Yahya half-listened to the lecture, almost dozing off as their teacher drilled about the same subject.

  The abominable Humans.

  “The first war waged by the humans cost 4 billion casualties in their own star system to ascertain dominance over it,” she said.

  A simulation of ravaged and destroyed planets floated around the room, with collapsing stars and all. Their teacher was pulling the full package—A yearly occurrence, with Unification Day only a handful of days away.

  “Your people,” Tobias hissed under his breath, his dark gray skin in contrast with the white desk.

  Yahya glanced at him.

  Tobias was in the seat next to his, his dark gray mouth pulled into a taunting smirk. “Just as unwanted.” His oversized hairless head tilted to the side mockingly. His distantly spaced desert cat-like eyes glanced at his goons and then back at Yahya, his smirk widening as they sniggered.

  Yahya wanted to laugh at him, to mock him for his stupidity. Just because a species looked like another didn’t mean they were the same. Yahya had in common with humans as much as Tobias had with a highly intelligent one.

  None, to say the least.

  But instead of lecturing him about his inferior cognitive abilities, Yahya shoved his leg under Tobias’s chair and kicked it off. Tobias fell to the floor with a loud thud, shrieking. Yahya laughed.

  “If my class is that undeserving of your attention, maybe you’ll be more amenable to do so after classes,” the teacher said sternly, her cold eyes boring into Yahya’s. The classroom’s artificial light glinted off her gray bald head, a shared characteristic amongst Andorians. Sometimes Yahya wondered whether all the hate he faced was due to their envy towards his disheveled, unkempt brown hair. For the life of him, he couldn’t understand why. Brown was such a common color— maybe not amongst Andorians, what with them being bald and all— it blended with Andor’s dunes and dusty air, unlike silver hair.

  Yahya barely had the sense to stop his guffaws and look chastised before his punishment escalated further, something his teachers were fond of doing.

  She was right, though. Her lecture was much undeserving of his time. He didn’t know why they had to study the history of a long-gone civilization. Let bygones be bygones, and skeletons undisturbed and all.

  It wasn’t like they were taught anything new. The humans were a notorious and cruel species who spent their free time subjugating new worlds and relishing in the blood of their enemies, erasing whole star systems from existence for the mere reason of offending their delicate sensibilities. It was only by God’s mercy that the first emperor of the galactic empire put an end to their tyranny.

  If only Jomaira shared the same classes as him, he thought mournfully. At least he wouldn’t have to suffer alone.

  As soon as the first period ended, he slithered out of the classroom and ventured into the streets of Andor. If he stayed, it was guaranteed he would get a detention.

  Andor was a desert planet. Too far from its system’s star to withstand a lush and green environment. But not too far to extinguish all hope of life. Its population was divided into small communities surrounding its meager water resources, with a major city where the planet’s governing body resided, holding the same name as the planet, Andor.

  Yahya darted around the busy streets, ignoring the many stalls that asked passersby to buy something for Unification Day, an offering for those who had given their lives to unify the galaxy.

  Yahya eyed a starship model hanging on the shelf of a hobby shop. It was rumored to be the fastest among the imperial ships, able to travel from one end of the empire to the next in less than a cycle. But it was too expensive for his humble savings. A pity. He would have liked to add it to his collection. In a few years, maybe. Once its novelty had died down and its price lowered. He trudged on but not before sparing it another longing glance.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  He entered the game shop and deposited a couple of credits at the counter.

  “Section five. Two hours,” The receptionist, a middle-aged Andorian who seemed to hate his job but stayed anyway, gruffly said, not even sparing him a glance.

  Yahya took his activation key and darted around the hallway, sparing a glance at the other players through the see-through doors. Two teens were playing a holographic shooting game in section three. Their howling laughter could be heard two sections away. He wondered how the other players hadn’t respectfully shouted at them to keep quiet. In the fourth section, two teenagers his age, probably skipping school, were playing a simulation spaceship race. The girl was winning by a wide margin.

  He entered the fifth section, sat on the lone metallic chair at the center of the room, activated the screens, and set the game to load. He chose the ship’s model, a 400 SF Fighter, and entered the star system in the location panel. He let out a relieved sigh as the inside of a ship cockpit materialized around him, stars and planets surrounded his screen, and obstacles sprung to life a few distances away.

  He always felt more at home inside the simulation than inside the classroom. It would have served them better if the schools had asked about one’s desired path in life and restricted their classes to ones that would help rather than cripple them with useless subjects and clog their free time with stupid homework.

  His fingers flexed over the hologram of the throttle. Cold and tingling to the touch. A much welcome feeling rather than hours of sitting at the desk, his unseeing eyes following their math teacher’s scrabble on the board. Better than being asked to solve an equation that not even the teacher would be able to solve without his data pad in hand.

  The obstacles manifested in front of his view screen. It was always some kind of meteorite field or space debris, as they were commonly called. Yahya fell into a trance of dodging and twisting his ship around. He zipped toward the debris field and flew through it. He could have opted to curve around the outside of the debris, but that would lose him points. Something Yahya was unwilling to let happen. He came here to win and beat his own score.

  So, through the debris it was.

  He focused on the course, racing through the next ring of meteorite, pivoted through it, and nearly smashed right into a big chunk of debris. Shots bounced against his ship’s shield, and the screen rattled around him, imitating an actual assault.

  The offending ships materialized around him, half-hidden by the debris field.

  He swerved around and shot at the nearest ship. It zipped away but not before sustaining significant damage to its shield. The bar at the upper part of the screen showed its health bar far below 25%.

  He kept at it, evading oncoming fire and advancing to the finish line, his eyes darting to the timer at the far down corner of his screen, keeping tabs on the time.

  A shot rattled his shields, taking a big chunk of his health bar and announcing the start of the final boss battle. A giant Destroyer emerged behind an enormous meteorite and locked its cannon towards him.

  “Damn it.” He swiveled his ship around, exiting the field, then dived right into it. Again.

  He didn’t remember how much time had passed—too focused on evading and spinning around the blazing cannon shots that he didn’t hear the door to his gaming section swooshing open.

  “I knew I would find you here,” A voice said to his right.

  He paused the game and peered through the hologram to find Jomaira standing with her hand over her hip, an eyebrow raised at him.

  “Ah.” He smiled sheepishly. “Am I late again?”

  She snorted. “Almost. But no.”

  He glanced over the timer—a half-hour before his two hours would be done. He glanced at his score, and a satisfied grin pulled at his lips. He had beaten his last score—the highest to date. His goal now reached, he registered his new score and pulled out the key.

  Better be early than late. He had already received two scoldings in five days—a breaking record even by his standards.

  He sighed as he got to his feet. For the life of him, he couldn’t understand why all students were required to attend the announcement of the looming arrival of Unification Day. On the same day each year, the principal gathered them outside in the school’s assembly hall and gave the same speech word by word about the glorious day and its significance, played the imperial anthem, and then sent them back to their classes.

  Utterly dull.

  “Wanna grab some ice cream on the way?”

  “Sure.”

  They exited the game shop. The receptionist barely spared them a nod as he took the activation key, then looked back down to whatever show he was watching. Yahya could hear the hero proclaim his undying love to the heroine, but alas, he couldn’t be with her.

  Yahya rolled his eyes and slipped outside, half dragged by Jomaira.