Chapter 9: Kara's Theory (2)
A hundred days have passed since the fleet's engines have gone down. All eyes have turned towards the three geniuses to fix the problem.
In the beginning, Pace was happy with the spotlight being on him, the respect in the crew's eyes whenever they saw him filled his ego, but now as each day passes without the engine being repaired the once admiration has moved into ridicule.
Pace was slowly losing it, no matter how many times he enters the engine room or looks at the blueprints, run diagnostic tests, everything comes up perfectly fine.
On this day Commander General called the three of them to his conference room, he wanted answers.
Pace and Kai had arrived first to the room. They have been in each others company for the last twenty-something days now that they knew neither one of them had a solution.
Pace was going out of his mind, this was his chance to make a mark, for people to admire and respect him and it was slipping through his fingers.
As Pace and Kai were in their own heads, Kara walked in last and took a seat.
Pace had wondered for the longest time, who that was girl Kara raced off to meet? And why she was much more important than repairing the engines? But he felt he better spend his time on his own work, rather than Kara's girl problems.
Looking at Kara relaxed body, Pace thought this girl was either too dumber to understand the circumstances right now or was she actually a genius because she seems more comfortable now than when she was in the engine room that first day.
This was driving him crazy, his first impression of her can't possibly be wrong, this girl is a fraud!
At the exact moment, Pace was going to start grilling Kara, the Commander General step through the door.
"Okay, people what do you have for me?" The Commander looked at Kai.
Stuttered through his analysis, Kai came up with the same answers as the crew. That nothing is wrong with the engines, or he was just not seeing the problem.
*Sigh*
"Why did I wake up another person and waste more resources if he is going to tell me the same answer as the crew?" Commander General looked towards his secretary, Mr. Jun.
"Sir, there are still two more people..." Mr. Jun quickly took himself from under the bus and threw Pace and Kara under it.
"Mmm...you right. You start." the Commander's eyes darted to Pace.
Under the Commander's intense stare, Pace felt sweat coat his body as his heart clog his throat. Struck in a wide-eyed stupor, Pace couldn't get anything out of his mouth.
"Umm...ah...ummm..eh..the..um"
Watching this arrogant jerk fold under the Commander's pressure made Kara snicker.
Hearing giggling to the side of him, Pace looked to see Kara smirking face. Anger bringing him back to himself, Pace cleared his throat and started again.
*Cough* *Cough*
"Sorry, I was trying to get my thoughts in order...Um, I believe the problem with the engines is due to dust particles stuck in the core's system. If we clean the engines, they should start running again."
Silent in the room was loud.
"A good cleaning?" Commander raised one eyebrow.
"We have been stuck drifting in space for hundred days, and all that will get us moving is a cleaning?"
"Pfft..." The Commander couldn't contain the laughter any longer. He laughed until his eyes got watery and tears fell down his face.
Pace hung his head in shame, he never thought the Commander would laugh at him. Looking at how the Commander was trying to regain control of himself, Pace just felt utterly embarrassed.
When the room recovered its serious mood, all eye swiveled to Kara.
____
One hour before the meeting.
When Kara received notice of the upcoming meeting with the Commander, she was terrified.
She hadn't stepped a foot in the engines' rooms since the first day, afraid Pace would bombared her with questions she couldn't answer. Kara steered clear of those rooms.
Instead, she has focused all her time and energy on Lila. If she can get Lila to fix this problem for her, no one will be the wiser.
Unfortunately, Lila was not following along with her plans.
Kara was not going to beg Lila nor was she going to admit her fraudulent life to the Commander, years of being everyone's idol left Kara with a sense of entitlement.
Arriving in front of Lila's quarters, Kara knocked on the door and waited. Knowing Lila's schedule like the back of her hand by now, Kara knew she didn't need to wait long for the door to be answered.
Lila opened the door to once again see Kara's face before her.
"What is it?"
She hasn't seen this much of Kara since their childhood, it was a little uncomfortable.
"Lila, I'm sorry...WAIT! Please, wait!... Lila, I need your help!" Panicking when she saw the door Kara rushed out her request before it can close in her face.
The door paused as Lila could hear the stress in Kara's voice. Contemplating whether she should care or not, the choice was taken out of her hands as Kara quickly pushed opened the door and entered Lila's room.
"Get out, Kara."
"Lila, just listen to me... You heard about the engines falling right?"
"...." Didn't Kara actually believe she was stupid!?
"Yes, sorry...I didn't mean it that way...Anyway, with the engines failing, we are sitting ducks. We can't reach our target in the allotted time, which means a lot more people are going to wake up, which then means more supplies are going to be used...That's why they kept having you do inventory, by the way..."
"I know all of this already, Kara..." Lila cut her off, "..I also know why we woke you up."
Surprised that Lila was so well informed, Kara thought for a while before jumping right to her point.
"It won't be like last time..."
Lila laughed as she heard this.
"I swear I'll give you credit this time!"
Lila didn't even bother to respond and just shook her head.
"If you do this it will help everyone! Please, stop thinking about yourself for one second..."
*SLAP*
Kara didn't even know when she landed on the floor. Looking up at Lila standing before her, Kara's mind finally registered what just happened.
Lila's hand was bright red, and a similar handprint was on Kara's face.
"Why don't you take your own damn advice!? Leave now, I want to rest before my next shift."
"Haha Haha!" Kara started to laugh like a crazy person, scaring Lila into backing away from her.
"I tried to do this the easy way, I really did...I even apologize to you! God! I even apologized to you!"Kara pointed to Lila in disgust.
"I didn't need to come here to lower myself to your level. Do you know who I am!? I'm Kara Asmita! People look at me with respect and adoration!... I was going to give you the credit of being my assistant, now you can forget you just lost your chance..."
Kara stood up from the floor.
"You chose the wrong path, Lila, you should have kept on the path I made for you." Kara slammed the door shut behind her.
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