Counting Stars

Everyone looked at the Lieutenant General, then at each other, then back at the Lieutenant General. "A-Acantha?"

"Well yes, have you heard of it?"

"Yes! We were talking about it the other day! We saw the star Eventa one night and then-"

"Okay hold your horses, young lady. We will get to that in a few. First, I need to tell you guys about the system we'll be going to, go ahead and get out your notebooks that I'm sure you all brought." With that, everyone did pull out a notebook, Phoenix pulling out a notebook that looked exactly like Sapphire's. Sapphire turned around and winked at Phoenix, who smiled and twirled her pen in her fingers.

Everyone opened their notebooks to clean pages, writing the date on the top right corner.

"Alright let's begin," the Lieutenant General said, pressing a button that was on a remote, "The galaxy that Eventa is in is known as Atlantia. It's blue, red, and purple, just like the Milky Way, however, it's bigger and has more of a blue shade due to the numerous hot stars there are. It contains 3 planets as we currently know of, we haven't really been outside the huge cluster of asteroids that orbit the star, but researchers say there is a gas planet with a very dense core, so dense it might not even be a core." Everyone wrote down what the Lieutenant General said, nodding at their papers.

She continued speaking about the planetary system, mentioning the known planets, their names, and their features.

She started with Korfen 186, or Eventa. It was four times the mass of the sun and pretty young, about 5 billion years old. The group was already fond of it, having read about it a couple of days ago.

Next, she talked about Korfen A, which didn't really have a name yet. It was the same size as Earth, yet purple and orange in color. It was about 700 degrees Fahrenheit, making it 371.111 degrees Celcius and 644.261 degrees Kelvin. It cannot inhabit human-like life, but it can inhabit other creatures, as researchers have thought to see. The planet had 4 planets; Cereus, Lupin, Nympha, and Ted-dy.

Korfen B was the next subject. It was the same size as Mars, being white and blue in color that reflected the clouds and water. It was 632 degrees Fahrenheit, 333.333 degrees Celcius, and 606.483 degrees Kelvin. Korfen B can't inhabit oxygen-breathing life, as the atmosphere had barely any oxygen in it. The percentage stayed below a mere 4%. It had 2 "twin moons", Keris and Cheris, that stayed close to each other in orbit around Korfen B.

Korfen Dc was the planet this was all about. Acantha. It was 4 times the size of Earth, having the same green, white, and grey color scheme. Its average temperature was around 60 to 65 degrees Fahrenheit, 15 degrees Celcius, and 288.706 degrees Kelvin. Acantha had 2 moons, Euphora and Utopa. Only 47% of humanity lives on Acantha at the moment.

"As new crew members, you guys are entitled to naming the planets not yet named or new celestial objects you find. Another thing to keep in mind, that just rushed my mind, is that we call our solar system the ESS. Anyways, let us move on."

The Lieutenant-General spoke about the numerous different things on ISSAFE, the new crew members oohing and aahing in surprise. Sapphire constantly slipped her notebook page, drawing the planets that the Lieutenant General described, labeling the way she felt the color scheme was. She smiled to herself as the Lieutenant General kept talking, taking questions from either of them if they raised their hand. It was then that Sapphire had a question. She raised her hand.

"Yes, Ms.Everlot?"

"Well, Lieutenant General Winterson, I was just wondering…based on the way you described ESS, it resembles our solar system a lot."

"You would be correct when you say that. It is very similar to the solar system now, except for the fact that Eventa is much larger, and the belt that orbits around it is much greater in distance than the regular asteroid belt is."

"That makes sense, thank you!"

"Of course. Does anybody else have any questions?"

"Yes, I do," Alexander said, his hand raised, and then it lowers," We were all given different types of, uhm, like fields. What does that really mean?"

"Excellent question. That is something that I did need to explain. You are given a number of tasks when you board ISSAFE. Anytime there is a project in which your field is head of, you will be the leader of that specific project."

"Oh that makes a lot of sense, thank you!"

