Heritage (Under Revision)

Chapter 3 - Stella

Having just heard yet another rumor about the Commander’s son, Leon, I roll my eyes in disgust and head for Technology Studies. It’s my favorite class, with the minor exception of Leon. He’s arrogant and annoying, but I have to admit, he’s also brilliant and...Attractive.

Ugh, I hate even admitting that in my own mind, but it’s true. He’s had a thing for me for ages now, and despite my attraction to him, his attitude is a huge turn off.

His parents, however, are exceptionally brilliant and unbiased. Leon’s been in more trouble than anyone else, and has always been treated as just one of the Cadets, never getting special treatment.

I turn left, catching a glimpse of myself in the glass partition that separates the corridor from the Blaze Hall Library. It’s dedicated as a memorial to Dr. Thomas Blaze and Security Lieutenant Dante Hall, who sacrificed themselves to virus induced mutants so that Commander Blake and his wife (who was pregnant with Leon at the time) could survive. Both Blaze and Hall were close, personal friends to the Blakes.

I spend a lot of my time in Blaze Hall (or so us Cadets call it), studying and focusing as much of my time on coursework as possible. I strive to be the best at everything that I do, because in my family, being second just doesn’t make the cut.

Both of my parents are Senators back on Earth. My entire family is filled with overachievers and I guess the gene carried to me too. I begged my Mother to send me to Poseidon, because it’s been my dream for as far back as I can remember.

Now that I’m here, I plan to make my mark.

Blaze Hall isn’t a typical library, it’s one of the most technologically advanced libraries of information in the entire world. Only a small section is dedicated to books, while over 97% is made up of micro-discs, which hold up to fifty gigabytes of information. In order to check out the micro-discs, we have to swipe our TAPs keycard at the Librarian’s desk.

I turn left down the south wing corridor, ignoring the gaping stares from some of the younger Cadets. My looks can be somewhat of a distraction to the guys on the ship, and to me they’re simply a curse.

Most people don’t notice my master level skills in martial arts or my 4.5 GPA average, they’re too busy staring at my flaming red hair, flawless complexion or my curvy attributes.

And then there’s the eyes. I’ve heard about them my entire life, bright aqua blue and apparently entrancing, that is, if they can take their eyes off of my other features, lower than my face. It’s hard only being recognized for your physical elements instead of your hard-earned achievements.

That is why I look up to Commander Elena Blake, Technology Studies teacher and General Ethan Blake’s wife. She treats me like an equal, even though I’m just a Cadet, and she plainly shows her appreciation for my hard work. Her son, however, needs some work.

I enter the classroom and see Commander Blake at her desk, grading a stack of quizzes, and I quickly make my way to my study table. My partner Monica is out for the day, seeing as she had been taken to the infirmary last night with complaints of the stomach flu.

Monica’s habitation module is two doors down from mine, and she was kind enough to let me know she’d be out today, before heading to the ship’s infirmary.

Each Cadet has their own habitation module, or HabMods as we like to call them, with a bedroom and a small bathroom in each one. Our HabMods are furnished completely with all the necessary furniture and extras of everyday life.

After dropping my bag on my worktable, I make my way up to Commander Blake’s desk to inform her of Monica’s absence. She looks up from grading her quizzes (looks like another fail for Joe Marshall, unsurprisingly) and gives me a bright smile.

“Yes, Stella? Where is your partner today?” she asks me. I fill her in briefly about Monica’s trip to the infirmary last night and she nods.

“My partner’s not here today either, Ma,” Leon says to the Commander. A brief flash of frustration crosses her pretty features and she turns to her son.

“Leon, in class you are to call me Commander, you know that. Keep it up and you’ll get yet another demerit…and tell your father,” she states, looking stern. Although, with Commander Blake, being as beautiful as she is, looking stern has to be quite hard for her.

She passed along her stunningly green eyes to her son, one of the traits that make him so physically attractive to me. Do I have to keep thinking about that? Her hair is a dark shade of auburn, not quite red, yet not quite brown, whereas mine is a shocking shade of deep red. It flows down around her slim shoulders and her petite frame, ending in the middle of her back. I’ve seen her hair down only a few times, but while in uniform, all women must wear their hair in a tight, regulation bun.

Commander Blake is my idol. Not only did she survive the Sekrid war, fighting valiantly on a deserted ship, falling in love with General Blake, but she also carried her child at the same time. She is everything I aspire to be: intelligent, talented, hard-working and beautiful all at the same time. And someday, I’d like to be a wife and mother as well.

Leon turns his attention on me and flashes me an arrogant, yet dazzling smile.

