The next morning, Orphelia and her made their way out of the donar dorm. Eclaire and Robert were already waiting at the door. They could see a few men leaving the quarters for the normal humans, slouching as if they were completely out of energy. Lia was reminded of the exhaustion that gripped everyone on the moon during the harvesting and the planting seasons on Eo. She had to admit, that her life was better now. She hadn't felt that exhausted ever since she had come to the Crystal Citadel.
“Finally,” Ludwig exclaimed, peeking out of the dorm room for the Imperi. To Lia it seemed that he had just arrived, too, so she took a few deep breaths to keep calm. She didn't want to pour oil on the fire that tried to consume her reputation by yelling at their Instructor.
“Come,” Ludwig commanded and led the way, while Lia's temper was slowly steeping on a low heat. When it was ready, it would be some very, very exquisite anger and a few choice words. Maybe she should warn Ludwig not to dress too warmly, should that time come.
Leaving the dorm, they entered the central dome once more, and then walked straight to the central crystal tree. A railing around the center tree hinted at stairs that led down below the station’s ground floor. Two Guards stood in the passage below the tree and in front of a door. They eyed them suspiciously until Ludwig pulled his pad out of his robes and showed it to them. One of them held another pad-like thing to Ludwig’s and nodded after a short moment. “You may proceed.”
Behind the door below the tree was a large circular room. A broad pillar in the center of the room connected the floor to the ceiling. It was made of the same crystal as the tree above, making it look as if it was part of the tree’s trunk. The rest of the room was made of marble, interspersed with metal that shimmered in colors ranging from silver to gold. The walls of the room held HTVs that made it look as if the trunk of the tree was the station itself, and they were giants looking at the asteroids around them. The second strangest thing in the room were roughly half a dozen beds that formed another circle around the trunk, and there were people sleeping in them, hands folded on their stomachs. From their clothing that all seemed to be donar.
When she looked around, she saw few men and women - all imperi - standing at some of the projected asteroids in a corner of the room and discussed something that Lia couldn’t hear.
When the people noticed them, a woman broke away from the group of people in the corner of the room and walked over to them. “Greetings, I am Impera Grit Asteri, the chief shielding officer.”
“Impero Ludwig van Ragd, nice to meet you.” Their teacher introduced himself with a slight nod. “And these are Eclaire Centauri, Robert Solace, Lia Selena Eo and Orphelia Deimos. We're the group from the Crystal Academy.”
"Welcome.” Grit nodded to them with a smile. “You're here to learn how the shield of the station functions, right?”
“Indeed,” Ludwig agreed for all of them.
"Well, contrary to many science-fiction novels, we don't have an active shield most of the time. Keeping an active barrier in place would take too much energy. We'd probably need ten times the amount of donar and imperi, if we wanted to do that. Instead we employ tracking systems that alert us to an incoming impact and then we either throw up a shield to repel it, or we try to destroy it. Most of the time it’s a pretty relaxing job for any mage, but it can get intense when we need to protect the station. I think it’s most easy for the donar.” Grit turned to Lia and Orphelia, pointing to one of the beds in the room. “Would you like to try?”
While Lia was unsure whether she should try, Ludwig spoke up, shaking his head. “These are first year students. Their grasp on their own mana is still limited, so I think it prudent not to exhaust them.”
“Really?” Grit Asteri raised an eyebrow, as if to say ‘that's bullshit’, but opted for a much more polite “this is the first time an instructor has refused this.” The impera stared at Ludwig for a long moment. He didn't change or amend his story, as if to say ‘I have refused you once, that has to be enough.’
"Very well.” The woman gave in with a shrug. “If you would follow me?” Grit led them to the HTV area. “We have a pretty advanced AI system, that is capable of predicting the trajectories of everything within the asteroid belt. Whenever the system finds a threat, or if it can’t predict a certain situation, the imperi on duty are tasked with creating a shield around the station or neutralize the treat in other ways. Until that happens our duty is basically to monitor the monitoring system. We usually don’t have to intervene very often.”
"There’s something I don’t get,” Eclaire interjected. “In my experience and in class we learned that we can only use magic in direct line of sight. So how can you put up a shield around the whole station from here?”
“There are two things that are key to projecting an imperi’s magic that far out.” Grit Asteri walked to the central pillar and put a hand on one of the numerous metallic lines that were inlaid into the crystal. “Spirit magic allows me to see past the room. It allows me to see the outside of the station, and even everywhere inside the station. Everywhere there is one of these lines.”
“Then you’ll always need a spirit donar?” Robert looked from Miss Asteri to Lia, who immediately had the urge to hide.
“Yes. The use of Spirit Magic is the only way, if you're trying to shield a big place. And while not every use of Spirit Magic is sanctioned, here it is needed. That's why the basics of these techniques are taught at your school.” Somehow that bit of information made Lia feel a little better about the colors she'd been assigned.
“How do you shield the station?” Robert continued, and looked at the large asteroids displayed in the HTVs at the outer edge of the room. “Can plasma even repel those?”
