Chapter 18: You Are So Beautiful

In those three days, she had gotten well acquainted with the men. Most of them were born in a well-off family, had a good education, and were honest and upright people. Since there was no other woman on board, some men kept staring at her while others made jokes about her, but never gross or disrespectful. Even though she had to live in the dorm with men, they never crossed the line.

Besides, they are quite chauvinistic under the influence of the captain, so they were rather nice to her.

One day when she stepped into the pilot training room, she noticed that they were all smiling at her.

"Come and sit beside me, Emerald!"

"No way, the chair is too hard!" Someone is waving at her. "Come and sit on my lap."

Bruce had always kept a distance from her, so he didn't say anything right now. Zach, who is sitting in the first row, looked around disdainfully before he stood up. "Shut up, you guys. Come here, Emerald."

Emerald listened to him and sat in the front row. Zach didn't sit with her but rather went directly to the podium, "Alright, stop drooling over her."

The men burst into laughter. Emerald is surprised to see that the young Zach Williams was the air force leader. She didn't recognize the other top team members.

Zach seemed to notice the expressions on her face and smiled at her. "Emerald, stop looking at me like that. Meet me at night if you are interested in me."

The men started laughing again. Finally, one said with a smile, "Zach is just a talker. Don't worry, Emerald. Although the training is tough, we will help you."

Emerald smiled back at him with gratitude. "I really don't know how to thank you, guys." That was the truth.

She looked at Zach, who was giving brief reports, and felt nervous yet excited. Her life in the Air Force has started. She believed that she was lucky and would be happy with these guys.

****

Life in space soon became a routine, like a circle that kept turning around and was slow and tedious for most soldiers, but Emerald felt that time was flying too fast.

Six months have passed.

Zach had taught her and taken good care of her. She was so busy learning to fly the plane, boxing, and strengthening her body that she only had six hours to sleep every day, and her diet had increased to double the size from before. Her piloting skills were now average, and she easily could beat a few guys, even though she still couldn't beat the soldiers with regular training.

Everyone was satisfied with her performance. They had nicknamed her "Fierce Emerald. " She didn't have to disguise in front of them because they liked the quiet, diligent, and harmless girl she already was.

Two men insisted on getting into a relationship with her, but she kept refusing them politely. Zach interfered in telling them that given the fact that there was only one girl, they couldn't fight against each other no matter who Emerald chose.

But whom would Emerald choose?

Bruce was forced to find some talented pilots to pass their experience onto her, so he had to fake some data to allow her to fly for real, even though she didn't have enough simulated flight experience. In addition, he had told her how much Harvey counted on her.

But she has never heard back from Kenzo Lane.

The life here is so colorful, peaceful, and exhausting at the same time that she feels safe again. She doesn't want to go back to Kenzo.

But she knew it was impossible. Kenzo would keep his word, and she would have to return after a year on the ship.

She hadn't found a proper way to run away from his control. What he said about three thousand lightyears must have been true.

She didn't dare to try to run away.

"What are you thinking about?" Zack interrupted her train of thoughts with a clear voice. Emerald walked with him to the joint patrol at the border of humans and Zerg.

"Thinking about your lover?" Zach smiled, "I'll be upset, Emerald."

Emerald didn't answer but smiled as she looked out of the window, "The Stonehenge is beautiful."

Zach glanced at the huge ugly taupe stones outside the cabin, the biggest Stonehenge at the border. It was said that the volume of the stones combined was the size of Moon Sally.

How could a girl admire this rough beauty's magnificence?

He stared at her for a while. "Emerald, do you want to touch them?"

Walking in space was a strange experience. She had only seen the best astronauts doing this on TV before but had never expected that she could float in space and feel the space for real one day.

Zach was in the cockpit a few meters away, smiling and looking at her. She was floating over the surface of the biggest stones and touched the jagged black stone in the spacesuit.

She turned off the communication channel when Zach didn't notice her.

"You are so beautiful." She sighed, "How long have you been here? A million years? Millions of years?"

She slowly touched the black surface of the stone. She suddenly wanted to cry when faced with this dead stone.

"Stonehenge, have you seen the Earth?" She asked the stone. "I'm as lonely as you. I can't find my home, my parents, classmates, or my friend..."

She inhaled deeply and held back her tears before she turned her channel back on, but it was still silent. She turned back and was shocked by what she saw.

Zach is sitting there and staring at her, mesmerized.

"Emerald..." He said in a stuffy voice, "You touched the stone like it was your lover..." She tittered. "Yeah, you are right. It is my lover. I'm coming back now."

"Okay."

The gate of the cockpit slowly opened as the fighter approached the stone.

Emerald knew how to walk in space, so she walked to the cockpit step by step.

"Beep, beep, beep..."

The alarm suddenly went off in her helmet!

Scared, she looked at Zach, who was staring at the control panel in disbelief. "Come back now!" He shouted at her, almost breaking her eardrums!