“Ah…” I hesitated, surprised at the formal tone that did not match her appearance. “Yes. I am Cadet Auryn Parnyr.” The words felt foreign as they came out of my mouth. Never would I have thought that I would address myself as a cadet, much less one in the commission of an alien empire which had conquered my home planet.

The girl nodded before quickly pivoting on the heel of her right foot. “You will follow me.” She stated with an authoritative tone. Almost immediately, she began to walk towards the departures gate with her back towards me.

“Wait up!” I called. It had taken me a few moments to recover from being caught off guard by her cold and businesslike mannerisms and now I was forced into a light jog in order to catch up to her. Though she slowed her pace, she showed no other signs of acknowledging me. I couldn’t help but think that I accidentally did something to anger her without knowing. Perhaps I was staring too much.

As I drew level with her, I turned my head to inspect her expression. Her gaze seemed to only be focused forwards as if she were intent on ignoring me. We walked towards the gate in an awkward silence and stopped before the checkpoint as the guards inspected our credentials.

After stepping through the gate, I decided I had to do something in order to break this awkward barrier between us. The worst thing that could happen is a continuation of this dreadful silence during the flight to the transport ship.

“Um!” I suddenly blurted out. I mentally cursed myself for my social ineptitude when it came to conversing with beautiful females.

She looked at me, waiting for me to say something. As I scrambled for words, I inevitably chose the worst thing to say. “I’m sorry!” I apologized for nothing.

Her slightly curious expression had changed into one of extreme annoyance. “Why are you apologizing?” She asked with a sharp tone to which I had no response. She shot me a withering look and continued walking.

Once again, we fell into that frigid silence, only this time it seemed like there was a weight in the air. When the silence started to become unbearable, I began to try and think of something we could talk about. Perhaps I could still salvage the situation. Surprisingly, it was she who broke the silence this time.

“You flinched. Why?” She asked abruptly. Confused, I tilted my head in question. “You flinched in the station when I saluted you. Why?” She asked again. This girl sure was blunt.

“Oh… That…” I said, stalling for time to think of a good excuse. “I just suddenly got itchy right then! It was a coincidence!” I laughed, desperately trying to cover up my terrible lie.

Her look tells me she didn’t buy it. “I see. Well, whatever.” She turned her gaze back to the gate of the docking bay which we were headed to.

Damn it. I can’t just let this fall into that terrible silence again. “When I apologized earlier, it was because I thought I had done something to anger you since you were ignoring me and whatnot…”

The girl turned away from me. Her shoulders seemed to be shaking. Maybe I’d angered her by being so blunt. “Ah… I didn’t mean anything by that…” I desperately tried to fix what I thought was a mistake.

Suddenly, she burst out laughing, one hand attempting to stifle her laughter while the other clutched her slender stomach. “And I thought you were the one who was angry back when you flinched!” She managed to say after regaining her breath. “I really thought I had offended you somehow.”

I was baffled. “No, I was sure I had somehow…” I stopped my sentence when I realized how mistaken we both were. She gave me a wide grin to which I responded with a smile. “And here I was, worried that I’d have to sit through my first flight in complete awkwardness.”

She laughed, this time more controlled and elegant. I had only just noticed what a beautiful sound it was. “You will forgive me. I had only intended to respect your space were you truly angered.”

“Well, I guess we can put an end to that now then.” I said, relieved that the tension had finally been dissolved. Then, a thought had suddenly crossed my mind. “By the way, I never caught your name, even though you already knew mine.”

She paused at my statement, seemingly in thought. A wonderful smile appeared on her face as she suddenly leaned forwards cheerfully. “You will call me Sabriel!” She said enthusiastically.

I had been taught a couple of basic Solean customs in the language school, one of them being that it was highly impolite to call another by only their given name, especially if you had only just met. “Eh? Don’t Soleans usually have longer names? I learned that it was disrespectful to refer to another with only their given name if we are not close.”

