Chapter 2: Testing Thomas
Location: Estriduros Republic; Acordus System; Acordus 3; Acordia
I leave the Spire and take the train to the recreational district. This time, I’m lucky and it’s a newer model that compensates for the acceleration. Not as good as the UFT, but way better than the piece of junk in the morning. The train crosses the circular city center where the Spire is located and heads for the recreational district.
The center is where the rich people of Acordia live in their fancy mansions. It’s like a seventh district that is surrounded by all the others. The train flies in parallel with lots of cars. There are even a few trucks, but most of them fly in a higher lane. It’s probably to keep it all peaceful and quiet for the rich people down there…
Less than five minutes later which includes two stops within the city center, everything cuts off. Just like a flipped switch! No more cars, no more buildings only green grass, and shimmering lakes as far as I can see. It’s the pizza-slice-shaped Recreational district. Only trains are allowed to fly here, every other vehicle has to stay out. The district was built for Acordia’s inhabitants to relax and recharge their energy. Therefore, there are very strict regulations. Besides the vehicle rule, buildings are only allowed close to the tip of the pizza slice, meaning close to the city center. They also have to serve the spirit of the district, so only restaurants and other things that help people relax are allowed.
The train arrives at the station shortly after, and I step out to enter the small hub of buildings there. I ignore the restaurants and ice cream parlors and enter a small corner shop. It’s finally time to buy a bottle of sunscreen! In the end, I take a bottle of water as well, as it’s quite the distance to where I’m meeting with Thomas. It’s located almost at the edge of the city, which means I have to cross the whole pizza slice. It’s worth it though. Hidden behind pine trees and thick bushes, there is a clearing right next to a small lake. Thomas found it a few years back, and when he showed me, I was immediately in love with this place.
Now properly equipped, I take a moment to apply a thick layer of sunscreen and head out. I look longingly at the scooter rental but shake my head in the end. I want a tablet sooner than later. Better not start wasting money on conveniences yet…
Therefore, I start my long walk toward the outskirts of the recreational district. It’s a half an hour's walk, and I greet the people I meet along the way. While walking, I half-circle the big central lake and see almost a dozen small ships slowly sailing around. I smile, somehow it always calms me down when I see any kind of ship, not that I’ve ever seen anything bigger than a shuttle. I’d love to see some real spaceships! Well, I guess I’ve seen some before arriving here, but that doesn’t count as I don’t remember.
Maybe I should try to become a miner or a freighter worker? At least I could leave Acordus 3 behind me this way… But there is always the danger of pirates. Nobody knows that better than my parents… I can’t say, I miss them, as I do not know of them, but it still hurts to be alone all the time.
Finally, I arrive at a familiar gathering of trees. Calling it forest would be too much. I let out a sigh of relief. Finally, some shade! The path winds through the trees and after walking a bit longer thereafter, I arrive at our hidden clearing. The lake immediately draws me in. I quickly dip my hands inside, and carefully lift some water in the palms of my hands to refresh my face.
“Hey, Sari!” The shout comes from behind me and with a start, I almost fall into the lake if it wasn’t for Thomas grabbing my shoulder just before I lost my balance.
“Oh my god Tom! Don’t sneak up on me like that, I almost had a heart attack!”
Thomas laughs. “You have to relax a bit! Come on, I’ve got some snacks.”
We walk over to the nearby trees and Thomas starts unpacking his backpack. He throws me a blanket so that we can have a nice picnic. I spread the blanket in the shade and Thomas comes over with some cake and tea. We enjoy the food; it is really good, and I can’t stop myself from asking. “Hey Tommy, did you buy the extra fancy stuff today?”
“Yeah, I figured you’d need it, with all that’s going on today and tomorrow.”
Well, that is frighteningly accurate.
“Thank you, Tommy, I promise to make it up to you next time! Did you bring the suitcase too?”
His goofy grin tells me everything before he answers. “Of course I did. I know how much you like playing! Wanna play right now?”
I beam my biggest smile at him and answer. “Sure do! Come on let’s start and don’t you think I’ll go easy on you because of your test tomorrow.”
Thomas walks back to his backpack and from hidden behind a boulder, he grabs a suitcase before walking out to the clearing. The suitcase looks quite similar to the suitcase of that ancient movie about a young wizard with a lightning bolt scar who flies on his broom while playing a game to catch a golden ball.
