[Four Years Later, L-2 Colony Cluster, 2334 A.D.]
It has been four years since the day Elias took his first trip out into space. And in that time, the boy's passion for the stars had yet to waver. Now, barely a few days after his sixteenth birthday, Elias finally had the chance to chase after his dream. He had been waiting for this moment for some time. But after weeks of preparation, the boy was finally going to take the first step toward his future.
As Elias stood at the threshold of his parents' bedroom, the boy could feel his heart pounding against the walls of his chest. With each beat growing louder than the last. He could hear his mother and father talking beyond the door, the muffled tones of their conversation a wall of sound between him and them.
This was it. Now or never.
The green-eyed teen wasn't sure how long he had been pacing back and forth in the hallway. To be honest, his nerves were really starting to distort his sense of time. But either way, the moment had come. Elias quickly readjusted himself before taking a deep breath and straightening his shoulders. He wasn't going to back down. He couldn't back down. This was what he wanted, and there was no way he was going to turn back now.
"Mom, Dad!" The boy called out as he knocked on the door. "Are you busy?"
"What is it?!" The voice of his mother yelled back. "Come in."
With another breath, Elias steeled his nerves before pushing the door open and entering the room.
Upon stepping inside, Elias was quick to take note of his surroundings. Seated at a nearby desk was his father, Axil Thorton. The dark-skinned man's broad frame was outlined by the light coming from the nearby window. He had a serious expression on his face, the kind that suggested he was dealing with something related to his work as one of the colony's top administrators.
'That's not good.' The boy thought to himself before turning his attention to the other person in the room.
Directly across from Elias, sitting atop their bed, was his mother, Serena. The redheaded woman's brow was furrowed as she read something on her tablet. Whatever had her so engrossed was a complete mystery to Elias, but this wasn't the first time he had seen her like that. The woman did love her reading after all.
"What is it?" The boy's father then said after looking up from his computer. "Something on your mind?"
Elias calmly walked into the room before taking a seat at the edge of the bed, doing his best to shield his face from his mother's eyes for the moment. He knew that this conversation was going to be a difficult one. After all, the three of them had already had it several times before. Only now, Elias was determined to finally make them understand.
"I've... I've made up my mind." Elias began. Although his voice was steady, his stomach was twisting and turning with the anticipation of what he was about to say. "I want to join the Colonial Navy."
His mother's face immediately softened with concern. At the same time, his father's eyes darkened with the kind of seriousness that always made Elias feel small.
"Elias..." His father began, his voice heavy and cold. "We've been through this already. You're too young. Not only that, but you have a bright future ahead of you. You should be considering all of your options, not trying to rush off into space to do God knows what."
"I have been thinking about my future!" Elias replied as he stood up to get a good look at both of his parents. His voice rising with a passion that very few thought he was even capable of producing. "I want to be a sailor, just like Aunt Kara! I don't want to be stuck behind a desk in some boring government office like you and Layla. That's just not me. This is what I want. I want to go out there and see what the rest of the world has to offer!"
Although Serena's sigh was barely audible, it carried the full weight of a mother's worry.
"Elias...it's not that we don't understand what you want." The woman said gently as she placed her hand on her son's shoulder. "It's just that we know how dangerous it is out there. The Colonial Navy isn't a place for someone your age. I know that you really want to do this apprenticeship thing that my sister told you about, but it's three years long. And on top of that, those ships-"
"Will be constantly moving between here, Earth, and the other colonies, ferrying cargo and other supplies. I won't even be on a combat ship, just a cargo freighter." Elias was quick to interrupt. "Plus, those military supply lanes are constantly being patrolled, so they're safe. Mom, Dad, come on! This is my chance to get hands-on experience. I don't want to go to that military academy at L-3 for four years just to become some lame admin officer. I need to learn by doing. And the best way to do that is to be out there in space."
The boy's father looked at him for a long moment, calculating the weight of each word that came out of Elias's mouth against what he already knew. Eventually, he spoke, but his tone was heavy with reluctance.
"You're a smart boy, Elias." Axil began as he removed his glasses. "Much smarter than most kids your age, seeing as you already graduated from high school. But being smart isn't enough to keep you alive out there. You're talking about putting yourself in the middle of serious and constant danger. You've seen what happens to the ships coming back from Earth, right? The ones that end up suffering some sort of disaster while moving their cargo."
