The Coming Of A Hero

Chapter One – The Beginning

The spaceship was empty and quiet. The rest of them had retired to catch up on some sleep before they arrived at Yorus. However Xander had stayed at the helm. This was not because he was needed to fly it, far from it, but because he liked to sit and stare at the stars. It was at these moments that he got the sort of inspiration that had made him start this journey. Thinking about it now he knew why he had made that decision. Everything all seemed to make sense. At that moment in time Xander Mosley was content. It was not to last.

A door opened and a young beautiful woman strode through. Alyssa had come to check that everything was working smoothly or at least that what she would tell anyone that asked. She knew that Xander would be alone at the helm. And sure enough he was. As usual he was staring out the window. What she wouldn’t give to know what he was thinking at these times. Actually what she wouldn’t give to know that he was thinking of her. Ever since their first meeting at the age of four she knew he was her soul mate. They had been through a hell of a lot since then and yet they had remained best of friends. But not a day goes by that Alyssa doesn’t hope that it was more. Now she stood there just staring at Xander. Watching his every move. Somehow expecting this to reveal the answers that she so desperately seeks.

Something brought Xander out of his daydream with a jolt. He turned round and found Alyssa standing there staring at him. His first instance was to check if he had something on his back. Finding that all clear he said to Alyssa, “Your up late.”

Alyssa also came out of her daydream with a jolt realising that Xander had said something to her. Not quite knowing what it was she went with an all-purpose, “yeah.”

At certain times something happens that makes Alyssa look like the most beautiful woman in the world. Xander couldn’t quite put his finger on it. Was it the lighting? The time of day? Why was he kidding himself? She always looked like the most beautiful woman in the world to him. She has since he first laid eyes on her.  “Can’t sleep?”

“Nah” she replied rubbing her eyes as if to convince Xander she was telling the truth. “Must be all the excitement”

He smiled, “This is one of those turning points that people keep talking about. The decisions we made now will affect the rest of our life.” It sounded like he was talking about the upcoming events but really he talking about his wish to tell Alyssa what he has always wanted to tell her. Three simple words. I love you. Why did he find it so hard? What was stopping him? Fear? Fear of what? Fear of rejection? Its amazing after all that he has overcome he can’t overcome a simple fear.

“Speaking of decisions, have you decided what we are going to do when we get to Yorus?” Alyssa said using the ability of her’s to change the subject at random and without warning.

“I don’t know” Xander shook his head. “I guess I’ll make it up as I go along”

“You’ll what?” Alyssa suddenly said raising her voice.

Xander was not surprised by this reaction, in fact he expected it. He was always the laid-back character. The kind of guy that didn’t know what he was doing until he was actually doing it. Alyssa was completely different. She was a planner. He expects she lays out all her clothes for the week at the beginning. It was her nature. It part of why he loved her. “You know fly by the seat of my pants”

“You can’t do that.” Alyssa said with a smile. She knew that he can and probably would. He had always done it that way whatever he was doing. Still it infuriated her. No matter how many times this exact conservation was replayed her reaction was always the same. She guessed that this was because it allowed them to fall into their usual routine of banter but really it was because she was the other side to his character. She was the voice of reason. She provided him with something that he couldn’t provide himself with. She completed him. “These people won’t be impressed with your naïve charm and what the hell does fly by the seat of your pants mean?”

“You mean I have charm?” Xander was thoroughly enjoying himself. “And I guess it meant something at one time or another”.

“You have some degree of charm, if you can call it that. Alyssa said with a smile, also enjoying herself. “And how can you fly by the seat of your pants? I mean isn’t that impossible?”

“But you did call it that. You said I have charm.” Xander said with his usual comedic tone. “And I guess there was a big conspiracy to create a whole new cliché. Maybe there have gotten to me or even you.”

“Okay fine you have charm are you happy now.” Alyssa said trying to sound insincere but actually meaning every word of it. Xander did have charm. Lots of charm. That’s why so many women are interested in him. She tried to be jealous but she knew she was. With all these beautiful women how could she ever compete? She was probably destined to be so close to him and yet not as close as she longed to be. If there was a list of the all-time worst curses then this one would be top by a mile. “And I was the one who bought up the whole issue so how could I be in on any conspiracy?”

“Very.” Xander was also being truthful. He loved these conservations. He loved being so close to Alyssa. Being able to watch her eyes light up with joy. Seeing that special smile of hers that brighten her whole face. The occasionally stray hair that had escaped from behind her ear and placed itself neatly right in front of her big beautiful brown eyes. Being so close to someone you love as much as he loves Alyssa but not being able to express it can take a heavy toll on a person. Not to mention their cold water supply. “Maybe it was an elaborate scheme designed to remove yourself from suspicion. But you didn’t count on the calculating mind of one Xander Mosley. You should confess your involvement and maybe we can strike a deal” He leaned forward and grabbed her left foot. “I warn you. We have ways of making you talk.” He removed her shoe and sock and began to tickle her feet.

