The Skyfather’s Glory, our cruise line starship, had docked on Iulius’s admittance ring. We were the first off the ship, not because we had gotten up particularly early, Kato had not gotten up until noon because he had become addicted to some kind pattern recognition game on our voyage and stayed up all night, but because the crew members would not let any of the other passengers off until the Imperators on board had disembarked first. Naturally, this consideration for our status severely aggravated the other people on board the Skyfather’s Glory, many of whom were quite wealthy and privileged Servi who were not used to inconveniences like being stuck waiting in a line for three and a half hours when exit ramp was right in front of them. There was practically a riot by the time we got down there, dragging Kato away from his bed and forcing day clothes on him. He had been apparently planning on going to the welcoming ceremony of the candidates for the Scholarium, given by the Governor of the entire solar system, without changing out of his pajamas or brushing his teeth or combing his wild white hair.
“Absolutely disgraceful.” Caesia muttered.
“You guys didn’t let me get breakfast.” Kato complained petulantly.
“Because it’s twelve forty-five. The eateries aren’t even serving breakfast anymore.” Caesia hissed.
At least Antonias was behaving himself, I told myself, before looking over to see that he had put Junia, his Hetaira, on his shoulders and was prancing around with his arms out and making noises like a plane while Junia giggled.
I closed my eyes. Skyfather help me, I really had chosen these people to be my companions on my quest for eternal glory.
I opened them to see one of the Servi passengers who had been furiously waiting prepare to chuck a metal water bottle at Caesia. I didn’t know why he had chosen her to be his target, but she didn’t deserve it. If it was Kato I would be more understanding, perhaps giving them pointers on their aim and throwing form.
“I wouldn’t throw that if I were you.” I called out over to him. “If you do, you’re getting it back significantly harder.”
He hastily put away the water canister. I looked to the crew members guarding the exit ramp from the line of guests that had degenerated over the course of three and a half hours into more of an angry mob trying to use the power of hatred glaring from their eyes to make the crew keel over dead.
My friends and their train of servants had already walked off down the exit. I sighed. I guessed I was the only one that felt bad for the people guarding the exit who were doing a thankless job.
“Give yourself ten times your hourly pay rate.” I told the three crew members. “Charge the account of Adrias Lucion, Suite 003. I’m sorry for the inconvenience of today, this was entirely our fault and I thank you for enduring this.”
I had become a rich man. Well, not by the standards of Imperators. By their standards and dragon hoards of generational wealth, I was practically a beggar surviving on garbage and dead rats. By the standards of virtually every other person in the Dominium however, I was very successful. My fights to the death had netted me a larger payout due to the risk of a fatality and Antonias and Gaias had given me some excellent tips on investing. Surprisingly, Gaias’s information had helped me more. He had some remarkable prescient predictions on a fuel shortage and a sudden demand for graphics cards. Personally, I suspected insider trading. That or he was personally sabotaging fuel shipments and socially engineering Sunburst Station’s sudden craving for computer components. I was not sure which option I liked more. When I had asked him about it he had gotten an insufferably smug look on his face and had hemmed and hawed his way out of any concrete answers.
I hurried down the exit ramp to catch up with the others as Caesia looked up teleportation terminals. The Imperators and our servants would have to split up, the ceremony was only for candidates and our teams would be waiting to see if we passed testing in less impressive accommodations.
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“The rest of you are terminal ZA-2.” She told the Servi and Junia.
They departed, Livia waving goodbye to me until she saw me again. Hopefully as a successful admittee to the Scholarium rather than sent back to Sunburst Station in disgrace.
“What’s our terminal?” Antonias asked.
“I’m looking.” Caesia growled, still looking a bit stressed from the events of the day so far.
Antonias put his hands up. “Okay, okay. Just a question, no need to bite my head off.”
“AA-12.” She finally said. “It’s a private terminal, we’ll have to show ID.”
“I don’t have any form of ID.” I said.
Antonias, Caesia, and even Kato stared at me, Kato looking up from the data tablet he was playing his pattern game on.
“… uh, what?” Antonias said.
“Not even a driver’s license?” Caesia asked incredulously.
“Damn, Adrias, you really have been living that hobo lifestyle.” Kato said, a smile on his lips.
I shrugged.
“You gave biometrics to the Scholarium like the rest of them, you’ll be on a list and I’m sure they can check.” Antonias said.
“Excellent.” I said, clapping my hands together. “Let’s get going.”
I led the way, and we found that unfortunately terminal AA-12 was on the exact opposite of the ring. We could have run, but that would have costed us a major incident of turning the hordes of people walking around the planetary ring into blended mush as we sped through them. I refrained from bringing the option up in case someone wanted to test that plan and speed run using genetic privilege to escape the Iulian justice system. Well, maybe not, I didn’t think my friends were that bloody psycho. At least I hoped not.
When we finally reached the terminal we moved through as quickly as possible. As it happened, the person manning the entrance to the teleportation terminal had taken issue with my lack of any form of functioning ID and was also unwilling to do any kind of search for my logged biometric data to do a retinal scan or a fingerprint examination. I had fixed that problem with the tried-and-true method of looming over them and glaring intensely until they had weakly told me that there wouldn’t be a problem if I walked through without identification documents.
I smiled brightly at them and for some reason this served to disturb them more than when I was pretending to be about to rip their heads off.
We entered the teleportation chamber which reminded me in many ways of a walk-in shower, with its white walls and sliding glass door that opaque enough that light got through but it was difficult to pick out details. The floor brought to mind a circuit board made of obsidian and gold.
“Transportation initiating in ten seconds. Please state the word “Stop” clearly if you wish to abort the procedure at any time.” A computer’s voice said.
“Ten..”
Teleportation was made possible by two linked stations that costed a considerable amount of funds and rare materials to build and an exorbitant amount of power to run. Iulius using innumerable teleportation stations was as much practicality for a world with no room for landing strips as it was a flexing of the capital’s power and wealth.
“Nine…”
“Eight…”
“Seven…”
“Six…”
“Five…”
“Four…”
“Three…”
I looked around at the others. Everyone looked nervous. There were no such stations on Sunburst Station and apparently this was a first for everyone.
“Two…”
“One…”
I closed my eyes and tried not to panic as my atoms were transmuted into something in between the light of a laser and a bolt of lightning. Somehow throughout this process I still was able to think and perceive the universe around me. Combining us into one projection of energy, the four of us shot down to the surface, striking an antenna of pure white Jovium and were channeled through wires made of human neural tissue to a far lower strata of the sphere. We might have even gone below the surface of Iulius itself, it was hard to tell when the skyscrapers began to become subterranean protrusions. All I knew was that the Administrative District of Iulius, home to the Governor’s palace and the Hall of Justice and the Senatorum, was buried deep under the urban sprawl of the interconnecting skyscrapers.
We materialized in a similar shower-like room as the one we had teleported from. We landed on our feet but quickly fell to our knees, gasping and shaking from the distressing feeling of being disassembled and then the nauseating feeling of shooting downwards and then the abrupt reconstruction of our bodies.
“Next time… next time someone brings up teleporting, I would really just rather be kicked out of an airlock and reach the ground as heaven intended, a pancake of blood and guts. I think it would be a far less miserable experience.” Antonias groaned.