It was almost time. And she was late.
'Resting my eyes for a moment' was a terrible decision to do after consuming so much dessert. If her drive connection hadn't vibrated because of Jordan's call request and voicemails, she wouldn't have woke up at all.
Her lungs felt sharp, her breathing heavy, and her legs even heavier. She brushed past airport workers and other passengers as she navigated through the building. Until finally, she found Jordan leaning beside the doorway. The second he noticed her, she stood up and dragged her with him.
"Where the hell were you?!" Jordan grumbled as they walked in the halls, brushing past people.
"I-I fell asleep." Winter said in between breaths. "Did Mrs. Finch get the others into the plane already?"
"No. I requested her to not start yet until you were here. Five to ten minutes shouldn't be a massive deviance to the schedule."
"Aww, I love you, Jordan." she smiled, playfully clinging unto his arm.
Jordan took another capsule from his pocket and gave it to her as they walked. "Warm water this time," he said. Winter obliged and drank the entire thing.
"How do you store all these liquid capsules? And how are they so small yet have so much? Another invention of yours?"
"Mhm, and they can be controlled to either heat, warm, or chill the contents. I'm a technological genius, aren't I?" He snorted.
One final door parted before them, and they were greeted with a group of people gathered outside. The aircraft was just behind them, with lights running along the roads, ready for vehicle to run through. Finch stood on a small platform, looking at the two with an annoyed look.
"Winter, as Collegium Initiative member, I expected a certain level of punctuality. At class, you were always late too. I don't want this to happen again, understand?" Finch said with a loud and low voice.
Winter shuddered, "Yes, ma'am. This'll be a one time thing..."
Jordan and Winter quickly joined the group.
"Good. Now that everyone's here, I'll now explain protocol. We are going to be boarding an armored RT-Jet branded with the Collegium Initiative logo, courtesy of the Council of Sectorates, of course. We will be maintaining an altitude 30 meters just below the C.I.F. exhaustions to keep everyone safe. Additionally, we will be escorted with two defensor drones just in case."
"Just in case of what?" one student asked.
"In case of anything. For one thing, the snowfall might become heavy and completely block out communications, so the drones will take care of that. Fanatics might attack us from below, the C.I.F. exhaustions might descend upon the aircraft. There are a thousand ways where things might go wrong, and if things have a chance to go wrong, they always will." Finch's eyes narrowed, her face turning serious.
Most students stayed silent, though some dared to murmur amongst themselves and exchange nervous glances, with Jordan and Winter being one of them.
"In any case, there's no need to worry. The chances of that ever happening are slim. Think of it as nothing more than the safeguard and precautions of a paranoid woman, understand?"
The students nodded.
"Good. When you get into the ship, you may choose any seat you like. The hostesses will tend to your needs and wants with a flick of your wrists. And as members of the Collegium Initiative, I expect civility and grace from all of you."
Finch snapped her fingers, and a platform connecting the aircraft's side entrance and the ground lowered. One by one, the students orderly formed a line, like ants. Jordan stood behind Winter, resting his chin on her shoulder. Winter shrugged him off everytime, but the man himself was relentless.
"Stop! This isn't the place for that. You're going to cause a scene."
Jordan obeyed, standing up properly again. "I'm sitting behind you."
"Not beside?"
"Nah. There's a guy I already planned to sit beside. One hell of a programmer, someone I could learn something from. His dad's the designer of the simulator module."
"That's the headpiece thing where it can simulate a reality?"
"Yep. Guy said he has plans to improve his dad's invention, to make a full-body capsule to make the wearer feel and touch their simulations, like transporting yourself into another world."
"Hehe, I can already picture the many deprived degenerates who'd give up their life savings to pre-order a prototype. By the way, are there others who want to be a spacer like me? You've talked to everyone right?"
"Sadly, no. In fact, they were pitying and questioning your mental state behind your back when I mentioned you wanted to be a spacer."
Winter's eyes widened, and she sharply turned to him.
"Don't worry, I didn't beat up any of them this time."
"Oh, thank the Zionous. Did you threaten any of them or do anything hostile?"
Jordan let out a nervous laugh, "I may have a little bit, even though I agreed with him."
Winter sighed, "Well, at least you didn't send any of them to a care unit like, I don't know, most of the time?"
Finally, boarding the aircraft, they entered spacious cabin, where rows of seats laid before them like a theater seating. It was spacious and vast. It could perhaps accommodate a thousand people, but only 19 were reserved to use it.
Elites really like to go all out with their toys, huh?
Winter sat alone on a seat by one of the windows, and as planned, Jordan sat behind her and his friend along with him. Multiple people, in fact, chose to sit near him. As the plane ran and lifted off, Rori came along on the aisle, with only a backpack as her luggage, and looked at her, "Winter, mind if I sit beside you?"
"No, no. Go ahead."
"Hey, hey," started Rori, "Were you scared when Mrs. Finch said we might be in danger?"
"Oh, err. Not really, I think its quite unlikely. By the way, what did you say you wanted to be again?"
"Weapon carrier. I've trained alot just to come in here. Honestly, I still can't believe I passed."
"Oh, right. A soldier. Do you have... any grand goals or something to want to prove to yourself as to why you want to be a weapon carrier?"
"Nothing in particular, really. The man that found me just thought I had potential. I suppose he'll be my commanding officer once I finish training. You? You wanted to be a spacer, right? Is there a particular reason for that?"
"Hm. Nothing really. It's not like it matters."
"I see. Well, in any case. I'm going to be rest up, okay? You should too. It'll be a long month from here on out." Rori said, placing her pack's strap behind her and letting it rest on her lap. She closed her eyes, and within minutes, Rori was knocked out.
