I kept my armor casual. Jeans and a light green hoodie with a gray shirt that had a picture of a cat flying a silly little cartoon spaceship.
We were standing on a platform outside the airlock, high up at the top of the space station, giving us an amazing view of space and the stars across the Milky Way. She fired, then twirled and fired again. The constant movement required focus and energy. This game of firing her pistol at the stars wasn't what I expected. I had envisioned something casually destructive, like throwing a bottle in the air and shooting it, rejoicing as the glass shatters.
This game was about precision, endurance, speed. She somersaulted, and then, from her knees, she fired again, hitting her target. She stood up slowly and holstered her weapon, walking over to me with a satisfied grin.
"See how it works?" she asked. "You register the stars in your system. Then, one at a time, a random star will change color in your HUD. Shoot it as quickly as you can. Then another will change color. The location and timing is random. You can pick how many you want to target before the round is over. A standard round is 17. One clip of ammo."
"And this is a game?" I questioned back.
"It's Infiltrator training," she laughed, "but it's also a game. To pass, you have to complete six rounds in a row, with no break between rounds, using three different weapons. Two rounds per weapon, so they can see you reload. You have to beat the target time with 95% accuracy."
That was ridiculous! I had a new level of respect for @auroraloon, @awesomedog, and @sundial. I never took any kind of test. The Alliance Starmada was just like, He can rush in and cause destruction. Sign him up.
"So how did you do that round?" I asked her.
She shrugged and shook her head. "Too slow. 94% accuracy. I missed one when you shrieked. But it was just a demonstration, and I'm out of practice."
"That was too slow?"
"Too slow for me. I'm normally done four or five seconds sooner. Might not seem like much, but that's a lot of time wasted where you can get overwhelmed."
I was overwhelmed, and I was nervous. She gestured that it was my turn. I prepared myself to be embarrassed as I walked out into the center of the platform.
"Do you have the program loaded?" she called out.
I did. Program running. Stars registered. All I had to do was say Go!
I kind of wished I had known about this when we landed, so I could come out here every day to practice. I felt like once I fucked this up, @auroraloon would think a lot less of me, and I didn't want that.
I gave her the thumbs-up. She sat down by the entrance to watch. I closed my eyes for a moment and took a nice, long, deep breath.
"Go!" I yelled.
My eyes focused. The first star was way up and to the right. I adjusted slightly, raising the pistol, and missed. The next one was close by. I missed that one as well. Goddamnit!
I managed to get the third and fourth, but missed the fifth. You're doing smashingly, @kittyboy, I thought, demoralizing myself. I always forget that I need to stop focusing. Stop paying attention!
That reminder flipped a switch in my body. My brain disappeared. My HUD indicated that a star had illuminated behind me. I spun and fired, nailing it. Another over there, and another over there. I pivoted and squeezed the trigger.
Now that I was out of my head, I fell into the zone, finding my own rhythm as I twirled around, firing at the stars. It was oddly pleasant. When I was done, I was breathing hard. My jaw hurt from clenching it, and I was feeling a bit dizzy. I shouldn't have drank that glass of reposado.
I could have done much worse. The final 12 shots allowed me to redeem myself.
I shrugged as I walked back toward @auroraloon. "Rough start," I said, calling it out. "How did I do?"
She stood up and crossed her arms at me. "You finished strong. Obviously, you should forget about that first part. What happened? How did you feel during the round?"
@auroraloon would make an excellent instructor. She didn't chide me. She didn't give me tips. She focused first on the feeling. "I felt awkward. I was too focused. That's something that happens to me. If I concentrate too much, if I try too hard, it mucks everything up in my head."
"The yips," she said. "Happens to a lot of people. How did you fix it?"
How to describe it? I fidgeted with the pistol, thinking. "I let go. I unfocused. It's almost like I had to stop caring."
She shook her head. "Not stop caring. Stop thinking. I know it sounds weird, but you have to think of it as fun. For me, I imagine music playing."
"No way!" I exclaimed. "I did that when I was piloting a ship into battle. I was always better with the music playing."
She lifted an arm to her face and rested the other on her hip. "Huh. Go figure. We have something in common."
"We do." I punched her in the arm.
