Chapter 13: Graduation

Chapter 13: Graduation

Location: Estriduros Republic; Estriduros System; Mage Academy Station

My alarm tries to wake me at six a.m. I just turn it off, as I’m already wide awake. Today is the most important day! I’ve worked hard for the past two years and now it’s finally time.

I’m going to use my magic on a real starship for the very first time!

I look over at Lucy who is still asleep and walk silently into the bathroom. There I quickly put on my clothes and grin broadly into the mirror. You’ve got this, Sara!

With that mental confirmation, I exit the bathroom and come face to face with Lucy. She has her arms crossed and tilts her head.

“Did you think I’d let you go without wishing you good luck?” She half asks half accuses me, and I can only return an awkward grin.

“Uhm, no? But you slept so peacefully…”

“Silly! It’s your most important day. Of course, I’m getting up early for this.”

She steps forward to hug me. “Good luck, Sara, show them who’s boss!”

“Thanks, Lucy,” I hug her back.

After that, I leave my room, move up to level 27, and grab some breakfast. While I wait for Simon, I get a bit lost in my thoughts. It just feels so surreal… I mean this is my first flight, but at the same time also my last. Cheap as the republic is, this functions as my graduation flight at the same time.

Everything happened so fast… It still feels like yesterday when I asked Miss Baker about my weird abilities and got the special training from her… And now, just two weeks ago I aced the written exams. After that, I spent as much time as possible in the simulators, and now it’s already time for the real thing.

I wonder how closely they managed to do the simulations… Like everyone else, I had a lot of failures at the beginning, but then I steadily became better. Even faster than most of the others, probably because of my Space Sense. Now it’s just like playing Gravity Ball… Piece of cake!

Finally, Simon arrives and after exchanging greetings, he grabs something to eat too. Despite his higher power level, he only has a single flight to pass for graduation too. Then he’s off to Star Force. For me, it’s a little different: Half a year ago I finally got the notification, doctor Silver told me about back at my power measurement.

I’m going to join Solitur Transportation, a small transportation company, that owns a few freighters. They are so small, that my instructors haven’t heard about them when I asked, and their website also doesn’t give me many details. They did send me a message at least. I’m going to be picked up in two weeks by one of their freighters that moves through the Estriduros System. Then we’ll rendezvous with another freighter somewhere in the Bon Delaaz System, where they are based.

The second freighter is the one they hired me for. Because of the currently missing Space Mage, the ship only moves between the Bon Delaaz System and a border system of the Blueridge Alliance for now. It’s possible because of the enhanced wormhole connecting these two systems.

Enhanced wormholes. A fact, I’ve learned of only recently in our lessons. Apparently, it is possible to stabilize existing wormholes with very expensive parts so that they can be used by starships without the help of Space Mages. In the republic, only a few of the main trading routes are enhanced, as it’s way cheaper to employ Space Mages on starships after all…

Anyway, we have things to do! Simon has finished eating, which means we can now go down to level 01 and from there into the hangar bay. The floating platform begins to float downward, and the sight takes my breath away. Simon next to me gasps as well. I’ve forgotten how massive this thing is!

The platform floats toward a small ship and begins its final descent. I see a few of my group of ten students already waiting. Hah, they also couldn’t wait! The platform sets down and we exchange greetings. Over the next ten minutes, more and more students arrive, until everyone is there.

Well, everyone besides two as they failed their written exams. Then four of our instructors arrive, one of them is Miss Baker. She’s also the one to speak up.

“Good morning! Today is your graduation flight, to speed things up, we’ll be forming three groups with ten students each. The groups are the following…”

Unfortunately, I’m not with Simon and have to do my flight with nine students I haven’t had much contact with. Three of the instructors join one group each and Miss Baker waves us goodbye. The republic doesn’t trust her with her powers unlocked, so, the other instructors will be supervising our graduation flight.

Still, Miss Baker has been a great help, especially the teleportation training we did in secret. While I haven’t been able to try out the spell for obvious reasons, I practiced it so much, that I can probably form it in my sleep. Maybe I get the opportunity to try it at my new job?

My group is going to be supervised by Mr Fromel. I’ve only seen him a few times, as he mostly worked with stronger students, but at least I’ve seen him around. He is a tall man with white hair and a slightly hooked nose. A slight grin can be seen on his normally grumpy face. Even the old man is excited to have his magic unlocked for a few hours!

Mr Fromel waves his hand and with a slight hiss, the airlock of the smallest of the three ships close to us opens. He turns around and beckons us to follow him. We enter the ship, and he leads us through a short hallway till we arrive in a living room?! What? Is this a luxury yacht? With a chuckle, he sits down in an armchair.

