Mmmmhhh...18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhkD9cK2M7p
The monotonnous hum of our rocket's engines would normally keep you awake by providing a constant background noise, but for me, who was lying in a bed strappepd to the wall, the sounds did the exact opposite: making my eyes close like a lullaby heard in my early childhood.
However, I was not allowed to sleep, because Agent Nebula, my mentor, stormed into the room.
- Wake up, Agent Chris, we have work to do! - she welcomed me in a very nice way.
- Give me a minute... - I muttered groggily.
- What if an asteroid was headed for our spacecraft? Or an enemy shuttle? Would you waste that one, precious minute? - Nebula pressured me into getting up.
- Don't be so harsh to my son, he's been through a lot! - Anthony, my father, flew into the room in microgravity.
Dad is also a space spy and, just like me, was trained by Agent Nebula. Unlike Nebula, he was a lot nicer to me.
- We've all been through a lot, but need to stay in good condition, because we're about to go through a whole lot more - Nebula turned to him.
This made me jump out of my bed and hit my head on the opposite wall, because I forgot how much speed I gave myself. Saying that we're about to go through a whole lot more sounded like the beginning of a new mission, something that always electrified me.
Why, you may ask? Well, it's a long story...
Several months ago (I already stopped keeping track), I've been hoping to be enlisted into the pristine Academy of Astronauts near my hometown in Florida. I fortunately got enrolled, only to find out that it was a cover-up for the training facility and base of operations for the Agency of Cosmic Espionage, a clandestine organization birthed along with the Second Cold War. Said conflict erupted when Russia invaded Europe, prompting the US to support the struggling nations becasue of some paperwork unknown to me. Meanwhile, with the other giants distracted, China seized the opportunity to start its expansion, with a frantically established oceanic bloc as a counterweight.
I had ties with the Agency long before I even set foot in the Academy of Astronauts (though I was unaware of that until recent events revealed the truth) - my father was recruited four years before me and did some cosmic spying of his own. Neither I, nor my mother knew about this, presuming him dead. Knowing my passion for space and wish to visit it, dad recommended me to the Agency's higher-ups Captain Nigel and Einstein, both of which are aboard our rocket.
Following my recruitment, me and my allied peers have been on several missions in outer space, clashing with some very dangerous bad guys. Those missions included: preventing a Russian criminal group from blowing up the American Moon Base, stopping that same group from deorbiting a massive space hotel, thwarting an attempted Chinese biological strike on the US using bioengineered cosmic bioweapons, dealing with an uprising on Mars and most recently, preventing the theft of a valuable space shuttle carrying samples of alien life on Europa.
That latest mission wasn't the luckiest. While we captured the criminals responsible for the theft, their associates managed to reclaim the priceless samples and flew away in another vessel. Moreover, conspiracy theories paired with older mishap led the Agency into believing that we've backstabbed them, leading a campaign to put us behind bars. Thanks to our efforts, we've been re-recruited and cleaned of accusations within the Agency, but I was still afraid that someone will recognize us as traitors.
Now, our only clue was a USB stick fetched from the stolen shuttle by an ex-criminal turned space spy, Dawn. Most of the code from it was unintelligible gibberish for us, even for our professional hacker Arika, except for a line mentioning Venus as the spacecraft's destination.
Our rocket was headed for Venus, albeit with a pitstop near Earth to refuel and drop off a few people so that a smaller group could go spying. Less people mean that they're harder to detect.
As I looked through the nearest window, I realized that we were about to make that pitstop, as Earth was now visible in its full glory.
Having awakened, I made my way to the cockpit with Agent Nebula and Anthony, who led me there. Along the way, I've been reaccquainted with the rest of our team: Claudius, our mechanic, Amber, our combat specialist and fighter, Sebastian, our self-proclaimed cool guy, Dawn, the defector criminal, Arika, our Japanese IT expert, and Justine, my mother.
All of them were around my age except for the last one. Justine wasn't aware of my secret space spy training until she visited a ceremony rewarding our successes, learning the truth. In an unexpected turn of events, she ended up coming to Mars and tugging along on our previous mission, dealing with the weight of reality. At least she had Anthony to comfort her, as the two reconciled shortly after she made it to the Red Planet.
We reached the cockpit, where Einstein (our unit's caretaker back in the Academy) and Captain Nigel (the academy's principal) were piloting our rocket.
- Today's lesson: orbital navigation - Agent Nebula calmly informed me.
As it turned out, Einstein was in need of heading to the bathroom, or what passed as a bathroom in a spaceship, with me being selected to take his place as part of our training. Captain Nigel stayed, glaring at me grumpily as I sat down beside him.18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEQHraFe9hZ
Captain Nigel was known for seemingly always being in a foul mood, whenever he displayed any kind of feeling, which itself was pretty rare. The only time he showed a different emotion, that being remorse, was during the confrotation with Justine in his office.
If that wasn't enough, he had a special grudge against our unit, mainly because we had to disobey his orders several times in the past and the accusation of treason tarnished his reputation for a good while.
I wasn't stressed; I've already learned quite a bit about piloting vehicles in space. On our second mission, I was forced to steer the Hyperspace (that orbital hotel) back onto its original path and I did suprisingly well. I also assisted with steering a submarine during our previous operation, so I was pretty confident.
I focused on the control panel, along with the numerous buttons and levers around it. We were approaching the aptly named Pitstop Station hovering over the Moon, as it was the closest to us, meaning that the deviation from our planned path was miniscule.
Even though I saw Nebula's reflection in the front window, paired with Nigel's typical mood, I didn't mind them, laser focused on the station ahead. Any kind of miscalculation would have devastating results, so I couldn't be distracted in the slightest bit.
With some help from Nigel, I rotated the rocket so that our hatch would face the dock. Amber, Dawn and Justine were observing the space station as we approached it. Claudius was busy keeping watch over our vessel's machinery and mechanical parts to make sure that they were in prime condition for the docking procedure.
- Be careful! You already shattered my reputation once and...! - Nigel grumped.
- Don't distract him! - Agent Nebula hissed from behind.
I continued slowly flying to the dock, until tiny mechanical hinges latched onto the hatch, locking our spaceship in place. It was time to part ways with several people.
Justine was one of the people coming back to Earth, due to her presence not being sanctioned by the Agency in the first place. Additionally, her presence during this mission was deemed unnecessary, which I found unfair, but couldn't change the higher-ups' decision.18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ6kebK7kcK
We hugged each other goodbye and mom then headed to the station.
- I hope we'll see each other in a month or two! - Justine said.
- I'll make sure of that - I replied confidently. I kind of wished to return to Earth with her to recuperate, but I knew that my presence here was more important, as I had a role to fill.
- Love you! - my mother left.
The other people boarding the station weren't our teammates; they were spies which chased after us during the hunt. They also owned the rocket which we've been flying in right now. I only knew the name of one of them: Jaxon Koval.
Jaxon is a half-American, half-Russian agent which apparently took any job in the Agency, leading to Nigel referring to him as naively loyal, something Koval found offensive.
There were no heartfelt goodbyes between us and the agents; they had their own duties to mind now. They silently left our rocket, with only Jaxon uttering a quiet Goodbye.
With our crew separated, Claudius closed the hatch and I headed back to the cockpit with Nigel and Nebula to detatch our spaceship from the Pitstop Station. This task was a lot easier than the previous one, as it was much harder to hit something you were moving away from.
With some solid effot and a few grumped glares from our principal, I got the job done. I looked to my left and saw Justine waving one last goodbye through the station's window.
That's when I bumped into something.
ns216.73.216.89da2
and then Add to home screen.