Helos Bulger was not having a good day. His dad told him he was leaving his mom just minutes before pushing Helos onto a space transport from Gunther 9’s main transterminal station.

Then, the ship he was supposed to rendezvous with for the second jump to Star Academy blew a gravity drive. This caused it to accidentally ram the ship it was supposed to be docking with at twice the allowable speed. The docking mechanism snapped in half, shooting high-speed slivers of steel and titanium into the hulls of both ships.

Two men died from their injuries, a few others were hurt.

Helos hadn’t been hurt, thankfully, but the adults around the 7-year-old boy were fuming and screaming. A lot of finger-pointing later, and he wound up in a leaking spacesuit for a short walk between the two ships. The hissing sound of the air leaking from his left arm, which was already patched repeatedly, caused him anxiety. Those twenty bursts of short legs from one ship to the other were the worst of his life.

Once onboard the new ship, he discovered things were even worse than expected. The transport was not what it seemed. He was being kidnapped, and trafficked, along with seven other children, all destined for Star Academy, and hundreds of other passengers.

When told as much by a stern, masked soldier, he burst into tears. The other children were already sobbing. There were three other boys and four girls huddled in a corner.

“You have to take us to Star Academy,” he said, standing bravely before the unflappable pirates. Though the tears streamed from his face, he clenched his small fists at his sides and looked up at the nearest kidnapper.

A tall, masked man looked him in the face, “I understand, child, I do. But unfortunately, that’s simply not going to happen. You are going to find yourself sold to the highest bidder on one of the farthest stations. Such is life for a talented young fool like yourself.”

The gravity drives bit into reality, everything was distorted, until, once more, they settled in time and space. The children hurled, the men grunted, and Helos stood unfazed. It wasn’t his first time in a jump. The man eyed him again. “Look kid, I’m sorry this is your lot in life. It could be worse, we could be killing you instead.”

Helos looked like he might say something more but before he could, a series of explosions rocked the vessel. A loud klaxon rang out, red lights burning brightly across the human’s retinas. The ship shuddered over and over, then stopped. Helos sighed. He could not imagine a worse day.

Bluefaced helmets came into view, the captain of the kidnapper ship was reaching for his firearm when Helos kicked him in the privates. Helos was no stranger to fighting, his teachers had been the best in the Corporate worlds. Nothing was going to stop him from getting to Star Academy. Certainly not this oaf of a man. The blue faces reflected skeletal skulls. Their guns came up and they sprayed blue plasma fire into the room. The heat seared Helos’ cheeks, but the rounds found their marks in the crew of the vessel. Dozens of screams came from the hundred prisoners in the big open room.

Helos simply waited. He knew what the blue faces meant. These were Skullweavers. The elite Star Academy greathing force. He couldn’t imagine meeting them this way, but he was proud in his heart of the school he was about to attend. No one beat Skullweavers. They were the best of the best. More elite than anyone in the universe.

He smiled, and one of the skulls improbably winked at him, the digital faceplate briefly showing a friendly-looking woman’s face beneath it. He waved, letting his defiant hands unclench. She tousled his hair and then over her loudspeakers announced, “Alright folks, parties over. This ship is being handed off to you, the rightful crew and owners. Enjoy the credits. She’s a beaut. Star Academy firsties, you’re coming with us.”

Without further ado Helos and the others were led deep into the ship's inner walls, then out of a grapple inlock and into another ship. The Star Academy ship unlocked from the kidnapper's vessel with a whoosh and clang. The mighty vessels sat idly next to each other for a single long moment. Helos could see the spindly white body of the other vessel sitting unmoving in a universe of movement. He was happy to be rid of her.

The Star Academy vessel lurched ever so slightly. Finding the Divide, they jumped. A proximity alarm whirred and the vessel came out of the jump to an absolute standstill. They found themselves not 10 kilometers from an asteroid. The white lines and circles of a massive station built right into the edge of the black rocked asteroid could be nothing but Star Academy.

Helos sighed, this was to be his home for the time being. He could handle that. The female Skullweaver smiled down at him. “Welcome to Star Academy, firstie, let’s hope you are a human. You’ve certainly got the balls for it.”

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“Yes, I’ve never seen anything like that, Anathema, have you? Kicking his kidnapper in the soft spot just before he torched one of us with his hand cannon. Damn kid better end up in 1-1.”

Anathema smiled at Helos and the other Skullweaver, “No matter where he ends up, I think this one is special.”

He smiled broadly. She was pretty. His day was looking up and up.

