I’m Addicted to your Pheromones from the First Moment We Met - Chapter 1

“Drip, drip, drip.” The sound of leaking water echoed through the spacecraft.

Yu Zhouyao jolted awake, her eyes bleary as she scanned the cabin. “Oh, it is leaking again.”

She let out a long yawn, pulled a battered plastic toolbox from beneath her seat, and set to work. She cut the power, stripped the machine’s casing, and peered at its internal structure. One glance was all she needed to see a loose plastic pipe. It was an easy fix.

Selecting the right parts, she tightened the screws with practiced ease. She gave the machine a sharp pat. After a few mechanical hiccups, the leaking stopped.

Yu Zhouyao sighed and made her way toward the cockpit.

“Eric, I fixed the machine. Once I am gone, who is going to fix things for you guys?”

The man in the pilot’s seat, sporting a massive afro, turned to glare at her.

“From our backwater rock to Planet Aurora,” Yu Zhouyao continued, “a direct flight takes a week. This piece of junk ship has been flying for nearly three weeks and we are still not there. I am losing my mind.”

Eric fell silent for a moment. “There is nothing we can do. M419 is a poor planet; that is just our reality. Our frontier system has not produced a college student in decades. You managed to get a full scholarship to the military academy. The whole town practically sold everything they owned just to get you there.”

“I have not forgotten what everyone did for me,” Yu Zhouyao said, patting his shoulder. “Before I left, I spent every day fixing things for the neighbors, and I have spent this whole trip fixing things for you. Think about it. Is there a single part of this ship I have not touched? From the engine to the windows, and I just fixed the air purifier.”

Eric cut her off. “If you do not fix the ship, it will not fly. If it will not fly, you will not get to school. You are only fixing things to save your own skin.”

Yu Zhouyao nodded in agreement. “Fair point. So, my esteemed Teacher Monkey, how much longer until we reach Planet Aurora?”

Eric glanced at the dashboard. “At our current speed, five days.”

“Nice, only five days. WHAT? FIVE DAYS?” Yu Zhouyao shrieked. “There are only three days, fifteen hours, and twenty-two minutes left until enrollment closes! You stupid monkey, move faster!” She grabbed Eric’s afro and shook him violently, as if trying to force him to manifest the power of teleportation.

“Yu Zhouyao, stop! I am dizzy!” Eric yelled back. “I am already at max speed! This old bucket can only do so much!”

“Awaken your potential! I order you to awaken your potential!”

[3 Days, 12 Hours, and 5 Minutes Until Enrollment Ends]

After being kicked out of the cockpit by Eric, Yu Zhouyao curled into her small seat in silence.

She was mentally replaying her tragic future. She might become the first student in history to miss enrollment at a military academy because she was too poor to arrive on time. She would be a historic stain on the Dawn Military Academy’s records.

Internally, she was weeping. She was only seventeen, a minor with no guardian and a pauper on the verge of begging in the streets. This free education was her only way out. She could not let it slip away.

This rickety ship was a luxury item bought by the 30,000 citizens of M419, who had pooled 150,000 Star Credits to buy it. If she broke it or failed to enroll, she would be saddled with that debt.

“Wait, rickety?” A spark of inspiration hit her. “If it is rickety, there is a rickety way to fly it.”

She sprang up from her seat and spread the ship’s blueprints across her small table.

[3 Days, 11 Hours, and 5 Minutes Until Enrollment Ends]

After scribbling frantically on paper, Yu Zhouyao had a new plan.

“Eric!”

“I am driving, dammit! Stop nagging!”

“I have an idea to speed us up. If it works, we will be there in three days.”

“Is that even legal?” Eric asked tremulously.

Yu Zhouyao nodded confidently. She pointed to the gauge. “Look, the speed has already increased by 50 percent. The plan works.”

