Space Bees by Maren Landvik (electronic book reader TXT) 📕

Evan was just one of the many humans chosen to participate in space travel, and also one of many signed up for the militia. He wasn't particularly outstanding to the average eye, just a regular twenty year old with a rather intimidating demeanor. His life was also very average, living in one of twenty large space ships with a maximum occupancy of one million each and with three family members.

Evan sat in his room on his computer, playing video games that mimicked the likely situations in which he would be fighting. A tap against his door caught his attention, and as he turned his head he was greeted by the sight of his younger sister falling to the ground on his bedroom floor.

"Goddamn it Anna!" Evan turned rapidly in his computer chair, "You know damn well the doors are auto sliders, we've been over this!"

"It takes some time to get used to," Anna laughed, rolling onto her back.

"It's been ten years," Evan practically yelled, his eyebrows knit in frustration, "You were seven the last time you used a doorknob. Seven years old."

"Yeah, yeah, okay, but guess what?" Anna tucked her straight blonde hair behind her ears as she stood.

"What," He sighed, a disappointed look growing on his face.

"They've been trying to experiment on bear genes to make them less volatile to put back in parks!" Anna spouted excitedly.

"Why?" He asked, confused and once again frustrated. She enjoyed the strangest things.

"Because everybody knows bears are cool, I dunno. Ask the scientists." Anna strode out of his room, the metal door slamming shut behind her. Evan sighed, wondering why she never provided good reason for anything either. He rubbed his temples, then stood from his chair, striding into the kitchen. He was in serious need of some ice cream and strawberry sauce, but mostly the sauce.

However, no relief was found in the kitchen, where his mother stood in an obviously mischivious mood, indicated by her act of flicking water at Anna. Evan did a one-eighty and beelined for the front door, through which he went and found himself in the artificially lit hallway, similar to a mall. After talking a calming stroll to the observation decks, a place he had access to only because he pledged military service to the civilization, he sat for possibly two hours. The view of space outside a single, dome shaped window always calmed him. Finally stood up, ready to go home. The walk back was peaceful, only a few people left out in the center. 

Evan punched in the code to his house, stepping into the dimly lit home he was fond of. But in the living room, his family was crowded around the TV. As this was normally the case, he didn't worry; that is until he saw the looks on their faces. When they heard him enter the room they swiveled their heads at the same time, looking frantically between him and the TV. His heart began to pound, and when he looked at the screen the words "Militia Called To Duty" met his eyes. 

"It seems, after ten years of peace, we finally meet with a challenger," The man on the screen spoke, his brown suit so Earthly compared to the technology around him, "A colony of what we identify as space bees are attacking our ships."

The screen suddenly switched to black, the room filled with silence. Evan's mother stared, horrified at the TV with the remote clutched tightly in her hand. Without a word she stood and embraced her son, her jaw shaking. 

"When are they shipping me out," He breathed, his head heavy. Never in his life did he imagine that this moment would be real, nevermind that he would be fighting bees. Something rang in his head that told him he should've seen it coming, but he couldn't quite but his finger on what that something was.

"Maren," Anna whispered, jumping from the couch and running for her phone. In the other room, she could be heard speaking frantically with a long time friend of hers, who had also signed up for the militia. 

"I never tought that this would happen," Evan's mother ignored his question, sinking away from him. His father remained silent, his face tight and remorseful.

"I knew we never should have signed you up," He shuddered, leaning forward in his reclining chair.

"Dad, it's okay, you had to." Evan shivered. Even though he would give anything to save Anna, it didn't make the situation any less terrifying. When each family went to space they were required to sign one child up for the army. Most parents thought that war wouldn't be a problem with the new weapons and vast amount of -literally- space there would be in the future. Even if there was a war, why would their child be chosen to participate? Well now it was all too real, families everywhere on every ship no doubt sitting in ear shattering silence.

Anna entered the room, phone lying in her loosely closed hand. She looked into her brothers eyes and sat in the nearest chair, head in her hands. 

"Tomorrow," her voice trembled, "You guys are leaving tomorrow."

Evan nodded, opening his dry mouth, searching for words and then closing it when he found none. He looked at the clock, only ten pm but he had never felt so exhausted in his life.

"It's getting late," He said, eyes downcast, "I'm gonna go sleep."

Nobody said anything as he trudged down the hall and into his dark room. The next morning, he had almost forgotten about the draft. That is until his mother came bursting into his room making sure he ate and got all of his things together.