Well, we painted the suitcase that way, as we really like to watch that movie. It is always fun to watch how the people in the past imagined magic. Not that I know much about it myself other than that Mages don’t use wands and there aren’t any spoken words to incant a spell.
Sure, there are more modern forms of watching stuff, but they are more expensive, and Thomas has always been a fan of the old stuff. He is quite fascinated by history, especially Earth – the origin of humanity.
Unfortunately, the planet was destroyed in a gigantic war thousands of years ago. That’s all, I learned in school, as there isn’t much known about the war back then. At least that was what our teachers said…
Thomas didn’t let that stop him though and dove into the net. There, he found a bit more information. Apparently, the war was between the Mage-ruled Earth and the anti-Mage faction of Utopia. He couldn’t find out who won, but the result was the destruction of Earth.
Anyway, Thomas puts the suitcase down next to the lake. Excited I run over to him and fiddle with the locking mechanism to open it up. We are finally playing another round of Gravity Ball!
“Grab your stuff, Tommy, I’m purple, as always!” We both love playing Gravity Ball as I’m very good at it and Thomas likes it for the history. It’s another thing that traces its origin back to Earth. With the invention of gravity generators, they tried to reinvent how sport is done and the result was Gravity Ball: a mix of lots of different sports.
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We’ve always loved to watch the professional leagues, and after saving enough money, we were able to buy our own basic set just last year. It’s now our most prized possession. Since then, we have tried to play as often as we can. Thomas always says if we didn’t live on that backwater planet of Acordus 3, I would have already been scouted by some professional teams. Maybe I can afford to travel to Estriduros when I’m sixteen and allowed to travel? That would be a great career.
Anyway, we continue setting up the playing field. Our basic version comes with four holographic projectors, which we have to place in the four corners of the field. More expensive versions come with a single flying projector, that hovers above the field, but we take what we can get. The projectors start humming and the playing field appears as a cage, 40 meters long, 20 meters wide, and another 20 meters in height. There are two goals opposite each other and a small pillar in the middle, indicating where the ball has to be placed.
“Can you get the ball and the catchers? I’ll set up the bats.” I ask Thomas and take two extendable bats out of the suitcase. Besides the name-giving ball with a small grav generator, the bats are the main instrument of Gravity Ball. They extend to roughly 80 centimeters and are equipped with a small holographic projector. This allows us to command the catchers and also bash the ball with the bat if we want. I prefer to hold the bat in my right hand and use the holographic catcher controls with my dominant left hand. Most people do it the other way around, but for me, it works.
Thomas has finished with the setup, and I hand him the other bat. “Let’s begin! Do you want to have the first move?”
"Sure do! Otherwise, I’ll never have a chance to score.” He winks at me and kicks the hovering ball straight up into the air, where one of his catchers is already waiting.
The catchers have their own small grav generators and look like small floating trampolines. To play the game, we have to angle them with the controls at our bats. If we do it right, the ball bounces off of the trampoline and shoots off in our desired direction. Due to the grav generator in the ball, it keeps its momentum when we bounce it around.
Thomas bounces the ball from catcher to catcher, while slowly but steadily walking toward my goal to make me think he wants to do the final push behind the goal line by himself, either by foot or with the bat.
But I do know him and call his feint before he can execute it. Having one of my three catchers moving straight for Thomas’s ball-holding catcher, I send the other one back to my goal for the sake of security. The third one however moves in a diagonal line between two of his catchers, and just as I predicted, Thomas lets the catcher bounce the ball toward the one he has positioned next to my goal instead of bouncing it to himself.
My diagonal-moving catcher however intercepts the ball and immediately bounces it in my direction. I’ve already moved in position and am now standing in the last third of the field next to the outer line with a clear angle at his goal, where only a single catcher is flying guard.
I jump in the air as if I want to do a scissors kick. Thomas runs back toward his goal and has one of his catchers flying over to try to intercept my kick. My jump was a feint of course, and I land back on the ground without kicking the ball. In the same movement, I swing my bat from behind my back and hit the ball dead center. It gains even more speed because of my hit and shoots right past Thomas’s catcher. He just shakes his head when the ball reaches the goal in the upper right corner.
“Hah, that’s one goal for me!” I celebrate with the biggest smile I can manage.
“You are just too good, dang it! I thought I had you there for a moment. Let’s go again, first to ten wins.”