Winter closed her own eyes, trying to release the tension in her shoulders and allow herself to sleep, but countless, blurry thoughts ran amok in her mind. Her head was flowing with burning worry and anxiety, like red-hot lead gushing back and forth, though the blurriness of it all allowed her no room to find out why.
Cold, rough palms covered her eyes all of a sudden. She inhaled, "Jordan, I thought you were supposed to be talking with them."
"Well, they're all tired so they all slept, see?"
Winter turned back to the rows of empty seats, finding the others laying on their heads on their armrests or leaning back. "Oh. Did you talk to that programmer guy already?"
Jordan snorted and pointed to the seat next to him. It was a man who buried his face just behind Rori's chair, knocked out cold too, it seemed.
"Anyways," started Jordan, "Why are you still awake? Are you nervous?"
"I'm worried about something, but I don't know what."
"Hmm, is it because of the spacer capability test's passing rate?"
"Oh... I think so? I don't know. I'm just anxious for nothing again."
Jordan stood up and reached over to Winter's chair, wrapping his arms around her neck, "Aww, the fiery redhead's actually worried about something for once." He teased. His hot breaths tickled her neck, but it wasn't like she wasn't used to it.
"Oh, shut up. You're worried about your test too, aren't you? If you're going to take two test series then you're going to have to study really hard."
"Not particularly, no. And it'll be fine. Some students also take two to three test series. I can't guarantee that I'll pass all of them with a perfect score, but I'll pass at least."
"Heh, I hope you fail, you arrogant shithead."
Jordan hushedly laughed, "Woah, where the hell did that come from? That wasn't even being arrogant."
"You, obviously. You annoy me."
"Yeah, I know I do, but you find that endearing, don't you?"
Winter smiled, though she wiped it off her face herself, "Go to sleep already, or I'll get horny, with you sensually breathing on my neck like that."
Jordan immediately backed away, "Well, s**t. That's all you had to say."
Winter got her knees on the chair, facing back at Jordan, "Aww, come on. You rile me up like that and you immediately back down? How would you like it if a girl blueballed you in the middle of s*x?"
"Please, stop." Jordan shirked further into his seat, "I was joking."
Winter sneered, "You're a goddamn p***y, Jordan."
"Says the antisocial woman who literally doesn't want to deal with people. Anyways, I think I'm going to be sleeping now. You should too. The spacer test involves a simulation module, so it's best to have your mind as fresh as possible."
"Hmm... I guess," Winter retreated back into her seat. She leaned her head on the wall, staring at the blackness beyond the window. The small blinking lights of the warding towers were all that she saw. On the horizon, there should be stars strewn across the sky like beads and scattered jewels, but up here, where the view is as closest you could get to the skies, there was nothing but dark, snow-pouring clouds, and the C.I.F. exhaustions looming right above it.
She wished the plane would pierce through the gases, but she supposed doing so would end up killing everyone here in the slowest, most torturous possible way. For even with an armored plane like this, piercing this evil veil was a feat NASA, NWIC, and other space-based organizations can achieve. There was only so few materials that can withstand the denseness, pressure and radioactivity of the gases, and core materia-infused titanium, the main material used for a spacer ship's hull, was one of them.
Damn... I want to become a spacer right now....
Eventually, consciousness slowly trickled away from her fingers, leading her to darkness.
Rumble.
The ship rumbled and shook. The sirens inside the ship blared, and red, panic-inducing light filled the entire cabin. Gasps, panicked groans, and shaky squealing filled the air.
Winter grabbed onto her seat tight, closed her eyes, and took deep, controlled breaths. Rough hands suddenly wrapped around her again, and it was obvious who it was from. He was like a trained police dog protecting his owner.
"Stay calm, Winter." he said firmly and calmly.
"Yeah."
Rori was doing the same thing Winter did, except her eyes darted everywhere in the room, as if looking for an assailant.
Light shone from above, shining through Winter's side. It reached through her eyelids, and as she opened her eyes, she was beholden to a white orb flying right beside them, piercing through the snow clouds and even through the C.I.F. exhaustions. Winter's eyes widened. Despite the shaking and the blurriness, she kept her eyes glued to the object beside them.
Gasps of worry, alongside wows and curious puffs replaced the whimpers. At this point, everyone, including Jordan leaned to the left side of the ship, watching the bright orb gliding with them.
"What is that?" Jordan breathed.
Mrs. Finch stepped into the cabin and clapped her hands. The red lights disappeared, the warning sirens stopped blaring. The shaking suddenly became much more bearable.
"Attention, everyone. I'm glad you all didn't panic and make the problem much worse. This is what I talked about earlier when I said anything can go wrong." she said, her face was serious and worn out, like she was exhausted or extremely anxious. The plane tilted a little to the right as the glowing orb went further and further away from them until it was lost in the clouds, though its light radiated still.
"What was that, Mrs. Finch?" One of the students asked.
"We don't know. I've already contacted the NWIC, and they've yet to identify whatever that was. Thankfully, it didn't seem to be hostile."
"Mrs. Finch, that thing just passed through the C.I.F. exhautions! Could that be a spacer ship, or an extremely dense meteor?!" another blurted.
"All of you quiet down." Finch declared, her calm, but domineering voice silenced even the faintest nervous whisper. "Like I said, we don't know what it is, and neither is it your responsibility to know. Talk about this to your peers but do not let it replace the forefront of your mind. The capability test is all you need to worry about. Let the authorities handle it, and you'll find an official article about it on the internet eventually. Do you all understand?"
"Yes, Mrs. Finch." They all said in unison, including Winter, Rori, and Jordan.
Though shock, fear, anxiety, curiosity, and wonder filled everyone's eyes here, Winter's feelings were none of that.
What she felt was an odd nostalgia and familiarity.