NOVEL WEB Chapter 6: The Academy
Chapter 6: The Academy
Location: Estriduros Republic; ERS Verdinum
The next few days are pretty much the same. In the morning the door opens, and a Private brings me a tray of breakfast. After eating, I use the room's tablet and watch some random stuff until another Private returns for lunch. Afterward, a third Private takes me out for a short walk through the corridors till I'm back alone in the room. The days end with a fourth Private bringing me dinner. After eating, I go to sleep early because I can’t do anything else anyway.
The boring routine is only interrupted when a male voice announces over the intercom that we are about to enter a wormhole. This happens every few days when we leave for another star system to take their young Mages. Not that I notice any of this. The process occurs in the hangar and wherever the Mages are taken afterward. We’ve already visited two other systems so far, but I think, I’m still the only Space Mage.
“All crew, prepare for wormhole travel. Entry in five minutes!”
Ahh, here we go again. Maybe they will find a Space Mage this time? I’m dying of boredom alone in the room!
The ship shudders a little but that’s about all I notice of the wormhole entry. I don’t even notice when we emerge. Everything stays the same. Lunch is served to the minute at noon, or 1200 hours as the military likes to say. Now it’s just another two hours of waiting until I’m taken out for my daily walk…
It comes as a shock when suddenly my door opens again, just thirty minutes after lunch. Standing there is a collared boy who looks quite shocked as well. Behind him is a smiling Captain Dolder. “Hello Sara, this is Simon, your new roommate for the last three days of our trip.” With that, she leaves, and the door closes behind the new guy, Simon.
We both look at each other in shock. He is tall, even taller than Thomas. I estimate his height at around 190 centimeters. His clothes look very expensive. Every piece of his clothing bears the logo of a famous design brand. I’ve only ever seen pictures of clothes like that while browsing my tablet. And he just wears it as if it’s nothing. Brown eyes, a friendly face, and perfectly styled mid-length dark blue hair complete his look. Looks like we are at one of the core systems now. Or he’s just rich…
The silence starts getting heavy and I can’t bear it anymore, so I start talking. “Hi, Simon, right? I’m Sara. Nice to meet you.”
His eyes linger on my collar. “Yes, I’m Simon Storkis. Nice to meet you too.” He points at my collar after staring at it all the time. “You’re a Mage too! Do you know why we are here and not with the others?”
I look at him in confusion. Didn’t Captain Dolder tell you?”
He shakes his head. “No, she brought me straight here, but everyone threw angry glances at her.”
“Oh okay…” I scratch the back of my head. “You’re a Space Mage, right?” When he nods, I continue. “I’m one too, that’s why we’re awake… Essentially, Space Mages are kinda important and the Captain wants to leave a good impression, even if it’s against protocol. That’s why the Star Force guys are a little angry with her.”
Simon sits down on the other bed and puts his face in his hands. “So, just because the Captain wants to be nice, we’re not kept unconscious like the others?”
I nod. “Yeah, pretty much. As if this would make us like them more…”
Simon looks back up and shakes his head. “It’s disgusting…”
“True…” I take another glance at his clothes. “Oh, and you probably want to exchange your clothes for one of those shipsuits.” I point at my own. “Captain said we aren’t allowed to own anything now that we are mages. The bathroom is behind that door.”
He looks at me like I’ve grown a second head. “Seriously? Do you know how much I paid for all this?
“Yeah, I can imagine.”
When the next Private shows up to take me for a walk, he looks at Simon and frowns. “Where is your shipsuit?”
“I’m happy with the clothes I own, they have integrated protection.”
The private just shakes his head and mumbles under his breath. A few minutes later, a squad of rangers walks down the hallway and takes Simon away. Half an hour later, he returns with a defeated expression on his face, now wearing the same shipsuit as me. The rangers turn around and leave. Looks like we’re not allowed to walk outside today…
Location: Estriduros Republic; Estriduros System; Mage Academy Station; ERS Verdinum
Three days later, our kidnapping tour is in the final stages. We are about to dock at the Mage Academy Station. I’ve found a live stream of the forward-facing cameras of the ship on the tablet. I can only think of one thing. This thing is huge! A gigantic cube of tristanium is floating next to a small moon. This time there are even windows with lights shining through some of them.
Just when I think, the Verdinum is about to turn and dock sideways with the cube, something unbelievable happens. The walls of the bottom third of the cube slide to the side, opening up an enormous hangar bay. Holy smokes we are going to fly straight in! Just how big is this thing? The Verdinum alone is 300 meters long and I can see other ships already inside the hangar bay.
With a slight rumble, the ship settles down in the hangar bay a few minutes later. All we can do now is wait for someone to lead us out, as we can’t leave the room alone. Half an hour later, the door opens, and an annoyed-looking Space Ranger gestures to us to follow him. We take an elevator down a few decks and walk some more till we arrive at an open airlock. Do they keep the whole hangar bay pressurized? We leave the ship and step down some stairs.
Wow, it is really as big as it looked. When I arrive on the ground, I turn in a circle to take in the size of the hangar bay. Looks like a square with a length and width of about one kilometer. This must be the whole base level of the space station!
There are lots of hovering platforms, functioning as elevators. They move up and down, but also to the sides, and sometimes vanish through the ceiling. That’s probably the way to the station proper. We stand there waiting with the sole ranger a few meters beside the entrance to the Verdinum. I wonder how they will handle the unloading of all the young Mages.
