Chapter 1: Happy “Birthday”

Location: Estriduros Republic; Acordus System; Acordus 3; Acordia; Henry Nelson Orphanage

I awake to loud knocks on my door. I try to ignore them, but whoever stands there, doesn’t stop.

“Wake up Sara, the others are waiting.”

Ugh, I know that voice, it’s caretaker Maria. Luckily, it’s not caretaker Sandy… It’s the small things that make my day. Maria is pretty much the only one who treats me normally and listens to most of my wishes. Sandy just plain hates me. At least that is how it feels…

“Come on, Sara. It’s your birthday, we have some cake for you.”

Yeah, as I said. She listens to most of my wishes. This is one of the situations where she doesn’t. My “birthday” or rather the day I arrived at the orphanage twelve years ago. I hate that day! It just reminds me of everything I don’t have. No parents, no real birthday, and most importantly no name besides Sara.

There is nothing I want less than to be celebrated right now… Can’t they just leave me alone? I turn around and tuck the blanket over my head, pretending I’m asleep.

The knocks escalate to loud banging on my door and caretaker Maria raises her voice. “Sara Nelson, I know you’re awake, so come on out. Even if you don’t like your birthday, you still have to go to school today. Don’t forget the history test.”

I let out a groan. First, she reminds me of my “birthday” and now she also calls me Nelson – the name they gave me when I arrived here. I didn’t even know that wasn’t my real name until some bullies at school laughed at me a few years ago. They called me a dumb ward of the city. Apparently, the name Nelson is given to orphans without a last name. Since then, I really hate that name, as it’s another constant reminder of what I have lost. The only thing I have left from before is a small necklace with the engraved name Sara. It’s way too small now, so I had it changed into a bracelet.

I let out a silent sigh of defeat. Now that she used the Nelson card, there is no chance that she’ll leave me alone. “I’m coming caretaker Maria, just give me a few minutes!”

I throw the blanket aside and get up slowly. When I look around, I see my small room on the second floor. It’s exactly what one would expect from a poor orphanage on a backwater planet: A closet with more empty spaces than filled ones, a wobbly desk with a simple wooden chair full of stickers, placed there by the kids living here before me, and finally my bed with a surprisingly comfortable mattress.

I take the few steps to the other door within my room and open it. Behind it is the small luxury of my private bathroom. After washing my face, I stare at annoyed, bright green eyes in the mirror. It’s that time of the year again. Freckles start appearing on my face. A face that refuses to get even the littlest bit of tan, apparently because of my spacer heritage as the daughter of freighter workers. I do my wavy light red hair into a messy bun and put on my favorite dark purple shirt together with some black shorts. With a deep breath, I exit the bathroom and grab a pair of sneakers. Then I walk to the exit and open the door.

When I step outside, caretaker Maria is already gone. Unfortunately, Valerie spots me from down the hallway and calls out. “Hey Sara, Happy Birthday!” Great, now everyone has heard it and will try to congratulate me. I walk down the stairs with a small spark of hope in the back of my head that everyone has already finished their breakfast.

Well, it was worth a shot. When I arrive at the dining room, everyone’s there, waiting for me. They all start singing Happy Birthday and caretaker Maria hands me a small present.

I swallow my annoyance, put on a smile, and thank them all. Then I quickly walk toward my usual table in the back and find my best friend Thomas already waiting for me. He smiles down at me from his height of 182 centimeters and hands me another present. “Happy arrival day, Sari.”

“Thank you, Tommy, let’s get something to eat!”

“No problem, and yeah, let’s.”

We walk over to the food counter. Looks like it’s waffle day today. The one advantage of having a “birthday.” That even puts a small smile on my face and a bit of my annoyance is washed away. Back at our table, Thomas grins at me. “Wanna ditch school and hang out? I know how much you hate that day…”

I shake my head. “I wish I could… But no, I have to take a history test at school today. But let’s meet afterward at our usual place.”

