I took a deep breath and got into her jumper. It was completely different than the jelly beans at work. This one had curves at the right places and actual windows. I had to admit, Kal had a great taste when it came to transportation… and as it stood, dates too. I was looking forward to riding in this beauty.

“Gorgeous car,” I said when I the door closed.

“Kal loves ships and jumpers. This beauty is my pride,” she said while we started moving.

She wore a less form-fitting blue dress today as far as I could see in the jumper, but I spotted the ugly slipper on her feet right away. Why would she wear those? In high-heeled shoes, she would be a natural disaster.

Today she was wearing her hair in a tight ponytail and huge crystal earrings that sparkled with calming blue lights matching her eyes. Time was slowly catching up with her, but it didn’t look like it had the effect it wanted to. She was still stunningly beautiful. The signs of age gave her a more mature and confident beauty if all.

“You do look amazing Kal, can I call you Kal?” I tried to strike up a conversation with her.

“Yes, you can and thank you for the compliment. I was thinking the same,” she answered with a smile.

“So, where are we going?” I asked and looked out the window.

We were already among the countless jumpers in the sky. Kal didn’t control it manually. She just gave the holoscreen instructions, and it was going on autopilot. It was a bit disappointing since I always liked driving. I even refused to buy a car with automatic transmission. I was one of that rare breed that liked driving with manual. Down below us, I could see the streets and the depressive looking rows of buildings. I expected some great view from up here, but in reality, the boring architecture and city planning made everything look like the drawer of some OCD person from up here.

“Do you like history?” she asked while looking at me curiously.

“Depends,” I answered after a few moments of thinking.

“Oh, on what?” My response made her raise an eyebrow.

“Well, economic or political history is far too dry for me to be interested in,” I said while slightly tilting my head to the side. “On the other hand, I do actually like it if it’s interesting enough.”

“Nice, nice! I thought we could go to the Terran Alliance War Museum. It’s got popular again recently because they brought in something huge! Kal’s been itching to see it,” she said with shining eyes.

“That sounds cool,” I said honestly. After gathering up some of my courage, I continued. “You know, I haven’t been on a first date for a … few years.” For a few thousand... “You’re pretty lucky I managed to squeeze you into my busy schedule,” I continued with fake confidence. I bet Genna was taking notes to annoy me with later.

“Is that so? Are you saying Kal’s a lucky girl?” she asked with a half curled smile.

“Well, I’m pretty sure you won’t find a guy like me often.”

“Doesn’t everyone say that?”

“You mean doesn’t everyone wish to be unique? Sure, but most fail at it.” I wasn’t anything special either. What a hypocrite...

“So, what makes you unique Aium Roowe?”

I looked her in the eye and said, “Telling you would ruin the fun. Better find out yourself.”

The drive… or fly didn’t take long, and now we were heading into a dome-shaped building. A few people were going in through the gate. When I saw that everyone touched a metal plate before the entrance, I nearly fell over dead. It didn’t take long to realize that they were paying for tickets. My near cardiac arrest came because I realized that I spent most of my money on that stupid ship control manual. I went on a date without money. How could this happen? I wanted to blame it on Genna for not telling me, but I shouldn’t rely on her for everything. I should have fucking remembered that you need money for dates. I could feel my palms getting drenched in sweat in seconds. I had to tell her...

“Erm…-”

“I’ll pay for everything today. Kal’s the one who asked you out. Just make sure you are interesting enough to be worth my effort,” she cut me off while gently touching my arm.

This felt all kinds of wrong. This wasn’t how a date should go. I was so uncomfortable with the situation that I considered just taking off and running away when she wasn’t paying attention.

The dome itself wasn’t exactly a perfect dome. The middle part of it at the top was a huge hole towards the sky. The place was far too crowded for my taste. In the air above us, I could see all kinds of spaceships flying around in all their holographic glory and doing pretend space battles with each other. It was freaking awesome to watch them go at it.

The museum had a pre-set path, and along the way, there were countless holoscreens and holoanimations to tell the history in the most entertaining way possible. There were even VR stations you could use to live through reenactments of specific events from the war.

The first huge screen was about the war in general. It lasted for a couple of decades only around the 500 cycles after the Empire’s establishment. Back then the humans lived in the Peripheral Regions outside of the Empire’s authority. They called themselves the Terran Alliance. Due to exhausted resources, they desperately looked for planets to take as their own.

