’s nothing I can do about it. In spite of those thoughts, I was trembling.

Luckily, voices from outside interrupted my thoughts. The first wave of people must’ve arrived. They’d probably see me and I’d probably get asked why i came here first, and I’d have to put up with their hate.

The voices stopped, and I could only hear one now.

“This is your dorm! The information board is now active, and you can find answers to most things there- however, if you need further help, you can ask me- your dorm supervisor. Now, to the dorms” the voice, coming from a man, said as footsteps were heard coming from the stairs.

“The lights go off at 10 pm, which is in thirty minutes. You’ll be awoken at 7am, and when you tap your bracelets you’ll see your classes for the day. Now, off you go! Some extra rules, first- absolutely no dating of any sort is allowed! You mustn’t get distracted now, and no girls and boys in each other’s dormitories!” the man said. So, no dating, huh. I bed quite a lot of people disagree with that, and I was proven correct at the sound of annoyed sighs.

And then the door opened and tired-looking girls began crowding the place. Most of them haven’t noticed me, but those who did just looked in surprise and continued on in a search for beds. A blonde girl that seemed annoyed by the rest approached the bed next to me.

“Is this bed free?” she asked.

“Of course.” I answered. It was obvious, but I got why she asked. She was being friendly. She put her bag down and went through the clothes that were provided.

“There’s no pyjamas! What the heck? And no underwear! Hey, you’re the girl that came with the captain- please tell me how to get something to sleep in!” she said, turning to me. “I’m Laine by the way.” she added.

“I’m Sane, nice to meet you. You get toothbrushes and underwear in the bathroom, and also towels. I’m sleeping in the shirt I was in and one of the training pants. There’s washing machines with a 10-second option, so don’t worry about getting dirty.” I told her. She seemed nice.

“Thanks, sister!” she said, a huge smile appearing on her face. I had no idea how she knew that I was with the captain- but I guess news spread quickly.

“I’ll be back, I’m going to shower before the rest of these crazies fill the bathroom.” she told me, and went off. She didn’t hate me- I was glad. Suddenly, a brown-haired girl that took a bed in front of me turned around.

“You’re the one that went with the captain?” she asked. I wasn’t sure if that was an accusation, so I simply nodded. Her expression suddenly darkened.

“I won’t let you pass these challenges! You don’t deserve it, just because you decided to become his pet! Oh, look, Sane’s so good at guns! It would be too bad if one blew your head off.” she said angrily. I was expecting this reaction, but the poor reasoning took me back.

“Excuse me? That’s no reason for you to hate me. My school simply had the best results, and I happened to be the only green there. I didn’t get any special privileges.” I replied, trying to reason with her. I learned long ago that you can’t reason with bullies, but I still try. Maybe they can come to their senses.

“Screw you! You’re a retard, girl!” she said. She was really bad at this.

“You’re new to bullying, aren’t you?” replied simply, ignoring her insults. I knew the best ways to grind someone’s gears.

She muttered something under her breath and turned around angrily. That went well. 

It was 9:50 pm when Laine got back.

“Hey Sane! Can you believe the no-dating rule? What do they expect us to do on that planet, just be complete strangers! We’re teenagers for space’s sake, give us a break!” she said as soon as she was within my earshot. She reminded me of Jackie.

“I guess. But hey, we’ll be here for only ten days. Maybe they change the rule once we’re in space. Did you see the spaceships?” I said, wondering if they were visible in the dark.

“They told us that the spaceships were there, but it was too dark to see. So, tell me, how was it to ride in a helicopter with the captain? Is he hot up close?” Laine asked with interest.

“Ew! He’s in his thirties, Laine!” I said and laughed. She was silly, and I could see we’d become good friends. She looked at me thoughtfully.

“But is he hot?” she pressed on. I stopped to think. I haven’t really noticed anything unusual, and I was sure that if he was hot, I’d notice. 

“Not really. He’s an average, grumpy man.” I replied, making her giggle.

“Does he have children?” she asked.

