Chapter Perspective: Novarod

I wasn’t really sure what to do with free time.

Part of me was itching to go down to the Sim Chambers and hop in to fit in another hour of flight time, but Curtis had been serious over breakfast that we not do anything today that we would normally do for classes so that we could actually take a break. Seeing that half the crew seemed to be sporting hangovers, none of them really complained and I knew Mendez had left the table muttering about napping until dinner.

But for me, that was just it, I wasn’t quite sure if I knew how to take a break, not any longer. I spent hours of my life in a simulator and I couldn’t remember the last day I went without simulator time for at least a half hour, even during final ground prep before we came up here.

I could still remember my ground handler telling me I was going to make myself sick if I decided to still take my simulator time the morning of our trip up here, though to be fair, she had been right… I probably should send her an apology come to think of it.

From the mess hall, I had headed back out into the quad, seeing the large emptiness of the Pacific Ocean hanging in the sky overhead. Sure, thinking of the dome structure of glass as a sky had been disorienting for the first few days, but with weeks behind us now, that little perspective shift had more or less completely clicked into place in my head. It was a cool view of course, but even the grandeur of it was starting to fell, I don’t know, I guess kind of mundane?

Another one of the senior flights went hustling past me, forcing me to step onto the artificial turf as the entire flight ran with an odd sense of determination on their faces. This wasn’t the first group I had seen today alone, with officers still rapidly moving between buildings and even getting somewhat uncharacteristically angry with any of the crews that happened to be in their ways.

No one had even seen Commander Allen since the previous night and that made warning lights flash in my mind louder than even the weird sense of urgency that the upperclassmen crews seemed to have. There was a curious part of me that wanted to follow this latest group, to see the rest of the crew and I were making this up in our heads, but common sense prevailed and I decided to continue to keep my nose out of it.

Eventually, once I got tired of walking by the few random upperclassmen that had set up around the quad, a small group even throwing what looked like a small football with a dart attached to the back of it back and forth, I found my way heading down into the station and toward the Free Float Arena. To my knowledge, during the weekends the arena was open for recreation unless it had otherwise been reserved. Luckily for me, a light above the entryway into the prep rooms actually said “Open for Recreation”.

I tried to wrack my brain, to think if the sign had said something else when we were coming down here for the various team building or Grav-Ball Training sessions we had had so far, but nothing sprung to mind and I made a mental note to pay closer attention during our next class down here. As I walked through the main control room that housed the hatch that led into the arena, I could see several bags strewed about and knew that there must have been others that had just been hanging out.

The arena was big enough that that shouldn’t be a problem of course, but even if I was getting used to my own crew, I knew at a very basic level I had sort of stunted myself with socializing by opting to spend extra hours within simulators. But, I had spent half the night chatting with Kaylee, a girl who actually seemed interested in me for whatever reason without making myself look like a complete fool too, so why couldn’t I just float around and relax for a bit?

With that as my final thought, I grabbed one of the control belts off of the wall and strapped it around my waist before peaking down into the Arena to make sure I wasn’t going to be falling right into someone else. The path clear, I stepped forward and pencil dove downward into the arena, my momentum taking me clear into the middle of the gravity-less space. It was in that moment that I actually found my breath get taken away. During our training and class time, the Arena’s walls were always opaque and almost looked like metal, but today, or maybe during the recreational time in general, it was different.

Panes of glass separated by an intricate web of connecting wall pieces revealed the dark vastness of space. Stars were twinkling in the distance and while I couldn’t be sure, I thought I could actually make out Mars. I hadn’t quite put two and two together, but it should have been obvious that the arena was on the very opposite end of the station from the dome that made up the quad and school campus.

It took me a second to finally realize just what was different. The arena wasn’t shaped in the long, rectangular structure I had gotten accustomed to it being. I had been so enamored by the view itself, the fact that the arena was now less of an arena and more of dome like structure itself, left me just as stunned as I tried to make out how the room had changed.

“I thought that was you Nova!” I heard Ty’s familiar voice call as she pushed off one of the wall like structures and came toward me in a leisurely pace. As she approached, I held out and arm to grab her, her hand clasping onto my forearm as I hit the recall button on my belt and we began descending toward those large, open windows.

“This place looks different… right?” I asked curiously. Sure, a changing room shouldn’t have been that big of a surprise to me, but the nature of a Zero-G room like this felt as if the room should have been… I don’t know, a little bit more fixed.

“You haven’t been in here during recreation time? Man you’ve been missing out. Yeah, you don’t get the view of the planet or anything, but when we are on the dark side of Earth you can sometimes make out nebulas out there in deep space,” Ty explained, letting go of my wrist as she found one of the handholds in the metal webbing between glass panes and turned herself to get a better view.

“Where’d the other walls go though?” I asked, unable to return my attention to space as I looked to the ceiling and exit of the arena and realizing there were two other holes on the farther ends of the now open space.

“Retracted up into the station, not exactly sure the details, maybe Spacefly knows? That is kinda her field ain’t it?” She replied with a shrug.

“Might need to, looks like there might be other rooms or something? This station is like, almost a city and-“

“Attention! All Pilots, Active and In-Training, report to Station Command immediately!” A voice over the main intercom cut off my thought as I felt my entire body tense up and I looked around, searching to see if anyone else was moving.

“Does that mean-“

“I repeat! Attention! All Pilots, Active and In-Training, report to Station Command immediately! This is not a drill!”

Ty’s eyes were wide as we both felt, even with just a single hand on the wall each, as the station began to rumble with an intensity that might have made me sick if I hadn’t been mostly floating in Zero-G.

“I wonder if all pilots means, everyone with a Pilot specialization…” Ty wondered, her eyes meeting mine as I found myself shrugging.

“Only one way to find out,” I offered, planting my feet, and launching.