The rest of the week passed much the same. My Principles of Starships class was interesting and put in context a lot of the more theoretical studies I had engaged with, while Introduction to Conflict Resolution was clearly going to be extremely useful.

  As we finished up PTT on Masday, I pondered what the practicum would be like on my way to the showers. No one seemed to know exactly what it would entail, and I had heard the senior cadets were mum on the topic.

  When we arrived at the classroom, I was excited to see that it was not a normal classroom. Rather than desks, there was a room full of what looked like identical duty stations from a starship. Finding an open seat, I stared at the complicated system in front of me. There was a display and keyboard, as expected, but there were a variety of secondary displays and controls. I was tempted to fiddle with things, but I suspected that would result in discipline, so I refrained, though not all of my classmates were so circumspect.

  Indeed, when the instructor entered, a male sidhe with senior commander’s bars, his gaze immediately snapped to those who were touching the console. “Cadets! Did you have permission to touch the stations?” The perpetrators quickly pulled their hands in and sat at attention. When no one spoke, however, he repeated himself. “I asked, did you have permission to touch the stations?”

  Automatically, I, along with every other member of the class, responded, ““No, sir!””

  “I see. Then I must have been mistaken when I saw seven of you doing so. Was I mistaken, cadets?”

  ““No, sir!””

  “And did any of you who had the common sense not to touch things without permission correct these wayward cadets?”

  ““No, sir!””

  “I see. Everyone, drop and give me thirty, since you clearly have so much unused energy.”

  Without hesitation, albeit barely suppressing a groan, I rose from my chair, only to drop to my hands and feet and start doing push-ups. Once I hit thirty, I returned to attention, opting not to sit down. About half of the class thought the same as me, but this time, those of us standing gestured to the others to rise.

  “Good, I see you all are capable of learning. Take your seats.” Once everyone was seated, he began the lecture.

  “This is a practicum. In your practicums, you will learn a variety of useful skills, but the key aspect is practice. Whereas your other courses are focused on learning concepts, techniques, and other important topics, the practicum is focused on learning to do. For now, we will be learning how to operate a starship, starting with sensors.”

  A three dimensional illusion of the duty station in front of us appeared in the air at the front of the room, and he went over the various components of the station before dismissing the illusion and activating a projector.

  “This is the main display for sensors. It can be accessed by selecting the Sensors tab at the top of your screen at any duty station, assuming you are authorized to access the data.”

  From there, he spent the next two hours explaining how to read the sensor data and interpret it. It was clearly a very condensed introduction, but he was a good teacher and most of it made sense. From there, he activated our stations and gave us a series of tasks to do for the remaining two hours. By the end of the practicum, I wouldn’t say I felt comfortable with the system, but I felt like I had a solid base to learn from.

  “What did you think?” I asked Valissa as we left the room.

  “The complexities involved in just a single bridge station are fascinating, and I look forward to learning about all of them and putting that knowledge into practice.”

  “I agree. Even with simulated data, I found it interesting, and it helped me put some of what I learned getting my doctorate into a different context.”

  “Ah, yes. You studied aether flows, correct?”

  “Yes. Well, I didn’t study them directly—I analyzed data collected by ships and sensor stations to better understand how aether currents behave.”

  “I would say that is fascinating, and I’m sure it is, though I doubt I have the knowledge or experience necessary to truly appreciate it.”

  “What was it you studied? I don’t think you’ve mentioned it.”

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  “I have a basic degree in linguistics, with a focus on the effects of interplanetary communication on language evolution.”

  “Oh, wow. Do you speak many languages?”

  “Besides Draconic, I speak five other languages at least conversationally—Oquetano, which my family still speaks at home; Sylvanic, so I’d be more comfortable if I visited Arkon; Hoaric, since so many people from the demon worlds still speak it and also because it’s a fascinating language; Grundtongue, for my studies; and Galactic Common, since the Galactic Federation is so influential.

  I nodded. “I’m always found languages fascinating, myself. I speak Raugada and Galactic Common fairly well, and I have some familiarity with Sylvanic and Hoaric. I can greet someone in Grundtongue and Gulgaronian, but that’s about it.”

  “Interesting, I’m surprised you have such a wide experience.”

  I shrugged. “It was a hobby.” While that was true, it wasn’t the main reason—as a princess, I was expected to at least understand the most important languages in our empire, and it endeared me to foreign ambassadors to be able to greet them in their native languages.

  We continued chatting about languages, occasionally switching between them, and it was the most animated I’d seen Valissa the entire time I’d known her. She was still fairly stoic, but it was clear she greatly enjoyed languages.