“So, Stells, how about you and I partner up today?” he asks, grinning cockily.

“My name is Stella, and I’d honestly rather work with a three-headed Sekrid mutant than to partner up with you,” I reply bitingly. His conceited attitude drives me insane.

Is it possible for someone’s eyes to sparkle that much? Wait, what am I thinking? Ugh!

Commander Blake turns to me and asks, “Actually, Stella, you’d be doing me a favor if you partnered with Leon today. I know it’s inconvenient, but I really want partners working on those Projectors,”

How can I say no to my idol? I wouldn’t dare anyways, but if she wasn’t my favorite, I’d at least make an attempt to back out gracefully. But as it stands, I can’t find it in myself to do that.

I nod to her and turn to Leon, to find a haughty grin on his face. I do my best to glare at him in response.

’Fine, let’s go,” I say to him, grimacing. He grins again and we make our way to our work station, setting out our tools neatly and quietly getting started.

We work together for a long time, speaking cordially and only on topics directly related to our A.I. Projector. That is, until we start arguing over the Holographic Processing Unit.

“Will you back off, you’re doing it wrong Leon, you’re going to break it permanently!” I say to him, frustrated.

“I know what I’m doing Stella, you aren’t the only one who’s good at this stuff,” he says back to me angrily.

I hardly shove him out of my way, and attempt to grab the tool from his hand, but he’s much stronger than me despite my martial arts training, and we begin to tug back and forth. The tool slips from my hand when I twirl around to avoid him, and it crashes through the circuit board, puncturing a hole in it.

“Oh…nice Stella, this is what happens when you try to take control of the situation all the time,” Leon states scathingly.

“Well, if you weren’t being such a stubborn, testosterone-filled moron it would’ve never happened in the first place,” I reply, glaring at him with my hands on my hips.

“Oh whatever, of course you’re gonna blame it on the fact that I m a guy,” he says, even though his eyes flicker to my hips when I angrily place my hands on them.

“No, you are not a guy, you re some idiotic de-evolution of a guy,”

He looks beyond pissed at that remark, and yet I think I can see a flicker of something else on his face. Did I just hurt his feelings?

I didn’t think that was possible.

“Where the hell do you come up with this shit?” he asks me condescendingly, before I have a chance to feel any remorse.

“From my brain, which you seem to lack,” I reply bitterly. Both of us are so absorbed in our argument that neither of us see Commander Blake approaching our work station.

“What is going on over here?” she asks us both, her hands on her hips in the same way mine are.

“Leon busted the circuit board Commander, our Projector is useless now,”

She picks up the Projector and inspects it for a moment, turning it over in her hands a few times.

“This can be fixed…I’ m not going to tell you how though, this is a partners project, so the partners are the ones that need to figure it out,” she says, looking at both of us in turn as dread fills my stomach.

Great, now I have to partner up with the arrogant jerk.

“Aw, come on, Ma!” Leon whines, making my stomach twist even more.

“It’s Commander, Leon, what did I tell you? You two have to figure it out yourselves and that’s that,” she says, turning around and walking back to her desk.

“Well this is great,” Leon says.

“Well no sense in complaining about it, we aren’t going to get anywhere acting negative,” I say to him, sitting back in my chair, not making eye contact.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” he replies, grabbing his tablet and typing in something on the touch-screen.

I remove my own from my bag and turn it on, typing in various key phrases and trying to come up with some solution as to how to fix the damn circuit board. After twenty minutes of nothing but dead ends, I turn my tablet off and stuff it unceremoniously into my bag.

“Well, I found complete crap, how about you?” he asks me, his usual self-righteous demeanor gone for the moment.

“Same here”

A few minutes of silence later, Commander Blake stands up from her desk turns to the class.

“Class dismissed,” she announces. We all stand up formerly and salute her, and after grabbing my bag, she shoots me a brief, but bright smile.

Upon entering the corridor outside of Commander Blake’s classroom, I see Leon walking with Kent Davis, one of his best friends. Those two are always hanging out on weekends in the ship-town, or getting into some type of mischief together.

None of my girlfriends have Technology Repair class at the same time as I do, besides Monica, so I always meet them in the Mess Hall at our usual table.

As I enter the Mess Hall, I spot my friends and after grabbing a quick lunch from the many fresh-food vending machines (do you honestly think I’d poison my body with the crap those lunch ladies serve?), I make my way over and take a seat next to Veronica. She’s a little too bubbly for my taste, but she’s never stabbed me in the back like most girls, so she’s alright in my book.