“Okay, testing time folks. Helos, you go first, into the room, sit in the chair and follow the instructions.”

Oh, he thought, the test. He had nearly forgotten. He sighed and did as he was bid. Sitting in the small metal chair. A slight pressure built at the back of his spine, right below his head.

“Speak human or AI, and tell me your true reason for being here!” The voice was matronly, like his wet nurses or his grandmother.

He opened his mouth, “I am Helos Bulger, son of Brandon Bulger and Randyll Scanlon. I am here to be a graduate of Star Academy. SO that I might go back and take over the Corporate worlds. That’s my plan.”

“An ambition worthy of a graduate of this fine academy. Let me think boy, you have brawn, intelligence, and ambition. You could be a 1-2 or even a 1-1. Or I could offer you the harder path, the path of misfits, and failure. Or make you a Middler. Hmm, the choices… Do you seek glory or good?”

“I need no glory, I am a Bulger-Scanlon. Our lines are not seekers of glory,” He said the words almost instinctively thinking of his grandfather’s old stories, “We seek the changes which drive life to the stars.” He wasn’t exactly sure what that meant but his grandfather had always said it.

“Then you are destined for true greatness if you can graduate. You are sent to 1-1. You will find them outside the door to the left. I warn you, they have traditions and hungers which could distract you. Choose wisely who you befriend. They will push you to greatness and a spot in the Skullweavers may help you. Be careful, Helos Bulger. You are now on uncertain, moving ground.”

He wasn’t sure he liked the sound of all of those warnings. Still, 1-1 was the top berth. He knew it, and his father was a 1-1 before him. He looked forward to school. He stood and walked out of the room, found the girls in 1-1 outfits and they took him to their berths. They were silent, mostly, but happy. They had 7 others with him. A class of 8 he thought. That’s not too bad. He knew the school was always recruiting, pulling in new firsties 3 times a year so his actual class would be closer to 24 students.

Helos found the series of rooms they lead the 8 firsties through to be boring and uninteresting. These were the many different classrooms he was going to spend the next few years in. He was far more interested in the great thing and the holo classes. These were the special Star Academy things.

Greathing especially. The complex rules, the changing objectives, the dancing, strategy, magical qualities of the technology. The simple concept. He could not wait. He was looking forward to that more than anything else. He knew that money and power were not taught but gathered and acquired. His family was near the top of all the families in the Corporate worlds. They controlled ⅔ of the mining and resource extraction. Yet, they were beholden to a group of mercenaries who knew the rules of greathing. That was life, he supposed, to be beholden to others at any time.

He found his bunk, and could not sleep. Though the others did. He was too amped up. They were not needed the rest of the day, and he was told the greathing courses would start first thing the next morning. He knew he needed the rest, but found himself wandering the hallways until he found an outside wall. He peered out of a thick pane of translucent material at the emptiness of space.

He was still looking out when a hand touched his back. He turned around quickly, hands ready to defend himself. He relaxed when his grey-green eyes lit on Anathema’s face. She smiled kindly at him.

“I come here when I cannot sleep too. This is a miraculous station. Built deep into an asteroid, only 1-1 lives on the surface, well, and the professors and engineers who run the school. Former students, alumni, those who failed, and those who chose to stay, live here too. In close quarters with us. It gives us a connection to the outside world that the other berth’s don’t have. What they don’t know is that we remain above the fray and the inner house fighting. Our goals are different as1-1s. Never forget, Star Academy is not the goal. The universe is. The universe is.”

Helos thought about her words, nodding slowly. He could understand how he or any of the others, could get caught up in the goals of the here and now. Of Star Academy. When in reality, he wasn’t here for this place. He was here for something much more lasting, the Corporations. The future. He knew she was right.

“Thank you, I won’t forget.”

“I know you won’t. We have high hopes for you Helos Bulger. You’ve already proven yourself once. Can you keep it up?” Her eyes turned on him and he met them, for as long as he could before he turned away, unsure of what she saw in his. He felt her squeeze his shoulder.

“You will get lonely, sad, and angry here. It is inevitable over the next few years. There will be no mother to run to. No one to cry to. Yet, if you come here. Some days, I may be here as well. I will give you what comfort I can on those occasions. There were others who did the same for me. We are united, the Star Academy’s children. Against the world, against the staff, against the very stars themselves. Remember, Greathing is preparation for the reality. It is not reality.”

He knew she would only repeat herself like that if it really mattered. And he had to assume it did.