Academy

After Eto left the information room, he went to his room to organize the information which wasn't really much from what he had seen in the information room.

When he entered the commons that he shared with Sam, Karl and Jake, there was nobody there.

'Hmm, Guess they all went to eat.'

He thought then he walked into his room, he lay down and started running through the information.

' 14 years ago, the Stropers assembled a fleet of over 1000 attack ship's and attacked an unnamed planet in the FORGE quadrant, nothing else is known about the attack or why it was carried out but the Stropers were seen to have left with less than a 100 ship's.'

Eto thought about the number of ships the Stropers had lost.

' What were they looking for.'

Eto shrugged his shoulders and looked at the time in his holo watch.

23:18.

He closed his eyes and went to sleep.

....

When Eto woke up in the morning, there was a message in his Holo watch, he opened the message that was glowing in a red holographic light and the contents of the message appeared in front of his face.

[All recruits are to report to Miss Everdine at 10:00 am, punishments will be given if any of the recruits is late. Location:5th floor meeting room.]

He quickly got up from his bed and checked the time.

8:15.

' Nice, I've still got time.'

He sat on his bed and was about to go to the bathroom to have his wash when there was a knock on his door, he moved to the door and opened it, he saw Jake standing at the door.

"Hey Eto, you up and about, let's go get breakfast."

"Alright man, let me have my wash first."

"Sure, take your time, we'll be waiting outside."

"Alright."

He was about to close the door when Jake said.

"I was kidding by the way, don't take your time, this is food we're talking about here."

Eto smiled and closed the door, he went into the bathroom and had his wash, he came out from the room after putting on his clothes and saw Sam sitting on the couch reading, Jake was playing Holo chess with the computer and Karl was playing video games, he was sitting on a chair that looked like a teddy bear right in front of the Holo screen that almost covered the wall.

"Alright, he's out let's go."

Karl said while getting up of the chair he was sitting.

Jake waved his hand over the chess game and it disappeared.

"Right let's go, am starving."

Jake said while rubbing his belly.

Sam closed the book he was reading and carried it while moving towards the door that led out of the room.

They walked towards the cafeteria and when they opened the double doors that led to the cafeteria they found the girls sitting on one of the seats with the large rectangular table in between Aya, Ava and Anna and Alex.

When they saw Alex who always almost had a mask on they were surprised by how beautiful she was, she had purple skin with pointed ears, even her hair was purple albeit a different shade, she had supple pink lips and eyes with sapphire colored pupils and when she smiled at something one of the girls said they saw dimples in her cheek which looked perfect on her small face, When they looked at her, She seemed to glow in a purple light.

The girls were eating and talking about, whatever it is they were talking about, I don't know.

Jake and Karl quickly went to sit close to the girls, when they sat down, a holographic interface appeared in front of them and they started swiping down looking for the food they wanted to eat, Jake selected Fried eggs, toast, Warm chocolate and Cookies while Karl selected Mashed potatoes, steak, and orange juice, the food appeared in front of both of them after they had confirmed what they wanted to eat.

Eto and Sam came and sat down on the same seat as Ava and Anna while Jake and Karl sat down on the same seat as Anna and Alex.

The Holo interface appeared in front Eto and Sam the moment they sat down.

Eto selected pancakes, and warm chocolate while Sam selected Fried eggs, toast, pancakes, cookies, steak, a salad and orange juice.

When Sam's food appeared on the table, everybody looked at him and he looked back at them with cookies in his mouth.

"What."

They moved their gazes away and continued eating.

While they were eating, Hiro walked through the double doors and came to where they were sitting.

He bowed his head and said to them.

"Thank you for saving us."

Anna smiled at him.

"You're welcome, You wanna sit and eat with us."

Hiro smiled and nodded at her.

He walked to Where Anna and Alex were sitting and they both space out for him so he could sit down.

Anna showed him how to use the Holo interface on the table which wasn't really that complicated, it was just swipe, select, confirm.

He selected Milk and cookies, a lot of cookies.

"This tastes really good."

"Yeah I know, not sure it tastes as good as mum's cooking."

"Hmm, true it's not as good as mum's cooki..."

Ava and Aya were talking about the food when Karl interrupted them.

