Chapter 100: Exploration (2)

Chapter 100: Exploration (2)

Location: Magicon Empire; Magicon System; FBC Station

Our group makes quick work with the single set of stairs, and we quickly arrive on the rooftop of building 07. A big shuttle is already waiting for us. It’s ugly, just straight pieces of tristanium welded together. There aren’t even any other windows besides a single one at the front. One of the sides slides open and invites us inside.

“It’s not pretty, but we’ll have to take the cargo shuttle if we want to make it in a single trip. We’re over a hundred people after all,” Sam says with a light voice and steps inside.

A few courageous students follow her. Then after a bit of hesitation, all the others go inside as well. The door closes behind us, and the shuttle comes alive. There is a slight whine of the gravity generator coming online, but that’s it. I don’t feel a single thing, but I see the outside moving through the front window. That’s a high-quality grav generator at least.

Sam’s voice reaches us. It carries on a slight current of magic throughout the shuttle. “I know it’s not the most comfortable ride, but we reach our destination in just fifteen minutes, so please hang on. I try to get you cleared for teleportation to the station as soon as possible. If everything goes well, this should be our only flight with that blocky shuttle.”

There are sighs of relief all around. While we don’t feel anything due to the grav generator, the shuttle is still crowded, and we all have to stand.

Lucy whispers into my ear. “I wish we could just have jumped to the Stargazer.”

I whisper right back. “True enough, but I’m trying not to annoy too many people right now after the stunt with Charles…”

Tim snorts, he must have heard me. “What?” I ask him with faked annoyance.

“Nothing,” he replies innocently, “there must be something in the air.”

I just shake my head.

“Where is the Stargazer anyway?” Lucy asks again.

Before I can answer that I only know that Clara has moved her over to the station right now, Clara’s voice sounds in my ear. “I’ve just arrived at FBC Station, the ship will be waiting for you once you arrive.”

“Clara just told me she docked at FBC Station. Thanks, Clara by the way. So, everything should be ready for our arrival. It’s just surviving the remainder of our trip up there.”

Luckily, it doesn’t take too long. Just ten minutes later, the door suddenly slides open again and reveals the view of a mostly empty hangar bay. A flicker of Space magic, and suddenly Sam stands outside right in the middle of the hangar bay. “Welcome to FBC Station. Come on out, don’t be shy. I’ve got something special for you.”

It must be the starships, otherwise, we wouldn’t be up here… I wonder how everyone reacts to the Stargazer. I listen to the whispers around me.

“It’s the starships, right?”

“Yeah, my brother told me they are amazing, but not what kind of ships they are…”

“Probably Ether Tech Exploration vessels. That would make the most sense.”

“Nah, I bet we’re getting VHI ships, FBC is the premier college besides RMA after all.”

The last comment earns the speaker a few chuckles and the girl next to him pats his shoulder.

“Keep dreaming… Those ships are way out of our league.”

I find myself lost in my thoughts again. I don’t think it’s too far-fetched. Why wouldn’t my parents sponsor a few ships to FBC? Not that it would hurt them, and it would show the next generation of Mages that the Big Five care about them…

Once everyone has left the shuttle, Sam turns around and beckons us to follow her. We exit the hangar bay through a sliding door and enter a hallway. It looks like it circles the station, as I’m constantly seeing a slight bend in the hallway before me while we’re walking.

A few minutes later, Sam opens another door to our left and enters. We all quickly follow. It’s a classroom, but something’s special. The walls and ceiling look like darkened glass. Sam waits at the front of the room with a knowing smirk on her face. Everyone else quickly finds their seat. My group sits somewhere in the middle of the room, the guy who guessed for VHI ships sits next to me. He wears a foolish grin, still holding onto his hope.

I can feel the building excitement in the room and once the final student sits, Sam starts to speak. “Okay, now is the time where I tell you to write a 50-page essay about exploration. This will be your grade for the course.”

I stare back at her with a deadpan expression. She’s still grinning. Yeah, she can’t be serious. Still, there are a few shouts of outrage and I even see a few people’s expressions turn sad.

Sam waits for a few more seconds before she starts laughing. “Just kidding, just kidding. You should see your faces. Priceless!” That earns her a few glares, but she just continues. “Anyway, now onto the real thing. Behold your ships for the course!”

