Interstellar Academy, Kennedy Harkins [epub e ink reader TXT] 📗

for all the Salaac, or any of the other cities on Tundris for the matter, but this was a training facility. Parents might not raise a fuss if their child was killed in combat, but falling to their deaths? Disgraceful.

I kept my altitude as low as possible, wanting to see the city. Salaac was amazing for more than the fact that it was the Capital of the whole planet and housed millions of Tundrians.There were no doors in the city. All the buildings were three walls, sometimes even two, stacked on top of each other. These one floor apartments started a couple stories up, everything below that was storage and recreational areas that could be reached by elevators outside the building, and soared to the clouds.

Force fields covered where there were no walls, were used to keep the apartments relatively insulated, and could be turned opaque, making it look solid, for privacy. Each field was programed to the genetic code of anyone with rights to enter. Once that happened, Kver and Scala alike would just fly right through the field as if it were air.

It was a unique feature that no other city in the universe could boast of. Certainly not the rest of Tundris, who would see such openness as disgusting weakness, like showing your injured limb to an opponent. To attempt to rectify this, the city was completely enclosed by a giant, dark wall made from the toughest metals in the solar system. It was hundreds of yards thick and the unbreachable, the pride of Tundris.

As I got closer to the Divide, I had to fly higher, because the top of the wall was stories higher than any building within the city. It curved slightly inwards, making it almost dome like. I landed near one of the departing stations on the edge on the wall.

I scanned my papers at one of the many booths. A Scala with dingy colored feather grimaced at me from behind the counter, looking over my documentation with a little more scrutiny than the situation warranted. I schooled my face to be smooth and unaffected.

He finally grunted at me, unable to find anything wrong with my passes. The other side of the wall was a bit of a walk, but I didn’t want to board a shuttle vehicle with a bunch of Tundrians I didn’t know, not to mention there’d be more Scala on board.

“Drusus Accia.” A voice called from behind me.

“Maeve Spada.” I nodded in greeting.

Her hair was the color of the pale, Earth fruit my mother was fond of. I searched for the word before coming up with peaches. She had dark skin that marked her from farther north. With wings of brown, her’s were lighter than mine, but still featherless like a true Kver. Her mouth was thin, making it look like she was constantly unhappy. Typically, she was, but her lips made it impossible to pretend otherwise.

“Why are you leaving the city?” I asked. “Shouldn’t you be preparing for your Zrel? If you don’t win the fight--”

“--I won’t be an adult. I’m leaving for the same reason you are, I assume.” Her voice was monotone, like always. It made it difficult to pay attention to her if you weren’t used to it. It could have been intentional. I’d never quite mustered up the courage to ask.

My hand smoothed over my breast pocket of its own accord. “What reason would that be?”

She raised an eyebrow, but somehow managed to still look completely uninterested. “To gain an advantage on our fellow trainees by learning battle techniques collected from all around the galaxy. That’s why you’re going, of course.”

Passive aggressive without crossing any lines of etiquette. I was reminded of why my mother loved her.

“Of course,” I searched for something else to say, something to take suspicion of why I was going. My mother would’ve had no trouble, my brother either, for that matter. I was the only one in my family cursed with poor communication skills. “It doesn’t hurt that we’ll be light years away from my brother, either.”

Her lips twitched. “How is Akakios? Still a blood thirsty nine year old?”

“Bent on killing me in my sleep, yes. And I’d prefer if you called him Kios. He hates it.”

She dove from the take off deck first, stretching her wings to their full wingspan. The wind catching the underside and propelling her upward. I joined her after a miniscule moment to make sure the object in my pocket was tucked securely.

It’s a chore to yell over the rush of air, so neither of us made an attempt at it. Instead, I watched as the wall disappeared, and with it, the last sight of civilization. Outhere, there were no cities, only a few scattered towns. Most of those settlements were poor and lived off the untouched land that surrounded them for hundreds of miles.

Off-world take off was strictly prohibited within the city walls, so anyone wishing to travel had to travel to the nearby station, where Mae and I were headed. I’d never been aboard one of the wicked fast rockets, but I’d seen my mother off on many trips to meet with her fellow members of the United Universe. My stomach turned over at the thought of riding one. Put me in a fight, and I was in my element, but aboard a spacecraft, if anything went awry, there would be nothing I could do.

