I woke up scared after a nightmare. I had dreamed of me flying a space drone and getting involved in a serious accident. I got up and looked at the city. I took a transport drone back to the gym. It was almost dawn.

Arriving at the accommodation, Kerhnir was not there. I went to shower and lay down, thoughtful. I was thinking about Micahilla. Perhaps I should take advantage of the situation and leave her forever. It was an opportunity to pursue my career without worries and distractions. Jealousy mixed with anger divided my heart, but after so much thinking, my reason overcame emotions. I decided to follow what I was aiming for. Be an interstellar pilot.

Kerhnir arrived, he was very excited.

"What happened? Why that sad expression? What about Micahilla? Did you get to talk to her?" he asked.

It took me a long time to answer, but...

"She'll be fine!" I said, discouraged.

"Great that she's fine. From what they were talking about, she was in real trouble."

"Yes!" I said.

"What happened? It looks like they fought!"

I was quiet. He realized that I didn't want to talk about it.

"I'm super excited! Soon my mining drone project will go on a mission. Weren't you selected for the Strenfether mission?"

"No," I said impatiently.

He stopped talking and went to do his hygiene. I kept thinking about Micahilla and the breakup situation. When I least expected it, I received a call for concentration at the Academy. I got up, got ready, and was already leaving.

"What happened? Going where in a hurry?" asked Kerhnir.

"For sector 31J01," I said, leaving without looking at him.

Arriving, I saw that some Aspirants were gathered, and among them were Guinna and Lairilon. I went to graduation.

"Gentlemen! From now on, you will be assigned to various missions to improve your skills in real situations. Some of you have gone through complicated situations, but I tell you not to back down and move on. If you want to go far in your career, fear cannot go with you! I will accompany you from here and make you great pilots of the space fleet," said (Major Captain) Sirfiphith, in a tone of confidence.

☼☼☼

Days passed and I was on the Strenfether mission. It was the third mission that was using Kerhnir's mining drones. In this mission, we had to use mining drones and collect rare material from an asteroid that was passing through our planetary system.

"This time I'll be better," said Lairilon.

"Really? I won't let you pass me," I said, laughing.

(Major Captain) Sirfiphith had put us as a pair on the missions. At first, I hated it, but over time I saw that Lairilon was not what I imagined. Since then, we have become great friends, but we are still rivals with each other.

He didn't know he was my rival, but since I told him, he has considered me his rival and we started competing for prominence in the missions. Before that, he was always more prominent, but in the last few missions I have been better, and in this one, I would do anything to be too.

"We are almost at the asteroid HooNorru," said Lairilon.

"He's huge!" I said, surprised.

"How is it going?" asked Guinna, connecting by a video call from another mission far away.

"I'll be better than you too!" I said confidently.

"We will have to pay more attention. This will be our first mission without a supervisor nearby or on the video call. The mission is entirely on our own," said Lairilon,  concerned.

"I'll confess! I wanted to be on this mission with you!" said Guinna, with a look of frustration.

"On the next mission! Let's all be together!" said Lairilon.

"Yes!" I said, agreeing.

"I hope you! Good luck there!" Guinna said, smiling.

Lairilon laughed.

"What's it?" I asked already knowing what he was thinking.

"Take over soon! She wants to have a loving relationship with you," said Lairilon.

"Let's focus on the mission!" I said, wanting to change the subject.

Although I haven't spoken to Micahilla in a while, I haven't completely forgotten her yet. For an instant, my heart sank. It was a feeling of loss, very bad. I concentrated to disconnect myself from these feelings of anguish and focused on the mission.

We prepared the mining drones that we were going to remotely command from our space drone. Each of us would control a drone. With everything ready, we started the mission.

We approached cautiously. There were many fragments. We started evasive maneuvers to land on the asteroid. With great attention and excellent maneuvers, we managed to land. We collected almost all the samples.

To collect one of them, we would need to drill about 3 meters to collect the material. With the mining drone, Lairilon started drilling. Without much difficulty, he managed to drill and collect the material, but just as he was about to maneuver out, a rock hit his drone and damaged it.

"NOOO!" shouted Lairilon, disgusted.

I laughed because I was going to beat him on the mission, but it was a complicated situation because the mission had been compromised. I maneuvered to try to get the drone out of it when it was stuck, but due to bad luck, my drone was hit, damaging its flight maneuver.

"NOOOO!" I also shouted, furious.

Lairilon rose angrily.

When he was thinking of a solution, Lairilon used one of the escape modules to go to the asteroid.

"What are you doing? It's dangerous!" I said, through the video call communicator, startled by his attitude.

"I will not let the mission fail! I can get there to collect the material on the drones!"

"It's getting dangerous. This module was not made for that. The asteroid, at any time, can become unstable due to its proximity to the start of our planetary system."

"There will be time! I can do it!"

"Come back! I will alert the superiors," I said, irritated.

"DON'T DO IT! I CAN DO IT."

It would be a very risky maneuver, but analyzing the situation, and based on his skills, maybe he could do it. I decided to believe in his potential. Without delay, he managed to get to where the mining drones were.

He left the escape module, which did not have many resources, to get the mining drones out of there and manually collected the capsules with the collected material. He successfully managed to remove all the material from one of the mining drones and, when he was almost finished, explosions began to occur from the other. Shards flew towards him. A rock hit him, trapping his leg.

"NOOOOO!" I shouted, startled, and nervous.

Without thinking too much, I took the other escape module and went to it. I was almost hit by the fragments on the way, due to the asteroid's instability. With a lot of effort, I managed to get to Lairilon.

With the help of a portable strength equipment, I lifted the rock a little and remove his leg that was partially crushed. His suit had been damaged in the leg, but the self-filling system sealed it. I put him on my shoulder and took it to the escape module.

"We can't leave the samples," said Lairilon, in pain.

"Forget it! You almost died."

Almost reaching the escape module, I was hit by a very sharp rock that stuck in my leg, almost crossing it. I removed the sharp rock, which left a huge hole in my leg. The costume filling system was triggered, but not in an efficient way. The filling entered my leg, however, managed to seal the leak.

Even though I was in a lot of pain, I managed to put Lairilon in the escape module and entered with difficulty. I took off and, with a lot of effort and risky maneuvers, tried to get out of the asteroid that seemed to have gone into a rage. With luck, I managed to get us out of the huge furious rock. We went back to our space drone. I ignored the pain and immediately contacted the superiors.

"Emergency level 4. Emergency level 4," I said, relieved to have managed to get out of the asteroid alive, however, worried about what could happen to our careers going forward.