I gaze out the window and the sight is cool, but a bit underwhelming. There are about fifty nearby stars in view, with an uncountable amount of faint stars in the distance. It is absolutely beautiful, as space tends to be.

  I did expect the aether to be a bit well… fancier. After all, it is like the super crazy dimension where just about anything is possible.

  I believe the current sector we are in has around two hundred stars, which is fairly average except for the fact that it holds the Dragon Guard academy and headquarters, making it a major military hub for the entire empire.

  From what I know, the aether is basically the same as the normal universe. The only difference is that larger galaxies don't really exist. At most you’ve got clusters of a few hundred stars to maybe a thousand (called sectors), separated by vast distances.

  Oh, and of course, it's completely saturated with aether. Plus it is the home of the dragons, and monsters.

  Naturally, the vast distances aren't empty either. Rather, they are supposedly full of massive hives of monsters of all variants. I say supposedly because none of these hives have ever been discovered, but data indicates they must be out there.

  Other than those small details, it looks almost identical to normal space. We appear to be in the middle of deep space. If the information on the net is right, we should be about two hundred lightyears away from the academy.

  The academy is located in a star system near where we are, easily accessible by rift drive, which are usually fine for intra-sector travel.

  “Maka, don't you dare get up while the rift drive is accelerating. I don't want to clean the blood out of this cockpit again, it's a real pain.” Tien says, with a smile on her face. I really don't understand her, sometimes she is somewhat motherly and seems to care. Then the next moment she tries to scare me to death.

  “Sure thing. Don't move or I die, seems pretty simple.” I smile back at her, hiding a bit of nervousness. This is the first time I've travelled by rift drive since I was brought to Travernium, and I don't really remember the first time. “Quick question though. Where the heck is the rift drive on this dragon? I didn't see one outside, and they are usually quite large.”

  Her eyes light up, she always gets excited when I ask interesting questions. “It's in the central nervous hub of course. Easiest place to get powercells to, since the system already allows us access to deposit augments inside. It was pretty simple to configure the drive to emulate an augment. It does take up a slot though, so some opt to skip it in favor of more abilities.”

  “Wait, what are abilities? And augments? Also isn't that like, unpleasant or something? I can't imagine having a space tear itself apart from inside you feels very nice.”

  “Oh damn, I probably shouldn't have told you that either. Uh, just forget I said anything, please. As for the unpleasantness, she says they don't even feel it any more than we do.” She turns back to look out the window and then presses a big red button labeled ‘rift drive.’

  “Initating rift drive, vector alignment complete. Destination: Travernium Dragon Guard Academy. Brace for calibration sequence.”

  The world feels as though it is turned upside down as the rift drive starts up. It's not quite the same as the transition into aetherspace, but it's similar. The principles are quite similar, but only dragons are capable of harnessing the vast amount of energy to actually rift jump into and out of aetherspace. But for normal travel in the universe, or within the aether itself, normal rift jumps can be done with your typical ships.

  There are also dragon gates, operated by special dragons that provide access to the aether for normal ships. Absolutely critical pieces of infrastructure. Though they constantly come under attack from monsters due to their immense energy signatures.

  The sensation disappears after an instant. “Calibration completed, distance jumped: 0.1001 light-years. Beginning full acceleration sequence.”

  We jump again. Then, right as I am starting to feel normal again, it jumps again. The jumps increase in pace rapidly until I barely notice them anymore, the previous jump ending just as the next begins about once every second. My head feels a little bit fuzzy and my stomach is a bit confused, but otherwise everything feels smooth.

  “Rift drive acceleration complete, approximate speed: 6.07 light-years per minute. Estimated time until arrival: 33 minutes. It is now safe to disengage safety devices.”

  “Well Maka, how ya feeling? You're not gonna die, are ya? Don’t you dare get up, it's gonna take you a while to get used to rift jumping and I don't want you to over stress your body when you've got evaluations soon.” Tien smiles, waving at me from the cockpit.

  “I’m doing all right, my brain and stomach are all wacky though.”

  “To be expected. Now, we've got a bit until we arrive. How about we talk about how your graduation ceremony went, hmm?”

  I groan, “I would rather sit in silence. Better yet, you got a link cable? We could play a card game or something.”

  “Oh fine. I do have one. Been a while since I've played card games though, so go easy on me.” Tien reaches into a compartment and grabs a long cable and hands one end to me, which I attach to the port in the back of my neck. She does the same, and a link initiates, allowing us to enter a local virtual space together.

  We play a bunch of card games during the travel time – of which I win every game of course. It is quite fun playing with Tien. She is absolutely hilarious and a great storyteller. Though she does have a habit of mentioning things I am not supposed to know, not that I can complain about that.

  The rift drive decelerates the opposite way it accelerated. Knowing what to expect, it's not nearly as bad as the acceleration was.

  I look out the window and there it is. The Travernium Dragon Guard Academy. It, along with the Dragon Guard HQ are located in a massive space station in orbit of a white dwarf star.

