Hyster and Kirsten

Hyster looked through his telescope. He was bored of following up the coordinates. All of those focused on the same piece of known galaxy. What was the fun in that? Boys half his age could spot those planets with the telescopes they got for Christmas. He on the other hand had the opportunity to work with the most advanced telescope in the Western Hemisphere.
"Great honour, my a**." he mumbled and twisted the telescope around. It spun a few rounds before Hyster stopped it and searched his coordinates again. He sighed. He was wasting his time.
"Hi Hyster!" Kirsten said as she entered the top room of the astronomy tower, "I see you're fooling around again."
"For your information, I was doing my assignment, but it is just boring. Every day the same coordinates, the same stupid planets. We never get to do anything exciting."
"We can't all be astronauts Hyster, our work is important too." Kirsten said as she sat down on her own chair.
"Yeah, but I wasn't the one that turned down a scholarship for NASA because I liked working in this dusty old astronomy room. I would have grasped the opportunity with both my hands."
"And you think they do anything new? Boy you are naive. All they do is silly experiments and risk their lives. I don't know why anyone still accepts the scholarships."
"Because there's just that tiny chance you will find something important!" Hyster cried out.
"We have that tiny chance as well... don't complain." Kirsten said and sighed.
Kirsten looked down in her telescope and started noting coordinates and other things in her black notebook. Hyster shrugged and looked at her, trying to find some sign of why she had refused that scholarship. Kirsten was normal built, blonde with deep brown eyes and freckles. Her hair was soft and shiny, flowing down upon her shoulders, not your average astronaut, but their had been some like her. She had this tick of tapping her fingers and feet in contrabeat which made him go crazy. All those notes out of rhythm made him nervous and irritated. This day it wasn't different.
"Stop tapping!" he yelled and looked back in his telescope. 
Kirsten stopped tapping and immediately lost her focus. Darn Hyster, she thought, he always made her lose her focus. No-one other than him found her tapping annoying. It was a soft tapping since she bit her nails, she had known girls that could tap so loud they had woken up people! She sighed and rubbed her head. She looked at Hyster. He was rather tall with brown hair and blue eyes. He had got her attention from the first day they had had courses together. He was so wrong for Astronomy. He had this restless spirit and was always talking about astronauts, space and epic battles. That somehow confused her, why would anyone want to learn every detail of World War II? That had been over 2 centuries ago. People weren't foolish enough to start another world war, or so she hoped. 
She smiled, he would never understand why she chose astronomy over being an astronaut. He was right about the assignments being bored, but he shouldn't complain about them, he should do them fast and then look into space like she did. She had gazed at unmapped space and wondered about its hidden secrets. She had been there in her dreams and lived a thousand lives during the nights. Hyster would never understand the freedom she had as an astronomy student...
Kirsten bent back down over her telescope and looked into space. There it was, waiting for her. She smiled. The planet of Nemista where her recent dreams had featured. She looked at Hyster, he was busy, good. 
"Ever larger, show me what you hide, Ever faster, let me feel your pride..." she whispered and took a deep breath as she felt the spell drawing her in the huge world of Nemista. She saw the dragonries, the battles with the dragons and feasted with the victors afterwards. She was a ghost there, no-one saw her, not even the dragons...
"What are you doing?"
"Eh?" Kirsten was dragged back into her body and looked up.
"You were saying something." Hyster said, "You didn't reply when I asked you what was wrong."
"Oh, I must have dozed of, you're right the assignments are boring today..." Kirsten quickly said, she hadn't fallen asleep, but it would look that way to anyone still on Earth... She should be more careful.
"I told you!" Hyster said.
Kirsten relaxed, he didn't expect a thing. Maybe it was safer not to go back again. It was nearly time to leave anyway. She looked at her telescope one more time, sighed and went out. Tomorrow she would see more. She zipped up her jacket and left for her room in the university.