Sabriel frowned and then thought for a second. “Then in exchange, I shall refer to you as Auryn. Will that suffice?” She seemed insistent that I only use her given name.

I nod and smile. “That’s fine. Actually, I’d rather have you just call me Auryn instead of that Cadet Auryn thing. Our customs are a lot more relaxed.” I laughed.

She returned my smile and clapped her hands together in joy. “Then it is settled, Auryn!”

“Sabriel…” I said, liking the sound of her name. “That’s a beautiful name.” I said automatically. I cursed myself again. She must think that I’m hitting on her already.

Sabriel merely smiled at my compliment. She pointed through the transparent walls of the walkway in order to draw my attention to a ship that was being transported into the docking bay. It was by no means enormous, but it was still fairly large.

“Is that the transport ship?” I asked, watching it come to a stop underneath our gate’s elevator.

Sabriel looked at me in confusion. “You cannot possibly be serious.” She admonished. “There is no way a transport ship could possibly be that small. That is merely one of the Vaurhaut’s loading ships. We shall be flying that to the Vaurhaut.”

“Oh. I see.” I replied simply, not knowing how else to respond. She was clearly disappointed with my lack of knowledge regarding spacecraft.

“Have you never seen a starship before?” She asked, genuinely curious.

“Well, other than the ship that came to annex our planet, I really haven’t. This is actually the first time I’ve ever been up in space.” I told her. “Ah, I didn’t mean anything bad about the first part, so please don’t take offense from that.” I added with an afterthought when a slightly guilty look in her eyes began to form.

Sabriel placed her palm over her left breast, where her heart was. She spoke with a serious look. “I must apologize, then. I did not mean to mock you, but I have spent much of my life in space so I was quite taken aback that you did not recognize that as a mere loading ship.”

I blinked, confused by her overly formal tone. “Uh, you don’t need to apologize for something like that, Sabriel.” I told her. “I wasn’t really offended anyway.”

The solemn expression on her face was instantly replaced with her beautiful smile. “I am glad!” She said cheerfully. “You are quite forgiving, Auryn!”

I smiled at her as we entered the elevator which would take us to the airlock connected with the loading ship. It seemed that there was a lot of catching up on Solean customs that I had to do.

We entered the ship. The interior was actually a lot smaller than I expected. Sabriel informed me that the majority of the ship’s space was taken up by the engines and other machinery vital to operate the ship. I can’t even begin to imagine how big the transport ship really is if it carried multiple of these loading ships.

We approached the cockpit of the ship which was connected to several other sections of the ship by a narrow walkway. Sabriel held her fragarec up to a small panel on the wall next to the entrance, causing it to emit a short beep and cause the door to slide open.

Sabriel looked at me. “You can ride with me in the co-pilot seat or you can ride in the passenger lounge. Take your pick.”

I frowned, slightly worried. “Huh? Aren’t you only a cadet like me? I thought we weren’t permitted to pilot spacecraft until we had passed our basic flyer’s examination.”

Sabriel gestured at her raudrec. “I have. The silver raudrec indicates my position as a command school cadet which requires me to pass both the advanced and basic flyer’s examinations upon application of enlistment. You will not worry, I believe I am capable of flying us to Vaurhaut.” She thought for a second before her brows drew together in a slight frown. “Did you not read the manual that was provided to you?”

I scratched the back of my head sheepishly. “I only skimmed through the first couple of pages…” I admitted shamefully.

Sabriel couldn’t help but laugh. “Hurry up then. Will you ride in the co-pilot seat or in the passenger lounge?”

“Will there be a beautiful flight attendant in the lounge?” I joked.

“No, but there will be a beautiful pilot here.” Sabriel replied.

It was an offer I couldn’t refuse. A wide and probably goofy grin spread over my face. “I guess I don’t have a choice then, do I?” I said, gesturing to the open door. “After you.”

Sabriel smiled and entered the cockpit, climbing into the pilot’s seat while I followed her in and closed the door behind me as I sat next to her, a rush of excitement spreading through my body. I was finally about to realize my dream of flying through space.