Eric bit his lip, his afro shaking. “And what is the cost? The machine’s wear and tear rate has jumped by 8 percent. If we fly like this for three days, the ship will literally fall apart when we arrive. Are you planning on getting there but never coming back?”

Yu Zhouyao patted his shoulder firmly. “Teacher Monkey, did we not agree? If you come to my school, I will fix your stuff. We go together, and once I have enrolled, I will fix the ship for you. I guarantee you will get home in one piece.”

“Is that right?”

“It is right.”

“Are you sure?”

“Trust me, it is right,” Yu Zhouyao said with absolute confidence. Eric stood there, completely petrified.

[2 Days, 3 Hours, and 18 Minutes Until Enrollment Ends]

Yu Zhouyao’s solution was simple: trade stability for speed. By modifying the ship’s aerodynamics and engine structure, she could push it harder. The price was that the ship would likely disintegrate.

But she was confident. She had been the one maintaining and modifying this ship since the day they bought it. Before they left, she had even installed a backdoor in the engine, an emergency protocol that traded excessive wear for raw velocity. It did not matter if the outer shell plates fell off. She had reinforced the internal components. The core would hold.

The only problem was the noise. The ship was now a constant, thundering roar of metal on metal.

“It is a necessary sacrifice.”

Yu Zhouyao walked into the cockpit and tapped Eric on the head. “Good work. Let us switch shifts.”

Eric looked up, his eyes bloodshot and weary.

[1 Day, 13 Hours, and 18 Minutes Until Enrollment Ends]

After fourteen hours of continuous piloting, Yu Zhouyao began to hallucinate.

Who was she? Where did she come from? Oh, right. She was Yu Zhouyao, a pauper who used to beg on M419 and was now trying to fly a disintegrating ship to military school.

She blinked hard, fighting the crushing fatigue. She was flying by instinct now, her vision a blur. She banked left to avoid a small meteor. Through her earplugs, she heard a muffled sound. Her overworked brain struggled to process it before concluding it was probably just a meteor hitting the hull or a piece of the ship falling off. She decided it was no big deal.

Then came a bang so loud it bypassed her earplugs. Clang! She turned to see the outer hull beginning to peel away. Large metal plates were detaching from the fuselage.

She ripped her earplugs out in horror as more plates tore off. “No! My ship! Grandpa Ship, Grandma Ship, please do not die on me now!”

A hand touched her shoulder. It was Eric, woken up by the noise.

“You said it would be fine.”

“It should be fine.”

[1 Day, 11 Hours, and 52 Minutes Until Enrollment Ends]

Both Yu Zhouyao and Eric were now wide awake.

Yu Zhouyao switched the ship to manual mode, letting the autopilot handle the drift for a second. She turned to Eric. “Teacher Monkey.”

“Don’t use honorifics,” Eric interrupted. “When you are polite, it means bad news. Just spit it out.”

Yu Zhouyao pressed on. “The current flight situation looks bad, but it is actually under control.”

“I do not believe you.”

“There is still a way,” she insisted, nodding vigorously.

“I do not trust you anymore! You promised me two days ago you had this under control, and now the hull is gone!” Eric said in despair. “Without the hull, the internal parts will wear out even faster. We will not just miss your school; we will die out here. Let us just give up and send a distress signal.”

“No!” Yu Zhouyao shouted. “I finally got a chance to go to school on a full scholarship! I am not giving up!”

She paused, taking a breath. “It is not that bad. We have lost 65 percent of the alloy hull. The wings are almost gone, the nose is down 15 percent, and the tail is down 35 percent. But the engine is intact and we are moving at light speed. The fuel tank is fine, and we have 15 percent left. That is plenty to reach the planet.”

Eric stared at her with hollow, empty eyes.

Yu Zhouyao shook his shoulders for thirty seconds, but he remained unresponsive. She gave up on him, strapped herself into the pilot’s seat, and tightened her belt.

“Sit tight, Teacher Monkey. I am going to that school. Even if it kills me, I am enrolling.”

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