Lorenzo tried to get his mind off of Ranger Kelly’s whereabouts. Thankfully, his brother did what he did best, distracting him.
Emil fidgeted beside him in the elevator. He rarely ever stopped moving, but this time he seemed more jittery than usual.
“There should be a bathroom on this floor if you’re in need of it.” Lorenzo stared at his brother, tapping his feet in place.
The lieutenant chuckled. “That’s okay, I don’t hafta pee.” He paused. “Why didn’t we take the stairs?”
“I thought you would’ve appreciated getting to the conference room faster.” Lorenzo took off his hat and neatened his hair in the elevator’s reflective walls. “Besides, don’t you hate stairs?”
Emil bounced on his feet. “Maybe a liiiittle. But elevators,” he rubbed his arms, “I dunno, I feel like one of these days, one’s gonna stop while I’m on it.”
“I didn’t know you had a fear of elevators.” Lorenzo worried on his brother’s behalf. It was a good thing they were alone right now, because who knew who might’ve taken advantage of this flaw. Still, nothing guaranteed their safety. He glanced at the elevator camera. Anyone could be listening.
“Pshhh, I’m not afraid of ‘em!” Defensiveness might have been hiding behind Emil’s laughter. “I’m just,” his eyes darted around, “concerned.”
“Uh-huh.” Lorenzo didn’t know what to make of that response. He focused instead on smoothing out the wrinkles in his clothes. “I’ll keep your concerns in mind.”
Emil set his chin down on Lorenzo’s shoulder. “What about you? You seem awfully concerned with your looks today.”
“I’m just trying to make the best impression I can.” Lorenzo brushed off his shoulder after Emil stood back up. “I suggest you do the same. We’re César Galhardo’s sons, after all.”
The blond rolled his eyes. “How can I forget?”
“He has enemies.”
“Again, how can I forget?” Emil began pacing. “Y’know, you and Dad keep talkin’ about all the ‘enemies’ we have, but I’ve never heard of any of ‘em.”
“That’s because he does a good job protecting us. But he can’t do that right now.” Lorenzo stopped Emil and began neatening up his uniform and hair. “There are many people who believe we’re not qualified for our positions. This is a chance to prove we’re fit to honor the Interstellar Forces’s legacy.”
The elevator opened to pale halls. The two captains straight ahead down the corridor where the conference room was supposed to be. A guard waited outside, signalling that they were heading in the right direction. Even he was a little older than them.
“Are you headed to the Celestion conference?” he asked.
Lorenzo nodded. “We are.”
“Which group are you guys with?”
“Celestion-5!” Emil answered.
The guard’s smile dropped as he read his tablet. “Sorry, I can’t let you guys in yet. Your captains need to show up first.”
Lorenzo and Emil exchanged glances.
“Uhhh, we are the captains.” Emil pointed at the pin on his jacket. “See?”
Suddenly, Lorenzo realized that after all of his preparations, he hadn’t put his hat back on. He might as well have shown up in tattered rags. What an unforgivable error!
“I’m going to have to see your IDs.”
The brothers both took out their IDs and showed them to the guard.
His eyes widened as he did a hasty salute. “Oh! My apologies, sirs! Go right on ahead.”
“No, the apologies are all mine.” Lorenzo told him, saluting back along with Emil. “You simply did your job.”
They parted ways as the two captains continued down the hallway. Behind them, Lorenzo heard some footsteps and a conversation.
“Hello, sirs, the Celestion conference is right this way. Which ship are you from?”
An older man answered. “Seven.”
“Go right on ahead.”
Lorenzo felt a tap from Emil.
“You hear that?” he whispered in Spanish. “Why didn’t they have to show IDs?”
“Maybe they did, we don’t know. It’s none of our business.” Lorenzo scolded.
Two doors stood in front of them. Lorenzo knew many people would be on the other side, people who already had it in their minds that he and his brother were just two kids who had no business leading this mission. Would he prove them right or wrong?
“Hey. You nervous?” Emil looked at him with concern. The last thing a capable captain needed was concern, especially from his little brother.
Lorenzo took a deep breath and opened the door.
Inside was a circular conference venue of chrome and powder blue. Four thin columns stood in each ‘corner’ of the room. A mixture of polyethylene glycol, ferric magnets, and glow-in-the-dark powder filled each one, the same mixture that kept the Celestion-5’s generator working. It looked like a futuristic blue and black waterfall, so it doubled as decoration.