“Plasma may be able to burn or slow down smaller rocks, but usually we need solid mages first to deform and break down larger rocks. Then we use plasma, gas or metal mages to repel them. It usually depends on the shielding officer, though.”
“Normally I'd offer you to work on one of the smaller asteroids,” Grit Asteri continued, "but apparently you're not experienced enough to try.” She gazed accusingly at Ludwig.
“The way the students at the crystal academy are educated is still in purview of the crystal academy. We have good reasons, if we exclude select students from practical lessons.”
“It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” the shielding officer replied with a shrug. “But you're right. The education of your students is within your purview.” The woman walked slowly to Ludwig and whispered into his ear. “Suspicious behaviour”, “draws attention”, and “be careful” were the only words that Lia could make out.
“I thank you for your concern.” Although Ludwig's answer was just a whisper as well, his voice carried a bit better through the air, and Lia could make out enough to fill in the gaps. “We will be careful.”
“I think your tour of the shielding station is finished. Unless any of your students has any questions left?” Grit sounded as if she wanted to throw them out. Lia shook her head in answer, and Orphelia shrugged with her shoulders.
Robert sighed and murmured, “I would’ve liked to try”, but Ludwig ignored him and led them out of the door already.
Outside, Ludwig stopped and whirled around to them. The grin on their teacher's face could curdle milk. Maybe that was a special kind of magic of his: To be as unpleasant as possible. “Tell me: What have you learned here, today?” he asked and looked at them one by one.
Lia gulped, and quickly went through everything she had seen in the shielding station. She'd learned that her spirit magic wasn't as bad as she thought - but that wasn't what he wanted to hear, was it? No, it was something more subtle and yet blatant as a sun.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
“Metal,” whispered Orphelia next to her.
“Would you like to elaborate on your answer, Miss Deimos? And loud enough for everyone to hear, please.”
“Metals are used to extend the range of magic. To affect even far away places.”
“Good. It's nice to see that at least one of you has paid attention.” He turned around and led them up the stairs. Lia followed him, her head burning red. At least Eclaire and Robert were as embarrassed as her.
***
The next day, Lia and Orphelia met the two Imperi of her group in the great dome in front of the entrance to the crew quarters. Ludwig had told them to wait there for him, and to be on time. Last evening he had them return to the dorm and work on their reports, making sure that they wrote down anything they had learned at the shielding station.
“Do you know what we'll be looking at, today?” Orpheila asked in a whisper and the rest of them shrugged. There couldn't be too many places to visit on such a station, so staying for a week, nine whole school days, felt a bit excessive.
“There are a few places of interest we're sure to visit,” Robert said. "There's the mining area, the sick bay, the power generator, and the docking bay. Not sure what else could be interesting.”
“Assuming that we're visiting one per day, there are still two more places we can visit.” Eclaire frowned in thought. “What could be the other two?”
“In addition to the four places Robert has named, we'll be accompanying the maintenance crew. And on the last day we will visit life support, which is also responsible for generating the station’s gravity.” Ludwig had appeared behind them beginning his lecture rather than greeting them.
“Our destination for today is the fusion reactor. I hope you have studied up on the basic principles that make it work?”
Eclaire raised her hand. “Hydrogen-Atoms are fused to create Helium-Atoms. The energy released by the nuclear reaction is then turned into electrical energy.”
“Good. It seems that you've learned at least something," Ludwig murmured, then led the way through the dome and past the sparse forest of trees. Lia wondered whether Imperi could see some sort of mana in the vegetation.
They didn’t talk while walking through the main dome, past the giant crystal tree, and toward an unassuming building in the corner of the dome. Ludwig knocked on the door, introduced himself to the station personnel there and showed his tablet. A moment later they were waved through and into the building proper. The door clicked, as it closed behind them. The corridor beyond was as bare as the one to the dormitories, but they also had to pass through two more airlocks. The power generator was located in another dome entirely. The connecting tube was made of the semi-transparent crystal, interspersed with more metallic lines, allowing them glimpses of the gray barren landscape beyond.
Apparently the creators of the station wanted to be extra-careful. Although fusion was deemed pretty safe, radioactive material could flood the dome of the main station, if the reactor was ever breached. With this setup, they could evacuate the gases into space, while the mages kept the personnel as safe as it could. It was a hard lesson in the past: No amount of magic could control the radiation caused by fission or fusion. Lia shook her head and chased the lessons about the technology out of her head. She had to admit, that Ludwig did a good job teaching, if she remembered all of this.
When they passed the second air lock, and stepped through two massive doors, they arrived in front of the giant twisted torus that housed the fusion reactor's plasma. It was pretty warm inside of the room, and there was a deep electrical hum in the air. Lia thought that she could almost feel the strong magnetic field that kept the plasma contained and flowing within the reactor.
“Welcome, welcome,” someone called to them while they kept gawking at the reactor itself. “Welcome to Foresteri’s fusion core. I'm Ralph Roxs, and I am in charge of keeping this bad boy running.” The man gestured at the torus. He wore the station’s colors and a black robe. The impero in charge sported a goatee and grinned at them.
