Chapter 3 - The Federation machine

There were about twenty of them walking behind Eve except for the nine-year-old girl Olivia who was

holding her hand. She was the youngest in today's batch and looked scared and lost without her parents.

Her green eyes were always moving, looking for her mummy. You could tell she was closer to breaking

into tears with each step they made.

"We are going to the shuttle, which will take you to a spaceship. On that Spaceship, adults will receive a

cabin, and your training on sensing and absorbing the Aether will begin. The children will be transferred

directly to the academies to be tutored by human teachers here on Earth."

"Human teachers? Not some alien ones?" A tall and skinny man in his early forties asked. Although he

was thin, he seemed very wiry and fit at the same time.

"Yes, that's correct. Humans are a pretty common species in space. The Earth has been home to one of

the human's subspecies thanks to Spore Program. You can read more on that topic once you get

connected to the Network." Eve replied, seems she was used to this question by now.

"What is vital for you to know is that only children are going directly to the Academies." She seemed to

feel the crowd uneasiness when talking about taking children, so she added.

" Please be aware that we will also relocate their parents to the Academies grounds. We're not so cruel

to take children from their mothers. The adults will, however, have their first teaching about Aether done

in a less resource consuming way from the Federation standpoint." Eve continued sounding like some

seasoned corporate manager.

"Who knows? Maybe she was a corporate manager." Veles thought, "Or maybe she is not even from

Earth and is much older than it seems?" He added and took a second look at the seemingly young and

pretty Eve looking for some clues.

"On the spaceship, you will be in confinement, locked in rooms with various books, holograms, and AI to

help with the basics." Eve explained, not caring about Veles's weird look." It will be up to your talent and

determination to get out of the confinement. That will depend on how fast your progress in cultivation will

be. Once you reach what we call the first layer in Aether Arts, you will go to real academies, with

biological teachers. The faster you reach the first layer, the better the academy. There are also rewards

for being in the top 100 of your batch. So, you will be competing with about 30 thousands of colleagues.

However, I will not speak more about what the prize is... nor about the penalty for being slow. Those two,

you will have to experience yourself. " Eve faintly smiled while saying it, leaving the audience unsure how

great of the threat being slow is.

"That is one hell of motivation technique." Veles thought. "The threat of unknown is often scarier, then

the danger of something that can be understood. Anyway, it seems to work, at least in my case. I intend

to focus fully on reaching that first layer thing." Veles sighted, feeling manipulated but not having a better

option than to play along.

Soon they boarded the shuttle, leaving Eve behind as she was taking the small girl with her.

"Maybe that Federation of Light is not that bad. They are our overlords, but so far, nothing too unjust

happened to us. They even seemed to care about the little ones. Or maybe it's all a plot to gain humans'

trust and loyalty? So many questions, so little information to conclude." Veles thought as he was going to

his seat. It was hard for him to put the Federation in an "evil or "good" box yet.

There were two rows of seats on each side of the shuttle. The interior of the shuttle was a very charming

place. The wooden floors were giving it a warm feeling, the sitting places and comfortable with many

exotic plants as decoration. There were also diamonds like looking lamp giving a pleasant, dim light. It

seemed more like a luxurious inside of some 5-star hotel.

Veles start walking the corridor looking for a place to sit. He noticed an elegant girl that seems to be in

the early twenties sitting alone. She had long blond hair and looked very pretty.

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After a short moment of hesitation, he decided to sit next to her. Hey, it's always better to sit next to

beauty than some fat guy and fight for an elbow place.

"Hi, I'm Veles." He introduced himself.

"Hello, I'm Inga." She replied with a polite smile and went back to look through the window, not interested

in a conversation.

Veles out of boredom started to read a booklet about Federation that was lying on his place. The

brochure was full of propaganda flavor. It talked a lot about Federation greatness, how it is here to bring

peace and harmony in the Universe. However, it also had some general information about the

Federation's size, news from various galaxies and a picture of a current ruler - Chancellor Makarov Kali

While reading, from time to time, Veles stole a glance at Inga's long legs in black silk, exposed by her

half-knee skirt. He felt a bit stupid doing it but had a hard time to resist it.

After some time like that spent in silence, Inga suddenly spoke in a quiet voice, still looking at through

the window of the shuttle.

"Am I the only one that feels this is all not real? We are now flying God knows where, separated from

family, friends, and plans. Yet no one panics, no one complains, everyone behaves so normally. Tell me,

what is going on?" Inga asked calmly and quietly as if scared someone might hear her.

Veles looked at her, surprised by such a sudden question. After of moment of thought and, he gave his

honest opinion.

"Because everyone's scared by how powerful the Federation is. Cause things are happening too fast to

make a meaningful reaction. Cause everything seems to be well organized, keeping everyone occupied.

Cause the Federation did not yet do any real harm. Cause any resistance would be very useless and

stupid. Cause of the promise of power that comes with Aether. Probably a mixture of those plus

something more that I missed. " Veles replied to the best of his abilities looking at Inga's back, and blond

hairs.

Inga bit her lips, hearing the reply and turned her head to look at him finally. She had huge, blue eyes

which made Veles admire her beauty even more. There were also shining with intelligence and vigilance.

There was something about her, giving her air of a not simple person.

"We truly did lose." She finally sighed. "And now, we, the people with those so-called Aether Rootes, are

a tribute. That makes me angry and powerless at the same time." Inga vented in a quiet voice, still

sounded very calm and collected.

"We are powerless, that is true. However, when you look at the big picture, we don't know how bad or

good our situation is." Veles replied, looking at her. " My take is that we don't know much about the

Federation of the Universe. Without that its hard to make a judgment if we draw the shortest stick or we

got lucky as the alternatives could be much worse."

He replied, trying to soothe her and an answer he genuinely believed.

"That may be true. It would mean, however, that I should not be angry now, which would leave me only

with being powerless. Thanks..., I guess." She replied without any change in expression or tone, making

Veles not sure if it was a joke or sarcasm.

"Any time." He replied, trying to maintain a similar poker face.

She smiled faintly in response and returned to stare at the window, which meant the end of the short

conversation. Veles had no idea what to make of the brief exchange, but the silence between them

became more relaxed.

The flight continued, and just like in the plane, personnel offered to all passengers something to drink

and eat.

Veles finished his surprisingly excellent meal and had a small talk with Inga. It turned out she was a

beginning doctor, just starting her residency. In between the lines, Veles deducted that there is someone

close to her that needs her now. Not being able to help is a source of her frustration.

He was about to order another glass of jasmine tea when a pleasant smell of incense filled the shuttle.

Veles felt warm and cosy as if lying before a fireplace on Christmas evening surrounded by friendly

faces.

The chair became exceptionally comfortable, and his eyelids were harder and harder to open.

He cast a glance at Inga, only to noticed that she was already fast asleep. After another quick look

around, and he realized that a clear majority of passengers were already unconscious.

That could not mean anything good.

While fighting the sleepiness with whatever was left of his willpower, he pinched his arm as hard as he

could to and used pain to stay conscious.

He wanted to stand up, to scream, and to alert everyone. But the only result of his effort was his feet

moving by about centimetre and a quite sight.

A moment later, his eyelids began to heave to lift them again. They seemed to be mocking Veles's heroic

efforts to keep awake.

"Oh, crap...." thought Veles making it his last lucid brain activity before everything went dark.