The question doesn’t stay unanswered for long as just a few minutes later one of the Privates, who was at my testing too, walks out, followed by a seemingly unending number of young people, all clothed in the same shipsuits like mine and Simon’s. There must be over a hundred. And the Verdinum only visited six out of 23 sectors of the republic. That’s what, around 500 Mages enrolling at the academy?
Everyone looks still groggy as if they were just woken up. I guess that’s exactly what happened. Poor sods… The last thing they remember is taking the Mage exam on their home planets. Now they are here in an unfamiliar environment.
Just when my mind tries to tell me how lucky I was instead, I clamp down hard. No! I was not lucky, I’m just as bad off as everyone else. Nothing good happened between my Mage testing and now. I can’t be grateful for what Captain Dolder has done!
The Rangers take everyone over to one of the platforms. Ten people each, then the platform moves straight up and vanishes through the ceiling. 20 seconds later it returns, and the process repeats itself. Simon and I stay together, and we can board the platform on its fifth run. When we arrive at the top there is a man in a dark blue uniform waiting for us. He beckons us to leave the platform after the railing opened to let us out. “Leave through the door behind me and get ready for inspection.”
In the next room is another blue uniformed person who divides us by our genders. We are to leave through one of the doors, where we have to wait till the doctor calls us in.
After about 15 minutes it’s my turn. The doctor looks around 50 years old, with grey streaked hair hanging down her back. With a smile on her round face, she beckons me to stand in the center of the room. “Hello dear, please state your name, then the scanner over there will do a quick health check, and if everything checks out you are good to go.” She gestures to the weird two-meter-tall stick, standing a meter away from me.
My gaze from her to the stick and back. “My name’s Sara…”
She lifts an eyebrow. “Go on.”
I grumble “Sara Nelson.”
“That checks out. Space Mage huh? You’re a rare one. Now hold still.”
She makes a hand gesture, and the weird stick starts humming, then a cone of blue light extends out of It and moves from my feet upward. I have to close my eyes due to the brightness when it reaches my head. Then there is a ding sound, and the light stops. The doctor stares in the empty air and now I recognize her use of a holographic interface. I wish I had one too. She makes another gesture and before me appears a projection of myself and some medical data next to it.
“As you can see, you are perfectly healthy. You are free to go. Just follow the hallway till you arrive in the assembly hall.”
After reading a few lines of the medical report, I get bored, tell her goodbye, and leave the room. The assembly hall is underwhelming. It’s just a big room with lots of chairs and a stage in the front. The room is already bursting with people, but I still find an empty chair near the back of the room. Are those the Mages from the other sectors of the republic? I wonder how long they’ve been waiting. But it also looks like less than 500 people, so they probably did another assembly before?
For the next 30 minutes, the remaining Mages collected by the Verdinum arrive. Five minutes after the final one sits down, the lights dim, and spotlights begin illuminating the stage. A man walks up. He is about as wide as high. His massive belly makes his suit look kinda funny and I suppress a snort. His balding head is completed with a small goatee. He starts to talk “Welcome young Mages, I’m Charles Meroldor, the headmaster of this academy.”
This is too much! How can his voice be so high-pitched with so a massive body? I snort and start to chuckle. The people around me give me a weird look, still full of confusion. I whisper an apology after I get myself back under control. Right, the last thing they remember is being collared on their planet. Obviously, they are confused and anxious. And then there’s me chuckling…
The headmaster goes on. I notice he doesn’t wear a collar. Probably no Mage then. “You probably wonder how you got here. Let me explain. All of you tested as a Mage in the testing centers on your planets and space stations. For your own safety and the ease of transport, it is the law, that every Mage is to be collared and anesthetized upon discovery of their magical talent.”
For our own safety… keep talking old man, we all know that is so you can control us! I forgot all the humor I had about his voice. It makes way for anger. Trying to justify what they did with such weak arguments is bullshit. As if we’d suddenly explode after being tested as a Mage.
“From there on you were transported by our brave men and women of the Star Force and Space Rangers till you arrived here on the Mage Academy Station. Here you can learn everything there is to know about being a Mage and using spells safely. This is also the purpose of your collar. It is controlled by your instructors who you can recognize by their blue uniforms everywhere on the station. The collar lets them activate or deactivate your magic for your own safety.”
I look around; the room is full of many different emotions. Some people look angry, others sad, but the majority still look quite confused. Someone shouts in an angry voice. “Why didn’t you just leave us be? I never asked to be a Mage!”
He’s right! None of us asked to be a Mage. Why didn’t they just leave us be? The headmaster looks around until he finds who has spoken.
He looks at him without any sympathy in his eyes. “I’m sorry my boy. Mages without formal training are a danger to society. We can’t allow that. Therefore, everyone who shows magical potential has to visit the academy.”
That’s all he says before continuing with his normal speech. “For the next week, you have time to explore the station and to settle in. After that, there will be a testing for your power. Then you will visit your classes just like you did in school before, with the specialty of practical training. You can now leave the room through one of the exits on the sides. There are staff members waiting, just tell one of them your name and they’ll give you a tablet, which helps you navigate the station. You can also use it to find a roommate, otherwise, you’ll get a random one. Welcome again to the next chapter of your life. Make the republic proud!”
With that, he leaves the stage, and the lights turn back on. Most of us just sit there and try to sort out everything he just said. There is still anger in the air, but what can we do? We’re collared and even if we weren’t, we don’t know any spells…