"I'm not sure how I feel about that," she replied.
"Proud. You should feel proud. We're both spectacular." I was grinning foolishly.
"If you say so," she said. "Do you want to play a competitive round? Maybe make a little wager on it?"
I laughed. "No."
"Really? I would've thought that'd be right up your alley."
"You'd crush me."
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
"Yes, I would," she smiled confidently.
But I caved anyway. "Okay, here's the deal. I'll play your game, but under these conditions. Loser has to clean the winner's weapons. Winner has to do a cartwheel."
She snorted. "Oh, I see. So you punish the winner." She reached down and fetched two rifles from the ground, handing one to me. "I'm not letting you touch my weapons."
Didn't you just hand me one of your weapons? I thought, but I held my tongue.
"How about this then?" I said, trying to think of an appropriate reward, but I blanked. "Nah, I dunno. What do you think?"
"Cartwheel for the winner. Fine." She shook her head and chuckled. "Loser has to do 100 pushups."
"No! Come on. Get out of the military already," I teased. "It has to be a fun punishment." And then I had a perfectly stupid idea. I had been playing with my Infiltrator armor over the last few weeks, learning how to analyze and mimic outfits, and I had downloaded a set of silly custom armors. "Loser has to dress like a clown tomorrow. Full face, nose, hair, everything. And you have to use a clown name, responding only when people call you by your clown name. I have the armor in my downloads."
"Of course you do." She shrugged. "I mean, you're going to lose, so it's really just about how much you're willing to embarrass yourself."
She wasn't wrong, but I intended to put up a fight. We walked to the center together.
"Here's how we'll play this," she instructed. "This is a rival556 semi-automatic rifle. It's strong, balanced, manageable. Great choice for a zombie outbreak. With one of these and a shotgun, you'd be pretty well off."
I see. Our game was both fun and practical. That's @auroraloon in a nutshell.
"We stand back-to-back," she continued. "Load the program and set it to two person battle. We play as a team, but it will track our individual scores. Winner wins. Loser loses. But we get to see how we did as a combo. This is a great way for Infiltrators to find Worms to be their apprentices. There are other challenges, too, of course, to find the right Worm."
That was pretty cool. "Do you have a Worm?"
@auroraloon missed a beat and didn't respond right away. I heard her mutter something before she pronounced, "No. I don't."
I knew there was a story there. Her mood changed slightly. Her forehead crinkled under her helmet. I would ask her about it another time. For now, I needed to bring back a little cheer. "Are you trying to get me to be your Worm?" I asked it in a teasing way.
Her eyes bulged. "Heck no. You're annoying enough as it is. You think I want to force myself to have you following me around the solar system, glued to my hip every moment of every day."
That didn't sound so bad to me, zipping around the solar system with a partner. I tried not to take it personally. I turned away from her, holding the rifle at the ready. I needed to lighten the mood somehow. I backed up so that we were back-to-back, ready to start the match. Our shoulders touched first, then our hips.
"Consider me glued to your hip," I said, nudging her. "Let's do this."
I felt her body tense, and she crouched slightly, bouncing on the tip of her toes. I mirrored her movement, staying connected. "What's your choice of music?"
"Julieta Venegas. Mismo Amor," she rattled off. I started loading it, but she piped the song through to me over comms.
I ran a quick scan of the lyrics.
No hay suavidad en tu manera de tocar
(There's no gentleness in the way you touch)
Si es amor, ?por qué duele cada vez más?
(If it's love, why does it hurt more and more?)
Algo no está y me enloquece no saber
(Something is off and it drives me crazy not knowing)
Lo que no dices me está diciendo más
(What you don't say is telling me more)
It was a love song! I was learning more and more about @auroraloon. Was this song about us? No. But I wondered if she had been in love before. She must have been.
"Go!" she shouted.
The stars started to illuminate. I let the beat of the music and the feel of @aurorloon against my back cheer me on. I felt loose as I picked off stars, quickly acclimating to the rival556.
The challenge started off easily. We moved only slightly, adjusting our aim as the stars randomly popped up, sometimes two or three at a time. She would pick off some. I would pick off some. When she fired, I could feel the reverb from her weapon shake her body, a slight bump that flowed into me as we fired back and forth, our bodies shaking in alternating patterns.