  When I say massive, I mean massive. The station is easily the size of a dwarf planet. It has to be, considering it houses around seventy million humans, and several thousand dragons. It also has production facilities, meaning it is completely self-sufficient, as you would want from a military installation.

  The station is roughly laid out in four concentric rings. The exact blueprints are obviously highly classified, but it can be mostly broken down into four sections. The 4th ring consists of docks, production, logistics and storage facilities. Then the 3rd ring is the city where most of the people live and recreate. The 2nd ring is the academy and all of its necessary facilities. Lastly, the first ring is the Dragon Guard Headquarters.

  We quickly approach the academy and fly into a dock along the outer ring of the station. The big blast doors seal behind us once Tien’s dragon gets inside and the hangar pressurizes as workers in suits move to anchor the dragon.

  Just as I am about to exit the dragon, Tien places her hands on my shoulders and squeezes. “Maka, you’ve finally made it! Ya know, I am quite proud that you managed to get this far. You better do well! Show the empire just how smart you are.” She smiles and then pulls me into a big hug. “I won't be able to come with you after the hangar, or see you for quite a while. But I'll be watching you from afar, so go show off to all those stuck up cadets. I probably shouldn't tell you this, but feel free to knock a few off their high-horses, everyone is equal while in the training phase.”

  Her red eyes sparkle with the start of tears, but she releases me and practically pushes me out of the dragon. “I will, don’t you worry. I won't disappoint you, after all, I'm going to be a super strong Dragon Guard! Ima kill more of those monsters than anyone else in history!” I proclaim.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  “Well then, go get 'em!”

  The cockpit door opens and I walk out of the dragon and immediately start floating. I drift farther and farther away from the door. I frantically try to regain control, only ending up causing myself to spin rapidly. “Hey! Why didn't you warn me there was no gravity out here?”

  She bursts out laughing, standing firmly behind the threshold of the cockpit. “Cause it would be funny, of course!” she shouts. “Sorry, sorry. Here ya go.” She uses some sort of skill and a solid platform appears in front of me. I grab onto it and hold on tightly as she basically throws me across the massive hangar.

  I land in a doorway with a thud, thankfully I went ass first instead of face first.

  I try to stand up and I pleasantly find that there is gravity on this side. I look back into the hangar. The dragon seems to have curled up into a ball and gone to sleep. They must keep the hangars gravity-free to prevent dragons or ships from collapsing under their own weight.

  I have no clue how the gravity generators work. I think it has something to do with subspace friction fields against quantum lapse sites. But I kinda fell asleep in laipidesic waveform engineering class, so I am not sure. But can you really blame me? I was twelve, and I was much more interested in monsters than physics.

  I steel myself and wave at Tien. Then I turn around and proceed down the corridor.

  An arrow appears in my vision, provided by the system interface that has embedded itself in my brain. With no other indication of what to do, I follow the arrow. After about two minutes of walking, I enter a massive corridor.

  Or rather, should I say street.

  There are tons of cars, trucks and drones whizzing by. There are also hundreds of people on some sort of express walkway. A lot of them have some sort of spacesuit on, likely required by whatever facility they work in. Naturally, everyone is a part of the lower stratum. There is no way an upper would be seen anywhere near a place like this.

  I walk out into the street and get honked at immediately as a truck glides to a stop before nearly running me over. The commotion draws a lot of attention and people start pointing at me.

  I quickly hurry over the street, keeping my head down and following the arrow. Many cars and trucks stop to honk their horns at me. They are probably wondering if I have some sort of death wish.

  I eventually make it to a median that has a bunch of walkways going either direction. People make space around me as they pass, treating me like some form of plague, it's quite unsettling.

  The arrow motions for me to get on one of the walkways, so I do. I step on and immediately slip, falling on my ass for the second time today. I really hope this doesn't become a habit. I don't want everyone to think I'm some hayseed fool. I’ve worked hard, even removing my accent completely. Though, it can still slip out if I am not paying attention.

  I stand up and pretend like nothing happened. I look around and it seems like people have started ignoring me now.

  While riding, I have an interesting realization about how far I have come. I wonder what mother and father would think of the little old me. I’ve come a long way since that day. I'll have a great adventure and make them proud, if they are still watching from somewhere.

  It takes about ten minutes on the expressway before the arrow changes directions, which moves at a comfortable 40km/h once it speeds up.

  I quickly hop off, managing to stay on my feet thankfully. I am now in some sort of circular room. Shops of all sorts and varieties line the walls and head up into the sky, and down below as well. Seems like some sort of relaxation point for the workers.

  Of course, the entire place is packed and I have quite a bit of trouble navigating through the crowd. I push and pull past many people, who all seem to be doing the same. No one pays me any attention, guess I am fitting in this time.

  After much struggle, I free myself from the crowd and find myself at a transit tube station. I have seen them before, they are quite common in highly populated areas. But I have never been able to afford a ride. However, it seems that is about to change.