“Stop It!! Hahahaha. Not Stop It!! Hahahaha. I can’t take it!!” Alyssa was also crying with laughter while she said these words.

“Confess! Confess!” Xander said shouting while continuing to tickle her foot.

Suddenly the fun and games ended as the helm control panel made a distinctive sound. Xander let go of Alyssa’s foot and quickly turned to the panel. “It seems we have arrived at the outskirts of Yorus”.

Alyssa was trying to recover her composure while putting on her sock and shoe. “This is where I take over”. Alyssa was the pilot of their small spaceship. Piloting was one of her many talents and probably the one that she was best at. During their time in the Kalot armed forces she had quickly moved up the ranks of pilots. By the time they left she had achieved the rank of Captain. A position that very few from outside of Kalot achieve. She could have stayed and would have had a very good career. However she believed in Xander and what he was trying to fight for. They all did. The question was would the Yorusians?

*********

Yorus looked much like most people said it looked. From his window Xander could see a good few miles of Yorus and it was beautiful. Most of the Outer Rim settlements were beautiful. They were free from the clutter of an industrial centre. Free from the constant demand for more and more land. They were free to be beautiful. Looking out across the landscape Xander saw what he assumed was the Governor’s living quarters. They also get the best places to live. I bet as soon as they land they take over the best place of the planet and call it their home. Well what do you expect? They are the rulers. At least for now.

Alyssa could see Xander gazing out of the window. I wonder what he was thinking when he does that? There was no time to imagine the ship needed to be landed and that was her job. She accomplished it with her usual flair touching the ship down as if it was landing on an air pad made of silk. So they had finally arrived on Yorus. Suddenly a wave of uncertainly sweeps over her whole body. It was the first time she had felt such an emotion. Maybe her body has just realised what a huge gamble she has taken. She told herself what she said when she first decided to do it, life is full of gambles it is just some are bigger than others.

A man approached the still ship from what appeared to be a hanger. Xander and Alyssa opened the door and stepped out to greet him.

The man held out a hand and said, “Welcome to Yorus. Is this the ship Frontier?

Xander shook his hand and replied, “That us. We have just come in from Kalot.”

“Kalot?” The man said with a little bit of surprise in his voice. “That’s quite a long way away. You come here for a special reason.”

Alyssa said with a little smile, “You could say that. We plan to stay awhile. Will that be a problem?”

The man responded, “Not if you register.” Noticing a puzzled look on the faces on the couple he pre-empted their question. “You go to the immigration centre just off the main square and ask for a long-stay form. Fill that in then you should be all set.”

“Well thank you very much.” Xander said while reaching for his wallet and trying to calculate what would be an appropriate tip. Eventually he looked at Alyssa counting out the money until she gave a sort of nod. Then he handed it to the man and he smiled and walked back to the hanger. Xander waited until he thought the man was out of earshot and said, “How do you know what I should tip him?”

Alyssa replied, “I just thought what I would tip him then doubled it.”

“What!” Xander said almost shouting.

Alyssa started to walk back to the ship and as she neared the door she turned her head and said over her left shoulder, “I wanted to make a nice impression. And it’s a lot easier spending other people’s money”. And with that she was inside the ship.

********

The immigration centre was exactly where the man said it was. It was a huge building rising majestically into the sky. Alyssa still couldn’t get used to these multi-storey buildings. Where she and Xander had grown up the biggest building was the weather observation tower but that was nowhere near the size of this building. It looked like the top of it was living amongst the clouds. She looked across at Xander and he too was craning his neck towards the sky. He turned towards her and their eyes met. He had a kind of twinkle in his eye that usually only appears in commercials, in fact she couldn’t believe she actually thought she saw it in his eyes but there is. He grinned at her and that only made her want him even more. There was something about his face that was special. There was no other way of describing it. It was special. Alyssa was brought out of her little daydream because she thought she had been just staring at his eyes for ages. She quickly grinned back and they began to walk towards the entrance.

The inside was just as amazing as the outside, thought Xander. The ceiling to the room they were in seemed only just in eyesight. There were hundreds of counters each with their own maze of queuing. The counters were separated into different colour-coded sections. The red one was for people looking for a driving license. The orange appeared to be for miscellaneous licenses. The blue section was for those looking to depart. The green section was for short-term stay and long-term stay was yellow. They made their way towards the beginning of the yellow queuing maze. The actual queue was short but it seemed to take them ages to negotiate their way to the front. By the time they got there they were both slightly out of breath and they were quite fit and healthy people. Xander could only imagine what that was like for those less fit people. He knew that there was a reason for the long maze of queuing but that didn’t make it any more acceptable. There was only a few people are the front of the queue so the wait was relatively small. Soon it was their time to be called and they walked up to counter 26.

