Day 10 ~ Day 11

“Do you want to tour the ship now or would you like to wait until it is in space?”

Julie looked around at the girls sitting down and the rest of the looks on the on the faces if the others.

“Actually sir, I think we need to tour a nice serene quiet area where we can talk some things out. You might know us from the future but we were only just getting to know ourselves. We have a lot of things to talk through. As a matter of fact we only introduced ourselves to each other yesterday on the way to your castle.”

“Rebarto I think our friends could use to visit the lake. Why don’t you see that they get there and have some time to themselves?”

“I’ll see to it my lord.”

Transported to a place where swans swam upon a crystal clear lake. The grass was as lush and green as ever. However it wasn’t what the group was thinking about. The sat about in a disorganized circle.

“I guess since I suggested we should talk I should start off.”

“You weren’t the only one Julie.” Rose grabbed Marian’s hand.

Marian smiled feeling reassured. “Julie was right though. We have a lot of things to discuss. Like is this what we want to be doing?”

“It does seem like we are being pushed and prodded,” Peter admitted.

“N-n-no, t-t-this isn’t p-p-pushing an-n-nd p-p-prodding. T-t-this is m-m-more like h-h-herding.”

“We do seem to be doing whatever this kings wants and what they tell us our future selves have said we would do.”

“James, do you think that our future selves would want us to dictate our lives on what they may or may not have said about us. Are we supposed to just buckle down and walk in some straight line from here to their future. Do you think that was what they’d have done to get where they were at. It is like reliving a life and people don’t get to do that.”

“Unless it is Groundhog Day,” Daniel added to what JoAnna had to say. A few of them laughed but the rest looked on in bewilderment.

“What has Groundhog Day to do with re-living life? I thought it was just when we found out whether we were going to have an early Spring or not.”

“Well it was made into a movie,” Daniel began.

“Where there was this guy,” Anna continued.

“Who had to relive this one day over and over again. No matter how the day ended he just couldn’t get something right and he’d repeat the day the next morning.” Joshua finished off, “When he finally got things figured out his days finally went on as if everything he’d been through was a dream.”

“Anyway, JoAnna is right,” James brought the subject back to what they were trying to discuss. “We shouldn’t let our future selves dictate what we do now. I think we should take into consideration what they have had to say but this is our life to chose what we will do.”

Rodger couldn’t contain himself anymore, “So you're all saying that you don’t WANT to fly a spaceship?”

They glanced around to size up how everyone was feeling.

“I just think everyone wants some time to let everything digest. This is a lot of responsibility put on our shoulders. Do we really think we are capable of it?”

“You know Peter, I think we are capable. I think that is one of the things we should listen to our future selves about. They would know more about us. About what we are capable of than we would right now. I mean Joshua, besides your name I don’t know anything about you. Carol, I couldn’t even guess at what you favorite color might be. We,” Marian was standing at this point motioning at all of us in a circular motion with her finger. “We don’t know much about one another but they did. They have done whatever it is we are about to do and they thought we were great. However I’m probably in the same boat most of you are in. I want to go home more than anything in the world. I miss my mom and my little brother. I even miss the cat. Worse yet, I miss my big brother. All I want to do is go home even if it is just to say good bye.”

Marian sat down in almost a collapsing manner. Rose reached out and grabbed her hand again. “I think we need a vote,” she said.

“Who is in? Who wants to get to know each other better and... ride in a spaceship? Rodger that does sound really cool!” James watched as everyone’s hands hit the air. Some of them were slow in coming a few were watching other peoples hands but they were definitely all raised.

“So anybody just want to give up, go home, and forget any of this craziness ever happened?”

They laughed and spent the rest of the day talking about their lives, about all the things that were important to them and quite a few things that weren’t. When Rebarto came and suggested taking them back to the castle, the agreed. At dinner they told the king that they all agreed to start learning all the things they would need to know for their mission.

“So you have agreed to go for us?”

“Yes sir. We had a nice long talk today and it seems that as much as we’re home sick we want to see this adventure through.”

“Very good! You can all start training tomorrow. So perhaps an early night would be in order?”

They did go to their rooms early but it was late into the night before they actually want to sleep. Whoever the musician was trying to lawl them to sleep with his sweet songs must have become very depressed by the time they actually crawled into bed.

“So today we are going to show you some of the basics of the training course just to see where everyone is at and give us an idea on what you need to know most. Our job is to make sure you are comfortable, sure of yourself, and know how to fly. That is the AstroStar and AstroShip of course,” The main instructor joked. “We are going to take you in groups of two. The reasons for this are simple. One, the instructors will be able to observe how well you work together. Two, some of the things you will be doing today require assistance. Three, some of the assignments will be competition. You are the hope of the globe. You are what we all depend upon so I will be making sure you know your stuff before letting you board our ship. From now on plan to work as hard as you ever have before.”

Once they were split it didn’t take their instructors long to put them to work. Peter and his sister were taking a language class that was set up as a series of multiple choice answers of a touchable screen. “There are no right and wrong answers today. This is not a test, more like a pop quiz so we will know how much you know. We want you to do your best but to make it a little more fun why don’t you race to see who can get through it first.”

“Hussel, hussel, let’s get you two through this course. Come on, come on, we don’t have all day!” He blew a whistle as the instructor watched the Taylor twins run through and obstacle course that rivaled something like is used in the military. Sure they might have been doing sports in school but that didn’t compare with the rigorous course set before them. They they tripped and stumbled the instructor made the things they could do easily much harder by setting challenges.

John and Carol were set up with Astronomy. There are things that we normally know about stars and things we don’t know. This instructor didn’t bother with asking questions he just assumed that they wouldn’t know what he was talking about. So instead of filling in gaps he was just going to cover everything. Most importantly was a replica of what the ships navigation system were like.

For Anna and Daniel things were a little different. They were taken out on a little survival  camp trip that would last over night. The instructor stayed with them but all the surviving us up to them. The were dropped off with a map and few supplies and asked to travel from their drop off point to the training facilities.

The tech geeks were eager to see what all Rodger knew. So he and JoAnna were sent through all kinds of computer systems that the ship would contain. It turned out that JoAnna was too bad with tech talk and that Rodger wasn’t so bad at teaching her what he could to help her through whatever the instructors asked of them.

That left James and Marian with hands on and book research in all things mechanical, from basic plumbing to warp drive engines. It was long, boring, grueling, and useful but it didn’t help make them in anyway excited. All the hands on was from a computer that had images that could be touched and moved with the hand. That was probably the coolest part for them. They’d seen things in movies but everyone knew it was green screen and placed in later. This was actually real and happening to them.

For the rest of the week they continued to switch places. Sunday they were given off to continue studying and relax a little. There was of course homework due in on Monday. because they needed these young people to be top notch and ready in the shortest amount of time possible. There were also courses on food prep, medicinal and bandaging, and languages. (Which remained mostly the same throughout space as what they were on Earth. Though some had slight variations and accents.)

It wasn’t like they got through the course in a week and were ready to start flying around. Oh, no, these young people were in for a lot more work. Although the best part was when they were finally ready for their first AstroStar test drives. They’d been doing simulation games for weeks. Now to finally being able to take the spacecraft to the air. There was excitement all around even though they were nervous.