My Idea Box

ORIGINAL IDEA: Lightshow

It was the same scene: the stars glowed blue, red, and other colors. Ships burned and blinked out of existence. And the planets kept on spinning.

Aster saw similar scenery in previous battles, and he saw it now from the hull of the Regulus. It was hard to get a look though, since the ship held back with the rest of the reinforcements. Orders from fleet command, the captain had explained. It did little for Aster's impatience, though.

Walking on the outer hull, he came to a stop and stood. The magnetic boots stuff him to the side of the Regulus while he peered through his face visor. Tiny orbs lit up in the distance alongside the flash of ship lasers. It didn't take much for Aster to imagine the great ships of the Gemini Alliance overwhelming their rival.

One such ship, a Varangar, blocked Aster's vision of the battle with its mile-long "wings." "Hey! Get out of here!" Aster yelled to the ship.

The Varangar, though a ship, obeyed. In seconds, it flew out of the way, and Aster had his view of the battle again. The sparks flew as if nothing had changed, much like the blue planet off to the side. It seemed so insignificant, but it drew Aster so far from the Gemini homeworld with the fleet that now engaged forces from Neo-Taurus. Why? Alam didn't think about it. He just wanted to watch the show.

Two shapes flew from the battle, zooming right over Aster. "Whoa!" he shouted and ducked his head in time.

A voice screamed through his helmet's comm. "Hey crazy, just what do you think you're doing?!"

Aster recognized the voice. As he stood, he waved to the pair of Vulcar fighters. "Hey, Lily!" he laughed to the pilot screaming at him.

"Don't you 'hey' me! And that's ensign to you, petty officer!" snapped Lily as she brought her fighter around.

"Uh, ensign?" said the voice of Lily's wing woman. "We have to board or we'll lose fuel."

Aster smiled at the "tch!" on the other end. He recalled Lily-whoops, the ensign saying her entire family line had it, all the way back to when they lived on some ancient Earth island called "Nippon." Aster never believed, since he hadn't seen anyone else ever make that sound. Still, he thought it was unique and cute, like the ensign herself.

Said ensign barked, "Get back inside, petty officer, before somebody sees you!"

A grinning Aster saluted. "Yes, ma'am!"

"And don't expect me to bail you out!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

The ensign had flown off with that assurance. Aster, after lowering his hand, stayed where he was. Once he was sure the two Vulcars were red dots, he turned back around to enjoy his show again.

"Hey rookie!" shouted a gruffer and manlier voice on the comm.

Aster winced, groaned, then answered, "Yes, chief?"

"Get back in here! We have fighters to repair!" That was all the chief had said before he cut the line.

Left with a tiny high-pitched ring, Aster sighed to himself. Duty now called him away from his shown, and it drew him to this place. So he pulled on his legs and began to walk across the outer hull, back the way he came. As Aster did, he swore there had been a strange white glint. He passed it off for another explosion. After all, it was a battle out there. Who knows if any debris would come and try to squish him.

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AN: Alright, this was originally written as part of a little novella I had planned that would lead in to this space opera series. Ultimately, I put it all aside since I couldn't decide how to actually tell the story. Probably was for the best because the writing here feels off. Nonetheless, I hope you've liked it. Take care.

-W.S.