Elias swallowed hard as the memory of some recent news stories flashed through his mind. Brief tales of ships that were lost to sudden pirate attacks, ones that had random communication blackouts, and the reports of navigational errors that ended in catastrophic incidents. The boy knew all about them, it was hard not to. There was at least one every month. But even so, in the face of those dangers, Elias's conviction held firm.
"I already know the risks...." Elias said quietly as he looked down before refocusing his gaze toward the two adults. "But I can't just live my life in fear of what might happen. I'm not going to spend my entire life stuck in this iron tube in the shadow of the Moon just because it's safe. I want to do something that matters. I want to live, not just exist!"
Serena's expression softened. The woman then pushed the covers off to the side and moved closer to Elias. "I'm just worried about you, sweetie. You're our only son, and you're still just sixteen. Besides, you still have plenty of time before you need to make a decision like this. Don't you want to have a bit of fun before throwing yourself into military service for the next twenty years? Hell, even Kara didn't join the Navy until she was twenty. And that was after she spent a year traveling around the colonies with her friends."
All Elias could do was nod. He knew what his mother was trying to say, he knew that it was hard for them. He could hear it in their voices, and he could see it in the way they looked at him.
Elias was the youngest of three children. And while his sisters had followed in their father's footsteps by going into civil service, the boy had other plans for his life. He always dreamed of being out there among the stars, ever since that day he took his first trip outside of the colony. And to be honest, Elias couldn't even imagine himself doing the mind-numbing work they managed to do every single day. He would sooner run away to a mining colony on Mars before confining himself to a desk for the foreseeable future.
Deep down, Elias just wanted to give his parents something to be proud of. Something more than just a safe and uneventful life where he never got to experience what the rest of the world had to offer. He wanted to actually try and live his life.
"I know that you want me to be safe." Elias then said, his voice was now calmer than it was a second ago. "But I'm not afraid of what might happen to me out there. I'm afraid of living my whole life wondering what it would have been like if I had just tried."
For a moment, there was nothing but silence. The boy's father looked at him, then at his mother, who still had her hand resting on Elias's shoulder. The man saw the weight of her concern, but also the love that lay beneath it. She wanted to protect him, they both did. They wanted to keep their son from ending up in an early grave at the hands of some insane pirates who were trying to find their next fortune. Or get sucked into the cold vacuum of space never to be seen again. But even so, Axil knew that eventually, everyone had to carve their own path in life. And if he knew his son as well as he thought he did, he knew that trying to stop the boy was only delaying the inevitable. Even if the man didn't agree with it, it was best to simply support his son in whatever he wanted to do.
Finally, Axil Thorton exhaled sharply.
"You're right about one thing, son..." The man said, his voice less rigid than before, but still firm. "You're not Layla, or Lunamaria. You're not like your sisters, and you never will be. Even when you were little, you've always had a different path in mind."
Elias's heart skipped a beat. Was that acceptance? Or even just acknowledgment?
"You're still young." Axil continued. "And I'm not going to pretend that I'm totally in agreement with this. You're asking for a lot...your mother and I both know that."
"Then let me prove it!" Elias replied, his eyes shining with determination. "Let me take the apprenticeship. Let me prove I'm ready for this!"
Serena looked at her husband, her gaze lingering on the man for a moment before turning back to Elias. Whatever thoughts passed through her mind in that short amount of time were completely unknown to the other two in the room. But both Elias and Axil could see that she was struggling with something on the inside.
The woman opened her mouth, then closed it, remaining silent for a few brief moments before finally working up the courage to say what she was feeling. "If this is really what you want, Elias, I won't stand in your way. But we want you to promise us one thing."
Elias leaned down toward the bed. His heart was now pounding, hardly believing what he was hearing. "What is it?"
"Please...promise us that you won't rush into danger without thinking." Serena said in a somber tone. "Promise us that you'll be careful. I don't want to see my baby getting hurt if it could've been avoided."
Elias nodded, his voice breaking as he answered. "I promise, Mom."
Finally, with his parents' approval, Elias felt as if the stars themselves were finally within his grasp.