Existential Threat: Chapter 3 Part 1 of 2 (Patreon)

Chapter: 3

08/07/2242

Luke opened both eyes, jumping out of bed to get to his screen in the next room, blaring his alarm. Shit going to wake Dana.

He half noticed that her side of the bed was empty, frowning as he slowed his desperate moves to his screen, pushing the door to the side as he looked into the living room. Just like the rest of the station it was made of a mix of white, blacks and stainless steel. A large window ran one side of the room, looking onto the promenade that ran through the housing blocks, filled with plants to feed and act as carbon sinks were blurred behind the half-opaque glass.

A couch lay against the other wall, another sliding door led to the net-room, with two net suit’s hanging from their arms, standby lights blinking.

The kitchen lay to the left, nearest the front door.

“Morning,” Dana smiled up from the couch, reading something on her screen as she nursed a sealed cup of coffee. He was caught with the sight of her, her platinum hair had grown longer, pulled back into a longer braid, her bright blue eyes catching the light. Her legs were curled up underneath her as she wore the standard black coveralls of a Legion Navy officer, the rank tab marking her as an Admiral. Her nametag read ‘Iron’ instead of her true last name Huang.

Under her coveralls her net sleeve and true work clothes peeked out.

“Morning,” He swiped the alarm off. “You been up long?”

“Not really, just got the coffee on, you want a smoothie?” She put the screen down, rising from the couch.

“I can do that,” Luke said.

“Maybe a shower and clothes first?” She grinned, moving for the kitchen.

“Ah,” Luke snorted, pulling her close and sneaking a kiss.

“Don’t rumple my uniform,” She chided, smacking his hand away.

“I don’t think I could do anymore than what we did to it last night.”

She raised a coy eyebrow at him, only serving to make his grin widen into a smile.

“Go get clean grimey trooper!” She waved him off.

Luke laughed, heading back into the room and the adjoined shower, quickly rinsing off, finding his wash in the shower and spare net sleeves and uniform coveralls in his half of a drawer.

He threw the bed together checked his uniform in the mirror. identical in shape to Dana’s but in a dark Green, 1E on his shoulder, just under the two chevrons and a line that marked him as squad leader.

He’d cut his hair high and tight, the new standard for the Legion’s Ground Forces. He’d taken up shaving to keep the fuzz down. The uniform was sealed to his boots and one another so it could be fully pressurized with gloves and a soft-cap.

Feels tight again. Luke checked how the material moved, gym six days a week with Moose was adding up. That dude is a freaking machine.

“Smoothie is on the counter,” Dana said, back on the couch, reading her screen as he walked out..

“You have a meeting with Jung-Su and Diego right?” He wandered to the kitchen’s island, separating it from the main room, grabbing his pureed breakfast and leaning back against the counter.

“Yeah, just normal check up on things, Diego is pretty happy to finally get his Dreadnought,” She turned off her screen and tucked it away, drinking from her smoothie, her eyes wandered over him, making him stand taller.

“What did he call it again?”

“Prepárate Para Morir, seems he’s a big fan of the princess bride, translated it means prepare to die. Though everyone is just calling it the Morir-which roughly translates-to die.”

Luke snorted.

“So what does he start every transmission, I am Diego Cuervo Prepárate Para Morir?”

Dana’s heavy side eye told him everything he needed to know, a laugh bubbling out of him. She yawned, blinking to clear the tears that sprung to her eyes.

“Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, yeah everything is fine, just tired you know.”

“Should’ve slept in,” Luke softened his voice. “Was I snoring or something?”

“No, you know how I am, can’t sleep in.”

“Up at the crack of day cycle!” He drank. “Oh! Mom and Dad are going to be doing up a dinner next week, they asked if you’d like to join?”

“Uhh dinner?” Her brows pressed together for a half second before they smoothed out.

“Yeah you know, warm food, usually near the end of the day,” Luke joked, hoping to lighten the mood.

“I know what dinner is,” She affected a smile and rolled her eyes. Something’s not right, what did I say? He couldn’t land on what had set of his second sense.