"Yep, definitely, something is missing, it's not as good as my mum's cooking."

Even Sam chimed in.

"Something is missing."

Jake continued eating without a care.

"I agree."

Alex said with a voice filled with a melodious voice.

Anna looked at Hiro.

"What do you think is missing Hiro."

When she asked him, everybody kept quiet and looked at him waiting for his answer.

He blushed and said.

"I don't know."

"It's a mother's love."

Eto said after Hiro replied to Anna's question.

"Yep, a mother's love."

They all echoed after Eto said while smiling.

"So Alex, why are you always wearing a mask."

Karl asked Alex when she was about to put a spoon of sponge cake in her mouth.

Jake hit Karl's rib with his elbow, Karl didn't feel a thing and Jake held his elbow, he didn't know that Karl's rib was that strong.

"Don't ask, if she trusts us enough to tell us then she'll tell us."

Eto said to Karl who raised both arms in surrender.

"Alright, I was just curious."

Alex looked at Eto and mouthed thank you, he nodded.

"What do you guys think Miss Everdine wants to see us about."

Ava asked the group.

"I don't know, I hope it's a reward for saving Hiro and his mum."

Karl said while putting a piece of steak in his mouth.

This time it was Anna who hit him on his ribs and he moved his hand to his rib while closing his mouth so he wouldn't scream. He looked at her and she smiled back at him and continued eating.

"It's almost time."

Eto said and stood up after he finished eating.

"Hey kid, we'll see you later."

Karl said as he was stood up too.

' Am not a kid.' Hiro thought.

They all stood up one after the other and walked through the double doors, Ava, Aya, Anna and Alex waved goodbye to Hiro while they were leaving.

They walked through the long hallway that leads to the elevator, they got on the elevator and Karl pressed a button that would take them to the 5th floor where they would see Miss Everdine.

When they got to the 5th floor, They walked to the meeting room which was at the end of the hallway and Eto raised the band on his hand and held it in front of the panel by the right side of the door and the door opened to a big room with a long table in the middle and 12 chairs on both sides of the table.

They walked in and saw Miss Everdine at the left hand side of the table.

"Sit."

They all moved and sat down at the right side of the table facing her, After they sat down, there was a silence that lasted for about 2 minutes before Miss Everdine spoke.

"Thank you."

She said then looked at them.

"Your rewards will be handed to you when you arrive at the academy."

"I thought this was the Academy."

Karl spoke up.

"No, this is a Waystation, It's just here to receive students and train them before sending them to the academy."

Miss Everdine said with a stable tone.

"So this isn't the NIC headquarters."

Anna asked.

Miss Everdine nodded her head without offering any explanation.

"All of you will use the teleportation portal to leave for the Academy tomorrow, so pack up so you won't forget anything."

Miss Everdine said then stood up and disappeared from the table.

They all stood up and went outside the meeting room and headed to their own rooms to pack their things, they all had spatial storages so it wasn't hard to take everything.

...

I asked my mother if she would let me go to the Academy. She asked me why I want to go. I told her that I wanted to learn about the galaxy, I want to learn to fight, I want to protect those who can't protect themselves, Am curious about how we all came to be, I want to have friends.

Mum looked at me and smiled, she hugged me and kissed my head and she said that she was going to miss me, I hugged her back and said I would miss her too.

She waited and when Aunt Everdine came to the room, I told her that I want to go to the Academy, she beamed and said she was just about to talk to mum about me attending the Academy, she was smiling and said that I was gonna love it.

...

After Eto and the others had waited for the next day to come they walked to the portal room and saw a Big circular teleportation portal opened and on the other side they saw another room that looked like the portal room. There were some people on the other side waiting for them.

"Good luck."

Miss Everdine said as she was walking towards them.

They saw her with Hiro and Hiro walked towards them and Miss Everdine spoke to them.

"My nephew will be coming to the Academy with you."

Ava and Aya beamed in excitement, they dragged Hiro over to where they were standing and started talking to him a little bit noisily.

"Just walk through the portal and you'll be there."

Gamila appeared beside Miss Everdine and waved at Hiro before he went through the portal.

A single tear fell on the ground.