“Oof…”
“Sorry…” The girl looked down at him while he rubbed his head. Realizing that she shouldn’t be doing this, she quickly grabbed her suitcase and got off the ship. Zoa followed her path with his eyes and laughed.
Noticing the drummer looking at him curiously, he said “Don’t ask…”
~*~*~
She had just gotten off the ship and saw that already a lot of people were up this early in the morning. She set her suitcase down and looked around. “No way,” she heard a girl’s voice say behind her.
“`Dro?” She turned around and saw a young, blond-haired girl staring at her.
“Zenon?”
“Andromeda!” Her cousin ran over and threw her arms around her. “This is a surprise! What are you doing up here?”
“My internship with Mr. McClawsic has sent me up here with Microbe.” Zenon pulled back and looked into her eyes.
“No way. Proto Zoa’s here?”
“Yep…” Zenon looked behind her and saw her old friend coming up the passageway.
“Zenon Karr!!!”
“Hey, Zoa!”
The man came up to the two girls and said, “Your cousin here, she’s taking a liking to me I think!” `Dro stared at him open mouthed, shocked.
“What?!? I’ll knock you in the head again!” She drew back her fist for emphasis and he put his hands up to block the pending attack. Deciding against it, she picked up her suitcase and said, “I’ll be in my room, Ze. Come see me later.” With that, she quickly walked off following the other guys of Microbe.
“Cedus-Lupedus, Proto Zoa! What’s the matter with you?”
“What?” Zenon felt Orion come up behind her and said, “You like her, don’t you?”
“Yea, but she doesn’t seem to like me…”
“Zoa,” Orion said, “You’re going at it all wrong. You need to let her know that you like her somehow - send her flowers or something. Don’t presume she likes you because she’ll just try and avoid you more.”
“Really?”
“Yea. Zenon, deal with this - I’ve got some research to do down in the lower parts of the station. I’ll see you later…” Orion ran off and she took Zoa’s arm.
“Come on, I have a bunch of her favorite flowers growing. You can give some of them to her.”
~*~*~
Andromeda was unpacking her things when she heard a knock at the door. She set her laptop down and went over. “Yes?” She said opening the door. Standing there was Proto Zoa with a bouquet of intergalactic roses - the same flowers which she adored. He held them out to her. “For me? Thanks!” She accepted them smiling and opened a note stuck inside them. “TO: Dro. FROM: Your secret admirer. Awww…that’s really sweet.” She looked up to Proto Zoa and said, “Whoever sent these must be a really sweet guy. Do you need anything while you have me here or are you going to be okay until tomorrow. The guys?”
“I think we’ll be okay. See you tomorrow, `Dro.”
“See ya.” She shut her door and went to get a vase to put her new flowers in. “Wait a sec,” she realized. “He called me what was written on the note, not Andromeda like he always does…” Could it…? No…it couldn’t be.
The next morning, Proto Zoa was up before anyone. He walked out into the hall and saw no one there. *Odd,* he thought. He looked to his right and saw Zenon walking towards him. “Zenon?”
“No time, Proto Zoa. Crisis major.”
“What’s going on?”
“I just got a call from Orion. He wants me and Neb down there instantly. If you want to come, let’s go.” The man, wanting to know what was going on, followed the girl who was joined by Nebula about halfway down through their journey.
They got to the location where Orion was. “Guys, welcome,” he said acknowledging Proto Zoa.
“What’s going on, Orion?” Nebula asked.
“Here’s the thing,” he said walking over to a computer and clicking the mouse. “I was doing some research on the passing of Halley’s Comet in a couple of days,” Orion said. “And I noticed that the comet’s same trajectory is the same as the spay-stay’s.”
“Cedus-Lupedus! You know what that means…” Zenon said.
Proto Zoa finished, “It’s going to be heading straight for us when it comes by.”
“Don’t panic yet,” Nebula said. “Isn’t it a fact that weird things happen with the power and whatever when an asteroid comes by?” With perfect timing, the room went black.
“Gee, Neb. Thanks a lot.”
“Hold on, everyone,” Orion said turning on a flashlight.
Zoa walked over to the exit and tried to open it. “It won’t budge. We’re trapped.”
Andromeda rolled out of bed and noticed that it was half-an-hour later than she wanted to get up. “That’s weird,” she said noticing the alarm clock wasn’t working. She slid on a robe and walked over to the door to see if anyone else’s power was out. However, she couldn’t open the door. “What the - ?” She got out a Swiss Army Knife given to her by her father and got out a screwdriver. Wedging the door open, she was able to squeeze herself out before it slammed shut behind her. Noticing the other four guys of Microbe, she walked down to them. “Have you guys seen Proto Zoa? I want to make sure you all are accounted for.”
“Nope,” the drummer said. “Haven’t seen him.”
“Ugh. Well, if you do see him, let him know that I’m looking for him.”
“`Kay.” She walked back to her room to get new shoes on but, stopping before she hit the door, remembered that the power was out. “I’ll just go like this,” she said to herself.
She met up with her aunt and uncle (Zenon’s parents) in the hall. “Aunt Astrid,” she said. “Have you seen Ze?”
“No, Andromeda. I haven’t. Not since she went down to where Orion was.”
“Thanks!” She took off running until she hit the stairwell. She wedged that door open and continued down - down to where everyone was.
When she finally got down to where she couldn’t go down anymore, she yelled to see if she’d get a response. Almost immediately, she heard banging on one of the doors down the hall. She found it and began to wedge her knife into the hairline crack. She got it open a little bit and were joined by two hands on the other side. When it was opened, she jammed the knife into the door, keeping it opened. Looking up, she saw Proto Zoa. “There you are…”
Zenon, Nebula, and Orion hurried out behind them and Andromeda got her knife out. “Come on, guys,” Zenon motioned, “This way.”
“What exactly is going on here, guys?”
Orion turned to her and said, “This power outage may be caused by Halley’s Comet.” He thrust a data-pad into her hands.
“What? It can’t be!”
“It’s true,” Nebula said. “There ain’t anything we can do about it.” Andromeda looked out a window that was nearby.
“Not if I can help it…”