  The system guides me to a tube and I place my hand on the terminal. To my surprise, it opens and lets me inside.

  “We thank you for using the Velcorp transit tube system, cadet. Please wait for just a moment, a route is being created to your destination: Travernium Dragon Guard Academy, Central Annex.”

  A few seconds after the message, I feel a sudden acceleration and am jerked upwards. The pod I am in accelerates to an absurd 1km/s, powered by some sort of magnetic fluxsign technology.

  I may or may not have fallen on my ass again.

  After about fifteen minutes, I arrive at my destination. When I step out of the pod, my jaw drops.

  A large room with a domed ceiling, stars visible through the transparent roof. All throughout the room, several groups of what must be students and teachers congregate. All with red eyes, naturally. After all, only lowers can bond with dragons.

  A few people turn to stare at me, and then proceed to ignore me. Dismissing me as just another cadet, I bet.

  I feel a tap on my shoulder and turn to see a short girl with brunette hair. She is quite pretty as far as I am concerned. The Academy uniform looks quite nice on her, and really highlights her short stature too. Her brow furrows in anger, it seems I have somehow angered her. “I am not short!” she exclaims when I finish my observations.

  “I never said-” She cuts me off before I can finish, how rude.

  “I saw it in your eyes. Seriously, why does everyone keep thinking that?” She makes a pouty face. “Anyways, I guess I am your squadmate or whatever. My name's Olivia, but you can call me Liv for short. I can't believe I drew the short straw and now I've gotta show you around. We are still waiting for another of our squadmates or something before our evaluations begin, so we should have time.”

  “Sure thing, sounds like fun.” She smiles at me and then begins walking. She speeds away, not even bothering to wait for me. “Oh wait, I forgot to introduce myself! I am-” I try to add, before being cut off again.

  “Makarious Ileon, age eighteen. Spent ten years studying at the Travernium School for Promising Children and graduated middle of the pack. Scout and Mage paths.” She smiles after casually laying out a concise yet somehow thorough summary of my entire life up until this point. “Oh, and you also really love rice for some bizarre reason. Or at least, that's what your data entry said. You can find one for all of us in your interface, by the by.”

  “That's neat, you can call me Maka by the way, my first name is waay too long. So, why did you want to become a Dragon Guard?” I ask, trying to change the topic away from myself.

  She stops walking, seemingly frozen in place. After a few seconds she continues walking. “You should avoid asking questions like that. Most people are here for a reason that is likely best not shared.” She says, her tone suddenly becoming very serious.

  “Okie dokey, noted. Thanks.”

  I fiddle around with the interface and manage to bring up my ID card again, accidentally. After a bit more fumbling, I manage to find a section labeled ‘squadmates.’ I pull up Liv’s card.

  Olivia Rampe [Lvl 0 Tank / Lvl 0 Paladin / No Dragon Bonded]

  Rank: 0

  Relation to you: Squadmate

  Squadron: Asteria

  Age: 18 years

  Height: 160 centimeters

  Hair Color: Brunette

  Background: Enrolled in the Travernium university for military operations at age five. Has since earned twenty two commendations for stellar performance in mock battles and tests. Despite this combat prowess, it is said that she has a habit of freezing, mid-combat, unable to move out of fear.

  Favourite Animal: Seahorse

  She is a tank, that's pretty cool. But uh, our tank is afraid of combat? I am no expert, but that sounds quite bad. Though aside from that it appears she is some sort of badass. I feel like we will get along just fine. If she has a fear problem, I am sure our squadron can work together to help her overcome it in time.

  It's only been a few hours of having the system interface in my brain. But, I am starting to like this system. The navigation and stuff is cool. I haven't even gotten to use any skills yet, and it's already been super helpful. Though, if it was between the system and not having to worry about monsters destroying the universe, there is one clear choice.

  “Oi, don't get all pouty and sad. I’m not cut out for dealing with that shit. Keep your memories and such to yourself, prime?” I must've started frowning or something. She seems to be really good at paying attention to people.

  “Prime?” I ask, confused at the new word I've never heard before.

  “Ah right, you just got here. I've been here a few days, I guess some of the dialect is starting to wear on me. It just means something like an affirmative or something. Go find a linguist if you're more curious.” She acts like it's a hassle to deal with me. But I can tell she isn't that miserable.

  Over the next few hours, she shows me around the academy and where all the important facilities are. Like the gym, dragon nurseries, classrooms and other stuff. Our last stop is the dorms.

  She walks up to a door that has the Asteria symbol on it – an eight pointed star – and opens it up. “I guess I should say something like ‘welcome to your new home’, squadmate. But eh, that just seems too boring.” Then she walks off into the room without saying anything else.

  I compose myself and then walk into the place that will be my home for the next three years.

  Next Chapter: The Squadron

  If you are enjoying the book, I would really appreciate it if you dropped a follow or comment!

  Checkout the official