The Invitation
Aly was bored. After playing three hardest level HoloChess games against the computer and winning, she hated the room even more.
So instead of opening the food slot, she opened the door (Strictly against protocol)
She hid a smile as the server gave a startled jump. He was about her age, Aly thought, maybe a bit shorter, and with intelligent gray eyes and straight black hair that stuck out under his hat. She watched his gaze flick to the HoloChess, Then she got an idea.
“Hey,” She said nonchalantly taking the hamburger out of his hands. “Thanks for the hamburger,”
“Are you busy?” she asked
He looked a bit startled, like he didn’t realize she was talking to him.
“What?— uh — Me? Not really I uh I guess” then he blinked, “Well actually, I’m supposed to—”
“Ok, Great! Come in!” She said, (He probably had to do some stupid Paid Service thing, She would get it figured out, She thought ) “Have you played HoloChess?”
Grayson was feeling a bit stunned. First of all, a Sector Alpha passenger had opened the door, (Completely breaking the rules, he noted) and invited him in. He had never heard of that happening.
“Um, no. I haven’t.” He thought for a second, “But I have played regular chess…”
Grayson remembered a time he had built a chess set out of nuts and bolts when he was bored.
The girl nodded “Then you could probably play HoloChess. By the way I haven’t introduced myself. I’m Aly, how about you?”
Grayson “I’m Grayson. Uh, nice to meet you Aly” Grayson wondered how the HoloChess worked as Aly led him over to the gameboard. Aly sat down across from him and watched as he looked around at her room. Grayson was from sector Omega. He wondered if Aly knew that.
“What mode?” Aly asked looking at the holoboard “Plants Vs Zombies, Robots Vs Animals, or Monsters Vs Humans?”
“Um,” mumbled Grayson as he watched the pieces on the gameboard change. “How about Robots Vs Animals? I’ll be Robots”
“Sure!” Aly said as she started the game, excited to have someone besides a computer to play against.
And they both had a great time playing HoloChess.
Grayson loved the intricate 3D Robots that walked around the board at his bidding (And destroyed Aly’s pieces one by one)
But at the end, Aly was starting to make an amazing comeback with only four pieces left. By the end of the game, they were probably the only Alpha/Omega pair that actually got along.
Grayson watched in amazement as Aly slaughtered his Robots, her animals pouncing and ripping them apart in spectacular fashion. Aly smiled as she hunted his final robot across the board. “You thought you had me, Huh?”
“Yup.” Grayson said with an amused sigh “You’re really good at this!”
“Though if I could design the robots I might have won… ” Grayson thought aloud
“Really?” She raised an eyebrow as she moved her piece in front of his “You’ve designed robots?”
“Well, yeah in theory” He scratched his head wondering how to get his piece to escape. “I’ve never actually built one… Yet.”
Aly watched as he moved his piece to the last safe spot.
“Game Over!” She said as she completely trapped his piece into the corner. This was much funner when played against another human, she thought, even though it was as easy, (If not more) against a computer.
“Huh!” Grayson said, watching her pieces do a little victory dance around the board “That was fun!”
Grayson glanced over at the HoloVision, “I wonder how it works. Maybe a Compact Primo Nuclear projecting system? But would that account for… ” He trailed off realizing that he had spoken aloud.
“You really think you can take that apart!?!?” Aly asked, picking up the HoloVision “I couldn’t even open It!”
(Aly thought she heard Grayson say something about a PowerWelder 285 but she wasn’t sure)
After a couple minutes of watching Aly to open the HoloVision, she tossed it on the table with disgust.
Grayson sank into the chair “This room is awesome, isn’t it?” He asked. Aly looked up from where she was rummaging in a drawer, ”Awesome? Here?!” She shook her head and went back to rummaging in her drawer. Grayson ran his hand along the smooth armrest, “what do you mean?” he said “how can you not like it here? All your things are the highest tech possible.”
Aly shut the drawer door. “Yeah… It all gets boring, everything in one color, and everything so precise and regulated. I always get the oldest and most unused things.” Aly’s eyes gleamed “But there is one thing that’s the highest tech possible.”
Aly showed him a black blaster pistol. (It was the rule that all officers and pilots had an Blas-Tech® LR-98 Officer’s Pistol, but Aly didn’t care that she was following the rules, because, duh it was a blaster pistol) Aly’s blaster pistol was black, (shaped like a squarish bullet firing pistol) and had a slanted grip. It also featured had trigger that was coded to Aly’s fingerprint, so only she could fire it. It’s front end had a perforated tip that slanted outwards to cool off the front end when firing.
Grayson whistled softly “Wow. Now that’s a blaster pistol”
Aly proceeded to blast the HoloVision. “What!? Why did you do that?” Grayson exclaimed, Aly smiled “So. How does it work?”
Grayson and walked over to the smoking scrap of the HoloVision 56. “Ahh interesting. A Cold Plasma screen, with a color mesh!” he looked over at Aly to explain what he was talking about,
When Aly’s compact holo phone blinged. Aly sighed and picked up a clear, dime sized circle. She pressed the button, and it expanded into a blue tinted glass rectangle about as big as someone’s hand. Grayson looked over Aly’s shoulder “What?! Lead Officer Richard is coming to your apartment.”
Aly glared at him and covered her phone “Heh Heh, sorry” He said “but really why is he coming over,”
(He peeked over her shoulder again) “Oh!, for dinner? But why?”
Aly laughed “Because he’s my dad”
“Oh. That makes more sense. But still, the lead officer of Exo 3 is your dad?!?”
“Yes.” Aly glared at him again “It doesn’t really matter”
“But still that’s a big deal..” Grayson said at the same time
“As you can see,” She said “This is why i’m so bored all the time.”
“That makes sense.” Grayson said. “Do you want to play another game of… ” he trailed off, looking at the fried HoloVision
Aly laughed “I’ll order another one. In the meantime, do you want to go to the Blaster Range before coming for dinner?”
“Well… ” Grayson said, “I eat dinner pretty early so… Wait, Did you just invite me to stay for dinner?”
“Yes, I did” She said “This is the most fun and interesting day since I got this blaster. (That was a seriously interesting day) Meet me at 1630 hours”
Aly watched her phone automatically insert the time into her calendar
“1630, Got it!” He thought for a minute “I think this is probably the most interesting day i’ve had in awhile too. See ya soon!”
Grayson and Aly exchanged Phone ID’s
Then Grayson left Aly’s room, and parted they ways until 1630 hours
Aly gave him an official invitation to have dinner, to avoid any problems at the checkpoint