“I am Ludwig van Ragd,” their teacher answered. His tone and expression was the complete opposite toward Mister Roxs’s. “And these are Eclaire Centauri, Robert Solace, Orphelia Deimos and Lia Eo.”
Lia frowned at Ludwig. Why hadn’t he mentioned her second name? ‘Lia Eo’ was so unassumingly short. Mister Roxs would easily forget her. Maybe that was the plan? The donars should all be forgotten? She couldn’t even remember one popular donar from history class thus far …
“Nice to meet you. Do you have any questions about the fusion process itself?” All of them shook their head at Ralph's question. Ludwig had covered the process in one of his lessons in excruciating detail and Lia wasn't still sure whether she had understood anything.
“Oh.” Ralph deflated slightly. It was as if he had wanted to tell them about the fusion process himself.
“We're here to learn how mages are involved in the process,” Ludwig clarified.
“Well, nowadays, mages don't have a lot to do to keep the reactor running. Plasma mages are needed to correct the flow of the plasma, if necessary, but that's usually done by the computer controlling the magnetic field. If they’re needed, they can influence the plasma flow from over there.” Ralph pointed at a door. There were probably metallic lines that connected the control room to the reactor itself.
“The most interesting part is when we start one of those bad boys up. Then we'll get to see an energy and a gravity mage in action!” Ralph continued, not even allowing them to pose a question. Then he leaned in to them and whispered: “You’ve got to see the moment the plasma is being ignited.”
“Do you also need spirit mages to see the interior of the reactor?” Robert asked.
“Either spirit or metal mages. Though spirit mages are better than metal mages at this job. Or rather for any job requiring the use of magic at a distance.”
“Drat!” Robert turned away from the reactor, seemingly disappointed.
“There surely are other mages employed here,” Ludwig interjected. “And there are techniques that allow two different mages to work together. It’s afterall pretty uncommon for mages to have more than one element, not to mention this specific combination.”
“Yes, of course we have other mages employed. We need solid, liquid and gaseous mages for regular maintenance. The first group is needed to maintain the reactor itself, while the second and third are usually more involved with the other parts of the reactor. Gas mages may also be useful, if it comes to adjusting the flow of new deuterium into the reactor.” Mister Roxs shrugged. “Sometimes we have a metal mage here for deep reactor maintenance and repairing the inner lining of the reactor.”
Lia kept silent. Magic had already turned out to be very different from how she had imagined it. And now it became less and less the flashy, especially if she compared it to the variant she knew from HTV, demonstrations and stories. Suddenly it felt very ... mundane.
“Anyways. Let me show you around the facility a bit. I can't allow you to practice your magic with any parts of the reactor, because we can't risk it going offline, even if it is only for a few seconds.” Ralph smiled and nodded at them. Ludwig nodded back. Given what had happened the day before, their teacher was probably glad that Ralph didn't ask for them to participate in anything.
The representative led them around the torus, and they all kept their distance from the sweat-inducing contraption. From the outside it looked like a twisted Sornas, and Lia immediately wanted to bite into one of the sweet fruits. She forced herself to look away from the forbidden metallic treat, wrapped in lots of cables, metals and pipes.
They went up several flights of stairs. Lia wasn’t surprised that Eclaire and Robert were huffing, when they finally arrived on the next floor, several stories above the reactor. But that even Ludwig was exhausted by the exercise, caught her slightly off-guard. Mr. Perfect had no stamina! Smirking, she returned her attention to her surroundings.
Above them large turbines were humming merrily away. The pipes and housings of these machines were all see-through, so she could see the blades turning. Or rather she could guess their outline, because they were a blur.
“The nuclear fire within the fusion reactor heats the water in the pipes around it it, turning it into steam. That steam drives these turbines. Since we can’t release the steam into the atmosphere, it is condensed back into water. The heat is then distributed over the whole station, making sure that everyone has it warm. It's a pretty efficient system, that's used all over the empire and on most space ships.” Ralph smiled at them, or rather at the system he was supervising. “Impressive what humans can come up with, right?”
“You mean mages, right?” Eclaire asked haughtily.
“No, I mean humans.” Ralph replied with a sigh and looked at the turbines once more. “The first blueprint of a fusion reactor was created by a non-mage. Although that human enlisted mages to help him make it a reality, the inventor was just human. A brilliant non-mage without any talent for magic.” Mister Roxs turned to them, the smile had vanished from his face once more, his expression serious. “Let me tell you something very important: Never underestimate others, because they are different from you.”
“But ... but mages, are superior to humans. Especially imperi!” Eclaire protested.
“Look.” Ralph sighed exasperatedly. “If someone were superior to another, just because they can do something the other can't, would mean that birds are superior to you. They can fly, can you?”
“I think this is enough!” Ludwig didn’t raise his voice, but his stern tone made even Ralph shut up. “We're not here for a lesson in philosophy. We're here to see how mages are important for a facility like this.”
“Yes, of course.” Ralph continued their tour. The smile never returned to his face.