“This lead to confrontations with the Empire’s Military, and it ended in a full-blown war later. The human’s vicious and desperate tactics led to major successes in the early years. Their war machine managed to push into the Core Regions. Thankfully they were stopped before reaching any major civilized planets, but to this day they were the only ones who managed this feat since the Empire’s birth. Following that it became a war of attrition and the already resource-starved Terran Alliance couldn’t keep up their desperate war. The turning point came in a massive battle near the Kelmaran 5 moon. With heavy losses Warmaster Raven Kard and Warmaster Remarthaerd, the 1st managed to break their defenses and pushed them back to the Peripheral Regions. It was a matter of time after that until the Empire’s forces completely broke the Terran Alliance’s war machine. Following the war, the human race was put under heavy military law near the edge of the Peripheral Regions for the next few hundred cycles. Due to Emperor Semwick’s benevolence, humanity got redeemed later, and they joined the Empire on the 1145th cycle.” One of the screens read.

That was pretty interesting. I wondered how much of it was distorted to give a different picture of what happened. After all, history was written by the victors.

“Fascinating, isn’t it? I adore the history of humanity, but it’s so fragmented and riddled with holes. I would give anything to see Earth in all its glory. You know, when I was young I managed to put away enough money for a trip to the planet. It’s a miserable rock now,” Kal said with a frown.

“It was blue and full of life until we came and ruined everything. I’m surprised there was a rock left behind,” I said.

“How would you know?” she asked with a raised eyebrow of mock.

“My guess is as good as anybody’s I guess,” I added with raised hands.

Before getting on our way on the path, I offered my hand to her, but she just stared at me with a questioning look.

“What do you want?”

“Your hand. It’s an old Earth custom. The man keeps his arm out so the woman can hold onto it. That’s how you should walk in a proper way when on a date,” I explained.

“Old Earth custom, huh? You come up with these on the spot?” she asked with a chuckle, but she still raised her hand and held onto mine.

The museum itself wasn’t too big. There were many depictions of different battles and events from the war. A few real weapons and equipment on display beside holoimages. The most fascinating part for me was the comments recorded after the war from the Empire’s soldiers.

“Humans were scary. I still have nightmares about them coming for me, you know. Even if you shot them or they limbs got blown off they just kept going. If they couldn’t move their limbs anymore, they would try to bite you. They were absolutely mad. The only sure way to stop them was to shoot or destroy the head or just wait out until they bled out. I lost so many comrades to half dead humans I can’t even remember.

Trooper Kawarl - 594th cycle”

“It took us many cycles until we finally understood their way of thinking. To them, losses were acceptable as long as they reached their goal.

Captain Jaleouretha the 5th - 590th cycle”

“You see this fake arm? A little human female half my size tore it off after I killed her comrade. The madness in her was so overwhelming I couldn’t even breathe. I don’t want to get close to humans ever again. Their emotions were too much for me. They were utterly vengeful when it came to their kind. If you started killing them, it was in your best interest to finish them off all unless you wanted a bloodthirsty beast after your neck.

Trooper Leonar Sam - 601st cycle”

“They were desperate. Some of their moves were completely unreasonable in our eyes. Whole battalions sacrificed themselves to give a chance to the others at escape. They sacrificed themselves by the millions just for small chances. It was a painful process to learn how to fight them.

Warmaster Remarthaerd the 1st - 589th cycle”

“Physically you couldn’t really hurt them. If you injured them too much, they tried to die in a way that brought the most damage. They were illogical and savage. The only way to affect their mentality was through their spirit. Most of the time though it just made things worse.

Captain The Lowareth - 590th cycle”

“Kal’s been here a couple of times before, but these comments always shock me. If I look at us humans now I can’t see what they described. We aren’t these violent warmongering species anymore, but it’s fascinating to think that my ancestors were like that,” commented Kal with a light chuckle.

“Yeah, it’s crazy how different people are now,” I said while looking through the quotes. “I guess time did its job.”

“You know, I can’t even imagine how they could carry on if they literally lost limbs. If I accidentally knock my elbow into something I nearly break down crying like a child,” she laughed, but then she turned to me, and her previous happy expression slowly faded away. “It must have really hurt,” she said while raising her hand and gently touching my burnt face.

“Physical pain is just an illusion,” I said with a weak laugh. “An illusion your body creates for your brain to warn you that something is wrong. It’s merely a sign for you that helps to keep your body together longer.”