She waves her hand, and all the glass walls clear up. Beyond we can see a lot of docking arms. At each of them parks a single ship. There are fifteen in total, and they are all identical, about 70 meters in length. The design is unmistakable, and if someone doesn’t recognize it, the big ‘V’ logo at the side of the ships is a dead giveaway.

They are VHI ships!

The classroom is dead silent before someone starts cheering. Everyone else quickly joins in. I turn to the guy to my right and bump his shoulder. “Dude, you were right!”

He grins back at me. “This is amazing, I can’t believe it.”

Sam waits, grinning, until the noise dies down a bit. “There you have it. Sponsored by the Valterion family, I present you the Scout class starships. We named them all after animals, which will also be your group’s callsign later on. Are you ready to see the inside?”

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There are more cheers, and others nod their agreement. Sam nods and waves her hand again. There is a small rumble, then our room starts moving! We fly closer to the outermost starship. Holy smokes, I didn’t know our room could do this. The closer we get, the more details become visible. The first thing I notice is that there aren’t any Armortec guns. That doesn’t mean there aren’t any weapons at all, just no special Magitech guns.

Finally, the name of the ship gets visible. It’s the BCS Lion – Benson College Ship. Luckily, it’s not the Tiger, as that would have called up unpleasant memories. The guys who kidnapped me were the Black Tigress Mercenary Company after all. Our classroom, class-ship? Docks at the airlock, and once the pressure is equalized, the doors open with a slight hiss of air.

“Follow me,” Sam calls out. “Those ships were designed with our needs in mind, so every one features a small classroom aboard. It will be a bit crowded, but we all should fit just fine. I’ll give you a tour on the way.”

With that, we follow her through the airlock. This time we’re almost at the front with only a few people and Sam before us.

Lydia taps my shoulder. “Looks like we would have been fine without the Stargazer, huh?”

“Yeah, but without her, we would have missed the course as it was already full.”

“True.”

While we talk, we get a short look at the crew cabins, which are ten in total, and a small common area to relax. One deck higher is the bridge, and right behind it, we reach our destination: the classroom.

Sam was right, it is a bit on the smaller side, but we all still fit quite comfortably. She then steps to a lectern in the front and turns back to us.

“Alright, listen up. Every ship comes with its own AI that will take care of controlling the actual ship. If you do have piloting skills, you can show me your license after the lesson. If everything checks out you will be allowed to control the ship yourself, otherwise the controls will be locked down. That is non-negotiable.”

A few people look a bit sad at the news, as they probably wanted to fly a VHI ship themselves. Meanwhile, Lucy and I share a shocked look. Are there piloting licenses?

I whisper to my own AI. “Clara, do we have such a license? I’ve never heard of it before.”

“Yeah, we’re good. Sara Green has her piloting license. Your real identity on the other hand lacks one. This shouldn’t be a problem though. Your parents can take care of it once it becomes necessary.”

“Thanks, Clara,” I reply and nod at Lucy at the same time. “We’re good,” I whisper to her. Lucy sighs in relief.

I missed a few words from Sam, as when I start paying attention again, she is right in the process of calling out the Lion’s AI. “…share the same name. Lion, care to say hello?”

“Certainly Miss Xyderion. Hello class, my name is Lion, it’s a pleasure meeting you.”

The AI has a soft male voice and comes out of the speakers overhead.

“Good, now with that out of the way, I have to tell you a few more things about the actual Exploration course. First of all, over the next few weeks, we will be doing test flights and test jumps with the starships so you can get to know them. We will mostly jump around the neighboring systems and back. During breaks, we will either meet up in one of the ships for short lessons, or we will do video conferences,” Sam shrugs. “I’m not sure yet, as we are a lot of people this year.”

She waves her hand, and a projection of the galaxy appears before her. It slowly zooms in until it more or less only shows the star systems that belong to The Empire. It’s gigantic, seeing it like this. There are so many star systems belonging to our nation. It's way bigger than the Estriduros Republic.

“Now, let me give you a short overview of what you’ll have to do to get your grade. As you can see, this is The Empire. We’re currently right here in the center.” A star system lights up, and I recognize it as the Magicon System. Sam continues. “All around us are so many star systems. Some of them aren’t even populated at all. Others aren’t fully developed yet. This will be your job. Each group can select one star system and will visit it during the practical phase of the course. There you will explore the system and write a report about what you find there. This report can include resources you find there, rare plants, recommendations for or against terraforming, or whatever you find relevant.”