Only about 20 people stood in the room. Most of the chairs sat in stacks, making it look even emptier. Lorenzo didn’t know whether to feel happy that less people were here than expected or worried that more people would notice him. Most of them grouped around tables near the walls. A few started to stare.
Emil winked and waved to some, then turned to his brother. “Huh. We must be pretty early.”
“Good.” Lorenzo moved toward an empty table. “Maybe we can find someone to ask about our eighth crewmember.”
“That someone’s not gonna be over there! Where are we goin’?”
“To find… a vantage point.” It wasn’t quite a lie, he just didn’t think of things that way when he said it. Truthfully, he needed some time to get himself together before talking to other people.
Emil tugged on Lorenzo’s sleeve, which the latter had to re-straighten, lest the other star rangers think he was some unkempt, sloppy teenage boy.
“I think we should check out that table.” Emil tilted his head toward a group of people he’d waved at on the other side of the room.
“I don’t know if we should--”
Before Lorenzo could finish, the doors opened again to reveal two older men. He’d never seen them in person before, but he knew who they were. So did everyone else…
...except Emil.
“Who are those guys?” he asked. “The whole room went quiet when they came in.”
“Captain Stone and Commander Myers from the Luna 13.” Lorenzo’s eyes stayed locked on the legendary star rangers. “You remember learning about it, don’t you?”
“Oh, isn’t that that mission from waaaay back where their ship nearly exploded like 15 times?”
“And almost crashed. If they were any less skilled, they wouldn’t have made it out alive.”
The group from the table Emil wanted to visit immediately flocked Stone and Myers. Lorenzo suddenly realized the voice in the hallway belonged to one of them. He stood mere feet in front of icons and didn’t even realize it!
Another realization dawned on him. “Of course they’d be on the Celestion-7…”
“Well if it isn’t Little Cesar!” A familiar voice jolted Lorenzo out of his thoughts, but it wasn’t Emil’s.
A group of star rangers came over to their table, led by none other than Captain Vanderbilt of the Celestion-6, grandson of Colonel Hans Vanderbilt of the Army. He wouldn’t let anyone forget it. Lorenzo and Emil often crossed paths with him growing up. Emil could barely stand him. Lorenzo tolerated him more, but that didn’t translate to any fondness for the man.
“Hello, Captain Vanderbilt.” Lorenzo struggled making eye contact with most people, but Vanderbilt’s piercing blue eyes might as well have been stabbing him. They shook hands.
Vanderbilt went on to shake Emil’s hand. “Nice to see ya, Roger!”
“Please. Call me Emil.” Behind Emil’s smile, Lorenzo knew that being called by his second name made him seethe.
“Roger that!” This had to be Vanderbilt’s tenth time making that joke, at least. He shook his hands from Emil’s grip. “I guess you can see the men of the hour over there, Captain Stone and Lieutenant Meyers.”
“So they’re the captains of the Celestion-7…” mused Lorenzo.
“Apparently so! I can’t believe Command managed to keep them a secret until now.”
“Wait.” Emil looked between the two of them. “Wouldn’t they have had to compete against you guys in that tournament test thingy?”
The tall woman beside Vanderbilt blinked awake and adjusted her glasses. “Wha… Sorry, what test??”
“Geez Jenny, have you been asleep this whole time?” chided Vanderbilt. He then turned to the Galhardos. “I’m sorry, this is our ship doctor Jennifer, she just got her license recently.”
“The exams did a number on my sleep schedule.” she explained sheepishly.
“Ah, I see.” Lorenzo responded, not knowing what else to say. “Pleased to meet you, Dr….”
“Jones.” She shook his hand. “You can call me Dr. Jones.”
“Nice to meet you, Doc!” Emil greeted.
Vanderbilt motioned to the shorter, bespeckled man beside him. “And you two are already aware of my trusty sidekick, Lt. Joshi!”
“Nice seein’ you around, fellow lieutenant!” Emil winked and pointed.
The eldest man chuckled. “It’s nice seeing you two again.”
“It’s good to see you too, Lt. Joshi.” The first and last time Lorenzo had met Joshi was after the tournament results were announced. Speaking of which--
“What was that about a tournament again?” Dr. Jones kept blinking to stay awake.
“Contrary to popular belief, the Celestion crews aren’t chosen by random selection.” began Lorenzo.
“ ‘Unstructured’ selection, they call it.” Joshi chimed in.
“What’s the difference?” asked Emil.