“Real pain comes from the inside just as one of the quotes said,” I said while looking back at her. “From the spirit. What hurts the most is the intangible, the feelings you can only wait to lessen with time or forget. Your skin can boil in a fire yet you would hardly notice it when compared to what grief and guilt could do to you.”

“Why don’t you heal your scars?” she asked quietly while studying my face.

“That would only help me forget, and I don’t want that,” I answered while looking her in the eyes. “Let’s continue, it’s getting far too gloomy here,” I pulled her forward with a small laugh.

Thankfully, the awkward silence didn’t last too long because the museum’s new main attraction made us far too excited.

“There she is!” Kal exclaimed loudly.

In the center of the dome was a massive spaceship. It was blocky with red and blue paintings and longer than two buses put after each other. The front of it and the back of it were bigger than the middle part. It reminded me of a huge dumbbell.

“Look at that beauty! She is why Kal brought you here,” she cooed and pulled me closer.

“What is this?” I asked while staring at it with an open mouth.

“It’s a Terran Scout Vessel. A genuine one!”

“You mean this lady is a thousand cycles old?! Looks brand new to me.”

“It’s a real old timer. They found it a few cycles ago in a hidden Terran base in the Peripheral Regions. It wasn’t working anymore, but they completely restored her, and it flew on her own here a few weeks ago,” she explained with sparkling eyes while staring at it.

We went closer and admired it. For me, it looked like something from a real sci-fi movie, but for these people, it was like an ancient piece of history. Like the Ford T-model for me.

“Can we check it out from the inside?” I asked while eyeing the open ramp at its side.

“I specifically searched this, but sadly, it’s not open to the public,” she said with sad puppy eyes.

I looked around but other than the crowd and the thin railing between us and the ship I saw nothing or nobody that would stop us if we went in there. The ship was literally open.

“Would you like to see it from the inside?” I grinned at her.

“How-” she started but couldn’t finish because I grabbed her hand and ducked under the railing.

“What… what are you doing?!” she asked in a high-pitched voice but she still followed me.

I walked up to the ramp with confident steps while dragging Kal along.

“Well, what can we lose? It’s right in front of us now,” I asked her mischievously before entering the ship.

“We shouldn’t do this. This is not allowed,” she frowned and bit her lower lip. It made her look so sexy my legs nearly buckled.

“Come, come. Kal needs to see this,” I mimicked her style jokingly and pulled her inside.

The inside of the ship was exactly what I expected from a sci-fi ship. Metal everywhere with the same red and blue paintings. There was a hallway in the middle of the ship with several smaller rooms at the sides. The entrances were small and round with massive doors like on a submarine.

Surprisingly, the ship was a lot smaller on the inside than one would expect from its size. Possibly because of the heavy outer layers of the ship but it didn’t cross my mind at first.

We quickly reached the control room at the end of the ship. There were a few chairs scattered around the small space. There were no windows, but there were plenty of control boards. This ship clearly wasn’t built during this holoeverything era.

“I can’t believe this. I’m inside a Terran Scout Vessel,” whispered Kal while touching a control panel with extreme care.

“It’s worth being a bit brave now and then. This ship is unbelievable. Did you say it still flies? Wouldn’t it be great to take it on a -”

“Oi! What are you guys doing in here? This area is closed to the public!” I was interrupted by someone shouting at us from the hallway we came from.

“Oh shit, act cool and follow my lead!” I whispered to Kal.

“Huh?” I did my best stupid tourist impression.

The guy was wearing a red uniform with the museum’s logo on it.

“Why are you in here? You aren’t allowed inside!” he accused.

“Really? I thought it was part of the experience since the ramp was open and all. It looked like the obvious thing to come inside. I even felt lucky that people weren’t in front of us in this small space,” I said innocently. Kal came up to me quietly and took hold of my hand.

“Ah man… I told them the ramp should be closed. It was bound to happen sooner or later,” the guy said while touching his forehead. “Quickly, get out of here before you get us into trouble,” he shooed us away.

Kal and I looked at each other and rushed out of the ship. When we got on the other side of the railing, we stopped and started laughing at the same time like in some cliche romantic movie. I guess the first guy or girl who came up with this cliche worked from real life experience.

“Thank you! This was so much fun! I can’t believe Kal was inside that ship. The others will die from jealousy,” she said while still giggling. She was gorgeous while laughing and her shining eyes were magical. I finally managed to understand why moths were drawn to the light.

“Others?” I asked.