Before I can even take the first bite of my banana, however, my table is disrupted by Joe Marshall. He gets just a little too close, propping his leg on the chair next to me and leaning his weight on his elbow, eyeing my chest disgustingly.

“My, my, my, Stella, aren’t you looking hot today?” he remarks, winking arrogantly at me. I grimace and set my banana down, prepared to defend myself physically if need be.

“Joe, kindly fuck off. You remind me of those Jovian apes we’re learning about in our Terrestrial Creatures class. You know, the inbred ones?” I reply in the sweetest voice I can muster, earning a chorus of hysterical laughter from everyone in the vicinity.

His face turns beet red and twists in anger as he grabs my wrist and pulls me to my feet. His grip is tight and strong, but I know how to incapacitate him if the situation escalates. Using my free hand, I point towards the exit of the Mess Hall.

“Leave,” I state simply.

Before either Joe or myself has a chance to say anything more, Leon suddenly appears at my side, anger flashing is his gorgeous green eyes.

Really? Do I have to think about his eyes at a time like this? Ugh!

He grabs Joe’s hand and jerks it away from my wrist, glancing at the red mark before turning his focus back on Joe.

“Why don’t you back off, Marshall? It’s quite obvious she knows you’re a tool and a douchebag. Unlike the other sluts you’ve dated, she actually has a brain,” he says to him, getting an inch from his ugly face.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Daddy’s little boy. You think that just cause’ you’re the General’s kid that you can give me orders?” He says stupidly.

“No, I think I can cause’ I’ll kick the hell out of you if you don’t do as I say,”

“Is that so?” he asks, a hint of fear in his voice.

“Try me,” Leon states confidently.

Wow, he looks so sexy when he’s mad. Wait…WHAT?! I did not just think that, I did NOT just think that!

“You sure you wanna do this, Blake?” He says. I can tell he’s trying to act tough, but he’s really trying to find a way out of a potential fight. Leon simply grins that dazzling smile of his.

Again? Seriously, Stella? Snap out of it!!

“With you? I’ve never been surer in my life,” he says in a tone that suggests he’s not worried.

That’s when Joe decides to throw an attempted sucker-punch at Leon, which he expertly avoids and grabs Joe’s wrist. He grabs the back of his jacket in his other fist and bashes his head into our lunch table, twisting his arm back. The girls at the table grimace and scoot down a few seats.

“Now, isn’t this fun, Joe? I’ve got you down and you have absolutely nowhere to go,” Leon says, his voice rough.

“Let me go, you asshole!” Joe yells, clearly in pain by the look on his face.

“I think you should apologize to the young ladies, first,” Leon says, but it’s not a suggestion, it’s a demand.

“Screw y--AHH!” he yells, as Leon twists his arm harder.

“Say it!”

“Alright, alright! I’m sorry!” Joe yells.

“That’s a good boy,” Leon says mockingly, gripping the pig’s jacket and tossing him easily across the Mess Hall. Joe’s disgusting friends stride over to him a few seconds later, carting him out of the Hall.

“You girls alright?” Leon questions, turning his attention back to me and my girlfriends.

“Yeah, we’re alright, Leon. What possessed you to do that?” I ask him, eyeing his face. I can almost literally see the adrenaline slowly ebbing away.

“Don’t know... I really hate that guy for one. Plus, I figured I could do a little good at least once today since I seemed to screw everything else up,” he says to me, his head turned to the side, not making eye contact. Without another word he turns around and walks back to a secluded table in the far corner of the lunchroom.

I sit in silence for a few minutes, watching him as he slowly eats his meal. His face looks almost pained. Not physical, but could it be regret? Shame, maybe?

Despite my better judgment, I stand up, toss my lunch wrappers into a nearby garbage can and walk over to where he’s sitting. He doesn’t look up as I take a seat across from him, so I take the initiative myself to start up a conversation.

“Look I know you and I don t exactly like each other, but you’ve never done something like that for me before, or even spoke the way you did before…so, I just wanna know what’s going on Leon,”

“I’m fine Stella, I was just kinda thinking about stuff. I messed up major today, and I risked you failing on that project, so I just wanted to make up for it a little,” he answers, sipping his energy drink.

“Well…I won’t lie, it was sweet of you. And I thank you for it, and I should tell you…my friends do have major crushes on you, so I know they’re thankful too. Let’s just…figure out how to fix the circuit board and get on track okay?”

“Yeah, alright,” he agrees. I smile softly at him before returning to my table.

I don’t even realize that lunch is over until my friends began tossing away their wrappers and standing up to leave. I was too busy thinking about Leon, and the saddened, ashamed look he had. Not to mention the way he defended me.

Maybe I misjudged him.