CHAPTER 2
"So introductions right?" 002 asked the man when he had gotten up.
"Right come along" the man said walking down the hallway hurriedly. They took an elevator down, walked a short distance and took another elevator up. The elevator doors opened to show a passage way right in front, 002 stepped out.
"Walk right ahead" the guard told her and the elevator doors shut.
"Wait..." 002 started to say but the elevator was already out of reach. She sighed. There was no way to go but forward. A huge metal door was at the end of the passageway and it opened on it's own once she reached it. She was hardly a step into the room when out of the corner of her eyes she saw something whizzing towards her. She dove forward, the metal grazing her feet. She landed face down and almost immediately a knife fell from up. Reflexively she jumped to the side. She turned towards the door but at the same instant yhe door shut, throwing the room into darkness. From the door two knives shot towards her and two came from either side. She didn't know what to do but her brain on it's own pushed her down.
Is this a test. Duck. Or are they trying to kill me? She asked herself. But either way she was resolved not it die.
Duck...
Roll...
Jump...
Dive...
And then she saw the light at the end of the room. She ducked and using the motio as a springboard leaped towards the light,
Roll...
Roll...
Jump...
Duck...
Dive...
Duck. Duck...
Roll. Jump...
And then...
Spin. Spin...
The knives were coming from all side now and it's getting harder to stay alive
Spin. Double spin...
Her mind shut down and her reflexes took over. Reflexes she didn't know she had, can't remember having.
Backflip.
Double spin. ..
While my reflexes are at it. Duck. spin. I might as well use my brain. She thought.
It didn't take her long to figure the pattern of directions from which the knives come. A little more thinking revealed five directions and a little more told her that it takes two seconds for a particular directions to shoot another knife after it had shot.
Okay. Let's see how that information helps me
In her mind's eyes, She tried to picture the sequence of knives since she came into the room. Surprisingly, it wasn't hard. She quickly calculated where the first knife was bound to land an started making her way towards the direction. There was a noticeable drop in the number of an the direction from which the knives came towards her. That left many positions safe to be in. She moved through the safe positions, picking knives on the ground. When she had picked as much as she thought necessary, she started moving towards the light, keeping in the safe positions. When she reached the part her brain identified as dangerous, the part where knives came from all five directions, she immediately threw a knife at her back then waited. The next knife, she knew, should come from her left. She move dot her left and waited, her heart beating. The knife shot out from that direction as she had predicted, but it didn't come towards her though, it went to her back where she had thrown the knife. She smiled, she now knew that the knives moves towards movements in the room. She had fooled it by throwing that knife, and it, what ever it is, have shot a knife in that direction.
She threw a knife to her front and a knife shot out from her right to her front. She moved quickly to the only safe position, the right. She had only two seconds though before another knife came towards her. She threw a knife to her front then quickly moved forward. A knife glintedat her feet She picked it up and added it to her collection. Her safe passage to the light is now assured. She moved on to her
right
left
forward
right
forward
left
forward
Almost there
right
left
forward
Hurray!...
....and then quite suddenly... She was carried off her feet, the light sucking her in.
---- ---- ---- ----
Congstan peeked into the training area, nobody there. She grinned mischievously,because it's time to play some mischief. She ran quickly across the training area into the hallway at the other end. Once they have black skin blended perfectly with the darkness she turned a corner and went past the simulation rooms, nobody there either, but she didn't think care. Those are not her targets. She ran up a short stair and reached the locker rooms, the hallway that leads into it anyway. She ducked into a corner and waited. She didn't wait long soon, she heard voices and footsteps coming towards her
"At least the next one is 3 months away"a girls voice said
"Three precious months for respite" a male voice agreed "not much but longer than any we had had in the past three months" the male voice continued
"I wonder what attracts those comets. You did think their stock should have finished after all these years but no, bigger and bigger ones just keep coming" a different voice said
"Talking about big you wouldn't believe this news" the male voice
"Of course we will, you always have all the news" the female voice countered
"Tell us" a different voice implored
"Well, latest technology, not much people knows about it, shows a comet almost as big as half the planet about a light-year away "
"That's still too far away" a totally different voice said
"That's where the news lies. It is making straight for the planet andit is reckoned ot will hit the planet in about a year"
"A year?"the shocked female voice said
"You mean... it's coming at the speed of light?"
"Yea."