A small paved surface came into view after we passed a large hill. It grew in size as we descended, seeming to be almost as big as a city. There were no ships in sight, only large holes in the ground with retracting metal doors. Most of those doors were closed and would only open a few moments before take off.

We landed not far from one of the openings and followed the path to a pair of elevators that would take us underground. They were made completely of glass, allowing us to oggle the rockets from top to bottom on our way down. They were tall and thin and came to a point at the nose. The metal they were forged from was dark and colorless, scientifically engineered like on many crafts to blend seamlessly with the inky space around it.

“Do you know how many Tundrian students were accepted?” I asked.

She didn’t turn away from the sight of the rocket. “A lot. More than any other planet, except maybe from Kalid. I heard there were record low applicants from Earth, and that there were no Parvulians admitted for this term. Sounds like it’s going to be a diverse school without the diversity,” she snickered.

I shrugged. “The one drawback to the Academy was that I’d have to rub elbows with all those dregs. Fine by me if none of them show up.”

We sat in a waiting area that was walled with glass, making it easy to sit and be bewitched by the crafts taking off. Their ends erupted in a cloud of smoke and sparks, and they propelled out of their holdings with speed I’d never before seen.

Not long after one would exit, another would shift up, seemingly through the ground, to take it’s place. My mother told me once that they had a landing facility a few miles from here, and from there, they would ship back the passengers and ships for future take offs. I repeated that fact to myself when the rockets too strongly resembled plants sprouting from the dirt.

As the waiting room filled up with more and more Tundrians, some students that would join us, our time to board came. My insides did flips and turns as Mae and I climbed down a set of stairs to get to the main floor where the rockets were held.

Seeing them there, infinitely and impossibly taller than they’d looked from the elevators or the waiting room, I wanted to flap my wings with all my might all the way home. The training center would accept me back in a heart beat. I was a protege.

As I got closer and closer to my rocket, I couldn’t remember why I was doing this. I could learn everything I needed on Tundris. There was no need to go off in search of new battle strategies; the ones I had were good enough to pulverize any species in the inevitable war.

My step stuttered, and I gripped my breast pocket with pale fingers. I felt the slight but reassuring weight there, and ran my fingers along the cylindrical shape. I looked up and Mae had gotten a few strides in front of me, I kept my hand where it was and caught up with her.

An AI showed us to our seats after checking our identification. It stayed around long enough to yank roughly on the harnesses, ensuring we wouldn’t slip out and splatter everywhere. I tried to focus on my breathing.

The rocket vibrated with the power of the multiple engines. I leaned my head back against the fluorescent headrest. I could feel the shaking getting worse and worse till I could feel it deep in my bones. As the captain announced the countdown, I squeezed my eyes shut.

I didn’t want to see this part.

 

Astra

 

August 30:

I had to see this part.

I gripped the edge of the widow with shaking fingers. The driver was angling our Cruiser-- of the same brand I crashed a month ago-- towards the Intergalaxy Road. The road part was a bit of a misnomer, as there was no pavement or rails with automated microchips embedded in them to keep the car hovering on the right path. Satellite generated holos gave you a sense of being on a giant interstate, but you weren’t actually touching anything.

Instead of chips, the “road” was a field of radio signals that interacted with your vehicle--if it had off-world capabilities. The illusion of a road removed the extra axis in traveling in space, making it like moving your own body on land. The radio signals actually kept your car on the imaginary road, a feat impossible for a regular space ship, because it operated with that extra axis.

As soon as we had holographic pavement beneath our tires, I braced myself for the same result as last time, that we'd go flying off into free space. But after a second, I realised the driver was just as smooth on this road as he was on the ground.

I pressed my lips into a thin line, but reminded myself that we hadn't even left the atmosphere yet. I'd made it much farther than this.

“When did we get one of these?” I asked Igor.

He raised an eyebrow. “Your family is one of the richest in the galaxy, and you didn't think they had off-world capable cruisers?”

Frowning, I thought back. “I never saw any.”

“That,” he said. “Was deliberate.”

The car autopilot took over, speeding us out of the atmosphere at speeds that a human couldn't hope to pilot under. The car shook, and the window was a collage of violent