“Bummer,” he replies, “but yeah, let’s meet in the park. I’m taking care of lunch though!”

“Deal,” I reply with a slight grin.

We both start eating after that, and I study his face for signs of anxiety. Thomas has light brown skin, as is the norm here on Acordus 3. Paired with his piercing blue eyes, his brown hair is kept in a man-bun which makes him quite handsome. Not that we are attracted to each other as we basically grew up as brother and sister. The only annoying thing is his height. At least he stopped growing at age 14 so I have a chance to catch up a bit. My height of 161 centimeters makes me look up all the time.

As for why I’m looking for anxiety? He had his sixteenth birthday a few weeks back and therefore his Mage testing is tomorrow. And we all know that testing out as a Mage is one of the worst things that can happen. As I don’t notice anything, I just decide to ask him. “Aren’t you nervous about tomorrow?”

Thomas lets out a short laugh. “As if I were a Mage. I’m an Acordus 3 native and you know as well as I do that there are no Mages here. The chances of being a Mage are already low, and they are even lower if you don’t have Mage parents. Don’t worry Sari, I’m not going anywhere.”

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He has a point there. Mages are taken away to Mage school and they never come back to Acordus. Well at least not back on the planet. There are probably enough here in the system on all those mining ships or the big freighters. There are even a few military ships here in the system to watch for pirates. Those ships are bound to have Mages aboard them.

That’s pretty much all I know about Mages… Oh and that all Mages are property of the republic, as bad as that sounds. That’s why I’m afraid for Thomas. I don’t want him to be taken away! He’s my only friend.

“Dude, you’re probably right. It’s just that I don’t want to lose you. You know how some of the other kids are. I’m a foreigner. The girls just leave me alone because they are into you.”

He blushes. “Hey, stop worrying. It’s going to be fine. Don’t you have a test to do at school? You should focus on that.”

“Shoot, I have to run or I’m going to be late. See you later Tommy!”

I leave my plate for Thomas to take to the cleaning lane and race out of the room. On my way out I hear caretaker Steven shouting his displeasure after me. “Sorry, but I’m late!” I tell him before I get my backpack and leave the orphanage in a hurry.

I run towards the next grav train station. The station itself is two stories above ground, as that’s the height at which the normal grav trains are flying. Once quite a fancy station it’s now as run down as almost everything else on the planet. Dirty glass and cheap steel make up most of the station’s design. Running up the stairs, as the elevator is out of service – again – I arrive just as the cigar-shaped train departs.

So much for arriving on time. At least my test isn’t right at the start of the school day. Grumbling, I decide to wait for the next train, as I can’t afford one of the taxis waiting below, and walking is out of question. It’s too far.

It takes another 20 minutes till the next train flies in, so I decide to refresh my memory for the upcoming history test. I take out my notebook and flip it open. Let’s see… The Acordus System was discovered by the republic 253 years ago and Acordus 3 was made hospitable five years later as they discovered a rich occurrence of resources here in the system. I wonder why they even bothered to terraform the planet. Most miners never come down here. At least I think so, as I’ve never seen a miner here in Acordia. They must have had their reasons though…

Sitting under the glass dome of the station I slowly get cooked by the twin suns above. My light skin’s starting to burn. This planet is killing me, especially in summer. Freakin’ spacer heritage.

Finally, the train flies in. I put my notebook back into my backpack. I wish I had something better, but as poor as I am as an orphan, I’m still using pen and paper. Thomas did a few odd jobs last year, and he managed to buy himself a fancy holo tablet. I want one too! Maybe next year… Even better would be a holographic interface directly implanted in my eyes, but I’ve never seen one use them besides in movies. Alone the name sounds expensive as hell.

I get on the train and find a seat. Seconds later, the hard acceleration presses me down and the train shoots off. Of course, it’s one of the older models that don’t compensate for the acceleration… Just my luck today.