"She sure was gone fast." Hyster mumbled to himself and went to her telescope, "I wonder what she was looking at that got her so tired."
He bent down and looked through her telescope. He hadn't seen that part of space before. He didn't recognise any of the stars, nor the planet right in the middle of it. It was just a speck and the telescope was set on its highest level, hardly something you would find if you weren't looking for it. If all Kirsten did was look at that one screen he would have gotten bored too. Hyster took a step back and thought he might as well leave early too. He had copied some numbers of previous assignments, no-one would ever know.
On his way out he suddenly saw Kirsten's notebook. She was always so protective of it, he'd better bring it to her before she totally lost it. He knew she was capable of searching the entire dorm for it and brainy enough to have forgotten she had left it here. Maybe he even could copy her numbers. 
"That's not a bad idea, Hyster, old chap." he said, impersonating professor Roger from Chemistry. 
Hyster laughed and opened the notebook. Numbers, charts and graphics... he turned the pages to find the right one. Kirsten wasn't too neat he thought, he saw drawings of dragons and people all over her notes. Anyone could pass this class though. He had heard all they had to do for their exam was get readings on a set of specified coordinates. He wouldn't have come to the astronomy room at all if it wasn't for Kirsten. There was something about the girl that intrigued him. She had such a boring life he wasn't sure she was alive at all. He knew she would have to get her kicks somewhere, he hadn't met a person yet who was content with school and sleeping. And the notebook was the perfect opportunity to see how she lived... and get some digits. 
Hyster skipped ahead to what seemed to be the last page in the book, copied the numbers and left. He casually swung his jacket over his shoulders and walked to the girls dorm. At the dorm he looked around, no-one was around. Just what he needed. He punched in the access code and went in. He would be expelled if anyone found out he knew the code. But it was their fault really... He had been so bored in those astronomy classes he had broken into the computer mainframe and stolen the access codes. Not to do anything stupid, just because he could and because someday it might come in handy... like today. 
He saw the mailboxes and looked for Kirsten's name. She had a room on the second floor. He took the stairs and soon found it. 

Kirsten made some tea and turned on her radio. She was thinking of a nice long evening of relaxing. maybe reading a book, or gazing at the stars. Her room was soft yellow with posters on all the walls. Books lay everywhere where there was room. She took up her tea and sat down on her bed. She searched a few seconds in the stack of books next to her bed and finally took out 'Medieval Geomancy' and started reading. This method of predicting the future was very strange, but also very accurate. It was weird how a few rolls with a dice could predict what would happen to you... but then, maybe you could just translate the meaning to always fit your situation. She smiled, she was still too scientific to completely believe the paranormal, but too alternative to not try it and think science could explain everything, afterall she had seen dragons.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Who could that be? she thought and went to the door. She looked through the peephole and saw Hyster. Weird.
"Yes?" she called.
"Kirsten, it's me, you forgot your notebook."
"Oh God no!" she whispered. If only he hadn't read it.
"Thanks! I didn't know I had lost it." she said and opened the door.
"I just thought I'd bring it back before you missed it." he said and looked in her room.
"You girls get far better rooms than we." he said and handed her the book.
"Yeah, I think it builds character to live in a crappy room." she smiled and took over the book, apparently he hadn't opened it. If she could get him to leave nothing would be lost.
"I think I'll go now." he said and took a step back.
"See you tomorrow." she said and closed the door, maybe a bit too fast to be normal. 
Nothing had happened, he didn't know about Nemista and he wouldn't find out what she did when she was supposed to work. She went back to bed and decided she would turn in early today.