The lady at the counter was actually very good-looking, a point not lost on Alyssa who noticed sudden quickening of Xander’s step. She longed for him to do that when he saw her. For him to do something to show her that she was more than a friend. It didn’t matter if it was just a look in his eyes, a pushing of hair from her face or even the soft touch of his lips on hers. But she knew that these things only happened in his dreams. She had long ago resigned herself to the position of best friend, at least it allowed her to be close to him, if not as close as she liked. Alyssa thoughts were interrupted by the voice of the lady at the counter.

She said without even looking up, “Hello. How may I help you?”

Xander was the first to reply, “Hi, we would like to register for a long-stay.”

“Okay you will have complete forms 3a and 4c.” The lady said while handing over the two forms. “You can go other there,” There was a vague point in the direction of some chairs. “Bring them back here and pay the 100 credit fee and you’ll be registered”.

Alyssa took the forms and said, “Thank you very much.” She and Xander headed off towards the chairs.

“Did she say a 100 credits?” Xander asked, while getting out his wallet and looking at the contents.

“Yep. Don’t you have that much?” Alyssa replied, looking over at Xander.

He looked up and grinned, “Nope, for some reason I seem to be a little short.”

Alyssa also grinned, “Well maybe you shouldn’t be so generous all the time”.

They sat down at the chairs, which were surprisingly comfortable, and proceeded to fill in both forms. This was done mostly in silence except for the occasionally question one of them had for the other.

“How much do you weigh?” Xander asked without deviating his gaze from the form in front of him.

“One eighty. Wait,” Alyssa looked up, “it doesn’t ask that does it?”

Still with his eyes looking at the form Xander said laughing, “No, but I thought this was as good a time as any to ask that.”

Alyssa also began to laughing saying, “Get back to the form or we’ll be stuck here for hours.”

“Can you roll your tongue?” Alyssa asked as if there was nothing unusual with such a question.

Xander looked up but said with little surprise in his voice, “It doesn’t ask for that does it?”

“Yep, right there” Alyssa replied pointing at question number 34 on her form.

Xander glazed over expecting it to be a joke but find out to his shock that it really did ask that, “Why the hell do they want to know that?”

“I don’t know, maybe they use it as some form of identification. You better answer as the question is written in bold.”

“Bold? Well then I have too.” Xander stopped speaking to attempt to roll his tongue, “How is this?”

Alyssa examined Xander’s tongue very closely and said, “I suppose that could be classed as tongue rolling.”

“I’m glad it met your stringent qualification demands.” Replied Xander with his usual smirk when he was being sarcastic.

By now Alyssa didn’t need to see the smirk she could just picture it whenever Xander was being sarcastic. When she closed her eyes she could see any of his familiar facial expressions as clear as if he was doing them right in front of her. That’s partly why her dreams as so powerful because Xander is in so much detail they feel so real. The other main reason is because they fulfil her every wish and desire. In her dreams they are not best friends but married and with kids and living some idyllic life in a far away place free from worry. She knows these are dreams but what she wouldn’t give for them in be reality.

The two of them stepped out of the immigration centre and onto the main square. They looked out over a bustling metropolitan full of people going about their daily routine oblivious to the two figures observing them. It was Xander who was the first one to speak saying with his usual bluntness, “So, what now?”

Alyssa responded, “We stick to the original plan. I will go and see if I can find my friend and see if he will set up a meeting with the Freedom Fighters (FFs).”

Xander was feeling a little uneasy about putting Alyssa in so much danger. There were lots of different things that could go wrong. He really didn’t like doing this but it had to be done. There was no other way of finding out about the FFs and is why they had travelled all the way to Yorus. He just couldn’t help feel nervous but it seemed that Alyssa looked confident and that did something, however little, to reassure him.

Alyssa noticed the worried look in Xander’s eyes. She knew that he felt anxious about the whole idea but she also knew that he understand that this was the only way it could happen. She wished there was something she could do to comfort him but she couldn’t think of anything. So she just smiled to make it seem like she was confident and hoped that would do something for his fears.  

********

It was night by the time that Alyssa emerged from their newly found apartment on her way to have dinner with her friend. Everything depended on what was going to happen over the next few hours and Alyssa knew it. She was dressed in her most beautiful evening dress, bought especially for the occasion. Xander has put it best when he described her as the most attractive she has ever been. She was heading off to the Treyur restaurant to meet up with her friend, Kiefer[OM1] Sayers ;;;;;;;;;;;;;; she had met him years before in Kalot. He had been the first friendly face she saw when she was prompted to an officer. She was unfamiliar with her surroundings and doubting her abilities and he came up and told her that he was impressed by her reputation and couldn’t wait to work alongside her. This piece of recognition of her talent was just what she needed at that time and quickly they became friends. Over the years they became very close, yes I mean that close. However one day he left the Kalot forces for some mysterious reason and went to Yorus. It was not for a couple of years that Alyssa found out that he had been recruited by the FFs. This was their first meeting since his departure. It only added to the nerves that Alyssa was already feeling. She took a taxi from the apartment to the restaurant and spent the whole time trying to get some form of self-control. She had done a pretty good job but when she saw his face she almost ran straight out of the restaurant but she knew that this had too be done no matter how painful it was. She walked up to Kiefer and said with a smile, “Hi, remember me?”