“Welcome aboard the MAS Dolores, headmaster Meroldor’s personal yacht. We’re the lucky group and managed to get the best ship of the three.” He leans back and grins. “Enjoy the ship, we’ll depart shortly, then it’s another two hours till we arrive at the wormhole. We’ll conduct the tests in alphabetical order. One does the trip to the Star Force Station, the next flies us back here, and so on. I’ll see you in two hours.”

With that, he closes his eyes and looks like he falls asleep immediately.

In alphabetical order… That means I should be the fifth. He also casually dropped our destination. SFS, it’s technically still in the Estriduros System, but so far out that it’s worth the cost of a dedicated wormhole. I think it’s also an enhanced one. It would make sense… we are all doing our first jump, and if one of us fails they obviously don’t want 10 new Space Mages and an instructor to be lost in hyperspace.

Because of the barely contained luxuries aboard the ship, the hours pass quickly, and before I know it, I hear Mr Fromel shouting back from the bridge.

“Nelson, you’re up!”

I grimace at my last name while Timo leaves the bridge with a big grin on his face. I guess he made the jump then. We’ve only had one failure yet and that was the first one. Funnily enough, he was the strongest of us ten. Lars, one of the two Senior Mages in our class. The power went right to his head, and he’s been an arrogant idiot ever since. Serves him right! Svenja was second and George the third right before Timo. They all came back with big smiles and confirmed that they made it.

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And now it’s my turn! I quickly get up and grab my RHT, before walking through the door leading to the bridge. The bridge itself looks just like in all those movies. But a lot smaller, because it’s only a luxury yacht. There is a big console right in the front with space for two crew members. That should be navigation and steering…

The seats are currently empty, as the ship’s AI can handle all normal maneuvers in space. The tactical console is missing and there is even a big window showing the outside of the ship instead of just a big view screen. The headmaster really didn’t save on expenses here…

Behind the console is the Captain’s seat, together with everything he might need to do his job – it's mostly holograms floating around the seat while showing various numbers and some schematics. The man himself stands a few steps away talking with Mr Fromel. Next to the Captain’s seat is a small console with another chair that isn’t nearly as fancy as the one of the Captain. I mean he even has a floating coffee cup next to his chair…

After a minute just standing there, I clear my throat and both men turn around to look at me. “Ah, Mage Nelson, welcome on my humble bridge, I’m Captain Carl Quentin, when you’re ready, just tell us and we can start.” The small man is the complete opposite of instructor Fromel. He’s way smaller but carries a small barrel of a gut before him. His blue eyes show some wrinkles at the edges and his black hair is gelled backwards. Before I can tell him that I don’t like my last name he continues. “Before you are too eager, I’d advise you to familiarize yourself with the ship’s systems, or you’ll end up like the first guy.” He snorts and turns back to instructor Fromel.

Okaaay… I guess, I’m on my own then. “Uhm thank you, Captain Quentin, I’ll do that right away.” He just gives me a thumbs-up without turning around. I shrug and walk over to the smaller console next to the Captain’s seat. It’s the Space Mage’s console. Some say the most important part of a starship. I think it’s overrated. A point to connect S-57 to the ship's computer systems would be enough, but they probably want the Mages where they can see them.

Speaking of S-57, I gave up on using him for anything else except his purpose almost immediately. Using my RHT is just way faster than explaining what I want in a way that he understands it. He’s just too basic. At least he’s good enough for his purpose. “S-57, are we clear to connect?”

“Affirmative, Sara, please proceed to connect to the Dolores’ systems.” I’ll do just that. Placing my right hand on the hand-shaped indentation on the console – a palm scanner to confirm my identity – there is a slight buzz behind my ear. “Identity confirmed and accepted. Connection to MAS Dolores’ computer systems formed. All stations show green lights. Partial command authority confirmed. We are ready to jump.”

Yes! It’s just as easy as in the simulation. I remove my hand and sit down on the chair. A hologram of the ship’s outline appears. I pause, smiling. I’m going to use real magic for the first time! With some effort, I tear my gaze away and look back at the two men. “I’m ready Captain.”

The Captain glances my way and lifts a single finger. “One moment.” He finishes his talk with Mr Fromel and then sits down on his chair. The holograms around him come to life and he checks a few things. With a nod toward Mr Fromel, he continues. “Alright, everything checks out and her AI’s connection looks stable. It’s an all-clear from my side.” He turns back to me. “I’m going to deactivate your collar now, then you can proceed. Don’t forget to announce the deactivation of gravity. You are the first Novice for today after all.” With a smirk, he turns back and taps a virtual button.