Then the difficulty increased.
We rotated together. She leaned back against me. We were holding each other up now, supporting each other with our legs and are backs planted against each other. This way next. Fire. Now here. Fire. Her turn. We spun left, and she knocked off two more stars.
I knew if I thought too hard about it, I would make a mistake and send us both tumbling to the ground. I let the music be my focus. I let her body lead the way. We flowed smoothly in circles, firing again and again, until the match was over.
She dropped to the ground, and I did the same to keep from falling.
We sat together in the wide open space, the stars of the solar system shining brightly around us, breathing hard, our backs rising and falling in synchronized breaths.
"Wow!" she said, exhaling deeply.
I felt a little spark in response, suddenly feeling awkward about this moment with @auroraloon. But I felt the same, and I couldn't deny it. Wow was right.
"That was amazing," I echoed, staring at the stars.
We sat in silence, taking in the view, content to be the center of the world with one another in a moment of peace and tranquility, until she broke the silence.
"We would have set a new record," she said, with an edge of awe in her voice. "If it was official, I mean."
"See. I'd make a great Worm," I replied. "Maybe I could follow you around the solar system after all."
"Yeah," she sighed in a long breath. "Maybe."
Then she popped up, leaving me to fall back and catch myself with my hands. "But, as awesome as you were," she noted, with a genuinely pleased smile. "You lost. What's your clown name going to be?"
I stood up and pondered it. Then I turned my armor into the white clown outfit, with a big red nose, and two big floppy red shoes. Polka dots in rainbow colors ran all around my outfit, and I had a big blue mohawk for hair.
"You can call me Giggles the Comet Comedian. Now give me a cartwheel."
She rolled her eyes and stepped away to give herself enough distance, surveying the space around her.
"Remind me. Why does the winner have to do a cartwheel?" she asked.
"Because that was the deal," I said. "And it's a celebratory emote. Now, come on," I urged cheerfully. "Enough stalling. Let's see a cartwheel already. One just for shits and giggles."
She held her arms out and tilted her head. "If you're Giggles, doesn't that make me Shits?"
Before I could respond, or even register her movement, she flung herself into a perfect cartwheel, stopping just as she had started, with her arms askew.
I clapped and shouted cheers. She bowed graciously.
We gathered our weapons and walked together in silence, full of good spirits. We entered the space station, letting our helmets disappear back into the Infiltrator armor. I pressed the elevator button to take us back down to Peaches.
The longer we rode down, the more the silence started to feel awkward.
"So we broke a record, huh?" I asked.
"Yeah." I felt like she had more to say, but nothing came out.
"Worm or not," I began, "which is not really practical anyway, given our current situation, I'm glad to fight by your side."
The door opened. We walked out into the hall. It was later now, and quiet around Peaches.
"We make a good team," she admitted. I couldn't read her face, but she was a happier version of @auroraloon than the one I had first found in the bar.
Time to say goodbye. She was standing quietly in front of me. I didn't know what to do. We're friends. I kept telling myself that. In fact, we're becoming good friends. In the back of my head, I knew this was a special night, something we would both remember forever.
Was she waiting for me to … kiss her?
I wasn't buzzed anymore. Our game under the stars had taken what little alcohol I had consumed mostly out of my system. But I was still confused. Just sober and confused.
The words to that song popped into my head. Lo que no dices me está diciendo más. What you don't say is telling me more.
No. Don't be an idiot. She doesn't want you to kiss her. You're her friend. Don't spoil the evening. Don't ruin your friendship.
I gave her a firm hug, resting my face in her dark curls, taking in a mild scent of eucalyptus, as I held her close for a moment. She hugged back. We held it a little longer than normal. Like when our backs were together, shooting stars, the feel of her next to me felt normal and natural. That extra split second has always stood out in my memory.
I didn't want to look her in the eyes when we finished hugging, but I did. I dared myself and looked at her glittering violet eyes. She seemed happy. I smiled, nodded goodnight, and forced myself to turn away.
I wandered back to my bedroom at Peaches. The joy of the evening with @auroraloon wore off with every step, and I started feeling sad and lonely.