We continue playing and unsurprisingly, I win with a comfortable score of 10 – 2. Then we pack up and make our way back home to the orphanage. It’s Thomas’s big day tomorrow after all.
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I wake up early and my nervousness is back in full force. I look at my watch. Ugh, 6:23 a.m. Way too early. But I’m also not able to sleep anymore, so I decide to take a long shower. This way I can take full advantage of the still-filled water boiler of the orphanage. Afterward, I dress in my nicest green shirt with black lines, that form an abstract starship and some dark brown pants. Then I walk down to the dining room to get some breakfast.
Thomas isn’t there yet, but the other two sixteen-year-old girls who are going to the testing along with him are arguing loudly in the back of the room.
“How can you hope to be a Mage, Shay? That’s ridiculous, they take you away and put you wherever they want.” The tall, dirty blonde girl, Lara I think, glares at Shay. I’ve always liked Shay; she is one of the few genuinely nice girls here in the orphanage. She’s as short as I am and combined with her heart-shaped face with straight black hair and blue eyes she looks younger than she actually is.
Shay lets out a loud sigh. “Lara, I know…but what can I do? We have no future here. I want more, see the worlds, and travel in space. I can’t do that if I say here… and my only hope of leaving is being a Mage. Even the miners stay here in that backwater system.”
I collect my breakfast – cereals for today – and make my way over to them. “Hey girls, have you seen Thomas yet?”
“Good morning, Sara. I think he is still asleep. Wanna join us?” Shay asks me with a smile. I notice Lara’s annoyed face but decide to take the offer.
“Sure, thank you. Sorry, I couldn’t stop myself from eavesdropping a little while walking in, but are you sure Shay? I mean Mages are practically slaves, right?”
Lara starts to nod, and her annoyance with me joining them visibly lessens. “Finally, someone with a brain! Listen to her Shay.”
At that moment Thomas walks in through the door. Upon seeing me, he grabs an apple and walks over to our table. “Hey everyone, I hope I’m not interrupting something?”
Lara shakes her head. “No, not at all, but please discourage Shay from wishing to be a Mage.”
Thomas looks at Shay with a raised eyebrow. “Seriously? How’d you come up with that idea? They take you away to who knows where, and you won’t ever see us again…”
Shay cringes a bit when Thomas tells her this, but then she shakes her head. “Exactly… I mean the taking me away part not the not seeing you guys anymore part. I want to see the galaxy… I don’t want to grow old here.”
Lara grunts in annoyance and Thomas scratches his cheek in thought. “There have to be other ways, Shay… Don’t give up your dream yet. The chances of us being Mages are close to zero anyway.”
Shay drops her head. “Yeah, you’re right… Let’s get this over with. It’s better if we’re early or we have to wait. Sara, you’re joining us?”
I just nod and finish my breakfast. Thomas takes his apple to go, and we all exit the orphanage. We reach the train station a few minutes later, where we take the next grav train towards the Administrative district. Here the testing will commence. The train is on point, and we arrive shortly after 8:30 in the morning. There is already a small line before the testing hall. After waiting a bit, we can finally enter the building. Inside there is not much furnishing at all. Only a table with a military guy sitting behind it, and another half dozen military men in the back. In the center of the room is an orb seemingly made out of glass, about the size of a Gravity Ball – meaning it’s easy to fit in a hand.
The military guy at the table looks up and beckons us over. “Good morning, I’m Sergeant Hulder, please state your names.”
My three companions do as he asks and tell him their names, while I mumble something about I’m only fourteen. I’m too nervous to speak a clear sentence. The Sergeant grumbles and tells me to move over and stand by the exit. To the others, he gives a short explanation.
“One by one move over to the testing orb, then place your right hand on it. If the orb glows, you’re a Mage and will get further explanations on what is about to happen from the Privates in the back, otherwise, you are free to go.”
Still a bit excited, Shay walks over and touches the orb. Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t glow and her face falls. She walks over to me, and I try to comfort her, but she doesn’t listen. Maybe later. Directly after her, Lara does the test, and the orb stays unlit as well. Come on, just one more. Please don’t light up.
Thomas goes over to the orb and lifts his hand to touch it. I hold my breath in anticipation. He lowers his hand, and… and the orb starts glowing in a bright white light. What?... I can’t believe what’s happening. It can’t be. Not Thommy. Why?
The privates rush over, and two of them grab his arms, while a third one puts a silver collar around his neck.
Noooooooooooooooooooooo!