I sit there and stare. Was that him deactivating the collar? I close my eyes and concentrate. There, just a slight feeling, but there definitely is something. That must be my magic! “S-57, please open a shipwide channel.”

“Affirmative, channel is open.”

My voice starts a little weak before I clear my throat. “This is Mage Sara Nelson speaking, prepare for the deactivation of gravity in two minutes. I repeat, prepare for deactivation of gravity in two minutes.”

S-57 cuts the channel and I prepare the wormhole spell in my head. Two minutes later, S-57 deactivates the Dolores’ gravity generators, and weightlessness sets in. I’ve always liked that feeling in the simulations, but now is not the time to get lost in nostalgia! With a mental nudge, I release the spell and for the first time ever I can feel the power moving inside of me.

Amazing!

My hands begin to emit a purple glow which quickly expands and vanishes through the walls and the ship’s hull. The hologram of the Dolores now shows a purple bubble around the starship. This is practically what is happening in reality as well. The Wormhole spell creates a bubble centered around the Space Mage casting it. Everything inside the bubble is now stabilized in space and can be held on course by the Space Mage – Me.

At my stage of power and without any experience, the bubble is a perfect sphere. Pretty inefficient, considering the longer-than-wide shape of most starships. Apparently, I can shape the bubble to my preferences when I have more experience… We’ll see.

Anyway, the spell has formed successfully. Time to move on. “S-57, I’m ready. Take us in and do a shipwide ten-second countdown before entering the wormhole.”

“Understood. Main drive runs on ten percent power.” He pauses. A short while later I hear his voice in my ear and through the speakers overhead. “Entering wormhole in ten, nine, …, entering!”

A shudder runs through the ship and the front-facing window darkens to almost black. I can feel it now. Fluctuations in space! Reality gets folded and distances shortened. This is unbelievable. I feel so alive!

S-57 shakes me out of my thoughts. “Power in sector 12 is flickering. rerouting resources.” A weird feeling rises inside me when my power moves on its own volition. So that is what Doctor Silver meant by my AI interfacing with my magic. The feeling stops and my Space Sense confirms that everything is fine again.

Wow, I really did space out a moment there – no pun intended. With my senses, I should have been able to fix that issue on my own. Thanks for watching out for me S-57, I guess. Before long he brings up the next problem. We are a little off course. This is something completely normal and the exact reason why Space Mages are needed. Looks like they deactivated the wormhole stabilization for our tests. I wonder why. Isn’t that our insurance in case someone messes up? I glance at Mr Fromel and see him sitting next to the Captain with his eyes closed.

Ah, he’s watching the jump, ready to step in… S-57 clears his throat. I didn’t know he could do that. Right, I spaced out again. Time to get us back on course. With a mental nudge, and the help of S-57, I bring us back on course. That was close. What are you thinking Sara? Keep it together.

Ten minutes later it’s over. We leave the wormhole behind and are back in the Estriduros System proper. Gravity turns back on, and I slump in my chair in exhaustion. The sound of slow clapping reaches my ears and I turn my head to the source just to see Captain Quentin with a big smile on his face. “Congratulations on your first successful jump Miss Nelson!” Even Mr Fromel smiles and congratulates me as well.

I did it!

All in all, the jump took about 15 minutes. It’s one of the shorter ones. The normal jump duration is around an hour in length. I had to do three more course corrections and a few more field sectors to stabilize. This time I was able to sense them on my own and S-57 only had to announce the course corrections.

I thank both men and try to get up slowly. “Easy there,” Mr Fromel says, offering his hand to help me. “The first jump takes a lot out of a Mage, especially one as weak as you.” Wow, way to remind me of that, thank you… I scowl at him but take his hand anyway, I’m just too exhausted.

He leads me back through the living room and I manage a thumbs up for the others, then he leads me to a small room in the back and I practically fall into the bed standing there. I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

A few hours later I’m awake again. Walking back to the living room, the others tell me that we’re about to do our last jump for the day. Nice, I missed most of the waiting. A little bit more and we’re back on the station. I can’t wait to tell the others.

A week later everything is done. Of the 1600 young Mages who enrolled at the academy two years ago, 1300 are now standing before the headmaster listening to his final speech, where he congratulates us for graduating. After that, it’s time to say goodbye. All my friends are leaving tomorrow first thing in the morning. We spend the last evening together while shedding lots of tears and making promises to stay in contact with each other.

Not that staying in contact is particularly easy… Communication is mostly done by courier ships flying across the systems while carrying messages and other stuff, which takes time, especially when you don’t know where the receiving person is. Utility Mages can do the same thing even in real-time, but they have more important messages to send as some letters between friends.

The next morning, I have another tearful goodbye with Lucy in our room, then everyone is gone.