Sam stops speaking as a girl in the front row lifts her hand. She nods at her.

“Sorry for interrupting you, but I’m a bit confused. I mean The Empire already exists for 11,000 years… How can there still be so many undeveloped systems?”

Sam nods. “There are two answers to your question, actually. The first one is necessity. While The Empire is big, it is not that big to fill up every single system within our borders. So, there are bound to be a few empty star systems that just weren’t needed yet. I’ll be honest with you. Pretty much every system you guys will be visiting has already been explored before. But as the results aren’t publicly available, this doesn’t matter at all. The second answer is that lots of systems are just duds. There aren’t many resources, or the planets are so trashy that it isn’t worth terraforming them. You may explore such a system. Your report will then clarify why this system isn’t worth developing.”

Oh, that’s genius! That way they can show us students how to explore things in a relatively safe environment while still being out in the real world. Also, this cuts the distances we have to travel by a lot. I mean if we had to explore something completely new, I’m guessing, we had to move very far away.

“Are there any further questions?” Sam asks. “If not, we’re finished for today. You guys can all jump back to a jump room on campus if you want. Otherwise, the shuttle is available as well. Oh, and can the groups with their own starships wait here with me for a moment? I want to inspect them real quick.”

There are a few questions to clarify some things. They ask about how long the report has to be and if we’re allowed to change the star system if it is a dud. The answers aren’t surprising: There isn’t a required number of pages. But the report must reflect our findings. Also, we aren’t allowed to change systems because in real situations we have to work with what we are given as well.

After that, most of the Space Mages grab a few students, and they all teleport away. Not a single one wanted to take the shuttle. Sam looks quite amused by that reaction and turns back to the six teams with their own ships. “Alright, have you all managed to bring your ships here to the station?”

When she gets a nod from everyone, she smiles even broader. “Perfect, then let’s see what we have.”

We walk back to the flying classroom and disconnect from the Lion. Then we start flying away from the fifteen VHI ships until we arrive at a starship that is a little smaller than the Scout class ships, we were just on. The classroom docks again, and Sam asks us to wait while she goes with the owner and their group for a short tour. The outside of the ship looks quite different. It’s clearly not a Valterion ship. When I ask Clara, she tells me this is an Ether Tech Exploration ship. I grin when I hear the name. It’s the ship some people thought we’d fly before Sam revealed the VHI ships.

Speaking of Sam, they return ten minutes later, and we fly over to the next ship. There the process repeats itself. This time it’s a Karls Inc. Scavenger class ship. It’s about the size of the Stargazer but looks like a square block of metal. There aren’t any sleek lines I know from the Valterion ships. But hey, we’re out in space. Who cares about aerodynamics?

The third and fourth ships are another two Ether Tech ships, and the fifth one comes as a surprise. It’s a freighter. Not a big one, about 200 meters long, but still. It’s a freaking freighter and it immediately reminds me of the Solano before the pirates retrofitted her. Sam first looks like she is about to reject the ship, but after the short visit, she tells the owner's group that it is okay – much to their relief.

Now it’s our turn, and I’m very curious about Sam’s reaction. We fly over to the Stargazer, and once the others recognize the design, there are a few shouts of surprise. Some are even more direct, and I hear a few calls of “Holy shit!”

Even Sam’s eyes widen slightly. Then we dock, and I give her a short tour. She has to pick up her jaw from the ground a few times and obviously gives our ship the go-ahead. She’s not the only one who walks through the vessel with wide eyes. Tim, Nick, and Alina are shell-shocked as well. I promise them all to give them a proper tour right after Sam releases us for the day.

We return to the flying classroom, and Sam tells us a few more things we have to take care of. As we are students, we’re only allowed to use our guns in emergencies. Not that I planned to blow up every ship we see during our exploration… The second thing is that we have to change our callsign to an FBC one so that we can be recognized as students while we do our exploring. After that, Sam wishes us a nice week, and everyone teleports away.

I grab my friends and we teleport to the living room aboard the Stargazer. Time for a proper tour!