  We talked until dinnertime when we joined the others. As we approached them, we were still speaking in Sylvanic, and that must have caught Delroy’s attention.

  “What language is that?” he asked.

  “Sylvanic,” I replied.

  “That’s the native language of the fae, right?”

  It was Valissa who answered next. “The most common one, yes. My family came from northen Arkan originally, though, so we spoke Oquetano.” She then spoke a short sentence in that language, but my knowledge of it was next to nil, so I didn’t understand what she said.

  “That sounded different than what you were speaking before. Was that Oquetano?” guessed Gathrok.

  “Indeed,” she confirmed. “It’s what we spoke at home.”

  “Whoa, so you speak three languages?” Delroy seemed wide-eyed at that.

  “Oh, no. I speak six, with varying degrees of fluency.”

  “Holy shit, and I thought I was doing well because I know a bit of Galactic Common. What about the rest of you?”

  “I speak three well, including Draconic, and a bit of a few others.”

  “My parents primarily used Daltoki at home even though we’ve been here a few generations. I also know some Galactic Common, but I’m far from fluent.”

  “Even you, Gathrok? I feel so behind!”

  “Eh, for most purposes, translators work fine, especially for ship-to-ship communications. Besides, it’s not like a pilot needs to talk all that much,” I said in a teasing tone.

  He seemed to brighten up at that, even though his lowered mood appeared to be an affectation. “Of course! I’ll leave that to the rest of you.”

  We all chuckled at that, even Valissa. It seemed the talk about languages finally broke the ice between us, as she seemed a bit more comfortable than before.

  It was around that time that Kolo showed up.

  “What about you? Do you speak any other languages?” Delroy seemed to be hopeful that she didn’t.

  “Just Raugada.”

  “Oh?” I asked. “Did you speak that at home?”

  She shook her head. “No, we spoke Draconic. I took Raugada in school and enjoyed it enough that I studied it on my own time to reach fluency.”

  Delroy groaned. “So I’m the only one who doesn’t actually speak another language?”

  We all answered simultaneously.

  “Yep.” “Looks like it.” “Definitely.” “Svi.”

  “Let’s talk about something else, okay?”

  His clear exasperation prompted a laugh from the rest of us before we moved on to what we were going to do for the rest day. When Valissa answered, “study,” though, the other three booed her. I didn’t join them because I was planning to answer the same thing.

  “Come on, you have to do something fun at least part of the time. Especially since it’s the first week—I can only imagine the workload increasing as the term continues.”

  “That’s exactly why I need to study now—to make sure I stay on top of things.”

  “Okay, hear me out,” Delroy began. “You study in the morning. After lunch, we head to the athletic center and play some wallball and hang out. That way, you’re working on coordination and reaction time. Then we have dinner, and you get to go back to studying in the evening.”

  She pondered this proposal for a few moments before agreeing.

  “The rest of you in?”

  We all agreed. The conversation then turned to sports, something I knew very little about, so I largely remained quiet and finished my dinner.

  After dinner, I decided to take a walk in the gardens before going back to my room to study. When I mentioned this, Kolo offered to join me, and I accepted.

  “So, what brought you to the Academy?” I asked.

  “Same as everyone, I guess—I want to travel the stars,” she replied, though I got the impression that she wasn’t telling the whole truth.

  I waited a few seconds, looking at her expectantly, and she quickly broke. “It’s partly true—I do want to travel, but my family has some influence, and, well, they’re not the best. What I really want is to escape them, but I need protection and resources. The navy gives me that.”

  That was not what I was expecting, but it made sense. “Does that have anything to do with the Torlan boy picking on you?”

  “I’m not sure. It’s possible he knows of my family and is lumping me in with them, but I think it more likely that he’s just bigoted and saw me as an easy target. It’s hard to say for sure.”

  “That makes sense. Oh, look at this flower!” I wasn’t trying to change the subject—I legitimated got distracted by a flower with a unique coloration I had never seen before, but I suspected Kolo didn’t realize that, because she chuckled at me.

  “Yes, it’s very pretty. Anyway, I realized I never properly thanked you for stepping in with him. I still think it was a bit foolish, but thank you nonetheless.”

  “You’re welcome. I don’t like bullies.”

  She shrugged. “You get used to it living in a mixed culture and being shorter than most of the other species around you. Doesn’t make it okay, but I like to think I’ve adapted to not let it mess me up too much.”

  There wasn’t much to say to that, so I just nodded, allowing us to walk the gardens in peace. Soon enough, we made our way back to the dorms and said our goodbyes, and before I knew it, I was falling asleep with thoughts of our rest day plans floating through my head.