"She's definitely hiding something." Hyster said to himself, "but what?"
Hyster went back out and didn't realise he was heading back to the Astronomy lab until he got there. He looked at his watch, 10 minutes had passed. That wasn't much, he could go back in and act like he was working overtime on an assignment and no-one would be suspicious.
Upstairs he went back to Kirsten's telescope and saw no-one had touched it. Good. Now he could get the coordinates and look up that weird planet. Just to be sure and because the planet was so small Hyster added a big square of space. If anything was there he would find it. Strangely nothing was supposed to be there. In the main computer all he got with the coordinates on the telescope was empty space. Not even a dwarf star should be there... and yet he had seen the planet.
Hyster pondered for a moment about the possibility that Kirsten could have found a planet. But that seemed to absurde. Thousands of people had searched the galaxy, there wasn't anything left to be found from Earth's point of view. Hyster went back to the telescope and looked in. The planet was gone! It had been there, Hyster wasn't the kind of person that hallucinated or doubted his senses. He had seen it and therefor it must exist. 
Suddenly someone entered the Astronomy room. Students for the next hour, he thought. He really pitied the students that had had to reserve so late. He had better things to do.
"I'm just leaving!" he said and turned around.
In stead of seeing some dorky astronomy student he saw Kirsten. She looked shocked. Now he definately knew she was hiding something.
"What was that Planet, Kirsten?" he asked, dead serious, without a hint of his usual casual tone.
"What planet?" she asked.
She was clearly nervous, she didn't dare look him in the eyes and she kept straightening her t-shirt.
"The planet I saw in your telescope. it was there and now it's gone. Your weird behaviour, your notebook it all comes down to this, it's all connected." he said, trying to make her confess.
"Have you tried cleaning the lens? Maybe you saw a speck of dirt." she said.
"I did not!" he yelled, he was getting angry.
"Don't yell, someone will here us." she said, finally looking him in the eyes, they were big and the brown looked wet as if she had cried.
"Let them! Maybe then we'll find out what you've been doing."
"No!" she whispered.
"What could be so important? If it was a new planet you surely would have reported it by now."
"I can't..." she said.
"And why's that."
Kirsten looked around and suddenly took a decision.
"I'll show you, but you have to promise me you won't tell anyone."
Hyster could live with that. He followed her to her telescope and she started talking.
"I have these two hours too. Professor McGregor wants to keep me happy so I don't run off to become an astronaut. Anyways, I use this time to look. I've seen things you wouldn't believe if I told them so I'll have to show you." she said and placed her hands on the telescope.
"Look inside, you haven't changed the coordinates, right?"
Hyster shook his head, he hadn't touched the coordinates.
"Ever larger, show me what you hide, Ever faster, let me feel your pride..." Kirsten whispered and Hyster felt himself being sucked in. What he saw he just couldn't describe. Kirsten brought him back before he had truely grasped what he saw. Big animals, battles... blurry and foggy, he couldn't focus.
"You pulled me out too soon." he said.
"No, you can't stay there long, certainly if you're not used to it. I can hold on for an hour, not longer. You could lose yourself out there!" she said.
"What is it?"
"Nemista, a planet beyond the reach of telescopes, I don't know how many people know of it, maybe it's a legitimate colony, but I won't take that risk, people there don't know anything about Earth and I'd like to keep it that way."
"You can't decide on that." Hyster told her.
"If I don't tell anyone I can." she said.
"You told me."
"And you promised not to tell."
Hyster suddenly realised what she had shown him wasn't some parlour trick you could do with satelites and computers. What she had shown him was real, but then how had she managed to get it in the telescope?
"How did you find it?" he asked.
"I've done it many times...my mother taught me, though she could only see as far as the planets in our solar system, she couldn't do what I can now that I have access to this telescope."
"And what exactly do you do?"
"Magic... I suppose."
"You're not certain?" Hyster was baffled.
"Well, I never wondered about it, it's just something I always could, like hearing or smelling."
"You have to get me there." Hyster said.
"Nooo, Teleportation is way too dangerous. I've never tried it, I'm happy here. If I go there I won't be able to see anymore."
"No, in stead you would be able to do! Have you seen the battles? Even fuzzy like that I could feel the rush!" Hyster said, too excited for Kirsten's liking.
"But, we could die..."
"Could we get them here?"
"I don't know, We are ghosts there, no-one can see us..."
"We don't have to be seen, just heard."
Hyster saw Kirsten caving in. He had won. The dragons were too tempting even for a person so set on watching. He smiled. Going to Nemista was even better than becoming an astronaut. Who would want to see the same old planets if he could explore an entirely new one?
"No! I'm trying first!" he said when kirsten tried to sit down behind the telescope.
She sighed and let him enter Nemista again. "Hello?" he yelled. But no-one looked at him, no-one heard him. Disappointed he let Kirsten drag him out.
"Nothing." he said.
Kirsten took a seat and managed to come up with some plan. Earlier she had always been like a leaf, drifting on wind. She had let herself be taken, but now she wouldn't. She actively chose a path and thought hard about the university park like it would be at night. When she looked around she saw a woman looking in her direction, straight at her. She hoped she had done enough and went back.
"And?" Hyster asked.
"If it worked we should go to the park right away." Kirsten said as she pushed Hyster to the door.
"So soon, can't we take anything with?" he asked.
"I thought you wanted to go really bad." she said.
Hyster shrugged and let himself be taken out. The park was dark and locked for the night.
"Damn! I forgot the lock!" Kirsten said.
"No worries, the code is 87532."
"How do you know?"
"Boring lessons make for good hackers." Hyster said and grinned as he pushed in the code. The gates opened and they went in. The night was dark, the trees obscured most of the moon's light and stars couldn't be seen. Suddenly something appeared from nowhere. It almost looked like a big wall of nothingness. When they came closer they could see the dragon was just dark brown-red in colour. A woman stepped out from behind.
"Are you the people that called us?"
"Yes." Kirsten said as she looked at the dragon. It was big, bigger than she had thought.
"My name is Elkan and this is Garnet Kyr." the woman said.
"I'm Hyster and she is Kirsten." Hyster said and looked longingly at the dragon, "Can you take us to Nemista?"
"I can." she said and gestured invitingly towards Garnet Kyr.

Lantessama Isle
Hyster and Kirsten are Candidates at Tirpanalli Dragonry