“Kal’s a member of a Retro Ship Enthusiasts Club,” she said proudly while pushing out her chest. I approved.

Retro… That word really bothered me. For them, retro was what my future was. Time travel could really screw with one’s sense of reality.

After our little stunt, we left the place since the ship was the final sight of the museum. Kal asked if I was hungry which I was so she decided we were going to eat next.

The restaurant was in a skyscraper building. We went up with the lift a few levels and arrived in a small reception area. An over the top polite yellow-eyed guy led us into what looked like a room but upon entering my jaw nearly knocked twice on the floor. The room wasn’t big. There was a table and two huge chairs. Above the table, a pale blue orb was floating, gently illuminating the table and its surroundings. The jaw-dropping feature were the walls. It looked like space. Like the room was a glass bubble that was flying through space. I could see stars and planets slowly passing by us. For a few seconds, I even got motion sickness from it.

I was still staring in wonder at the walls when Kal’s chuckle awakened me.

“Well, that reaction was unexpectedly entertaining. Let’s sit.”

I collected myself and carefully stepped into the room after Kal. Understandably, I was a bit scared to step into the nothingness, since even the floor looked like space under us. I rushed up to the chair Kal was heading to and pulled it out for her as a gentleman should.

“What are you doing?” she asked in confusion.

“I’m helping you to your seat as a man should do,” I answered dead serious.

“Really? That’s the first time I heard a man should do something like this. I can’t complain though. Kal likes getting taken care of here and there,” she laughed at me and sat down.

After I took my seat too, she continued.

“Go ahead, order anything that catches your attention.” She motioned with her hand towards the table in front of me.

The same type of menu appeared in front of me like in GreenHut. I was in a good mood, and that asked for meat. I switched right away to linbog menu and looked through the potential dishes. The selection was smaller, but it was higher quality. I seriously eyed the Rawker Demon Stew, but I considered that I was on a date and chickened out in the end. My final decision fell on the Deboned Rawa Wings. It was a safe choice since I remembered that I ate Rawa steak before and it was pretty good.

“You ordered meat?!” asked Kal with wide eyes. Apparently, she was spying on my choice.

“Is that a problem? If you are against eating meat I can choose something else,” I said while throwing up my hands like a criminal.

“No, no! Kal has no problem with it; it’s just… surprising to see a Human eating meat.”

“I love eating meat!” I said with a grin.

“That’s…something else for sure. I tried eating meat a few times in my life, but all I managed from it was painful indigestion and mild disgust. How long have you been eating meat? Doesn’t it bother your stomach?”

“I’ve been eating meat since I can remember. My stomach could take on a grenade, a little meat hardly counts,” I pushed out my chest and answered proudly like the manly man I was.

“That’s a bold statement,” She laughed loudly.

Our dinner arrived with sleek looking, floating robots shortly after ordering. Kal was having some kind of vegetable dish.

I was thinking about asking a few questions about herself, but she beat me to it.

“You seem like a smart person. I guess your employment at our company is only temporary. What are your plans for the future?”

“Actually,” I said while looking around, “I want to wander around in space. See everything that’s worth seeing. Experience new things and live life to its fullest. Also, I bet girls are plenty into handsome ship captains.”

She stared at me for a few moments lost in thought.

“Funny,” she smiled, “when I was younger I had the same dream, you know. I wanted my own ship and explore the cosmos without any burden. In reality, I ended up as a division leader for a small company. I can’t complain, it’s a decent life, and I find plenty excitement if I put some effort into it,” she said with a coy wink.

We spent the rest of the meal chatting with each other. After, we left for her jumper in a good mood.

“It was a fun night Aium,” she said before getting in. “I didn’t regret bringing you to this date. Most of the guys fail to live up to Kal’s expectations so be honored. It’s getting late. Time to go home.”

I was smiling ear-to-ear inside. She enjoyed the date with me, and I enjoyed her company too. I decided to ask her out on a second date when she dropped me off. I felt confident she would say yes. I wasn’t thinking about getting into a relationship so soon, but if the opportunity presented itself so obviously to me, I couldn’t just ignore it.

I was so occupied with my own thoughts that I hardly realized that we stopped on a parking floor. The problem was that it wasn’t the GreenHut parking floor.

“This isn’t the GreenHut,” I said while looking around.

“No, this is where Kal lives,” she said and pushed a small vial of purple liquid into my hand. “Drink this now! I wouldn’t want you to run out of steam too early,” she said while laying her hand on my thigh.