Five minutes later a computer-generated voice announces the next stop: Educational District and the train starts its hard deceleration which almost catapults me out of my seat. Fortunately, I’ve fastened the buckle beforehand. The train stops and I get up to leave it.

The announcement reminds me of another subject I’ve learned for the history test: the founding of Acordia. The city didn’t develop naturally. It was built exactly as planned after terraforming 250 years ago. Therefore, we now have an almost circular city that is divided into six identically sized districts.

The Henry Nelson orphanage was founded by one of those city planners and is located in one of the two residential districts. The other districts are the industrial one, the administrative one – where Thomas has his Mage testing tomorrow – and lastly, there is the recreational district.

Lost in my thoughts, I arrive at the school. The guardsman complains that I’m late, but I pay no attention to him. The school is of course also named after Henry Nelson, a famous guy as he was. I reach my classroom and enter. After apologizing to the teacher, I sit down at my table in the back – just to get hit on the head by a ball of paper. I look around and the guy at the next table smirks. “Oi freckles got too much sun on the way here?” I grimace and flip him off. Right, I forgot the sunscreen this morning. The day is just going great.

The lesson ends quickly. Then there is a short break, which I spend indoors to stay out of the sun. Afterward, it’s time for the history test, which lasts for the remainder of the school day. This is the sole pleasant surprise today so far: The last two hours are canceled, as the teacher is sick.

After finishing the test, I leave the school and walk back to the grav train station. I think I did quite well on the test, as the questions were pretty straightforward, and the teacher didn’t try to trick us. Of course, I’m not expecting a perfect score as the history of the Acordus System is, well boring, but I think for the little amount of effort I put into learning, my grade should be more than acceptable.

When I reach the station, I notice that I’m way too early to meet up with Thomas. Those two hours of freedom messed up my plans. Not that I’m complaining, as it was just boring chemistry anyway. I don’t wanna become a scientist after all. My dreams are the stars and whatever is beyond Acordus 3!

Still, I’m two hours early… I don’t want to go back to the orphanage, there were enough “birthday” wishes in the morning. A computerized voice shakes me out of my thoughts.

“Attention on the platform, line five towards the Spire will arrive shortly.”

Actually, why not? There is enough time. I decide to take that train and head to the Spire.

The Spire is the central building in the city. It towers over all the other buildings, includes a fancy hotel, some corporate offices, and the home of the governor. But the reason why I decide to go there is almost at the top of the Spire: The UFT station. The ultra-fast train lines circle the planet in the four cardinal directions. As the name says, they are fast. One circle around the 2000 km diameter planet takes around one and a half hours. I think it could do a circle in an hour if there weren’t any stops.

This just shows how small my backwater planet is… It would barely count as a moon in other star systems if I can believe what I have read on the net. Terraforming such a rock just sounds plain expensive.

Anyway, circling the planet has always been fun and relaxing for me. That is exactly what I need now. It will also be my first time going alone, as I’ve always had Thomas with me before. But I’m a big girl now! Making use of my “students can use public transport for free card”, I don’t even have to pay for it.

The train arrives at the Spire, and I take the elevator up to the UFT station. While waiting for the train to arrive, I flip through an info brochure: The UFTs fly way higher than regular ones to protect the ground from fast-moving, displaced air. There are also proper gravity manipulators that can shield the train to prevent sonic booms and reduce the felt acceleration to a minimum.

An announcement cautions everyone waiting for the imminent arrival of the train. The UFT also has the basic form of a cigar, but that’s where the similarities with the normal trains end. Sleek lines go from front to back, and both ends look way more aerodynamic. The doors slide open, I get in and after finding a free row, I sit down next to the window.

Soon thereafter the train departs and the landscape flies by in a blur. I enjoy the different parts of the planet: The snowy north pole, the desert city Sundara, the Ructari ocean with its countless islands, and finally, about an hour and a half later, we are back on the main continent with its lush forests and many fields. I’m finally calm again after the exhausting morning.

Now it’s time to meet with Thomas in the park!