Final Assessment

Alexis and Natalia chitchatted past midnight. Both of them were feeling drained, tired and hungry. So, they ordered some food online, ate the food, and then tried to get some sleep. Natalia stayed over at Alexis's home, which she often did.

The alarm rang at 7 in the morning. Natalia got up after a while, freshened up and then slipped into her uniform from yesterday. Alexis was still deep in her sleep. "Alexis, I am heading home. I need to take a bath and get a fresh set of uniform." Alexis didn't respond at all. "Hey, aren't you getting up?" Natalia nudged Alexis and tried to wake her up.

Alexis hummed and then waved her hand without opening her eyes. Natalia thought that Alexis might have been exhausted from getting literally lit up yesterday, so she decided to let her sleep some more. "PIA, please set the alarm for 8, and don't stop the alarm until Alexis is on her feet."

"Your wish is my command, Miss Natalia." PIA replied in a robotic voice and set the alarm.

Natalia locked the doors behind her and then left for her home.

Melissa's night duty was already over by now. She had also received the letter from the Area Court regarding the schedule of the hearing. She was unable to keep tabs with the lawyer that she had hired because Alexis had gone missing. She decided to give the lawyer a visit before she headed home to get some sleep.

She reached in front of the Law Firm and then rang the doorbell. The door was unlocked after a few seconds and a humanoid robot came to greet her. "Welcome! Ms. Emerson. How may I be of assistance today?" The robot looked like a beautiful female. She was wearing a coat and a matching skirt. She was the secretary of Mr. Johnson. If Melissa had not already known that she was a robot, she would have mistaken her for a real human.

"I wanted to see Mr. Johnson and get an update from him regarding the case. I'm sorry I didn't get an appointment beforehand." Melissa had not pre-planned to visit the Law Firm so it didn't occur to her to get the appointment.

"Please wait here for a moment. I'm sure Mr. Johnson would like to see you." The secretary led Melissa to the waiting room which was white in color. There were several portable screens on the room for the people to use if they got bored while waiting.

The secretary went to the main office room where Mr. Johnson was working on some cases. "Sir, Ms. Melissa Emerson is here to see you."

Mr. Johnson was a lean and tall looking man. He was wearing a black suit and a blue tie. "Ms. Emerson? Oh, good. I wanted to see her anyway. Why don't you send her in?"

The secretary went back to the waiting room and delivered the message to Melissa, "Mr. Johnson would like to see you now. Please follow me."

Melissa got up from the seat and started to follow the robot with sleepy eyes. The secretary opened the door for Melissa and then shut it behind her. Mr. Johnson gave a warm smile to welcome Melissa, "Good morning Ms. Emerson. I'm glad that you gave me a visit. Please take a seat." and then gesture her to take a seat that was in front of him.

Melissa smiled and took the seat. "I'm sorry I was not able to visit sooner. I had some other things to take care of."

Mr. Johnson gave her a soft smile again and said in his soothing voice, "It's not a problem at all Ms. Emerson. I have already gathered all the evidences and witness statement from the local Police Department. And I have already prepared my statements as well. I am confident that we will win this case easily. So, you do not need to worry at all."

"Thank you so much Mr. Johnson." Melissa took out the letter from the Court and showed it to Mr. Johnson. "I received the letter from the Area Court yesterday. They have scheduled the hearing on 12th July at 11 in the morning."

Johnson took the letter and looked at it carefully and smirked, "I don't understand the Court and its love for paper. Who uses paper in this era?" He handed it back to Melissa and then said, "My Secretary looks after my schedules and she already notified me about this case's hearing schedule. I'll make sure the offender will get maximum punishment. You don't have to worry about it."

Melissa let out a sigh of relief when she heard those reassuring words from the lawyer. "Thank you again. I'll get going then, I don't want to take much of your valuable time." Melissa got up from the seat while saying, "Have a good day Mr. Johnson."

"You too, Ms. Emerson." And then he started to vigorously type something on his portable screen, while Melissa went outside.

When Melissa got home Alexis had already headed to her Academy. She was tired from her night duty so she went to her room to get some nice rest.

As always, Alexis and Natalia were sitting together for their first class that was Galactic Location Class. This class was compulsory for all the students because there might arise a situation during space travel when anyone would have to take a charge of the spaceship or flee from the ship in smaller crafts. With the knowledge of Galactic Location, everyone would have a higher chance of survival.

For all the pilots, they were required to sign up for this class in their first year while students of other faculty could sign up for it in their second or third year. Natalia signed up for the class in her first year itself so that she could sit together with Alexis. However Liam, Natalia's boyfriend, had kept this course for his later years.

When they were waiting for the Professor to enter the class, almost everyone's phone made a sound at once. They had received a notification from the administration department of SpaceTravel Academy to remind them about their year-end assessment.

"Dear Students, it is our pleasure to remind all of you that the final assessment for all years will start from 10th August, 2293. The third year students will get a chance to take part in the placement program organized by IGT Fed. Good Luck!"

"I can't believe we are already at the end of our first year." Natalia exclaimed after she read the notification.

"Yeah, me too. It just feels like yesterday that we came together for the entrance exam. And a year has already passed in the blink of an eye." Alexis was getting nostalgic as she said this. She was still staring at the notification she received. "The final assessment starts in a month. Are you prepared for it?" She glanced at Natalia as she asked it.

Natalia was fidgeting her legs and was starting to get nervous. Alexis had not seen Natalia this anxious regarding the assessments. She was always the confident one and always performed good. "Why are you so nervous? Usually you would start bragging saying how you would nail the assessment."

Natalia started to fidget even more. "It has been a while since I left my part-time job at The Harper's, and I feel a little rustic. I have to excel in this assessment anyhow. I have to make my dad proud. He is a top class captain and I can't let him down."

Alexis tried to console her friend, "Come on Nat, you have always excelled in your previous assessments. And you will excel it this time as well. If you feel like it, you can always join back The Harper's for extra practice."

Natalia immediately stopped fidgeting and had a bright smile on her face. She had an idea; she turned to face Alexis and then revealed her grand plan to prepare for the assessment. "Vorian works in the IGT Fed, right?"

Alexis squinted her eyes and slowly answered, "Yeah, what about it?"

Natalia's smile was widening with every question that she asked. "He must be very intelligent, right?"

"Yeah, he is. Where are you getting at with this?" Alexis knew she would not like whatever Natalia was going to say next.

"Let's ask him to hack into our school's system and then get all the question papers for our theory subjects." Natalia was resting her head in her hands when she finally said that.

Alexis could not believe what she just heard and raised her voice, "What? Are you out of your mind or something? Why would you need to do that?" She cleared her throat and calmed down before she continued, "And to make it clear, Vorian works as a Data Analyst in the Fed, not as a system hacker."

Natalia hung her head down and tried to look innocent. "Okay fine. I'll just study and work my ass off in The Harper's then." She looked at Alexis very dramatically and then smiled like a child, "Will you accompany me? We can start from today. I will work on the junks and you can revise your theory subjects while also watching me do my magic." She blinked at Alexis and added, "Please. Please. I get bored when I'm alone."

"Alright, alright. Stop trying to look cute. I'll come with you." Alexis felt like this would be a good excuse to avoid her mother. Now that she knew almost every detail that Melissa was hiding from her, she was not ready to face her mother just yet.