the pale blue alien with her shifting hair color and her wings, but it didn’t, and Liam realized how quickly the alien features of the Lemarians had stopped looking foreign and started to simply look like the faces of friends.
Too soon, they reached the escape pod bay and the Lemarian shuttle. Esther hugged all four of the Lemarians and Clara and Liam shook their hands.
“I hope someday we meet again,” Liam said sincerely.
He looked at Elina and Marek, “Good luck with your little one.”
Elina gave him a smile that was tinged with sadness, “I hope you and your people find a wonderful new home, Captain Hawthorn, and I have every confidence that you will.”
The Lemarians filed into their shuttle. At the door they turned and lifted their hands in farewell. Liam and Clara lifted their own hands in response and Esther waved furiously. Then the shuttle doors closed and Liam pressed the button to open the doors to the airlock.
The Contest
Two weeks had passed since the encounter with the Lemarians. Liam was off-duty and was taking the chance to spend some time with Esther, watching his daughter play. He was also thinking about the Lemarians, wondering if Elina and Marek’s baby had been born yet. Esther was dressed in a holo-suit, special clothing that allowed her to touch and interact with the images projected by the holographic emitters as if they were real. The holo-suit technology also had the ability to change it’s appearance to the specifications of its wearer. Esther appeared to be dressed in a pale pink princess dress and was currently petting a holographic unicorn.
Liam’s personal communicator beeped, “Captain, we need you in the control room immediately!”
Liam jumped to his feet, “On my way.”
He looked at Esther, “Sorry sweetheart, looks like Daddy has to go to work after all.” He hurried out of the room.
If Liam hadn’t already known something was wrong, he would have known as soon as he reached the control room. Every face in the room was tense. The very air seemed thick with tension.
“What's going on?” As he spoke he looked toward the viewscreen and saw his answer. An asteroid was hurtling through space, headed straight for the Amity. If it hit the ship would be destroyed.
“How long until it reaches us?” Liam asked sharply.
“No more than ten minutes, Captain,” came the ominous reply.
Liam bit back a curse, "Can we alter course to avoid it?"
"No, sir, we seem to have entered a small field, altering course would simply put us in the path of other asteroids."
Liam punched in a command on his communication device, “Security room, do you see the asteroid on your screens?”
“We see it, Captain,” a tense voice answered.
“Ready the weapons. Maybe we can destroy it or at least knock it off course.”
Three precious minutes passed before the voice came again, “Weapons are ready and aimed, sir.” Liam looked again at the asteroid hurtling towards them on the screen.
“Fire.” He watched as a beam of orange energy shot toward the asteroid. It hit slightly to the left of the center and a few shards blasted off, but still the asteroid headed towards them.
“Fire again,” Liam ordered. “Maximum power. Keep firing until we’ve destroyed this thing.” More energy blasted towards the asteroid, more shards flew off, until at last it had been shattered into hundreds of pieces. A few still zoomed toward the Amity, but they were small now. Not deadly.
Liam watched the screen as they came closer. They slammed into the Amity and the ship shuddered and rocked, then the motion steadied and the Amity zoomed peacefully through the stars once more. Both the control room and the security room erupted into cheers.
Liam smiled, raising his voice to be heard over the celebration, “Excellent job all of you. We’ve passed our first real danger safely.”
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The next day a young woman named Stacy Edwards, who taught P. E. to the children and exercise classes and hoverboard lessons to anyone who wanted to participate, approached Liam, asking permission to hold a hoverboarding competition.
Her brown eyes gleamed with enthusiasm; she pushed her long, straight blonde hair back in a gesture that seemed born of excitement, “It won’t only be great for the boarders; it’ll be fun to watch too. We could offer extra recreational time and desert rations as prizes.”
Liam smiled, “I think it’s an excellent idea. After the scare yesterday we could all use something fun to think about.”
He chuckled, “I assume young Miss Brannon will be participating?”
Stacy laughed, “Actually, it was partly Amy’s idea. She’d love a chance to prove her skills in front of her shipmates.”
Liam smiled, “Esther will be delighted too. She loves watching the hoverboarders. She’s just itching to try it herself. We told her Amy can start teaching her when she turns seven.”
He shook his head ruefully, “I just hope she won’t spend as much time in the infirmary as Amy has.”
Stacy laughed again, “Well, thank you very much, Captain Hawthorn. I’m going to go tell the boarders and start making plans.”
She hurried away toward the hoverboard room. Liam smiled to himself as he watched her go. Just that morning, he had wished for a way to take everyone’s minds off the close call yesterday, as well as their homesickness and the worry about what might be happening back on Earth that always accompanied it. This competition would be the perfect way to accomplish that.
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One week later, Liam sat in the bleachers of the hoverboard room with Clara and Esther. He had been in the room before, but he hadn’t really ever spent much time here. It was one of the largest rooms on the ship.
Hoverboard technology worked on magnetics, so naturally almost everything in the room was made of magnetic material. The entire floor was magnetic and scattered around the room were metallic bars of various sizes and smooth magnetic ramps, reminiscent of the skateboard ramps that had been popular preceding hoverboard technology. The bleachers were packed, there had been a large turnout to watch the competition.
Stacy grinned as she jogged out into the center of the room, holding a microphone, “Alright, thanks for coming, everyone! Let me introduce our ten contestants! Amy Brannon, from Dublin, Ireland, age twelve.” Amy grinned and waved as the audience applauded.
“Kellan Smith from Yukon, Oklahoma, age seventeen."
"James Allen from Brakpan, South Africa, age nineteen.” As each name was read off the audience applauded. Liam noted that Amy was the youngest contestant.
“Alright,” Stacy said when all the contestants had been introduced, “our first event is very simple. The hoverboarders will take four laps around the outer track; the first seven to finish will move on to the next round."
The ten contestants, who were already on their boards, hovering about a foot above the floor, made their way to the starting line at a moderate pace.
“On your mark,” Stacy called out. “Get ready, get set, GO!”
As one, the boarders leaned forward and the boards zoomed off. They raced around the room, turning corners sharply, sometimes one in front, sometimes another. One contestant fell off of his board. He got to his feet quickly, cursing, and jumped back on. When all the boarders had completed their fourth lap, Stacy blew a whistle. James Allen had received first place, Amy had gotten second, and the boy who had fallen off had managed to catch up enough to secure seventh place and save himself from elimination. The three who had been eliminated, two boys and one girl, squeezed onto the stands to watch the rest of the competition.
“Event