Fighting in the space war

FIGHTING IN THE SPACE WAR

REEDSY PROMPT – MARCH 29, 2024

Write a story about a character who wakes up in space.

1000-3000 word limit      By Evil Kitty. 

 My eyes flicker open.  I’m in a room but I don’t recognize it. My body is tied to a cot, my arms stuck to my sides, a needle resting on the floor. Suddenly millions of memories flush though me.  Realizations and Pain.  So much pain I am surprisingly able to slip out of the cot. This was a test.  I was drafted to fight the war.  I remember now. I walk around the room finding anything I can to try to escape. I see a bomb. It’s ticking. I pick it up and throw it at the door. Nothing happens, then BOOM. I am thrown against the wall. My ankle is burning in the fire. Before I can think I run as fast as I have ever run before though the fire. I have escaped.

 Green light flashes as a tall woman stamps me. “You are now ready to fight in the war” the woman says. I flinch because the stamp was the antidote to the poison, they injected me with. What would of happened if I didn’t escape? Then I look out a very small window and see black with small white speckles. We were in space. Why on earth were we not on  Earth?  I was almost sure the war with Russia would be fought on Earth. “Why are we in space?” I question the lady.  “So the innocent won’t get hurt” she replies. I look at her because when we have war generals never care about the innocent getting hurt.  The woman says “war crimes are also legal in space” she says after noticing the look I give her.

    After the short discussion, the lady says my first day of war was tomorrow and that my chosen rank was  to my excellence in the trials. She handed me the envelope containing my rank. I was hoping badly for soldier  or general. When I get to my room on ship number  206,  I open the door and head in.  I lock the door behind me and sit on the small cot and open of the letter:

                                          AMERICA USA

                                  KATHRINE WASHINGTON

                                  RANK ON BATTLEFIELD:

                                     USA AMERICAN SPY

    The letter was horrible. I couldn’t be a spy; spy’s always get killed first.  Also, I would have to leave tomorrow to go though a whole new batch of trials and loyalty tests because I was American. I might even have to kill for them and would if the role they gave me was spy.  I would have to be a double agent, and I can’t do that !

      I wake up from my cot imaging that I did not sign up for war and I did not get drafted.  I imagine that I am home again seeing signs of generals with guns, big bold letters proclaiming     “PROTECT AMERICA”, wondering what we are being protected from. A loud RING awakens me from my old life into my new one. I get up and dressed and head to ship. I am put in a capsule, a small gray medal one.  Inside is a bench, a 3D food-printer and a jug of water.  I guess I’m supposed to drink from the jug.  Since there are no cups in sight, I plop on bench and drink some of the water. A robot sounding voice announces “destination Russian public space station”. A  timer starts ticking, representing the amount of time before I arrive :30 minutes and 6.98 milliseconds.  I look at all the planets in the small windows and wonder what will happen after the first battle which was starting right now. I needed to be part of the battle. I wanted it strongly but no,  I would be working for Russia. Than at 12 pm, I would have a meeting with America and tell them Russia’s plans. But before that, I would be caught and killed.

 My thoughts are disrupted when I get to the space station.  I stand up and walk into the space station along with other Russian and American people who got drafted or in my case hacked into the system. My name was now Evelyn Diamond.  I try not to glare at the non-spy Americans they betrayed the country for a war where America clearly is doing the right thing. The war is about our last 7 presidents all assassinated by Russian spy’s but “why” was the question America and Russia have been chill over ever since World War 3 in 2089 it today was 4001. War was not cool.  

       Until of course Adaline Smith was assassinated, and Joan Nevermore (the vice president) took over and figured out not only who killed the presidents but also why.  Except they have never revealed the why, but once they found out, Joan declared war against Russia. And of course, Russia excepted war. My thoughts are again disrupted by a loud voice in a heavy Russian accent said “if you only speak English, please go to the left. If you speak Russian, please go to the right. All the traitors (the Americans who signed up for this) all move to the left and everyone else moves to the right.  A door shuts on the side.  We are inside a room closing us off from the others and the voice comes on again. “You all are not trusted you must take 1 trial and 1 loyalty test. Even if you are Russian”. the voice says. “Your first trial starts now.”  The First 15 to escape will go on to the next test.” the wall opens and the Russian and the English speakers collide, all avoiding each other knowing one out of the sixty of us was a spy.

      I looked around the room. It was all metal.  I had an idea.  I head toward storage room 16, other people trailing me. We all head in and close the door on the last person that was about to come in. That person was me. “Shoot” I say aloud and look for anything else that could help me escape. I notice there’s a man leaning on the window, but he was not in crowd, and he had on “Island” brand shoes. We were all required to wear Mars brand shoes which meant he was different. I walked up to him to see what he was doing. “Hello” I said “I know where the exit is.”he says.  “Where”, I ask excitedly. “In the bottom” he answers.  Then he disappears. He was a hologram. How weird. holograms were banned internationally in 3071. But wait!  In 3071 it was popular to add a bottom basement to a ship in Russia. So this means, if I’m not overthinking it, that….  I head toward restroom just as a bell rings and the speaker says 14 people have gotten out. Oh no. the storage closet people. They probably got though the secret tunnels that were popular in Europe and Asia in 3041 I rush toward the basement steps as fast as possible. Faster than when I ran though the fire, which I was now realizing was only yesterday!  I got out, I did it I got out ! just a second later a bell rings and the 15^th person crawls into the room and has a small celebration they got though it. Then they are told that they did not win.

       The loyalty test was what I was worried about the most, but it wasn’t a big deal. Just a piece of paper.  It was completely blank. No ink on it at all. “Alright” the voice said. “ I need you to write every single thing you know about America.” I wrote simply that all I knew was that 8 of the fifty states were mostly catholic and Christian population with a lot of other cultures too. After a while we turn in our papers.  Than the voice says “if any of these facts are untrue. then you will get kicked.” A tall women came in and read the papers.  “They can stay” she says. “Aright” the voice says, and we are each given an envelope.  I open mine expecting the worse:

                                                     RUSSIA

                                                  DIAMOND

                                             RUSSIAN SOILDER

I sigh a sigh of relief. I am not a spy.

     The first day of battle was scary. Should I kill my own side or should  I kill other Russian soldiers ! Yes, Kill the Russian soldiers  And if I die, I probably will be remembered in some sort of way.  When the battle begins, I shoot the sergeant.  I than shoot the general. I start to kill the 300 other soldiers fighting on the Russian side.  Then I feel a shot of pain in my chest. I had gotten shot.