First Day In SCB

By Anushika Teli

May 19 2021

I screwed up. Big time.

“I’m sorry agent Gnome, I promise it won’t happen again.”

“Of course, it won’t happen again.”

“What? That’s it? I get off that easily?”

“No. I know it won’t happen again because you are not gonna come with us for missions anymore, Agent Ciel.”

“What?” I exclaimed hesitantly.

“Yup. You heard me right. You are careless with this technology, and it could kill us. As a matter of fact, you almost did, just now.” Said agent Gnome speed walking.

“You can’t just do that. It was a mistake, I thought that button was to fire Dragonstrikers, how in the world would I know it would fire Deathbringers.” I argued catching up with the officer.

“I mean isn’t that good? Some of them died at least.” I said with a painful smile on my face.

“No, it’s not good. You know we never fire those unless we have an emergency.”

“I know. But we weren’t near that Drolxod. We are still alive. Please let me come with you, I’ve taken classes for this, I am ready. I know I can do this. Just one last chance.”

“I believe you Ciel, but others won’t. Now if you will excuse me, I have some explaining to do to the Major.” And just like that agent Gnome vanished into the conference room.

I know what I just did. But both the buttons looked same, how would I know which one is which. I tried not to get dejected by this, because I know I will be back in the space force again.

Oh, wait yeah, you don’t know what is going on, do you? Well long story short, we live in the space, and lack of oxygen is not a problem for us. We don’t need any special suits; we can wear whatever we want. I am one of the agents in Space Combat Bureau (SCB), and we basically fight with The Unknown. You see these Unknown have been ransacking our foods, weapons and what not. They even abducted 10 of our people here.

I have my own Drolxod, which I don’t use because I’m afraid it’ll get annihilated. Which is not the point here, the point is that now I will have to explain what happened to Nova and Meira. And I do NOT want to do that right now.

Nova and Meira are my best friends. And we have been since we were 5, when we got here. There is one thing common in our mien and that is our matching black hair. And apparently only we three in our whole 178 people have that.

You may be awestruck by how we ended up in space. Well simple, we were brought here by The Unknown. And I guess we liked it here, so we settled, and also going back wasn’t an option. We made our own Drolxods, a spacecraft used in warfare, which can also be transformed into a convenient home. Only certain Drolxods have license to become a warrior ship, and mine is one of them. I won’t vaunt about it, but it’s pretty cool, isn’t it? We had to build these up by ourselves and everything we needed to craft it were previously here. They don’t take up much time, and pretty much everyone has Drolxods. All these transpired 10 years ago.

I walked up, well flied up to Busty Bean, a café owned by Nova’s dad, and let me tell you they make the world’s best hot chocolate ever, at least in the world we’re in. And their cakes and coffees are pretty good too. I order a hot chocolate with vanilla cake.

“Good to see you Ciel,” greets Mr Leon.

“Good to see you too,” I reply smiling, but he catches me frown.

“What happened Ciel? Are you alright? Should I call Nova?”

“No. I’m fine. Don’t call him,” and as soon as I say that, Nova and Meira enters the café.

“Hey Ci! How was your first mission?” asked Nova.

“It was a catastrophe. I fired Deathbringers instead of Dragonstrikers, and nearly got us murdered.”

“Oh. Well, look at the bright side, you aren’t dead,” remarked Meira, ever the optimist.

“That’s what I said to agent Gnome. I want to be back on the force. It was my first day and I messed it up,” I murmured frowning. Nova and Meira, both embrace me.

“It’s fine Ci, you’ll be back in no time,” reassured Nova.

I eased a bit at that idea, and sought to neglect that, when an alarm started going off loudly all over. And it meant only one thing, The Unknown are nearby. Man, I couldn’t even get to finish my hot chocolate.

“Nova and Meira, run to your Drolxods, and shut this café down, now,” I ordered bravely.

“Be safe out there Ci,” Nova mouthed and Meira and I nodded.

It was time to take out my own Drolxod and prove the agents what I can do. I scurried towards where it was parked, and started it. I examined the radar monitor on my screen and dashed towards it. All the other agents were there too combatting The Unknown. I came to its rear, hiding from other Drolxods. The unknown were in their Drolxods demolishing and firing at ours. I fired the Dragonstrikers and enemy’s ship leaked gas.

I landed safe and sound after that battle, and was quickly encircled by the agents. I hunched my shoulders. I did what came into my mind.

“What was that Agent Ciel?” asked the Major.

Head down I replied, “I am so sorry sir, I acted on my impulse, I know I shouldn’t have done that.”

“You did good,” smiled officer Gnome.

I felt honored and my mouth did an automatic smile, and I guess I am back in the force!

By Anushika Teli