“How the hell am I supposed to know that? I just flied with him in a helicopter, and he was silent expect occasional ‘Watson, don’t fall out!’-s.” I said, impersonating his voice. She laughed.

“I hope we’ll have some classes together tomorrow. I’d really like to see you shoot! Can you please practice with me tomorrow evening, even if it’s just for a few minutes? I’m really bad at guns, there’s no way I’ll pass id I don’t get better.” she said giving me a puppy eyed look. I lifted my eyebrow.

“Sure. I’m not sure I can teach you this, since it just came naturally to me. I’ll give my best, though. I can certainly show you easiest ways to hold a gun, and how to improve your aim with slight arm and body positions.” I said, and she nodded happily.

“Thank you so much! Also, that language thing is really fishy- why would we need to learn a made-up language? I have a feeling they’re sending us to aliens, and not on an empty planet.” she said with a giggle, but I considered her last sentence.

“You might be right about the alien part… Well, whatever they plan to do with us is certainly better than staying on Earth and dying.” I said. She agreed. As she opened her mouth to say something, the lights went off. It was time to sleep.

With a quick good night, I laid back down. Before any thoughts had a chance to enter my mind, I was fast asleep.

I was awoken by bright lights and a very, very loud alarm. I grunted as I barely opened my eyes.

“What the heck…” Laine said from the side.

I stood up, looking at all the girls grunting and complaining. I noticed that there were several empty beds, since they put too many just in case there’s a lot more girls than boys. Everyone was still slowly getting up, and I realized that this was my chance to go to the bathroom.

“Laine, get your butt up while the bathroom is empty.” I said as I ran off with my uniform. I remembered to check what I had first class, in case I it was combat or PE, but it was language and technology, in classroom 6. There were more classrooms than gyms.

Only a few showers were occupied, and I heard Lanie drag herself behind me. I quickly entered one, glad that everyone was still tired from yesterday. After I finished with showering, washing teeth and using the toilet, I waited for Laine to go have breakfast together. It was 7:20, so we still had a lot of time.

“Where exactly is the cafeteria?” she asked me as I led us outside. I pointed towards the building.

“Inside, then all the way down and forward.” I replied, remembering what the captain showed me yesterday. She nodded, following me into the building.

There weren’t many passers here yet, but I spotted the captain speaking into a communicator into his wrist. Guess those with privileges could go through.  

“That’s the captain! Oh my god!” Laine said, all exhaustion forgotten.

“He wants to be called Captain Michell” I told Laine. He turned towards us when we walked by, Laine staring at him all the way.

“Good morning, Watson, good morning, unknown cadet!” he said.

“Good morning captain Michell.” we said in unison, only that Laine’s voice was a lot more enthusiastic.

“What’s your name, cadet?” he asked Laine.

“Laine Richardson!” she said proudly.

“Good luck, cadet Richardson. You found a good friend.” he told her and walked by. She turned towards me excitedly.

“Did you see that? He talked to me!” she squealed. I rolled my eyes.

“Let’s eat, Laine you can swoon over him later.” I told her as I dragged her down to the cafeteria door. I explained which door led where, and we entered the main one, doors opening automatically. It looked like the one I was in yesterday, only that it was much bigger. It wasn’t crowded yet, so we had a lot of tables to choose from.

The options of food for breakfast were different than for dinner, of course. I knew that I needed to eat well now, since I was going to get a lot of exercise. I decided to take a bowl of cereal and eggs.

I waited for Laine to finish and we made our way towards some empty seats at a table. She began eating as soon as we sat, babbling something about a boyfriend she had and how they broke up.

“What about your love life?” she asked with her mouth full. I swallowed before replying.

“No love life here. Maybe I’ll meet some hot, sexy aliens in space.” I said jokingly.

“You better, or I’ll have to find you a boyfriend!” she said with a fake stern voice, and I laughed.

“Ah, I wish Jason was here.” she said dreamily. Jason was her last boyfriend.

“You said you hated him moments ago!” I exclaimed in surprise.

“Shush! My feelings are mixed sometimes.” she said with a giggle.