“Twilight,” Felicia said, “I’ve been wanting to take a good look at that engine room. I was wondering if you could give me a tour and tell me how everything operates.”

     “I’d be glad to.” Twilight said. “Tia, you coming?”

     “No thanks.” Tia replied. “I’d rather stay here and watch the show.” She was referring to the arguing that was going on in the kitchen.

     “Okay, we’ll see you later, then.” Twilight turned to Felecia. “Come on. I’ll show the best words to use when you want the evaporator to take you to the engine room.”
     “Evaporator?”

     “That thing.” Twilight’s voice faded down the hall.

     Smiling, Tia turned back to the three girls who were doing their chore.

     “But I want to dry!” Dienna was yelling.

     “Dienna, in case you hadn’t noticed,” Giselle said. “There is a dishwasher here.”

     “I think that the dishwasher will go much faster than if we were to wash the dishes by hand.” Corazon added.

     “I wanna dry!” Dienna whined.

     “Why?” Corazon asked.

     “Because it’s the easiest job.” Dienna said.

     “Well, I’ll give you an even easier job.” Giselle said.

     “What’s that?” Dienna eagerly asked.

     “You can put the dishes into the dishwasher.” Giselle offered.

     “Yeah,” Corazon said before Dienna could start arguing again. “I’ll rinse them, Giselle will scrub them a little, and you can put them into the washer.”

     “Alright.” Dienna reluctantly consented.

     “I’m glad we agreed on something.” Giselle muttered.

     “What did you say?” Dienna asked.

     “Nothing.” Giselle said.

     “No, you said something.” Dienna said.

     “It wasn’t directed towards you.” Giselle replied as she scrubbed her first dish.

     “No, but it was about me.” Dienna argued.

     Meanwhile, Twilight was explaining all of the different computers and controls and engines to Felicia.

     “And this is the master control.” He said as he patted a computer screen. “To turn it on, you just touch your finger to the screen.”

     “Interesting.” Felicia checked through the documents and items that she could access from this control pad.  The eager teenager then turned her attention to the whole engine room. “If you don’t mind, I’ll do some exploring on my own and get to know this room a little better.”

     “That’s fine.” Twilight Wisher agreed.

     “Twilight,” Dienna and Corazon were standing at the door. “We’re ready for that training module.” Dienna sounded impatient.

     “Coming.” Twilight said to them. Then he turned to Felicia before joining the other two girls. “You look around all you want. Just be careful what you touch.”

     “Thank you. I will.” Felicia said with a grin as Twilight walked over to the other two.

     “What do you want to know about the training module?” Twilight asked as he closed the door behind him.

     “If we can use it.” Dienna bluntly replied.

     “And if we can take it into my room.” Corazon added.

     “The answer to both inquiries is ‘yes’.” Twilight said. “Except I only have one, so only one of you can train at a time.”

     “That’s fine.” Dienna broke in. “It’s Corazon who needs the work, not me.”

     Corazon glared at Dienna. Laughing, Twilight led them back to the evaporator and took them to a storage room. He went in and came out a few minutes later with a medium-sized box. Dienna punched in ‘bedrooms’, and the box was soon sitting on Corazon’s bed.

     “I think the assembly is pretty self-explanatory.” Twilight said. “I’ll just leave you two girls to it.”

     “Here.” Dienna shoved a helmet onto Corazon’s head and a keyboard beneath her fingers. “Now sit down and play.”

     “How?” Corazon asked. “All I see is blackness.”

     “Hang on a second.” The sound of typing came from outside the helmet. “There. Do you see anything?”

     “Yeah.” Corazon replied as the helmet’s screen blipped on. “Empty space.”

     “Well, I’m sending the equivalent of that first wave of enemy ships we fought out there to you.” Dienna replied.

     “Woah!” Corazon yelled when she saw dozens of small enemy crafts swarming around her and shooting. “I don’t think it was this many!”

     “You only had half, before, remember? I was helping. Now blast away!” Dienna commanded.

     “I’m trying!” Corazon said over the commotion going on inside of her helmet. After a few minutes of ‘got ya’s, ‘come back here’s and ‘where’d that come from’s, Corazon relaxed her position and leaned back. “How’d I do?”

     “Not good.” Dienna replied. “You’re down to 50% ammo, 30% shields, and you have no skill level.”

     “Well it’s not like I was born to do this like you apparently were.” Corazon scowled.

     “That’s why you have to practice.” Dienna said. “I’m going to keep giving you the same number of ships until you can hit them right. Remember, it takes three direct hits to blow one up, so try to limit how much you fire.”

     “Great.” Corazon sarcastically muttered as more ships entered her view. “Are my statistics back to normal?”

     “They were before you were hit just then. Start shooting!” Dienna reminded Corazon.

     “I’m shooting, I’m shooting!” Corazon replied.

     It took about an hour before Corazon had finally worked her way up to the second wave and then half an hour before she had made it to the third. After another half an hour, Corazon was about to start working on a made-up fourth wave when the screen went black.

     “Huh?” Corazon was startled. “Dienna, what’s going on?” Then the helmet was pulled off of her head. “Huh? Oh, hi Tia. What’s up?”

     “It’s been two hours since you got started at that thing. I think it’s time to quit for the night.” Tia said.

     “Two hours?” Corazon asked as she stood up. Then Corazon stretched and yawned. “What time is it?”

     “Nine p.m.” Giselle replied. “The same time my mom makes me go to bed.”

     Everyone was suddenly quiet. The word ‘mom’ had reminded all of them of whom they had left on Earth. All five of the girls looked at each other, each of the girls missing their own families.