"Of course. Anyways, if you guys have no further questions, this meeting is over. Keep this information with you and only you. Share it with nobody but each other, and if you do, make sure you aren't near people! You may leave." With that being said, everyone got up slowly, shoving their notebooks into their bags and storming out.

From the windows, they could see their parents already there to pick them up. All of them collectively got on the elevator, Silas pressing the last button which was meant to take them to the first floor. However, it didn't.

"I can't believe that we hypothesized something correctly! Saying Acantha is the planet ISSAFE is stationed at was a miracle guess," Sapphire exclaimed happily. Jenn and Dominque smiled, nodding their heads in agreement.

"It certainly makes sense, which makes me happy," Alexander chimed in. At that moment the elevator opened and the 6 walked out, confused as the surroundings of the first floor didn't match the surroundings they were seeing now. The ceiling was high, about 20 feet high, and the room was wide. The walls were a dark shade of blue, covered in shiny, silver dots that reflected the group's image back onto them.

"I don't remember the first floor looking like this," Dominique said, touching the walls. They felt weirdly smooth, causing him to take his hand off the wall. Phoenix walked quicker forward than the rest of the group to a strange machine, right in front of them. It had a weird shape that wasn't easily described. It smelled like metal, which made the girls curious.

Jenn and Sapphire looked at each other, walking towards Phoenix who was now touching and climbing inside the object.

"Phoenix! Get out of here. We're going to get caught!" Jenn yelled, her accent thick and sincere. She followed Phoenix inside, who now stood on the wall of a spacecraft.

"Holy shit."

"Language!"

"What's going on?" Sapphire chimed in, losing her balance and almost falling. Phoenix caught her and then pointed straight ahead, at the words that were in a bright, glowing red saying "ISSAFE CREW #25".

"T-This is our spaceship," Phoenix stuttered out. She looked at Jenn and Sapphire, whose eyes were widened already.

"No way…" Jenn slurred out. Quickly the three of them exited the ship, running for the elevator. The guys watched them running and ran after them, finally going to the first floor.

"What was that all about?" Alexander questioned, reaching into his bag and eating what seemed like a peanut. Jenn looked at him and faced him, grabbing his shoulders.

"We saw our spacecraft. OUR spacecraft. Our crew number was on it- maybe even our names were? We didn't have time to look, b-but-"

"That was our spacecraft? That huge chunk of metal?" Silas chimed in, his expression confused and disgusted at the same time.

"W-Well if training takes up to 2 years, they could be still preparing its outside features. If Alexander was in there, he'd probably know what was going on. I saw no wired, just a glowing red light with our crew number," Phoenix stated. She turned around to them as the elevator opened and then turned back around, walking out. Everyone followed her, Dominique speeding up to walk beside her.

"What did it look like?"

"Well, I was only in there for a short amount of time, and I'm still too flabbergasted to even describe it, but I'll try. It was large. It was also standing up, so walking in we must've entered a security door. I was standing on the wall, and through a window were the words. We must've climbed into a non-major room."

"That's so cool!" Dominique's eyes lit up like fire. Opening the door for everyone, they all collectively looked at the tall building that was now behind them.

"Well…would you guys like to see a movie on Saturday, maybe?"

"Sure! Which one?"

"Pretty sure it's called The Sacred Gem of Santrimina."

"Oh! I read that book! I'm down."

The entire group began agreeing, then parting ways. As Phoenix got in the car, she saw that Jenn was looking over at her and smiling, so she smiled back and waved.

"Aw, that girl is just adorable!" Their mother exclaimed, clutching her heart and looking back at the girls. They giggled as they climbed in the car, then drove off to go home. "So, I know you probably can't say certain classified information, but how was the meeting?"

"It was great, we learned a lot of useful things!" Sapphire exclaimed, holding onto her bag. Their mother smiled, driving until they got home.

When they did, they all went into their rooms to take naps as the meeting took 2 hours and the girls were physically exhausted. Neither of them has woken up that early before, as the school now starts at 10 instead of the old-fashioned 8 AM. They took naps until 12, and after they woke up the two got on a call with the other four, talking about their goals of being the new ISSAFE crew.