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mood.
Nova
who was trying her hardest to encourage Will and his, frankly,
dismal attempts to study. With a fifth wrong answer in a row on a practice
exam he was completing, he slammed
Nova
’s screen down in frustration and
sighed.
“I can’t do it,
Nova
! I will never be an astronaut, I won’t be able to pass this
stupid exam, and my parents will be disappointed in me for the rest of my
life!” Will cried out in exasperation.
“Don’t lose hope, Will. You just need to keep working hard, your parents know
you can do it,” came the pre-programmed robotic voice of
Nova
, “now, open
my screen up again.”
Will did as he was told and the screen showed pictures of his family back
home on Earth rather than the infuriating practice exam that was taking hours
to complete. His mother dressed in her usual - casual jeans and simple blouse -
and his father holding his baby sister who was laughing at the camera. They
all looked so untroubled and eager in their home amongst the eucalyptus trees
and casual kangaroos grazing in the background of their home in the
Australian outback. Quite the opposite to Will’s awkward trainings and exam
failures. Will didn’t want to disappoint them by being sent home from failing
the astronaut training but so far it wasn’t looking good.
In total, there were twenty-five cadets with strictly twenty being accepted into
more exclusive astronaut training. Will had known from the beginning that
five people were going to be sent back to Earth for failure to pass the
Astronaut Examinations and it seemed that he was likely to be one of those
unlucky five. Will had been trying, working laboriously since he got to the
NASS, not wanting to disappoint his family or himself but he was currently
ranked last out of all his peers. Will exhaled slowly, adjusted
Nova
’s screen
and tried to regain focus, he had to stay positive and keep a clear head.
“
Nova
, pull up the practice exam from before,” Will requested with a forced
determination, “and remind me to stay on task, I
have
to be in the top twenty.”
“Sure but a ‘please’ might be nice. Just breathe deeply and concentrate, your
parents know you can do this,” answered
Nova
.
Just as Will started refocusing on what was in
Nova’
s screen, the sound of
voices close-by increased until very quickly they were clearly audible. He
turned his head to the automatic dormitory door just in time to see it slide
upwards swiftly and a few of his fellow cadets burst through, among them,