"BREAKING 'S NEWS' ALERT: The countdown to evacuation has begun. Earth's fleet of shuttles have now been constructed and operations have begun in earnest to equip them for the long journey ahead. Food stores and hospital equipment are being gathered, livestock and seed-banks transported and all ten series of Friends are currently being downloaded onto the mainframe of each shuttle. Message in and tell us what you can't live without."
There was only one more afternoon left of piloting lectures that marked the end of a long and torturous road. Tomorrow he would face the Pilot Simulator and be one step closer to keeping his promise.
Those months of training took their toll on Gabe. The weeks of lessons and lectures getting verbally attacked by Training Commander Cain still seemed like relative paradise in comparison to the long weeks subjected to all his malice and spite in the Simulator.
Gabe was done trying to please Cain, It was wasted effort. Now, going into each simulation, his sole purpose was survival. Gabe had no interest in coming top of his class in navigation or weapons training, his only motivation was staying alive long enough to make it to the piloting simulator. He could come last in everything else for all he cared.
In doing so, he got the same verbal battering each time he limped out but it was worth it, just to make it one day closer to becoming a pilot.
When the week of Pilot training was over, the performance results generated by the Simulator would be fed to the board of directors, who'd sit with the Training Commanders and decide who, if anyone was capable of performing that role on the YAMA - there could be no hiding in safety
The pilot's training would be safer as Cain wouldn't be able to kill him outright, because once the hull of the shuttle was compromised, the crew would die by default and the simulation would immediately end. Yet the challenge for Gabe would be much more difficult, as YAMA wouldn't let anyone pilot their shuttle who hadn't completed each stage fully.
With a perfect score fed to the board of directors it wouldn't matter what Training Commander Cain had to say about him, they'd have to give him the position.
Still, those months took their toll. Even Tiffany, his one reason for putting himself through all this was becoming more distant, leaving Gabe feeling isolated and alone. He began to see her less and less, it was nothing deliberate, they were just out of sync. By the time Gabe crawled home he was exhausted and more often than not, went straight to bed. Tiffany, on the other hand, since deciding she no longer needed to train as a navigator, 'why bother when she was going to be an officer's girlfriend,' was enjoying her free time more and more with her work colleagues.
Gabe understood: when you create that many scars down the years, your relationship becomes a grotesque disfigurement of the love it once was; a constant hurtful reminder of the pain he once caused.
He'd become the kind of love it hurt to look at, he wished it was different, but couldn't blame her.
But maybe, just maybe if he could keep this one promise, if he could show he was still worth something, maybe he could begin to undo some of the damage.
Thankfully, he still had Jaibles and Monkey. Without them holding him up, he didn't know if he'd ever make it through training. They were always there to pick him up when he needed it most, always available. Whatever the future held on YAMA, he was glad they would be there with him.
Gabe sat around the cafeteria table that day with his two friends, the sweet smell of bacon permeating every fiber of their being - finally he could relax.
Naturally, the class had started to thin out as the course went on, most dropped out or were assured of their position in other areas of the shuttle, but to make it onto the flight deck in any position, you had to complete all areas of the training.
Now there were just enough people to fill one class, and among them were Gabe, Jaibles and Monkey: Monkey, a talented engineer was streets ahead of anyone for the Chief Engineers role and much to Gabe's bemusement, Jaibles seemed almost assured of the role of Chief Navigation officer.
'So explain to me again how you got a 100% score on the navigation simulator?' Said Gabe for the fourth time that lunch.
'I keep telling you, Gabe.' Said Jaibles wiping the ketchup and bacon grease off his mouth with his own sock. 'It's because I'm a certified genius; I was a genius when we worked together before all this Eden nonsense began, and surprise, surprise I'm still a certified genius now.'
'Where did you get that sock from, Geezer?' Said Monkey in bewilderment.
'My foot. Where do you think I got it from?'
'That's a point,' said Gabe sitting forward. 'I always meant to ask you, what did they actually employ you to do at YAMA?'
'Seriously? I was the Chief Science Officer. I researched and developed everything we made here. Got a doctorate in bio-chem and everything,' said Jaibles straightening an imaginary tie. Why do you think I spent so much time in the library?'
'You're kidding me, right? I thought you just hid in there to slack off, we both did. Just wait till Mr Obed hears about this,' Gabe laughed.
'I was in the library so much, Gabe because it took so freaking long to find any of the relevant research papers, GABE! They had been promising me they would digitalise it for the last five years, but clearly they put some sort of malnourished chimp in charge because it's taken forever.'
'I find chimp insulting,' said Gabe. 'I prefer primate or if you must be derogatory: Chief Science Officer. Come to think of it, has anyone seen Mr Obed since all this started? I wonder how he's coping without his library.'
'He's fine,' said Jaibles. 'I get the same train as him. He likes to pretend he can't see me'
'Not an easy thing to do,' said Monkey smoothing out his beard. 'How are you holding up, Gabe? It's been a hell of a couple months.'
'You could say that,' said Gabe, the dark lines under his eyes now a permanent feature. 'I won't miss the simulator when this is all over, I can tell you that much.'
'It's all behind you now, Darling,' Jaibles slapped him on the back. 'You've done it, you survived Commander Cain. Hey, you remember when he tried to drown you in the septic tank!'
'I'm not sure it's over yet,' said Gabe wearily. 'Somehow I don't think he's quite finished with me.'
'Or when he trapped you in the service lift for eight hours with six other simulants after an 'all you can eat' Mexican buffet?'
'You sure all this is worth it, Geezer?' Said Monkey, losing count of how many times he'd asked Gabe that question over the past few months. 'We've already done a week of piloting theory and you know the controls of the corporate shuttle are pretty much the same as the EX you trained on before.'
'Or the time he armed all the tennis instructors with wet towels and turned them against you,' Jaibles said wincing.
'It will be worth it,' said Gabe. 'I've come too far to give up now. I need to do this.'
'Or that time he locked you in the storage bay and you had to eat your way out of the custard silo.'
'It's just that I heard back from my mate, he traced back your records from the first EDEN program and found your old shuttle.' Said Monkey, hopeful.
For a moment, Gabe allowed himself to remember sitting in that cockpit with Nate by his side, laughing at all the possibilities that lay before them. He quickly pushed it aside.
'No, that's not an option anymore.' Said Gabe.
'We meant what we said, Gabe.' Said Monkey. 'We'll come with you.'
'Hell yeah,' said Jaibles perking up. 'Just call me Long John Jaibles and let's get out of here.'
'I won't let you,' said Gabe. 'You've got a life of luxury waiting for you on the Yama, I won't let you give that up just because Cain has it in for me.'
'Gabe, I don't think you fully appreciate just how good I'd look in an eye patch.' Said Jaibles seriously.
'Okay,' said Monkey in defeat. 'Actually, I've just seen the plans for my executive en suite and I'm right next to Luxury Spa Zone Four.'
'You're kidding?' Said Jaibles annoyed. 'They've dumped me right next to Swedish Massage Zone One. I'm not going to be able to move for supple, highly skilled masseuse blocking up the corridor of my executive villa and stinking up the place with delicately scented lavender candles and the warm, relaxing mellow tones of orange blossom.' Jaibles shook his head in disgust. 'I guess we all know who the teacher's pet is, don't we?' He said nudging Gabe for support.
'Err, yeah, sounds rough, Jaibles.' Said Gabe looking to Monkey to be the voice of reason.
Monkey just shook his head. 'Come on, we've got a long afternoon of High Velocity Docking to master.'
'Funny,' mused Jaibles. 'That was the name of my first punk band at college.'