He replied, “How could I not. Alyssa you are looking for more beautiful than I recall. How are you? Still with that Xander guy.”

Kiefer had never liked Xander and vice versa. I suppose it is some sort of macho thing, which Alyssa had never understood. She always thought that if those two had got to know each other they could have been good friends. “I’m fine and yeah Xander is still with me. I wouldn’t have come all this way without him.”

“I kind of hoped you had come all this way to see me.” Said Kiefer with both a smile and a sombre look. It was hard to know if he was joking or being serious.

Alyssa wished that he was joking and that this conservation would be free from the awkwardness that usually accompanies a meeting with an ex. In an attempt to achieve just that she tried talk business saying, “Well actually we did come all this way to see you. We kind of need your help.”

He suddenly looked a bit concerned, “Are you in trouble? What have you done?”

“Nothing, nothing. We don’t need that kind of help.” She quickly replied. “I know why you left Kalot.”

“You do? Well then you know why I had to leave in secrecy and why I couldn’t properly say goodbye to you. That is the one things I regret,” He looked down with a hint of a tear in his eyes. “Not saying goodbye.”

“I knew at the time that he did what you did for a reason.” She lifted his head so that his eyes met hers. “I didn’t hate you then and I don’t hate you now.”

“When did you find out?” He asked, putting his hand to his eye pretending to scratch an itch.

“About two years after you left.” She replied. “It was a bit of shock. I didn’t picture you as the rebellious type.

He laughed, “Yeah I know what you mean. One day I’m a straight-laced officer in the Kalot forces and the next I’m on some distant planet in the Outer Rim fighting against the Regime. Don’t let it be said that life isn’t full of surprises.”

“I know what you mean. In fact that is what me and Xander are doing.” She said, smiling to make this seem an innocent statement. It was, in fact, a very dangerous thing to say. Kiefer could easily think that she was a secret agent working for the Regime trying to infiltrate the FF. The smart thing for him to do would be to sidestep the statement but Alyssa hoped that he wouldn’t do that. She had argued with Xander that Kiefer would trust her, he had too everything relied on that. She waited for his response.

He took his time, taking a slip of water from a glass on the right hand of his plate. All the while he was staring at Alyssa. Staring right into her eyes as if they would reveal the answer to the questions in his head. After what seem to be an eternity to her, he looked as if he had made up his mind. He leaned forward and said in a quiet voice, “You want to join the FF?”

Alyssa replied in what she hoped was her most sincere voice, “Yes. Yes we do.”

“Do you know the dangers involved in what you are asking of me to do?” He said with his voice seeming to get quieting with each word until the last one was spoken in barely a whisper.

“I know the risk that we are asking you to take but we think it will be worth it. Our whole lives have been leading up to this moment, it is our destiny. If you have heard Xander speak on this you would know what I am talking about. He wants to bring freedom to the people. Not just the people of Yorus, not just those of the Outer Rim but the whole empire. He wants to destroy the Regime.” Alyssa was speaking these words not as a supportive best friend but as someone who truly believed in them. Most people would laugh at what she was saying, and they would have every right too, but Alyssa knew Xander and knew that he had the ability and desire to achieve it.

Kiefer was one of those people that would laugh. He burst into laughter, “Xander wants to destroy the Regime? That’s the funniest thing I have ever heard. Is this the same Xander we are talking about? The one who struggled at basic infantry? How the hell could he bring down the Regime?”

Alyssa took this personally responding angrily, “He can and he will. He has grow since you last saw him, we both have. He has become a commander, a leader, and a hero. He has the ability to do this he only needs the resources and troops. That is where the FF come in.”

Kiefer had now recovered and became solemn again, “You are serious about this? You really believe that Xander can lead the FFs to defeating the Regime. Well I can’t fault you are conviction. I tell you what meet me at this address,” He handed Alyssa several lines of writing on a torn piece of paper. “go here tomorrow at 7.”

“So we’re in?” Alyssa asked, trying to hide her excitement.

“Not yet,” Kiefer noticed her enthusiasm and didn’t want her to build up her hopes. “just go to that address. I have to go now.” He got up, looked around, kissed Alyssa on the cheek and walked away.

Alyssa was left alone at the table staring at the piece of paper that Kiefer had given her and said to herself in a whisper, “And so it begins.”

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