" Well I reckon we better enjoy our three-month break as much as can" the male voice said
" I would" the female voice countered "if you will stop pestering me" . Soon, their feets came into view, six pairs of them.Once they had passed,Congstan got up and followed them silently.They entered their respective locker rooms and Congstan crept up to one, listening.When she heard the sound of the girl inside undressing, she climbed over the wall of the opposite locker room which wasn't touching the ceiling, none of them were.She landed so softly the person inside didn't hear her.The room was more spacious than the others and they were plenty of places to hide.She hid near the door and then in a voice which very much resembling the female ones she had heard earlier said
"Help, Drake help, a spider, please! " the boy in the room rushed scantily-dressed out of his room and into the opposite one. Congstan quietly followed him out. She was just in time to see the panic-stricken face of the girl in the opposite room and the embarrassed look on Drake's face. The girl had only her panties on and nothing else. She looked about frantically for a towel and found none, and wearing her clothes will take too long. At last she decided her backside has less points of Focus than her front side and turned only to realise that she is facing a mirror and the boy can see her anyway. she sighed but stayed that way anyway.
"What?" She demanded, exasperated and infuriated at the same time.
"Where is the spider?" The boy asked taking two cautious steps into the room.
The girl obviously didn't appreciate the 'caution' and leaped at the boy, decency forgotten. She tackled the boy to the floor and slapped him.
"Here I am embarrassed and you have the boldness to take a step further towards me" she said.
"I thought I heard you scream for help" the boy asked confused and earned another slap. As Congstan have anticipated, Drake got angry and quickly turned over, the girl now under him. The girl started clawing and flailing her legs but Drake was by far stronger than her. Congstan took a picture but still grappling with each other, neither if them noticed. In the same voice she had used earlier Congstan screamed
"Rape! Drake want to rape me! Help please!" Again neither of them heard, still grappling and tearing the girls pants in the process. Four people rushed to the room, confused.
"Rape?" One of them asked. Drake and the girl freezes, the girl on top.
"What's happening?" Another person asked. Drake and the girl looked at each other. Neither if them had enough courage to say what happened.
"Um...just playing" the girl said, embarrassed.
"Just playing?" A girl asked incredulously, looking pointedly at the girl's town pants
"And you were shouting rape" another boy said
"Was I?" The girl asked.
"Of course" the four replied in unison. Congstan took two more pictures then slinked, her shoulders convulsing with laughter. She immediately entered an elevator. Laughter couldn't even let her say out her destination clearly and the elevator by default took her to the ground level. She was still convulsing with silent laughter when she barged out of the entrance, and into a man.
" Sorry Mr. Sol" she said, the laughter suddenly extinct.
No offence" the big man said lightheartedly steering her into the room.
"Well? " she asked "did he buy it?"
" Well you know your father, as stubborn as you are"
" I'm not stubborn" Congstan said "I'm just mischievous"
" Mischief, stubborn, makes no difference to me. Both can annoy someone"
" Did my father annoy you?" the girl asked, a twinkle in her eyes.
" It isn't exactly uplifting to be made a fool of" the man mumbled
"Did he make a fool of you?" she asked again in a tone that had the undertone of mockery"
"Damn well he did" the man said in a rising voice then quickly calmed down and said
"I wonder how you managed to convince me in the first place, that idea was so lame"
"Which means you made a fool of yourself?" the girl asked in the same tone. The man glared at her.
"And means you annoyed yourself?" yourself the girl continued and burst out laughing.
"I didn't mean you to present it that way. I was hoping you will add something."she said
"What?" the man asked."
I was expecting you to evolve my suggestion,you know instead of making an underground shelter the size of half a city, you could have told my father we make a whole new world underground. Cities, towns, roads, you n.a.,e them."
The man stared at her.
"Why didn't you say that to your father?" he asked.
"Oh.Just wanted to see if you have as more wit as your son Drake. Which you obviously have" Congstan said, her eyes twinkling.
The man sighed, at loss for words.
"You are too mischievous" he said at last. "And talking of mischief, you were laughing when I came in what happened?"
"Oh that, you can ask Drake" Congstan said, starting to last again.
"That should teach him to keep off you." The man said in an upbeat tone then added
"This is hardly the time for that though. I will like the Comet Fighters to be in a good mental frame to do their work.
"Any new comet?"Congstan asked.
"Yes. still beat me how our radar missed that. But it will hit the planet in two hours if it is not intercepted."
"I'm going this time Mr.Sol please?" the girl pleaded.
"No you have not completed your training."Mr. Sol said firmly, getting up.
"I will go anyway Congstan said, a mysterious smile gracing her lips.
Five minutes later Drake was looking for his space suit. At last he had to pull one from the spare room. She quietly followed them to the space shuttle, slipped in and just at the shuttle went out of planets said
"Hi guys"
"Stubborn, aren't you?" Mr. Sol asked.
Congstan grinned.