Uncharted

The first day on the new course was tiring to say the least. We had just arrived on the new planet the day before. Talk about hustling from the start. C’mon, give us some time to breathe. But, no. We just barely got time to close our eyes when the alarm clock startled me, causing me to fall from my bed.
The reason I wasn’t that much enthusiastic about the new planet thing was because we didn’t have much hope in it. Yet we terraformed it to a training base to avoid disruption to normal civilian life on the home planet. And yeah that included development of potentially apocalyptic weapons. But that’s a long way now. We had just arrived. The first batch of trainees.
The rookie classroom was modelled exactly like the one we had back home, which was a bit comforting. But the crowd was different, a mixed age group. As usual I chose one of the seats near the back, not wanting to be noticed straightaway. And I could space out.
The day proceeded with introductions from the scientific and military teams. Lectures bored us with technical details about the past, present and future of the project. The usual mumbo jumbo. The only thing that kept me awake the whole day was the rumor of a young lady who was part of the team. I had talked to her before so i know the fine print of the project, but we haven’t talked face to face. And I was interested to see her in person. But seemed like she wasn’t given a slot today. Bummer.
Don’t know when I dozed off. When my eyes opened everyone was leaving. Damn, I muttered, as I struggled to hurry up so I don’t miss the return shuttle. But my sleepiness slowed me down. And by the time I reached the gate, the shuttles were mostly gone. Except for a lone figure. Clutching a bunch of books to her chest.
Who was she? A rookie? Hadn’t seen her in class. Yeah right, my inner voice whispered, as if you were awake enough. She looked Chinese, with glasses and short hair, and was really pretty. A faintly familiar face, but my mind was too lazy to connect the dots. She was wearing a white shirt and black skirt. I wondered if there was a dress code for rookies yet. She looked at me sheepishly as I approached her but fate was against me. I saw that there was still a shuttle left heading towards my base, and I ran like hell to catch it.
When I disembarked on the other side, there was a text on my comm device. My hands trembled as I read it, as all the pieces fell into place. My world slowed down as I leaned against the wall.
“Good times ishiro. I tried to tell you, but seems like you didn’t
recognize me. Be safe. Take care.”

© Auro_13072016