"Come on, I expect to see you back here and who knows what'll happen if you don't fuel up." She tore his blankets off, "Come on! Get up."

Her drastic mood change could be accounted for by the fact that humor was a way to cope for her. Evan sat up and rubbed his blue eyes, an emptiness in the pit of his stomach. It wasn't filled by his breakfast either, nor was it filled by the hugs from his parents. Ten minutes before he left, Anna came running through the door, wrapping her arms around him.

"See you soon," She said, letting him go.

"Where were you all morning?" He asked, chuckling slightly, able to ignore the feeling in his gut for a few moments.

"Top secret," She replied, leaning on their mother. They all walked out the front door, marching down the hallway and to the garage, where multiple battle ships were held to be used for fighting.

"Bye," He said one last time before hugging each of them and turning through the door, scanning his ID card as he went. The last time he saw the garage was two years before and definitely more silent. His training had been arduous and certainly not forgotten. Immediately, he jogged to the lockers, placing his bag inside and donned the gear already inside. His suit and helmet were a perfect fit, colored silver and blue to match the ships. When he was back in the garage he noted that some ships were made for two pilots, those were colored purple and silver. 

"Good morning soldiers." A voice rang out on the speakers, "You know what to do, but something not included in your training was ships manned with someone other than yourself. If your uniform has a purple stripe on the arm, please form a group near the ships."

Evan grimaced when he noticed the single purple line shining on his left arm. He trudged over to the anxious group forming and crossed his arms. Through the small crowd he met eyes with a familiar face. The small person shoved through the crowd until she was close enough to talk. Her helmet had her named etched into it, probably from irritation during training. Maren lifted her arm up to show her purple stripe.

"Small world, right?" She began uncomfortably.

"I guess so," He replied.

"Although technically it's a ship, so small ship?" She wondered aloud, then shook her head, "Sorry I'm talking as if Anna were here.

"I wish she were." He mumbled, not expecting her to hear. 

"Selfish much?" She replied, "But I do too."

"Now that you're in the group, please match both the amount of stripes you have and the arm they are on to find your partner, and then locate a ship." The voice on the speaker crackled again, interrupting their awkward conversation, despite the fact that they were both somewhat relieved to see a familiar face.

Without really thinking, Evan and Maren compared stripes, surprised to see that they both had one on the left arm. They shrugged and climbed into the ship, the emptiness growing larger and hungrier in Evan's stomach. He buckled in and examined the dashboard. The controls were the same as any other ship he had piloted, except with two people controlling it. He didn't have time to wonder how it worked before the top lowered and sealed itself. No instructions, speeches, or music sounded before they blasted through the slowly opening garage door, launched into empty space. The ship began to fly, both pilots mimicking what they had been taught years before.

After a few minutes, Evan laid eyes on a large, jet black body, hovering in the cold nothingness with two wings. When it turned to them, it's eyes appeared transparent, like holes revealing the rest of space behind it. Evan finally realized that the bees attention had previously been on a damaged ship, stained a sickening red.

Without any indication, the bee shot a stinger at their ship. Evan, being too distracted to move, was surprised when the ship lunged to the side and flew around to the other side of the bee. Before he realized it, he was clutching onto the steering wheel, navigating through the shots with ease. Eventually, he was firing back too, hitting it's body over and over. 

But the bee wouldn't die. It's body once shriveled up, but soon regenerated and appeared even bigger. Soon, they were surrounded. Space bees on every side of the ship stared into the windows, their antennae bobbing and their legs rubbing together as if they were pollinating a flower. The bees shot a flurry of stingers at the ship, which could only be avoided for so long. The first shot was from the back, putting out the engines with one jolt. 

"Shit," Evan mumbled, tears streaming down his face. He slammed his fist against the dashboard, jerking the ship forward slightly. The bees flew closer, their stingers ceasing for only a second. Then they began to buzz, so loudly that Evan thought he would lose his hearing.

"I warned you!" Maren shouted at him, her voice piercing through the humming. Everything after happened in slow motion, the flurry of stingers beginning again. One was heading right for the front of the ship.

"I warned you about the space bees!" Maren screamed again, desperate for him to understand. As the stinger shattered the glass, Evan slammed against his seat. 

He woke in his bed, surrounded by blue walls and soft light filtering through the windows. His father could be heard shuffling around in the kitchen below him. His breathing finally softened and he let himself fall onto his back, burying himself in his sheets.

"I fucking hate Maren." He mumbled, falling back asleep.