“What day you thinking?”

“Umm, the fourteenth, six days.”

She pulled out her screen, pursing her lips. “I have a few meetings that day and a patrol, can I give you an answer later and see if I can fit it in?”

“Sure, yeah, I know they would like to have you there, be just like when we were hitching a ride to here.” Luke smiled.

“Right,” Dana forced out a return. “Just been thinking on the operations with our allies,” She waved her hand.

“They’ve certainly been teaching us some things on the ground combat sims.” He drank from his smoothie. “This is really good, thank you for making me one.”

“No problem, you’ve made me plenty, and you’re also the reason I’m not living in boxes still.” She smiled.

“Is it starting to feel like home to you?” Luke put down the smoothie and poured himself a coffee, adding milk substitute and honey.

“I guess, I don’t know, I’ve not really had a home. Just places that I would live in. Somewhere to sleep, somewhere to eat and drink between jumping into the net.” Her voice became distant. Luke used his finger to stir his coffee, sucking it before he drank from his mug.

Dana was looking out of the window at the promenade, people walking by, sitting down, others on their balcony starting off their day.

“I had this place, two places ago, it was lovely, nice and clean, great views, I loved the chandelier, I’d sit on the couch checking stats and drinking my shakes, sometimes I’d just stare at the chandelier, the way the light would hit the different pieces of metal and crystal. I’d look out and see the other towers, the park, then I’d see the netting covering the balcony,” She pursed her lips, falling quiet. “I think I put so much time into the net, that I never put enough time into the place that I lived, it never felt more than a place to hold my stuff, sure it was nice and clean, but I never connected to it.”

She smiled, a soft thing as her eyes bounced to the coffee table and over to Luke. “Honestly, Minnie’s garage felt more like a home to me than anywhere in the real.”

Luke sipped from his coffee, and leaned against the counter, turning his head from her to the window, chuckling. “Jynx, Fin and I would always hangout at this place, Wally’s Burgers there was this cartoon caricature of a head chef eating a burger, like a really old plastic looking one, just lift up this plastic burger with a bite in it and lower it, again and again. It became our spot on the net, to meetup and hangout, we’d sometimes just spend hours hanging out, we’d play games on almost automatic, chatting and then meet back up at Wally’s. Mine and Jynx’s school was all on the net too like most people. The net’s our second reality.” He pressed his lips together, raising his cup. “Though I never thought that it would be quite this real.”

Dana snorted. “The universe moves in mysterious ways.” Her screen made a noise. “We gotta get going.”

Luke quaffed his coffee and grabbed his smoothie as Dana moved past him, kissing him and dropping off her smoothie in the washing machine on her way to the door.

He followed her, closing the door as they walked out onto the street, muted markers lined the walls and floors for technical systems hidden away, directions to stores, parks and bunkers.

Ladders led down and up to different floors, doors to other apartments dotted the corridor.

People nodded to them as they walked.

“So how is living in space going for you?”

“It’s a little disconcerting at times, a lot more walls that windows. Thankfully Minnie was able to convince Mitch that we needed to have some more greenery in our lives.” She pointed at the growing walls and the corridor they turned down a corridor into the promenade.

Kids laughed and played in a basketball court off of the promenade, a group were doing tai chi in a grassy area, people were sitting and talking, a coffee shop doing swift business as people populated tables and wandered off to their day.

“Feels so much more alive now,” Luke said. “There are what forty stations up and spinning?”

“Over seven hundred million residents and growing. Then there are five times that shareholders of Orion’s Belt Enterprises.”

“So that’s what like?” Luke pinched his teeth together, putting the numbers together.

“Three and a half billion give or take.”

“Damn, that’s just like,” Luke shook his head. “A thousand million, that’s just nuts.”

“It is a lot of people, though there are something like seventy billion people in the known universe.”

“Only place it ever feels like that is on the net. Other than liking a bit more greenery what you thinking of space?” Luke pressed on, and drank from his smoothie.