“They opted…” Lt. Joshi suppressed a smile, “they opted not to expend the effort to make it truly random. That’s why you might get people who already know each other.”
That sounded like calling the command team lazy, but Lorenzo decided to continue without saying anything about it. “When they decided who all of the potential captains would be, a tournament was held to determine how well we could pilot the new Celestion ships. The results decided which ship we would get.”
“But aren’t the Celestions all basically the same?” asked Dr. Jones. “That’s the whole point of our mission...right?” She yawned. “Same ships, same number of people.”
“Yes, but the number of each ship corresponds to the difficulty of our mission. The higher the number, the harder the mission.”
“And the higher the talent of the captain’s piloting!” Vanderbilt bowed graciously. “That is how I got the honor of leading the Celestion-6.”
“But there’s one exception, isn’t there~?” Emil elbowed Lorenzo as Vanderbilt’s smile all but disappeared.
“Ah, that’s right.” Lorenzo adjusted his hat. “Due to the Celestion-5 and Celestion-6’s missions being so similar, it was hard to determine which mission was more difficult. Eventually, it was decided the winner of the tournament gets to pilot the Celestion-5, since that ship will be required to enter new territory first.”
Dr. Jones smiled. “And that’s you! Congratulations.”
She, Joshi, and Emil clapped for him.
He tipped his hat. “Thank you. This isn’t a responsibility I take lightly. I will try to honor it as best as I can.”
“I have faith that you will.” Lt. Joshi smiled. Whether it was kind or facetious, Lorenzo had trouble telling. He wasn’t the most literate in reading faces. It put him at a regrettable disadvantage when dealing with others, so he learned to be suspicious of everyone at all times.
“For the record!” Vanderbilt pointed a finger. “He only won because he’s not used to making his own decisions, coming out of high school and all that. The judges were expecting us to follow their every order.”
Joshi’s eyes went wide. “I would hope you follow their every order! This is a risky mission.”
Vanderbilt huffed. “I know what I’m doing, Dev. I just want the kid to know that there’s more to being a captain than piloting. You need to know how to make your own decisions.” Something off to the side caught his attention. “Oh, well look at that! If it isn’t Debra and Selene! Come and join us!”
The two women seemed to be in the middle of leaving the area, but Vanderbilt beckoned them over anyway. Lorenzo knew of them as Captain Pryce and Lieutenant Limbaco of the Celestion-4.
“Captain Vanderbilt.” Pryce didn’t even attempt to smile. Lorenzo felt a little more comfortable not being the only straight-faced one there.
“We were just talking about what it means to be a captain. I figured you’d be interested!” Vanderbilt gave them a bright smile.
Lt. Limbaco answered this time, since Captain Pryce didn’t say anything. “Oh, how, uh, considerate of you, Captain.”
“This is Jenny,” Vanderbilt motioned to the doctor, who just snapped out of a daze, “and you should already be familiar with Lt. Joshi, Little Cesar, and his brother Rog--”
“Emil!” Emil interrupted before he could finish. “My name is Emil.” He shook both new captains’ hands.
“Nice to meet you all!” Limbaco greeted.
“It truly is.” Captain Pryce smiled this time. She shook Lorenzo’s hand. “Captain Galhardo, congratulations on being selected to pilot the Celestion-5. You must be so proud!”
“Thank you, Captain Pryce.” He returned the handshake.
Vanderbilt leaned toward Pryce. “I’m pretty proud of the boy, myself. I’ve known him since he was in diapers, not that it was long ago!”
He laughed at his own joke, though it made the younger captain uncomfortable. Emil almost said something, but Lorenzo tapped him on the shoulder. Whatever emotions the blond felt were channeled into rapid leg bouncing.
“We have kind of a mentor-protege relationship going on.”
“We do…?” Lorenzo did not remember Captain Vanderbilt having that much of an impact on his life.
Either way, Vanderbilt did not seem to like that question very much. Emil covered his mouth to conceal his smile, while Pryce didn’t bother. Joshi shook his head, Lambaco looked away, and Jones… was about to fall asleep standing up.
Captain Vanderbilt looked at her and back toward Lorenzo. “Would you be a nice young man and fetch these ladies some chairs? Grab a couple for the rest of us, too.”
Lorenzo did as he was told, happy to get away from everyone laughing at him. He could think about more important things, like finding out about their eighth crew member. In fact, as he grabbed a few chairs from one of the unsteady stacks, he realized that question could be the perfect ticket out of this conversation for good.
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