Against the Tide - A New Elysium Story [Complete]

Through Your Eyes

Sira Jain checked the time on her data pad as she hurried along the space port. She had dropped off the three large crates at cargo port fifteen, as instructed, although nobody there seemed to have known what to do with it. That wasn't her problem though. She couldn't care less about the missing shipping ledgers and the mysterious crates, her mind was preoccupied by the handsome courier who had delivered them. Arriving at the spot where they had parted ways just seventeen minutes ago, she stopped and looked around. The courier was gone.

A furrow appeared on her brow.

"Yo Henson," she called over to one of her colleagues nearby, "Did you see where the Atlas guy went?"

"Atlas?" the mechanic looked up from his work to answer her, "That bloke in the blue uniform? Yeah, he left, about... fifteen minutes ago?"

"He.... What?!"

For a moment, her disbelief drowned out any other sensation. Then, she could feel anger well up inside of her. It was soon replaced by embarrassment about her own naiveté. Ultimately, she couldn't help but laugh out loud, but her laughter quickly gave way to a weary sigh.

"Wow. I'm an idiot," she groaned and rubbed a hand over her face.

"Aw, did you get ditched?" Henson asked with a smirk.

"Apparently," Sira grumbled.

Henson walked up to her and was about to say something, but then he spotted something behind her, causing him to stop in his tracks with his mouth agape. Several other people stopped whatever they were doing as well, and looked up, some of them whispering, others giggling.

"Do you know what this is about?" Henson finally found his speech again and pointed up.

As she turned around to look at what they were all gaping at, her answer got stuck in her throat. Blood rushed to her cheeks at the sight of that bold and brazen confession of love that had appeared on the far wall of the hangar.

"You think your Atlas friend left you a message?" Henson snickered.

"Shut up," she grumbled, punching his arm.

No, she was fairly certain that this had nothing to do with her, and most likely not with that courier either. Whoever had pulled this off must have manipulated the computer systems for the guiding lights, so it was likely that it was somebody from station control. Either way, it was none of her business. Truth be told, she was fuming over being spurned like that, and wasting half of her break running an errand for that Atlas jerk. Now watching the most impressive public display of affection she had ever witnessed only served to make her angrier.

She wished people would just stop gawking at those stupid lights and focus on the task at hand again.

"Okay now everybody," she shouted and clapped her hands together, "Get back to work, this is-"

She was cut off by a deafening, howling sound that filled the entire hangar. Everybody who had started to move at her command had frozen up again. Now they looked at each other wide-eyed, while they all counted the seconds until the first wave of the alarm stopped, and resumed after a short break.

"That's..." Henson started.

"A class three radiation alert," Sira finished.

Everyone stared at the Aphelion in disbelief now, and Sira thought that she should have been more careful what to wish for.

~ ~ ~

"Alert, Alert. Radiation leak in sectors three, four, six, seven, eight and nine. Commence evacuation immediately. This is not a drill."